Health-e-Wise
Where Natural Health Meets Longevity and Laughter

Death Pledge

by Jim Lynn

Do you have a mortgage?

If so, you have signed a death pledge. That's right, a death pledge. You see, the word mortgage is derived from the Latin words, mort and gage. Mort means death, and gage means to pledge. Scary thought isn't it? For that is exactly how most people treat their mortgage, as a death pledge.

For millions of mortgagees, making the mortgage payment every month comes before anything else in life. People will go without food and other basic needs just so they can keep up with their mortgage payments.

Now I mention this fact to point out how this death pledge mentality carries over into other areas of life. There are people who will enslave themselves to sometimes two or more jobs to meet the death pledge they have signed. The operative word here is enslavement.

You see, most people treat their jobs as though those jobs were death pledges as well. That is because without their jobs people could lose everything they have worked for, including the house they mortgaged to live in.

What makes this scene all the more scary is that most people enslave themselves to jobs out of ignorance, unaware or unsure of choices they have that could free them of death pledges.

How many people do you know who paid cash for their car or home? No mortgage, or car loan. Not many? Okay, let me lower the bar a little? How many people do you know who paid cash for their washer and dryer, refrigerator, or furniture? Begin to see my point? Most people do not have cash to pay for even basic needs because they are enslaved to a death pledge way of life and thinking.

There is no way out of this enslavement except through our own will. Until each one of us reaches that point in our life where we say, "I've had enough. I am mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore," life will go on with its usual expectations.

And what are those expectations? Job uncertainty, never-ending credit card debt, fear of losing health insurance benefits, cost of repairs, having enough money at the end of the month, and on and on.

For those people who became mad as hell, for those people who determined to change their lives, life is different. First and most important, they have control of their lives back. They are no longer dependent on someone else to meet necessities of life. They are people who realized they can shape their destiny through freedom of choice an will.

The choice they willed is to become their own employer. They set aside time each day to build their own business. And they wisely chose partnering with others who made it in life, people who can pay cash for homes, and learned how to duplicate their success.

At the risk of sounding like a philosopher, let me suggest this thought to you. If you want to regain control of your life, do not follow the crowd. Do not do what the crowd is doing. Walk away. Find those who, like you, have chosen to walk away and walk with them.

There is an old custom called mortgage burning. After the last mortgage payment is made, the old mortgage papers are set afire and burned. It is a happy, joyous time because burning the mortgage means freedom. But few people burn mortgages today. This is because many home buyers have mortgaged the equity in their homes to pay off credit card debt, and will die before their homes are paid for. Sadly, because of their death pledge mentality, they will continue to build more credit card debt.

The death pledge mentality has become a way of life for millions, but there is a better way to live. The hinge
questions are...Are you mad as hell? Are you willing to make change?

If you answered yes to those two questions, here's a video presentation you might want to watch.