When I heard words like NeoLiberalism and NeoConservatism I wondered, where is the word that means “People matter most”?

So I created the word NeoPeopleism. The meaning behind it was already there, and has been throughout history – from the first ancient circle of humans sitting around a fire. We have always known that caring for people and sharing prosperity are vital for stable and successful communities and societies.

We are now, unfortunately, experiencing a long time goal of #extremegreed: the rich paying no income or wealth taxes.

It is clear that denying people a fair wage and respect is increasing social tensions, including division, racism and nationalism. Healthy, respected and employed people spread compassion and inclusion, not violence and division.

Our whole society and world will benefit by the changes we can make.

So it's time for us all to be more active and purposeful in valuing people in our daily lives, businesses and political efforts.

To help with that, I invite you to explore my NeoPeopleism pages and posters.  Let's show that people matter most!

My Instagram site reinterprets life with humor and fresh eyes.
It is also rated G, so it's suitable for the family.

I really think you will enjoy Odie's take on life, yoga and the pursuit of happiness.

https://www.instagram.com/odie.bear.our.cat/

Rob Hueniken

Its tag line “People Matter Most” is a stand against the economic and political forces that created our Winner-take-all economy, and diminished the hopes and prosperity of people through extreme greed.

Click here to see more posters.

By focusing on money instead of people, our business and political leaders have forgotten the value and eons-long traditions of community, caring and sharing. They took widely-supported and positive economic and political systems (capitalism and democracy) and distorted them to cause this terrible period of financial inequality and power mongering. For the past 3 years, most of my writing efforts have been to encourage everyone (richer or poorer, younger or older) to re-balance how our society, governments and economy function, through compassion and inclusive decision making. Everyone’s life, including those of the rich, can be more joyous, cooperative and meaningful (all within an improved system of socially-responsible capitalism). As we saw in the US election of Barack Obama, and the support for Bernie Sanders, there is an rising and widespread hope for renewed political and business processes and conduct. It can happen soon.

I hope that you will add your voice to this time of positive change, and find ways in your own life to put people first.

If you enjoy my efforts here on Making More of Today, I invite you to also visit NeoPeopleism.com, and to connect on Facebook.com/NeoPeopleism.

One of the central concepts of a team – be it a group of employees, a family, or a sports team – is that combined strengths lead to shared success. Those strengths include both the hands-on skills of the team members, as well as the emotional ambience and influences that motivate and guide the group.

But when people are busy they tend to become reactive rather than proactive, and functional rather than intentional – the subtleties and considerations get lost – and each moment becomes one of immediate result or exhausted rest. In such a state people are finding it harder to be encouraging or appreciative of others. The emotional ambience becomes an assumption of commited determination rather than a thoughtfulness of how any team member might be lifted up, honoured or encouraged. “We’ve got things to do and you should be doing them right now!” becomes the mindset.

This is not to say that people have become unfeeling or dispassionate – those attributes are hard-wired into us. But telling your busy co-worker or friend “It’s okay – we’ll get through this” is very different from being purposeful in thinking about the people in our lives – from being encouraging – from being considerate and forward-thinking. Telling someone “Hey, I forgot to mention you did a good job last time but you did and here’s another task” is insufficient encouragement, and far short of intentionally seeking ways to recognize people’s contributions.

In a busy world people burn out that could have been lifted up, good ideas go unused or undeveloped, and existing and potential new leaders get discouraged. Without timely communication, personal encouragement, and reflection organizations and lives get stuck in the same pattern and conditions – they lose a better future while they grind through the present.

Every person is different, yet every person has the same needs: to be part of good things, to grow in their skills and potential, and to be recognized and encouraged. You have a vital role in the lives of those around you – not just through the hands-on skills you use on a task – but by being purposeful and intentional in your communication and encouragement. When we intentionally consider people’s needs we develop ways to help them, and also ourselves. When people are encouraged, honoured and built-up good things happen. Yes, it takes time, and yes it takes change, but it’s worth it because helping and encouraging others is a bigger source of joy, satisfaction and positive change than any bottom line can ever show.

You have more influence than you think, and more opportunities than you have been using, to help others and make life better.

Break the cycle of busyness, and bring intentionality back to life.

[Return to the home page of MakingMoreOfToday.com.]

He loved talking with people, and exploring their interests, concerns and joys.

Everyone who talked with him came away listened to, understood, and very often motivated to be more caring and hard working in their own lives.

Here’s a short poem I wrote, called Between:

“Our lives’ best times, of how we’re seen,
are joys and times we’ve shared between.”

Yet so little of business decisions and media are focused on what is good for regular people. With such a strong focus on money and stuff, there isn't much time or bandwidth given to encouraging people and honoring people.

For the past half year I have been exploring how each of us can make a difference in our community and our world. That's right: each of us.

Because change isn't about just business leaders and politicians leading us — it's about everyone — making decisions that put people first.

I encourage you to find ways in your personal life, work life, and free time, to put the focus back on people.

Slowly but surely we can help create a new world and a good future — where human dignity and cooperation are the starting point for every decision — where we rediscover the joy and satisfaction of sharing time, skills and prosperity.

Please check out my writing and art, and share them with friends, family and other decision makers in your life.

We need this change, and together we can make this change.

People matter most.

Click here to visit the Facebook page: www.facebook.com/NeoPeopleism

Click here to visit NeoPeopleism.com.

Recognizing the problems in our world is one thing.

Figuring out where we stand on them is the second.

The trick is step 3, which more people are starting to do:

Taking action to change things.

Step up to step 3!

[Return to the home page of MakingMoreOfToday.com.]

We tend to think of VIPs as movie stars, famous musicians and rich people. We're shown these famous people every day on TV and the web. The media holds them up for us to admire, suggesting repeatedly that they are special, intriguing and worth paying attention to.

VIPs have things we'd like to have, and go places we'd like to go. They get VIP treatment — special courtesies and perks that only a few could ever experience, and that makes sense. Fancy cars, permanently reserved tables and famous companions take a lot of money, time and effort to arrange. So only the VIPs can get those things — those expensive, rare things.

VIPs are almost always separated from regular folks. They might pass briefly through the crowd, maybe walk a red carpet, but often they are given preferential and private access to the restaurants, clubs and offices that they visit. They demand, and are granted, a private space to do their VIP stuff.

Our entertainment-focused society puts the spotlight on three things that make a person important: wealth, beauty and their ability to entertain us. While there sometimes seems to be more than enought VIPs, by focusing on just these three things we greatly reduce the number of VIPs that can actually exist.

If you were to ask your friends who they'd expect to see in a VIP lounge, they're unlikely to say "my mother", "that nurse at the clinic" or "the guy at work who helped me yesterday." That's because VIPs can't be regular folks, can they?. They have to be famous, don't they? Isn't that part of the definition of a "Very Important Person".

Well, you know, now that I actually read the words, "very important person", it sounds pretty clear. It's someone who's important, to someone.

So people could be important in ways beyond wealth, beauty and entertainment value. In fact, when it comes to what's really important to most people, it would include a wide array of uplifting characteristics and life skills, such as being:

• Compassionate
• Patient
• Community minded
• Empathetic
• Dependable
• Generous
• Encouraging

Putting it this way, someone's Mom could be a VIP, and so could a nurse and a guy at work.

We'd just have to decide that we're going to share our personal VIPs, and acknowledge that they are indeed important people.

But if more (and different) people became VIPs then how would we keep track of them? Would the paparazzi be able to keep up with them; would we need to train more paparazzi? [Editor’s note: check if paparazzi are actually trained.]

Or maybe these new VIPs wouldn't need to become famous in the same way. Maybe our new VIPs wouldn't want to sneak into hotels by a side door. Maybe, with VIPs being part of our every day life, we'd expect to see VIPs wherever we went. We'd tune our VIP radar to a better, more personal level. We'd listen for the respectful voice of our companions as they talked about a VIP in their life, and we'd notice the loving looks that people give to those they respect.

We'd start appreciating just how many VIPs there are in each of our lives, and truly understand what it really means to be important to others — not for being wealthy, not for being beautiful, and not for just being entertaining.

When we walk down the street we'll be meeting many amazing and influential people. We'll share their stories, attitudes and wisdom with our friends and family, and incorporate and reflect their strengths in our lives.

In a world where VIP is redefined we'll find ourselves surrounded and enriched by people who understand the value of kindness and sharing. 

That is the world that I want to live in.

As for famous people, who under the old definition were automatically VIPs, there could be a more accurate acronym: like VFP: Very Famous Person. Some famous people will actually be VIPs, and certainly many famous people are leaders in helping those less fortunate. Some folks, who are less enamoured of the influential entertainment industry, might watch TV and say to their friends: "That VFP can really act. I hope they're actually a VIP too !"  Staying optimistic is important!

And since rich people like to have a lot of stuff, they could also have their own acronym: VRP: Very Rich People. For the top, top level of rich people, perhaps just the top 1% of them — who are very enthusiastic about money — they could also be worthy of a deluxe acronym: VERP: Very Enthusiastically Rich People. VRPs will have to try extremely hard to become one of the new VIPs, since being generous and community-minded is not often their strong suit. They might have to shed some extra layers of money and self-focus to do it, to "slim down" and "share the joy". It could be tough for VRPs to become VIPs, so we really need to encourage them. Here's hoping!

We've been frugal in acknowledging and celebrating our real VIPs for a long time. Let's change that, and start telling each other about the very important people in our lives.

[Return to the home page of MakingMoreOfToday.com.]