What Is This, Some Kind of Joke?

Posted on February 27, 2019 by admin

This is a little joke that makes me laugh and I wanted to share it with you. I hope you enjoy it as well.

A man is rescued from a desert island after 20 years. The news media, amazed at this feat of survival, ask him to show them his home.

“How did you survive? How did you keep sane?” they ask him, as he shows them around the small island.
“I had my faith. My faith kept me strong. Come.” He leads them to a small glen, where stands an opulent church, made entirely from palm fronds, coconut shells and woven grass. The news cameras take pictures of everything – even a prayer book made from banana leaves and written in octopus ink. “This took me five years to complete.”
“Amazing! And what did you do for the next fifteen years?”
“Come with me.” He leads them around to the far side of the island. There, in a shady grove, is an even more beautiful church. “This one took me twelve years to complete!”
“But sir” asks the reporter, “Why did you build two churches?”
“This is the church I attend. That other place? Hah! I wouldn’t set foot in there if you PAID me!”


Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on What Is This, Some Kind of Joke?

Leaders vs Bosses

Posted on February 26, 2019 by admin
Image result for boss vs leader

A leader shows the path forward by walking it ahead of everyone else. If a leader asks you to follow a certain plan of action, you can be sure that he’s already tried it out himself and made sure it will work because a leader will never ask anyone to do something that he isn’t willing to do himself. When things are going crazy and everyone is working their hardest, the leader is right there with them in the trenches. A leader is always asking for input as he knows that having participation from those around him increases the chances for success and leads to better relationships and interactions. A leader respects those around him and always acknowledges their humanity. A leader will point out great qualities in you and work with you to develop them so that you can live your best life.

A boss saves the work he dislikes the most for other people. During times of great stress, a boss will retreat and leave everyone else alone to fight their hardest battles. When a boss tells you to do something differently than you normally do it, he’s most likely using you as a test subject to see if this new plan works; even if it doesn’t work, he’ll probably tell you to keep doing it that way. A boss thinks he knows best and has nothing to gain from listening to someone else’s ideas, so he doesn’t even bother asking for input in the first place. A boss has little to no respect for those around him and sees them as workers to be ordered around. A boss only looks at the qualities in you that will benefit him and focuses solely on bringing them out for his own benefit.

I’ve had a lot of experience with bosses and a little experience with leaders. The two could not be more different. Being around leaders is inspiring, energizing, and refreshing; being around bosses is depressing, frustrating, and demoralizing. Naturally, I much prefer to spend time with leaders and feel much better after being around them for even a short time. Simply watching them has taught me a lot about effectively communicating and interacting with other people, and reading their works (or works about them) has taught me even more. I’m fortunate that I’ve met and gotten to know increasingly more wonderful leaders over time and I plan to keep learning from them as I continue to grow into the person I want to be.

Posted in Getting Along with Each Other, Inspirational People, Life Hacks, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Leaders vs Bosses

Tribute to Books

Posted on February 25, 2019 by admin

Books allow us to communicate our ideas through time and space. We can read books written hundreds or even thousands of years before we were born. Almost like having a conversation with those writers with whom our paths otherwise would never have crossed. And we can write books that will be read by people born hundreds or thousands of years after our deaths so they too can have a conversation with us. We can only talk to so many people during our lives, and books allow us to talk to exponentially more after we’re gone.

Books enrich our knowledge and our creativity by exposing us to new ideas and new information. From this we can improve our world by producing more art, coming up with better ways of helping one another, and understanding different perspectives so we can see each other as friends instead of enemies. The power of books is made evident not just by those who enjoy them, but by those who attempt to destroy them. Tyrannical despots who burn books that contain the keys to the chains that bind people in ignorance and in fear. They try to preserve their power to keep people in the dark by snuffing out the lights that lead to freedom.

But the greater danger than those who would burn books is those who never read them. Those who bind us in chains have no need to keep the keys away from us if we neither know nor care we’re enslaved. The challenge lies in reaching out to the distracted, the busy, the depressed, and the indifferent and showing them that there is another way. But we can’t force it on them. Only they can decide to free themselves from their shackles and get to the light. All we can do is offer them a bit of the light we have seen and hope they will join us. And as long as there are those who read books, hope will never die.

Posted in Life Hacks, Personal Freedom, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Tribute to Books

My Take on Freedom

Posted on February 24, 2019 by admin

In George Orwell’s chilling book 1984, the characters live under a totalitarian government called Big Brother. Big Brother watches everyone all the time, listens in on their conversations, and controls all the information they see. Beyond that, it doesn’t even allow anyone to think negatively about it. Rather than just executing anyone caught thinking against Big Brother, it tortures, brainwashes, and manipulates them until they surrender and love Big Brother. Fortunately, unlike in 1984, we always have the ability to think for ourselves and decide how to feel about anything. This is one freedom that hardly gets mentioned even though we all have it and nobody can take it away from us.

Freedom is all about knowing that only you can make decisions about how you feel, what you think, and how you react to any given situation. You’re in control of yourself, so nobody can make you feel or think a certain way; only you can decide those things for yourself. In short, your freedom doesn’t depend on anyone behaving in a certain way toward you. Understanding this intellectually is much easier and more attainable than embracing it and living it out, but making it a way of life is well worth the effort. Your choice to live in freedom is strengthened by distinguishing between what will improve your life and what will reduce it, and then, as much as possible, pursuing the former while avoiding the latter. This can be done by focusing on the areas of your life over which you have the most control, examining your values and interests to determine and order your priorities, and figuring out where you want to go in life and then working backwards to develop a plan to get there. That will put you on a path of your own making and prevent you from being pushed around by the momentum of your culture, any unrealistic expectations from people around you, or lack of direction on your part.

There are many types of freedom that you can obtain if you choose, including but not limited to the following: freedom from incessant thinking, negative thinking, destructive self-talk, past pain, self-imposed limitations, taking what other people say and do personally, and having to trade huge amounts of your time for money. Harry Browne talked a great deal about freedom and several traps we can fall into that prevent us from living as freely as we could be. Additionally, Stephen Covey, Don Miguel Ruiz, and Eckhart Tolle explore the extent to which our mindsets affect our freedom in their books The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, The Four Agreements, and The Power of Now, respectively. And lastly, Tim Ferriss uses The 4-Hour Workweek to show some possible ways that we can free up a great deal of our time and spend it as we like while still making a living (financial freedom). As you might have guessed, these people and their works have all heavily influenced my thoughts on freedom. Since I’ve had a good bit of time now to process their ideas and try them out for myself, I’ve seen major improvements in each area of my life. I still have a lot to learn and work on with all of this, but I wanted to share my take and experience thus far with you in the hopes that it will allow you to live a freer, fuller life if that’s what you want. The choice is yours.

Posted in Great Books, Inspirational People, Life Hacks, Personal Freedom, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on My Take on Freedom

Taking a Stand

Posted on February 23, 2019 by admin
Image result for small group of people change the world

It’s easy to talk a good game about honesty, integrity, loyalty, and other virtues when everything is going smoothly and those virtues aren’t needed. It’s another matter entirely to act according to those virtues in difficult times. Times where taking a stand may result in harsh consequences and little to no worldly gain. Those difficult situations reveal one’s true values.

Robert Cialdini talks about the power of social proof in his book Influence. Social proof is the tendency to look at what others around us are doing and go along with them, and it’s extremely difficult for most people to avoid this. That’s what makes it all the more impressive when someone does stand up and say “Enough” even if they stand alone. Those people are usually maligned during their lives but are often celebrated after their deaths. The more they have to lose by taking a stand and the bigger the stand they take, the more they’re admired later on.

While there are a few people who take a stand for their values even when doing so creates a lot of trouble for them, there are many more who back down and do whatever they’re told. That’s understandable since rocking the boat comes with a lot of risks, but it’s inspiring to see the few who make waves regardless of what happens to them as a result. Their courage and boldness often end up making things better for everyone, even those who chose to remain quiet rather than speak up. They inspire others to stick to their guns when the going gets tough and, since many of them came from humble backgrounds, they also show us that anyone can do this. True leadership is exactly that: inspiring people to take action even when it’s difficult and teaching by example. As long as there are leaders who encourage others to stand up for their values, there will always be hope for the future.

Posted in Great Books, Inspirational People | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Taking a Stand

Watching My Thoughts

Posted on February 22, 2019 by admin

There is a meditative technique that I learned about from The Power of Now and several other places. It involves “watching” my thoughts instead of getting stuck in them. This took me a long time to understand and be able to do, so I’ll explain what I mean as best as I can.

I start by closing my eyes and taking several slow, deep breaths, focusing on each breath as I go. After a few minutes of this, I feel like I can “step back” from my thoughts and watch them as they come up, almost like watching the different floats in a parade. It then becomes easy to avoid labeling any of my thoughts as good or bad. Whether I begin thinking of a happy experience or an upsetting experience, I can sit back and simply observe the thought (as well as my reaction to it if I have one) instead of identifying with the thought and losing myself in it. If I start to get hung up on a particular thought, I’ll acknowledge how I’m feeling about it (which is as simple as thinking or saying “That feels like an angry/sad thought” without condemning the thought or feeling), make a conscious effort to let go of that feeling when I exhale (sometimes it takes several breaths before I can fully let it go), and then return to focusing on my breath. That helps me get back to a place of neutrality and mental quietude.

I normally do this shortly after waking up in the morning and right before going to bed at night. Recently, I’ve started doing it at several points during the day, especially when I feel myself getting overwhelmed. This practice has been incredibly helpful for avoiding stress and managing it when it appears. I used to identify with nearly every thought that entered my head and give it a great deal of energy by continuously thinking about it, which gave me crazy mood swings and made me miserable much of the time. When I started looking into controlling my mindsets, I would try suppressing negative thoughts and only thinking positively, which worked for a little while but resulted in me exploding when the pent-up emotions all came flooding back at once. Watching my thoughts has been by far the best strategy I’ve ever tried for handling my emotions. If I’m really on the ball, I can notice when negative thoughts begin to appear and start observing them rather than letting them take me over; when I’m too late to prevent that from happening, noticing that I’ve lost my way and watching my thoughts helps me settle down and regain my composure. Being able to distance myself from my thoughts also helps me heal from painful experiences as I can see them more objectively instead of getting trapped in the pain from the memory. I highly recommend trying this out for yourself and seeing if it helps you. As far as I can tell, you have everything to gain and nothing to lose.

Posted in Great Books, Life Hacks, Personal Freedom, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Watching My Thoughts

Review of Incredibles 2

Posted on February 21, 2019 by admin

Yesterday, I saw Incredibles 2 for the first time. I had heard a lot of good things about it but failed to catch it while it was in theaters, so I decided to check it out. I had a blast watching the movie and here are some of my thoughts on it.

Incredibles 2 starts right where the first one left off. After stopping one of the Underminer’s machines and failing to capture him, the Parrs are arrested as superhero action is still illegal. Agent Rick Dicker then tells them that the Superhero Relocation Program is being shut down and the most he can do to help them is get them a few weeks’ stay in a hotel. Later that night, Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl, and Frozone meet two wealthy siblings who say they want to make superhero action legal once again and believe Elastigirl is their best shot at making it happen. So they all move into a home provided by the siblings and Mr. Incredible looks after the kids while Elastigirl goes back to fighting bad guys and saving the day. But when a villain called the Screenslaver proves to be a bigger threat than anyone had imagined, the family has to come together once again to make things right.

As much as I enjoyed The Incredibles, I liked Incredibles 2 even more. The sequel made me laugh longer and harder, had me on the edge of my seat more often, and held my attention better than the original movie. Plus it was nice to see the family interact more with each other this time around. I watched Incredibles 2 at home long after it had been out of theaters and saw hardly any trailers for it, so maybe having no real expectations for the movie enhanced my enjoyment of it since almost everything in it was a surprise to me.Incredibles 2 had some of the best action sequences and biggest laughs of any superhero movie I’ve seen, so I’ll definitely be returning to this several more times. If you haven’t seen this incredible movie, I highly recommend checking it out.

Posted in Great Movies | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Review of Incredibles 2

The Choice We All Have

Posted on February 20, 2019 by admin

Every day, we all have the choice to make the world a little bit better or a little bit worse. If we treat other people well, that makes them feel good and adds a little bit of positivity to everything they do for the rest of that day; treat them poorly and that gives them a bit of negativity that follows them everywhere. Either way, they pass on how they’re feeling to the other people they meet, which then influences their behavior, and so on; eventually, our actions will have impacted people we’ll never meet or even know exist. In short, there is tremendous power in the words we use and the actions we take even if we don’t always see the fruits of our decisions.

Big actions such as buying another person a meal, sitting with them when they need a friend, and helping them through a major struggle do the greatest amount of good. However, small gestures can still make a big difference. Refraining from honking at the slow driver, holding the door for the next person, choosing to be a peacemaker instead of telling someone off, etc. Even something as simple as giving someone a genuine smile can begin to turn their day around. You never know what they’ve been going through and what such a seemingly small gesture will do for them. So even if you don’t undertake some huge project, you can still use small actions to make a difference for other people.

The better we treat ourselves and the more we love ourselves, the easier it is to do random acts of kindness for others. When I’m not taking care of myself as I should, I end up stuck in my thoughts and find it almost impossible to care about anyone else. In contrast, when I’m feeling relaxed and peaceful, I find it easy to remember that those who lash out at others do so because they’re hurting. This helps me empathize with them and makes me want to do something to relieve even a little bit of their pain. I greatly enjoy being in that state of mind and try to abide there as much as possible, though I’m not yet as good at it as I’d like to be. I’ve seen a few people who have spent most of their lives in that state and it’s amazing to see how they live and what they do. What would the world look like if more people lived like that? What would happen if more people loved themselves and others and chose to make things a bit better everywhere they go? I want to find out the answers to those questions and many more like them. How about you?

Posted in Getting Along with Each Other, Humanitarian Things, Life Hacks, Personal Freedom, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Choice We All Have

A Lesson from Failing to Jump Start a Car

Posted on February 19, 2019 by admin

Two women came into my job yesterday and asked if we had jumper cables. I didn’t see any laying around, so I said they could use mine before going to my car and driving to where they were parked. A guy was there (I think he was boyfriend to one of them) and he hooked up the cables once I pulled into position. I thought he might have connected them incorrectly so I took one off and pulled up an Art of Manliness video on how to jump start a car. This apparently upset him as he completely disconnected the cables and held them out to me. I stared either at him or the cables and stayed quiet while he told me repeatedly to take them back. I don’t remember exactly what I said but he said this wasn’t his first rodeo (which I could neither confirm nor deny since I had just met him and had no knowledge of his competence with anything) and seemed to not like what I was doing. So I took the cables back, apologized to the women who were with him, said I hope they’re not stranded too long (he said they won’t be since he had insurance), parked my car, and went back to work.

I was steaming mad but I immediately started helping one of my coworkers with a project, talked with a few other coworkers, and assisted some customers; all of this calmed me down a lot. As I did that stuff, I used whatever life hacks came to mind and made an extra effort to treat others well for additional stress relief. On my lunch break, I listened to “Don’t Worry Be Happy” by Bobby McFerrin, which gave me the greatest feeling of relaxation that I’d had that day. After the song ended, I thought about the earlier experience with a much clearer head and I think I figured out the lesson it was meant to teach me: controlling my ego when I’m interacting with other people and it’s not going my way. In that situation, I got upset that he didn’t want my help and felt that he had wasted my time. I wasn’t thinking about his perspective, the kind of day he’d had, or how my actions and words might have come across to him. I was so focused on doing something nice for somebody else and being the hero (a sure sign that my ego had entered the situation) that I took his response personally and felt upset for much of that afternoon, never once stopping to consider his side. This realization took away the majority of my remaining negativity and I got rid of the rest of it on my way home by saying something good about him to myself. It felt wonderful to finally be free from that negativity and to remember that I have the ability to choose how I feel.

That experience was also a good reminder that even though I’ve made a lot of progress with this stuff, I still have plenty of room for improvement, so I should refrain from thinking of myself as some kind of super enlightened guru who has everything figured out. Although I’m much better at managing my ego than I used to be, I still slip up and (usually) realize later on that I let it get the best of me. I try to use uncomfortable situations as learning experiences and that’s worked pretty well for me, especially when I go easy on myself and avoid beating myself up over my mistakes. As long as I keep getting better, I’ll be satisfied with my progress and the knowledge that I’m on the right track with all of this.

Posted in Getting Along with Each Other, Life Hacks, Personal Freedom, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on A Lesson from Failing to Jump Start a Car

Now What?

Posted on February 18, 2019 by admin

“Ok, now what?”

That’s what I often find myself asking when I finish listening to something that’s full of motivation but devoid of direction. I believe motivation is important for working regularly at something, but I also believe that having a good reason for doing that thing in the first place is crucial. Motivational speeches are great for getting people pumped up, but that emotional high is temporary. If that’s the only thing keeping someone interested in any given project, then they’ll quit when their emotions return to normal. I can think of many such experiences in my own life where I felt great after listening to someone but had nothing I could really take away from it. I remember those experiences because of the strong emotions I felt during them even though they failed to change my life in any meaningful or lasting way.

I’ve found plenty of motivating resources and, while I’ve enjoyed ones that have nice sentiments, the ones that have benefited me the most have also contained a great deal of practical things to do. For instance, I use life hacks I’ve learned from books such as The Power of Now, The Four Agreements, and The Power of Positive Thinking nearly every day; these books have helped me make rough situations more bearable and good situations more enjoyable. Whenever I find a particularly useful book, video, or article, I like to share it in case anyone else finds it beneficial. Even if only one person says it helped them, it’s worth the effort, and usually several people respond positively to it. So if you enjoy listening to motivational resources, I recommend you find ones that give you something solid that you can use in your life. That’s what’ll keep your fire burning bright long after the pep talk wears off.

Posted in Great Books, Life Hacks, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Now What?