(karmic sunday - my beliefs)

Found this entry in a set of notes I wrote for myself a while back. It's a bit short as far as intros go, but a worthwhile list reading nonetheless. Enjoy!

The power of perspective is enormous. It defines your life. Changing your perspective on life can change your entire life itself. And so, I have decided to carry out the following changes to my beliefs:

I release myself from sleep.


I release myself from fear.


I release myself from doubt.


I release myself from hate.


I release myself from impatience.


I release myself from guilt.


I release myself from darkness.


I release myself from ignorance.


I release myself from opinion.


I release myself from time.


I release myself from weakness.


I release myself from failure.


I release myself from escape.


I release myself from age.


I release myself from stereotypes.


I release myself from outcome.


I release myself from loneliness.


I release myself from helplessness.

If you've got a similar list, feel free to share it below. :)  

Another night in paradise by XavierJamonet

29 ways to stay creative.

If you really pay attention.

|Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time. - Jim Rohn|

            

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(karmic sunday - stay hungry)

Turns out karmic friday took longer to come back *cough*lackofinternets*cough*.  For the sake of structure, any early week posts will be (paradigm shift tuesdays) and any late posts will be (karmic sundays) :D

Alright, back on track. If you've heard of Steve Jobs' talk to Stanford grads, then start reading after the jump. Otherwise, you're in for a treat: this is the video of his talk, and the transcript as well -> 

The 2005 Jobs Stanford Commencement Address:
I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first six months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out okay. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned Coke bottles for the 5-cent deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the seven miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But 10 years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards 10 years later.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something–your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky–I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation–the Macintosh–a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30, I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down–that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the Valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me–I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, “Toy Story,” and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything–all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure–these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up, so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying, because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.

This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma–which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called “The Whole Earth Catalog,” which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960′s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: It was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of “The Whole Earth Catalog,” and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Thank you all very much.

That speech could very well be a post in itself, but I had an epiphany earlier this week that I felt was very closely tied to the speech. Basically, after reading this post about a year ago, I decided to take the advice at the end literally. Stay hungry. Stay foolish. 

And by literally, I mean comparing my productivity and creativity while in a state of physical hunger to when I was well fed. Personally, I wasn't surprised when I fared better while fed. Nonetheless, I pondered what Steve actually meant when he gave that farewell message.

It took me a little less than a year, but it finally came to me (while in a queue to sort out my internet woes no less, heheh). For the last few days, I was in a state of non-productivity, with a few mental blocks scattered around, and a dash of lethargy to boot. During that moment of insight though, I realised that I had been feeding my mind with all the wrong things during that period, satiating its hunger with little or no discretion. In a way, I wasn't being present, but at the same time, I didn't keep my mind open to useful and empowering thoughts.

After finding Steve's talk and going over it again, I was feeling back to my old, perky spirits. What I realised in the end was this: There are two sides to the mind, the subconscious and the conscious (technically, there is the superconscious as well, but let's save that for later).
The subconscious mind processes input from your surroundings, with tens of thousands of inputs being received each second.
The conscious mind acts on anything that filters past the subconscious as useful or necessary.
The thing is, from the moment you first gained consciousness as a child up till now, billions upon billions of thoughts have passed through your subconscious. I'm willing to bet that a large proportion of those thoughts were negative, which eventually entered your conscious mind. The thing is, these negative thoughts are like parasites, unable to live without feeding off the host, i.e. you!

So, what happens is that the negative thoughts accumulate over your lifetime, giving you a mindset in which they thrive. Common symptoms of this negative mindset include fear of confronting present issues, imagining the future or retreating to the past as an escape from the present, and feeling an impending sense of doom from the future. Most of this recurring behaviour stems from feeding your conscious mind what it subconsiously wants, which is negative and useless thoughts most of the time.

I tell you this, let your mind be hungry.
Starve it of the thoughts that make it feeble and bloated.
Feed it the thoughts that keep it hungry for more, that keep it in the present. 

 

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(paradigm shift tuesday - the beauty of free will)

Yes, paradigm shift monday has died and been reincarnated as paradigm shift tuesday. Same will happen to karmic friday, I suspect.

Anyway! Todays (pst) topic is about free will, one which I'm quite passionate about. I won't go into things like determinism, or predestination in this post, simply because I don't believe in predestination, and determinism is too long to cover in this post. Heheh.

So most of you know what free will is right? The ability to make your own choices and determine your own fates, as it were. The thing about free will that I've found and may be blatantly obvious, yet many of us overlook it - the actions that we make everyday, the choices that we take.. they are driven by our belief systems. None of us act against our belief systems. So, you ask, if someone is forced to work against their belief systems, then what?

The answer is that that can never exist. One of these situations is true: the person forced believes that there is no other option and buys into that belief; the person forced believes that this is the only way out of the current situation to get back to their original situation; and so on and so forth. Whatever a person believes in, they will act according to that belief system.

That is the beauty of free will. Regardless of what others say, think or do, your actions are your own, as you see fit to carry out. Each and every person has the chance, the oppurtunity to change their life as the clock ticks. But to experience this oppurtunity, you need to ask yourself -

What is my belief system? Is this originally my own belief system, or has it been taken over by the beliefs of others? Can I use my free will to do the things I want to do for myself?

(Photograph by Julio)

|If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything - Wiseman, from Sucker Punch|

Shifting your perspective in 37 seconds.

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(karmic saturday - the trifecta that is your mind, body and soul)

Originally intended to be (karmic friday) but terribad internets has delays :/

There are many ways to divide an individual up. For today's post, I'll be focusing on my personal favorite, which is the mind, body and soul.

The mind - Anything to do with thoughts.
The body - The physical aspect.
The soul - The infinite, ineffable aspect.

In a day, I spend more time with the aspect of my mind than the other parts of my trifecta. And when I say spend time, I mean ways in which I satisfy the desires of my mind. Some examples would be: not being present, being caught up in thought processes, getting the intense urge to identify with material (and sometimes immaterial) goods. During a period of meditation today, I realised that this behaviour of mine to identify more with my mind than my other aspects was primarily due to my childhood, where I didn't feel like I fit in with the other kids, and so had to make up imaginary things to please my mind. Things to take my attention away from the present. This behaviour continued up till quite recently, about half a year ago, when I had my 'breakthrough', spiritually and mentally. Even since then, it has been hard to keep present, to stop myself from identifying so passionately with my thoughts, especially since I returned to Brunei - where I grew up.

As for why the soul was neglected - None of the education I received during my school years drove me to establish a connection with myself on the personal level. I don't blame my teachers, rather I point the finger at the educational system - it attempts to take on the massively important burden of spiritual discovery and connection of God, with the still-ancient view of the industrial era -> that this life is nothing but a never-ending cycle of work and providing for society, that an individual is no more than a means to an end.

I realised earlier tonight that due to this imbalance in time spent on the various aspects of the trifecta, my life was suffering mainly in the physical and spiritual aspects. I sense this feeling in people around me quite often too. And so, I've decided to list some of the actions and/or processes which involve at least two of the three aspects, so as to correct this current imbalance.

mind + body - actions that involve pushing the body past its current limits
mind + soul - being present and paying attention to actions that feed the soul
soul + body - allowing the body to be in full control, while being in line with the soul's desires

mind + soul + body - actions that draw all attention to the present effortlessly.

Somehow, skydiving seems like the appropriate mashup of anaerobic exercise, meditation and yoga. ;)

At the present moment, it seems that skydiving is out of the question for me. Looks like I'll have to find a fun alternative extreme sport to take its place. :)

It was amusing - at one point during my meditaion, while I was on my back with my hands pressed together to thank God for everything, I had a moment of divine insight, you could say. The view from where I was lying was one of the ceiling, lit up by my trusty paper-mache Ikea lamp (dragged back all the way from Bristol). As I laid there, my hands created the illusion of seperate realities - my vision on either side of my hands differed greatly in terms of color and object positioning - the right side saw the light as a heavy orange glow, and the left a bright, shining yellow. And yet in reality, nothing had moved. Which leads me to my point - there is no such thing as a reality that is either black or white. Reality is white, black and every shade of gray in between. The only thing that differs is our perception of reality. Never fall into the illusion that everything is seperate. That illusion was placed there so relativity could be established, so we could know ourselves seperately, yet the ultimate truth is that we are all one and the same. Without the illusion of being seperate, we could not objectify experience on a personal level.

So, today's take-home messages - Go through the hours of an average day for you, see which parts of the trifecta are lacking in attention, and start filling in those gaps with your own activities! Also, honor each moment, each person, each experience as being unique in its own right, while also knowing that all of them are all parts of the same whole. <3

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(paradigm shift monday - memes and the present generation)

Off by a day, due to a malfunctioning router. :o
 

You might be wondering, what exactly is a meme? A meme is an idea or behaviour which is propagated, often very effectively and unwittingly. Some examples of memes include 'there simply aren't enough resources for everyone', 'I was brought up like this, therefore this behaviour is not my fault' or 'I need a lot of things and/or people to survive on a daily basis'. How did these memes come about? Society. Society itself is a massive meme, and relies on multiple, smaller memes such as those mentioned above to survive.

So, what exactly does a meme have to do with you? Well, everyone has memes programmed into them at some point. The problem is, if you aren't self-aware at even the most basic level, memes will propagate within your own mindset. Given, there are positive and negative memes- the issue here being negative memes spread easier and are retained longer due to society's inherent need for them.

Currently, the generation in which we are living in is infested with memes. Many of these memes were created a long, long time ago, before electricity was harnessed, some even before the average lifespan of a human was half that which it is today. Most of  us aren't self-aware, content to live from day to day while taking in whatever society deems as the norm. Most of us are afraid of introspection, whether it be on a personal or moral basis for example. Why? Because these qualities are the ones that society, as a meme, is terrified of. The meme that is society fears that those who take the time to focus their energy and time on goals devoted to themselves will ultimately break away from society. Eventually, society itself would cease to exist as a meme, but would be reborn as a conscious choice of each individual present.

As the situation stands now, quite frankly, humanity as a species is headed towards disaster. The memes that are present in this current generation will eventually unravel whatever strands of humanity we have left as we head towards the end. The end of this planet, the end of humanity as we know it. Why? Because memes are like viruses, in the sense that they propagate mindlessly in relation to the host, as long as the memes themselves are able to propagate. The dangerous thing is that unlike viruses, memes are much, much more difficult to remove from our systems. For starters, memes need to be detected, and that starts with self-awareness. The next step is to uproot the memes. As surprising as this may sound, this step is easier than the previous step. All you need to do to uproot the current, unwanted memes is to endow yourself with new, grander memes. Remind yourself each day of these memes and find the company of those who are able to share and spread these positive memes.

What of those people who stick to the old memes? Well, I'll share a small tale with you here. Over the last few months, I've been working in the functional health industry. Hmm. Hang on, Brunei's too small to call it an industry. Let's call it the functional health department. In this department, clients who join our program undergo certified lab diagnostics to ascertain their exact current state of health. Using the diagnostics as a map to read patterns of health and disorders, clients are mentored over a period of a minimum of 3 months to optimise their health, through 5 core principles: nutrition, physical activity, mind health,  lifestyle and health literacy. Throughout this mentoring period, clients are coached on how to take care of themselves regarding the principles listed above, with the view that holistic health is the only cure for prevention of serious, lifestyle diseases. In Brunei, things like heart disease, obesity, and diabetes are the top causes of death. Why are they there in the first place? Memes. Some of the memes I've encountered are: "The cost of this program is too expensive", "Drugs will fix everything and only cost $1 from the local hospital", "Proactivity and self-analysis aren't my cup of tea", and "I haven't got the time for this program". My counter memes are: "I know, the program may be expensive, but hey, its not your fault health wasn't exactly placed on the top 10 priorities in life", "Do you know how many hundreds of millions are spent each year by the Brunei government on subsidising your so-called 'cheap' drugs? Are you really that selfish?", "Fair dos. I don't know many proactive people in Brunei. Guess that's why I don't have many real-life role models.", and "Well, fair enough. I just hope you don't suffer much when and if the nasty lifestyle diseases catch up to you." The tools are there, it's just ego and memes that stand in the way of most people. I can honestly say that out of the hundreds of people I've met over the last few months in my line of work, less than a handful stand out as people who honestly care about their own well-being, as well as that of their loved ones.

As far as I'm concerned, it's survival of the fittest in the end. Fit as in willing to go the distance for themselves. As for the rest, if they fall prey to memes and ego, they really have no-one else to blame but themselves. I'm not trying to be elitist here, but I'm merely pointing out that I am COMPLETELY willing to help anyone that wants to help themselves, and I've stopped wasting my time and empathy on those who are simply too lethargic to live past what society has set for them. Not exactly Jesus, but hey, that's life for ya.

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(paradigm shift monday - to live forever)

Ever wonder why the average current human lifespan is what it is? Some might argue that it is based on environmental and geographical factors, for example: the average lifespan in a developing country is much lower than that in a developed country. But my question for today is: why is it that most of the world's population will not live to reach the age of 100? And even then, those who do manage to become centenarians rarely live past that point with grace?

The current state of society was founded on the premise that humanity was never meant to live forever, that all of us had an invisible expiry date printed on us. What if though, there was a global, simultaneous paradigm shift that each and every one of us living on this rock we call Earth (hurtling through space no less) was born to live forever?

Would you go to your job in the morning with the realisation that you were going to do this work forever?






Would you put up with all the injustice going on in the world?

Would you still treat everyone the same, knowing you would see them everyday, until eternity's end?

Today's media focuses on portraying living fast and dying young as the in-thing to do, and I don't blame them. We're 'taught'  from a young age (and when I say taught, I mean having it shoved into our naive young minds) that to succeed in life: we have to go through school all the way up to university to get a degree -> this gets us a nice job which we use to -> support our family that we make at some point, and we work at our job until -> we are no longer able to support our family, and -> the kids are educated, we pass away, and the silly circle continues.

Just take the time to consider this paradigm shift - what if each human life, specifically, yours was actually built to live past this century, and the next, and the next.. Take an hour to do this. At the end of this practice, would you really proceed through your life doing the same things you did before reading this article?

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(ever wonder...)

Ever wonder if that little thing that blemishes your otherwise perfect day is actually the event that lets you look back on that day?

I've been thinking about this ever since a few days back, when I almost got into an (extremely) unfortunate situation. The story goes like this: I was in my car at a crossroads, the light just turned red. I changed gear to neutral, since the road was pretty flat and took my foot off the brakes. The bass in my car was quite high, so decided to start fiddling around with the settings. I was quite engrossed in it, till I decided to take a quick peek at the traffic lights.

I was extremely disturbed to find out my car was in the middle of the crossroads.

Fortunately for me, the lights had somehow turned from green to red, back to green, in under the space of 10 seconds.  Even so, the thought that some random guy going at 100 km/h trying to squeeze through that tight space of time was so disturbing. However, this thought was not the first to come to mind, rather a lot of panic and fumbling to switch gear to D.

My heart was in my throat for at least 5 minutes afterwards. Simultaneously, whatever doubt I had about living for any particular purpose was wiped off the map. Later that night, I recalled the past events of the day. I was eating my lunch and firing off a few emails, at some point my bamboo mat got hungry and decided to eat half of my lunch. Cleaning oil off anything is not fun. But in hindsight, if that didn't happen and therefore 5 minutes of my life hadn't been spent in that otherwise tedious chore, chances are that I would've been at the crossroads earlier->different traffic ratios->same event, different outcome=>me in a mangled piece of car accident.

Have you had any close shaves in your life lately? Look back on them and recall if anything else happened that day that might have tipped the scales against your favour.

|I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.|
Ayn Rand

 Bruce Lee quotes

(Photo by Mikko Lagerstedt)

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(perfection)

As I stay awake at 1:46 AM, with various thoughts running through my head, and the memories of the day freshly past, I muse over the purpose of life. Whether or not there is a divine being looking over us, that doesn't answer my question: What is the endgame here?

I look back at my last week, and find there is much perfection in serendipity. And yet, most of us rush around this world endlessly, seemingly without purpose. I wonder why.

I've learned that oppurtunity is offered to us at each step of the road, each bend of the path, each bump in the driveway. Whether or not we are present enough to observe and pick out these oppurtunities is another matter entirely.

What do these oppurtunities offer, you may ask? After reviewing my overall moods and observations for about an hour, I've gravitated to the idea that the endgame is actually perfection.

Having an idea of your perfect self to start with and throwing your entire mass, thoughts and all, in that direction to follow, that is our purpose in life. To never stop striving to be a better you, whatever your definition of yourself is to start with. Whether you spend your days honing your various skills, taking the time to admire the beauty in the individual details, or being as carefree as a butterfly, that is all up to you. Just never forget that you're the one running the show that is your own life. :)

|"We cannot waste time. We can only waste ourselves." ~George M. Adams  |


Carpe Diem - How to Seize the Day

 (Photograph by Danny Santos II)

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(the edge)

What is the edge?

It is the point past which you will lose all sense of regret, doubt and emotional luggage.

What pushes you off the edge?

Any event which triggers extreme focus on the present moment. Usual causes involve death, whether it is the death of a loved one, or a personal near death encounter.

Why death?

Death is the final frontier. Or so it seems to most of us, with our extremely limited human perceptions. Once you approach the issue of death face-to-face, regardless of your current state of mind, you are freed. At that point in time, your past pales in comparison to what you are experiencing currently, as you live from second to second. Your future is unnecessary in your thought processes, as the unexplainable thrill of simply being alive courses through you like rivers of oil suddenly set ablaze.

Does it stop there?

Only if you let it. If you're too afraid to move forwards and seize the oppurtunity you've been given, if you want to fall back into the comfy, emotional quicksand that is your past story, if you want to keep dreaming about a future without actively deciding your present, then by all means.

|Almost everything, all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.
- Steve Jobs|

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(rebirth, renewal, restoration)

Christ, I've been away awhile, haven't I? Well, things have been busy with me lately. Oppurtunities in general have been popping up. Given, I've been technically jobless for the last 6 months since graduation, but things are perking up. :) They always do, the question is, can you hang tough till they do?

So, today's post is about keeping yourself in shape. Mentally, physically, spiritually, the works. How many of us actually take the time to ensure we running at optimum levels? The honest answer, not many at all. (this post is in no way an advertisement for my current job. *cough cough*) As much as we decide to pursue our passions, or on the complete opposite side of the spectrum, let things slip out of our grasp, we unwittingly forget to maintain our health (unless your goal is to become the healthiest, longest aged person in history, in which case feel free to read on anyway).


We come from nothing, and we end up going back to nothing, what do we lose? If you're a Monty Python fan, the answer is nothing, but in this case, I'd have to say oppurtunity. Oppurtunity for what? For everything. For love, for exploring, for growth, for whatever you could possibly think of. And if you don't maintain yourself, you lose possible time in the future to take advantage of those oppurtunities. 

At the very core of you, the one thing you want to maintain is your character. Your image of yourself. Not what others think of you, not what you think others think of you, but what you think of yourself. In today's society, this personal facet is often overlooked, and replaced by what society thinks you should be. The question at the end of the day that you should be asking is: 'Is this character who I truly want to be?' 


Start from the basics. Get to know your core principles. Find what matters to you, and no other. Build upon those principles, and imagine them being integrated, flawlessly, into your own daily life.  A really good book that will help you with this is Change Your Life in Seven Days. 

An exercise that will help you figure out your core principles and sort out your life's compass is to wake up really early, say about 5:30 am. Take a piece of paper, and divide it into 6 equal sections. Figure out what 6 things (could be anything, relationships, your job, dreams, intangible objects) mean the most to you, and write them down seperately in those 6 sections.


Next, rule out the 3 sections that don't mean as much to you as the other 3 sections, and tear those first 3 sections out. Crumple them up and throw them in the bin. You can guess what the next steps are: Take out the least important section, crumple it up and bin it. Take a pause now if you want, and then decide on the last least important section. Get rid of it. The section you are left with is what your primary focus in life is. Do this exercise as often as you can, so you know what your core values are, since these may change over time.


I'm going to leave you with an awesome set of quotes on character.

 

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