“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.” — Benjamin Franklin
At the heart of all our great spiritual teachings lies a darkly seductive message:
I sit here, my thoughts flip-flop between fear of judgement & the power to believe I can give hope to just one person by…
Love is what you want it to be.
Some of the questions surrounding coaching and training really surprise me. For me, it is all about how you model, literally how you…
“A year from now, you will wish you had started today.” — Karen Lamb
I have a reminder set on my phone that goes off each morning at 9am. All it says is…
Just hear me out
Here we are, a chat about something that everybody hates, but everybody’s felt and experienced it…
If there is one truth I’ve internalized over my 52+ years walking this earth, it’s that life is chaotic. It doesn’t matter who you are, what you do or where you’re from, navigating life as a human in an ever-changing world is challenging. Period. I personally find the state of feeling overwhelmed to be both…
You may think the best thing about summer is warm sunny evenings, spontaneous barbecues and a…
I have a great job, a comfortable house, sufficient savings, a loving family and caring friends, but yet it feels like…
Words by Pico IyerPhotographs by Kaori Nishida
“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy…
I grew up with a mentally ill mother. I used to call her “hard” or “difficult” or…
Craft your life as a work of art.
God Knows I’ve Tried
I used to seek freedom like it was the ultimate goal. As if having all of the…
Before I left for Sydney, I knew it would be my last summer at this place I called home, for a while. I didn’t know where I was going, all I knew was that I was.
This past February, I got laid off from my job. To someone in their early 20’s, I was…
1:25 AM
“human beings need three basic things in order to be content: they need to feel competent at what…
I’ve never been explicit about communication until I actually started dating someone. I’m not going to bring it up if we just go out on 2 or 3 dates. But if I’m seeing a pattern of “him” not communicating, I’ll usually address it to make sure he is aware how I feel/my thoughts.
I am writing my first article for Medium about something I recently discovered about myself. This might also…
God grant me the ability to accept people that are ignorant;
The ability to accept the socially deaf and racially blind.
God grant me the serenity to accept that racists won’t change;
Energy Leaks are Sinking Your Boat
I have a reading list. One I maintain on my Google Keep. And for the longest time, the book by Viktor E. Frankl was on this list. Man’s Search For Meaning. I have just completed reading this wonderful book and wanted to share my review here.
So you are a graphic designer, but what does that mean exactly? Do you design logos…
The year was 2009 and I was 14 at the time. It was the first day of my fall semester in eighth grade, and I found myself sitting in Mr. Halvorson’s “Career Investigations” course. I settled into a strategically positioned…
Success always comes with a price tag. The price tag may not necessarily be hard work but perseverance, constancy of purpose and judicious evaluation and changing of ones approach or method. Just as truth is a product of consistency and not certainty, success is a product of consistency…
What do hackers, cheaters, spies have in common?
They have something to hide. They also have good reasons (at least for themselves) not to reveal anything.
By Van & Stuyvesant
To add to the many foolish things I have done in life, I am doing one more right now; writing a blog and believing that people would be wanting to read it! And this daffy belief has an extension. I think people who read it will have something to ponder about, something to learn. Brave…
If you ask anyone if they could have something that they don’t currently have, pretty much…
(Disclaimer: All opinions in this piece solely belong to an overweight, eccentric amphibian we found loitering around the Gymkhana. If you, the reader, feel ever so slighted, you are welcome to drop a mail at…
CURIOSITY KILLED THE CRAP
Be curious, and bold my pals.
“Imagine the most important goal or…
January in Florida is rarely cold, at least not by normal people’s standards. If it is cold it’s usually overnight, and by mid-morning it’s warm enough to stand outside without much hassle.
This particular morning I wasn’t noticing the cold at all. I had my red sweater my…
We were socially conditioned to do well in school, go to college, grab our degrees so…
Saturday, I pitched my novel to agents and editors in a Pitch Slam session during the Writer’s…
Today, I want to address the one question that had plagued my childhood and better part of my adult life…”how should I live my life?” Up until a few years back, I was confused AF regarding practically everything that I call my life —my relationships, my values, my work, etc. I mean, I…
I lived in the same house through my whole childhood. It was small by conventional standards…
It’s your own damn fault…
It is said several times learning is to do something you could not do before and know something you did not know before. Technology is improving at a speed of lightning. If you think you know it all, it’s the reason why you are…
This is the question that popped into my mind when I was unexpectedly asked to work…
We usually take our apology out of the oven way too soon. We rush off an “I’m sorry” or “Oops!”, but it’s mostly to try…
It was that dreaded day that I realized I would no longer be living as a free spirit in…
“I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.”- Jim Carrey
Its not unusual these days to get carried away by things happennig around us. Afterall, its so mesmerising that its not our fault at all. Its basic, its human.
Why I Don’t Just Ignore the Haters Out of Hand
Everything I own weighs just under 26kgs (or 57lbs). I know this because I spent the last year with my partner as “digital nomads” on a round-the-world trip while teaching online. In the last 12 months we have been in 13 total countries having finally come back around to settle in Madrid for…
This article talks of optimization using a seesaw as an example. This is a philosophical piece.
Processes are the reason everything exists. Materialistic, psychological and relative value can be channelled through processes.
For all biohackers and productivity chasers, it’s not coffee!
Heartiest congratulations, friend! You are a #rockstar in my book!
Everyone has a plan for success, a routine to follow, a checklist to fill and a ritual to adhere to…
Perfection does not exist in the context that most of us believe it does. Perfection is not something that can ever be attained through hard work or repetitive action. Perfection already exists within; just…
Job training empowers people to realize their dreams and improve their…
Last week, I wrote about how optimism isn’t always our friend. In fact, being overly…
… then I’m less of a coward than I was last year.
How do you feel about empty spaces?
My final days at IRRI were extremely bittersweet. It felt like finally, after 8 long weeks, I was getting the hang of everything. Things started making sense, I knew where to go and when, I stopped missing the buses. The last week I was at IRRI was also the best, which made it the hardest to…
When I look back on my life, I often wonder if there was something I could’ve told myself to make the tough times less tough and the good times last longer.
There is definitely no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. And depending on the day, you would probably…
Someone once told me that people generally fall into two categories: those who live to eat and those who…
A few years ago, I knew I desperately needed a wardrobe change, I looked in my closet and immediately got…
What made me decide to come here? I don’t know. I am where I am. Small sometime big steps I took…
We all know that one person, who is always trying to buy the secret to their…
When do you feel the proudest?
You are sitting behind the wheel of a fully equipped metallic black Porsche 911 amongst the cheaper price sedans and trucks at lights. Are you going to envy a Lamborghini Urus next to you…
Importance and Significance of following a diet
Judgement is universal. One can never escape a judgement. You can be rich or poor —…
We’ve heard all about the comparison game, how “comparison is the thief of joy” etc, etc, etc.
Next up in our Results Day countdown series: words of advice from our three brilliant Business Admin apprentices Syeda, Aliyah and Caxie — they’ve been through it before, so take it from them! Try to stay calm so…
Reading that post about 10 things to do before 8am is not enough.
Sharing that post about 8 things successful people do every day is not enough.
Sending your friend that post about how to become a digital nomad is not enough.
I woke up for marmite on toast again! We had a pretty chilled morning with us all just doing colouring in for three hours. There wasn’t much else (exciting) we could do. It was horizontal raining and the tide didn’t turn until half past 2!
So it has happened again. A situation in your life which you were sure you had put behind you. You were so absolutely positive you…
Today I’d like to share my opinion on something that I feel is very impacting in our lives : how we communicate.
I think one of the hardest things in our era is to communicate properly with the people who surround us…
I wouldn’t say I like things that don’t grow back, but that is not entirely why I prefer tree roots to their…
Hello Everyone,
Well my first story…hmmm…. skulls cold coffee… thinking i should be putting those pork chops on…lol
ok .. might just do that first ..lol.. be right back, ..
Jacqui wanders off into the kitchen to start preparing dinner for partner who’s been hard at work ……
I came up with the idea for a book a while back…
Well technically, it was more of a joke… But after making the joke to myself, I took a step back and saw that it may actually be quite ingenious.
Awesome post, John.
I agree with your point about social media but it’s part of a much bigger, base phenomenon. Behavioral economics tells us that once our basic needs are met, an increase in income doesn’t make us happier and actually leads to growing discontent. This means that there are literal diminishing returns on…
You read it right, my friends! If you are lazy, you will not only lose the current prosperity…
We hold the biggest truths about ourselves within.
Your voice was meant to be a lullaby giving comfort to the weary and security to the young. Gregge Tiffen (The Journey…
Questioner: I am addicted to smoking. What should I do?
A gift I gave myself and will continue giving
Do you think that being nice to other people works?
What do you mean by saying, being nice?
What is nice here?
Who are ‘other people’ here?
Being nice cannot be our motive.
One. Despite being located between your ears, the imagination is several miles long. It’s a beach. All of the ideas in your head have a castle on this beach. Every time you think about an idea, its sandcastle gets bigger. The…
I have spent the lion’s share of the last three years of my life trying to figure out how to start again, all while clinging to the shreds of the past that was well and truly put to rest when I walked away from it. In that time, I continue to discover more about myself than I ever have in the…
when you are on house arrest. One month and seven days isn’t a long time but when you are monitored and told you can’t do anything but work, gets a little difficult. Being trapped in a one bedroom apartment is not how I pictured my second summer here in Arizona. Definitely not…
Political correctness forbids us from treating other people as if they’re our equals.
Wonderful, wonderful John Cleese:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10153596674478527&id=46126453526&_rdr
On my recent (and rare) family vacation, I finished reading my good friend, Chad Bockius’ first book, Be Better — a highly valuable read, and my favorite book I’ve devoured this year. Shortly after closing the cover, I called Chad to tell him how much I loved the book and how…
Rise Early.
Get Shit Done. Don’t get distracted by perfection. Find the path of least resistance and…
My wife and I are in the midst of getting out of debt. We’re making slow and steady progress, but I’ve been anxious to try to move the needle a bit more.
I tried brainstorming part-time jobs I could apply for: overnight maintenance at Cracker…
Looking back on my life in retrospect, I am a completely different person than I was four years ago. I’ve…
Yeah, I appreciate the Sontag quote and very much agree with your points made. I guess though, I just don’t feel bad for Selena Gomez as much as I do the impressionable youth who follow her. Her conflicting comments show that she is aware of this comodification of her life. But she is not a helpless person caught up in the system. She knows what’s…
woke up to a 3-alarm fire in my little town last night. Heard the sirens and figured they were headed somewhere far away.
Checked the local Facebook page and learned the fire was a block away from my little home.
Cada cosa que pasa, lo bueno, lo malo, lo desagradable, los milagros todo absolutamente todo es parte de un plan maravilloso. Los humanos estamos aqui en la tierra para aprender, aprender a sentir, a amar, a ser personas que inspiren a otras a traves de situaciones que se nos presentan en la vida. Es ahi cuando…
We are always told the great stories of when the champion overcomes devastation, slays the mythical dragon, ‘gets the girl’ but not the tasks or events that transpire before the come up.
I’m turning 40 in January. Here I sit pondering the choices I made and wish I’d made in my 20’s and 30’s, and how I arrived here to the life that I am living today.
Your sharing reminded me of the wonderful post Ella Luna shared on The Crossroads of Should and Must - and how the path of “should” is dictated to us by others…
“Kiddo, listen….listen to me carefully. What I’m going to say, might break your heart…
There is no person in this world who has never been hurt.Being covered in scratches after a long dayis just part of life.
Failure:
This year is something different than past 2 and half year.
In life we sometime face failure.
This year , I failed twice. First was not able to made a good relationship and second , my goal was diverted. I prepared for ONE examination, which could change my future…
Paradoxically, a lot of what makes someone talented gets in the way of real hard work.
By that I mean that most times the opposite of talent looks like hard work. And most times the more talent you have the harder it is for you to get any…
He stood in line with the other men, gaunt, with his bones protruding from under his skin. His prison ID photos barely resembled what was left of him. His dirty, thread-bare striped camp clothing, barely protected him from the elements, but draped on him like a tent as he stood at attention, trying not to allow eye contact with the commandant…
In our fast-paced, busy lifestyle, we sometimes forget or fail to take time out to reflect on where we are, what we are doing, and where we want to be in life.
I am pretty indecisive and shy away from confrontations. I’ve never been assertive but it seems with age I’ve become…
This might be the hardest thing to do, especially in an age of likes, retweets, and favourites. All of these are forms of instant gratification, all based off the opinions of others.
Six year-old falls into a deep pit with no-one but his three year-old brother around.
“The burden of the self is lightened when I laugh at myself”…
Feeling like you’re at a standstill in life?… Yea i’ve been there too. Especially being so young and at the…
HOW I TRANSFORMED FROM 2015 - 2018 BY urhmmmm never mind....
I liked this one, Deb Knobelman, PhD! My first accounting professor (well, he was a PhD candidate) at FSU gave us the Meyers-Briggs test. I was fascinated by it! (I still am.)
The candidate must have dropped out of the program, though. About a year later I saw him at the airport in full-on hare krishna gear (robe and ‘do)…
Thanks for sharing, Maria! Food for thought :)
We live in a remarkable time; truly we do. We live in a day-and-age where you can question nearly anything in the world, pull out your phone, and within minutes have your answer. You can go on Amazon make a purchase and within hours you can have that package…
You say you do not fear for you have all known loss. But I fear. I fear for all people and especially for all children in this bigoted world because I don’t know how it can be fixed. And even when I think I can understand a little as a white person what it means to be a descendent of any group with a history of slavery, you open my eyes to my naively.
“Lifelong and Life-Changing Lessons”
Cuando tengo que dar muchas vueltas para describir un producto que no me ha gustado, de inmediato me viene a la mente el taller literario con Sael Ibáñez en 1997. Sael, para no molestar, incomodar o simplemente para no comprometerse, ante un texto malo, francamente malo, decía…
Aahh! The wide and wicked world of technology!
With so many new and crazy things happening in our world, it’s easy for us to forget…
With our fast-paced lives, hyper-competition, it seems as everyone is living their best lives.
I entered the meeting, and a tall, European man greeted me.
What’s wrong with it?
I follow a writer here on Medium, one of the best motivators. He makes me think makes me re examine my ideas for ‘what I want to create and how’. I gain a lot of wisdom from this man who is forty years my junior, someone who has achieved where I have failed…
Dear Paul, your system is more than inhumane. My country Serbia (Europe) is capitalism-in-progress and the situation is also not great as well. For the sake of American citizens, your government has to adopt some measures of the strong social system such as France, Sweden, Norway, etc. You have the money, it is just not distributed fairly. Of course, the major players and oligarchs have to give more.
Forget social media, professional and academic doping is destroying our youth.
Cliff note version:
If you feel like everyone knows something you don’t, they probably do. Professional and academic doping exists in many forms. You need to decide for yourself if that’s a road you want to take. Just…
In case you have at any point been associated with a car accident, regardless of whether you didn’t need to go to the crisis room, an accident chiropractor could secure your time and dollars in medicinal…
One. It’s extremely relaxing.
Two. It’s a ritual.
Three. Your muscles get scrubbed.
Four. Water is warm.
In our lives, we encounter people who seem to have it all figured out. They appear to have a spark…
People go through breakups 24/7. In this generation, breaking up and sleeping around has become a common staple. It…
Great one! I never thougt of this that intensive but it’s so true! Whenever I clean up, may it be my room, my calendar, my mails, whatever — it feels so much better afterwards. In the last couple of months I got myself used to simply getting rid of useless stuff. Earlier I was a person who collected as much as possible, with the intention that I…
It is Tuesday
Strip 129 of #TheAdultManual
