Do What You Fear

When there's something fearful that I have to do, waiting for it is the most difficult thing as I tend to build up the fear for it.

"Do what you fear and fear disappears." -David Joseph Schwartz

The above quote is a rule I recently started applying and it helped with the process. Within 5 min of doing what I had build fear of doing, the fear is gone!

Pleasures - The Downfall of Civilizations

“In American today the popular word for good life is “happiness”…The American pursuit of happiness can often look like a compulsive, joyless effort to escape boredom… a people blessed with far more material advantages than any other society has ever enjoyed is not clearly the happiest on earth.” –Harold H. Titus & Marilyn S. Smith

The material advantage is a curse more than a blessing. Most of those things promises to make our lives easier by helping us or saving time. One would think that those improvements would allow us to focus on more important endeavors but it only “free us” to pursue more things.

Materials are a curse when the people buying it have no sense of values (as in what’s really important in life). When this occurs, the things he owns-owns him.
We buy things because it’s pleasurable and we too often confuse pleasure with happiness. Like Orrin Woodward said, “Pleasure doesn’t bring happiness, only an increased hunger for more pleasures.”

Happiness comes from following our values. Joy, which is the ultimate form of happiness, comes from being at peace with ourselves and is often attained through religion or spirituality (along with following values) – It’s a sense of belonging to something bigger than us.

Pleasure is like a quick burning fire, it often can’t be controlled even if we think we can. Pleasure is short lived and has been the caused of the downfalls of previous civilizations which will include our own if we don’t understand it and attempt to move away from it.

*This post can also be found on Men 2.0

Don’t chase Happiness

You don’t get happiness by chasing happiness. “The only way to get happy is to give happy.” -Chris Brady

You don’t get happiness from pursuing happiness. What most people pursue, when they say they pursue happiness, is pleasure and, like Orrin Woodward said, “Pleasure does not bring happiness; it only brings an increasing hunger for more pleasure.”

“The only way to get happy is to give happy.” –Chris Brady

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Revision Wednesday
Blog post originally created on November 8, 2010 and can be found here.

I Wonder What It's Like To Be A Bird

The guys at the International Union for Conservation of Nature, in London, attached a GoPro camera to the back of an eagle in an effort to protect endangered species. While I don't understand the relationship between a GoPro camera on the back of an endangered specie and the protection of said specie (to build awareness perhaps?) ... it's still pretty cool! Many London landmarks are shown like never before. Check it out here:

Video originally found on IO9.

Are Bad Reviews Illegal?

I've come across various post online about people who were charged extras, or been threatened, for giving a negative review of a restaurant/hotel etc. In the company's defense,there are false negative reviews out there just as much as false positive ones but to bully a costumer to get good reviews ins't the way to go.

But is it illegal to give bad reviews in Canada?

It depends on whether or not your review was based on your honest opinion. According to Wikipedia ""Defamatory libel" is a criminal offence under the Criminal Code. Subsection 298(1) defines defamatory libel as a "matter published, without lawful justification or excuse, that is likely to injure the reputation of any person by exposing him to hatred, contempt or ridicule, or that is designed to insult the person of or concerning whom it is published." Section 300 prohibits the publication of defamatory libels that the publisher "knows is false." Section 301 prohibits the publication of any defamatory libel, but this section has been found unconstitutional because it could criminalize the publication of matters that are true."

In other words, if the sole purpose of your review was to hurt the company - they could bring you to court for injuring their reputation. After all, you can't just go around saying everything sucks when it isn't true.
If, on the other hand, your experience was a bad one then you should be able to share it however you choose. A movie critic, who didn't like a movie he saw, can't be arrested for it.
With that being said, many will remove their reviews instead of going through the legal trouble if the company threatens them with it.

Personally, I don't want to do business with companies who pursue, or threatens, those who gave them negative reviews. A company should look into the negative reviews to get better, not to find ways to get back at the customer for what they did.

For more information, please read the Criminal Code of Canada or contact a lawyer.

*I'm not a lawyer, I just did some research online like you're currently doing. Please don't contact me with law related questions. :)

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech_in_Canada

Tales of Two Authors

The story goes of 2 authors that was interviewed about their work. One was a successful author and the other was still in the process of releasing his first book.

When asked "How do you get inspired?" to the first, less successful, author he replied "I write when ever I'm inspired, I let it come to me. Inspiration can't be forced, it should come naturally to you." The second, successful, author said "I force my inspiration by writing anything that comes to mind. Eventually, after the gears start turning, ideas creep in for my story and I can move on."

If you wait for inspiration before getting your creative work done, you'll only be productive once every blue moon. When you force your hand, it brings sparks in the creative area of the brain and ideas will starts to flow. Creativity requires more discipline than inspiration.

Life’s Secret Purpose

Life is about choosing how we’ll be remembered. Let’s face it, we’re all going to die. What makes it interesting is that we don’t know when it’s going to happen.

If our goal is to be remembered as someone who was nice. We have to make great efforts to be nice with everyone we meet, it might be our last chance to be remembered as a nice person with that person.

What ever the goal is, it’s important to start now. The clock is ticking.

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Revision Wednesday
Blog post originally created on October 3, 2010 and can be found here.

The Christmas Truce

The Christmas truce was a series of widespread, unofficial ceasefires that took place along the Western Front around Christmas 1914, during World War I. The soldiers exchanged handshakes, played games and gave each other gifts.

The below video is a heartwarming commercial about this event.

Poor Princess Leia

It's not everyday we see Princess Leia walking downtown ... it's even rarer to see every Star Wars character trying to hit on her. It's exactly what's happening in this video! Check it out here:

Slacking Isn't "Cool"

I wasn't dumb in my school years, just uninterested. I had bought into the belief that slacking seemed to be more socially acceptable than to excel. What a stupid illusion that was.

Every time I meet someone who goes to school, I tell them to not let social pressure interfere with their abilities to excel. That being great at something isn't supposed to be frowned upon but encouraged.

Slacking isn't cool - it's a waste of one's potential. A waste of someone's life.

Be Proactive with Your Emotions

"We've just grown apart"; said the man before leaving his wife.

PEOPLE CHANGE ALL THE TIME! OF COURSE YOU'VE GROWN APART IF YOU HAVEN'T SPENT THE TIME TO LEARN ABOUT YOUR PARTNER.

"We've grown apart" is a lame excuse from people who believe love is a feeling that just "is". Feelings are like fires, if you don't nurture them they eventually die out.

If you're sad, stop thinking about the things that makes you sad and the feeling will go away-only to return when you're thinking about it again.

We're not controlled by our emotions as much as we have control over them. Those who fail to understand this are doomed to go from relationship to relationship; changing partner whenever the feeling dictates.

Living the Big Life

Living the big life doesn’t mean to put yourself in debt. Spending money that you don’t have to buy things that you don’t need just to impress people you don’t like is not living the big life. It’s pretending and at the end of the day, that’s not what’s important.

“Our souls are not hungry for fame, comfort, wealth, or power. Those rewards create almost as many problems as they solve. Our souls are hungry for meaning, for the sense that we have figured out how to live so that our lives matter so the world will at least be different for our having passed through it” -Harold Kushner

"Those who intelligence has been stolen by material desires surrender unto demigods and follow the particular rules and regulations of worship according to their own nature." -Bhagavad Gita

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Revision Wednesday
Blog post originally created on November 1, 2010 and can be found here.

The Desperate Seller

It is easier to make a deal with someone who desperately wants to sell or buy. Those people are goldmines for investors since they often overlook the details or don't mind going through with the deal at a lost.

If you're a desperate buyer or seller, take time to re-evaluate your situation so you don't come across as one.

A Teacher?

“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear” - Buddhist Proverb

I've recently got in contact with a person who's opened to teach me what she knows about investing in real estate. This person is financially free because of it.

In life, you can either try/fail/succeed your own way or ask someone who's already successful how to do it in order to greatly shorten the amount of time it takes to succeed. What will your choice be?

Create Something

Our bodies goes through periods of stress and this stress has to be brought out in some way. Some people use fitness to do so but did you know you can also create something?

Drawing, writing, building a back deck, playing with Legos... are all good ways to release stress.

Pay attention to the activities that releases the most stress for you and do those more!

Education is a Choice

After high school, education becomes a choice. Hence why many will learn less, or stop entirely, for the rest of their lives.

The individual who knows nothing is often the loudest and the most anxious to tell you about what he think he knows. Listen to the results they have, not what comes out of their mouths.

We're worth minimum wage from the neck down. It's what we know that makes a difference.

The brain is like a muscle that needs to be worked on constantly in order to stay sharp. Like muscles, it will shrink (in thinking) as soon as you stop exercising it.

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Revision Wednesday
Blog post originally created on November 4, 2010 and can be found here.

Big Eyes

This upcoming film is based on a true story about a female artist, named Margaret Keane, who was abused by her husband (Walter Keane) and forced to paint for hours. Her husband would then take the paintings, sell them under his name and keep the money for himself.

Thankfully, his charade was brought to an halt and Justice was eventually served! Check the trailer out here:

For more information, check out this Gawker article!

Self Awareness is Important

“Until we take how we see ourselves (and how we see others) into account, we will be unable to understand how others see and feel about themselves and their world. Unaware, we will project our intentions on their behavior and call ourselves objective.” –Stephen R. Covey

Reading self improvement materials, or meditating on the subject, help us understand ourselves which in turn help us to understand others. Many don't know themselves; they only know who they're supposed to be. Purpose can only be found by those who understand themselves, not automatons.