A bunch of my friends are going to Craft Beer festival this weekend, while I elected to stay home and read/blog/watch tv/find my higher purpose in life. The fact that I don't drink made this decision a lot easier; however, my friends are fun people and seeing them get wasted is not without entertainment value. I am at a stage in my life where the one quiet weekend I have is intensely looked forward to and guarded. The fun finds me, people. There is always some crazy social engagement (drinks, dinners, birthdays, weddings, rock concerts and general debauchery) that is going on. I have been holding out on this blog because there has been no time to blog in the eat/sleep/work/get debauched treadmill; however, for today I am firmly off it and happy on my couch. Maybe I will water my plants (feel guilty about that) or just space out. My wallet and sanity will thank me for this.
Showing posts with label Philosophy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Philosophy. Show all posts
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Friday, October 7, 2011
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
This post is a tribute to the life of Steve Jobs, creative thinker and visionary. While I am not a huge fan of Apple products or the ethos of the company, I recognise the impact the company has had on people's lives. More so, I respect the fact that one man had the strength of conviction to bring his visions to life, forever changing an industry. He did not do it with family money or connections but with great ideas and an unrelenting belief in himself. To Steve Jobs, RIP.
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html
Stanford Report, June 14, 2005
'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says
This is a prepared text of the Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, on June 12, 2005.
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 6 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 OK. 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¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 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 ten 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, it's 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 ten 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 it's 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
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 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 OK. 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¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 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 ten 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, it's 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 ten 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 it's 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
Saturday, September 24, 2011
My couch
Sometimes you don't really feel like going out and about, and painting the Jhb town red. Especially on a Friday night. In varsity, Friday was the biggest party night ever. The party unofficially started on Wednesday night with either chilling in a friends res room or going partying to some dingy student dive. Thursday was the classy clubbing at a place that had a guest list, and Friday night was the cherry on top with whatever awesome party was on the radar. After all that partying, Saturday night was either dinner with friends or drinks somewhere fun and new.
But that was varsity, where you were abounding with youthful energy, lectures were a breeze and you had something due every few days. When you are working (especially in a corporate law firm) it's like writing an exam every day at the office. At the end of the week, after work has chewed you up and spat you out the last thing you want to do is clean yourself up, put on your pretty face and bounce around in a place filled with people ten years junior (maybe on a Saturday when you have the energy to psyche yourself up). In the real, working life the most you have the energy for on a Friday night is to have a nice dinner or drinks with some friends and then go home and fall asleep on my couch watching tv. Sometimes, ordering take-out and pigging out on the couch to some dvds is the most fun you can have all week. At these moments my couch is the greatest thing ever. Especially in winter where going out in general is a mission and a half. The best dvd place in Jhb is the video spot in Craighall in Jun Smuts (if you don't have a portable hardrive and don't believe in downloading).
So, it's okay to be chilled out every now and again. Even in an excellent pary town (though I must admit, Cape Town has the best clubbing in SA). Signing out on my couch in time for a Glee marathon, N x
But that was varsity, where you were abounding with youthful energy, lectures were a breeze and you had something due every few days. When you are working (especially in a corporate law firm) it's like writing an exam every day at the office. At the end of the week, after work has chewed you up and spat you out the last thing you want to do is clean yourself up, put on your pretty face and bounce around in a place filled with people ten years junior (maybe on a Saturday when you have the energy to psyche yourself up). In the real, working life the most you have the energy for on a Friday night is to have a nice dinner or drinks with some friends and then go home and fall asleep on my couch watching tv. Sometimes, ordering take-out and pigging out on the couch to some dvds is the most fun you can have all week. At these moments my couch is the greatest thing ever. Especially in winter where going out in general is a mission and a half. The best dvd place in Jhb is the video spot in Craighall in Jun Smuts (if you don't have a portable hardrive and don't believe in downloading).
So, it's okay to be chilled out every now and again. Even in an excellent pary town (though I must admit, Cape Town has the best clubbing in SA). Signing out on my couch in time for a Glee marathon, N x
Friday, September 23, 2011
The Incredible Likeness of Dealing: Part III
It is a widely accepted fact that people in Jhb work hard. And not just the high-flying corporate types, everyone is expected to put in their 110% to all tasks no matter how trivial they may appear. This lifestyle is tiring, especially if you have to battle traffic every day (will save that one for another post!). My (humble) recommendation to all is to actively start taking care of oneself by eating healthily, exercising, getting enough sleep and having fun (which we have discussed already). So now for the serious stuff.
Working hard and being constantly stressed leads to people with high levels of cortisol (the stress hormone, which helps us deal with tough situations), which in time can lead to burn out (exhausted adrenal glands). I have met plenty of burnt out people who say that no matter how much sleep they get or how well they eat, they remain exhausted. Part of this is because their body is so messed up by being pumped with cortisol, and then the effects of going cold turkey. This is a simplification, but I hope I am getting the message across that being stressed out all the time will leave you a worn out and haggard person who is less fun than the average 80 year old whose weekly highlight is their knitting club.
How do I avoid this? I have made the potentially career limiting but life enhancing decision of drawing a line and leaving work no later than 19:30 every day. I go to yoga on Mondays, gym on Sundays, try and each veggies everyday and get around 7 hours of daily rest. I take vitamins every day and drink 2 litres of water during the day and 2 glasses at night. I say this not to show off, but to illustrate that looking after yourself does take alot of effort, but it is worth it. Ask yourself, what is worth more time and effort than investing in yourself. Not much, if you ask me. Start with having a glass of water first thing as you wake up. Then some wheat grass before you eat. A spoon full of this super food twice a day (once in the mornings and evening on an empty stomach) is a nutrition boost for the day. Mind you, this stuff tastes horrible. Think of licking grass that someone with bare, sweaty feet has walked on just before their dog pooed on it. That is the level of yuck. But have you noticed how everything really good for you tastes awful? A friend of mine takes hers with no-added sugar fruit juice (a spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down). Get it from dischem:
If you are super-stressed out and anxiety ridden, herbal tranquillizers (I'm not kidding, and I don't mean smoking a joint) can help alot. Rescue remedy can help in mild cases, and for times of stronger need Biral is the answer. Oh Biral, I wished I'd met you sooner! Check out my office pharmacopoeia. Caltrate for strong bones (a must for women), a selection of multi-vitamins and evening primrose oil capsules for glowy skin.
If you have been good, every now and again you have a little treat. Mine is strawberry mentos. I have a sweet or two a day until my roll runs out and then buy another after a few months. The sacrifices we must make to stay healthy and look good (I will save this for another post!)
Working hard and being constantly stressed leads to people with high levels of cortisol (the stress hormone, which helps us deal with tough situations), which in time can lead to burn out (exhausted adrenal glands). I have met plenty of burnt out people who say that no matter how much sleep they get or how well they eat, they remain exhausted. Part of this is because their body is so messed up by being pumped with cortisol, and then the effects of going cold turkey. This is a simplification, but I hope I am getting the message across that being stressed out all the time will leave you a worn out and haggard person who is less fun than the average 80 year old whose weekly highlight is their knitting club.
How do I avoid this? I have made the potentially career limiting but life enhancing decision of drawing a line and leaving work no later than 19:30 every day. I go to yoga on Mondays, gym on Sundays, try and each veggies everyday and get around 7 hours of daily rest. I take vitamins every day and drink 2 litres of water during the day and 2 glasses at night. I say this not to show off, but to illustrate that looking after yourself does take alot of effort, but it is worth it. Ask yourself, what is worth more time and effort than investing in yourself. Not much, if you ask me. Start with having a glass of water first thing as you wake up. Then some wheat grass before you eat. A spoon full of this super food twice a day (once in the mornings and evening on an empty stomach) is a nutrition boost for the day. Mind you, this stuff tastes horrible. Think of licking grass that someone with bare, sweaty feet has walked on just before their dog pooed on it. That is the level of yuck. But have you noticed how everything really good for you tastes awful? A friend of mine takes hers with no-added sugar fruit juice (a spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down). Get it from dischem:
If you have been good, every now and again you have a little treat. Mine is strawberry mentos. I have a sweet or two a day until my roll runs out and then buy another after a few months. The sacrifices we must make to stay healthy and look good (I will save this for another post!)
Friday, August 12, 2011
The Revolution of Cuteness
Friday, February 18, 2011
Nothing
This post is an ode to nothing. Hurrah to thinking of nothing, doing nothing, worrying about nothing, saying nothing. Just being. No constructions, no socialization, no “ought to be and ought to do”. No stress. Not a care in the world. Nothing. Empty your mind. The obstacles of stress, imposed ideals, frustration and worry. Give your self, the brilliant you underneath everyone else, a chance to come out and play. Give yourself a chance to clear up space, so that it may be filled with God and universal love. Nothing is strangely everything that you wanted but never get your self the space to achieve. Think of nothing, be nothing…. Its freedom……its relief…….it’s peace.
Serenity Breeds Contentment
I have a wall-hanging in my office that read “Serenity Breeds Contentment” in Chinese, and some other things of which I’m not sure of the meaning. I found it at a stall just after I had started my blog and thought it was fortuitous. It’s pretty as well. I often thought that it was the other way around: that if one was content with their lot then peace and serenity would follow. Almost a happy resignation to the powers that be, and that one should be grateful for what they have.
–noun
1.
the state of being contented; satisfaction; ease of mind.
2.
Archaic . the act of making contentedly satisfied.
I am advocating gratitude for all the positive aspects in one’s life. However, I have to deal with the preconceptions that follow me and a result of my socialization, experience and general feelings. Contentment is a state that concerns me. I have been socialized to believe that contentment breeds stagnation and dulls your ambition. Ambition was touted as the force that will lead to one’s ultimate success and sense of fulfillment. Serenity was regarded as ancillary to your ultimate goal. A bonus. I still can’t shake the negative feelings I have around contentment, even though it may be a positive state of being. Maybe. I am not convinced. Ambition was the stronger message and one I can't seem to shake or reconcile with the benefits that contentment brings. Maybe its just not me. I embrace serenity. Is serenity an enlightened state of peace? I don’t know. Is it the absence of worry, the absence of stress? Is serenity is the gentle force that defeats these things. Maybe. I do know that to worry about serenity will ultimately repel it. There are all these contradictions that surround us. It is time to unravel these knots of confusion. This is my journey. To understand life, and ultimately myself.
Serenity: A Definition
- (n.) The quality or state of being serene; clearness and calmness; quietness; stillness; peace.
- (n.) Calmness of mind; eveness of temper; undisturbed state; coolness; composure.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
The Incredible Likeness of Dealing: Part2
Yesterday I heard a colleague tell me that she was well enough to come to work because it was not physically draining. Bearing in mind that this person had just started off in the working world, I gently cautioned her as to the negative, and often overlooked influences, that stress has on your body. Sure, your neck gets stiff, you get a bit unfit because you sit down all the time and can't find time to exercise. You muscles get roped into knots, your skin breaks out and other things, that may not be life threatening. And then you move onto high blood pressure, heart palpitations (even heart attacks), strokes, nervous breakdowns and serious burnout. Why don't lawyers get hazard pay again? I'm sure we can find a way to lobby that one! If your mind is troubled, your body will suffer. No matter how many vitamins you take or how well you eat. Exercise is good but it relaxes ones mind as must as it relaxes the body. So be kind to your body. Think happy thoughts, and if you can make some time to not think at all...
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
The Incredible likeness of Dealing
One in a general state (or appearance) of calmness often gives the impresssion of dealing with life's incredible stresses. But often that appearance of dealing is a self-annihilating sense of denial that will implode a person who is either foolish or clueless enough to endure the suppression of their true feelings. To vent is your soul releasing the noxious energies of anger and and the smog of frustration.
Tantrums may reflect an emotional immaturity, but truly releasing the sound and fury of one's angst and returning to a state of rest is a step towards serenity.
Tantrums may reflect an emotional immaturity, but truly releasing the sound and fury of one's angst and returning to a state of rest is a step towards serenity.
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