Past Posts: Best Article List

Now that this blog has reached 10,000 views, and has been going for just over a year, here is a summary of the top posts that have appeared over its first 12 months. These exclude fiction and posts by other authors which will be listed in the next blog post.

What did William Wallace say???

What did William Wallace say Part II

What did William Wallace say Part III

Wise words

To seek perfection is to be a prisoner of your own judgement

Shut up, I can't hear myself think

What assumptions are leading you astray?

Everybody is crazy - except me

World Wide Wafflers

Surfing the Psychological Waves

God is sneaky

God is sneaky II: Good Vibrations

God is sneaky III: All Nor Nothing

Our world going mad

Elementary deductions

A self empowering vision

"Wrong doing"

Failure(Part 1)

Failure(Part 2)

Failure(Part 3)

From books and words come fantasy, and sometimes ... 


By the way all of the above are subject to my Uncopyright Notice. Feel free to share!

Image courtesy of Simon Howden FreeDigitalPhotos.net

10 Tips for a Killer Startup

Michael Acton Smith is building a global entertainment company for the internet generation. Before the huge success of Moshi Montsters, he came very close to going out of business. So he has seen both sides of the entrepreneurial coin. That’s why his advice is so insightful for would be entrepreneurs. He distills his vast experience in business into 10 amazing tips to follow. An indispensible check-list for any would be entrepreneur.


Watch this 19 minute talk to learn from his successes and, of course, failures.

      

The Secret Powers of Time

There are 6 major time zones that people live in ... in which one do you?

Watch this 10 minute talk to find out.





http://www.thersa.org

Do You Want Comfort or Growth?

By Steve Pavlina

At a recent visit to the beautiful Keukenhof flower gardens in Holland, I learned about the practice of topping. As flowers grow, sometimes the growers cut off the tops of the flowers, which they believe causes the plants to invest more energy into flower growth and less into seed production. The expected result is flower buds that will produce higher quality flowers.

This is a nice analogy for personal growth as well. Sometimes when we produce preliminary results in a certain area, it can be helpful to cut them off and discard them. This can free up energy for a stronger attempt elsewhere instead of settling into the comfort zone of satisfaction with the old results.

After running my computer games business for 10 years and generating satisfying results with it, I decided to drop it and leave that field behind. This freed up my energy to focus on my personal development writing and speaking. If I’d kept running the old business, I’d have become more enmeshed in that field, planting more seeds there, so to speak. This would have meant less energy to invest in my new path and weaker results.

It can be difficult to choose the topping approach because you’re taking something that’s already reasonably satisfying and cutting it out of your life, in the hopes that something even better will grow in its place. But if you don’t do this, then you can easily stunt your future growth, causing more energy to be invested in planting ever more seeds around the old path. When you decline to make cuts, you effectively say: This is as good as it will ever be, so I’m going to settle myself here.

Do you want to settle where you are right now? If so, then topping is unnecessary. But if you’d like to do better and believe you have a good shot at improvement, just like the flower growers at Keukenhof, then topping is a sensible practice. To free up time and energy for future growth in new directions, you have to drop the merely satisfactory. This gives you a shot at the truly beautiful.

When you feel like life is becoming too stagnant, try mixing things up now and then. In many cases you can apply topping on a temporary basis by dropping old routines and trying something new for a while.

As a way to mix things up, I’ve been traveling continuously since April 23, first to Germany, then Holland, and now I’m in the UK (staying in the Shoreditch part of London). By the time I return to Vegas, I’ll have been in Europe for a month. That’s not only my longest trip to Europe but also my longest trip away from my home base ever.

During this time, I’ve dropped my old routine that I would normally use at home, and I’m trying something different for a while. I arrived with a one-way ticket, with only some part of the trip planned in advance. Even though my home-based routine was reasonably satisfying, by choosing to cut it out for a while, I no longer need to invest any energy in maintaining that routine. This means that more energy is freed up for exploration and growth. That’s basically what I’m doing each day — going out, having new experiences, meeting new people, exploring, learning, and growing.

I didn’t break with the old routine because of any problems with it. The old routine was working okay for me. I broke away because I didn’t want to allow myself to get stuck, even in a seemingly good place.

When you stay relatively still for long enough, you put down seeds. As time passes, these seeds develop stronger and stronger roots. Your reality becomes increasingly solid, and this can make change more difficult. The longer you stay still, the more people will relate to you based on your current position. Your thoughts and feelings may become repetitive and circular. Your physical environment may begin to exert more and more control over your daily routine. Pretty soon you notice that as the years are passing, little is changing in your life. This is the comfort zone.

If you like the comfort zone and wish to stay there, that’s your choice. I prefer not to get stuck there for too long. As soon as life becomes a little too comfortable, and I feel like I can just relax into the satisfaction of maintaining the status quo, I feel the urge to break free of that reality and go for more growth.

Stepping outside of your comfort zone is by definition an uncomfortable experience, but it can yield a lot more growth than staying put. During my Europe trip, for instance, each day brings new challenges, like making the mistake of taking the stairs from the bottom of Covent Garden Underground Tube Station (felt like climbing up from the earth’s core). But with so much to explore and learn each day, it feels like every day includes minor victories of the sort that I seldom experience at home.

Dropping satisfaction to go for more growth is not an easy path to follow, but I do find it to be the more beautiful path. Do you feel the same?

http://www.stevepavlina.com

Study Yourself Failing

When most of us learn a new skill, we work to get just “good enough” and then we go on autopilot. We hit what journalist and bestselling author Joshua Foer calls the “OK Plateau,” where we have gained sufficient skills for our needs and we stop pushing ourselves.But experts do it differently ...


Watch this 17 minute talk to learn strategies for developing expertise in any field.

Overcoming Hopelessness

Simply watch this 15 minute video and be inspired.

This is Heaven

By Steve Pavlina


If you maintain a negative limiting belief about your reality, such as a belief that this reality is insane, crazy, violent, indifferent, apathetic, etc., then your attitude will absolutely cream you. You can’t expect to get anywhere good with a belief that this reality is anything less than heavenly.

You’re not actually judging reality with such beliefs because you only have access to your limited perceptions of it, and those are 100% within your mind. So by labeling reality negatively, you’re actually labeling a part of your own mind in the same way. That’s a trap — a huge trap that you must avoid at all costs. Subconsciously your mind will respond to such beliefs by crippling your self-esteem and strangling your ability to leverage your skills and talents. Some people who go this route even kill themselves in the end. It’s a completely foolhardy way to deal with reality. No good can come of it. Well… no good other than the eventual realization that it was a rather lame idea.

Once you realize that your perceptions of reality are all you have to go with, the most sensible approach is to permanently rule out the idea of casting aspersions on your reality, since you’re actually ridiculing your own perceptions, which can only make you go a bit insane. You can’t afford to do anything of the sort. That cannot possibly do any good whatsoever — it can only take you down a path of self-destruction and ruin.

What’s the alternative? Do the absolute best you can to cultivate a harmonious and supportive relationship with your reality. Settle for nothing less. If anything conflicts with your efforts there, ignore it as best you can, and refocus your attention on re-establishing a harmonious and supportive relationship with reality. You cannot get anywhere in this life if you do otherwise.

Some people have the belief that this reality is something of a proving ground between heaven (bliss) and hell (torture). They’re mistaken. When those people experience physical death, if their consciousness continues, they’ll only continue recreating more of the same flavor of experience they had here. They won’t suddenly ascend or descend just because they drop the connection to this particular physical plane. When you disconnect your computer from the Internet, it doesn’t suddenly upgrade or downgrade itself. If you want to upgrade your life experience, you must be the upgrader.

This reality is actually as good as it gets. You’re already in heaven now, if you believe such a thing exists. There is nothing better. Whatever you think you can create in heaven, you can create and experience here. This doesn’t require magical powers or magical thinking. It does require taking full responsibility for how you relate to this reality. Since that relationship exists entirely within your mind, it’s under your control… but only to the extent that you believe it is. If you think that’s a Catch 22, you’re also right, since that’s just another belief. The benefit of this particular Catch 22, however, is that you can choose to be on the side with the unbeatable advantage, so no matter what happens, you win.

I maintain the belief that reality is 100% on my side. This is not based on evidence. It is based on choice. The evidence comes after the choice, not the other way around.

I even believe that reality conspires to go out of its way to help me, and I see evidence of this constantly (again, only after I chose this belief). And so this is what my experience of reality becomes. It’s full of pleasant surprises.

Today, for instance, I received an extra $900 out of the blue that I didn’t even know was coming. Reality loves to bring me gifts like this — financially, socially, experientially, etc. And because I maintain this belief, people frequently help and support me on my path. No one is going to do that for someone who thinks their reality is somehow lacking or damaged — that belief will only get you drained, beaten down, and abused.

If you seem to have a love-hate relationship with reality, then who’s the abuser? It can only be you. If you wish to continue suffering, then by all means, do so. I won’t stop you, especially when you do it in such an entertaining and educational way. In my reality the benefit of those people is that they provide such wonderful contrast. Their mind-numbingly boring lifestyles and perpetual stagnation serve as easy-to-heed reminders about why I wouldn’t want to get mired in thoughts of scarcity, hardship, and that whole “woe is me” mentality. These people are fabulous warning signs regarding what not to do. Consequently, one can only be grateful for their dedication to broadcasting such lessons so loudly and clearly. Sucks to be them, but great to learn from them.

What if the whole time you’ve been here, reality was conspiring to bring you the most heavenly experiences imaginable, and all this time it’s been waiting for you to get with the program? Reality has been functioning perfectly — within established parameters. But perhaps you’ve been slacking off in the imagination department. Have you been dwelling on what you’d love to experience and willfully summoning it, or have you been muddling your mind with thoughts of perpetuating more of what you don’t want?

If you love what you’re experiencing right now, you can just keep observing that, and it will self-perpetuate; if that’s you, you’re already golden. But you can’t afford to let your mind dwell on your observations and their extended predictions if you’ve already established the pattern of creating experiences you don’t desire to eternalize. If you want to break the pattern of what you’re already experiencing, you need to shift your energy from observation and prediction to unfettered imagination and creation. Essentially that’s a time management challenge — spend less time noting your observations and more time creating your desires. If your observations aren’t cool anymore, stop feeding them.

If you’re experiencing a reality you don’t particular like right now, poor baby. So you screwed up somewhere. Happens to everyone. It’s not a big deal, so don’t turn it into one. Deep down you’re still as powerful as ever. You just lost focus. An honest mistake, and you can recover from it. You’ve just been stuck too long in observation mode, thinking that was a good idea. It was a good idea when you were experiencing what you wanted, but it’s not a good idea when you’re experiencing the opposite. Be in observation and reaction mode only when you love what’s showing up; then you can fully enjoy it. But when your desires fall out of sync with your observations, don’t stay in observation mode; that just guarantees that you’re creating. Time to switch to creation mode instead.

In truth, observation and creation are actually the same mode. There’s really only one mode: creation mode. You get to experience what you imagine as real. But in observation mode, you’re filling your imagination with more of the same, and so you create and experience… bingo… more of the same. Sometimes that’s a brilliant choice. Other times it’s a rather pathetic choice.

Have you thought about what heaven might actually be like? It’s surely not all harps and angels and clouds like you might see in a movie. That might be fun for a few hours, but then you’d be bored for eternity.


Here’s how I define heaven for me. Heaven is a state of existence in which I experience the following:

Beam - Enjoy my life immensely; feel deep appreciation and gratitude for this experience; laugh and smile

Harmonize - Maintain a deeply positive, loving, and supportive relationship with my reality

Shine - Develop my skills, talents, and habits to genius level; shamelessly express and share my creativity and brilliance

Explore - Search, study, travel, learn, and discover, guided by my curiosity, desires, and intuition

Open - Open my heart; actively invite and experience delicious connections that I desire

Grow - Become more capable and free; release and shed fears and limitations

Prosper - Create and enjoy tremendous prosperity and abundance


No need to wait for an afterlife. This is achievable here and now.

What’s your version of heaven? Do you have to wait till you’re dead to experience it? What makes you think death will be any better than this anyway? Would it really be easier to create heaven in some astral realm vs. right here, right now? What are you waiting for?

If you need permission, you can have mine.


http://www.stevepavlina.com

Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are

Body language affects how others see us, but it may also change how we see ourselves. Social psychologist Amy Cuddy shows how “power posing” -- standing in a posture of confidence, even when we don’t feel confident -- can affect testosterone and cortisol levels in the brain, and might even have an impact on our chances for success.


To learn more watch this 21 minute video.

Asking the Right Questions

By James Kyle


It was obvious that something was about to go bang. At least it was obvious to the knight scrutinizing the ring on his left index finger. Obvious because, once more, the absurdly large precious stone set into the ring pulsated with a yellow white heat.

With a sigh he took his gaze from the magical ring and sat down wearily on a rock by the side of the dirt road. His sigh accompanied thoughts of previous occasions when he had eagerly awaited the imminent manifestation. Now his eyes reflected only frustration and anticipated disappointment. The ring, meanwhile, continued to flash intensely at an ever increasing rate. Flashing faster and faster until, at last, something did go bang. The knight however, concerned about hearing loss, had stuffed up his ears as a precaution. So this time, it could be argued, the explosion from the ring just went pop.

The pop set off the anticipated hiss. A noisy hiss. The kind that doesn’t stop there. The kind determined to become a woosh. And fulfilling its promise it did, blasting air aside as a gaseous mist sprayed out of the ring. The liberated mist swirled, condensed, then swirled some more, stylishly sculpting itself into a luminous yellow genie. The knight of course, pursuing a round table quest, interpreted the scene on the basis of his expectations. He did not see a genie. He saw a divine vision sent to help him on his holy quest. An angel descended from heaven. In like manner, throughout the Middle East, when people rub lamps and are rewarded by divine visions, they, of course, have a tendency to consistently see genies appearing.

The divine vision, or genie if you prefer, looked expectantly at Eric. The genie knew the name of the small slightly paunchy figure in front of him as a result of their extended conversations over many months. Enough months for Eric to have gradually cultivated a respectable if somewhat graying beard and mustache. Unfortunately the slow progress of Eric’s facial hair had been matched so far by the slow progress of his onerous quest.

Erik continued to sit in relentless despair. Once again he had been rewarded for his valorous deeds by an opportunity to further his quest. The divine vision was his to command. Well, at least question. Many months ago, when Merlin had loaned him the ring to assist him with the quest, he had tried to explain the subtle distinctions between divine beings that would actively intervene in the world of men, and those that one could merely question. Eric could not follow the arcane explanations. He did however feel somewhat miffed when he found out that he could only ask the celestial being a single question upon each visitation. And his was such a momentous quest. To find the Holy Grail.

Eric was in his element with all the sub-tasks along the way. His reputation proceeded him. Dastardly nobles suddenly changed their hobbies when he visited town: Eric did not approve of exploiting the poor as a pastime. Dragons relocated to colder climes if they even suspected that Eric might drop by. Damsels voted him the most reliable delivery service year after year. True, it would have been better to be delivered from evil by a more romantic figure. In other words a suitor, male, in a suit of mail. But while they were flamboyant, Eric was reliable. And it is no consolation to know that a handsome knight in shining armor is on his way, if he is half an hour late and the dragon can not be convinced to take a rain check. Eric the dependable. Minstrels sang songs about his heroic deeds. At least the most creative ones did; the ones that could find words to rhyme with Eric.

And all these heroic feats were required. Merlin had explained that a ring of summoning only functioned once charged and that charging the ring required the accomplishment of worthy deeds over many days. This was the easy part. The hard part was to come up with the right questions to help him complete his main quest. Eric’s despair was that so far he had failed to do so. And worse than that. After today he could only count on one more opportunity. The summer solstice was not far off and on that date he had to surrender the ring.

Erik had begun his quest on the summer solstice the year before. At the time he had been very proud of his initial questions. Did the Grail really exist? Was the Grail to be found in this kingdom?  Would he recognize the true Grail? Yes was the reply to each question. With each yes he felt himself taking one more step towards his goal. But then he lost his way. He began to receive more no than yes answers. And even the yes answers were not clear, some seemingly contradicting others.

Eric, lost in his thoughts, continued to ignore the genie. Head bent over, bowed by the immensity of his problem, he held the weight of his forehead with his right hand, supporting his right elbow on his knee. He sat for some time in this classical thinking pose that is the time-honored response to all disheartening problems. The pose that invariably indicates the absence of any possibility of any further progress being made. Unless a miracle happens. And, of course, Erik was on a holy quest. So as Erik was looking down he just happened to notice for the first time that the ring on his left hand, although no longer flashing, still sparkled slightly. He looked closer. Across the surface of the precious stone he was surprised to see some small but legible luminous writing: For best results don’t ask yes/no questions. How could he have been so stupid? He thought back over the questions he had asked so far. In the beginning he had been incredibly smug about his personal ability to wrestle with this intellectual challenge and to come up with exactly the right questions. Starting with some fixed ideas about how to go about finding the Grail he had, in fact, just asked questions to support or refute his assumptions. And the outcome was that he had set up a pattern of asking yes/no questions, and then never broken out of it.

Eric’s face brightened as he realized he could change that pattern now. He could, in fact, ask the obvious question: Where is the Holy Grail? But, not so fast. This was his next to last chance to get it right. Would knowing where it was be sufficient? Might the answer be ambiguous?

Suddenly a smile broke over his face and he looked up at the genie and said, “Divine being, this is my question. To …” He stopped. He knew he had the right question but there was still something that bothered him. He had a nagging feeling that there was something he was missing. He waited a few moments but he couldn’t work out what was wrong. Attributing the uneasiness  to nervousness he tried again, “Divine being, this is my question. To …” There was definitely something wrong. What was he forgetting? He had this feeling that he was about to make a big mistake when he was about to hear the answer he needed. Of course, to hear! His ears were still stuffed up. He had almost asked the question while he couldn’t hear the answer. If he was asking for guidance it would most definitely be a good idea to be open to hearing the reply. He unblocked his ears, “Divine being, this is my question. To help me find the Grail, what is the best question to ask?”

The genie smiled, and told him.





Image courtesy of Boykung / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Be Your own Teacher & Your own Disciple - Jiddu Krishnamurti

A short 90 second video with a powerful message. 

Two different maps - two different worlds

By James Kyle

Right now in my working environment there is a particular person who is making it difficult for me to complete my work objectives. In fact he is actively getting in the way of me doing so. To be fair, at times, he may personally believe that he is being helpful. However what I am experiencing is interfering, controlling, aggressive behavior that is the antithesis of the supporting, helpful behaviour that I do find from most of my colleagues.

Now in the past, in response to this, I would have firstly be getting quite angry and judgmental about this degree of unwelcome interference. Secondly I would have been questioning my own ability. And finally I would probably be also feeling threatened and perhaps even becoming negative and judgmental about my own efforts. If this person thinks I am doing such a bad job ...

Instead, these days, I simply acknowledge that he personally is doing his best and any shortcomings are the outcome of his own conditioning. I realise that I do indeed have many supportive colleagues and, it is just a fact of life, that by the law of averages I will have to deal with people from time to time who are going to cause me issues. I recognise that there are traits in this person that are triggering me, and so, I do question myself. However not about my ability, but about how can I handle the situation better? How can I respond in a difficult situation to minimise the challenges that these interactions are bringing up? What can I change inside  me to improve my interaction with this person? I can't control this person's behavior, but I can control my response. Further, seeing life as a mirror, I pause to consider to what extent I personally may be demonstrating similar behaviour without being fully conscious of this. Overall, I simply use it as a learning experience.

Two different mental maps. Two different worlds.

The hidden power of smiling

Another build on this post on "How to have a happy life" -  from happiness, to joy ... to smiling.

Ron Gutman: "By measuring their student smiles, researchers were able to predict how fulfilling and long-lasting a subject's marriage will be, how well she would score on standardized tests of well-being and how inspiring she would be to others."

For more insights into the hidden power of smiling watch this 7 and a half minute video.

The Power of Quiet

"The opinions of the loudest person or the most charismatic person, or the most assertive person - those are the ones that the group tends to follow. And yet, researchers have looked at this there is no correlation between being that best talker and having the best ideas".

An entertaining 3 minute video that discusses the power of quiet.

Living a Life of Joy

By Steve Pavlina

And again continuing on the theme of "How to have a happy life" started here, Steve' Pavilna's wise words now leads us to living a life of joy.


How do you know when you’re living your purpose?  When your present moments begin to feel perfect.

When you live on purpose, your relationship with time changes dramatically.  You’ll no longer be looking for happiness somewhere in the future.  You’ll stop saying to yourself, “Once X happens then I’ll be where I want to be.  Then I’ll be happy.”  Instead you will look to your present and say, “This is exactly where I want to be right now… and nowhere else.  Nothing could be more perfect than this precise moment.”

The emotion that accompanies this state is joy.  Joy results from total acceptance of your present moment.  Whenever you project your consciousness away from the present moment and seek happiness in another time or place, you leave joy behind.  When all parts of your being fully embrace where you are right now, you can’t help but feel joyful.

Most likely you haven’t reached this state yet.  But it’s well within your capability to do so.  You can reach it by following your internal compass.  By assessing your current emotional state and comparing it to the state of joy, you can get a sense of your distance from this state.  You can pinpoint where you are at any time along the levels of consciousness scale.  Inner peace is right next to joy.  Neutrality is a little further out.  Far beyond that lies anger.  And really far away is fear.  The more powerless you feel, the further you are from joy, and the more you’re resisting what is.

If you are far away from joy, you cannot simply jump to this state immediately and stay there for long.  You might be able to experience it temporarily, such as through meditation, but the circumstances of your life will soon pull you back to your previous level.  But with conscious intent, you can eventually reach this state and make it your default.  And the way you do this is to keep re-pointing your life in the direction of joy by making better decisions.

Whenever you’re faced with a decision, even a seemingly mundane one such as what to eat for your next meal, choose the option that brings you closest to joy.  That will be the option that makes you feel the most powerful.  It will not necessarily be what makes you feel joyful, especially if you are currently in a very negative state.  If you’re currently depressed, you may have zero choices that will produce joy in this moment.  But you will have some choice that makes you feel more powerful and alive than the others, and that is the choice that will turn your life in the direction of joy.

If you are feeling fearful and worried, perhaps the best action you can find is one which makes you feel greedy or angry.  That is perfectly fine.  Greed and anger are both higher states than fear; they are closer to joy.  It is better to act out of anger than out of fear, since it will turn you in the direction of joy.  And soon you’ll be able to progress beyond anger.  Do not beat yourself up if a seemingly negative state like anger is the best you can muster at this time in your life.  You cannot expect any more from yourself than your best.  The anger will pass, and you’ll soon be able to climb the ladder towards more positive states.  If you are in a deep negative state such as depression, you will have to pass through higher negative states first before you can reach the positive ones.  So going from depression to anger is a very positive step in the right direction.

If you proceed in this manner with every decision you can, eventually you will reach the state of joy.  It may take some time, but you will eventually reach it and make it your default state.

Joy is in fact your natural state of being.  Babies enter this state very easily because they are fully in the present moment.  They do not seek themselves in the past or future.

When you are joyful, your life flows with ease and lightness.  Existence is no longer a struggle.  Why?  Because when you stop resisting the present moment, you stop creating problems for yourself.  Resistance creates internal problems like stress, fear, and disease, but it also creates external problems like conflict, scarcity, and injustice.  When you learn to choose the direction that creates the most joy in your life, your life will become a joyful experience in each and every moment.  And of course it is easy to accept and embrace any present moment in which you feel joyful, so the state will naturally perpetuate itself.  Joyful feelings create joyful actions which produce more joyful feelings.

The state of joy enables you to stop worrying about your survival, to stop fearing what may or may not happen, and to stop fighting your present moments.  You’ll find it easier and easier to satisfy your needs.  This will allow you to direct your consciousness outward and interact with the world without fear.  People will seem much less threatening to you.  Even strangers will smile at you more because they’ll pick up on your joyful state.  Positive people will be drawn to you like a magnet, and you’ll soon find your life filled with empowering relationships.  All the support you need will come to you.  And this in turn will give you the energy and drive to embrace your true purpose.

Simply make decisions that bring you as close to joy as possible, even if it seems very distant at first, and soon you’ll find your life becoming more joyful.  You have free will though, so in any moment you can decide to move towards joy or away from it.  The choice is yours.


http://www.stevepavlina.com/