How to Be More Aware

 

Having gone through major depression myself, I've made it a mission to continually seek peace. I've now come to value a life founded on peace and stability grounded upon truth rather than a life with endless fluctuations of highs and lows grounded on delusional perceptions. I believe this new-found lifestyle is a happier life, and I wish that more and more people would live this way. It could be quite fun to realize fully and truthfully all the given "rules" of this game of life and strategically navigate your way through success. The challenge for me now is - how can I share this wonderful lifestyle with others? Are there words to explain any of it at all?

Perhaps there isn't any way I can formalize a set of words and form them into a series of paragraphs to get you living more peacefully. But I can convey an idea that would at least point you in the right direction. From there you have the privilege to embark on your own journey to realize your own truth. Maybe we will come to the same conclusion, maybe not.

I'm talking about complete awareness, or rather to be as aware as possible. Most of us are aware of ourselves to a certain degree; we know we need to make money to buy food and shelter or who friends and families are and who are not. However, I'm talking about going much further than that. I'm talking about being aware, as much as possible, how your surroundings work, how your body works, and even how mind works.

See as I've mentioned before life is nothing more than just an intricate set of patterns - a game - a dance. I assume this needs no further explanation since we are at point in time now where most of us are aware of this. Just like in any game, if you are completely aware of the given rules and the tools you have to complete a level, with enough persistence and practice you will eventually reach the end. Life is the "rules" and you are the tools. It's only logical to use you, the tools, to completely master the "rules".

So here are a couple of things you can do to work on those three different types of awareness to get you on a path on living a more peaceful life:

Surrounding Awareness


This is what we refer to as intelligence. A person with good surrounding awareness we label as smart. They have a more finely tuned sense of how their surrounding works. So to exercise this type of awareness is to simply seek education. You don't have to go to Harvard to earn a piece of paper with fancy ink that signifies you're "educated", simply reading and sparking your curiosity on provocative subjects that encourages you to seek more and more education grounded upon logical perceptions is good.

Physical Self Awareness

This type of awareness is developed more by experience. People with a good amount of life experience have very good idea of what they are capable of. So I suggest to be bold and jump on opportunities to experience new things in life. The best thing about this is that there are no efforts to be exerted. Simply jumping on board and seeing where it takes you is where most of the exercise take place anyways. You might even enjoy the journey.

Mind Awareness

This is what I want to explain more in detail than the first two. This is because most people are not even aware that there is such a thing as mind awareness. It's important to know that mind awareness is critical if you intend to enjoy life to the fullest.
Mind awareness is to be aware completely of your thought processes. How they work, what triggers specific thought process, and how you can control them.
Unlike the first two the method to exercise this awareness is not set. Some may say embark in long daily meditation routines or live in a Buddhism temple. But I believe I've got a good method to at least get you started.

Written in The Power of the Now by Eckhart Tolle, in one of his meditation techniques he emphasizes the importance of identifying the self. To think of yourself as an entity that embodies you but not completely you. Observe how this entity thinks and you will strip it of it's self imposed drama and learn to see it for just it.

This is how you can exercise mind awareness. To observe how your mind thinks, just observe. If you do this you will find that your mind thinks in a harmonious and predictable patterns and more often than not it is not in sync with it's surroundings. Once you understand the difference between your thoughts and it's surroundings (and you can only achieve this by being an observer of your thoughts) then you will know how to make it in sync with it's surroundings so that you will just flow with the current of life rather than resist them.

Conclusion

So here are a few tips on how to be more aware. If you'd like to share some other methods to exercise them, feel free to do so down below in the comment section.

Top 10 Youtube Channels I Subscribe To

There is no denying it, most of us are addicted to youtube videos. It brings endless amount of entertainment to users all around the world. It is the biggest INTERNET source of inspiration, education, and laughter. So it's no wonder we fill our youtube profiles with an exhausting number of subscriptions. So here are my top 10 youtube channels I subscribe to.

Number 10 - BigThink

Big think is a channel featuring some of the most specialized people in their field and present a 3 - 5 min talk on certain topics of their expertise. Topics range from business to personal development. I enjoy watching these videos not because it provides useful theoretical insights on any subject, it has very little, but it allows me to get a grasp on the wisdom and thought process of some the greatest minds around the world.

Number 9 - jwcfree

Sungha Jung is a very talented guitarist transposing todays most popular songs into instrumental guitar covers. Anyone who plays guitar knows the difficulty of what he is doing in his videos. I particularly enjoy his style of playing because it's a style I incorporate myself, not nearly as well as he does, into my music.

Number 8 - SmarterEveryDay

 SmarterEverday features a man answering the most omitted questions out there that we often forget because of their irrelevancy such as, "Why do cats always fall on their feet?" or "Why do some cocoons have holes?" Personally I like watching his videos because it has a very mythbuster like feel to it and I loved the show mythbuster.

Number 7 - RomanAtWood

 
 RomanAtWood channel consist of two guys pulling some of the most creative funny pranks I've ever seen around. I occasionally check their channel when I'm in need of a good laugh.

Number 6 - MinutePhysics

MinutePhysics are a series of videos that stay true to its name. They are videos of the most difficult physics concepts conveyed in cool stick figure animations covered only in a couple minutes. I'm particularly curious about anything physics and the fact that these videos are only a couple minutes long with cool animations got me hooked instantly. Lately MinutePhysics videos have not been updated as often so this is why I'm putting it on number 6.

Note: The next 5 channels doesn't have to be in this particular order. The frequency on which I visit these channels depend on what I'm in the mood on.

Number 5 - ScamSchool

ScamSchool a series of videos teaching a variety of scams, bar-tricks, and magics tricks. His tricks are very easy to learn yet can fool almost everyone. For this reason I find that scamschool is one of the best channels out there, due to its frequent updates and very useful contents on each videos.

Number 4 - VitalyzdTV

VitalyzdTV  is another prank channel. The major difference in this channel is this man Vitaly has some serious balls. He pulls pranks only people with balls of steel would dare to do such as, kissing beautiful girls even with their rejections, stealing skateboards, dressing up as a zombie and scaring people in ghetto neighborhoods. His videos are always good entertainment pushing the boundaries of outrageous. I worry though that his videos will no longer get crazier due to the level he is playing in.

Number 3 - Vsause

Vsauce is another guy on youtube answering some of the most interesting questions out there that we never really answer because we usually deem them unimportant. I particularly love vsauce videos though because his way of explaining using very cool animations combined with clear narrating makes me it very easy for anyone to understand as long they understand English. 

Number 2 - TedTalks

TEDTalks is one of my favorite channels of all time. Like BigThink this also features people who specialize in certain fields and give talks about their subjects of studies. What I particularly love about this channel though is that it features some of the newest findings in the world. From scientific breakthroughs to newest business theories incorporated by the biggest business in the world.

Number 1 - SciShow

SciShow ties with TedTalks as my favorite youtube channels, but I have to put a number one so here it is. I'm a trivial buff, I love to learn things and SciShow fulfills that need every single day. I often loose good amount of hours in a day watching videos after videos of SciShow, from new species found on amazon rain forest or "best" scientific explanation for homosexuals.

Theres my top 10 youtube channels, what is yours?
 
 
 


 

What I Would do with a Million Dollars

I've thought about this for some time, thinking what I would use one million dollars for. My first instinct is to find a business that where profit margin is exponential so I can turn one million dollars into a billion dollar. But come to think of it, would it really be worth it to spend my time and focus just so I could call myself a billionaire? I figured all the happiness I need doesn't cost one billion dollars. I've got no debt, I've got a comfortable place to live in, I've got sufficient food nurishment, and I get to surf every now and then -- occasionally lonely but I doesn't really bother me much. I would say I'm living a good life.

What I realized however, is that I'm a greedy man. I don't want to just have a good life, I want to have and amazing life. I want to make a difference in the world. I want the world to be better because I existed. I want my name written in history to be recognized from all the positive changes I've brought to this world.

This is when I realized what really is deep within my core -- my entire purpose--my true value. See I embrace my selfish delusions, and I will do everything in my power to make it happen, million dollars or not.

So Heres What I Would Do with a Million Dollars

First, I would split it in half. I would spend half a million dollars investing on clean renewable energy research. But I would not waste my money giving it on research organizations, we already know they work; wind turbines, solar panels, wave generators, geothermal energies. I'm talking about a different kind of research. What happens of you give an entire city unlimited source of energy? What social, economical, and physical impact will it have to the citizens of the city? Will it be sustainable or will it collapse? Most important of all, if such a city could be sustainable, will it be scalable so that eventually the world can rely purely on clean renewable energy, eliminating money for good?

Then the next half million dollars, I would invest in something in line with the first. Lets get real, half a million dollars is not worth anything with scale of the project I've outlined above. So this other half a million, I would invest in monetary incentives. I need to be able to grow this money even more so my mission will earn enough funding to be executed. I would invest in a business and not just any business, a profitable business. So profitable that it would have opportunity to expand while at the same time output enough money to fund my research.

This is what I would do with a million dollars. I will spent it to try and solve the world energy problem. I will devote my entire life on it, whether or not I have a million dollars to start with.

Do the Hard Stuff, Don't Waste your Life Living an Ordinary Life

So many of us living our day to day routine trying to do things our environment expects us to do. We go to school, attempt to get good grades, to get a good job so we can support ourselves and our families. We then end up with a good job, with a good life, surrounded by good people. Some of us are ok with that, and there is nothing wrong with it. I encourage everyone, however, to not be satisfied with just good, aim for being outstanding! Aim to revolutionize the world, make your mark on history, be extraordinary. Because you know what, as far as you know you only live once. So do you really want to spend it just being "good"?

What if there is nothing I'm good at? If your one of the people who say this then you better hit your head on the wall and wake up (Just kidding, don't do that).

Nicholas James Vujicic is a man born with no arms and no legs. There was a point in his life where he felt he was worthless. He tried drowning himself by jumping into a pool. He failed. Soon he realized, yea he may not be able to become a great soccer player, or a swimmer -- but it was there he realized he can still be great. He refused to let his circumstances defeat him. He still was able to play soccer, still able to swim, and overall lived a happy fulfilling life than most. He went on to become one of the most influential speakers in the world talking about the obstacles he went through. He now has a wonderful family with a beautiful wife with a baby born.

If you really understand this story you will realize there is no miracle in it. Nicholas simply decided that he will not let the fact that he has no arms or no legs to live a normal life. He understood he is not like everyone else, but in the end he didn't even want to. He embraced who he is -- someone extraordinary.

No matter who you are, where you live, circumstances you are in -- remember, you are extra ordinary!

The Joy is Not in the Reward, It's in the Journey

Ever thought about racking up lots and lots of money? Where you can buy anything you want, go anywhere you want to go, spend time with the most amazing people in the world? Not a bad thought right? Most of us would be entranced by this idea. However people who actually get to do these things would probably laugh at us for such a simple minded idea of joy. Better yet, people who go through the process of earning lots of money and have now reached a point of their life where they can do all those things would tell you your dreams aren't all it's cracked up to be. Why is that?

Well because as humans we have the tendency to synthesize joy based on our imagination. We developed the habit to put joy in a specific future we want to happen when it truly never happens. Think of the time when you are so hungry all you can think about is food. Then you manage to obtain your favorite food. Think of that first bite, it was indescribable right? But then you take your second bite, it is still good, but not a great as the first. Then you bite again and again, with each bite loosing the pleasure. Till eventually you start to resent your favorite food. This is the nature of synthesized joy, it is never truly satisfied.

Truly happy people do not put their happiness in a vague future that they can't control. They obtain happiness in the current present they are living in. They enjoy the process of reaching their goals not in attaining it. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO facebook, worked on facebook because he was very happy with the popularity it is giving him. He loved to program and he figured out how he can use his programming abilities to gain popularity in school for a chance to maybe get girls. He was very happy just amassing popularity at the same time being able to code at the same time without getting paid. He never idealized facebook to be a multi-billion dollar company. He was just enjoying the what he was doing and the billions are just an accidental result of it.

We have to remember that the future doesn't exist yet. Therefore it can mold into any shape or form that is impossible for us to determined exactly beforehand. So it doesn't make sense to put something so important such as our happiness in an unpredictable future. What is best for us is to put our happiness where things truly exist and things are actually real--the present.

How to Get a 4.0 GPA

Why do you want a 4.0?

To make 4.0 possible, you must first clearly identify your reasons for a 4.0 GPA. The common reasons most people have is that a 4.0 GPA will land them the good jobs. While I certainly don't deny that this is true, I do believe a student with 4.0 GPA does have a higher chance to land better jobs than 3.0 students. However, if this your reason to earn a 4.0 GPA then you will most likely be disappointed. The most important factor in the determining success in pursuit of a goal depends heavily on your motivations. The distance you travel on a particular path in search for a vague vision lies decisively on how bad you want it. So if the reason for wanting a 4.0 GPA is a simple, “I want to get a good job”, then I'm afraid the outlook to earn such a success is very very slim.

The need for a 4.0 GPA has to be stronger than that. It must be strong enough to make you enjoy classes you hate. It must be strong enough to make you test yourself about the subject over and over again to the point of mastery. It must be strong enough to put you in office hours of your professors regularly. Once you've developed enough motivations to earn a 4.0 GPA, you've done half of the battle.

Now to get a 4.0 GPA

There are two main principles that allows anybody to achieve success in anything, whether this be earning 4.0 GPA to running a multi-billion dollar company. These two are the right motivation and the right strategy.

Now I've already talked about how important motivation is above. It's an integral part of any success in anything. One major pitfall people fall into in terms of motivation is that they do not protect it. Remember, motivation is like a delicate plant, it requires appropriate nurture in order to make it prosper and blossom.

And the hard part, implementing the right strategy to get a 4.0 GPA. This is very difficult because everyones brains are wired differently, what strategy works for me may not be practical to you. So in a sense, this is a skill that has to be developed by the person who wants a 4.0 GPA. With that in mind, I'm going to share the basic concepts that I've learned over my years of academic success. I believe these concepts covers the learning techniques applicable to majority of the students out there.

Since GPA is the goal, I think it's safe to say that grades almost entirely depends on your studying techniques, so this is what I'm going to focus on. It's important to know the difference between passive studying and active studying. Active studying is what you must do every single day to earn the highest grade possible possible. Examples of active studying are;

Active Studying
• When given a required reading, you read and summarize each idea. Depending on the difficulty of the subject you may summarize every paragraph to every section.
• When doing math problems, you don't just do the homework. You do the homework just to get exposed to concepts. You end up doing 2-3 more times practice problems than the assigned homework making sure you've seen as much problems as you can at least twice.
• When working on science or historical subjects you make charts and graphs, draw figures that allows you to simplify and interpret the material in a way that make sense to you.
• Studies in chunks

Notice active studying is somewhat pain painstakingly tedious, but that's the point. Active studying cares about mastery of the subject so you must be willing to make all the sacrifices necessary to incorporate it.

It's also important to notice that active studying studies in chunks. Concentration can only be maintain for a short time. Studying on low concentration does little benefit you so it is just a wast of time. When you study for 5 hours for example, the last 2.5 hours are probably low concentration studying there where the benefit is minuscule compared to the first 2.5 hours. So it's best to break this 5 hour studying into 2 part high concentration study sessions to ensure maximum retention.

Passive Studying

• Just reading the material, maybe some highlighting, on a required reading. Focusing on finishing the reading rather than understanding the reading
• Just doing the math problems required. Again the focus is finishing the homework rather than knowing how to do the problems.
• Simply reading for science and historical subjects. Doesn't go through the trouble of creatively thinking of ways to understand the material.
• Studies in long periods of time

Passive studying only does the minimal amount to survive the class. It relies on the duration of studying rather than the quality of each session. Therefore it yields little benefit to success in the class.

Alright, those two are the basic principles to the right strategy for studying. It's important to remember that the goal is to stay on active studying side. If you truly understand the idea of active studying then you will be able to create your own studying techniques that will work for you.

For students who have lost opportunity to get 4.0 GPA

If you have already started your student career with less than a 4.0 GPA then there is no way to get a 4.0 GPA anymore, that's just how the grading system works. If this is the case then I suggest getting your act together now and start incorporating the ideas above to earn the highest GPA you can have-it's not too late. I say this because not having a 4.0 GPA doesn't mean you have lost your opportunities, in some cases, better opportunities open up to those who demonstrate dramatic improvements in their academic careers. So get to it, NOW!

Note

The two principles I've outlined for achieving a 4.0 GPA, the right motivation and the right strategy, doesn't just apply to earning a 4.0 GPA. They are also the underlying principles for achieving success in anything. I just chose use 4.0 GPA example to convey the idea.

Snobs are People Too (Not a Serious Blog)

I work in the business of customer service. I'm one of the lower employees who are responsible for making sure customers leave out of our business satisfied. The common complain that my fellow coworkers have is how some people are such snobs despite treating them with great customer service. While snobs don't particularly bother me, I've contemplated, on more than one occasion, why some people are such snobs. So today, for this post, I've decided to attempt to interpret the mindset of snobs and why they should not bother you.

A young woman driving a BMW sportscar parks in our business parking lot. She walks out of her car – early 20s I would say, in a business suit, sparkling jewelry around her neck and ears. She was easily a 15 out of the possible 0-10 points men rate women with. She was gorgeous.

I had the pleasure of greeting her first ( I made sure to). As part of great customer service, I greeted her with a big smile and good morning followed by “how may I help you” routine. She turns my way, sees a little teenage boy (I'm 21, I just look like a teenager), with braces and a creepy smile, she quickly turns around in the direction she was walking and continued walking forward. I chuckled.

What is Going on in Snobs Mind?

To answer this, I had to put myself in the beautiful girls mindset. Lets say for a moment, she and I exchange roles for a moment.

I'm a high status girl. Virtually everyone around me my whole life have a high status. Exclusivity is important in my world so others must first qualify themselves to be in my circle. I've managed to stay in this level of status till now, which goes to show I'm not in the same level as some others.

Who is this kid smiling at me? Facial attributes is odd. Smile, under construction. Age is 17 maybe 18. I can see he finds me attractive, theres no hope in that area. Job status is normal employee. Analyzing my database whether he deserves my attention...Nope. I will break this interaction now, I see no benefit in responding.

This is one interpretation on what is going on on her mind in the instant I greeted her to demonstrate the snob mindset. The snob mindset is based on comparison to the self. They need to know where others stand based on their standards. Their actions and behaviors are influenced by how it effects their status.

Why Snobs Shouldn't Bother You

If you read my interpretation of the snob mindset you will see none of the beautiful girls behavior are for intentionally hurting my feelings. Their actions are simply for the protection of their distorted view of the world. She did what she knew was appropriate for the situation. In her mind her behavior is simply normal behavior between people two people in a different class.

See snobs are not cold hearted people who's intention is to torture your self-worth. They are simply different from the majority. So it is very silly to be offended by their actions. That would just be equivalent to being offended for the fact that someone else likes Sacramento Spurs when you like Miami Heat.

It's important to remember that each and everyone of us are wonderful creations of nature meant to coexist in harmony, and yes, that includes the snobs.