Why Every Man Should Lift Weights

erm...not so hardcore..

From Briankim

If you're a first time visitor, I highly encourage you to click here to learn more about this site in order for you to get the very best value out of it. Thank you for visiting!ggggggggggggggggAs I’ve mentioned in previous articles, I’m a big fan of weight lifting, but by no means am I like Arnold or Ronnie (Ronnie Coleman).

Weight lifting has definitely changed my life. Ask any person who has taken up weight lifting and you will get the same response. I guarantee it.

So why should every man lift weights?

Testosterone.

Testosterone. Yes, that one hormone that literally defines our masculinity.

Biologically speaking, the root definition of being a man is simply having lots of testosterone. All human fetuses are set by default to develop into a female, but only when they are flooded with testosterone does that fetus become male.

Now, I know that mainstream society has cast a bad light on testosterone.

When we hear the word, we think of crazy, angry, uncontrollable males who go into fits of rage and punch the daylights out of each other while breaking furniture at the local bar. Sadly, the maxim that states that it only takes a few rotten apples to spoil the bunch is true in this case.

The problem with these men is that they have too much the testosterone and can’t control it. It controls them. Then, you got the guys on the other end of the scale, who have very little testosterone. You can tell who these guys are. They are the ones who are not quite male, and not quite female. It seems that all the life has been sucked out of them and they behave like docile cows. They are too afraid of doing anything and live a mediocre life. You definitely don’t want to become like them. Let’s take a look at some of their qualities.

Depression
Irritability
Fatigue
Inability to concentrate
Easily weak and tired
Difficulty coping with stress
Sleep disorder

These are all symptoms of low testosterone.

Do you really think that you can achieve your goals and dreams if you have any of the above symptoms? I seriously doubt it.

Would you be able to achieve your goals and dreams if you had the exact opposite of the above symptoms? Absolutely.

How can we do so?

By increasing testosterone levels.

Testosterone helps you achieve your goals period.

How can we increase testosterone levels?

By lifting weights and gradually increasing the resistance on a consistent basis.

The following are the benefits I have reaped from sticking to a consistent program of weight training. I hope it will encourage those who have been sitting on the fence about this or have not considered making it a part of their lifestyle. If you are not currently doing this, you’re missing out on one of the biggest investments of your life. I kid you not.

Enough talk; on with the benefits (in no particular order).

Improved concentration and focus.

When I workout, gone are the days when I would be passive and do a little bit of one thing and then move on to another thing, do a little bit of that, and then listen to some music, maybe surf the net or watch TV, and come back and do a little bit of it more, etc. Instead, I would stay focused on the task at hand and complete it on the spot.

This habit was instilled through my consistent program of weight lifting. When you pick up that weight, you’re focused on completing x number of reps per set. Nothing else matters. Nothing else has your focus. It’s just you and the weight. You lift it once, twice, three times, four times, the muscle is burning, you’re becoming fatigued, five, six, seven, eight, and then you muster everything inside of you to get that last rep, nine, and then you pull even more from within you that you did not think you had possible, ten.

You don’t lift once, twice, stop, get a drink of water, talk with the boys, go to the bathroom, and then do three, four, then change the song on your ipod, five, six, stretch, take a break, seven, eight, make a call, nine, ten. No. You go through the whole set on the spot till you finish period.

You will find this skill to be very useful. A lot of people get distracted when it comes to focusing on a task, but by lifting weights, you learn to cancel out all distractions and focus on you and the weight. That’s it.

If you’ve watched the Legend of Bagger Vance, this same piece of advice is given to Matt Damon to help with his golf game. Just focus on you and the hole. Erase all the other distractions. The noise, the people, the competition. It’s just you and the hole.

Laser-like focus on completing a task from start to finish is one great by-product of lifting weights.

Sleep like a baby

Whenever I lift, I get quality sleep. I don’t have any trouble sleeping at night. Forget about the warm milk, forget about counting sheep jumping over the fence, forget about sleeping pills, just lift. Lifting weights is the cure for all insomnia. And because I sleep like a baby, I….

Wake up early

Whenever I lift, I always wake up early and refreshed. Gone are the days where I would open my eyes, hit the snooze, and sleep one more hour. If you want to wake up early, pick up the weights. It’s that simple.

Getting up early is also a big time benefit. When the world is sleeping, that’s when you can take the most action for your goals. It’s nice and quiet. It’s a perfect time to visualize, to meditate, to count your blessings, etc. You can read that self improvement book, you can brainstorm ideas, and get a TON done if you wake up early. It’s a huge benefit. It’s also a good time to lift as well.

Energy

Weight lifting gives me so much energy. Energy to go the extra mile. Energy to take the weights to the next level. Energy to accomplish my goals. Energy to do anything I wish. You can literally feel the energy coursing through your veins throughout the day. It’s a great feeling. It’s like igniting jet fuel. It’s that good.

Happiness

Whenever I feel the blues coming, there’s nothing like hitting the weights to bring me back up. I can thank my endorphins for that. Whenever I feel down, the very first question I ask myself is if I had lifted recently. The answer is always no. The solution? Lift. Problem solved. Works EVERY time. Guaranteed.

Mental toughness

Mental toughness. If you read Teddy Roosevelt’s autobiography, you will see the direct correlation between mental toughness and physical training. He made it a point to exercise every day. He boxed, climbed mountains, lifted weights, etc., on a consistent basis. I urge you to take a look at all the things that Teddy Roosevelt has accomplished. I guarantee you that his dedication to physical training was a major cause of getting them done. Because of his physical conditioning, he was able to focus, he got things done, he was always happy, he woke up early, and he had a ton of energy. Sound familiar?

Another example of mental toughness in one word: Arnold. Enough said.

Lifting weights and upping the resistance every so often builds your ability to handle bigger things. When you can lift a measly 5 pounds more than the last time, it’s a huge accomplishment. May not seem like a lot, but it is. Every weight lifter knows what I’m talking about.

Lifting strengthens the psychosomatic link between mind and body. When the body is strong, so will the mind be.

Lifting also helps you train your mind to summon all your strength to lift that last rep when you don’t think you can. I cannot tell you how helpful this has been to me when there were times when I didn’t think I could accomplish my goals, even though I was so close to doing it. Lifting has conditioned me to dig deep and go that extra inch, and you will find that in life, it makes all the difference.

Great habit

When you start lifting weights and begin to see all the positive benefits, there’s no going back. The benefits will drive you to keep on doing it, which continues the cycle, which then inevitably installs a great habit. You’ll feel more happy, energetic, focused, tough, accomplished and you won’t want to let go of the cause.

Males today, (in American society at least), sit in cubicles all day and then go home and sit in front of the TV or computer. If they are hungry, they get in a car, sit again in a seat, go to Carls Jr. to get a double western bacon cheeseburger combo, supersized, with a strawberry cheesecake. Then, they come back home and sit down again. Or even worse, they don’t even get up all. They just call Pizza Hut.

This lifestyle fosters a habitual lack of exercise, which in turn contributes to low testosterone and low quality of life.

Build the testosterone by consistently lifting weights and upping the resistance till you become like a bull and charge your way through life knocking down every obstacle and wall on the path toward your dreams.

You won’t regret it.

I guarantee it.

The Key to Long-Term Success

by Brian Tracy

Successful people have been studied in depth for more than 100 years.

Successful people have been studied in depth for more than 100 years. They have been interviewed extensively to determine what it is they do and how they think that enables them to accomplish so much more than the average person. In this Newsletter, you learn the most important single factor of long-term success and how you can build it into your personality and your attitude. You learn how to virtually guarantee yourself a great future. The Harvard Discovery on Success In 1970, sociologist Dr. Edward Banfield of Harvard University wrote a book entitled The Unheavenly City. He described one of the most profound studies on success and priority setting ever conducted. Banfield's goal was to find out how and why some people became financially independent during the course of their working lifetimes. He started off convinced that the answer to this question would be found in factors such as family background, education, intelligence, influential contacts, or some other concrete factor. What he finally discovered was that the major reason for success in life was a particular attitude of mind. Develop Long Time Perspective Banfield called this attitude "long time perspective." He said that men and women who were the most successful in life and the most likely to move up economically were those who took the future into consideration with every decision they made in the present. He found that the longer the period of time a person took into consideration while planning and acting, the more likely it was that he would achieve greatly during his career. For example, one of the reasons your family doctor is among the most respected people in America is because he or she has invested many years of hard work and study to finally earn the right to practice medicine. After university courses, internship, residency and practical training, a doctor may be more than 30 years old before he or she is capable of earning a good living. But from that point onward, these men and women are some of the most respected and most successful professional people in any society. They had long time perspectives. Measure the Potential Future Impact The key to success in setting priorities is having a long time perspective. You can tell how important something is today by measuring its potential future impact on your life. For example, if you come home from work at night and choose to play with your children or spend time with your spouse, rather than watch TV or read the paper, you have a long time perspective. You know that investing time in the health and happiness of your children and your spouse is a very valuable, high-priority use of time. The potential future impact of quality time with your family is very high. If you take additional courses in the evening to upgrade your skills and make yourself more valuable to your employer, you're acting with a long time perspective. Learning something practical and useful can have a long-term effect on your career. Practice Delayed Gratification Economists say that the inability to delay gratification-that is, the natural tendency of individuals to spend everything they earn plus a little bit more, and the mind-set of doing what is fun, easy and enjoyable-is the primary cause of economic and personal failure in life. On the other hand, disciplining yourself to do what you know is right and important, although difficult, is the highroad to pride, self-esteem and personal satisfaction. The long term comes soon enough, and every sacrifice that you make today will be rewarded with compound interest in the great future that lies ahead for you. Action Exercises Here are three steps you can take immediately to put these ideas into action. First, think long-term. Sit down today and write out a description of your ideal life ten and twenty years into the future. This automatically develops longer-time perspective. Second, look at everything you do in terms of its long-term potential impact on your life. Do more things that have greater long-term value to you. Third, develop the habit of delaying gratification in small things, small expenditures, small pleasures, so that you can enjoy greater rewards and greater satisfaction in the future.

Why We do Dumb or Irrational Things: 10 Brilliant Social Psychology Studies

from PsyBlog

[Photo by Ayres no graces]

"I have been primarily interested in how and why ordinary people do unusual things, things that seem alien to their natures. Why do good people sometimes act evil? Why do smart people sometimes do dumb or irrational things?" --Philip Zimbardo

Like eminent social psychologist Professor Philip Zimbardo, I'm also obsessed with why we do dumb or irrational things. The answer quite often is because of other people - something social psychologists have comprehensively shown.

Over the past few months I've been describing 10 of the most influential social psychology studies. Each one tells a unique, insightful story relevant to all our lives, every day.

But, the question is which one has the most to teach us about human nature? Which one gives us the most piercing insight into how our thoughts and actions are affected by other people?

Have a read and then vote below:


1. The Halo Effect: When Your Own Mind is a Mystery

The 'halo effect' is a classic finding in social psychology. It is the idea that global evaluations about a person (e.g. she is likeable) bleed over into judgements about their specific traits (e.g. she is intelligent). Hollywood stars demonstrate the halo effect perfectly. Because they are often attractive and likeable we naturally assume they are also intelligent, friendly, display good judgement and so on.

» Read on about the halo effect -»


2. How and Why We Lie to Ourselves: Cognitive Dissonance

The ground-breaking social psychological experiment of Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) provides a central insight into the stories we tell ourselves about why we think and behave the way we do. The experiment is filled with ingenious deception so the best way to understand it is to imagine you are taking part. So sit back, relax and travel back. The time is 1959 and you are an undergraduate student at Stanford University...

» Read on about cognitive dissonance -»


3. War, Peace and the Role of Power in Sherif's Robbers Cave Experiment

The Robbers Cave experiment, a classic study of prejudice and conflict, has at least one hidden story. The well-known story emerged in the decades following the experiment as textbook writers adopted a particular retelling. With repetition people soon accepted this story as reality, forgetting it is just one version of events, one interpretation of a complex series of studies.

» Read on about Sherif's Robbers Cave experiment -»


4. Our Dark Hearts: The Stanford Prison Experiment

The famous 'Stanford Prison Experiment' argues a strong case for the power of the situation in determining human behaviour. Not only that but this experiment has also inspired a novel, two films, countless TV programs, re-enactments and even a band.

» Read on about Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment -»


5. Just Following Orders? Stanley Milgram's Obedience Experiment

What psychological experiment could be so powerful that simply taking part might change your view of yourself and human nature? What experimental procedure could provoke some people to profuse sweating and trembling, leaving 10% extremely upset, while others broke into unexplained hysterical laughter?

» Read on about Milgram's obedience studies -»


6. Why

We All Stink as Intuitive Psychologists: The False Consensus Bias
Many people quite naturally believe they are good 'intuitive psychologists', thinking it is relatively easy to predict other people's attitudes and behaviours. We each have information built up from countless previous experiences involving both ourselves and others so surely we should have solid insights? No such luck.

» Read on about the false consensus bias -»


7. Why Groups and Prejudices Form So Easily: Social Identity Theory

People's behaviour in groups is fascinating and frequently disturbing. As soon as humans are bunched together in groups we start to do odd things: copy other members of our group, favour members of own group over others, look for a leader to worship and fight other groups.

» Read on about why groups and prejudices form so easily -»


8. How to Avoid a Bad Bargain: Don't Threaten

Bargaining is one of those activities we often engage in without quite realising it. It doesn't just happen in the boardroom, or when we ask our boss for a raise or down at the market, it happens every time we want to reach an agreement with someone. This agreement could be as simple as choosing a restaurant with a friend, or deciding which TV channel to watch. At the other end of the scale, bargaining can affect the fate of nations.

» Read on about how communication and threats affect bargaining -»


9. Why We Don't Help Others: Bystander Apathy

In social psychology the 'bystander effect' is the surprising finding that the mere presence of other people inhibits our own helping behaviours in an emergency. John Darley and Bibb Latane were inspired to investigate emergency helping behaviours after the murder of Kitty Genovese in 1964.

» Read on about bystander apathy -»


10. I Can't Believe My Eyes: Conforming to the Norm

We all know that humans are natural born conformers - we copy each other's dress sense, ways of talking and attitudes, often without a second thought. But exactly how far does this conformity go? Do you think it is possible you would deny unambiguous information from your own senses just to conform with other people?

» Read on about Asch's classic conformity study -»

What Toyota can Teach You about Personal Productivity

from Lifehack.org

Toyota has become the world’s largest automobile manufacturing company this year, overtaking General Motors which reigned supreme since the 1930s. Before then, Ford was the global leader. Toyota’s market capitalization is more than five times that of Ford and General Motors combined. Toyota must have been doing something right these past 20 years since it has become the most productive manufacturer in the world. The company owns the newly created market in hybrids. Toyota’s example offers an excellent insights and a guide toward improving personal productivity.The two main pillars of Toyota’s approach boil down to: 1) respect for people and 2) continuous improvement; constant and never-ending improvement in all areas. Toyota made a major innovation over the American automobile manufacturers in the process of how the company viewed its people. General Motors and Ford viewed factory workers as a replaceable variable cost component – labor as a commodity.

Toyota viewed its workers as the main place to turn for productivity and quality improvements. Toyota further innovated by challenging the planned obsolescence approach. The company started producing cars with fewer defects that were more durable and would hold their value longer. American car companies were forced to respond in kind by producing longer lasting, better quality cars with greatly extended warranty packages. This is not all Toyota has done in terms of process innovations. American accounting methods valued inventory the same as cash, without any incentives for reducing inventory.

Toyota pioneered “lean manufacturing” based in large part on creating value in the eyes of the customer and having products being “pull” or demand-based that would be responsive to the customer rather than “push” or supply-based from the production end. Lean manufacturing also includes identifying and minimizing waste (including inventory), empowering employees and aiming for perfection in the processes. This is an evolutionary change in the way cars are made that is currently sweeping through the other modern manufacturing sectors of the global economy. The ‘Toyota Way’ can also be applied toward improving personal productivity. The Toyota Production System (TPS) works as a complete philosophy. It is a consistent set of processes and principles applied over a long period of time. The following principles form core parts of the highly effective TPS that can be used to enhance personal productivity.

• Create manual systems first, then use technology as a tool to assist the process. Toyota people are often found making signs and putting them up all over the place and using them along with manual lists to coordinate activities. Once the manual system is worked out, then technology is brought in to assist and improve the process. There is a strong aversion to acquiring and using technology just for the sake of the technology. Hold off of the expensive software until the basics are worked out.
• Create an environment where constant learning occurs. Toyota is full of people who strive to be teachable and who are very willing to share information and be involved in the learning process. Put aside some time for focused learning – a course, book-a-week, seminars, workshops, reviewing articles, etc.
• Eliminate – don’t just reduce waste. In the U.S. system, the production line has slack built into it so that there is extra time and stuff available to ensure the line stays running. In the Toyota system, there is not. Unplug the television set and cut the end off the cord.
• Build quality into everything. Standardizing to create consistent quality while constantly working to raise the standards. Anything worth doing is worth doing well. Aim for “great” rather than just “good enough” wherever there is opportunity to do so.
• Create systems to respect and treat partners well. Self-improvement toward increased personal productivity is a two way street. Toyota’s people work on self improvement but consider that to be tied to helping others improve – for mutual benefit.
• Work with others but maintain core competencies. Do not outsource the important decisions. For Toyota’s cars, electronics has become a big part so the company has decided to make that a core area. Take the time to learn the areas that can impact life. Understanding tax planning and basic financial matters are a classic area of neglect that many people should put more effort into.
• Chose friends and associates carefully. Toyota is very picky. Employees are often hired through a one to two year process. Partners and suppliers similarly go through extensive processes. Associate with people who can help you and that you can help in a two way manner.

Toyota has pioneered its process and one of the great outcomes was becoming the world’s first mass producer of hybrid automobiles, with over half the world market for hybrids. The Toyota process itself is a hybrid of best practices that have evolved over time that can be used to enhance personal productivity.

Peter Paul Roosen and Tatsuya Nakagawa are co-founders of Atomica Creative Group, a specialized strategic product marketing firm. Through leading edge insight and research, sound strategic planning and effective project management, Atomica helps companies achieve greater success in bringing new products to market and in improving their existing businesses. They have co-authored Overcoming Inventoritis now available.

Motivation: The Gurus Speak!

By Geoffrey James

I’ve been talking about motivation lately, with some really positive results in my own life and hopefully elsewhere too. To round out the discussion, I thought I’d add some “quick hits” — short suggestions about motivation lifted from the conversations I’ve had with various motivation gurus, including Jeff Keller, Omar Periu, and Tony Robbins:

• Always act with a purpose — your purpose.
• Take responsibility for your own results.
• Stretch yourself past your limits on a daily basis.
• Don’t wait for perfection, just do it now!
• Be careful of what you eat; it takes energy to succeed.
• Hang around people who are as motivated as yourself.
• Don’t live a life of quiet desperation. Take action! Now!
• When you learn from failure, it’s not really failure.
• Don’t get complacent because you’re successful today.
• Always say “I must” rather than “I’ll try” when seeing goals.
• Don’t avoid a decision; that’s always a decision to fail.
• Keep quiet if you can’t say something positive.
• Respond to “How are you?” with “Terrific!” not “Hangin’ in there.”
• Don’t spout negative talk; it programs you for negative results.
• Stop complaining about that over which you have no control.
• Stop griping about your personal problems and illnesses.
• Expunge negative, de-motivating words in your speech.
• Focus on purpose and goals, not obstacles and problems.
• Start each day with at least 15 minutes of positive input.
• Reduce your exposure to depressing news media.

Anyone else have some pithy words of wisdom?

How to Improve Your Social Skills: 8 Tips from the Last 2500 Years

Published November 15th, 2007 in Personal Development and People Skills.

Image by nogoodphotography.

One source for pretty reliable advice is what has been repeated. Not what’s been repeated throughout your life but throughout history. Time-tested advice, advice that has survived and been rediscovered over the centuries often has a good deal of practical value.

I think this applies to tips on improving your social skills. Society may have changed but people are people. So what worked a couple of hundred or thousand years ago can still be useful today. Here are eight tips on social skills that have been told over and over. Maybe you’ll find them helpful.

1. Listen

“Nature gave us one tongue and two ears so we could hear twice as much as we speak.”
Epictetus

“The less you speak, the more you will hear.”
Alexander Solshenitsen

“I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.”
Ernest Hemingway

This is probably one of the most underappreciated social skills. People are often centred on themselves. Nothing surprising really, but it doesn’t mean that they are selfish jerks either. But because of this a lot of people are just used to talking about themselves or waiting for the other person to finish so they can start talking again. I know I have done this many times and still do from time to time.

How do you get past it?

One useful way that I have found is to just forget about yourself. Focus your attention outward instead of inward in a conversation. Place the mental focus on the person you are talking and listening to instead of yourself. Placing the focus outside of yourself makes you less self-centred and your need to hog the spotlight decreases.

If you start to actually listen to what people are saying it also becomes easier to find potential paths in the conversation. By asking open-ended questions – the ones that will give you more than a yes or no answer – you can explore these paths and have better and more fun conversations.

And this ties into the next tip…

2. Actually be interested in the other person.

“You can make more friends in two months by becoming really interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you. Which is just another way of saying that the way to make a friend is to be one.”
Dale Carnegie

“The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when someone asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.”
Henry David Thoreau

If you become more interested in people then you’ll naturally become a better listener since you are actually interested in what’s on their minds.And it beomes easier find out what someone is really passionate about and to dispel negative assumptions that can mess up the communication.

If you listen to what someone has to say then you may find that s/he for instance isn’t as boring or different from you as you may have guessed when you were first introduced.

And as Carnegie says, it’s a lot easier to create and improve relationships if you focus on the other person than on yourself. Why is that?

Well, for one, as I wrote just a few paragraphs ago, people often don’t listen that much. So you’ll be a pleasant exception among the others that are waiting for their turn to talk again.

But the big reason is simply that you make them feel good because of your attention, validation of them and their interest and the connection that is made.

3. Don’t listen too much to criticism.

“If evil be said of thee, and if it be true, correct thyself; if it be a lie, laugh at it.”
Epictetus

“When we judge or criticize another person, it says nothing about that person; it merely says something about our own need to be critical.”
Unknown

Well, Epictetus got this one down. Listen to criticism. If you feel that there is some relevance to it explore how you can change yourself. But also recognize that lot of the time criticism is mostly about the other person.

Maybe s/he has had a bad day. Maybe a pet or child is sick. Maybe s/he is jealous of you or angry at someone else. Since people often are centred on themselves it’s easy to make a mistake here. Someone may criticise you but is actually focused on something in their own life. And you are probably also focused on yourself. And therefore you draw the conclusion that the criticism must have something to do with you.

But the world doesn’t revolve around you. Which is bad if you want more attention and validation from others.

On the other hand, it can be liberating since people don’t seem to care that much about what you do. The big problem of not daring to do something because you’re afraid of what people may say becomes a smaller obstacle.

4. Don’t babble on and on.

“The less people speak of their greatness, the more we think of it.”
Sir Francis Bacon

“The more you say, the less people remember.”
François Fénelon

This one’s connected to listening. If you talk and talk there will be little time, energy or focus for listening. But if you start to focus outward then your mind will become more focused and you’ll spend less time babbling for too long about something. If you want more reasons to stop babbling and start simplifying check out 5 Reason to Simplify What You Say, and How to Do It.

5. Treat others as you would like them to treat you.

“The people with whom you work reflect your own attitude. If you are suspicious, unfriendly and condescending, you will find these unlovely traits echoed all about you. But if you are on your best behaviour, you will bring out the best in the persons with whom you are going to spend most of your working hours.”
Beatrice Vincent

“It’s so easy to laugh, it’s so easy to hate. It takes guts to be gentle and kind.”
Morrissey

The Law of Reciprocity is strong in humans. As you treat someone else s/he will feel like treating you. Maybe not today or tomorrow. But over time these things have a way of evening out.

One of the most important things in relationships and conversations is your attitude. It determines a lot about your interactions and how you treat other people.

The attitude you have, the lens you hold up and view the world through determines what you see. And the thoughts you keep in your mind control how you feel. Your thoughts and feelings direct how you say something and what your hands, eyes, posture etc. says through body language.

So even if you say nice words you may create an different feeling in the person you are talking to because your thoughts, feelings, voice tonality and body language aren’t aligned with your words. And words are only 7 percent of communication. So the attitude behind your words is absolutely crucial.

6. Keep a positive attitude.

“I am convinced that attitude is the key to success or failure in almost any of life’s endeavors. Your attitude - your perspective, your outlook, how you feel about yourself, how you feel about other people - determines you priorities, your actions, your values. Your attitude determines how you interact with other people and how you interact with yourself.”
Carolyn Warner

“Two men look out the same prison bars; one sees mud and the other stars.”
Frederick Langbridge

“Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust and hostility to evaporate.”
Albert Schweitzer

If your attitude is so important then what can you do about it? One good tip, that has worked for very long, is simply to keep a positive attitude. And by that I don’t mean that you should just react in a positive way to events in your life that may be seen by society as positive. For instance, getting a raise in salary, an A on an exam or winning a competition.

But before I continue with that train of thought I’d just like to say something about negativity. I wouldn’t say that it is all bad. I wouldn’t say that people want to get away from negative people all of the time. Sometimes you can find camaraderie in complaining about your boss, job, salary and the government. But overall and long-term I think that going positive is the more useful and fulfilling approach.

Now, what I mean with adopting a positive attitude is choosing to stay positive regardless of your external circumstances. You may not be able to do this all the time, but being positive is habit just like eating well or doing your daily exercise. It can be hard to get started and slow going at first. But when your mind gets used to this new behaviour it becomes almost automatic. Your mind just starts to interpret reality in a different way than it did before.

Instead of seeing problems everywhere it starts to zoom in on opportunities and what’s good about just about any situation. Instead of sighing and feeling like you’re working in an uphill rut you’ll find reasons to be grateful and happy.

Yeah, I know, it might sound like wishful thinking. But it really works. The problem is just that it is difficult to see this - and to realise that you can actually change - from a current worldview and attitude that may be a bit more negative.

If you’d like to read more about this, have a look at Take the Positivity Challenge for some more reasons to change your attitude – they include making better first impressions and becoming more attractive - and how to do it.

7. Use silence.

“A good word is an easy obligation; but not to speak ill requires only our silence; which costs us nothing.”
John Tillotson

“Be silent, or say something better than silence.”
Pythagoras

“It’s good to shut up sometimes.”
Marcel Marceau

There are several good reasons to learn to be more silent. It will help you to develop your listening skills. And instead of saying something you wish you didn’t you can learn to keep your piehole closed. This can help you avoid unnecessary arguments and reduce the hurt you do unto others by, for example, criticising.

Sitting in silence day in and day out while your inner pressure builds up is of course not good. Then you may need speak up, take charge and change whatever it is in your environment that causes the problem. But often a great deal of negative things can be avoided just by calmly staying silent.

8. Communicate with more than your words.

“They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”
Carl W. Buechner

“I speak two languages, English and Body.”
Mae West

“We often refuse to accept an idea merely because the tone of voice in which it has been expressed is unsympathetic to us.”
Friedrich Nietzsche

The words you use are just a small part of communication. How you use your tone of voice and your body language is over 90 percent of what you are communicating.

To become a better communicator these two areas are ridiculously important. You can for instance improve how you say something by loading your words with more emotions. If you use tip # 6 - Keep a positive attitude - this often improves kinda automatically. You’ll naturally convey more enthusiasm and positive emotions through your voice.

Your attitude, as mentioned before, also has big impact on your body language. If you feel relaxed, open and positive this comes through in how you use your body.

You may want check out these additional 17 body language tips though. Just to be on the safe side. And to not repeat and reinforce some old and ingrained body language habits.

Manually correcting your body language can be useful. When you for instance are listening, you can lean in and keep eye contact to reinforce that you are actually listening. If you keep your body language interested you’ll also be able to keep your focus and interest longer since emotions can work backwards. As your body is “interested” your mind becomes interested and focused on what is said.

Top 10 Most Expensive Libations

Many like to tilt one back now and again — or again and again. And the price of alcohol, in its various guises, ranges from free jailhouse hooch to holy shit! For the budget-conscious boozer there’s a certain cost-benefit analysis to purchasing your tipple of choice. For the uber-rich, getting lit never cost so much. Is it worth the price, or a case of fools and their money?

So we’re talking wine, Bourbon, Scotch, beer, Cognac, you name it. Some in the list are artifacts of history, some are still being made, and some are just plain kitsch. Ten different permutations of ethyl alcohol; the high cost of getting high:

10. $100 Market Price — $7,686 for One Bottle of Beer

It stands to reason that the working man’s Champagne is the only product on this list that the working man can afford. But at $100 a bottle, Sam Adams’s “Utopias” is too rich for my blood alcohol level. It does come bottled in a cute, brewing-kettle shaped bottle, and with an alcohol content of 25% by volume (strongest beer in the world), it gives a bit of bang for the buck.

However, $7,686 was paid at auction for the first bottle of Tutankhamun Ale. It was developed by Cambridge University scientists who gleaned the recipe from hieroglyphics and brewing dregs from the catacombs of one of Tut’s in-laws. The remaining lot of beer was sold for about $76 per bottle.

9. $350 Bourbon

Evan Williams 23 year old Bourbon tops the bourbon elite with a price tag of $350. It is available only at the distillery.

8. $10,000 Cognac

The big Cognac houses always seem to one-up each other for the distinction of super-duper-ultra-deluxe-mega-killer-kick-A Cognac. The latest entry is Remy Martin’s venerable Louis XIII’s upscale “Black Pearl,” selling for over $10,000 a bottle. Unlike the regular Louis XIII bottling (about $1500), Black Pearl is blended from 1200 different eau-de-vie raging in age from 40 to 100 years. It’s so exclusive that it’s sold by invitation only. Lowlifes can’t even look at the product at their website without a password. (Oo la la!)

7. $14,730 Bottle of Champagne

Yes, I know Champagne is wine and I already have a wine category, but it deserves a special category because it’s… well its Champagne!

In 2005, a Methuselah of 1990 Louis Roederer Cristal, fetched $14,730 at auction. A Methuselah (explanation) is a giant bottle of Champagne equal to eight regular sized (750ml) bottles. So, really it was only like $1,841.25 a bottle. What a deal!

6. $54,000 Rum

Irie irie, mon! Jamaican rum for $54,000? Four bottles of this rum bottled in the 1940’s were discovered recently. Why it’s believed to be so valuable, I do not know. I didn’t think rum was trendy enough to fetch this price. Maybe Bob Marley pickled something in it.

5. $75,000 Scotch Whisky

With a release price of $38,000, a bottle of The Macallan “Fine and Rare Collection,” 1926, was sold to a South Korean businessman in 2005 for $75,000. Unlike many other products on this list, this bottle is not a collectable for collection’s sake, nor an excuse for a lavish bottle. The money paid for this Scotch is money paid for the stuff in the bottle, and it‘s meant to be drunk. For these reasons, I elect The Macallan as the most expensive social lubricant on Earth. If you’d care to try it without investing in a whole bottle, an Atlantic City casino sells a 2oz. pour for only $3,300!

4. $160,000 Bottle of Wine

At a 1985 Sotheby’s auction, a bottle of 1787 Chateau Lafite was purchased for $160,000. Even without adjusting for inflation, this still stands as the most expensive bottle of wine ever sold (or bought even). Why so much for an undrinkable bottle of rotted vinegar? This relic was in the proud possession of Thomas Jefferson, whose initials are etched into the bottle.

3. $200,000 Bottle of Irish Whisky

Found in 2005, this century-old bottle is from Ireland’s Nun’s Island distillery (defunct since 1908). Attempts to locate a sample came to naught until a lady, unsolicited, walked into a liquor store with a bottle in hand. She thought it “might be worth something” and wanted to see if the proprietor knew what it might be worth. It’s worth something, but priced at over $200,000 it has yet to sell in over 2 years. When it sells, it will be by far the most expensive bottle of whisky or whiskey. Any takers?

2. $1,000,000+ Bottle of Vodka?

How crazy will the trendy, high-end vodka craze get? I’ve always been fairly certain vodka is all about a cool bottle and a hip name. Now I’m certain. “Diva” vodka seeks to trump all-comers — game, set, and burp. This triple distilled vodka, like many other vodkas, is also charcoal filtered. The charcoal in Diva’s case comes from a different array of carbon bonds; the vodka is filtered through crushed diamonds. But what really ups the price is the custom-made bottle. Inside each bottle is an array of real gemstones, the quantity and quality of which depend on how much you’re willing to pay. A high-end bottle of Diva (“low-end” being $3,700) will cost you more than a million dollars. Wanna do shots?

1. $1,500,000 Bottle of Tequila?

Tequila Ley .925 sells a 6 year old 100% Blue Agave Tequila in a pure platinum bottle for $225,000. Yes, some sucker actually bought one. If you’re on a budget, you can get the half-gold, half-platinum version for $150,000.

The company now produces a one million Euro bottle ($1.5 million USD) which is platinum encrusted with diamonds. They must be a bit hard-pressed to sell it, since they offer a one hundred thousand Euro finder’s fee if you can find a buyer. If the bottle sells, it’ll be the most expensive bottle of any alcohol. Curiously, the company is not too discriminating as to what goes in the bottle; they’ll fill it with some Cognac if you prefer.

BONUS: Most Expensive Bottle of Wine Never Sold?

In 1989, another of Thomas Jefferson’s Bordeaux’s (this time a 1787 Chateau Margaux) was taken to the Four Seasons restaurant in New York to show it off. Near the end of the evening, a waiter bumped the dinner table and upended the wine, resulting in a total loss. A total insured loss of $225,000. Cheers!

Contributor: crubel

How Risking Failure Can Make You Happier

from john place online . com

Have you ever thought about taking a chance? Risking failure?

Maybe right now you’re thinking about starting a business, running a marathon, learning a new skill, or going back to school. Maybe you’re thinking about doing something simple, like asking your boss for a raise, or something complex, like trying to convince your board of directors to pursue a multi-million dollar business venture. Maybe you’re thinking about asking someone new out on a date, investing in a promising new stock, or changing careers.

With all these opportunities at your fingertips, what’s keeping you from taking a chance?

If your answer to that question involves fear of failure, listen up. The field of positive psychology suggests that you’re much more likely to regret “failing to act” than “acting and failing.”

If you’re looking for a little incentive to take a big chance, consider these words from Harvard Psychologist Daniel Gilbert:

In the long run, people of every age and in every walk of life seem to regret not having done things much more than they regret things they did, which is why the most popular regrets include not going to college, not grasping profitable business opportunities, and not spending enough time with family and friends.

We’ve got a lot of ideas about what decisions we’ll live to regret, and many of these ideas are just plain wrong.

Case in point: Let’s say that you own Stock in ACME Corporation. Last year, you thought about switching to stock in Big-Profit corporation, but decided against it, and now you’ve learned that you would have made an extra $1,000 dollars if you’d made the switch. Conversely, let’s say that during the same time you bought shares in RipOff Industries and ended up losing $1,000. Which of these two scenarios do you think you would regret the most? The foolish action? Or the foolish inaction?

According to Gilbert:

Studies show that 9 out of 10 people expect to feel more regret when they foolishly switch stocks than when they foolishly fail to switch stocks, because most people think they will regret foolish actions more than foolish inactions. But studies also show that 9 out of 10 people are wrong.

So why do foolish actions tend to make us happier than foolish inactions? The answer is simple: we learn from our failures.

Although it is possible to learn lessons by watching the failures of others and by reminiscing about all our lost opportunities, those lessons are not as immediate or tactile as those learned through hands-on trial and error. Put more simply, when you try hard to achieve something and fail despite your best effort, you are often able to justify your hard work with stories of valuable lessons learned and the quality of the experience itself.

But if you passively watch your opportunities evaporate, you’ll have no such justification.

Of course, this doesn’t mean we should jump at every high-risk opportunity, nor does it make the analysis of those opportunities easier.

But it does suggest that if you’ve been considering a big life-change for a while now, have weighed the pros and cons, and are sure you want to do it — and the only thing holding you back is fear of failure — your best play might be to go for it.

The half ton man

Patrick Deuel is the world’s heaviest man - almost 1100 pounds. This documentary opens with paramedics removing a wall of his house in Valentine, Nebraska and transporting him six hours to a hospital where he spent months trying to lose weight to qualify for a gastric bypass operation.

How to build house in a day!!

Room Space Saving

Young people want to own their own homes but dang if it ain’t expensive. So they’re forced to choose really small tight spaces that weren’t designed for modern living. This is where the mobile track apartment comes in. These small but flexible apartments provide practical living dimensions that cater to all their needs. The different rooms are divided and hidden behind sliding doors set on a track. This mobile system allows you to close off any rooms not in use so the main space stays open. The same track also allows you to move the rooms around. The only rooms that have to stay put are the kitchen and bathroom for plumbing reasons.

Smaller spaces don’t mean cheap cop outs on appliances either. They’re all stainless steel electrical with full exhaust hoods for cooking and full size cabinetry for storage. Many of the rooms have built in units like shelving, tables, and even lighting. Can you imagine yourself in one of these?

Designer: Setmund Leung Kam Biu

More here

Toyota Wireframe

This is a wireframe model of Toyota Corolla, rendered entirely with wires by Benedict Radcliffe. This work is used on several ad campaigns by japanese Densu Inc. Crazy, cool and amazing.

via. @ haha.nu.

How to Be Happier with What You Have

by ScottHYoung

“There are two ways to increase your wealth. Increase your means or decrease your wants. The best is to do both at the same time.” - Benjamin Franklin
Misery shouldn’t be the price for ambition. Somewhere I believe many people got the idea that to want more, you have to be dissatisfied with what you have now. Believing this, your choice is either to dampen your passions or become miserable with what you have.

I think this is a false dichotomy. You can be satisfied and ambitious. And while many self-help books have covered the topic of ambition, fewer cover the idea of becoming immensely satisfied with what you’ve already got.

Beyond affirmations and beliefs, I think there are some practical tips to do this. Engineering your daily life can be a great way to maximize your current fulfillment. Best of all, it isn’t incredibly difficult to do. Here are some tips I’ve found useful in becoming happier with where I am:1 - Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket

Investors understand that diversification keeps one bad fall from ruining you financially. Keeping your interests diversified, ensures that one slip won’t make you miserable. Tying your entire life into only one area isn’t just obsessive, it’s dangerous.

Life balance has become a bit of a cliche. Balance implies a weak compromise where efforts are juggled. But the alternative to balance doesn’t need to be obsession. Having several areas of focus at a time will help smooth out the fluctuations in your experience. Pick 3-5 things that are critical for you and a dozen more you feel are important.2 - Engineer Your Day

Spend a bit of time reorganizing how you run your daily life. Looking over at the horizon it can be easy to miss what is under your feet. Focusing on improvements of your routines, habits and environment can make a huge impact in your current satisfaction. Even if they have little influence on your bank account or GPA.

Start by doing a run down of how you invest your time. Carry around a notepad with you for a day. Record every time you start or stop an activity. This will give you a detailed look at how you spend your time. It should also give you an idea of where you can make improvements.

The goal isn’t to have the most productive day possible or one that is devoid of all “bad” habits. Your objective is simply to experiment with changes that might make your day more interesting, fun or fulfilling.3 - Break Comparisons

If you are like most inhabitants of industrialized nations, you are richer than most medieval kings. You are free of most diseases that plagued our ancestors. You have far more human rights. And you are far less likely to die a violent death. By such a comparison, you should be overjoyed compared to your great-great-grandparents. Why doesn’t this feel like the case?

The answer is because most people base their satisfaction on comparing themselves with others. You may be fabulously wealthy compared to your forefathers, but you also have to compare your life to people who are far wealthier, healthier and more attractive than you.

Breaking comparisons with other people will make you happier, but it isn’t easy to do. There isn’t an OFF switch in your brain for competition. However, there are a few ways you can make adjustments to your life that help avoid the competitive misery:

Diversify your social life. If you only associate with people from one class, you will always struggle with comparison. My suggestion is to broaden the groups of people you associate with. Not just in terms of income, but age, experiences, culture and background. The more diversification, the more difficulty you have nitpicking.

Shut off the media. If information isn’t helping you make decisions and only makes you feel miserable, why are you consuming it? Surrounding yourself with celebrity magazines and television shows featuring spoiled rich kids can fuel that urge to compare.

Find your talents. Emphasize the things you are good at and make you unique. The more you cultivate a unique identity, the less chance you have of making linear comparisons between your life and your friends.

Cultivate abundance. Competition is largely based in zero-sum. The idea that someone else’s gain is my loss. Rarely is this the case. Focus on how the effects of another’s win can become your own gain. Emphasizing an abundance mindset can help you avoid the comparison that inevitably comes from thinking scarcity.

Focus internally. Perhaps the most important tip at all is to put less focus on external results. If you build a stable inner world, you can survive the storms of the outer world. Focusing on the intangibles of your passions, challenges, bonds and purpose will lead to a greater current satisfaction.

Wine Tips

By: Gary Vaynerchuk, Photographs by: Jonathan Kantor

Understanding wine is easy. It comes down to a few basic principles, which I've laid out here. So read on, drink up, and live long.

3 Moves Every Guy Must Master

1.Serving: Serve both red and white at room temperature. A chill can mask a wine's flaws and strengthen the astringent taste of the tannins. At room temperature, the wine's unique flavors -- fruit, oak, whatever -- are more obvious.

2. Decanting: Let wine breathe for 2 to 3 hours. Aeration speeds up the oxidation process that takes years to occur in a sealed bottle. This smooths out the taste and brings out complex flavors and aromas.

3. Tasting: First, give it a sniff, which primes your palate. Take a sip and let the wine hit every part of your mouth. You'll taste several flavors at once. The wine will evolve as you eat, as certain foods bring out different flavors.

How to Navigate a Wine Store

Treat it like a barbershop. Stay loyal to one store, and befriend a clerk who knows about the wines you like. Once he or she understands your tastes, your options will become endless. Here are a few other dos and don'ts.

Don't . . . Buy The label

There's a saying in the wine industry: "Put critters on the label, sell cases." Labels are designed by marketing companies who know how to trick you into buying juice that doesn't pack the thunder. Playful labels and cartoons are major warning signs. Be wary of red or yellow labels, which are designed to stand out.

Do . . . Double-check the ratings card

Often, wine shops post ratings for the wrong year. How much can the quality of wine vary from year to year? A ton. Most 2000 California cabernets are just average wines, for example, but the 2001 vintage is exceptional.

Don't . . . Choose from a display near the counter

Chances are, they're trying to unload wines that didn't sell as well as expected or are aging quickly. Either way, these won't be among the best bottles in the store.

Do . . . Pick up four new wines for every one of your old favorites

This is the key to expanding your palate--and be sure to keep good notes.

Here are some easy wine tasting tips :

Difficulty: Easy

Time Required: 15 minutes

Here's How:

1. Look Pour a glass of wine into a suitable wine glass. Then take a good look at the wine. What color is it? Look beyond red, white or blush. If it's a red wine is the color maroon, purple, ruby, garnet, red or even brownish. If it's a white wine is it clear, straw-like, golden, light green, pale yellow or brown in appearance?
2. Still Looking. Move on to the wine's opacity. Is the wine clear, cloudy, transparent or opaque? Tilt your glass a bit, give it a little swirl - look again, you are looking at color, clarity, brilliance (sounds like you're finding the perfect diamond!) - is there sediment, bits of cork or any other floating bits? An older red wine will be more translucent than younger red wines.
3. Smell Our sense of smell is critical in properly analyzing a glass of wine. To get a good impression of your wine's aroma, gently swirl your glass (this will enhance the wine's natural aromas) and then take a quick whiff to gain a first impression.
4. Still Smelling. Now stick your nose down into the glass and take a deep inhale through your nose. What are your second impressions? Do you smell oak, berry, flowers, vanilla or citrus? A wine's aroma is an excellent indicator of its quality and unique characteristics. Gently swirl the wine and let the aromas mix and mingle, and sniff again.
5. Taste Finally, take a taste. Start with a small sip and let it roll around your tongue. There are three stages of taste:
6. Taste - After gathering your initial impression of the wine, allow a small breath of air in through your lips and allow the wine to mingle with the air (called swirling). This will allow you to taste flavors more fully (even if you look or sound a bit funny). What do you taste? Reds will often have berry, woody and bell pepper tastes. White wines will often have apple, floral or citrus flavors associtated with them.
7. Initial Taste - This is your first impression of the wine's components and flavors.
8. Finish - The wine's finish is how long the flavor lasts after it is swallowed. Did it last several seconds? Was it light-bodied (like water) or full-bodied (like the consistency of milk)?
9. After you have taken the time to taste your wine, you might record some of your impressions. Did you like the wine overall? Does it taste better with cheese, bread or a heavy meal? Will you buy it again? If so, jot the wine's name, producer and year down for future reference.

How to Read Like a Scholar

Most the time in school what you need to do is very simple:

Sit down with the book, a pen and paper, and perhaps a computer… And from that point, you read. That’s it. You go through and read the book, you underline important points and passages, pay special attention to introductions and conclusions, be sure to note special terminology, names and dates and that’s it. Maybe afterward take notes on the text.

There is a time for technology and clever tricks. There is also a time for elbow grease.

This is good advice, and yet it’s incomplete. Reading as an academic exercise involves not just gleaning the content form a book or essay but engaging with it. We read not just to learn some new set of facts but also to learn how facts are put together to form an argument, to learn what kinds of arguments are acceptable in our chosen disciplines, and to prompt us towards further research. Reading of this sort raises as many questions as it answers, or more.

While reading, we should keep the following questions in mind:

• What is the author trying to say? This seems obvious, but it seems to be a stumbling block for many students. I’m convinced that the failure to ask this simple question is what leads students to avoid reading, to feel that reading is a chore or, worse, busy-work. Remember, authors — academic or otherwise — aren’t in the business of writing just to bore students; there’s something important they want to communicate. Granted, not all writing communicates well, but regardless of the writer’s skill, if a professor assigned a reading, it’s because there’s something there worth knowing about.
• How does the author say what they’re trying to say? What evidence do they use? What style of argument are they making? How are they positioning themselves? You’d be surprised how many people read an essay about, say, infanticide (the killing of newborn children) and assume the author is advocating this practice instead of simply describing it. These readers totally misread the author’s position.
• Why is the author’s point important? If you can figure out why the author felt he or she needed to write the article or book in your hands, you’re a good way towards figuring out what they’re trying to say. What contribution does the work make to the author’s discipline, to our understanding of society or the world? What problems are they trying to solve?
• Do you agree or disagree with the author? Why? Just because something’s in print doesn’t make it right. As a student, it is essential that you read critically, with an eye towards inconsistencies in an author’s argument or evidence. Are there other explanations for the data they present? Is the author’s interpretation colored by his or her religion, professional background, political orientation, or social position? Note: far too many students seem to think that criticizing style is a good substitute for critiquing substance. It’s not. A lot of academic writing is stilted, difficult (sometimes deliberately so), or just plain bad; this does not mean that the ideas are not good.
• How does this work connect with other works? What’s new about it (or, if it’s an older work, what was new when it was published)? What disciplinary debates is the author engaging? How does this work build on, or refute, earlier works by other authors? How does it fit with the author’s other work? What other work is the one you’re reading like?
• What is the social context of the work? Always consider the historical moment in which a work was created. What kind of person wrote it, and for what kind of audience? What historical events shaped the author’s perceptions and ideas? How was their world different from yours, and how was it similar?

These questions should be on your mind even if you can’t read the whole book. It’s a sad fact of college life that not everything that is assigned can be given the same level of attention. In grad school, for instance, I was regularly charged with reading three (or more) hefty books a week, plus supporting essays and commentaries — while carrying out my own research at the same time. This is not humanly possible. You have to learn to prioritize reading, and to approach it systematically to make sure you get as much as possible out of whatever amount of reading you can manage.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Skim the book. Examine the table of contents to get a feeling for the structure and main points of the book. Flip through the chapters, skimming the first few paragraphs of each, and then the section headings. Check the index for any topics you feel are especially important. Then, if you have time;
2. Read the Introduction and conclusion. Most of the author’s theoretical position will be laid out in the introduction, along with at least a summary of the chapters and sections within. The conclusion revisits much of these points, and usually gives a good overview of the data or other evidence. Sometimes the conclusion is not marked as such; in this case, read the last chapter. Then, if you have time;
3. Dip in. Read the chapters that seem most relevant or interesting. Get a sense for what the author is trying to accomplish. Flip through the rest of the book and look more closely at anything that catches your eye. Then, if you have time;
4. Finish the book. Read the whole thing. If you know you’ll have time, skip 1 - 3 and just read, cover to cover.

Obviously it’s best to read the whole book; you’ll miss a lot reading anything less. But given the choice between not reading at all and skimming to at least get a taste of what you’re missing, I say, go for skimming. And try to keep yourself better organized in the future so that you don’t shortchange your entire education.