Archive for June, 2009

New World or No World Order?

I watched an interesting documentary online last night entitled “Prophecies.” The documentary was produced in the 90s so it was interesting to see what predictions were accurate and which ones were not. Prophecies come from persons who claim to have the ability to predict events in the future.

In my opinion, some of the predictions were accurate and some were not. I can’t state for certainty that the prophecies came from a divine source but I think that the predictions serve as good warnings for us in the present.

I think that in particular the documentary discussed how the calendar of the Maya civilization has brought forth predictions that all have come to pass. What was particularly of note is that their calendar ended in 2012 – I believe December 21st.

I’m not necessarily buying into this prediction that all life will cease to exist by 2012, but I’m sure one can look at this prediction and look at current events in the world and perhaps recognize that there could be some possibility.

For example, with the so-called of nuclear war from North Korea and Iran and threats from Pakistan (in the sense that the Taliban could take control of their nuclear weapons) and that many people from various countries hold much anti-US sentiment, and the state of the economy – many blame it all on the US – all these factors (and no doubt many more) could mean that a major nuclear war could arise.

Have we learned our lesson about warfare? Albeit we have not had a world war since 2002 but nuclear weapons make it easy to start one combined with the above mentioned factors. We have had so many other wars and of course many said the war on terrorism is harder fought one that a world war because for one reason, you don’t always know who the enemy is. Wars are taking up so much of a country’s GDP. How much more war can the US afford.

I won’t press the point here but I think at this point in time, we need to collectively raise our consciousness to a level that we can surmount the above mentioned issues. Of course most people would agree with this statement but the disagreement that exists is how tod o so.

That is where I think every individual must be an informed individual and follow world events so that when he/she has the chance to vote they do so.

I also think when one can influence others opinions we can have the power to create trends – which can jump across cultures.

I guess what I’m saying is we need collective movements of higher levels of consciousness all over the world and it starts with you as an individual. I’m not saying it’s easy to create such movements as an individual, but I am saying if such movements come to pass they must begin with the individual.

Post Election Stress Syndrome?

In 2008 and of course in other years, in both the US and Canada and many other countries, people have been bombarded with all the political rhetoric. The US and Canada had a federal election in 2008.

It’s amazing how some people become so engaged in the political scene as bystanders. Yes it’s good to be informed and obviously concerned and it’s important to vote.

However we needn’t stress ourselves over things we see in the media when we can do nothing about them.

Election time, like anything in life, is a time of much passion for many people. It’s also a time of intense stress for many. As is the case with any stressful event, people can benefit from learning to let go of things outside of their control.

The bottom line is that once you’ve done all you can do, you need to stop stressing yourself further. As simple as this sounds, I think it’s something we all need to hear from time to time, especially those of us stressed out by elections.

Of course you do need to ensure that you exercise your right to vote at every opportunity, before in my mind, you can rest soundly. But then you can do so.

Intelligence And How To Get It

In my day job I work with some highly intelligent people. They undoubtedly have high IQ. They have several degrees with precision focus of specialty. This post isn’t about putting these people on a pedestal; it’s about you.

Maybe you possess the same qualities of these people, maybe it seems you don’t. But the point is: it’s not about these qualities.

As stated, I have the pleasure of working with the above mentioned persons. I can tell you that some of these people seemingly don’t have common sense about the basis tasks of completing paperwork. Some of them when attempting to make a decision can’t do so. They continue to contact everyone they can think of and attempt to pass the burden of making the decision to someone else (if that person accepts it). Probably so they can then turn around later, if critized, and state: “that person told me to”; “I trusted that person’s judgment”, etc.

However because of their high IQ and education, even when they demonstrate deficiencies, they do not appear to present the same picture of incompetence.

I could go on about these people but, as I said, this post isn’t really about them.

The real point here is the contrast I’m going to make and its implications.

The people with high IQ and education do not usually expect themselves to be completely proficient in all areas. HOWEVER the people with seemingly low IQ, little education or some other perceived impairment do. They seem to have an underlying need to belittle themselves about the tasks in which they don’t appear to have the necessary competence to complete.

We all have deficiencies. Let me repeat: we all have deficiencies.

All of the above mentioned persons do. We’re human. It doesn’t mean we’re overall incompetent though.

Most importantly though: If the people who belittle themselves about possible deficiencies stopped doing so, were true to themselves, and did what they were good at, they’d move past this belittling process.

Now this is definitely easier said than done; however, those who do move past the belittling process move forward to be the great people of our world. I’m not saying they are necessarily receiving special recognition from others. BUT they know from within that they are not in fact incompetent or impaired and they are living the life they wish and doing the things they are good at.

We are all good at doing certain things; some things receive greater recognition from others; however, the people who really “get it” and follow their own guidance about how to live their life instead of belittling themselves about deficiencies have something much greater than any IQ, education, or any other external recognition will provide.

Canadian, U.S. scientists win $1M Shaw prize for obesity work

You’ll recall me discussing (about a week ago) Gary Taubes and his book concerning obesity research.  It was fascinating because it demonstrated that the evidence favouring many of the dietary approaches advocated today do not work  and why.  I think his book really indicates that a shift in paradigm is warranted (or at least in the research trials) of today’s weight loss approaches.

In particular the keys that Gary recommends (and I think if you really look at his reasoning it seems more sound than the other research of the ineffective approaches) are: eating a diet lower in carbohydrates, not consuming refined carbohydrates or sugar, as these foods cause the body to produce insulin which does not fat to be mobilized – so it collects in the body.  Although this may seem counterintuitive once you see what evidence is really exists (and what the so called healthy diets have been based on) to support the notion that such an approach is counterintuitve, you’ll see that the research is much more scant than you likely thought.   Many approaches have commonly suggested that lack of exercise and lack of portion control were the root cause.

Many researches discouted that fact that there was any hormonal connection. The following article, which you can click on for more informaiton, has finally shown that a hormonal link has been found which would seem to suggest that merely portion control and lack of exercise are not at the healm.

I will include the first link concerning the article and then am also including some videos.

1. Article re the hormonal link is below

Canadian, U.S. scientists win $1M Shaw prize for obesity work.

2.A video is below that provides a very useful points about Gary’s information.

3. Another video with a little more depth into the issue.

Stay tuned for more posts about these concepts and more videos and information.

All the best,

Matthew

Should Be Informed…

In the last post we discussed the notion that you have to learn to trust your own judgment by using your own innate ability to solve problems and analyze things.  We all have this ability but it does take persistence.

This ability begins with our ability to trust ourselves which starts by doing things on our own.  This is important when we are analyzing news stories and determining what choices we wish to make in life.

We also discussed the fact that news stories (and of course any information we’re given) likely do not present all sides of the story.  The reason for this is simple: because in reality there are many sides to a story and it doesn’t really fit into the space that is allotted for each news story ,or to be honest, most people’s attention spans.  This is really due to our culture which likes quick little sound bites but it is also due to the fact that the person presenting the news story will likely frame the points from his/her perspective and overall the news networks will do the same.

The overall effect though, if we trust the limited perspectives given to us when we take in new information initially, I believe is that it can lead to an effect that can be very detrimental to our own (much needed) state of being informed or empowered.

I’m not stating all of this to simply give you a sense of doom and gloom.  To the contrary: I think it’s great that we have the world of information at our fingertips nowadays and we can use this information to our advantage – quite simply.

What are the keys to getting more informed news?

Well for starters: comments hold the key…any sites that provides news coverage and allows for reader commentary will generally generate a variety of perspectives which if approached for an open mind can indeed provide various sides to the story – of course by now you know that there are multiple sides to a story and it’s quite limiting to suggest that there are only two sides to a story: i.e. the other side of the story.

I actually enjoy first reading the story and then the comments.  Often there is much more detail unveiled from those commenting because they often include a link to another site containing relevant more detailed information in addition to bringing forward information in their comments and their perspectives.

Additionally, because you can go on the internet and access information from a variety of sources and countries you can generally gain more perspectives on any issue you’re looking at.

In the end, though, I’m not suggesting all comments you read online or elsewhere are 100% quality and to be trusted – you still have to use your discretion – of course.

But what you will learn is that often there is more to the story than presented and you will learn to think from multiple viewpoints and then can form a more informed opinion.

Also I think a good routine to follow when reading a headline or snippet of news that gets your emotions flowing is to ask yourself the following: “Is there more information to this story than is being presented or captured in the headline?”

I think by approaching things with a rational scepticism we are being much more realistic and the outcome is that we will learn to become more informed over time.  The more we learn about things in life, the more our collective perspective of the world is increased.

I’ve often thought it was such a mistake to assume, as many do, that once we’ve gone through childhood, (or early adulthood) we’ve gained our perspective and learned all the significant things.  To the contrary, I think that we continue to gain more and more throughout our lives.  I think if we recognize this fact it opens us up in many ways.

That’s it?

I was having a discussion with someone today and offered a suggestion to the person several times and the response was “that’s it?”

I won’t bore you with specifics but it was a situation that I had considerable experience with and know that the suggestion would typically accomplish what this person wanted to do and to that all this person could say was: “that’s it”  I sensed quite a reluctance on this  person’s part.

The person’s reaction bothered me somewhat and I thought about whether my own ego was perhaps getting in the way here.  Like most people it (my ego) was probably involved – like it is throughout life – but when I really pondered the situation, I realized how wide spread a “that’s it?” attitude is throughout the world and that’s what is really troubling.

Why? How is this relevant for you and I?

Well many problems have answers that are simple and straight forward and many times those answers are right in front of our nose, but we (I’m not exempt nor are most people) don’t see them.

This of course is often true with bureaucracies where things are done a certain way and that’s it – no other consideration of alternatives.

A practical application of this point is to look around in your life in all areas, your work life, home life, relationships, etc. and if you are having any challenges in any of these areas, might the solution be in front of your nose or might the solution have been presented to you?

I think if you can train yourself to ask this question every time a challenge arises, you may be surprised (pleasantly) with what comes of it.

Bye for now.

Matthew

P.S. What are your thoughts on this? Feel free to post a comment.

Many request: “Tips of How to Develop Self-Confidence”

Today I want to talk about the notion of using one’s own judgment or common sense. I’ll start out by saying that I don’t want to sound condescending or simplistic, although I know this may sound very simplistic to you at this point please stick with me. I think if you provide me with a little bit more of a chance to explain it will make more sense.

To begin, many people that visit my site ask the question: “Why should I listen to you?”

Now I could go into a spiel indicating that this is an area I’m very passionate about, it’s my life long passion, I have a studied these matters in university, etc. but you don’t care about that and the truth is it’s not really relevant anyway. What’s really relevant or salient here is that I need to agree with you – you’re right: That is, why should you listen to me or anyone for that matter on a certain level?

Take a look at this suggestion and I think you’ll see where I’m headed.

The next time you have a question in which you’d normally go to someone else to get the answer, try asking yourself the question as if you are the expert or person you’re usually going to for the answer to this type of question.

Example: Let’s say you’re having trouble with your oven. You could go to the manual, internet, or ask yourself the question: How can I operate the oven in this manner,

By asking yourself the question first you’re not giving away your own ability to answer the question and you’re not being passive.

Now I’m sure again that this sounds simplistic or ridiculous to many of you intelligent folks out there. Many people will say that’s it faster and more efficient to ask someone else. I would respond that this is very often the case with someone in their professional life. But in one’s home life – and I think this applies to many people – let’s say one is watching the news or other media source, he/she becomes passive and doesn’t question things.

In a sense people doing this are giving away their own power or more specifically giving someone or something else the ultimate power or expert status. The blinders are put on or the radar may be turned off. Perhaps this doesn’t apply to everyone but it does to many on certain levels.

The whole self-help industry in some respects has many times been more geared towards elevating so called experts ahead of the individual’s common sense across a couple of topics. Many people will state that what the person (expert) says makes perfect sense. Well of course it does and you likely could have come up with the same thing if you had of deferred to yourself. The notions one sees in self-help have been around for years but the person is open to the information – which is exactly what can happen when you get back into the habit of using your judgment in these areas.

Now I’m not saying that you shouldn’t ever listen to other people or other sources. But what I am saying is that you should keep using your judgment at all times; another way of expressing it: don’t remain passive.

Let’s look at a scenario that many face (the exact scenario may vary slightly but the overall fundamental doesn’t). I think mostly everyone does have their blinders on more than they think.

It could be that you get home from work, you’re tired, you turn on the news and you say to yourself that it’s probably true. You don’t question it and simply take it as true. In reality news can be biased, might only provide some aspects of the story etc. This of course isn’t restricted to news but virtually can extend to all areas of one’s life.

I want to discuss another example of a person who works for me. She often defers to me for answers on a variety of things because she feels I may have them right on hand. The answers can be found if she consults various other sources that at her fingertips but she is in the habit of passing over her judgment in situations to someone else (that someone else is me in this situation).

What I do to this person – which unfortunately annoys her although that’s not my intention – is refer her back to the sources of answers besides myself and also ask her to think her question through. Often what happens is she finds the answer or discovers she already had it. What she has learned to do is pass over her power to someone else when she was perfectly capable of coming up with the answers. I did the same thing when I entered the work force, partly because I was new, but I improved because I think I had a good boss at the time who pushed me a little further to use my own judgment or exhaust all sources of information before coming to her.

Given all the news stories and other information you’re bombarded with on a daily basis, and given that the news stories may not present all sides of the story [because in reality there are many sides to a story (more about this in the next installment where we build on things)] the effect can be detrimental to our own state of being informed or empowered.

Often when you read a story it may only present one or two sides. Certain assumptions may form the foundation of the news item. By becoming more accustomed to using your judgment in situations like these and in all situations, you’ll be heading towards the road of being informed and empowered.

Thank you for reading this.

- Matthew

The Power of News

If you think about all the negative headlines we read or hear about in the news it’s no wonder many people can get discouraged. Can you imagine if animals were able to produce and read their own newspapers?

Let’s look at an imaginary scenario.

First let’s imagine that animals start off by reading about what is happening to other animals in their village and, slowly over time, they obtain have global coverage, like we humans have, so that they can read about all of the animals in the rest of the word. Imagine for another second that animals thought about things the same way as humans.

In other words, they start hearing about the bad things that are happening to animals, ex. the animal that was killed while trying to cross the street, or the animals that are being killed by humans for food, etc. Over time many of the animals get depressed and start withdrawing from their usual routine. This wouldn’t work well for the animal kingdom would it? It would fall apart. Yet this is precisely how many humans feel after reading much of the bad news that is out there.

What can we do about it?

Let me provide a couple of tips.

Don’t constantly bombard yourself with news. It’s certainly reasonable to stay informed but don’t inundate yourself. Take a break from the news every couple of days. Don’t worry: the world won’t come to an end.

When you read about a news headline that upsets you or instills fear, try to analyze and see the larger message. Is their anything you can learn from this news story? Is there a healthier way of interpreting this news story or putting in the proper perspective?

Complete a web search on the opposite of what you just read. In other words, if you have read about someone who has been killed, read about someone whose life has been spared or saved. It’s important for you to have a balanced perspective. Only certain items are put into the news. Bad news usually attracts more viewers than good news. So by watching the news you are bound to get more of the bad news many times – or at best the news that deemed important by the people in networks who decide what’s important. What do you think they’ll decide is more important?

Vincent Price Success

Vincent Price was certainly an interesting person. What started me thinking about him was listening to an old song from Alice Cooper called Devil’s Food in which Price does a monologue for a portion of the song.

Let’s look at some facts about Vincent Prince.

He liked things that were creepy and scary.

He liked to scare people.

He had a scary demeanor (at least in most of his movies): he had a scary look and voice.

In fact it was his creepy voice that brought him fame.

Yes, while some may have viewed him as creepy, he was famous so this wasn’t a problem. However someone else, not famous, exhibiting his behaviour might have been simply weird.

Is this really true though? Does fame make the difference? Or does this observation represent the belief of someone who is simply scared to follow his/her dreams/interests?

I’m sure Vincent initially received reactions from some people which might have made him rethink his dreams.

Had Vincent Price chosen not to pursue his motivations he might have been unsuccessful. Thankfully he followed his interests. He was an interesting person and a great entertainer.

How many of us, fail to follow our interests and dreams for fear we might be considered strange, not following the status quo, etc.?

Probably many.

Even those who follow their interests, often give up when others express disapproval.

Those who continue to pursue their interests in light of disproval (whether it be from themselves or others) can pursue their interests and be successful.

I will end with a quote I have paraphrased from Hendy David Thoreau:

“If we can follow the direction of our dreams and pursue the life that we have imagined, we will meet with a success not expected in common hours.”

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