Year: 2015

Categories
Essays On Self Improvement

How to change your life without changing anything, the scientific way

adding the outdoors to your life

Every year I look forward to the winter snowfall, the reason is that I love to ski, but that all changed about 8 years ago. My friend was teaching me how to ride a dirt bike. A passion of his. Sadly I shattered my knee.

The bike was a two stroke and my friend was riding ahead of me. I was going up a hill when the belt caught, the front wheel lifted and my knee was driven into a rock as I lost control.

For the next two seasons I sat on the sidelines as my leg healed. Losing the ability to ski, bike, run, walk… taught me how much I took for granted. Fortunately my knee did heal but the lesson has remained.

adventure quote

Recently I learned a second lesson. A friend of my wife and I was sharing how every morning and evening she says 5 things that she’s thankful for. What a great idea! So for the last 3 weeks or so I’ve been doing this as well. In the next bit I will share what I’ve learned.

Before we get into that, Robert A. Emmons published a fascinating study on sleep and gratitude in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. People were asked to keep a gratitude journal everyday for 2 weeks. The subjects were able to fall asleep faster, sleep longer, and feel more refreshed in the morning.

I didn’t know about this study when starting this, but I’ve experienced a similar effect. I’ve also noticed that I have more energy after work.

At first it felt kind of weird saying 5 things I was thankful for. In fact it felt so weird that I had to force myself to do it at first.

Today I heard a guy talking about the fact that so often we look to people that we aspire to be like and we spend our time focusing on that, rather than looking at our own lives and realizing that there are some people who would love to be like us.

Not only can I relate to that statement, but it’s the very thing I’ve been thinking about. As I’ve continued saying things that I am thankful for I’ve noticed that my appreciation for the things in my life has increased. I like driving my car more … I’m amazed that I get to live where I do … you get the point.

But not only that, the other day I saw a reflection of my wife and I driving and a thought popped into my brain, “I want to be like those people”. Again it’s a weird thought, it’s strange even to write about it. But really how cool is that! To want to be like you are.

We live on this amazing planet. Everyday is a gift. So I want to leave you with this thought. There are people around the world who want to be just like you. Who want to live where you live and hangout with people like yourself. By saying 5 things you are thankful for everyday you can live a better, more fulfilled life, and you don’t need to shatter your knee to do it.

Categories
Essays On Culture On Leadership

More than a profession or a job description

To say we are one thing is to say we are not another. In preparing for his talk, Bassam Tariq says, “Here I say, ‘I’m a blogger, filmmaker and butcher.’ The hardest part of my talk was saying that I was x, y and z. I have worked hard to dodge these kinds of labels. But when you are giving a five-minute talk, you have to simplify and pray that people will then read these annotations.”

All to often content is created to fit the Zeitgeist, or “spirit of the times”, in an effort to be relevant. But isn’t that only going to perpetuate preconceptions, stereotypes or world views.

To give you an example of what I mean, in Bassam’s talk he describes creating a movie in Pakistan titled These Birds Walk. In it he tells a story of Pakistan’s poorest children. He was encouraged to use his movie to raise awareness of drones, target killings, and the impact they are having on people. “To make the film ‘more relevant,’ essentially reducing these people who have entrusted us with their stories into sociopolitical symbols.” But, he didn’t.

Instead he told the story of street children trying to create some semblance of family.

I don’t know Bassam Tariq, what he stands for, or who he is. But in his talk he represented people who are more than a profession, or a job description, or a title, or a religion… These people help to bridge social divides.

Breaking from a norm, while still holding respect for traditions and the people who stand before us, improves opportunities for everyone.

Categories
CSS Downloads Tutorials

How to use the simple responsive CSS grid – SimpleGrid

Introducing an easy-to-use and lightweight css grid. 

  • Flexible 12 column grid
  • Easily extend for custom styling
  • Fluid (works no matter the size of the containing div)
  • Responsive (looks nice on mobile & web)
  • Option to maintain grid column layout on mobile screens

Download latest release 

Continue reading “How to use the simple responsive CSS grid – SimpleGrid”
Categories
PHP Tutorials

What does the symbol “&” “&&” “||” “::” “%” “!!” “**” mean in PHP?

This is the best guide on PHP symbols I’ve every seen. If only something like this existed when I was first learning to code.

Reference:

& =& &= && % !! @ ?: : :: \ -> => ^ >> <<< = == === !== != <> | || ~ + += ++ .= . , $$ ` <?= [] ... **

A list of every symbol in PHP that you’ve ever wanted to know the meaning of.

::

The “::” symbol (Scope Resolution Operator) explained

Categories
Essays On Business On Culture

Is a good life and a successful one compatible?

hiking Crawford Falls photo credit machiine.com

Have you noticed all this focus on the perfect habits of successful people as if the cause for their success can be summed up as a daily 8 hr sleep, 30 min exercise, and 30 min reflection time? But it’s not real.

New Years Eve, Christmas Day, birthdays… we’re pretty good at celebrating important occasions. In between these holidays our days can often be forgotten as the pace of life demands our time for work, errands, exercise, etc.

As a person I’ve gotten pretty good at forgoing fun to reach a goal. Often knowing that a holiday is coming is all I need to keep the sacrifice going.

When a goal is achieved it’s rewarding. It makes the sacrifice worthwhile. Inspirational speakers talk about the impact people can make if they choose growth over comfort and work over fun.

It’s hard not to praise people like Steve Jobs, who epitomized what it looks like to die for your company and dreams. At his end he remarked that it may have been the strain of working as the CEOs of both Pixar and Apple that brought about his cancer.

When you achieve your goals or hit the jackpot it’s easy to look back at that sacrifice and feel it was worth it. Yet, what if the road is longer than you anticipated and you’ve fallen short of your quarterly goals. Even though you are made of the stuff of champions – character and perseverance – the years go by and the goal remains aloof.

Is the sacrifice worth it if the reward is the end?

Sacrificing fun over work makes for a purpose-driven life, but not a good one.

Nelson Mandela is quoted as saying that, “There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life less than the one you are capable of living.”

I see two important parts to what he said. Firstly, passion is found when you live up to your potential. And secondly, you are capable of living a larger life.

It’s easy for personalities like my own to miss the nuance of his point. Because I’m oriented towards action, when I read Mandela’s words I know them to be true and am motivated to work even harder.

But working harder isn’t living larger. It isn’t really living at all. It’s might even be playing small.

I’ve heard it said that we get to choose our habits and our habits choose our future. I agree with that. I’ve also learned from others that there is a difference between good trade-offs and bad ones.

Living a life that you are capable of requires trade-offs. Each person is unique and their trade-offs will be different. Perhaps it means giving up security for an opportunity. Or giving up the 80 hour work week for time to invest in your family.

As 2014 has come to a close here’s what I’ve learned and will be taking with me in 2015. Good luck this year as you pursue the large life that you are capable of living.

  • To attract people to your cause you need a mission and a vision that’s easy to articulate.
  • Find fulfilment in your vision because it will become real.
  • Focusing your attention on growth and development rather than on goals makes the journey worthwhile.
  • It’s hard to control outcomes but it’s easy to control activities.
  • Measuring activities make outcomes more predictable
  • People are motivated and/or held back by fear, security, and fun.
  • Make fun an intentional part of your day.
  • Celebrate everything.
  • Working smarter is better than working harder, combining the two will get you further than either.
  • Working with others who also understand this will multiply everyones efforts.
  • If you are motivated you will be more likely to continue.
  • If you continue you will be more likely to reach your goals.
  • If your attention is on growth you will have achieved success on the entire journey.

All of us have bad luck and good luck. The man who persists through the bad luck – who keeps right on going – is the man who is there when the good luck comes – and is ready to receive it.
Robert Collier

  • Successful people attract success.
  • Life’s a long journey – make time for fun. It’s not a trade worth making.

There is no passion to be found playing small - Nelson Mandela

“There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.”
Nelson Mandela