Separating the Art from the Artist
Posted on | October 28, 2010 | 2,656 Comments
It has come to my attention as of late that our opinions and perceptions of celebrities and athletes can often shape the way we think of what they create or how they do their job. Sometimes more emphasis is put on who they are than what they do— yet the reason these individuals are even relevant is because of their career or what they do.
Two individuals I would like to discuss are Kanye West and Alex Rodriguez. Kanye West is a well-known hip hop recording artist and producer and has made a huge impact in the music industry over the course of his career. People have always had their criticisms of him due to comments he has made about how he deserved awards he did not win as well as other comments he has made that were deemed outrageous or arrogant. None of that compared to last year at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards when he jumped on stage while Taylor Swift was receiving her award and proceeded to essentially tell her that her video was good but she did not deserve the award because Beyonce’s video was better. For those actions, Kanye became the subject of backlash from the mainstream media and people all around the nation. Read more
My “Live As If You’ll Die Today” Experiment
Posted on | October 19, 2010 | 2,547 Comments
“Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.” -James Dean
I have had the above poster hanging in my room for the last six years. It is a very interesting quote and is really an intriguing idea that can give most people that momentary feeling of inspiration, drive and empowerment.
For many years, I was a person who took moments for granted. I ALWAYS valued time & knew it was precious to me—sometimes even more than money because you could always get more money but not necessarily more time. When I was younger though, there always seemed to be tomorrow or another time so it was not necessarily too big of a deal. Read more
The Hard Work That No One Ever Knows About
Posted on | September 30, 2010 | 525 Comments
Credit: follymuseum.com
One of the things I have been thinking about lately is how I do not know the backstory to a lot of things nor how much work is truly required. This is normal and we will never know the backstory to everything and often times we make assumptions.
When I speak with people about self-development or about changes I have made in my life, some people assume things were easy or that I had favorable circumstances or a different situation than them. This sometimes leads to people not trying to better themselves. They assume people are born the way they are and that the true change they are looking for is not possible under their circumstances or it is way too difficult for them.
In my own experience, I find a lot of people assume that I was always the person I am today and that is obviously not true. No matter who you are, it took a lot of hard work and life experience for you to be who you are today. You are time tested through life and decisions you made especially in times of adversity help shape who you are today. Becoming who you are today is a deep topic and I would like to explore it more in the future but for the sake of this piece, let’s keep with the topic of hard work.
Turning Mind Launch from an Idea into a Reality
Let’s examine my experience in putting together this website. Read more
HATE & INDIFFERENCE (Hope you LOVE IT!)
Posted on | September 21, 2010 | 2,443 Comments
“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.”
– Elie Wiesel
What is Hate?
Hate is a strong word and even a stronger as a feeling that is experienced. Most dictionaries state the definition of hate to be something along the lines of intense dislike or extreme hostility. People throw around the word and it is often exaggerated but for my purposes, I intend it to mean anything that someone dislikes and causes them to feel negative feelings inside their body. Essentially, if someone tells me they hate something that implies to me it “bothers” them.
Hate is obviously destructive as far as your actions go because you can get yourself in trouble and potentially harm others. It is also destructive to your health/normal body functioning, your happiness and accomplishing your goals.
WHERE ARE YOUR FOCUS & ENERGY GOING?
Love and hate are similar to each other in that they are both strong emotional feelings towards something. In either case something is affecting you in some way and by doing so you are make it relevant and giving it some level of importance in your life. If your time, focus and energy are going towards things that are not conducive to helping you, it is being wasted and you are being distracted. Read more
Personal Change vs. Being Yourself
Posted on | September 7, 2010 | 3,106 Comments
One of the most misinterpreted sayings I have been hearing frequently is something along the lines of: “I want someone who is going to accept me/love me for WHO I AM.”
The Real Meaning
A person should love & appreciate you for who you are—your true authentic self. You should be living in alignment with you are, following your passions and being true to yourself and others. If you are doing this, whoever you choose to align yourself with should accept you for that or should not be in your life.
The Misinterpretation
Quality people typically have standards for what is acceptable behavior and what they will tolerate from the people they have in their lives. Wanting to be accepted for ‘who you are’ should not give you an excuse to continue living life in a crappy way. Some examples include but are not limited to: constant negativity & a negative view of the world, excessive anger/trust/jealousy issues, depression, drug addiction, etc. Read more
