Personal Development

Have you ever wondered why great ideas come to you when you seem to least expect them? You have a problem so you sit down and think as hard as you can…and yet a solution escapes you. Then you take a shower…or maybe a nap, and an idea magically appears.

Ralph Waldo Emerson shares your perplexity with this issue. He was absolutely mesmerized by this mysterious power. I have included some excerpts from his essay The Over-Soul below. After reading it, click the link at the bottom. I promise it will be worth it.

The philosophy of six thousand years has not searched the chambers and magazines of the soul. In its experiments there has always remained, in the last analysis, a residuum it could not resolve. Man is a stream whose source is hidden. Our being is descending into us from we know not whence. I am constrained every moment to acknowledge a higher origin for events than the will I call mine.

As with events, so is it with thoughts. When I watch that flowing river, which, out of regions I see not, pours for a season its streams into me, I see that I am a pensioner; not a cause, but a surprised spectator of this ethereal water; that I desire and look up, and put myself in the attitude of reception, but from some alien energy the visions come.

From within or from behind, a light shines through us upon things, and makes us aware that we are nothing, but the light is all. A man is the facade of a temple wherein all wisdom and all good abide. What we commonly call man, the eating, drinking, planting, counting man, does not, as we know him, represent himself, but misrepresents himself. Him we do not respect, but the soul, whose organ he is, would he let it appear through his action, would make our knees bend.

When it breathes through his intellect, it is genius; when it breathes through his will, it is virtue; when it flows through his affection, it is love.

All reform aims, in some one particular, to let the soul have its way through us; in other words, to engage us to obey. Let man, then, learn the revelation of all nature and all thought to his heart; this, namely; that the Highest dwells with him; that the sources of nature are in his own mind, if the sentiment of duty is there. He must greatly listen to himself, withdrawing himself from all the accents of other men’s devotion.

Emerson would write passages and be astounded as to its source. He knew that nothing in his life could have prepared him to write such words…and yet there they were. He knew there was something deeper inspiring him.

Our lives can be hectic…and at times we lose sight of the source of our power. A personal quiet place can take us there. Do you have one?

Click here to begin that journey.

Why spend a whole novel communicating wisdom when you can do it in a few words? Recently I read two books that focused on aphorisms, a modern bestseller (The Bed of Procrustes) and a classic, timeless one (Poor Richard’s Almanac). As I was reading through them I would highlight my favorite passages, knowing that one day I wanted to put them up on my walls. Here is my top 10 from each book.

Print them out. Tape them everywhere. Watch your mind grow.

Nassim Taleb’s Bed of Procrustes

There are two types of people: those who try to win and those who try to win arguments. They are never the same.

It is those who use others who are the most upset when someone uses them.

If you know, in the morning, what your day looks like with any precision, you are a little bit dead – the more precision, the more dead.

For many, instead of looking for “cause of death” when they expire, we should be looking for “cause of life” when they are still around.

Failure of second order thinking: he tells you a secret and somehow expects you to keep it, when he just gave you evidence he can’t keep it himself.

I suspect that IQ, SAT, and school grades are tests designed by nerds so they can get high scores in order to call each other intelligent.

Someone who says “I am busy” is either declaring incompetence (and lack of control of his life) or trying to get rid of you.

If you need to listen to music while walking, don’t walk; and please don’t listen to music.

What I learned on my own I still remember.

If you find any reason why you and someone are friends, you are not friends.

Ben Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac

If your riches are yours, why don’t you take them with you to the other world?

He that falls in love with himself, will have no rivals.

Great modesty often hides great merit.

Half the truth is often a great lie.

One today is worth two tomorrows.

The proud hate pride — in others.

Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure when he is really selling himself a slave to it.

He that speaks much is much mistaken.

Lend money to an enemy and you will gain him, to a friend and you will lose him.

‎If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing.

Have any favorite aphorisms? Write them in the comments below!

A few weeks ago I read a story about an old couple who won $11.2 million from a lottery ticket and then proceeded to give it all away! I pondered what I would do in a similar situation. My mind raced from buying an island to investing the money but in the end I decided I would in fact donate it to charity. Before you scoff at my conclusion, let me try to explain why.

I used to want to get rich quick. Whether it was through the lottery or a quick trade in the market, I would have loved to make a few million in a day….maybe two days if it had to come to that. Then slowly but surely I began to realize that money is not real. What does that mean? Well at its essence, money represents a man’s effort. To better explain this idea, I’ve chosen two passages written by Ayn Rand.

Wealth is the product of man’s capacity to think. An honest man is one who knows that he can’t consume more than he has produced. Money will not purchase happiness for the man who has no concept of what he wants: money will not give him a code of values, if he’s evaded the knowledge of what to value, and it will not provide him with a purpose, if he’s evaded the choice of what to seek. Money will not buy intelligence for the fool, or admiration for the coward, or respect for the incompetent.

Only the man who does not need it, is fit to inherit wealth–the man who would make his own fortune no matter where he started. If an heir is equal to his money, it serves him; if not, it destroys him. But you look on and you cry that money corrupted him. Did it? Or did he corrupt his money? Do not envy a worthless heir; his wealth is not yours and you would have done no better with it. Do not think that it should have been distributed among you; loading the world with fifty parasites instead of one, would not bring back the dead virtue which was the fortune. Money is a living power that dies without its root. Money will not serve the mind that cannot match it.

Two things jump out for me from this passage. First, I’ve heard many people blame their lack of money for their lack of success. They propose that they would be successful if only money was handed to them first. They fail to realize that money will never elude the man with ideas. Once an idea for creation is set in the mind, events will conspire to make it a reality. Second, I think many people do not realize the powerful and needed effect of challenges on your character. An entrepreneur who came to speak at UF said it best when he said, “The best part of becoming a millionaire is not the money, but the person you become.”

Al Warrington recently told a group of students at the University of Florida that he has given away 65% of his wealth three times in his life and yet he is now financially better off than ever. How can that be? Well, the money just reflected his character. He gave away his money but never gave away what he had learned. It was only a matter of time before the money found him again.

So next time you’re on your way to buy a lottery ticket, ask yourself if a large, sudden influx of money is really what you want in your life. The dream may be better than the reality.

A recent find by Andre Grillon.

The Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of planet Earth taken in 1990 by Voyager 1 from a record distance, showing it against the vastness of space. By request of Carl Sagan, NASA commanded the Voyager 1 spacecraft, having completed its primary mission and now leaving the Solar System, to turn its camera around and to take a photograph of Earth across a great expanse of space.

In a commencement address delivered May 11, 1996, Sagan related his thoughts on a deeper meaning of the photograph:

Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every ‘superstar,’ every ‘supreme leader,’ every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

The following is an excellent story about Narcissus taken from the book The Alchemist, written by Paulo Coehlo.

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The Alchemist picked up a book that someone in the caravan had brought. Leafing through the pages, he found a story about Narcissus. The alchemist knew the legend of Narcissus, a youth who knelt daily beside a lake to contemplate his own beauty. He was so fascinated by himself that, one morning, he fell into the lake and drowned. At the spot where he fell, a flower was born, which was called the narcissus.

But this was not how the author of the book ended the story. He said that when Narcissus died, the goddesses of the forest appeared and found the lake, which had been fresh water, transformed into a lake of salty tears.

“Why do you weep?” the goddesses asked.

“I weep for Narcissus,” the lake replied.

“Ah, it is no surprise that you weep for Narcissus,” they said, “for though we always pursued him in the forest, you alone could contemplate his beauty close at hand.”

“But…was Narcissus beautiful?” the lake asked.

“Who better than you to know that?” the goddesses said in wonder. “After all, it was by your banks that he knelt each day to contemplate himself!”

The lake was silent for some time. Finally, it said:

“I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus was beautiful. I weep because, each time he knelt beside my banks, I could see, in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty reflected.”

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I believe that it is human nature to desire attention, appreciation, and approbation. I also believe that this goes one step further. In a way, it is human nature to be narcissistic, or absolutely consumed with one’s self-image and ego. But by letting ourselves become consumed with our egos, what are we missing? What beauty in the world are we overlooking? When we look back on our lives, will we be like Narcissus and the lake, too consumed with ourselves to enjoy the beauty surrounding us? Or will we appreciate the beauty of the world and people around us, using the opportunities we are presented with to establish lasting and meaningful relationships, and with those new relationships change the world?

Stop and meditate for a moment. Which life are you living?

You’re playing a game with Death. He tells you that you have a day left to live. What do you do?

Nickelback’s hit song (If Today Was Your Last Day – shown below) got me thinking about that old success quote the song is titled after. I think many of you would agree the principle carries a lot of truth. You shouldn’t spend time doing something that disinterests you or leads to a monotonous routine.

As I’m sure many of you have realized, there is a slight flaw in this idea. If we lived each day as if it were truly our last day, we probably would skirt some of our important responsibilities. This would not have an immediate impact but would directly affect us in the future. Wouldn’t you skip a test or a few extra hours at work if you knew you had one day left?

Instead, look at each individual day as a game of Russian roulette, except you do not know the odds. The possibility of death is ever present and yet completely intangible. Pause for a moment and reflect on the last two sentences. Isn’t that what life really is?  Plan with uncertainty and you will be pushed to make the best decisions for the short and the potential long run.

You’re playing a game with Death. What’s your next move?

This is a story I first heard from Jamie Kraft, Managing Director at the UF Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. This story details what I consider to be one of the clearest reasons why the vast majority of people will not reach their goals in life.
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Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the bananas. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all the monkeys with cold water.

After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result – again all the monkeys are sprayed with cold water. This continues until pretty soon whenever another monkey tries to climb the stairs all the other monkeys will try to prevent it from doing so.

Now put away the cold water. Remove one of the monkeys from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey will see the banana and will attempt to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt, and attack, he knows that if he climbs the stairs he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Likewise replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth and then a fifth one. Every time a new monkey goes to the stairs it is attacked. The monkeys that are beating him up have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

After replacing all of the original monkeys none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the bananas. Why not? Because as far as they know that’s the way we’ve always done it around here. We call this TTWWADI.
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This brings up the important question you need to ask yourself: What are you doing because you are expected to? This can be anything from your study habits to the way you exercise. Chances are you learned it from someone, who learned it from someone else…who learned it from yet another person. Innovation has ceased a long time ago and you have been left with an unimproved method or way of doing things.

Here is my challenge to you:

1. Spend one day writing down every important action you take
2. Sit down at the end of the day and analyze why you did certain things and who taught you to do them that way
3. Ask yourself if there is potentially a better way to do something
4. Think! Take at least 30 minutes to just sit by yourself and explore the different alternatives and limitless possibilities
5. Enjoy your newfound effectiveness and happiness

For a deeper reflection ask yourself where your current scholastic or career path is leading you. Are you heading down that path because you chose it as the optimal path to happiness? Or did you pick it because you are blindly following in the footsteps of someone else? Do not let society dictate your actions.

As Steve Jobs said, “Those who are crazy enough to think they can change the world….are usually the ones that do.”

41% of people check their email before they do anything else in the morning. This can be attributed to the task dominant lifestyle we tend to lead. In a strange way, we look for new tasks we need to perform without considering the fact that there are plenty of important tasks left undone. This leads to increased stress as our pile of work grows the second we wake up. This habit sets the tone for the rest of the day. If you do this every day (as most do), then you are setting that tone for the rest of your life.

Here is a simple plan to get off this habit:

1. Gather your inspirational resources

iPhone and iTouch users – Download the Solace and Courage Iphone App by Ajnaware. For those of you who are not familiar with this app, I consider it to be one of the best applications out there and easily the most inspirational.

Non iPhone or iTouch users – Print quotes from either Third Minds or another website with inspirational quotes. On a side note, we promise to keep updating our quotes section!

2. Read at least 3 quotes on either the app or the paper the second you wake up. Then pause for exactly one minute and think about them.

If you follow this habit I guarantee you will find yourself leading happier days and sleeping better. What has been your experience doing this? Any other tips you use to start the day off successfully?

Excellent story taken from 4 Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss.
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An American businessman was standing at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish.

“How long did it take you to catch them?” The American asked.

“Only a little while.” The Mexican replied.

“Why don’t you stay out longer and catch more fish?” The American then asked.

“I have enough to support my family’s immediate needs.” The Mexican said.

“But,” The American then asked, “What do you do with the rest of your time?”

The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life, senor.”

The American scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds you buy a bigger boat, and with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats.”

“Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the consumers, eventually opening your own can factory. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise.”

The Mexican fisherman asked, “But senor, how long will this all take?”

To which the American replied, “15-20 years.”

“But what then, senor?”

The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO (Initial Public Offering) and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions.”

“Millions, senor? Then what?”

The American said slowly, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos…”
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Stop and think for a second. Which path are you taking?