Gots to cut out the sugar if you want to stay healthy and trim.

Shorter Video (Bloomberg)

Longer Video (in depth presentation by Will Allen)

Now, let’s apply that concept to the [...]]]> Nearly everyone has heard of open source software, which is created by a community of individuals all around the world. To me, this is a miracle in and of itself…Thousands of people working on programming small pieces of a puzzle in order to produce a workable software product.

Now, let’s apply that concept to the world of farming and farm equipment. What if you could create the source code for the building blocks of civilization? What if you could create a network of information in such a way to enable people to manufacture the necessities for a self-sustainable life? Essentially, what if the advances in technology, design, and networking allowed people to build their own tractors for farming instead of having to purchase them through John Deere?

That is a BIG idea. Huge in fact. Marcin Jakubowski has taken this from idea to concept in the field of farming and ecology. His goal is simply to create a blueprint for the building blocks of civilization. Pretty awesome. You can check out the links and video below.

www.opensourceecology.org
www.openfarmtech.org

Have you ever ever met someone or seen someone who has accomplished great things or is just a really great person?  Ever ask what makes someone great?  The above pic offers a pretty simple clue.

If you want to be great, you have to start thinking great.  Greatness starts in disciplining [...]]]>

Have you ever ever met someone or seen someone who has accomplished great things or is just a really great person?  Ever ask what makes someone great?  The above pic offers a pretty simple clue.

If you want to be great, you have to start thinking great.  Greatness starts in disciplining your mind.  Do you think Winston Churchill yapped all day about his fancy cars and pimp cigars?

Do you think Amelia Earhart was obsessed with the latest clothing styles while she was flying around the world?

Great people are great for a reason…they have an ability to focus their minds in order to avoid all the non great things that non great people obsess about all day.

However, I would even take this further and to add two to the top of the list:

Phenomenally amazing people finish their ideas.

Amazing people start their ideas

Great people talk about ideas

Average people talk about things

Small people talk about other people.

Finding something you like and that you are naturally good at will help you have a great career.

If you can pull this off, [...]]]> When I was 22, I was just graduating college.  Below are the things I wish someone could have convinced me of before I launched into work and life:

Finding something you like and that you are naturally good at will help you have a great career.

If you can pull this off, you will be way ahead of the game, because if you like something, you will work harder at it, and if you are naturally good at it, you will have even more success.  I am absolutely convinced this simple piece of advice is the single most important factor in finding success in your professional life.

Choose a job / career that you love and push off being practical.

The fact that we live in a money obsessed and consumer driven society is unavoidable, but you cannot let this affect your career decision.  Loving what you do is important and you don’t have to settle for a 9-5 right away.  Now is the time to take a few risks.

Networking and likability will bring you more success than working hard.

At the end of the day, you can be the bomb diggity at your job, but if no one likes you, good luck progressing.   I have seen very few exceptions to this.  It really is not what you can do, but who you know.  People who are likable and well connected do better in life, even if they are not as talented.  Work hard, but avoid being the proverbial work horse who gets dumped on.  Work is often no different than your class projects at school…one or two people do all the work, and the others take the credit.

Overworking is overrated – The job you have right now is not that important.

Employers love hiring overly ambitious 20 somethings who will work nights and weekends trying to get ahead.  If I were an employer, I would do the same thing.  Why do you think they are always “downsizing” or “right sizing” all the old people and hiring the naive youngsters? These are the best years of your life, don’t let them whiz by in a blur of late nights and weekends at the office.  My motto:  work less, buy less, live more abundantly.

Travel as much as possible

So you are in your early 20′s, have a little coin saved up, and can do whatever you want.  This is the best time in your life to travel.  Do it before you and your friends all get married and life happens.

Travel is cheaper and safer than you think

So many people don’t go see the world, because of career, money, safety, whatever.   People are generally nicer than you think, and you need a lot less stuff and a lot less money than you think. 

Choose where you live carefully, it will affect the trajectory of your life

If you are going to move away from family, move somewhere amazing that you can see yourself staying.  Starting over is not as easy as people say.  Having long-lasting deep friendships is not overrated.

Stuff is overrated.  Money is overrated.  Happiness is NOT overrated.

Do not get caught up in defining yourself through stuff and money.  At the end of the day, no one really cares but you and the people who want to beat you.  All the important people in your life will accept you for who you are.  The question is whether you can accept yourself for who you are. 

Define yourself or other people will do it for you.

Develop a backbone.  Know what you believe in and what you want out of life.  In society now, everything is a brand, and everyone is trying to convince you that you are too much or too little, need more, need less.  You have to block it out, and develop your own identity early on or you will end up saying to yourself, how did I get here?

You don’t need that much of a safety net.

When life happens, you can figure things out.  Don’t let fear drive your decision making.  Most of the things we fear in life, never actually happen.  I wrote an article on this if you are interested.

Commit to living a life of wonder, don’t settle.

This is hard to do.  It requires commitment that can be eroded by fear.  Many people just settle in life, which sometimes is sometimes unavoidable due to various circumstances.  However, your 20′s is not a time to settle.  Commit to living a life of wonder.  Have  a clear picture of what that means for you.

I have been thinking a lot about happiness for quite some time.  Does happiness come and go?  Does it have a lifespan?  Are some people born happier than others?  Genetic?  Environment?

I have concluded based on life experience that [...]]]> Are you a happy person?  Would people in your life describe you as a happy person?

I have been thinking a lot about happiness for quite some time.  Does happiness come and go?  Does it have a lifespan?  Are some people born happier than others?  Genetic?  Environment?

I have concluded based on life experience that happiness all comes down to the brain.

Happiness is a series of complex chemical reactions in our brains.  All our emotions are in our minds.  It is entirely likely that some people may be more genetically pre-dispositioned towards happiness.  However, even so, science has recently made it clear that we can influence the brain chemistry of our minds and that our minds are not static.

In 2004, I took a mission trip of sorts to Ethiopia.  I was there about 2 months and I saw incredible poverty.  Below is a picture of a leper.  It is one of my more poignant pictures.

Ethiopia - Leprosy

I didn’t talk to this man, because of language barriers, and I never learned his story.  However, I watched him for several hours at the gathering I attended and became bewildered.  This guy is happy and joyful, but why?

How on earth is this guy happier than me?

During my trip, I would see groups of women lepers who were sitting on the side of the street with nothing.  As far as I could tell, they seemed pretty happy, happier than a lot of people actually.

Ruminate on that thought for a while.  How is this possible?

First of all, this should give everyone hope who feels that they are lacking any measure of happiness in life.  If impoverished lepers can be happy, anyone can.  Would they have liked to improve their situation?  Sure, anyone would.  However, this gives us a glimpse as to the nature of joy.  You can be joyful amidst hardship.  You can find happiness even in life’s trials.

I have the above picture up in my home, because it is proof that we can manipulate our brain chemistry towards happiness regardless of circumstances.   In some ways, I think Ethiopians may learn this lesson more easily, because they are forced to.  I think all humans are hard wired to seek happiness.

I have read a lot on this subject and have concluded that it all comes down to mental strength.  For the most part, most people let their mind loose to think whatever it wants.  I believe we can influence our mental health.  Just like our muscles, we can strengthen our minds to change brain chemistry over time to influence our attitude and our overall happiness.

Aristotle once said, “Happiness belongs to those who are easily contented.”  I have also noticed this.  I have family members who are just content.  I have to admit, I am jealous of them.  What is their secret?  Aristotle’s quote indicates that if you are not content, you can’t be happy.  So let’s examine contentment.  Good ol’ Webster lists the definition simply.  It means to be satisfied.  Clear your mind and just say this slowly.  “Satisfied.  I am satisfied.”  Feels good.  At least it did for me.  If you are like me, you may have heard that you can choose to be happy, but you can’t.  You can’t choose happiness.  I have said to myself, “I am choosing happiness today,”  but it never worked.  I got it in my head that I was just not born to be content or happy.  I really believe that changed my brain chemistry and sent me into a minor mental recession / depression.

I have learned that you can’t choose happiness, you can only choose to practice the mindset that produces happiness.   One needs to practice contentment through the routine exercise of our minds.  What we want is contentment in all circumstances.  After all, who are we to argue with Aristotle?

Western culture does not teach contentment.  It teaches people the opposite mainly through marketing…to “just do it.”  Nike.  Impulsiveness.   The goal is to make you want, but never out of wholeness or beauty.  Instead, it is a want conceived in emptiness.  If I get this, than I will be that.  The formula always is:  If this, than that.  Nearly everyone has accepted this as a given, but it is not a given.  The formula, “if this, than that” is not a formula written anywhere in the universe as law.  Someone made it up.  Allow that to blow your mind for a moment.  You don’t have to get anything to be who you are.  You are who you are.

So what are the steps to becoming content?  How do you change something as complex as your brain chemistry?

I think it is really easy, but it really involves effort, just like dieting or getting in shape.  I think you have to put yourself through mental boot camp, and workouts involving long-term repetition.  I have become convinced through what I have seen that some people are just in better mental shape than others, because they “work out” more or are just more naturally fit.  I really think the formula is this:

Daily repetition in gratitude leads to contentment, which leads to happiness, which leads to friendship, which leads to more happiness.

You can’t just make yourself be happy and you can’t just make yourself be content.  Contentment and happiness come over time to those who practice gratitude and change their outlook on life and their brain chemistry.  You will find that once you are happy, you will also begin to make friends more easily.  This in turn creates more connection in life, which has been shown to increase happiness.

I don’t intend for this to be a religious topic, because I don’t believe you need religion to be happy, but there are some parallels of note.  For instance, I think the above formula is one of the reasons people who truly practice a faith like Christianity can often be so happy.  They are constantly thanking God at least three times a day for their family, their food, their home, their friends, and even their trials, because yes, trials can mold you into a better person, which you can make a very good case for being thankful for. After all, in the Christian tradition, God works all things for good.

Anyway, here is my challenge to each and everyone of you regardless of faith:

Create a list of all of the good things you are thankful for and all the bad things you are thankful for, especially all the bad things.  Take this list with you and five times a day, and for one minute each, close your eyes and think about what you are thankful for; when you wake up and go to bed, and when you eat.  After one week, increase this 30 seconds until you reach 3 minutes for a total of 15 minutes per day.  Lastly, each day, tell one person you appreciate them.

You may be thinking, wait a minute, did he just say for the bad things?  Yes, yes I did.  Remember our thoughts can control our brain chemistry and we can control our thoughts.  Therefore, we need to place negative things in a genuinely positive context.  Our minds are naturally attracted to negativity.  Negative thoughts just seep in like smoke under a door at night.  They need to be dealt with properly and put in a authentic context of hope and goodness. Below are some examples:

• If you are not fulfilled at your job, be thankful that you have something to motivate you to bigger and better things.
• If your business is struggling, be thankful you have the opportunity to make it better or learn a new skill.
• If you are in debt, be thankful you can learn self-control and sacrifice and how to be joyful despite cutbacks.
• If you are facing adversity, be thankful for the opportunity to be courageous.
• If you are single, be thankful you have more time to help people out.
• If you are in a bad relationship, be thankful that you now can better identify what may make a good relationship.
• If you can’t have children, be thankful that you can give someone else a home or help other children in need.
• If you have made horrible mistakes in life, be thankful that you now know yourself better and can help others who have made or are making the same mistakes.

Be thankful and remember…

Daily repetition in gratitude leads to contentment, which leads to happiness, which leads to friendship, which leads to more happiness.

15 minutes may seem like a long time, but how can you possibly spend more time working abs and biceps than the the muscle that controls everything you do in life.  I myself have never done this exercise and I will let you know how well it goes.