Christmas Wish Granted!

38 minutes into Christmas day Pacific time, it's like Kris Kringle came down the chimney, logged onto a computer, and subscribed to my YouTube channel as my 10,000th subscriber.  Timing couldn't have been more perfect as I pay attention to 4 time zones, -4, -5, -8, and +9 UTC (Pacific time more than others).  10k subscribers on Christmas day on all 4 time zones which meant only a 7 hour window.  Insane idea yes, but somehow it happened.  My YouTube channel reached 10k subscribers on Christmas day shortly after midnight (when all Christmas wishes are usually fulfilled).  What a Christmas story.  And it couldn't have happened without each of the 10,000 people who subscribed and encouraged me to keep on going and not stop.  Thank you to each and everyone one of you for watching, subscribing, leaving comments, liking my videos, and sharing my channel with others.

Merry Christmas to all!

-Michael

Christmas Wishlist

All I want for Christmas is 10,000 subscribers.  Is there a song for that?

2200 subscribers and growing

I gotta admit, I always considered myself to be a renaissance man.  But one thing I never thought I'd be doing or prepared myself for was making daily videos for thousands of people.  But I do that now, and although I feel the end product (when it comes to video quality, lighting, and quality of speech is so under par of what I wish to put out), the information is solid.  And that helps me sleep better at night.

iPad Mini surfaces, Apple users elated, Android users eagerly waiting to feed them crow

I wonder how many millions of comments were written by Apple users saying how the smaller iPad wasn't necessary.  And how many of those people will end up buying an iPad Mini when it comes out and rave about it.  Probably all of them.  Somehow this feels like a win for the Android community.  I await the announcement for a 4.5" iPhone and a 5" iPhone with stylus phablet in the near future.  Yes it will happen.  It is just a matter of time.

Also, since when did Apple become a "me too" company?  Maybe a year ago?

Problems with Apple Maps

I'm sure I wasn't the only person who thought dropping Google Maps and launching their own Apple Maps was going to be a serious mistake of near biblical proportions.  Just looking at how long it took Google to perfect navigation and turn by turn directions, I estimated it would take Apple a good 5 years after a public beta launch.  But just out-right releasing it as a feature of their latest and greatest device and blocking Google Maps...are they high?  Even Google Maps and Navigation, starting this year and not before that, made it clear that there is no better navigation device than an Android running Android OS 4.0 (or higher) and Google Maps.  I believe a part of Apple's problems are that Google has set the bar so high.  And releasing a "this is our first try, tell me how you like it" mapping system, just like Google did 5 years ago is not going to cut it when people are expecting and paid for perfection.

After all this and scuffgate, Apple fanboys are still are out in full force bashing on Android phones of it's plasticity, while secretly begging for Google Maps to written for iOS 6 in Google forums.  The nerve of these people.  They seem to have forgotten that iPhone 3G and 3GS had plastic backs as well.

What would people do without The Pirate Bay?

The Pirate Bay was down for more than a day a day ago.  I thought for a while if their time had finally come. It seems like the world police is after them and it looks like their mission is to shut them down first and then deal with their legal rights later.  I see that the site has come back, and it is good to see a site that is standing their ground rather than shutting down at the face of adversity unlike so many other sites that have folded or fallen due to raids.  It would be sad if they did finally shut down one day.  But I hope people who are trying to shut them down realize that the problem only grows bigger (by people looking to cash in on TPB's loss) and less controllable if they do shut down.  Just take for example megaupload.  Have sites like that shut down?  No, there are so many more of them now.  Exposing just how lucrative megaupload really was only lit the fire under the asses of people looking to make a quick fortune on the Internet.  Shutting down The Pirate Bay will not be any different.

Lisa from Saved By The Bell

She's big in the news today, back from obscurity.  Why?  Her mother is saying she is traumatized and has bipolar disorder.  But wouldn't your mom talking to the press about your mental problems cause more trauma?  Anyway, she seems to be a big buzz on the Internet today.  Maybe better to be talked about rather than being forgotten about.

Lisa Turtle was one of my first and only black girl crushes as a teenager.  Her and Jada Pinkett.

Mitt Romney Wants To Kill PBS!

Even though I was born in the late 70's, I never got into Sesame Street.  So there will be no tears shed for the loss of Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Elmo, Bert and Ernie.  But I absolutely loved Reading Rainbow.  I even watched it when I was in Jr. High (aka Middle School).  I really loved that the blind guy from Star Trek TNG played by LaVar Burton took time to share his passion for reading.  Another memorable series was NOVA.  This show planted a seed that explains my hunger for astronomy and astrophysics today.  Down with Romney!  The nerve or that guy.

Epidural Steroid Injections Causing Meningitis

I saw the press conference and this sent chills through my spine.  (haha, no pun intended...but wow, what a zinger that is.)  "There's no risk to anybody that did not have a epidural steroid injection."  Knowing how common these injections are, as I have had 3 myself in the past for my herniated disc in the L4-L5, I am betting a ton of people are going through serious panic right now.  I'm sure everyone has had fungal infections before, but if it is in your bloodstream, it can kill you in a day.  I hope people get called in for some antibiotics.  Yikes.  I'm currently in Korea where people take shots for colds.  It's awesome because when you get a cold, you go to the hospital in the morning, pay about $3, get a shot, and head to work because the cold is pretty much taken care of.  In the US when people get colds, they tough it out for a few days.  But maybe I'll slow down on those shots seeing reports like this.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/rare-fungal-meningitis-outbreak-grows-dead-22-sick/story?id=17395587#.UG5WG03vh8E

Let's give Arnold Schwarzenegger a break

Looking at all his life accomplishments from his rise from obscurity, I think people are blowing his faux pas out of proportion.   Should his whole life be ruined because he decided to sleep with his maid and had an illegitimate son?  Sounds like a personal matter, not a world crisis.  It's not like they aren't being provided for.  It would be a shame if this is how Schwarzenegger's legacy ends.  Sounds like the maid was well provided for, and was waiting to cash this check on her way out.  What is worse?  Hiding these events from the public, or selling out the good people that you worked for who is probably considered a part of the family, who is also the father of your son, for money?  I vote for the ladder.  Let's give Arnie a break.

Galaxy Note 2 NOT released in South Korea 9/28/2012

I am in Korea and I went to a few phone stores and they all told me that because of the Korean Thanksgiving, it is likely that it will be arriving October 2 but most likely on the 4th.  I know that every tech website reporting on the Galaxy Note 2 is reporting that it was launched in South Korea, but that doesn't seem to be the case.  However, people, such as developers and carrier representatives have had them for a few days now.  There are some floating around, but it doesn't seem like any have actually sold yet.  I have looked through the Korean discussion forums and not a single soul has posted about getting one today.

Update 10/4/2012:  KT has launched the Galaxy Note 2.  SK and LG recalled the shipped phones due to a bug.  Sigh....I'm waiting on the LG version...

Taken 2 Review

I am in South Korea where Taken 2 was released in the theaters a week earlier than in the US.  I thoroughly enjoyed the first movie and I highly anticipated the sequel.  The movie was more of the same with but with a lot less intensity.  I remember 2 distinct things about the first movie.  First thing was the chops to the neck.  Second was the intensity you felt from the main actor fighting through suffocating layers of insurmountable challenges while trying to find his daughter in a foreign country.  The action scenes were there in Taken 2, but it never felt too intense out of the scenes that involved fighting.  Another thing that I thought could have been better was the scale of the location.  The majority of the movie felt like it happened around one building.  There was never really a search, other than through the corridors of one building where all the bad guys hung out.  The first movie felt like a journey while Taken 2 felt like a short weekend trip.  With all that said it was still enjoyable sequel but don't go into the movie with high expectations.

I've brought all my old posts back.

I decided to merge all the blogs together that I have written over the years.  In 10.5 years, I've managed to write 925 blog posts.  A good percentage of them long posts.  I'm not really a twitter user.  Some thoughts are complex and those need to be shared too.

The reason I removed the posts originally was that I had always started new blogs from scratch and essentially made the other posts unavailable to searches on an unguessable addresses.  The reason I am bringing them back is that I realized a few things.  A lot of my posts had good information on them.  A huge reason why people blog is to make the Internet a better place.  What I mean by that is that the Internet is collection of information.  And if you are the holder of information that is not currently on the Internet, it is your duty to populate the Internet with it.  For example, you discovered a solution to fix a problem that many people are having in the world, and when you searched for it on the Internet it was not easily available, you should blog about it.  This is how the Internet operates.  If no one did this, Internet would be a sad place.  We would be back to figuring things out ourselves or paying someone a lot of money just for a little bit of knowledge.

Another reason why I decided to bring all my old posts back is that I no longer feel like everything I used to think in the past is something I don't identify with.  Instead, what my old posts are is a way to see where I was then and how differently I see things now.  In many ways, I haven't changed at all.  Mostly my priorities and where I focus my time on have changed.

Back on the wagon. Don't I mean back off the wagon?

Been doing LISS...low intensity steady state.  It is the equivalent to walking briskly.  And basically no stress on the body.  I read online that LISS, after about an hour or so, consumes muscles for energy.  But people also say that you can walk 10 miles a day (takes 2.5 hours), and that it is a great thing.  Since I can't lift for another week and a half because I've hurt my hand, I'll just do LISS for another 2 weeks and see if I should keep doing LISS or if I should change it up.  I like it because you can seemingly do it forever as long as you keep well hydrated.  And you are hardly sore the next day, if at all.

Days/Calories burned on the eliptical

5/22 1400
5/23 600
5/24 1500
5/25 1500
5/26 2000
5/27 1400
5/28 1400
5/29 1500
5/30 1500
5/31 1400
6/1 1400
6/2 1750
6/3 1750
6/7 2000

14 days working out.  burned on avg 1500 calories.

So I see exactly 3 lbs lost so far.  And I do admit that I do see myself consuming a little bit more calories because when I come back from the gym, I feel like I need to replenish myself.  It is a natural reflex for my body to want to do this, and I do not deny my body the privilege.  I just make sure I am still netting burned calories.

If 3500 calories = 1 lb, I am netting 750 calories burned every time I go to the gym.  The rest of the 750 calories burned that day makes up for the gatorade I drink and extra calories I consume.  I am blown away by the elegant patterns in the numbers.  6 lbs a month is a good rate...probably optimal.  The downside is that I can do probably 6 lbs a month and spend less than 1/2-1/4 the time at the gym lifting weights and doing HIIT.  But that always seemed like a shot in the dark.  Because calories burned had a lot more to do with the body growing muscles, repairing itself, and burning fat while you slept and a lot less to do with the actual calories you burned during exercise.  I think I can do all the LISS I want to get to a desired body weight, then I can lift weights to gain lean mass later.  My logic is that when I'm trying to gain muscle, I was never successful at gaining muscle while losing fat at the same time.  I remember mental battles on a daily basis feeling like I was starving myself the calories I wanted then going to the gym and doing a hard workout for months.  I don't think it needs to be that difficult.  But it seemed painfully easy gaining muscle and keeping my weight the same.  Sticking with LISS.  Sounds like a solid plan to me.

DIY Reverse Osmosis Water Filtration

Revere Osmosis Water Filtration is Awesome!
Drinkable tap water in Southern California is pretty much a myth.  Who wants to drink gritty water that smells like chlorine and leaves traces of lime (not the good kind) in your mouth?  You have a few options.  Have water delivered to your home, or you bring the water to your home.  It is an arduous process that seems totally unnecessary.  But wait, why go through all that trouble when you can have it readily available?  Your solution is reverse osmosis water filtration, and yes it is pretty awesome.  And when you have it in your home, the water tastes great.  And it is in fact much much cleaner than something you buy at the market.  To get it to your home, you probably didn't install it yourself.

The installation
There are many companies that come to your home and set it all up.  And they all generally use the same system.  It is a 5 stage reverse osmosis filtration system with a sediment filter, 2 carbon filters, a membrane filter, and a pressurized water storage tank.  This system's retail price is $150.  If you don't like the idea of drilling into your granite/ceramic/stainless steel sink/counter-top, sticking your head into an area where black mold lives and thrives, they'll come by and install it for you for $300.  That is pretty steep for an hour of their time, but remember they have to drive to your place and back.  They have insurance, gas, vehicle fees, advertising, sales, labor, tax, and social security to pay.  It is a stiff premium for dirty work you don't want to do, but I don't fault them for it.

After about a year or two, you will want to change these filters because you'll notice it in the taste of the water.  Surprisingly, the filters are inexpensive.  About $25-$28 retail price for all 3 filters (2 carbon, 1 sediment).

Save money on the installation
You can save yourself $300 if you like simple home projects.  It will take you up to half a day, watching youtube videos, drilling, cleaning, troubleshooting, and maybe running to home depot for parts and some equipment if you don't have something like a drill, a drill bit for this application, a bike pump, pressure gage.

Change the filters yourself
Yes it will get a little messy, but it is water after all.  And you definitely don't want to let these scam artists into your house thinking you just got them to do a lot of work for basically no profit.  Just shut off the water, it will get a little messy because you will be unscrewing a canister full of water in an awkward position.  When you put in a new filter, the most important step is that you empty out the container full of water.  If you don't do this, when you tighten up the canister, it will not seal because of the water and pressure getting in the way.  After you are done, check back often to make sure there is no leaking of water.

Re-pressurizing the water storage tank
I found this awesome video online.  You need to empty it completely, and then pressurize it to 5-7psi.  After the tank is full with water again, it may be up to 35psi.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4MIWZXHeo0&list=UUQ6bpnkVqzXDx3OzpchoNqQ&index=2&feature=plcp

Conclusion
You should always change the filters yourself.  It is painfully easy and cheap.  Don't call the service guys because their goal is not do the work for free.

How to shoot like a Leica owner.

So how do you shoot like you own a Leica?  I know this topic will surely offend some.  What I mean exactly is that people with a lot of photography experience tend to gravitate towards a Leica.  So if you go to the Leica forums on dpreview.com for example, you're bound to run into some talented individuals with some samples that inspire you.  A Leica camera's only differences, compared to a Canon or a Nikon SLR, are that it's interpretations of color, some unique magic of handling of UV light to alter the lightness of some surfaces, and it's amazing edge to edge sharpness that comes from it's small but very expensive lenses.  90% of the quality of the images however are of the talents and efforts of the photographer.  Someone who's willing to spend $7000 camera is probably someone who takes photography seriously.

The biggest thing you'll notice is the Leica's sensor's interpretation of blues.  If you look at the skies of Leica sample pictures, you'll see that the sky is almost gray.  This is in part of how the camera handles the colors.  But Leica users understand this, and actually prefer to avoid blue skies when they can.  Overcast days also offer perfect even lighting outdoors.  A novice would see a bright sunny day as a beautiful perfect day to shoot.  Leica users get inspired the same way, but on overcast days.

Never shoot at eye level.  Just like having a blue sky in a photograph, a picture shot at eye level are a dime a dozen.  Good rule of thumb about anything art related is that you want to show the viewer a different perspective than what the viewer is used to.  You can do that literally by squatting or elevating yourself when composing your picture.

Leica lenses are expensive because they offer amazing edge to edge sharpness with little to no chromatic abberations.  Most, even professional lenses, for other camera manufacturers however do not offer the same kind of crispness at the edges.  But who says you can't achieve this level of crispness with just about any lens?  Achieve edge to edge sharpness by shooting at the sharpest f-stop.  Somewhere around f6.3 and f8.  Shoot wide, then crop.

Leica shooters love showing off their black and white photographs, so why not shoot with creating a black and white photo in mind, and turn the contrast to eleven!  Ok, that's just a figure of speech.  And eleven is probably not enough contrast anyway.  Good photographers know how to isolate their subjects to get out a clear message.  And sometimes, even the colors may be distracting.  Or maybe it is inconsequential to what the picture is saying.  So it is often eliminated.  And after you isolate, the next step is to enhance what you want the user to focus on.  That's where contrast comes in.  Enhance contrast to bring out the definition of your objects.  This is why black and white images are used when you want your vieweres to pay attention to interesting textures or patterns in the image when you want to, for example bring out the textures of the gravel of the pavement or the stucco on the wall.

Tell a story.  Now you've heard this advice before right?  I see photography as having only 2 major categories.  One is a perfectly isolated product shot.  The other is a capture of a moment in time.  If you take a picture, and it doesn't fall in either of these two categories, then you essentially have nothing.  With a camera like Leica, you're going to be probably taking a picture of the latter.  So how do you capture a story?  Sure you can try to tell a clear story, of what is exactly happening here.  Hopefully it is a more interesting story than "Hey look, my friends and I are having dinner and we're posing for a picture."  But ultimately, the story is in the eyes of the beholder.  And even if you can't get across exactly what is happening, hopefully there are elements in the image where the viewer can easily take those elements and form a story on their own.  For example, a classical image is an old guy crossing his arms with a dirty apron having a cigarrette in front of a old restaurant with chipped paint.  You can easily tell that this guy is probably the owner, he cooks, he's had this restaurant for a long time, and he's probably proud of his restaurant.  It doesn't matter if the story is true.  It matters that these elements are there, and the stronger and consistant these cues are, the better the picture.

Adjust your color like a Leica.  Leica's color interpretation is definitely unique.  The darker blues are less saturated and less luminous.  Yellowish greens lose the yellowness and become dark greens.  Some colors have an added red/violet hue to them.  Again, art is all about offering a different perspective than what the viewer is used to.  Leica controls colors in a way that they don't look wrong, it just looks just a little surreal enough that it looks more engaging.  There are some tools out there like PSKiss Cross Camera DNG Color Profiles.  I think it helps, but you still need to adjust the colors a bit more as I find that product not agressive enough.

Don't forget the basics.  Rule of thirds.  Isolate your subject.  Control your sources of light.  Then lastly, post process.  Crop for symmetry (as needed).  Crop to place your subject in respect to rule of thirds (not always necessary).  Adjust exposure, shadows, highlights.  Add contrast, unsharp mask, add vignette.  Remember, 90% of why people with Leicas seem to take good photographs, is because they are good photographers, and very little has to do with simply owning a Leica.  This is why some Leica owners who expect to be impressed by something straight out of their cameras are often left wondering what they are doing differently and why their Leica images don't seem Leica-like.

Post processing walk through:

Step 1: Adjust exposure (Balance out histogram by adjusting for desired levels of lighting by feel).  You can just hit the auto button if you wish, but this gives you less room to play with later.

Step 2: Add a little touch of "Clarity".  ~+12 to bring out the textures.

Step 3: Saturation -100 (duh).  If not a B&W image, re-up  the saturation after you're done with all the steps below.

Step 4: Tone Curve Highlights -64.  The whole goal is to go for a cinema film like image, not "Three's Company" live TV feel.  You can reduce this live effect by reducing the highlights drastically.  This will make all your whites into light shades of gray.  This is the most important step.

Step 5: Split Toning Highlights Hue/Saturation 52/2
Step 5b: Split Toning Shadows Hue/Saturation 37/2
To add a hint of sepia.  Not necessary, but Leica does it.

Step 6: Sharpening Amount/Detail 100/0 (Seems to do a good job sharpening the edges without darkening the edges.

Step 7: Noise Reduction Luminance 25 (Varies depending on noise, adjust accordingly)

Step 8: Enable Profile Corrections for Make and Model of lens.  Fix those distortions that is brought on by cheapo, zoom, or wide angle lenses.

Step 9: Post-Crop Vibnetting Amount/Midpoint -51/37 (Just a touch, not necessary)

Anthony Robbins Diet: Day 42-57

Day 42-57: Getting back to focus

So when I set out on this Anthony Robbins Diet, I had a plan, and after about a 5 weeks into it, I lost some focus.  Although I am still incorporating what I've learned into my daily life and I know it is making a difference, I have strayed from my plan.  The good thing is everything is documented on this blog, and I know exactly how to get back on track.

As for the material I've covered in the last 15 days, it has been mostly Powertalk, Creating Lasting Change, Breakthrough with Tony Robbins (TV episodes) and I've been consistantly doing the Hour of Power.  And I feel that I've made measurable progress on building on my success cycle.  I think when I started, I was at about a 3 out of 10.  Now I felt at one time, I was at about a 4.3, but have felt back to a 4.  I will get back to focusing on that so that I get myself to a upward cycle.  Right now, I'm still at a downward cycle where if I don't make the effort to focus on it, I will start losing momentum.

I've also have been forgetting use my RPM Planner.  I'll do that right now, review my driving force...Done!

To my surprise, I looked at my list of goals, and half of them were magically done.  Love it!  That is why setting goals is so powerful.  You write them on paper, and they just get done.

I have also begun to condition myself to do some amazing things.  One is that if I envision something that I should do, I must immediately go do it.  With this, I have been able to work out in the morning, literally jump out of bed when I still feel groggy, and other things.  The working out in the morning is a bit surprising.  Trying to work out in the morning has been something that I wished I could do, and something I would plan on a daily basis for months, but never was able to do.  And I've been able to do it a few times already just by this conditioning.

I also got a good tip from a friend.  He pointed out that if I am having problem with motivation, work on my physical conditioning first.  He made me realize that whenever I was in my peak potential, it had stemmed from being physically happy first.  This absolutely motivates me to get fit, and work out daily.

I have also been trying to find out what other things I did before to where I was just a fireball of momentum.  One of the audiobooks that I listened to that may have helped me was Steve Chandler's 100 ways to motivate yourself.  I'll give that a lesson tomorrow.  I'll listen to it a 3 times because that's what I did last time.  It's all about using what worked in the past.  No need to reinvent the wheel when you already have done it before.  Just figure out what worked before.

Next: Ultimate Business Mastery System - Session 2

Anthony Robbins Diet: Day 32-41

Day 32-41

I read 2 great quotes today.
"Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently." - Henry Ford
"There comes a moment when you have to stop revving up the car and shove it into gear." - David Mahoney

These two quotes highlight 80% of my thoughts probably for the last month or two. I was trying to understand where my roadblock is currently.

Things I can improve on:
-I know I am overwhelming myself by looking at the daily action, then thinking of all the things that have to be done after that. I will recondition that behavior the next 3 days.
-I know I am avoiding the pain of disappointment of investing my soul into something so deeply, and having it not materialize. (Fear of failure). Dance with fear because fear will eventually wear out.
-Use anchors on a daily basis. Why not?
-Hold myself better accountable for commitments I make for myself. Be my own life coach on and check up on myself on a daily basis.
-Add to my success cycle. Make sure I make positive additions on a daily basis. Experience results before they happen because the mind and body can't tell the difference. Take small steps to build momentum.

Listened to the following over the last 10 days:
Financial Freedom (Audio)
There are 7 kinds of wealth. The first step is to realize you are already wealthy. And there might be a few that you can improve on. But in order to truly feel wealthy, you need all 7 kinds of wealth fulfilled. For example, if you had a billion dollars but you were miserable all day and weighed 1000 lbs, and no one gave a crap about you, you aren't wealthy. Maybe in a financial sense, but that is only 1/7th of what you really want. In a less extreme example, say you had 10 million dollars to spend, but if you had no time to spend it, then you aren't wealthy either. I keep hearing that you can be wealthy every day of your life by living with gratitude. I do not understand this yet, but I'm sure I'll understand this in the future.

Financial Freedom (Video)
Spend less than you earn. Invest left over money in 3 buckets. Security bucket (secured investments), growth bucket (unsecured investments), dream buckets (purchase of assets that make you feel successful, but may never return an investment).

"On Creating Extraordinary Relationship (with Johny Gray)" (4 segments)
Basically a summary of the book Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.

Breakthrough with Tony Robbins (Episode 1, Frank and Kristen)
Lesson: Rewrite (more like overwrite) your story. Redo what you did that didn't end how you wanted, and you currently use as an excuse to not do something, but do it again and win so that you erase that past. Sure you can let the past not equal the future, but imagine you had the power to rewrite your past. Everyone can do that.

Breakthrough Challenge 1
List empowering and disempowering emotions you feel on a weekly basis. Find antidotes for the top disempowering emotions and condition it.

Breakthrough with Tony Robbins (Episode 2, Ron and Marie)
Didn't really like the couple in the beginning, but I respect them for spending 2 weeks with homeless people. Tony lit a fire on their asses. I saw Ron's commitment in working hard. At the end of the show, I felt Ron still had some conflicts. It will be interesting to see an update with them 5 years from now. I hope they pull through. I saw a little bit of myself in Ron. I will work hard so I don't become like Ron. Lesson is to get your priorities straight.

I had a major breakthrough today. I realized how skewed my responsibilities had become. It is a complex problem, but I understand it now. Part of the problem was that I agreed to move to my mom's house while her situation gets stabilized. In that process, I've forgotten what it means to be responsible for myself. People are mentally conditioned to get into this mode when they are at home. Things are being taken care of for you. You subconsciously let go of your responsibilities and if you are not keen to what is going on, you just go with that pattern. This is why I have not been able to take initiative on big things that need to get done. And this is why I haven't been holding myself accountable for deadlines I've created for myself. I have 4-5 months left here as I am committed to moving out of here by August. But no time to wait. Change happens now. I am putting it in gear.

Next: Ultimate Business Mastery System - Session 1

Anthony Robbins Diet: Day 31

Day 31: Time of Your Life (10 of 10)

Write a code of conduct. Whatever happens in the outside world, write a code of conduct for yourself. I think most people do this internally. But there is a threshold for going against your code of conduct when it really hits the fan. So by knowing you have set a code of conduct for yourself on paper, you can always operate without giving into the situation and venting your anger, or getting overwhelmed. Anger or overwhelmed are polar opposites of the same reaction, but states you never really want to be in. That is just one example of the benefits of code of conduct. You can always be happy and operate effectively. There is tremendous reward and results from that.

On a side-note, what a incredible month! I thought about taking a break from AR, but looking back to what I said I was going to do for myself. Daily immerse myself with everything AR has to offer, and I'll reap the rewards in my life. And one month isn't long enough to condition a lifetime of behavior. You need at least 6 months of that. So I'll continue on to this journey.

Next: Financial Freedom (Audio)

Anthony Robbins Diet: Day 30

Day 30: Time of Your Life (9 of 10)

Today's topic was all about problem solving/decision making.

I think one of the best skills that I have is my ability to solve problems. Doing Day 9 of "Time of Your Life", I felt that Tony Robbins' section on problem solving had great info. Traditionally, everyone learns how to solve problems just like how we learn the grammar of our native language. In other words, we don't learn the systems. We just base it on what sounds right, and what sounds wrong. And hopefully after years or decades of trial and error, you are making mostly right decisions through learning from trial and error. So when tough problems arise, we are not problem solving experts in the same way we are not grammer experts. We never learned the systems, and complex problems seem overwhelming. It overwhelms us, we put off the decision, or we just go back and fourth without making a decision. Unfortunately, what this leads to is indecision, which is probably the worst path you can take.

I felt the program gave great information on how to solve challenging problems. But I felt "The 6 Steps to Effective Decision Making: O.O.C. / E.M.R." could be improved on, for at least myself.

Precursor (Unchanged, just restating it from "Time of Your Life")
1. Decide you're going to solve this and know you can solve this because you've solved difficult problems in the past when you felt challenged beyond your comfort zone.
2. Get perspective from others who have successfully dealt with a similar problem before.
3. Know as you're doing something for the greater good, and that if you're committed, there is always a way.
4. List the resources available to you and constraints or limitations you may have.


Problem solving steps (Instead of doing O.O.C. / E.M.R.)
1. Define the current situation without any emotional bias.

2. If you can have everything you want your way, what do you want, and why do you want it?

3. Write your values (your rules on how you operate yourself as a person), and your identity, your ultimate vision of the person you want to become and how your life is going to be.

4. Write roles (responsibility towards others aka who others see me as a person).

5. Write down options (the decisions you can choose to make) and the benefits, and consequences.

6. For each consequence, find alternatives that neutralize the consequence (or even turn into benefits if possible) where the alternative is high probability and low risk.
Rewrite options, benefits, consequences. Repeat the process until the option cannot be improved any further. Put your brain to work while trying to incorporate your resources. Do this for every option.

7. Do any consequences conflict with your identity or ultimate vision of who you want to become or where you want your life to be at in the future? If so, are there any alternatives to the consequences? If there are no alternatives, eliminate the option.

8. Evaluate the options. Evaluate the benefits. EValuate the consequences (how it impacts your roles/responsibilities.) Are the effects of the consequnces, something that can be repaired in the future? If not, will this violation of the roles/responsibilities, block your path to the ultimate vision of you and your life? If yes, eliminate option.

9. Make decision on remaining options and cut off any other possibilities. Take action. If you do not take action, then you might as well not have made the decision at all.

Know that when you make tough decisions, you can't always make everyone happy and cater to every desire. Otherwise, it wouldn't be a tough decision. It would be a no brainer. There will have to be compromises and consequences when it comes to tough decisions. A good decision is to find a solution to meet all absolute musts, minimize consequences, not violate your values (this is very important), and take no irreversible damage to your responsibilities/roles that is going to serve you in your ultimate vision in the future. A great decision is all of the above and find the maximum the benefits from the decision. The worst thing to do is to not make any decision when a decision has to be made.

Next: Time of Your Life (10 of 10)

Anthony Robbins Diet: Day 29

Day 29: Time of Your Life (8 of 10)

Before you start planning your day, get centered. Who are you. Who do you want to become. Your values and code of conduct. Then after that, review your 1 year, 3 month goals. Then review your roles. Then plan. Have at least 3 professional and 2 personal must outcomes, and only schedule those. The less critical outcomes will be scheduled the night before. Anticipate problems and plan those so you can succeed no matter what comes up.

Next: Time of Your Life (9 of 10)

Anthony Robbins Diet: Day 27-28

Day 27-28: Time of Your Life (6,7 of 10)

This day was all about using the OPA/RPM Life Planner. The planner is great. On a typical planner, you write down your to do lists, and it feels great at first that you are organizing your life. But a typical to-do list is daunting, sometimes overwhelming because the list is endless, and more importantly, there is no emotion behind anything you're doing. For example, say you wanted to create a postcard campaign for your business. You just write "design postcard", you are forgetting the purpose behind your action. And you won't be motivated to do it. And even if you did it, it won't be the best postcard you could have made because you forgot your purpose.

I can say that I can absolutely relate to that because I've had a few planners here and there. You get this neat little black book. You open it, it has all these tabs, and you feel like "wow, this is going to make my life better." A day later, you stop using it because you either forget about it.

I can say that I've been using my RPM Life Planner for a week now. And that is the longest I've consistently used a planner.

And the last thing that is mentioned is that, incorporating a new system like this in your life (or any planner) takes some dedication. It might take an hour a day right now, but it may only take you a few minutes later to do the same amount of planning. I know this to be absolutely true. I'll reflect back on the time when I took a year off to teach English for a year. To prep for 6 hours of lessons, I took about 2 hours to prep. After 6 months in, it took 20 minutes to do the same prep that took me 2 hours. So I know what he's saying is true. Dedicate myself to planning my life for a few months, reap the rewards and continue to reap the rewards for fraction of the input.

Next: Time of Your Life (8 of 10)

Anthony Robbins Diet: Day 26

Day 26: Time of Your Life (5 of 10)

When you think of something you "should" do, we tend to over-think the details. For example, when you know you "should" start working out, we start imagining getting off work, the traffic we're going to be stuck in, getting to the gym, fighting for a parking spot, then going to go get changed, then warming up, then stretching, then working out, then showering, then driving back, but before you do that you need to go shopping for a gym bag because you haven't seen that darn thing forever. And when you taken something that should be one simple task of going to the gym for 1-1.5 hours, you've overwhelmed yourself before you even got to the gym. Instead, "chunk" it into one outcome. Make it seem easy, because it is. Even when tasks require many steps, when you make seem hard things easy, with momentum on your side, you will accomplish that task and people will be asking you "man, how did you find the time to do that?" And your answer would be, "I don't know. I just did it. It was easy."

Next: Time of Your Life (6 of 10)

Anthony Robbins Diet: Day 25

Day 25: Time of Your Life (4 of 10)

Today, it was about two things. There is a success cycle where when it comes to getting things done, you can either be in a downward cycle or upward cycle. In other words, the rich get richer, and poor get poorer. Not just financially, but in potential, action, results, and beliefs.

Basically, look at 2 types of people. The successful. They have been successful before. So they know they can do something they have already done and are confident about doing something that they haven't done. So with the confidence they go out and do it. And of course, their confidence and action often leads to positive results. And then they are even more confident for the next thing they do. And This cycle just keeps on building on itself. It is a great cycle to be in.

Let's look at the people who have experienced a couple of failures in a row. Because they failed the last few tasks, they don't feel confident, so they take less action, and of course you get less results. And you get less confident until you are feeling like you just can't anything done, so you don't even try. So you have no results. So you are just not doing anything. And so that you escape the feeling of insignificance, you find things to occupy the mind and make things that have nothing to do with your future your primary focus.

How can you change you downward spiral to an upward spiral? AR offers a simple solution. Just experience the success emotionally before you accomplish it. Reality is the experience, and if you can imagine clear enough, your body won't know the difference.

There is a powerful message here. I've been doing AR's Hour of Power here and there. I know how amazing I can feel by the end of it. And I've been using it as a tool to make my self feel better, or get motivated for a moment. But I should really do it everyday for the success cycle.

The other message was we shouldn't try to be just good in today's society. Even being great doesn't cut it anymore. We should all try to be outstanding in everything we do. Set that standard for yourself.

Next: Time of Your Life (5 of 10)

Anthony Robbins Diet: Day 24

Day 24: Time of Your Life (3 of 10)

In life, you have roles for yourself and others. Your roles may be something like father, son, brother, leader, protector, strategist, etc. You can trace every action you take to a role that you've placed on yourself. The message is, instead of being focused only in the action, get behind the reason why you're doing it so that you plan it better, become more well rounded in tasks you're missing out, and do it with more passion. First you must change your perspective on your roles if you are viewing it in a negative way. For example, you might have a label for yourself as "the pincushion for everyone's problems." Instead, create an empowering labels for these roles so you are excited about the tasks at hand. Instead of the pincushion, be a "lifter of the human spirit".

Tomorrow is a continuation of what to do with these roles. Excited about what's coming up next.

Next: Time of Your Life (4 of 10)

Anthony Robbins Diet: Day 23

Day 23: Time of Your Life (2 of 10)

I think this session was valuable, but it could have been done a few minutes. Probably didn't need the whole 90 minutes. The first message was, stop spending your time on things that are not important. Sometimes, you trick yourself thinking it is important when it's not because you're in reaction to the urgency. Don't get seduced by urgency. If you want to live without stress, be proactive. Do things that are important but not urgent. This way, when important and urgent things come up, you have the time and energy to devote to the emergency.

The second message is spending time on things you cannot control. For example, dwelling on the past, or things/people you can't influence. Don't do it because it is a pure waste of your time and energy. A good use of your time is spending time on things you can and want to influence, and things you have control over. The most efficient use of your time is spending time in things you control because it is something you can decide to do and just do it.

The overall message is, if you want more time, you can have it by not wasting time on things that don't matter or that you cannot control. Now did that take 90 minutes to explain? No, maybe...although there will be some listeners that Anthony Robbins has a lot of influence over, and there are some that he has little influence over. And to influence the most amount of possible, he has to take the time.

List - Beliefs to live by (I will keep adding to this list)
28. You can't build on failure. You can only build on success.

Next: Time of Your Life (3 of 10)

Anthony Robbins Diet: Day 22

Day 22: Time of Your Life (1 of 10)

This entire 90 minute session was all about power of focus. There is some NLP mixed in there. I've practiced envisioning the future, and made sure it was the brightest and clearest as possible, and it is a good technique. But I've realized that I don't do it as much as I should. I used to do this a lot and it would motivate me and made sure my end product was the highest quality I could produce. Another thing about the power of focus is that even though the focus he's talking about is what you're paying attention to in your mind or in the physical world, he's also talking about what you're working on improving.

Focus = The part of your life that you're working on improving. For example: "What are you focusing on your life right now? Career? Family?"
Focus = What you are thinking about/concentrating on at the moment. For example: "Today is a beautiful day. It is a privilege to live in this city and enjoy the warmth of the sun."

Master these to aspects of focus, and you make maximum use of your time. Anyone would rather have 10 seconds of pure enjoyment after working hard 10 hours that day, rather than 10 hours of wasted time. If you asked the person that worked hard all day, how the day was, the person would probably say fantastic, if they chose to focus on the 10 seconds of pure enjoyment they experienced. And that acknowledgement alone, would probably carry that person's mood positively, throughout the day. And could it be that the person that got the 10 seconds of pure enjoyment, focused on his outcome, so that the 10 hours of felt like less than an hour. And because this person is great at focusing on the right things, he feels fulfilled for having a day where something good that happened that may even contribute to his growth as a person. In contrast, look at the person that wasted 10 hours sitting at his desk. He probably had a terrible day, because all he can remember is how long the 10 hours of doing nothing felt. And how the 10 hours felt like 20 hours because he was staring at the clock all day. And because he could not focus his energy at an activity, he makes no progress in anything and is not fulfilled. I know I'm just rambling, but wow, I understand why focus matters so much. It is everything from how you're making yourself feel now, later, and in the future.

So what I can take away from this is a question for myself.
What can I focus on right now to make myself feel great now, later, and in the future? I should be working for Tony Robbins. :)

Next: Time of Your Life (2 of 10)

Anthony Robbins Diet: Day 16-21

Anthony Robbins Diet: Day 16-21
Day 15: Time of Your Life (Prep)

I watched the Time of Your Life DVD. It was mostly a commercial about RPM Life Planner and Time of Your Life audio program. It was a bit cheesy. An actress pretending to be millionaire/billionaire businessness woman on a yacht? I'm sure it was meant to be humorous.

I've put together a OPA/RPM Life Planner. This took a few days of work. I thought instead of buying a $200 planner, I should just put it together myself and save some money, and maybe committing this effort will also mean that I commit myself to using this planner. It would be a shame to spend 2 days making my own planner, and spend less than time filling it (as I have in the past with planners I've bought.) Plus, I decided to make my own journals. On the top of the journals, I put 1 of 4 of my favorite quotes of all time.

"Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming." - John Wooden

"When you talk about something, it's a dream. When you envision it, it's exciting. When you plan it, it's possible. But, when you schedule it, it's real." - Anthony Robbins

"Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows." - Michael Landon

Can't wait to starting using my RPM Life Planner.

I've also listened to the following PowerTalks during this time:

Coach John Wooden
John Wooden lives and teaches simple but powerful values, if everyone adopted, will become great individuals. There is no shame in losing to a better opponent. There is no pride for winning against a lesser opponent. You can win and be proud every day of your life if you know you did your best on a daily basis.

Dr. Deepak Chopra
Some of the things he says seem too out there for me, but I don't disagree either. Having lived in Korea where there is free basic healthcare. From what I experienced, they focus on the root of the problem. And all I can remember in the US is the doctors focusing on the symptoms. So basically, you rely on medications for the rest of your life, and eventually you die of complications from the medicine like damage to the liver. Dr. Deepak Chopra is saying don't rely on these toxic medicines. The body can heal itself in most cases and has been doing it for as long as humans have existed. And if you're going to let your body do it on its own, you have to do it with the right state of mind because the brain triggers these responses. Amazing stuff.

Dr. Robbert Cialdini
Great for learning about powerful sales strategies. Stuff like this makes me realize how trying to reason with a good salesman is trying to argue with a Jedi master. You are so outmatched you don't even know what you're getting into. Learn some powerful strategies and use it to your advantage.

The Power of Life Metaphor
There are 2 major ways we use analogies or metaphors. There are good uses of analogies. For example, when you want to explain something, you can use an analogy with things that people are familiar with so they understand your point. There is also a bad way to use analogies. People use analogies to visualize their situation worse than it actually is. For example, someone will say, "it is as if that person ripped my heart out, and stomped on it." And that visualization makes you even feel even worse. It's like negative NLP. If that really happened, you'd be dead. And you're not dead.

Dr. Warren Farrell
This was really a fantastic listen if you want to understand the mechanics of a the modern courting process and marriage relationship. It is radically different than it has been 40 years ago. Why we have these rituals, beliefs, and why men start to feel like they are slaves to their jobs, and why women feel like they are slaves to their children. Basically, married men, to get more love from their families, they work harder, become slaves to their work, which creates further distance from the very thing he's trying to get. And because of this sacrifice, they feel that the family owes him for the sacrifice he's making. The wife, out of the desire to feel more love from the family, sacrifice their jobs and career, and enslave themselves to the family. And because the woman has sacrificed, they feel the man owes them for the sacrifice that they've made. They've both feel like they've trapped in a situation that just keeps on getting worse. To free each other from this there needs to be a mutual understanding of the plight of your partner.

Next: Time of Your Life (1 of 10)

Anthony Robbins Diet: Day 15

Day 15: Get the Edge (7 of 7)

The purpose of my life is to make my unique contribution to this world by giving my all. Through my contribution, I will get enormous recognition that will meet my needs for significance, grow by experiencing and conquering new challenges, and it will provide all the money that I'll ever need to give myself the time and the opportunity to innovate, plan, and execute all the while enjoying the process at it's fullest.

Beliefs to live by (I will keep adding to this list)
26. With certainty and the right plan, you can achieve anything.
27. Your income is in direct proportion to your contribution.

Decisions/Musts (Strict rules that I live by):
10. Stop blaming everyone else. I must change now, no matter what. Do things daily to put change forward in motion to break the pattern.
11. "Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows." ― Michael Landon
12. If you violate rules your rules in life and win (positive reinforcement of action against your rules in life) , you lose your dignity and you will never win the game of life.

Next: Time of Your Life (Prep)

Anthony Robbins Diet: Day 14

Day 14: Get the Edge (6 of 7)

Beliefs to live by (I will keep adding to this list)
26. With certainty and the right plan, you can achieve anything.
27. Your income is in direct proportion to your contribution.

Decisions/Musts (Strict rules that I live by):
10. Stop blaming everyone else. It is going to change now, no matter what. Do things daily to put change forward in motion to break the pattern.

Next: Get the Edge (6 of 7)

Anthony Robbins Diet: Day 13

Day 13: Get the Edge (5 of 7)

Wow, this was an eye opening and mind blowing session. I've been pretty good at changing my state when I'm not experiencing negative emotions. But I've totally forgot about the lessons from this day of Get the Edge that I listened to 5 years ago.

Negative actions are actually "action signals."
What people end up doing when they experience negative emotions is just react, and usually not in the best way. The general rule of thumb on what you should do with action signals.
1. Identify and appreciate this negative emotion.
2. Clarify what I want or what do I want to feel?
3. Take action. Change perception or procedure.

1. Discomfort - Figure out what I want, and take action to get comfortable.
2. Fear - Get prepared so you can feel confident.
3a. Hurt Type 1 - It is the feeling of loss. Change the perception.
3b. Hurt Type 2 - Failed expectation you had from others. Change perception or change procedure.
3c. Hurt Type 3 - A violation of values. Change perception or procedure.
4. Anger - A violation of values (Amplified version of Hurt Type 3). Change perception or procedure.
5. Frustration - Be flexible, change your procedure because what you have been doing is not working.
6. Disappointment - Expected outcome seems no longer possible. Change perception, find new solution so that the outcome is again possible or change expectations.
7. Guilt or Regret - You've violated your own values. Take action so you never violate your own values again.
8. Inadequacy - Go work on yourself because you know you could be better but you are not there yet.
9. Overload, Overwhelm, Hopelessness, Depression - Get clear on what is the must and what is just desire in the situation. Prioritize, and take action.
10. Loneliness - Lacking social connection/love. Go get it.

Next: Get the Edge (6 of 7)

Anthony Robbins Diet: Day 12

Day 12: Get the Edge (4 of 7)

I've seen Fat Sick and Nearly Dead, and I got motivated to do a juice fast. Unfortunately, I did not go through with it. And it wasn't a juice fast. I just wanted to replace juice as one of my meals. Unfortunately, I just ended up drinking juice supplemental to all of my meals. And I didn't really see too many benefits from it. But listening to Get the Edge Day 4, it was all about the juice fast (and more). And he described something that I observed naturally. When I was doing a juice fast or similarly, when I forgot to drink coffee for a day and my body begins detoxifying, my body felt highly acidic. He explained why this happens, and it was a good insight. I'm always trying to understand what my body was doing. Anyway, when my body feels acidic, it feels so bad to a point where I feel that if someone hadn't invented Alkaseltzer, I wouldn't know how I would get through the day.

I've also been thinking maybe I should just get rid of coffee in my life. I feel it is an unnatural way of changing the biochemistry on my body. Probably not the best thing. But maybe not at the moment. I feel that it helps with my coding, and that a lot of my work seems to be done at a cafe these days. I wouldn't feel right about going to a cafe, and just taking up space without even buying coffee.

I was also thinking about what I heard from the Deepak Chopra PowerTalk the other day. How our minds control our body reactions. And could it be that my body becomes overly acidic, as learned responses from when I heard Get the Edge the first time about 4-5 years ago? I currently have problems with white sugar and processed flour where I get terrible acid reflux. Not all the time, but often when I ingest white sugar. Has this condition got worse over the last 5 years? Or has the mental conditioning just gotten stronger in the last 5 years? What is really going on here. I do remember having what felt like dehydration headaches in the past. I feel that I am in tune with my body much more so now than 5 years ago. Not sure what is correct. Is my belief giving me acid reflux? Or is it the sugar? Have I always had this condition and I just have a better understanding of how my body works? Or is this something I brought on myself? Wow, what a mindfuck. Both sound 100% right, but only one hypothesis is correct.

Next: Get the Edge (5 of 7)

Anthony Robbins Diet: Day 11 (Part 2)

Day 11: Get the Edge (3 of 7) Part 2

List - Beliefs to live by (I will keep adding to this list)
25. If all you gained was knowledge, and you never used what you learned, you have failed to learn. Only true learning comes from action.

Next: Get the Edge (4 of 7)

Anthony Robbins Diet: Day 11 (Part 1)

Day 11: Get the Edge (3 of 7) Part 1

List - Beliefs to live by (I will keep adding to this list)
24. The purpose of all relationships is to magnify the human experience.

Decisions/Musts (Strict rules that I live by):
9. I am not a person that unders how everything works but fails to practice what I preach. I hold myself to a higher standard than anyone else expects from me by walk ingthe walk. And not only do I walk it, I finish everything that I start because that is who I am.

Next: Get the Edge (3 of 7) Part 2

Anthony Robbins Diet: Day 10 (Part 2)

Day 10: Get the Edge (2 of 7) Part 2

List - Beliefs to live by (I will keep adding to this list)
22. The hardest part of working out is getting to the gym. Once you get there, you have the momentum, and you realize what took so long to get there in the first place.
23. "Most people's lives are a direct reflection of the expectations of their peer group. Love your family, but pick your peer group." - Anthony Robbins

Next: Get the Edge (3 of 7)

Anthony Robbins Diet: Day 10 (Part 1)

Day 9: Get the Edge (2 of 7) Part 1

List - Beliefs to live by (I will keep adding to this list)
20. Live by a higher standard. I demand more from myself than anyone expects from me.
21. Don't use softners. Be honest with myself when I analyze if I won or lost. I can win every game if I give it my all. I don't win when I don't deserve it.

Decisions (Strict rules to live by):
7. There is nothing to be ashamed of about losing to an opponent. There is something to be ashamed about not doing the best that I could have done.
8. Never get in momentum of procrastonation. Always get in momentum of my goals at hand.

Next: Get the Edge (2 of 7) Part 2

Anthony Robbins Diet: Day 9

Day 9: Personal Power Classic (7 of 7)

I had a massive realization today. I used to be a RPM and Chunking specialist but I had no idea I was doing it. It was something I definitely learned from Get the Edge, but somehow I had dissassociated it with RPM and Chunging. But I believe that it is a large reason why I was able to do so much when I started my last business. And not doing it, is the reason why I feel like the smallest tasks today feel like the largest tasks. For example I can drop off a package at the post office, and I feel like I've done my big deed for the day.

So basically, chunk it. Look at what people would normally look at as complex tasks, but look at it as simple tasks. And if you really believe in it, you'll just get it done with momentum. After I've chunked it, use RPM. RPM is just a specific way of using the power of questions to get tasks done and accomplish goals.

RPM is basically:
What do I really want? Add "and enjoy the process".
Why do I want it?
What must I do to make this happen?

I used to do this all the time. It is again how I do things.

List - Beliefs to live by (I will keep adding to this list)
19. Use the power of questions. Ask and you shall receive.

Decisions (Strict rules to live by):
6. Chunk it, and use RPM to not get overwhelmed by the simplest tasks, and do seemingly complex tasks accomplished quickly.

These last 2 days have been amazing. I've been looking for what used to make me so productive, and why I have not been. And I believe I found it. Maybe there's more!

Next: Get the Edge (2 of 7)

Anthony Robbins Diet: Day 8

Day 8: Personal Power Classic (6 of 7)

Breakthrough alert! I've listened to "The Driving Force" many times which was a part of the bonus PowerTalk at the end of Personal Power II. I understood needs 1-4 (Stability, Variety, Connection/Love, Significance) very well. But I never truly understood needs 5-6, Growth and Contribution. I always thought happiness was the endgame to everything that we do. This is how I understood life, but I had a breakthrough realization just recently. Life is not about being happy all the time. The search for happiness and get out of being unhappy (aka the need to experience pleasure and avoid pain Tony would say) is what drives us. As happiness is concerned, only 2 things matter. Growth and LC=BP. To say life is good or that you are happy with an aspect of your life, your life conditions needs to equal your blueprint (LC = BP). So for example, if your blueprint for a successful family is living in a particular house, and having x amount of kids, and have it be a particular way) and you have that, then you can say life is good. And you would say that you are happy. If that was your blueprint, but it is not what you have, then you won't be happy. The other thing to happiness is that LC might equal BP now, but you won't sustain your happiness unless your life keeps growing and improving. So no matter how good your life is, you don't keep growing as a person, or your life doesn't improve in some way, then you will eventually be unhappy. Until just recently I didn't understand the importance of growth. But now I see that growth is one of the highest priorities in life. If you're happy, you will be unhappy in the future if you don't grow so should plan your life around growing as a person. And you shouldn't just plan your life around it, you should lead others in your life so that they are growing as well. With all that said, I do not understand need 6, contribution. Sure, contribution sounds like a good idea, but I do not feel that in my heart to be one of the basic human needs. Maybe it is a higher level of need. After I have the basic needs met 1-5, maybe contribution will feel like a basic need for life. I'm sure I'll get there as I continue this journey through personal development. It took me 6 years from hearing that growth is a need to realizing it at a level where I see it like seeing the code in the Matrix.

In conclusion, if you are not happy, it is because your life conditions doesn't equal how you pictured your life to be at the current time. So go out and get it. If you get to a point where your LC = BP, then plan your life around growth. It could be on anything. A skill, your job, money, social network, spirituality, knowledge, etc.

List - Beliefs to live by (I will keep adding to this list)

17. Plan your life, and lives of people in your life, around growth.

18. Turn class 2 experiences to class 1 experiences.

I'll probably touch more on this later, but I realized I've kinda forgot about this matrix. I should be evaluating things I do to maximize my productivity. I think I'm mature now that I no longer do class 4 experiences. But I'm sure I do class 3 experiences often. But as long as I am conscious about the experience being a class 3, I have the will power to stop myself. But to truly become productive is to turn class 2 experiences to class 1 experiences. The best example for this is exercise. And I'm sure people have applied this to working, studying, and even household chores.

Experience Class Matrix

	Class 1	Class 2	Class 3	Class 4
Feels good	Yes	No	Yes	No
Is good for you	Yes	Yes	No	No
Is good for others	Yes	Yes	No	No
Serves the greater good	Yes	Yes	No	No

Next: Personal Power Classic (7 of 7)

Anthony Robbins Diet: Day 7

Day 7: Personal Power Classic (5 of 7)

List - Beliefs to live by (I will keep adding to this list)
16. Set goals 2x a year. Review goals once a month. Review top goals daily.

Next: Personal Power Classic (6 of 7)

Anthony Robbins Diet: Day 6

Day 6: Personal Power Classic (4 of 7)

For effective and lasting change, I have been good at finding the leverage, but what I have not done in the past was to interrupt the pattern, and condition the new behavior. In the past, I did not completely understand these steps, but now I do. Don't make this one of those things where I know how to do something but I don't do it. This is one of the key things to success. Interrupt my pattern and condition the new behavior. Not just for this assignment, but for the rest of my life.

List - Beliefs to live by (I will keep adding to this list)
15. 3 steps to change. Get leverage, interrupt the pattern, condition new behavior and reward.

Decisions (Strict rules to live by):
4. Whenever I want to change any behavior, get leverage, interrupt the pattern, condition new behavior.
5. Above my goals, at the moment, my skill in creating change by interrupting the pattern, and conditioning a new condition is higher priority. Focus on this because it is higher priority.

Next: Personal Power Classic (5 of 7)

Anthony Robbins Diet: Day 5

Day 5: Personal Power Classic (3 of 7)

List - Beliefs to live by (I will keep adding to this list)
12. Change a core belief, and I can make many behaviors for myself for the positive. Find core beliefs to change rather than trying to change behavior.
13. Every decision, whether it be small or big, will affect and direct our lives.
14. Change my neuro-associations to things that I associate pain to.

Next: Personal Power Classic (4 of 7)

Anthony Robbins Diet: Day 4

Day 4: Personal Power Classic (2 of 7)

List - Beliefs to live by (I will keep adding to this list)
11. As much as I am motivated, pain (aka fear) is stopping me. Fear is the only reason, and it is there. Find what the fear is. Associate pain to not following through and pleasure to following through.

Next: Personal Power Classic (3 of 7)

Anthony Robbins Diet: Day 3

Day 3: Personal Power Classic (1 of 7)

List - Beliefs to live by (I will keep adding to this list)
4. Whatever has happened in the past, it does not matter. The past does not equal the future. The future is dictated by the action you take right now.
5. Make decision first. Then take action.
6. Make small changes daily, and it will lead to exponential growth. Eventually, what seemed impossible will become effortless.
7. The clearer the vision, the clearer the goals, the clearer the actions.
8. Spend 5% of your energy on the problem, and spend 95% of your energy on the solution.
9. When you schedule it, it is reality.
10. Problems equal challenges. Challenges are gifts that are given to you for a chance to grow. (Same as #2)

Decisions (Strict rules to live by):
1. I will no longer let my problems dictate my life. My life will be dictated by consistent actions and progress towards exactly what I want out of life.
2. Never again will I be content with less than what I am capable of.
3. Make one commitment a day and grow exponentially.

Next: Personal Power Classic (2 of 7)

Anthony Robbins Diet: Day 2

Day 2: Get the Edge (1 of 7)

List - Beliefs to live by (I will keep adding to this list)
4. I will no longer let my problems dictate my life. My life will be dictated by consistent actions and progress towards exactly what I want out of life.

Next: Personal Power Classic (1 of 7)*
*The "Get the Edge" program suggests after day 1 of "Get the Edge", that you complete 7 days of "Personal Power Classic", then return to day 2 of "Get the Edge".

Anthony Robbins Diet: Day 1

What is the Anthony Robbins' diet? It is something I've made up, and something I've been planning on doing. And it has nothing to do with nutrition, physical exercise, or calories. It is about taking an hour every day to listen to his material, taking his ideas, and committing to live by them wholeheartedly during the course of a diet. And just like a regular diet, some changes you make to your life stick, and some changes revert back if you lose focus. But at the end, you still emerge a better self, and you make incredible gains during the time you're on this diet. And if you're lucky, the changes you make during the diet may become a permanent part of you and you never have to go back. There is nothing to lose and everything to gain. Why not directly work on yourself.

I'm a big believer in Anthony Robbins' ideas. I respect him immensely, but I don't idolize him in any way. The collection of the wisdom he's gathered by putting himself out there and learning by meeting incredible people, the knowledge he preaches are much bigger than him. Just like a normal person, I hear great ideas and wisdom all the time, but how often do I practice it? Imagine, when you hear a belief someone lives by, but instead of taking it lightly where it may or may not shape your beliefs. you consciously used that as a chisel and carved it into you. Imagine the person that would emerge after that process. That's what this journey is going to be for me.

If I cheat on this diet, for example I go against something I said I was no longer gonna do, it doesn't mean I failed. I just need to take notice, and just keep finding ways to stay on track and get side tracked less often. Metaphorically, it just means that I just need to keep chiseling away more definition.

I absolutely believe we only have one chance in life. We don't reincarnate. And technology to transplant our brains into a new body won't be available in our lifetime. We have one chance to experience everything all the great things that this wonderful world has to offer us. It would be an absolute shame to not do everything in your power so that you can experience everything you want to experience in your lifetime.

Currently, I feel that I'm being lazy because I'm not doing much and the smallest tasks feel like the largest tasks. All these tapes are showing me that successful people didn't get to where they are now by being lazy. The hardest working people doesn't necessarily mean they will amount to great successes. And just like I've been a motivated powerhouse of productivity in the past, instead of guilting myself into working hard, instead, get to the root of the problem by getting motivated and guiding myself towards that motivation so that I'm working 18 hours a day 7 days a week motivated and happy that I'm doing it.

Plan
1. Anthony Robbins A&E biography
2. Get the edge & Personal Power Classic (A core self-improvement course)
3. Start using RPM (time management & planning tool)
4. Time of your Life (To get better on managing time)
5. Financial Freedom (Get motivated to do business, and get clear about reasons and goals)
6. Ultimate Business Mastery (video) (So I set-up a better foundation for the company I create)
7. New Money Masters (model the masters of the type of business I want to do)
8. Improve Physical Stamina to work more (so I can work longer hours and have more energy, ultimately so I can be more productive.)
9. Work on Presentation Skills (to do a killer presentation for funding)
10. Work on Leadership Skills (when I make contacts, send the right impression)

Notes: I would like to fit Personal Power II in there somewhere because I believe that it has fundamentals that would help me accomplish everything that I'm doing with all the other courses, yet I don't want to start doing the plan I've created myself a month later, after doing something a course that I've already done but just need a refresher on. I think I'll just do PPII as something on the side, but with my full attention.

Today's Material: (Video) Anthony Robbins - A&E Biography

So as just like what you should do before taking anyone's word wholeheartedly, it is great to get to know about the person. It is so that he establishes more influence for me to believe what he is saying wholeheartedly. That is why I decided to watch this first.

Previously, as much as I've heard Tony's life stories through his material, I never knew much of his upbringing. It was great to learn about how challenging his life was, and how it mirrored my life in many ways. I did find it inspirational that he faced serious adult problems as a teenager, and without him going through that painful process, he would not be the person he would be today. Again, even through a biography produced by someone else, he tells you that he conquered the same problems I am having as a 30 year old with a college degree. He solved these problems as a teenager without having yet graduated high school. I have no excuse to let this problem dictate my life.

I do notice this biography is definitely outdated. I know that Anthony Robbins' is divorced and remarried. The biography was done a few years before his divorce. This doesn't bother me at all. Again, his information is not gospel. He may have the best ideas on a wide array of things, but his information is the best information available today, and not necessarily the best information that you can get tomorrow. I also always felt that his information about the understandings of relationships and chemistry with the opposite sex was not his focus, especially before his divorce. He's always put his career before his relationships. He personally never had to face a problem of finding opportunities for meeting people. That itself is a challenges many. And for this even material from Eben Pagan is light years better than what Anthony Robbins can provide. But after his divorce, I do notice he's absolutely made it a study of how to keep a good relationship, and released numerous programs after this with the help from other relationship experts. I'm sure there is a lot of great info in there and I'll give these a listen too, but after listening to everything else.

List - Beliefs to live by (I will keep adding to this list)
1. People with little to no resources have faced, conquered, and accomplished more than you. You have no excuse to let any problem get in your way. Do whatever it takes.
2. Embrace your life's challenge and be thankful of this opportunity to grow. If everything was easy and handed to you, you would never become the man that you can become.
3. Instead of working hard for the sake of working hard, get to the root of the problem by getting motivated and finding something to motivate myself.

Tomorrow: Get the Edge (1 of 7).

The life as an entrepreneur

I'm 33.5 years old now. And I feel that I am starting from scratch once again. Back in 2006, I had the privilege to start my first real company. And after a year of relentless dedication, I saw the fruits of my labor as we started to generate money from something I created out of nothing. What I never told many people was that the motivation to start and work so hard in creating something came from a few audiobooks that I listened to. First one was Personal Power II by Anthony Robbins. And the other one being John C. Maxwell's 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. I've listened to a lot of audiobooks since, but these 2 were the most important ones for me. The information in Personal Power II, is really incredible stuff. My reasoning was, if he can help Andre Agassi, Serena Williams, Princess Diana, Wayne Gretzky, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Bill Clinton, numerous fortune 500 CEO's, he probably knows something that I don't know. And he probably can get me some pointers.

For me, there were countless mind blowing revelations on how the most successful people in the world empower themselves to get everything they set their mind to, and combat all the things that get in their way. So if you're wondering how I got motivated to literally jump out of bed and work on a company for 18 hours a day, 7 days a week, and sustain that crazy motivation for over a year until I had a product that was ready to sell, there you have it.

The audiobooks I was listening to at the time were telling me, no one achieves success with their first company, and if you try and fail, you just ran a play and it didn't work out. The game is not over as long as you are alive. But as the large checks started rolling in, and we were looking to get a lot more, I kept saying to myself, "wow, I am so fortunate that my first company is successful. I guess I'm one of the lucky ones."

Well, long story short, my first company didn't work out. Many lessons learned. Lessons I would have never learned without going through the process. And by the end of that chapter in my life, I grew as a person immensely. And I'm proud of what I accomplished. But did I jump out of bed the next day saying, "no problem, this is what I'm going to do next"? No. With all the knowledge I've gained on how to handle crisis, no one said experiencing failure after you've given your soul was easy. I took a break for over a year soul searching, traveling, and taught English in Korea for a year. During that time, my dad passed away, and I realized it was time to get back to reality and continue on my journey I had set for myself more than 5 years ago.

The life as an entrepreneur is committing yourself 100% (not 80%, not 99.9%, but 100%), working smart, and working hard until you get what you want. There is no plan B. If plan A doesn't work out after you've given and tried everything, it is only then you make a new plan A. Dust yourself off because life is about to hike the ball to you once again.

I am listening to the audiobooks once again because there are many things I have forgotten about. But I realized that since the information feels more of a refresher, I am not as focused, but I should be. Having great knowledge, but not using it, doesn't really do anything. I am depriving myself the benefits of this information by not being focused. So I plan on using my blog, or at least a private blog, to try to extract every once of what these programs could offer.

This is where I am now. Beginning a new chapter. I'm working on something bigger, better, very different, but incorporating every lesson I've learned along the way. Watch out world!

I'm back to blogging

I used to blog a lot. I'm close to having 1000 entries if you count all the blogs I've started, then replaced because I wanted to start fresh because I would learn something about life and it would be such a powerful realization that it meant that it would be a new beginning.

Probably for a few years though, probably after the invention of twitter, blogging has served a different purpose for me. I stopped blogging essentially, and all my blog posts were about information that I found that was missing from the Internet, and I felt compelled to share that information to make the Internet more complete. That is what makes the Internet great. If it is not there, hopefully someone is willing to share their information. I'm happy to take a part in that process. And then I would do reviews and share my opinion about things. But what I stopped doing was self reflection, and that's always been a big part of how I grew as a person. So I'm going to get back on that.

My analysis of what happened at the series 2 finale of Sherlock.

Spoiler alert.

If you haven't seen it,
and don't want to ruin it,
stop reading here.

You've been warned.

So how did Sherlock fake his own death? He basically pulled off a traditional magic trick. Like any magic trick, you gotta understand that there is no such thing as magic. Magic is only misdirection, letting the minds of the audience follow continuity even when there are breakages in the continuous lines, and the magician going through extraordinary planning that the audience would never expect. Sherlock really jumps off the building, but lands without dying (obviously) on a cushioned surface. The tall buses provide provide cover as well as props to pull this off. People on the ground are in on the act. Even Moriarty notices that there is an unexpected amount of people on the ground, walking around, who would be witnesses to Sherlock's suicide. Molly, Sherlock's doctor friend, supplies a decoy body switch, covered in blood and all. They still would benefit from a little bit of distraction so Sherlock had someone on a bike crash into Watson so that the sniper's attention on Sherlock is distracted. For effect, Watson wasn't in on it. Poor Watson. He will be pissed and relieved that his emotions have been through the wringer.

This meant that Sherlock knew that Moriarty knew all along that he wanted Sherlock to commit suicide by jumping off a building. Why else would he want Sherlock to meet on top of a building anyway. And the death by suicide part was obvious. Moriarty wanted to destroy the public image of Sherlock by painting a picture of a man who couldn't live with himself after people found out he was a fraud.

Food for thought: Being gay is not a choice for the heterosexual man.

A true heterosexual man would never say being gay is a choice. Does a straight man choose to not wear a women's dress because he chooses not to? No, it is because he probably finds the thought naturally conflicting with his essence. It is only a secretly gay man that doesn't find this conflicting with his character that he would say he's not wearing a woman's dress because he chooses not to. It is this man who tries to convince others to choose to not be gay, just like he has.

Not that there is anything wrong with that. I'm glad Prop 8 is getting the boot. I'm tired of people who try to shove their religious beliefs down other people's throats by taking away their rights. Keep your mind on your own f'ing business. Especially when it is about strangers you don't know or will never meet. It is not your job to police something you don't understand. You should use that same focus and energy towards making your own life more righteous because you know you aren't perfect. Clint Eastwood would agree.

How to use Playstation(PS2) controller on your Android to play GTA III

Requirements:
PS2 to USB adapter (I have this working on my Windows 7 x64)
PS2 Controller (Obviously)
JoyToKey (Converts game controller buttons to key strokes on your computer)
Wifi Keyboard (Android App)

Verify that your PS2 controller is talking to your computer
Go to:
Control Panel -> Devices & Printers -> Twin USB Joystick -> (right click) -> Game controller settings -> (depending on what port you've connected the PS2 controller, select the Properties on one of the "Twin USB Joystick"
you should see that the buttons respond. While you are here, I would click on the "ANALOG" button on your PS2 controller and make sure the red light is on.

Map the buttons to keyboard strokes

Open JoyToKey on your computer.
You need to first check these 2 options on JoyToKey under the "Others" tab.
-Use Axes other than X and Y.
-Use POV switches.
If you haven't done so enable ANALOG mode on your PS2 controller.

Go back to the Joysticks tab in JoyToKey, and either select Joystick 1 or Joystick 2 depending on what port you've connected your PS2 controller.

You should map your controllers as shown below.
AxisX(<0) A
AxisX(>0) D
AxisY(<0) W
AxisY(>0) S
Axis3(<0) I
Axis3(>0) K
Axis6(<0) J
Axis6(>0) L
POV1:UP W
POV1:RIGHT D
POV1:DOWN S
POV1:LEFT A
Button 1 4
Button 2 2
Button 3 1
Button 4 3
Button 5 8
Button 6 6
Button 7 5
Button 8 7
Button 9 Enter
Button 10 F5
Button 11 7, 9
Button 12 0

Enable Wifi Keyboard to run in the background
The trick to doing this is selecting it as the input method, and it stays running in the background. Follow the instructions on Wifi Keyboard by going to a URL in your Internet browser. Should be something like http://192.168.1.2:1111 Then select "Game mode" under Keyboard Mode on the web page. Click on the big area to type in called "Android input".

Open the GTA III app and enjoy.