If you’ve never watched PewDiePie on Youtube then I suggest you go check his YoueTube Channel out. The guy is nerdy, funny, smart and just….well, really funny. He’s a gamer and makes videos about gaming, but he’s so much more than that. You don’t have to be into games at all to enjoy watching his videos, I don’t play games at all and still love his videos.
This week PewdiePie made a video called ‘Things I Wish I knew’, which you can see below this text.
The advice is primarily for teenagers however I think a lot of it could apply to everybody in life. Watch the video and see what you think. Whatever you think about it, I can almost guarantee your children will love it, so pass it on to them, but do it such a way as to make your children think you’re not trying to be cool
The post 8 Life Lessons for Teenagers from PewDiePie – Things I Wish I Knew appeared first on Change your thoughts.
“God gave us two ends: One to sit on and one to think with. Success depends on which one you use. Heads you win, tails, you lose.” – Anonymous
Let me guess.
You’re in the midst of chasing your desires. You’re unsure of what exactly you’re chasing, but you’re after dreams larger than yourself.
Greatness awaits you, and you know it. You’re a diamond in the rough waiting to be uncovered from the final layers of soil.
But you’re unsure of how to escape the darkness of the dirt and breach into the light.
You come to the internet seeking advice and inspiration on turning your dreams into reality.
The problem is, most of the advice you find isn’t very good.
The information you get is boring, mundane and obvious. It’s been regurgitated from one article to the next. You’ve heard it all before.
You spend hours clicking through websites looking for someone else to solve your problems, only to walk away feeling disappointed and helpless.
But in reality, it’s your fault. It’s not up to the internet or writers to solve your problems.
It’s up to you.
You expect to find the perfect advice tailored for your situation and then you’ll have the confidence and motivation to do what you need to do.
It’s never gonna happen.
It’s not up to anyone else to motivate you or make your dreams come true.
Once you accept that you can focus on turning those dreams into reality.
The False Victory Of Inspiration
Now that it’s out of our system, I’ll admit I was that guy googling how to be successful or how to be a writer expecting to find motivation and a step by step guide to perfection.
Eventually I’d find an article that gave me instant gratification and inspiration. But I never did anything afterwards. The immediate satisfaction drove me to a screeching halt.
Humans are emotionally wired. When we experience another person doing something mirror neurons fire in our brain, giving us the feeling of action when really we’re only observing.
It’s why we become so invested in movies and sports, our brains place us into the moment. We experience the sensation without any action.
So when I read about someone else’s success my brain ignited a feeling of achievement. Which ultimately led to doing nothing.
Only when I stopped looking for inspiration from others and began looking inward could I truly identify what success meant in my life.
The battle of success comes down to three things: Defining what success means to you, learning from the best and working towards your goal every single day.
These are non-negotiable. Neglect one and you’ll be forever stranded from reaching your max potential.
1. Define Success
“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up some place else.” – Yogi Berra
Modern society has accustomed us to a one size fits all view of success that everyone should desire.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
Having lots of money doesn’t mean you’re successful, true success is about doing what you love and loving what you do.
If you’re rich but miserable, own a business but are unhappy and out of shape, you’re not successful.
You don’t have to know how you’ll get there, but before beginning the journey of success you must gather a picture perfect image of where the trail will lead you.
2. Study The Experts
“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.” – Albert Einstein
The difference between seeking inspiration and studying the experts is you’re not looking for gratification but rather implementing a strategy from those who’ve already accomplished what you desire.
If you’re a writer, learn from people like Stephen King, Jon Morrow and Jeff Goins – Some of the very best at what they do.
Instead of searching what you need to do look for those telling what they did.
Any expert in any field reached their level of success because they followed a system that works. They didn’t waste their time with wannabes and posers, they learned from the best who came before them.
If you want to be the best, you have to learn from the best.
3. No Days Off
“Seventy percent of success is just showing up.” – Woody Allen
Defining what you want is great. Studying the experts allows you to live through their success for the time being, but when it comes to actually doing the work most will saddle up and run back to their safe and boring lives.
The true test to knowing how bad you want what you say you do is how you respond to the following question:
Are you willing to make the necessary sacrifices in your life to make room for doing what matters most?
Not just today and tomorrow, but each and every day from here out.
If you answered anything but yes, stop here, continue with your life as is and never look back. If you’re one of the few who said yes, keep reading.
In the beginning you can’t afford to waste a single moment towards your goals, let alone 24 hours.
Since I started writing I’ve set a requirement to write 1,000 words a day, everyday. No matter what. As long as I can move my hands I can write on my death bed.
Whatever you desire, you must dedicate yourself to doing it everyday.
You won’t be very good at the start, but that’s not the point. Creating a daily habit allows yourself the opportunity to get good.
The difference between the runners who cross the finish line and the spectators cheering them on is the months of training put in before the race.
Your Greatest Success Awaits
“Do or do not. There is no try.” – Yoda
In the end, it comes down to doing the best you can with what you have.
We’re bombarded with so much information you’ll forget most of what you read moments after you finish. Life long inspiration only exists from within.
The way I see it, after you finish this you have two options.
You can keep surfing the web, desperately searching for inspiration while you continue to put your life on hold. Or, you can get to work.
True success isn’t about making a lot of money or having a big house with fancy cars.
It’s about doing what sets your soul on fire, and doing it every single day.
So that when you reach the end of your life you can look back and say nothing ever stopped you from doing what you love most.
One Last Thing
After defining success, studying the best and showing up everyday, the rest is easy.
Nothing I or anyone else says can give you more influential motivation than you can give yourself.
The power is in your hands.
Maybe this all seems like a lot of pressure.
But it’s the same pressure of nature that takes ordinary chunks of coal and transforms them into beautiful diamonds.
George Mortimer packed his van and drove cross country in pursuit of freedom. His goal is to inspire people like you to live life on their own terms. You can start now by downloading his Free Ebook: 5 Steps To Freedom – The Quick & Simple Guide To Creating A Life You Love
The post The Horrible Reality Of Online Success Advice (And How To Be Successful For Real) appeared first on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement.
“God gave us two ends: One to sit on and one to think with. Success depends on which one you use. Heads you win, tails, you lose.” – Anonymous
Let me guess.
You’re in the midst of chasing your desires. You’re unsure of what exactly you’re chasing, but you’re after dreams larger than yourself.
Greatness awaits you, and you know it. You’re a diamond in the rough waiting to be uncovered from the final layers of soil.
But you’re unsure of how to escape the darkness of the dirt and breach into the light.
You come to the internet seeking advice and inspiration on turning your dreams into reality.
The problem is, most of the advice you find isn’t very good.
The information you get is boring, mundane and obvious. It’s been regurgitated from one article to the next. You’ve heard it all before.
You spend hours clicking through websites looking for someone else to solve your problems, only to walk away feeling disappointed and helpless.
But in reality, it’s your fault. It’s not up to the internet or writers to solve your problems.
It’s up to you.
You expect to find the perfect advice tailored for your situation and then you’ll have the confidence and motivation to do what you need to do.
It’s never gonna happen.
It’s not up to anyone else to motivate you or make your dreams come true.
Once you accept that you can focus on turning those dreams into reality.
The False Victory Of Inspiration
Now that it’s out of our system, I’ll admit I was that guy googling how to be successful or how to be a writer expecting to find motivation and a step by step guide to perfection.
Eventually I’d find an article that gave me instant gratification and inspiration. But I never did anything afterwards. The immediate satisfaction drove me to a screeching halt.
Humans are emotionally wired. When we experience another person doing something mirror neurons fire in our brain, giving us the feeling of action when really we’re only observing.
It’s why we become so invested in movies and sports, our brains place us into the moment. We experience the sensation without any action.
So when I read about someone else’s success my brain ignited a feeling of achievement. Which ultimately led to doing nothing.
Only when I stopped looking for inspiration from others and began looking inward could I truly identify what success meant in my life.
The battle of success comes down to three things: Defining what success means to you, learning from the best and working towards your goal every single day.
These are non-negotiable. Neglect one and you’ll be forever stranded from reaching your max potential.
1. Define Success
“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up some place else.” – Yogi Berra
Modern society has accustomed us to a one size fits all view of success that everyone should desire.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
Having lots of money doesn’t mean you’re successful, true success is about doing what you love and loving what you do.
If you’re rich but miserable, own a business but are unhappy and out of shape, you’re not successful.
You don’t have to know how you’ll get there, but before beginning the journey of success you must gather a picture perfect image of where the trail will lead you.
2. Study The Experts
“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.” – Albert Einstein
The difference between seeking inspiration and studying the experts is you’re not looking for gratification but rather implementing a strategy from those who’ve already accomplished what you desire.
If you’re a writer, learn from people like Stephen King, Jon Morrow and Jeff Goins – Some of the very best at what they do.
Instead of searching what you need to do look for those telling what they did.
Any expert in any field reached their level of success because they followed a system that works. They didn’t waste their time with wannabes and posers, they learned from the best who came before them.
If you want to be the best, you have to learn from the best.
3. No Days Off
“Seventy percent of success is just showing up.” – Woody Allen
Defining what you want is great. Studying the experts allows you to live through their success for the time being, but when it comes to actually doing the work most will saddle up and run back to their safe and boring lives.
The true test to knowing how bad you want what you say you do is how you respond to the following question:
Are you willing to make the necessary sacrifices in your life to make room for doing what matters most?
Not just today and tomorrow, but each and every day from here out.
If you answered anything but yes, stop here, continue with your life as is and never look back. If you’re one of the few who said yes, keep reading.
In the beginning you can’t afford to waste a single moment towards your goals, let alone 24 hours.
Since I started writing I’ve set a requirement to write 1,000 words a day, everyday. No matter what. As long as I can move my hands I can write on my death bed.
Whatever you desire, you must dedicate yourself to doing it everyday.
You won’t be very good at the start, but that’s not the point. Creating a daily habit allows yourself the opportunity to get good.
The difference between the runners who cross the finish line and the spectators cheering them on is the months of training put in before the race.
Your Greatest Success Awaits
“Do or do not. There is no try.” – Yoda
In the end, it comes down to doing the best you can with what you have.
We’re bombarded with so much information you’ll forget most of what you read moments after you finish. Life long inspiration only exists from within.
The way I see it, after you finish this you have two options.
You can keep surfing the web, desperately searching for inspiration while you continue to put your life on hold. Or, you can get to work.
True success isn’t about making a lot of money or having a big house with fancy cars.
It’s about doing what sets your soul on fire, and doing it every single day.
So that when you reach the end of your life you can look back and say nothing ever stopped you from doing what you love most.
One Last Thing
After defining success, studying the best and showing up everyday, the rest is easy.
Nothing I or anyone else says can give you more influential motivation than you can give yourself.
The power is in your hands.
Maybe this all seems like a lot of pressure.
But it’s the same pressure of nature that takes ordinary chunks of coal and transforms them into beautiful diamonds.
George Mortimer packed his van and drove cross country in pursuit of freedom. His goal is to inspire people like you to live life on their own terms. You can start now by downloading his Free Ebook: 5 Steps To Freedom – The Quick & Simple Guide To Creating A Life You Love
The post The Horrible Reality Of Online Success Advice (And How To Be Successful For Real) appeared first on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement.
This is a shot from many years ago, while on a little weekend trip to Mount Rainier with my friends Miles Morgan and David Thompson. The trip was fun, but the shooting didn’t come as easy as we would have liked. This image was taken on the last morning of our trip, a morning that we didn’t really think we’d be shooting due to the dense fog and low visibility. Fortunately the mountain made a brief appearance towards the end of sunrise and I was able to fire off a few series of images before it all went belly-up again.
This one was one of my first attempts at perspective blending back in the day… before I knew that it was even a thing. In this I utilized two different focal lengths to achieve the look I was after. I shot the foreground/midground areas at 16mm (focus stacked with 5 focus points) to get that “wide angle” look, then panned slightly upward and zoomed in to about 24mm and photographed the mountain/background to bring it in a little closer. The stitching was done by hand after some warping, masking together the different focal lengths across where the midground and background meet. After all the tedious blending was done, it was my standard approach of working the light with some dodge/burn layers, some luminosity masking to balance the tonal values throughout, some texture work, and some color work painted in by hand. A couple hours of work total. This may be a bit over the top for some, but I quite like the surreal look in this one.
Anyways, I recently released a new post-processing instructional video. It’s packed with some unique techniques and theories about processing you may not find anywhere else. People seem to really be enjoying the videos and have had nothing but great things to say, so I *think* they are helping people… it’s been awesome to see the many before/after shots people have been emailing me. Be sure to check the videos out if you are into that sort of thing. It’s all on my website, as well as more photos, photo tour info, processing instruction via Skype like everyone else is doing, etc, etc.
2015 Tour Schedule
Arctic Light Workshop – With Arild Heitmann (FULL)
Processing Tutorial Videos
Processing Instruction via Skype
via 500px http://ift.tt/1FkUs65
Are you sad to hear people you care about calling you “a Stoic”? It might be time for you to refine your philosophy and show them how much the Stoic you are, love them and care for them.
Among the different schools of philosophy, Stoicism is one of the least understood. Yet, Stoics were among the most rationale and practical people of their time and we still have a lot to learn from them. Sadly, nowadays, the word “stoic” is generally used in a somewhat negative way describing someone who refuses to complain or show his feelings. Stoics certainly advocated a rather ascetic way of life but is it what Stoicism is solely about?
In this article, I would like to share with you, three Stoic principles that you can apply in your daily life in order to live, not a “stoic” and somewhat boring life, but a joyful life.
Stoics appreciate what they have and refuse to take anything for granted
One of the greatest sources of our unhappiness is our inability to be grateful for what we have. Stoics perfectly understood that and tricked their mind to fight against that natural tendency. One of the methods they used is negative visualization. They didn’t focus on what they wanted to have trying to visualize it to make it more real, instead they focused on the things they had and valued the most and imagined losing them.
Try to imagine right now how you would feel if your children, your partner or your parents just died today. What do you wish you had done for them today? Did you really show them appreciation and tell them how much you love them today?
Epictetus recommends that whenever we kiss our child, we silently remind ourselves that he/she might die tomorrow, or that whenever we part with a friend, we tell ourselves that it might be the last time we see him or her.
If you can fully appreciate everything you have right now in your life by reflecting on a regular basis on the possibility to lose them, then the loss of a loved one or of anything else you value will be less painful as you will have little regrets.
Are you fully appreciating everything you have in your life right now?
Stoics use self-deprecating humor to protect themselves
How do you react when people insult you or make fun of you? How do you think a Stoic in Ancient Greek would have react? One way he would have reacted is by laughing at himself.
Laughing off an insult is one of the most powerful ways to react to it. By doing so, you show to the insulter that you don’t take him seriously; you don’t give him any power.
I personally love this technique and like to use it whenever necessary. If you are able to make fun of yourself more than your insulter, you will never be troubled again and your offender will feel powerless.
What about you? Can you make fun of yourself? If not, what is holding you back?
Stoics focus on what they can change
Stoics refused to waste time thinking about things over which they had no control at all. They thought our time and energy ought to be spent only on things over which we did have control. For that reason, they advocated for a total acceptance of the past and the present, as it is useless to dwell on a past that cannot be changed or to refuse to embrace a present that is happening right now in front of us. They would forbid you to use sentences like “if only I had done this or that then…” or “I wish I told him how much I loved him before he suddenly died in this car accident”.
They carefully separated things over which they had control from things over which they had no control. For instance, we have complete control over our attitude and our values. We also have control over the goals we set for ourselves. However, we have no control over most of the things that happen in the external world.
Epictetus said we should set goals that are easy to achieve or even certain to be achieved and over which we have control. When setting goals a Stoic would likely focus on the process rather than on the outcome. From a Stoic point of view, it makes more sense to focus on doing the best you can at whatever you do, than on trying to be promoted, win the game or become a millionaire, as you have no guarantee you will achieve these goals.
Are you focusing mainly on the outcome or are you focus more on enjoying the process and doing the best you can to achieve your goals?
Among these three Stoic principles, which one are you going to start using in your life from today?
Thibaut Meurisse is the founder of whatispersonaldevelopment.org. Obsessed with improvement, he dedicates his life to finding the best possible ways to durably transform both his life and the lives of others. He just released a free e-book “The 5 Commandments of Personal Development”. Visit his website to discover the 5 principles you must master in order to live a full life.
The post 3 Stoic Principles That Will Help You Live A Joyful Life appeared first on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement.
Sig Nordal 