Archive for November, 2006

Unleash Your Creativity

Thursday, November 16th, 2006

If you’re somewhat creative, then you know that following conventional norms is most likely not the best way to go about living your life.  If you conform to all these supposed standard ways of living, then you will be stifling the creative person that you are.  And this will lead to an array of unfulfillment and regrets.  I really can’t state enough that following what you feel you should be doing in life is the best thing you can possibly do, especially if you have a unique approach to doing so.

I realize that sometimes people don’t know what it is they want to do with their lives.  It’s not an easy decision to make.  Sometimes you may feel that there are too many possibilities.  And you feel pressured to make a choice, but I think the common flaw is that most people look to external phenomena when they should be looking inside to determine what it is they should do with their life.  Everything I write comes from within myself.  It doesn’t come from any external conditioning.  I try and create value by looking deep inside me and just letting the thoughts pour out.  That is why I value journaling so much as a problem-solving tool.

But if you are a creative person, then why not get creative in all facets of your life, regardless of whether or not you have a definite purpose for your life?  If you feel you could make money is a fun and creative way, then go for it.  I’m going to start experimenting with this.  I have some items I’m going to sell on eBay to bring in some extra cash, at least enough to supplement my meager income from the grocery business.  My main goal is to make enough money consistently to not need to have a regular job through multiple income streams.  I’ve been working on a book I’m writing.  You can get the excerpt here.  I’m enjoying creating this person, this entity, that is so different from anything I’ve ever read and inspires me to write more and more about.  I’m also working on improving my drawing skills so that I can start drawing some funny cartoons/comics.  I’m becoming more of who I know I am.

I feel that if I can unleash my creativity to the extent I want to, I will be able to have some amazing ideas that will lead to many endeavors that will unlock everything I could dream of.

Having the ability to entertain yourself is very valuable.  This way, you never feel bored.  I could not leave my house in over a year and I’d never be bored.  I get more bored when I’m at work because there is no time to think of good ideas.  I can go on vacations without ever going anywhere.  Having a creative mind is so valuable.  If we all could see that, we’d all be off the dreaded drug called TV.  How many of you have taken the time to read a book in the last month?  It’s so much easier to watch the movie, isn’t it?  But there’s no thinking involved when you watch a movie, just passive watching.

I must credit my creativity from my early reading. I used to read about a 160 page book a day when I was in elementary school.  I read many of the classic books, as well as the Goosebumps series.  I read the Chronicles of Narnia, and other very creativity-centered books.  They allow the mind to wander.  I enjoy stimulating my mind much more than stimulating my body through watching TV.

So if you want to be creative, just start thinking.  Once I decided to be creative again, my dreams became so vivid I could almost touch them.  I remember the most minute details from them.  It’s almost like my mind works 24 hours a day and I am allowed to think of ideas even when I’m unconscious.  It’s a pretty cool feeling.  I have the power, just like you, to become a creative genius.  We all have talents, but most times they go unnoticed because you’re stifled by “real life.”  They say that your creativity shrinks in size as you get older.  Don’t let that happen.   Grab it while you can.  And live the life of non-boredom.
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Dreaming of the Future

Thursday, November 16th, 2006

Who here has ever wondered what it would be like to dream constantly?  You constantly have your dreams and aspirations in your mind.  You never let them go.  You are constantly reaffirming where you are headed.  This would be a great way to live, wouldn’t it?

But we don’t live like this in the real world.  We more or less have outside distractions that ultimately take us away from where we want to go.  This is why I am definitely trying harder every day to limit my distractions or enhance my way of dealing with distractions.  This way, I will be able to handle anything that comes my way. We’re all going somewhere.  Some people are going to do something big with their lives, while others leave those decisions up to others, but inevitably you are in control of your life, to some extent.  Sure, there are outside influences, but I think being able to deal with these circumstances that makes you a success.

You hear stories about people who triumph over adversity.  We here them all the time.  And there was usually one driving force in all of these people.  They refused to give up, even after a major setback.  They had a vision in their mind of what should be and they knew it was impossible to fail, eventually. And this is the mindset that is desirable.  We want to have a mindset of inevitable success, but sometimes fear or other internal or external influences hold us back.  But if we take personal responsibility for our lives, then we can work from there.

If you’re at an unfulfilling job, it’s because you put yourself there.  If you hate your boss, it’s because of your attitude towards him/her.  There are two ways to look at the world.  There’s the optimistic way and the pessimistic way.  There’s the people who will quit after one failure and then there ar ethe people who keep pressing on, even after dozens of failures.  It’s not because they’re already successful, but it’s because they have the mindset of already being successful.  I think that’s the key.

One of my goals for the next five to ten years is to make one million dollars.  It’s definitely attainable and if I really focus on it and not the opposite, I know I can do it.  Many other people have, so why not me?  And I’m not doing it for greed.  I’m doing it for freedom and to be able to express myself in different ways, regardless the amount of money it generates.  I want to try interesting projects and different schools of thought.  I want to work very extensively with my creativity and see where the limits are.  There are so many things I want to do, and I’m doing some of them now, but eventually, I hope to have enough money where I can pursue all of these things all the time without having to worry about covering my survival needs.

No matter how much money I have, I don’t think my lifestyle will improve with respect to material possessions.  I will be much more giving, I suppose, to causes I care about and to people in my family.  I will be able to take the people I care about out to dinner and be able to talk about what I’m doing with all this “free time.”  But it won’t be free time.  It will be time I fill with many rigorous activities that will allow me to be even more of who I am.  So, let me state my goal in bold italics at the bottom of this post so they really stand out:

I intend to be a millionaire so that I can give more to causes I support and also my family, to explore my creativity and pursue projects that fulfill me, and also to have the freedom of not having a regular job. (I know I’m not normal.  So having a normal job doesn’t seem like an option, now does it?)

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Funny Living

Tuesday, November 14th, 2006

I’d like to get right down to the point.  People who have a sense of humor have a better life.  Especially if they can laugh in the most awful circumstances imaginable.  Just a thought…

Maybe it’s because you’re allowing yourself to make light of any situation.  You’re allowing outside things not to influence your inner state of being.  I don’t know, I’m not you.  But for me, having a sense of humor through tough times has definitely given me an edge when it comes to laughing at things that most people would stress over.  I realize that in a proper perspective, the things that stress you out so much are not that bad.  If you look at how you’ll think of this in ten years or what someone in another country thinks of your problem, you’ll most likely laugh at the fact that you’re stressed out about it.  This is what people don’t do anymore.  They don’t realize that even if the world were to explode today, through the universe’s eyes, it’s not a big deal.  So maybe your little problem at work isn’t going to bring an end to the universe.  Even if you’re unemployed and feeling depressed, laugh at the fact that you don’t have a job and enjoy the time you have off, even if you don’t have money to spend.  LIfe is too short to not laugh.

I make it a habit to laugh a bit every day.  I don’t watch TV anymore, but I get my laughter from other people, stories they tell, and whenever I get stressed out, I look to my perspectives and I just laugh about whatever it is I’m stressed about.  I look at the world one way.  And it’s certainly superior to looking at the world as a dangerous place where you could die at any second.  Even if that is true, you can laugh about it.  It’s not that big a deal anyway in the proper perspective.

And no, I’m not insane, even though at times I may appear to be.  Laughing at things that other people would get pissed off about is not something that irrational.  Laughter is tension relief and it’s worked for me and it’s made me feel good.  So I’m not going to say it’s bad to laugh when you almost die, which most people do.  I remember hearing a story about how three women smashed into a guardrail in their car and spun 180 degrees around and was facing another car, but they never hit each other.  Two seconds ater it happened, the women in that car just started laughing hysterically.  You see, laughter is something that people do when they feel stressed or scared.  It helps quite a bit.

I want people to laugh more.  That is one of my life’s goals.  I also want them to think more as well.  And if we can combine that laughing and the thinking for themselves, then we will have a race of amazing people.  So, please don’t stifle your laughter, it’s what makes you unique and will help you live a better life.  And it’s from the bad things that you should derive the most laughter from.  After all, that’s where you need it the most.

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An Excerpt From My Book

Monday, November 13th, 2006

As you may or may not know, I am currently writing a book about a man who goes into complete solitude in order to escape the pressures of society and he envisions the way the world is supposed to work in the following passage:

“I’m just having trouble overcoming this fear of society. Sure, it’s nice to live in solitude and I’ve made a lot of progress in many areas, but it’s becoming integrated in a society that is so preoccupied with material wealth and superficiality that stifles me from doing so. I’m not of material gain. I care more about the inside of a person than the outside. But society conditions us to look on the outside and take possessions over knowledge. That’s one reason I got away. There is no more value in truth. The value is in creating a life that others would envy, whether or not the life is true. It’s all about ego. Ego and the gratification of that ego. But when you live alone for as long as I have, the go pretty much disappears. You no longer are your birth name. You just become an entity. You don’t really have a specific ego because you are no longer trying to impress people. There is no drive to do so, especially by telling falsehoods. You learn to get by from being an honest and loving person, even if the only person you love is yourself. It’s not that I fear society, I fear the fact that if I were to become part of it once again, I’d be considered the weird one, the one who doesn’t conform to conventional normalities. People will wonder if I’m completely insane or if I’m some sort of serial killer. The things I do will be suspicious in a world bombarded with fear. Even if I were doing activities that resembled Jesus, people would pass me off as a crazy man because no one acts like that anymore.

And it’s a shame no one does. We’ve isolated ourselves anyway. Most people get up, go to work, and then go back home in their safe little house. So it’s not like I’m doing anything that radical. Most people spend the majority of their time in isolation or with very few people. Maybe I’m not that different. Maybe I need to lead a revolution about slowing down and relaxing and thinking, for Christ’s sake! The whole world is almost devoid of thinking. People have so many things to occupy their time that thinking has become of a low priority. Very few individuals think on a regular basis. This is why most of them can’t have nice things. And by nice things, I mean a sense of inner peace, a feeling of connectedness with nature, and an overall good feeling about where their lives are headed. But it’s not really their fault. It’s society’s fault. The media has conditioned them to believe that in order to be happy, you must buy things that will ultimately not make you happy. It’s because the things you’re after aren’t material, but internal. The internal part of yourself can never go away. The materials will come and go. There is not permanence in material wealth, but there is permanence in spiritual and intrinsic wealth. This is why most Zen Buddhist monks own hardly anything. They don’t feel bound by the impulse to always get more things because they have such a good inner self-image and peace that they don’t need external substance to ground them.

I think that’s what we all crave, though, isn’t it? To be able to be content with the things that nature gave us, the food we were intended to eat, and the peace we were intended to have. I feel that if we could all do this, then there would be no more wars, no more famine, no more greed, lust, and the other deadly sins and catastrophes. There would be no more need for entertainment because we would get that from experiencing our daily lives. There would be no need for processed foods as we would be grateful to eat the foods nature intended for us. These are the things that I wonder about. Could we actually go to a place like this, where everyone lives in complete harmony? A place where people help each other out of compassion and not for a reciprocal gain? That we all give, but by giving we also receive, but without actually receiving anything physical? A place where judgments are left at the door and never picked up again. That’s the kind of place I would like to live in. Maybe if I imagine it clearly enough, it will come true. I can see it so vividly in my mind’s eye. There are only peace, harmony, and unconditional love for one another because we all know we’re all pretty much the same. And we embrace that fact by working together to better the world and erase the terrible state that it’s in now. But we don’t organize anything. Whenever an organization forms, there becomes a need for greed and fear-based conformity. Take Christianity for example. They prey on the fact that they believe if you don’t follow a specific book written over 2000 years ago, you will go to a place that’s so bad it’s beyond your imagination.

The real motive is to decouple the fear mentality from the doing good to others mentality. I want people to help each other because they inherently want to, not because they feel that they have to or something bad will happen. I want people to live to their full potential while also making the world a better place. I want them to become a vibrational match for peace, love, and forgiveness. I want to us rely solely on each other and place trust in one another. I don’t want people out for their own selfish causes. I want people to only exist to help each other and do what inspires them. No more need for people do do jobs they hate just to make money. There will be no need because money will eventually become obsolete as everyone’s basic needs will be met and the rest will take care of itself through people living their passions. It will be a form of mutual connectivity that will most likely never divert back to the way the world is now.

The problem with the world is that we were born into it. We weren’t born before it was created, so we’re not really wholly responsible for the way it is. But we’ve become so accustomed to it that we just take it for what it is. We don’t really know where to begin to start correcting it, so we place those thoughts in the back of our minds in a filing cabinet with a lock on it. And when we go to retrieve the information, we realize we don’t have the key for the lock on the filing cabinet, so we decide to accept the world as it is and not make significant steps to change it. And then the cycle perpetuates to the point of utter materialism and gluttony as a society, which leads to the depletion of our natural resources, which leads to the extinction of mankind. And we will never see it coming. Even if we do see it coming, we’ll be too late to stop the disaster that will ensue. ”

There, I hoped you enjoyed the little snipet from my book.  I’m really enjoying writing it, as it is simply a “continued journal,” as the man in the book was completely given up using dates and times to run his life.  It’s kind of like reading someone’s organized thoughts continuously.  It’s a very itneresting book to write, that means it will be fun to read for whoever ends up publishing it.

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Goals, Intentions, and Synergizing

Sunday, November 12th, 2006

Working is taking a toll on me.  Working at my job that is.  Every day it’s the same damn thing and it never changes.  It’s so damn boring sometimes.  There’s nothing interesting happening there.  It’s like the theme for the store is monotony.  So I have some options I can consider, but I’m not sure which will allow for the best experience:

  1. Going back to college:  This is a definite option that I am considering very heavily and will most likely do to further enhance my capabilities.  But it’s such a stretch financially, but a degree is so important in today’s world.  The pro’s are that I’ll be able to get a good job and be able to make a good living doing something.  The con’s are that I’ll be in heavy debt, more than 15,000 dollars by the time I get out, and I’ll most likely make less working because I’ll have to be in school.  But in five to ten years, my potential will increase substantially to the point of being able to have enough money to support myself independently.  That’s not a bad thing.  But it has to be doing something I like to do.
  2. I could also become a freelance writer/comedian and go all over the country and travel.  This will take a toll on me in many ways, but it will be an interesting journey, I’m sure.  It would be nice to do that, and once I’m able to in the near future, I intend to go around the country and see what there is to see.  I want to experience the world eventually as well.  It will be a lot of fun, but I don’t have the financial means to do so right now.
  3. Become a full-time comedian.  I don’t know if this is completely what I want to do all the time, but it would be very fun, I’m sure.  I feel like if I pursue this goal whole-heartedly, I’ll be limiting my capabilities to only one facet of my talents.  So if I go to do this, I will be only doing one thing I’m good at.  And that might lead to an eventual imbalance in my life.  And I know that people say it’s hard work, but it’s not work if you love to do it.  So it’s something I could definitely do, but it’s something that may be too narrowly focused.
  4. Become a comedy writer.  This is probably the most attractive of all the goals here, mostly because I can definitely write well and I also have the capabilities of creating characters and using my creativity to develop a plot and storyline.  I enjoy freewriting and I love to expand thinking and awareness through journaling.  So, it’s a question of how often I want to do this that will determine whether or not I choose this.

It’s just a multitude of possibilities.  I’m looking for some sort of clarity of where my life should go.  I’m almost 21 years old and I know I shouldn’t rush myself, but I still want to get things moving.  Revitalizing myself and rejuvenation are key points for me to get on the right track.  I need to rediscover my passion for laughter and comedy, as well as writing creatively.  Those are the things I need to work on.  That and developing unique experiences in my life to perfectly put myself in places I want to be.  These are my intentions for the next few years.

I want to understand what the point of everything is as well.  It’s almost as we all just run around on this planet with our heads in the ground (it’s possible, believe me).  And most people don’t ever make a real choice of what to do with their lives.  They let someone else do it for them.  Or they’re stuck with other people’s leftover choices.  An example of this is a child whose mother pushes her to become a child actress.  The child does so only because he/she is being pushed to do so.  But I don’t want to spend my whole life wondering what I should do.  I have to take action soon and when the time is right, I will.  There’s something holding me back, probably the thought of not having enough money to get by if I go out on my own, or maybe I’m doubting myself too much.  I don’t know.  I have trouble sticking to things sometimes.  I get distracted.  But it’s temporary.  I have to rerout my thinking so that I’m full of focus, but at the same time being relaxed.  It’s a hard balance to follow, but I’m working on it.

I’m coming closer and closer to fully understanding myself, so that’s good.  I know what I am capable of and I know what I want to do, but the main problem is to incorporate all the things I want to do into one way of life.  It shouldn’t be that if I pursue one thing, I have to put all the others on hold.  It should be all simultaneous.  it should be coexisting.  And that’s my main goal.  Make everything synergistic.  Allow everything to come together, along with making a decent income at this.  I’ll post an update soon.  Wish me luck.

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