Have you forgotten you’re alive? Do you want to escape the world — the heat of everyday life? New York City is supposed to hit 103 F (39 C) today. Yesterday was that hot. People say it’s horrible. If you think the world is that horrible, go for a run in Central Park. You’ll feel alive. the heat won’t bother you so much afterward. You’ll remember we were born to[…] Keep reading →

I don’t like most new age thinking. I consider it vague, misleading, and often vacuous. I prefer more precise thinking and communication, particularly when the subject is understanding yourself and your environment. Clarity and precision take more effort, but they pay off by making you more effective and productive. For example, new agers say things like “you create your world.” I understand what they intend. I like the message of[…] Keep reading →

People often comment they can’t tell when I’m joking. Taking many things seriously takes the fun out of life, so I like finding humor everywhere. I finally found a way to put it I like. With credit to Scarface, I’m always joking, even when I’m serious. And I’m always serious, even when I’m joking.

Although July 20th is celebrated the world over first and foremost as my birthday, it also happens to be the anniversary of a human first stepping on the moon. According to Wikipedia’s page on Apollo 11 Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that landed the first humans on Earth’s Moon on July 20, 1969 (20:17:40 UTC). The mission, carried out by the United States, is considered a major accomplishment in the[…] Keep reading →

Wrapping up this series on how to make your life successful using Johnny Depp’s example… Anyone can call any part of their life bad and feel sorry for themselves. Depp could have and he almost certainly would not have achieved the success he did nor gotten to do what he loves every day. Anyone can call something positive. Personally I don’t buy just calling something positive. I’m not a fan[…] Keep reading →

Here’s a view I find helpful, relevant to how Johnny Depp made useful something others would lament. Whether Depp used it or not, I don’t know. I don’t view things in life — jobs like telemarketing; tangible things like dogs, cats, and trees; intangible things like ideas; … whatever — as good, bad, positive, or negative. They just are what they are — jobs, dogs, cats, etc. Any value they[…] Keep reading →

Following up yesterday’s example of how one person created success out of what others might consider disaster or failure: Johnny Depp used telemarketing to transform a floundering music passion into one the top trajectories in acting today. To people in the rat race, who blindly accept other people’s values for themselves, resorting to telemarketing would suck. They’d probably say their lives were disasters and be depressed. People who didn’t blindly[…] Keep reading →

Life has challenges. Successful people succeed anyway — not because they have easier lives, but for knowing how to handle challenges. They know how to use unexpected or undesired situations to improve their lives. Successful people make their lives great. You can too. In particular, you can learn from their successes. An interview of Johnny Depp on Inside the Actors Studio revealed some of how he succeeded. Depp is one of[…] Keep reading →

Emotions are how your emotional system reacts to your perception of your environment with motivation to behave. In every culture around the world, in every language, essentially all of us share the same emotions. This commonality is not an accident. Human behavior is driven by human emotions and our behavior is what made us so overwhelmingly successful in population and geographic spread. Our behavior and emotions didn’t come out of[…] Keep reading →