freedom Archives - Page 3 of 12

How to make yourself more confident

Is there anything you do that wouldn't benefit from having more confidence? Even if showing confidence doesn't make a difference, at least having the option to show it helps. Have you noticed that people with more confidence can't do that much more than people without it? They can't lift heavier weights or solve more difficult problems. The guy at the gym who lifts the heaviest weights probably isn't the most confident person there. Alternatively, you can lift weights all you want -- that alone won't make you more confident. So what does? A friend just wrote me that she didn't feel comfortable opening up with most people because she usually felt vulnerable and insecure, but with me she did. It got me thinking. Opening up…

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November 19, 2012

Art / Blog / Creativity / Freedom

A refreshing voice on copyright from a hard-core conservative

EDIT: Maybe I should have expected this. The Executive Director of the Committee pulled the document from their site, stating We at the RSC take pride in providing informative analysis of major policy issues and pending legislation that accounts for the range of perspectives held by RSC Members and within the conservative community. Yesterday you received a policy brief on copyright law that was published without adequate review within the RSC and failed to meet that standard. Copyright reform would have far-reaching impacts, so it is incredibly important that it be approached with all facts and viewpoint in hand. As the RSC's Executive Director, I apologize and take full responsibility for this oversight. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and a meaningful Thanksgiving holiday ...…

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November 18, 2012

Blog / Creativity / Freedom / Tips

Amazing software to help you think and organize

It's hard to think when your mind is swimming with information. I used to have a lot of trouble starting writing documents any longer than a couple pages. Come to think of it, I'd have similar issues with starting to create many things -- ideas, research and development for my company, resolving problems with friends and colleagues, and so on. Then I found probably the best software I've found to organize my thoughts. Not having to keep track of all my thoughts means freedom -- my favorite kind of freedom: freedom to think without inhibition. I first wrote how useful I find this software -- Freemind -- in over a year and a half. Please read that post for some more description of it. I'll…

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November 9, 2012

Blog / Exercises / Freedom / Nature

The most important parts of any exercise or diet

[This post is part of a series on my daily exercise and starting and keeping challenging habits. If you don't see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you'll get more value than reading just this post.] Somehow in all my ultimate frisbee, rowing, burpee, running, and healthy food talk, I forgot to mention the most important parts of any exercise or diet regiment -- freedom! You can eat anything you want any time you want. I know I do. I can always do more burpees or run another lap of Central Park to make up for it if I have too many empty calories. You lose craving for things you don't want. In my case, processed foods…

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November 8, 2012

Awareness / Blog / Freedom

Non-attachment, caring, and motivation, part 2

A couple months ago I posted a question on awareness, non-attachment, caring, and motivation I'd been thinking about for a decade or so, unable to answer it in all that time. I came up with an answer I like, that satisfies my curiosity, and helps me understand more. First let me remind you of the question. It came when I was learning in college about Buddhism. I learned the story that Siddharta Gautama, the guy who we know as the Buddha, became enlightened while meditating under a tree. I don't like fuzzy terms like "enlightened," but I understand it means, among other things, he no longer had attachment to anything. Contemplating the concept of non-attachment satisfied me in some ways but confused me in others.…

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November 3, 2012

Awareness / Blog / Fitness / Leadership

Sports and passion

I ask people about their passions a lot. Many tell me they have no passions, which makes me sad for them. I don't think passions are something you find lying around but something you create and build from small interests through self-awareness, effort, and dedication. It means they haven't created something they could have. They either never invested enough to find out what it took to create a passion or, if they did, capitulated on the effort. Or they're young enough not to have had the chance yet. I've written before about the sink-or-swim moment experience in college that taught me the meaning of competition -- that I had to work hard to make something of myself and the decades of reward it brought me.…

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September 28, 2012

Blog / Freedom / Nature

You can still learn new things

After posting about how Churchill and others overcame impediments on their ways to greatness, I saw an article in the New York Times about great historical figures humbly learning things late in life -- Marie Curie learned to swim after winning two Nobel Prizes, Leo Tolstoy learning to ride a bike after writing War and Peace, Dwight Eisenhower learning to paint after World War II ended, and a couple other examples. Inspiration isn't that hard to find. A favorite example for me is Ernest Rutherford, one of the great experimental physicists. To understand the results of what we call the Gold Foil Experiment. I won't go into the details since the link is right there, but it basically discovered the nucleus and established the process…

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September 16, 2012

Art / Blog / Creativity / Entrepreneurship / Freedom

Occupy Disney

Back when Occupy Wall Street was making more news and I was writing about it and leadership and on it and responsibility, I had an idea about corporate control of our lives I thought would be interesting. As an entrepreneur and inventor, I felt the control closer to those areas of my life. I've written about how the patent and copyright systems have created monopolies and oligopolies that distorted their effects from promoting invention to stifling it and small business. There's more to things than just one sentence, so I hope you'll forgive my oversimplicity for the sake of brevity. The Occupy Wall Street movement seems to have lost steam, but recent stories about patent fights between Apple and Samsung are turning the stomachs of…

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September 14, 2012

Blog / Freedom / Leadership

Examples of ignoring impediments on the way to greatness

When you think of great orators, Winston Churchill has to be near the top of the list. His speeches include I would say to the House as I said to those who have joined this government: I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. and Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on…

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September 7, 2012

Blog / Freedom / Leadership

Lessons in freedom from Charles Barkley

When I talk about freedom here I usually mean your mental freedom to think and believe what you want. I consider this freedom more fundamental than, say, political freedom, not that I see much point in comparing them. Everyone benefits from both and few, if anyone, has to choose between either. Victor Frankl's Man's Search For Meaning described how fundamental he considered the freedom to believe what you want, the freedom that allowed him to find meaning in life as a prisoner in Auschwitz. Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. Charles Barkley Charles Barkley was one of the…

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September 5, 2012

Awareness / Blog / Freedom

Rules: what are they and how do you get to play by your own?

Speaking of superstars, they seem to play by their own rules. Most of us wish we could. How do you get to play by your own rules, not someone else's? Today I'll look at rules from a few different contexts and ask a few questions about them. A rule describes how people should behave. Context 1: Mutually agreed-on rules When I think of playing a game, rules make sense. We want to enjoy ourselves or maybe see who is better. Playing chess only makes sense if we agree on rules. Otherwise, what's the point? Context 2: Rules agreed on by some Laws are kinds of rules. Most laws imposed on me were written before I was born. I tend to agree with many of them,…

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August 10, 2012

Art / Blog / Entrepreneurship / Freedom / Leadership

More on becoming a superstar

I wanted to comment on a quote in yesterday's post about becoming a superstar that illustrates an aspect important for the aspiring star -- you. And, again, superstardom can mean breakout success in any area -- starting a company, making CEO, being a superstar boyfriend, girlfriend, or spouse, etc. A musician I quoted yesterday commented that American Idol's shooting-the-moon style isn't really about music. It's about all the bad aspects of the music business — the arrogance of commerce, this sense of 'I know what will make this person a star; artists themselves don't know.' I've only seen a few minutes of the show, but it looks like the judges speak authoritatively (not that they have authority, just that they speak that way) on what…

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August 9, 2012

Art / Blog / Entrepreneurship / Freedom / Leadership

How to become a superstar

This post is about breakout success in any area -- starting a company, making CEO, being a superstar boyfriend, girlfriend, or spouse, etc -- but I'll put it in the language of entertainment superstardom. I'll leave translating it to the language of the field you want to succeed in as an exercise. But I guarantee it applies. Superstars make it look so easy. They dress how they want, say what they want, and do what they want and the world loves them for it. Everyone else has to think about what they say and do all the time -- and then gets judged for it. How do they do it? Building a solid foundation I'm conservative about hitting it big. This quote on a Bruce…

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August 8, 2012

Blog / Fitness / Freedom

My coffee habit and rules

Everybody has their deal with how they drink coffee -- how many cups per day, where they get it, etc. I've written about my habits. Here's the coffee habit I designed for myself. I should remind anyone I haven't mentioned this to that I find creating habits creates freedom. Some things you have to figure out anew whenever they enter your life. But for things that happen the same every day, once you figure out what's right for you, creating a habit frees you from having to think about it all the time. I'm writing this post not to recommend you adopt my rule, but to show an example of a habit I created to create more freedom for myself. If I seem overly pedantic…

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August 7, 2012

Awareness / Blog / Fitness / Freedom

An olympic shock

I tend to divide the Olympics as a business from the athletes. I respect the athletes greatly. Whatever ideals the event may have embodied, I lose respect for the Olympic committees and the collaborating corporations -- media companies, advertisers, etc -- all the time. The business seems to focus on making money while protecting its sustainable competitive advantage -- its brand -- at draconian costs to the freedom of athletes, attendees, and other participants. Meanwhile the Olympic committee takes bribes, applies rules arbitrarily, colludes with governments to curtail speech and coverage of the events, etc. The value of sports continues to surprise me Still, the value of sports perennially surprises me in raising people's awareness and cooperation, despite the politicization and commercialization of the Olympics.…

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August 3, 2012

Blog / Freedom / Tips

Words to help you do things daily

I think of a certain piece of advice almost daily in maintaining my daily routine. I find it invaluable. When I started this page I asked a friend with a successful blog how often he wrote -- only weekdays, daily, now and then? He said words that stuck with me well. If you skip one day you can skip two. Once you skip two days it's over. Conclusion: don't skip days. Also, don't plan to do things daily that you can't keep up. You may only reinforce a lack of value in those things -- the opposite of your goals. This advice only applies to a few things in life. You have to know your priorities, but for things that match your priorities, the advice…

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July 24, 2012

Awareness / Blog / Fitness / Freedom

My fitness habits, part 4: Nothing special about what I did

Since so many people don't like their physical condition, don't find reward or joy in exercising, and regard these aspects of their life as punishments, I imagine many of them want to change their beliefs and behaviors, perhaps using my example as inspiration. Many people may not care too, I guess. I've written a lot on the topics -- enough that it might seem overwhelming. Can anyone do what I do? I didn't do anything anyone else couldn't. Maybe they don't want to or haven't figured out how to, but they could. I don't read many diet or exercise books, but I have a feeling they don't make a point of focusing on your emotions, which I consider the foundation for successful change. I focus…

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July 20, 2012

Blog / Fitness / Freedom

My fitness habits, part 3: Exercise

As I've written before, exercise for me is about the emotions it creates. I start exercises for joy, fun, friendship, etc. For many people exercise seems punishing. If I didn't realize I, like anyone, could make exercise create whatever emotions I wanted and I felt stuck with punishment, I wouldn't do it. Luckily I learned to find the joy, fun, etc in exercise -- as anyone can -- and built from there. History I've exercised consistently since I started running cross country in high school in the 80s. I was chubby as a kid -- at least I remember my older step-brother teasing me about being chubby before I started sports. Although they signed me up for little league baseball and soccer, I don't remember…

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July 19, 2012

Awareness / Blog / Fitness / Freedom

My fitness beliefs and habits, part 2: Food and Eating

What I eat I don't feel like I pay attention to what I eat that much, although I've habitualized a lot so I probably eat healthily without thinking about it. I don't pay attention to proteins versus carbohydrates. I definitely don't count calories. I think paying attention to those things means you're eating the wrong things. I mean, I'm kind of aware of those things, but the more I eat fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains, the less I pay attention to proteins, carbohydrates, and calories and the better my body seems. How can you eat too much spinach, mangoes, or oats? Can you? I mean, your body will stop you before you can. With sugary beverages, I've noticed your tongue always sends signals…

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July 18, 2012

Awareness / Blog / Fitness / Freedom

My fitness beliefs and habits, part 1: Principles

A reader asked I like what you said about the body being a reflection of how we live our life. I also agree about the genetics; its too much of a cop out to say that you can't help being obese. I do have a question though. Your photos show that you are in shape but you have previously posted that your workout regimen consists of only a minute of burpees twice a day. As someone who works out an hour a day to stay in shape this blows my mind. Are you rationing calories as well or just watching what you eat? Do you have any before/after photos showing the progress made after 6 months on this program? Context The short response to that…

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July 17, 2012

Blog / Freedom

If you crave something you don’t have, people who have it will always be able to control you

The title of this post speaks for itself so I'll keep it short. I just keep seeing people wishing they had more than they need not realizing how they are creating jails for themselves, giving others control over their lives. If you always want more money, people with more money will get you to work for them. If you want fame, people with access to media will get you to work for them. If you want power and influence, people with power and influence will get you to work for them. You get the idea. Oh, and when they get you to work for them, they won't reward you for it. If you don't crave something, someone will try to convince you that you do…

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July 6, 2012

Blog / Freedom / NorthKorea

Frederick Douglass on the Fourth of July

As I consider the U.S. Declaration of Independence perhaps the founding concepts of the country I was born in and lived most of my life, I celebrate our Independence Day by reading at least one relevant historical work. Having visited Vietnam and North Korea since last July 4th, I've had pause to think about what freedom means to America and some things of what America is doing to freedom. Vietnam's War Remembrance Museum certainly affected my perception of how the U.S. has affected freedom in other places. To say the least, the Vietnamese government views the United States' activity there differently than does American culture. On the other hand, learning about and observing the North Korean government's oppressing its people -- which I distinguish completely…

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July 4, 2012

Blog / Freedom / Tips

Another awesome blog — this one on living richly

I began yesterday's post on how cutting costs improves your life intending to write about a blog I just found and enjoyed. As per my extensively field-tested and verified practice of sharing what you love, I'm sharing the blogs I enjoy reading and find improve my life. The blog is called Mr. Money Moustache. The author writes about living well by getting rid of crap. By word count he writes about money, but, as readers of this blog would expect, I like it because of the values and emotions it's about: freedom, fun, independence, joy, relationships, and things like that. Money brings so many people down. It doesn't have to. It's just a medium of exchange. You can use it to account for what you…

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July 1, 2012

Blog / Freedom / Leadership / NorthKorea / Tips

Spending less improves your life

Preface: I started writing this blog about how cutting personal costs (of any resource, including time, money, energy, attention, etc) improves your personal life. Rereading it I realized it overlapped so much with what leaders can do in business, I'll tag it leadership too. Translating the post into business-speak I'll leave as an exercise to the reader. You can probably do it on the fly. People who know me in person know I work very little at a job -- like a day a week, sometimes more in crunch times, which happen once a year or so. When they hear I work so little, they first ask, usually indirectly, where I make enough money to live on. I view going this direction first as a…

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June 30, 2012

Blog / Fitness / Freedom

Burpee overview

[This post is part of a series on my daily exercise and starting and keeping challenging habits. If you don't see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you'll get more value than reading just this post.] Yesterday I started to consolidate posts on burpees but when I realized it was the day after the six month anniversary of starting doing them daily, I wrote a six-month review, which ended up as a long post on friendship, freedom, and motivation. It reinforces that sharing what you love fills your life with sharing, love, and the stuff you love. As people who have read all my posts on the Model and Method know, a thing's value, meaning, and purpose…

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June 25, 2012