Ness vs Lv50 Mario amiibo
E3 Plans with Nick!
Friday’s Quote for May 15, 2015
When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money.
That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is – everything around you that you call life, was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.
The minute that you understand that you can poke life and actually something will, you know if you push in, something will pop out the other side, that you can change it, you can mold it. That’s maybe the most important thing. It’s to shake off this erroneous notion that life is there and you’re just gonna live in it, versus embrace it, change it, improve it, make your mark upon it.
I think that’s very important and however you learn that, once you learn it, you’ll want to change life and make it better, cause it’s kind of messed up, in a lot of ways. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.– Steve Jobs
How to Learn More When You Read with One Amazing Skill
Do you ever find yourself reading something, only to completely forget it later? It may have less to do with your self-diagnosed early onset dementia, and more to do with your mindset while you’re reading.
Read With the Intent to Teach
I’ve just started reading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and so far, I have to say that it’s amazing. Dr. Stephen Covey closes the first section of his book with a piece of advice. He says that “one way to accelerate the rate of learning…is to learn with the intent to teach others what you learn.”
Take a second to let that sink in for a minute. If you were reading this with the intent of later sharing it with someone else, your brain would automatically begin to respond differently. You wouldn’t just be skimming it or letting the information wash over your vacant mind. You would be searching for the basic premise, the main points, and the overall message. You would begin creating your own “lesson outline” based on the information you have read. As if completely on its own, your brain would begin to do all of these things, and before you know it will be an engage, active reader.
The Challenge
The next time you read something non-fiction, read it with the intent of teaching someone else about it. You’ll find that you learn more, and that it sticks with you for longer. I did that with this very post, and I can say that I appreciate this principle a lot more now. 🙂
![[Image Credit]](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PediaPress_Book_Reading_1.jpg){kind=link}
Totally Mental #003: “What’s it like to have ADHD?”
In this episode, I talk about what it’s like to have ADHD. This is my point of reference for talking about mental illness, because its something that I am personally affected by. I based part of my discussion on a blog post a wrote a couple of years ago.
If you have a question or comment for next week, let me know on Twitter or via my Contact Page.
Ways to be a part of the show:
Subscribe via RSS (iTunes & Stitcher will come in a few weeks)
Interact with Zac on Twitter and Facebook!
Friday’s Quote for May 8, 2015
“You will be so many things, and the one thing that I wish I’d known and want to say is, don’t just be yourself. Be all of yourselves.”
– Joss Whedon
Totally Mental #002: “How Should We Talk About Mental Health?”
In this episode, I’ll be talking about how to talk about mental health. Starting a podcast on mental illness has been a daunting idea, so I did a little research this week to help me figure out what the tone should be with this show. I came across a great article on TED.com titled “How Should We Talk About Mental Health”, which gives 10 principles that we can use to base our conversations on.
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Next week, I’ll be discussing My Life With ADHD. If you have a question or comment about this topic, let me know on Twitter or via my Contact Page.
Ways to be a part of the show:
Subscribe via RSS (iTunes & Stitcher will come in a few weeks)
Interact with Zac on Twitter and Facebook!
Inspirational Social Media Pics from Avengers: Age of Ultron
Heading out to see Avengers: Age of Ultron this weekend?! Here’s a little something to spread the hype: some inspirational social media pictures! You know, just for fun. 🙂
How the Right (or Wrong) Questions Can Unleash Your Brain’s Potential
With Avengers: Age of Ultron coming out this week, I want to talk about one of the coolest things that every human being has without even knowing it: their own personal JARVIS. For those of you who haven’t seen Iron Man or The Avengers, JARVIS is Iron Man’s computerized assistant. Whenever Iron Man needs a question answered or quick analysis completed while he’s fighting evil villains, Iron Man simply asks JARVIS, and every time JARVIS will reply with a quickly calculated response. By the end of this article, you’ll realize you have your own JARVIS between your ears, and how to hack it to get the best results.
It turns out that our brain is really good at coming up with answers to questions. Its so good at it, in fact, that its constantly making connections between different pieces of information. Our brain is designed to make sense of the world around us, and what most people don’t realize is that you can harness this incredible power for good, or for evil. (dun dun duuuuuhn)
“What is wrong with me? Well, let me tell you…”
For example, as I was finishing up my Bachelor of Science degree a few years back, I had several large projects all due at around the same time. I was worried about the future, and would catch myself on numerous occasions becoming overwhelmed with what I had to do. I couldn’t turn my brain off! I kept asking things like “Why did I wait so long to start this project? What is wrong with me? Why am I so stupid?” The more I thought about how much I had left to do, the more I seemed to convince myself of my impending failure.
What I didn’t realize at the time was that the questions I was asking were encouraging my brain to look for reasons why I was so stupid. As I asked myself “Why am I so stupid?”, my brain continued to generate responses. “It’s because I’m lazy. I’m irresponsible. I’m certainly a bad husband, by the way. I’ll probably make a terrible father.” And on, and on, and on…
However, since then I have realized that it wasn’t my stupidity that was causing me to obsess over my own faults that night. The issue was in the kind of questions I was asking. Since then, I have come to believe that one of the most important skills in life is the ability to ask the right kind of questions.
Ask the Right Questions
The most successful practice I have discovered for overcoming a challenge is to sit down and begin writing (with pen and paper) the answers to a few key questions. They usually go something like this:
- Where is the silver lining in this situation? I always start with this one, and its mostly out of habit. Starting a challenge by recognizing the silver lining takes the edge off of the situation, and brings you to a more grounded state to move forward.
- What is the ultimate goal in this situation? This is really important. As Stephen Covey says, “Begin with the end in mind.” By reminding myself of where you want to be, you’ll find yourself naturally filling in the roadmap ahead.
- What is the most important issue to address first/next? Sometimes, problem solving can get bogged down in our long-term plans. By simply asking “What’s next?” we can get started immediately on making progress.
- Who can I enlist to help me achieve success? One of my biggest beliefs is that we don’t need to do everything ourselves. In fact, one of the greatest lessons in leadership I have learned recently is that there are a lot of people who are much better at doing certain things than I am. Figure out who those people are, and enlist them in your cause.
- What are the stumbling blocks that may arise, and how can plan for them? This one is tricky, but its important none-the-less. We don’t need to plan for every single potential speed bump along the way, but if there are ones we know are going to come up, planning ahead is always a good idea.
Your Own Personal JARVIS
Your brain is an amazing thing. With a little self-awareness, you will notice how quickly your brain comes up with solutions you didn’t even know existed. Given the right kind of input, you will surprise yourself by what you and JARVIS come up with together.
Action Item: The next time you are facing a difficult challenge, use the five questions in this article to troubleshoot the situation. Maybe even add some questions of your own!
Do you have 3 minutes? Could you fill out my 2015 Audience Survey? I would really appreciate it!