Misc: 25 things I have learned about life

http://startuplife.quora.com/25-Things-Ive-Learned-About-Life?ref=fb

When I turned 25 a few months ago, I wrote down some of the things I've learned over my short time on earth. The last year has been a crazy roller-coaster ride which has enabled me to see certain things like never before. Last year during this time, I was working at what I would consider my "dream job" - well, before I discovered my current "job" (I don't think I can even call it a job). Over the last year, I've tried to learn from people who have "made it" in life - entrepreneurs, figureheads, lawyers, bankers and even politicians. I've realized that there is no formula to success in life, but there are definitely lessons that can be learned to help along the journey. I came up with the following list which I hope to someday come back to - but for now, I think it's a pretty accurate depiction of how I think ;) So without further adieu:

1. Take risks when you're young. The older you become, the harder it gets. But they should always be calculated.
2. The most important thing you learn in school is how to learn. Once you master that, nothing will stand in your way. Never stop learning.
3. I would rather say that I tried and failed than live a life of regret. You miss every shot you don't take.
4. Dream big. Life is too short to only be mediocre.
5. Music is the cheapest and simplest cure to life's problems. Queue up your favourite play list, put on some headphones, and take a walk. You'll instantly feel better.
6. Drink beer. Lots of it. It makes you think more creatively. Oh, and wine too.
7. Join clubs and put yourself in as many different social settings as possible. It will help you understand people and make you a better communicator.
8. Start your own business as young as possible. Even if it's a lemonade stand, it will teach you business lessons you'll use for the rest of your life.
9. If you're going to fail, fail fast and make it public. Don't drag it on. Then pick yourself back up. Knowing that others watched you fail will encourage you to prove them wrong.
10. Meet lots of different people. Life is serendipitous in many ways and you never know what can happen.
11. When life throws lemons at you, make lemonade. Then pour it for all your friends. Be optimistic. It spreads like wild fire.
12. Success does not lead to happiness. You need to be happy first before you can become successful. Find what makes you happy. Don't stop until you find it.
13. Many people don't want to start businesses because they are scared. Successful entrepreneurs got to where they are because they were willing to tread where others wouldn't. If you're too scared to leave your 9-5 job, entrepreneurship is not meant for you.
14. Surround yourself with people way smarter than you. That is the only way you will be challenged to grow.
15. Only those who are with you during the struggles deserve to be with you when you celebrate the successes.
16. Pick and choose your battles carefully. There are only 24 hours in a day. If something isn't worth your time, just say no...or outsource it to India ;) (thank you 4 Hour Workweek)
17. The most important asset to invest in is yourself. Take classes to make yourself a better person and never stop learning. Buy books. Lots of them.
18. True friends will never question why you disappeared off the face of the earth. They will be there for you unconditionally.
19. The more comfortable you are with a job you don't want to be doing, the harder it will become to leave it and chase your dreams. Learn what you can, then go change the world.
20. A dream job does not exist. You have to create it.
21. Travel as much as you can. You will come back with a wider perspective of the world and more ideas on how to change it.
22. "Thank You" - the most powerful two words in the English dictionary.
23. God gave us all a purpose. Don't settle until you find yours. I didn't think mine was to sit in front of computer screens and trade foreign exchange, so I kept looking.
24. The world may seem big and scary. But the older you get, the more you realize that everything is man-made. Nothing is set in stone. Don't stick with the status quo.
25. Life is not easy. But having the right support group with you during your journey goes a long, long way.

Misc: 4 simple steps to freedom

http://tinybuddha.com/blog/4-simple-steps-to-freedom/

1. Don’t take anything personally.

Nothing anybody says or does to you has anything to do with you. Each person’s opinion is solely the product of their own life and reality.

It’s hard to imagine this. It’s way easier to get offended, mad, or pissed off or to internalize and believe what they said. Rather than getting consumed by it, obsessed over it and letting it affect you, just let it go. Hear what they say, accept that it is a reflection of their world and poof. See the thought disappear.

This is also true when someone is giving you advice. Have you ever shared your biggest dream? The responses can be all over the place. One person may say, “Good luck with that, maybe you should come back to earth” while another may be all about it, “YES! Go for it!”

Does that mean the first person doesn’t believe in you? Absolutely not. It means (s)he doesn’t believe in himself. In other words, it is hard for that person to imagine your dream in his own realm of possibility.

When someone says something to you, whether it be an insult, piece of advice, or anything at all, connect back to your awareness. Only you can know what is true or not. By taking another person’s opinion of yourself to heart and choosing to believe it, you are doing yourself a huge injustice.

2. Don’t be a victim.

It’s easy to think that the world is against you. Have you ever had one of those days where everything goes wrong? It happens. There are things in our control and out of our control. You can’t control the world around you, but you can control how you react to things. Don’t fall into the downward spiral of the victim trap.

Embrace each and every thing that happens as an opportunity. When something “bad” happens ask, “What is the universe trying to tell me?”

Often it’s saying stop, slow down, and come back to the present before your life zips passed you. And if it’s not saying that, it’s saying something. So listen.

Accept situations as signs or opportunities, and remember that there is a purpose and a greater good to each. Look for the lesson rather than getting stuck in victim mode.

My new favorite mantra when the times are tough is “Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!” Feeling gratitude for all things, at all times is incredibly freeing.

3. Be gentle, kind, and compassionate with yourself.

As the awareness behind your thoughts, acknowledge what you say about yourself. Are your thoughts kind? Or are you your own worst critic? When you look in the mirror, do you see pure beauty or do you pick yourself apart?

Imagine having a little person on your shoulder telling you horrible things about yourself all day long. Sounds awful, doesn’t it? How do you think that would affect your life? Well, that is what we’re doing to ourselves if we stay in a place of constant negative self talk.

Work on shifting your thoughts to ones that are more loving and kind. Every time you think something negative about yourself, replace it with a positive. Focus on the good things and give attention to your awesomeness. Eventually you will start believing them. Doing so allows you to have the freedom to just be you.

4. Practice forgiveness.

The powerful F word. Oprah said it best: “Forgiveness is letting go of the hope that the past can be changed.” Forgiveness isn’t about saying that whatever happened was okay, right, or just, but about letting it go.

Forgiving is releasing the power that a certain event has on you. By not forgiving you are keeping your mind in the past, thinking and wishing that things could have been different. This traps you and makes you feel powerless.

Forgiveness puts you back into the present—the only time that truly exists—where you have the power to live free and happy.

Next time you feel stuck, turn your awareness within. What do your thoughts look like? Allow your mind’s grip to release so the joy can flow in.

Short film: Pixar's The Blue Umbrella

Pixar's has finally officially anounced the new short film that will play in Monsters University. I had the luck to work in the project as a lighitng artist and I have to say that it has been one of the more memorable projects I have worked on. 

You can read a little bit more about it HERE:

you can also take a look to the tumblr account that the Director setup a while ago and where he was giving away some information about the film while it was still in production and the project hadn't been announced yet HERE.

Misc: How rejection breeds creativity

http://99u.com/tips/7251/How-Rejection-Breeds-Creativity?utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=ALL&utm_campaign=MIH%20-%20December%2012&utm_content=FinalIn 2006, Stefani Germanotta had hit a turning point in her career. She had quit a rigorous musical theatre program at an elite college to focus on her musical passion and, after a year of hard work and little income, had signed a deal with Def Jam records.  But this promise wouldn't last. Just three months after signing, Def Jam changed its mind about Stefani's unusual style and released her from her contract.

Rejected, Stefani went back the drawing board, working in clubs and experimenting with new performers and new influences. These experiments produced a new sound that was drawing positive attention from critics and fans. Within a year, there was another offer; this one from Interscope Records. Nearly two years after her initial rejection, Stefani was finally able to introduce her sound and her self to the world – as Lady Gaga.

Rejection happens and, when it does, how we respond to it matters. Lady Gaga responded by experimenting with new influences and making her sound more unique. Just as Gaga experienced, recent research suggests that when most of us experience rejection, it can actually enhance our creativity, depending on how we respond to it.

In a series of experiments, researchers led by Sharon Kim of Johns Hopkins University sought to examine the impact of rejection on individuals' creative output. In the first experiment, participants were given a series of personality questions and told they would be considered for participation in several group exercises in the future. 

Rejection happens and, when it does, how we respond to it matters.

When the participants returned to the laboratory a week later, some of them were asked to complete a few tasks before joining their group (inclusion), others were told that the none of the groups had chosen them and they would need to complete their tasks independently (rejection).

The tasks in the experiment were a series of rapid associative tests (RAT), a common measurement of divergent thinking. A RAT question works by presenting three seemingly unrelated words (e.g. fish, mine, and rush) and asking participants to think of a single word that can be added to all three to create a meaningful term (e.g. gold; goldfish, gold mine, gold rush). The RAT question is a useful measurement because it requires both elements of creative thinking: novelty and usefulness.

When they calculated the results, the researchers found that "rejected" participants significantly outperformed those that were included in a group. But that wasn't all the researchers found. Embedded in the personality questions was a measurement of how individualistic or collective participants viewed themselves (called independent or dependent self-concept). Those who had test results that labeled them as independent showed even greater gains in creativity after feeling rejection. Consider the difference between those who respond to rejection by sulking versus those who respond by rolling up their sleeves and thinking "I'll show them."

Those who had test results that labeled them as independent showed even greater gains in creativity after feeling rejection.

The researchers wanted to know if this independent self-concept could be manipulated. Could people be put into a mindset that dealt with rejection in a way that enhanced their creative output? To answer this, they reran their experiment with a slight tweak. Instead of embedding the self-concept measurement in their personality questions and examining correlations afterward, participants' self concept was altered or "primed" through a simple activity designed to focus participants either on themselves or on how they fit into a larger group. Remarkably, even a task as small as circling the singular "I" or plural "we" pronouns in a story was enough to alter their self-concept and affect their response to rejection.

As they expected, participants primed with an independent self-concept solved significantly more RAT problems following rejection than those primed to think collectively. The results were conclusive: rejection breeds creativity, especially for those who consider themselves highly independent. In final a follow-up study, the researchers found the same trend using a different measurement of creativity.

Taken together, these experiments hold interesting implications for responding to rejection. While it is never a comfortable experience, the feelings of rejection can actually help us access our more creative selves. Free from the expectations of group norms, we can push the limits of novelty. Moreover, we can enhance that ability by changing the way we respond to rejection. Instead of dwelling too much on the pain of being turned down or turned aside, consider the freedom you now have to explore new possibilities and less mainstream options.

Feelings of rejection can actually help us access our more creative selves.

Being rejected is often a statement that you (or your ideas) are too far from the current mainstream to be considered safe or comfortable. This could actually be a good thing. You're ahead of your time. While the group or client may not believe they need you right away, the world probably does. If you're too far from the mainstream, you could be the one pushing progress forward.

Consider how Lady Gaga's work was too unique for Def Jam, but was an international hit just two years later with Interscope. Decades before Gaga, George Bernard Shaw, the Nobel Prize winning writer, weighed in on the same phenomenon, saying "The reasonable man adapts himself to the conditions that surround him. The unreasonable man adapts surrounding conditions to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

Film: Brave, Pixar and math

Interesting video by Inigo Quilez about how maths were used in Brave to create the forest.

Misc: 5 Easy ways to stay motivated

http://linkedinworld.com/5-easy-ways-to-stay-motivated-2/?goback=%2Egde_1834604_member_194081740

No matter what you do for a living, the key to success is superlative performance, day after day after day. And that’s only possible if you make optimism, expectancy, and enthusiasm part of your daily experience.

That’s easy if you’re pursuing your life’s dearest dreams.  But what if, like almost everybody else in this world, you’ve got a job that’s not exactly perfect. Here’s how to remain a go-getter, even when the getting gets tough:

STEP #1: Realize That YOU Are in Control

Your attitude isn’t controlled by the outside world.  That’s an illusion, a fantasy that, if you believe it, you’re simply using to escape responsibility for managing this all-important part of your career.

For example, if you run into snowstorm that’s making you late to a customer meeting, you can get frustrated and start cursing…, or you can look forward to the appreciation that the customer might feel because you were committed enough to fight the weather to make the meeting.

Similarly, when the economy goes south, you can start obsessing about how it’s going to affect your job, or you can be one of those individuals who use tighter budgets as a way to streamline operations, develop new markets and create innovations.

It’s all in how you see it!

STEP #2: Neutralize Your Negative Triggers

Stop letting exterior events trigger negative thoughts.

For example, suppose you’re traveling to a customer meeting but keep running into red lights and traffic delays. That IS a problem, but if you get flustered, you’ve got TWO problems: the fact that you’re late, and the fact that you’re flustered.

And if you walk into the meeting flustered, the customer might wonder if you’re moody and unreliable. So now you’ve got THREE problems.

To get a better result (and achieve a better attitude), modify your interpretation of exterior events that tend to trigger a negative outlook. Once the events in your life take on a different, more useful meaning, they won’t trigger a bad attitude.

For example, while the delays may be making you late, use the extra time to collect your thoughts, consider your options, and decide on a damage control strategy. Or use the time to come up with a better schedule, so that you always leave plenty of time, just in case there’s traffic.

As a mentor of mine once said: “Life is like those signs that say ‘You Are Here’  What you make of where you are is up to you.”

STEP #3: Detoxify Your Media Consumption

Much of today’s news programming consists of “if it bleeds it leads” stories followed by commercials offering some form of (often addictive) security or comfort. The constant flow of negative imagery automatically creates a negative attitude about life, the world, and everything in it.

If you want to maintain a positive attitude, you MUST reduce or even eliminate your exposure to broadcast news programming. Rather than waste time with that garbage, add material and content into your life that will help you become more successful (like this column!)

Start and end each day reading something positive! When you’re on the road, rather than listening to negative, emotionally-charged talk radio, listen to motivational tapes, music that raises your spirits, or maybe great literature.

STEP #4: Avoid Negative People

You probably have one or more friends, relatives, or acquaintances who make you feel tired and drained. They always seem to have something sour to say; criticisms come to their lips far more quickly than compliments.

Such folk are toxic to your attitude (and hence to your success) because, if they’re not actively tearing down your enthusiasm, they’re trying to get you to think the same way about the world as they do.  What a drag!  Literally.

If you want to maintain a positive attitude, consider sharply limiting your daily exposure to such people. Don’t show up at the daily “water cooler complain-fest.” Don’t go to lunch with the “grouse and grumble” crowd. If you’ve got family members who are constantly negative, tune them out.

STEP #5: Adopt a Positive Vocabulary

The words that you use—both what you speak aloud and your internal dialogue—have a vast influence in how you perceive what’s happening in the world. All words carry a certain amount of emotional baggage, inherent in their exact definition and the way that they’ve been used in the past.

For instance, the words “despise,” “hate,” and “dislike” mean essentially the same thing, but carry very different emotional baggage. If you “dislike” something, but tell yourself that you “hate it” over and over and over, it will intensify the original emotion.

To keep a positive attitude, use weak words for negative feelings and strong words for positive ones. This thwarts the downward spiral of negative feelings and words, and accelerates the upward spiral of positive feelings and words.

Misc:8 Beliefs That Make You More Resilient

http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/8-beliefs-that-make-you-more-resilient.html?cid=em01013week50

Most people live lives of quiet desperation because they focus on things that they cannot control: outside events, stuff that happened in the past and what other people are thinking. As a result, they fail to focus on what they CAN control: their own beliefs, their own attitude, their own emotions, and their own behavior.

Of these four things, by far the most important are your beliefs, because what you believe about work and life largely determines how you feel (your attitude and emotions) and what actions you take (your resulting behavior.)

In my view, there are eight personal beliefs that not only will propel you completely out of desperation but give you the emotional oomph to handle just about anything the business world throws at you. 

Here they are:

1. Today's success can breed tomorrow's failure if I let success make me complacent about staying motivated and moving forward.

2. I learn more from failure than from success. Failure renews my humility, sharpens my objectivity and makes me more resilient.

3. Goals that contain the phrase "I'll try..." are self-defeating. If I want goals that truly motivate me, I use phrases like "I will" and "I must."

4. What holds most people back is fear of failure, but if I don't take action, I'll fail by default, so what have I got to lose?

5. What I say reinforces what I think, so if something is about to come out of my mouth that doesn't serve my purpose, I should simply keep my mouth shut.

6. I am responsible for my own happiness, so when other people are unkind to me, it reminds me to be kind to myself.

7. There are five magic words that make even the most difficult business situation easier to handle. Those magic words are: "Do not take it personally."

8. While there are situations (such as a death in the family) where strong emotions are appropriate, most business situations are not worth even an ounce of misery.

I wish I could say that I figured out these beliefs all by myself, but frankly I'm not that smart. They're based upon conversations with Art Mortell and Omar Periu, who know more about motivation and personal growth than I'll ever know.