Recently, I’ve been reading motivational articles by Steve Pavlina. This guy is pretty remarkable (he finished two undergrad degrees in just three semesters!). Now he spouts wisdom about getting what you want out of life. I epically like some of his concepts outlined in these articles:
Overwhelming Force
Cultivating Burning Desire
The Power of Clarity
He makes some very good points about how setting goals and then making very strong and directed actions to accomplish those goals. From reading his stuff I’m getting a big surge of can-do attitude and am eager to try to tackle some goals I’ve been putting off for a while!
While traveling I had a lot of time to read on planes and trains. I occupied that time with a book about a man unravelling the mysteries of life. This book, although it seems very fantastic at times, is put forward not as a fictional story, but as a real-life account of events.
In Tales of Power, the main character and author is the apprentice of an unusual, captivating, and gifted man named Don Juan. Don Juan tries to help Casteneda understand what he calls “The Way of the Warrior” which is a necessary step in learning the “Sorcerer’s Explanation.”
I’m not going to comment on whether or not I think it is ‘real’ per se. What is for sure is that the ideas in the book about how to live well, and how to change yourself in pursuit of impeccability are inspiring, and of value to anyone. Let me share one of my favorite quotes:
“The self-confidence of the warrior is not the self-confidence of the average man. The average man seeks certainty in the eyes of the onlooker and calls that self-confidence. The warrior seeks impeccability in his own eyes and calls that humbleness.”
Since I’ve finished the book, I find myself very often wondering what a warrior would do in certain situations. I like looking at things in this way. I don’t have high hopes of one day becoming a sorcerer, but… what the hell, here’s hoping.
Another fantastic Tom Robbins book closed today in the playful sunshine of a sunset in Piedmont Park. Its been said on numerous occasions by me that this author can do no wrong. He has proven hilarious, engaging, and inspiring once more in “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues.“
Let me share briefly two of the many quotable sections discovered between the covers…
“If little else, the brain is an educational toy… The problem with possessing such an engaging toy is that other people want to play with it, too. Sometimes they’d rather play with yours than theirs. Or they object if you play with yours in a different manner.”
“Poetry is nothing more than an intensification or illumination of common objects and everyday events until they shine with their singular nature… How is this done? By fucking around with the syntax.”
I of course highly recommend this guy to everyone. It is fun and witty and will make you appreciate women and the world’s desperate need for their feminine touch.
This weekend I finished reading a book that had been on my “to read” list for *years.* This is a book written by my father in 1980 three years before I was born (and again in 2003). The book, Practical Magic, is not about wizardry or any other kind of Harry-Potter magic. It is instead about some fantastic methods and results in doing brief therapy. My take away though, was on how directed attention to people’s communication methods and your own can be very important.
The book talks in depth about peoples’ sensory representation systems (auditory, visual, kinesthetic). It then teaches how to learn by looking and listening carefully, which one(s) an individual uses. The observation is then made that by understanding how people are repenting the world to themselves you can relate to them on a much more comfortable and profound level. This is a large part of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP).
The book’s supposed audience is other therapists wishing to use these NLP ideas in any type of therapy, but I think that anybody reading this book could learn something useful. Just days after finishing it I’m finding myself watching eye movements and body language and listening for linguistic queues to help me understand the ways people are experiencing their world.
Over my Christmas Travelling I finished “Suburban Nation” by Duany, Plater-Zyberk, and Speck. It was a very interesting read that really identifies the pattern that you see all through all of the United States. It points out the fact that no matter where in the country you go, as soon as you get out of whatever ‘downtown’ remains, you see the same Bed Bath and Beyonds, Best Buys, Targets, Wal Marts, McDonnalds, Wendys, Starbucks, housing pods specking the paved, parking spot covered, unwalkable terrain.
Not only does “Suburban Nation” identify this problem… The authors also discuss the historical caues as well as the current policy that keeps this type of development going. The book makes me yearn to live in a world where everybody lives in a real town, and I don’t have to feel like I’m in the same city everywhere I go! It also makes me happy that the place that I live now I can ride my bike to the gym, to work, to class, and to the grocery. I can even walk to the neighborhood bar or cafe!
I’m hoping I can keep a similarly city lifestyle once I’m a ‘grown-up.’
William Gibson has long been one of my favorite authors since reading Neuromancer. A few days ago I finished one of his more recent books, Pattern Recognition. This book, unlike most of Gibson’s works is set in modern times. It is interesting to see Gibson’s eye cast onto our own society. I found myself seeing the world in a slightly more sci-fi light than my typical level of familiarity with technology lets me get away with.
Also, there is a focus on the sneaky-ness that can go on with marketing and the insecurities that exist in electronic communication. These are topics that hit home and remind me to keep my cynicism and caution when dealing with such things.
I’d say the book is worth reading, but its not one of Gibson’s best. I look forward to getting back to his dark, hyper-commercialized future bristling with technology, anarchy, and excitement. By the way… I like this post on Gibson’s blog.
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