2012/2013

2012 is almost over...

Last night I came back to Perth after 5 weeks of work/traveling.

It was so important for me to get away from the small university bubble I usually live in. To meet people with a completely different view of the world and to see their side of things as well as sharing mine has been amazing. It made me realise again how lucky I'm but also that life should be about fun and not taking yourself too seriously.

I meet this wizard who was probably 65 years old with white hair. He had been traveling non-stop for the last 25 years. Before that he had been very successful in setting up businesses in Ibiza. He was very down to earth and recommended a few places that I should travel to. Goa, the Masai people in Africa and South America. It almost got a bit emotional when I left and said good bye.  

He also taught me that I should listen to myself and do the things I wanted to do without listening too much to everyone else. He was also a lot into enjoying the moment and how people are working themselves to death, saving for their pension but they might be dead in a heart attack before that. I think goals are very important as well and I'm sure this guy is not JUST living in the moment. Interestingly I read in a book recently about two guys that had performed some serious research about heart attacks. 90% of people with heart attacks before 60 years of age is people with a type A personality. I think that if you live a stressful life you actively should try to flush the cortisol out of your body everyday. 

That is possible, a book has been written on the topic, it's called the relaxation response. It's about doing 20min of relaxation, 'meditation' or prayer everyday. I did quite a lot of that in Thailand, it was good for me. I also picked up drawing. It's like being in another dimension when you draw. Sometimes I sat for more then 2 hours completely focused on the thing I drew. 

Well I met a whole bunch of people from all over the globe which is always very interesting. Some alcoholics and they always have these crazy stories. Me and my good old wizard friend discussed this and we came to the conclusion that people should not talk too much about things they hadn't experienced themselves and we had a good laugh because that would mean that in the beginning of life you could only listen and not talk so it didn't make sense but there's something to it and we both sensed it. It's a shame I didn't take a picture of the man but picture Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings.

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This is the first morning in India and no this is not something special this is what they look like.

You see the turban he is wearing, that's because he is a sikh. If I got things right there is a class system in India from the upper class with priests down to the untouchables which have nothing. Then you have the Sikh's which are outside of the system. They are the "morally right" people. I saw this straight away on his demeanour in how he stopped traffic and dominated his environment. Anyways if you ever have troubles in India such as you don't want to pay a taxi or you crash into someone, snatch one of these guys and they might be able to sort things out for you.

This is us in the mornings, loading the cars to go out to different schools to treat. We lived in a missionary as you can see. Amazing to see how the Fathers gave it all to help other people and to be of service. They didn't really have any amazing chest of gold to go home to and eat good food. Their lives had one mission and that was to help others. Touching.

This is how you sat, Andrew had to spread his legs for the driver to be able to shift gears. Personal space is something that doesn't exist in India.

 Me on the first day with Linkan Ray and Chandan Barman.

 Me and Josh in the slum

 These are the kids of people from Bangladesh. They come to India to break rocks. They sit in the sun and literally break rocks with a hammer. The smaller rocks makes good cement and the like. 

It looks like hard work but then again maybe it ain't too bad being with your family and friends hacking away at rocks in the sun. Maybe it's worse making lots of money but you're away from family and friends in an office for 90% of the day?

 Us at Baghdogra with our fabulous translators 

The school bus

Mount everest 5:30 AM

 Me, Ruhi and Oscar up in a monastery for monks. Played some hacke-sack with them. They won. 

 This is a random stop in the mountains with some Nepalese kids

Me and Josh looking good in front of the holy mother

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Then I arrived in Thailand...

 My secret beach

 Twice I did the 2 hour trekk though the jungle, it was warm

 Jungle monkey

 Down there is where we came from

The Muay Thai Champion

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I also read and finished 4 books.

Pulling your own strings

It's great to be humble but not on the cost of letting other people slap you around.

Sex at Dawn

Read on your own risk, this is a great book. But not if you don't want your reality on the human psyche chattered.

My Big TOE (Theory of everything)

Another mind bender. This is not a book for the closed minded. It may be the next big paradigm shift in thinking but in that case it will take a couple of years because he's a head of his time. Then again all great scientists and explorers were ahead of their time. Be open minded but skeptical. Open minded to not miss out on stuff but skeptical to not get sucked into things that will waste your time.

Zlatan

His autobiography. 

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Now I'm off to get some New Years Resolution scribbled down and get ready to tackle my last year of University - unreal. Let's have some fun in the last year.

Being a gardener

Sharing a bit of wisdom today...

Having a girlfriend is very similar to having a piece of land where you grow veggies.

If you water it regularly soil it once a year and pick all the weeds that are growing in it you will have plenty of good tasting veggies.

However if you don't pluck the weeds and don't water it regularly your piece of land will turn into...

Some people call this a bitch. But remember that it might have been your fault for not taking care of your piece of land. 

If your girlfriend has turned into a bitch over the years. See her as that piece of land. It will take lots of work, probably a few seasons (read years) if it's grown over a long time. You just got to pluck the weeds. i.e. force her to tell you what's up and then deal with it, water regularly and soil once or twice a year.

Are you going to man up and take care of the piece of land you own or are you just going to keep neglecting it? Up to you brother

Working class hero

Earlier this year a friend of mine broke this song down for me

I liked it and started listening to it and now want to do my own interpretation of it

As soon as you're born they make you feel small
By giving you no time instead of it all
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all
Here he is pretty much talking about as a child you are not loved for just who you are but instead disciplined into behaviours that others want you to have. Taking away the trust in yourself and that you can figure out how things work and become who you want to become.
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
This is sarcasm. It is what you're told since day one.
But John probably realised that he had a love and talent for music and did not want to follow their plan.
They hurt you at home and they hit you at school
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool
Till you're so crazy you can't follow their rules
Here's probably how he grow up. Disciplined with scare tactics instead of with love and trust in himself. 
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can't really function you're so full of fear
Here you've been in the system of abuse for such a long time, been shown day in and day out what behaviours that are accepted and not. In the end your brain is so full of fears that you can't connect with what you want to do in life. You do something anyways because it's what you're told is the right thing. No one trust in you that you can do decisions for yourself, not even you anymore.
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
Say you want to be a musician, writer or just hasn't got quite the same talent as your peers of adding numbers at age 10 and rather want to be wrestling and playing soccer, you will be ridiculed and looked down on. If that doesn't work, ADHD medicines will keep you in check.
Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
And you think you're so clever and classless and free
But you're still peasants as far as I can see
These three lines are so well known and well quoted. Here I think he means that religion, sex and TV is what keeps you functioning, from not losing it completely. It keeps you quiet. Or possibly occupies you from doing what you really want. But you still think that you have some sort of free will and ability to do whatever you want but you're in fact so limited in what you dare to do because of the conditioning you've received. 
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
I remember my first teacher, she was a 60 something and a very nice lady which loved us all. Her name was Birgitta and I was around 7 when she told us that during the next 10 years we were going to learn a whole lot but that the most important thing was to develop a critical mind and always question everything. That stuck with me.There's room at the top they are telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill
This is the hope, that you one day can get to the top of the hill. 
But I think it's more hope of freedom then material.
If you learn to play by their rules and dismiss your own innate standards of justice and rightfullness you will one day be set free.
But in fact you already have this freedom today. 
The one thing limiting you is your own fear.
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
If you want to be a hero, well, just follow me
If you want to be a hero, well, just follow me
Okay let's think. Follow John Lennon or yourself? This is even more sarcasm. If you didn't realise it I'll give it to you...you have to start listening to YOURself and learn to think for yourself and what's important to you.

Objectivity

It turned out that my brother and I had read the book "7 habits of highly effective people" and mum had just had a course in the book though her work. My whole family decided to go through everything in the book and implement it in to our lives by discussing and giving each other feedback. It's a great book that is quite different from the rest of books out there. 

Anyways my brother is writing his master thesis at the moment. A couple of days ago he started viewing himself as a company. In which he's the boss. It's an interesting idea and I know that many professional writers do this to become more professional and to really separate work from non-work.

It's also a good way of viewing yourself very objectively. I was discussing this with him and I told him how I sometimes make difficult choices for myself. I imagine this little action man that I can control. Like playing Diablo, world of warcraft or any other fun game. What would I do with this little man to take him to the next level, to improve him? 

The question and answers become very simple. Off course I send him to a Toastmaster club so he can develop his public speaking abilities. I then send him to the gym for brain and muscle development. I have him eat only the best food. I have him have some fun so he can relax when he's not doing his work. All this is fun, it's like playing a video game with yourself.

Then I just transfer what I would do with him over to my life. And even though there's resistance in me to go and sign up with a public speaking course I just go. Because I know that is what I would do if there was no resistance in me.

I think humans are inherently trying to save energy and avoid uncomfortable feelings if there are no pressure on us. But if you want a lot of of life and live it on your terms you got to come up with a way of finding out what YOU want to do without letting the lazy you or anything else like society, friends or family get in the way and then just roll with that.

This is my way

Planning every week

Earlier this year my life was a bit blurry. It was taxing to not get any sleep plus a whole lot of other dramas. Now I'm back on track and I feel ready to tackle anything. It has been a good experience and I've taken lots of lessons from the whole thing. Never compromise sleep or rest for longer periods of time again.

One thing that improved my life a whole lot is that I followed Steven Covey's (7 habits of highly effective people) advice in that you should plan out your week ahead. 

He basically says that if you plan out the important things that has to be done in your life, then all the small things can slide around the big things. It sounded very boring and I already had a good well structured to do list so I thought this was just some silly thing but I knew that Steven was one of the sharpest minds around so I gave it a try and I'm glad I did.

I've been able to free up so much time. Gain self respect everyday as I do what's most important to me first. Stress levels are down. When you're done for the day you're truly off and can go and have FUN for real. I haven't found any other effective way to get out of that grey zone which has to be avoided like death, yack!

I got some big plans for life, many things to achieve, many books to read, many projects to finish. 

/Fortunate as few

Rituals

Today I was thinking about rituals.

It's a known fact that people put themselves in a specific mindset before they start doing their thing.
Kai Greene does a 12 minute warm-up in which he connect his mind with his muscles before training.
I also do a warmup in where I row and try to feel all my muscles working before I start lifting.

Study wise I know I've had different rituals throughout the years but I now think I've found the best one for me. I go to a quiet special place. Before I enter the doors i turn my phone off, as soon as I sit down I block Facebook and turn Skype off. This place is sacred and under no circumstances is any connection like that allowed in here. If I need to I have to exit the room. I can get very deep into my studies here and I use my time very efficiently.

As a student you have this low-level guilt feeling that you should be studying all the time but as I said in my previous post that time to recover is equally important. I know think that if you treat yourself as a company and that you have a designated study time and designated off time then you're fine. You don't have to feel this low level guilt.

Then off course when you've been in study mode for many hours you got to be able to get back into "normal mode".

Sleep deprivation

Another rant about 4th year (which is soon over).

I've tried to cut down on sleep, going on 5-6 hours because I thought I had the capacity to do so.
And I could...but with a price.

That price is:

* Becoming very tired during mid day and not being able to focus on what the teacher says (way to tired to do notes)
* Low motivation to study and get good grades
* Low level irritation

It sucks and if there's anything I could redo it would be to get adequate sleep in. But there's no way of re-doing things so for the 5th and final year I'll make sure to prioritise sleep.

We've been going for 10 months straight with only one 2 week break in the beginning, exams are up in a month from now.
It has been very intense. Intense to the point that 8 people's relationships in our class has broken down.
Although I consider myself very lucky to have the opportunity to go through this hardship now and leaner so much from it. Also lucky to be able to live in such a great part of the world and be able to work towards my dream every day. So much has happened during this year, it has changed my life in many ways.

After exams I'm off to India, two weeks of work and after that I'm going to recuperate in Thailand for two weeks before coming back to wrap the final year up. I'm looking forward with a big smile on my lips!

Clinic entrance

My phone is on flight mode
Skype is off
Facebook is blocked

Today is two days before I sit my entrance exams. I went in and had a look around an hour ago, I'm  still feeling nervous. It's five different stations and everything we've learnt during the last 3.5 years is examined. Will be such a good feeling when I see any letter except F for fail when we get our grades back.

Wish me good luck

My take on Facebook

The world has never seen anything that over just a few years have grown into what will be a billion users later this year. It's hard to even imagine life without Facebook. The world would run ahead of you if you didn't have Facebook.
I don't want to quit it, I think it's fun to connect with people and see what's going on in their life.

There is definitively the addiction part to it though. Your brain badly wants those red dots in the upper left corner to show up when you log in. Some people are so addicted to them they can't enjoy themselves when just sitting around with people. They are agitated and only response to more stimulus. Someone said that the addiction was worse then crack cocaine, however I don't believe that, but it's pretty f%&*ng bad for some.

It's especially bad for people that need to focus. I always take the example of a student. As soon as you get a little tired, two clicks will take you onto Facebook and you get your neuro receptor kick.
Same thing with the phone and Skype or any other thing that could potentially pop-up whilst you're in the zone. IF you ever get into the zone because you're so alert and know that shit can pop-up anytime so you can never fully relax into it. What I've found is that turning my phone to silent without vibration, go offline on Skype and use a program like SelfControl to completely block Facebook has a very profound effect on my concentration.

It's so quiet, nothing can't even potentially bother you and if you just sit there and do the work you eventually get into that zone were things are just interesting and you enjoy sitting there. Not always, but there is something to it that few people will ever experience and the opposite is considered so normal  it's scary.

These are some thought's I had after hearing that 25% of the 1st years failed Anatomy108 and have to redo 1st year. The lecturers are getting worried and wonders what's happening with the next generation.

Free speech and freedom is very good but what happens as we become extremely good at exploiting our own primitive brains search for stimulus that was meant to keep us alive but these days leads to nothing more then an addiction to stimulus and a non-ability to just chill out.

I read

Books are so fascinating. I would want to think that everyone reads a bit here and there.

How cool isn't it that I can pick up a book and find out in a few days what it took some really smart person a lifetime to figure out!! 

It's like when the internet came and you can look things up on wikipedia instead of having to use an encyclopaedia. It's almost like cheating but BIGtime cheating.

Six years ago I heard this quote by Jim Rohn: "you're the average of the five people you spend time with and the books you read".

Since then I've read about 25 books a year and I've written them down. A few I haven't liked at all but others have really resonated with me.

Lots of books I've read since I started Uni has been on motivation and how to stop procrastinating and just do what's in front of you. These are five really good books you want to read if you want to take the step to becoming a PRO. In no particular order.

Driven from within - Michael Jordan

This was kind of the first book I read on the subject that changed of I thought about studies. It's a book that describes Michael Jordan's life from a teenager up to now. Before I read it I had a distorted vision on what it took to be good and that to be good on something does not equal boring.

The power of full engagement -Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz

This was a ground breaking book on how we humans work and why some people seem to have all the energy whilst having a very busy life and why others burn out very easily. Easy to understand and apply with relevant and interesting research that backs it up.

Mastery - George Leonard

When I was done with the last word I went online and ordered another 3 copies and gave them away. I often go back and think about the concepts in this book. Its a thin book of a 180 pg's and is worth is weight in gold. He talks about the process of learning new skills and how the world we're living in impacts on this.

Art of War and Turning PRO - Steven Pressfield

These books are pretty short and so cool. It's fascinating to feel that little bit of resistance in yourself that wants you to put the book down and burn it but you know it's too late. You've already taken the red pill  and there is no going back. 

Surely you're joking Mr. Feynman -Richard Feynman

Guys like him are the solution. He didn't care about what should be right or what people said. He only wanted to find out how things worked. Not to brag about but just because he was so curious in how things really worked. Truly an inspirational character that stands as a contrast to various people who present their subjective opinion as absolute objective facts by using voice tonality and authority to get it through. Remember that whatever they say - it still moves

The need to be right

I thought Universities was a place were knowledge, even common knowledge was supposed to be questioned. Only a minority of lecturers operate like this, you find them if you listen closely because from time to time they say things like...

- Do not blindly believe in what anyone says and do not believe what I say, go and look it up yourself and only after meticulous research place it on a scale of certainty in your head. Because in the future only 50% of what you learn here will be shown to be true. Be comfortable with doubtful facts and realise that most facts sits on a scale of certainty from 1-100 and most things do not sit at a hundred.

And then we have the majority of lecturers AND students. They don't care what the fact is, it can be anything they've read out of a ding ding newspaper as long as they said it, it's true and they will defend it to their death.
Their need to be right, to look good, to have respect is so much greater then their thirst for truth.

Can you now imagine how bad this yucky characteristic is in a politician?!
It makes me sick to the core.

5th year syndrome

Something I observed quickly when I came to Uni was that the 5th years were so distant.

They were not happy it seemed like. They never spoke to anyone and if they did it was very formal.

They didn't joke around and it seemed like they really tried to suppress that kid inside of them whilst trying to look really important.

It's a fact that after five years of Uni you're probably very tired of studying and so on but I think there is another factor to it.

The University is trying to develop a proffessional side to you and that is just great. I agree that it is super important to have that professional side. But I do think that many people lose the other side of life, the fun relaxed side. 

Many people form strong opinions and they become very sure of themselves and a bit closed minded but in my view they are just building their own prison. I think this is a shame and I don't think this applies to just Chiropractic, I've heard that Law is supposedly really bad, yuck!

We study for five years and learn heaps of stuff but if the person can't enjoy life after Uni something is just not right. I think it has something to do with the fact that people feel that from now on they can not risk looking like a fool. It's a shame because then you fit in and feed to the illusion that to get somewhere you have to look and act important and work long days and never enjoy yourself. 

That is bad, studying for 5 years is something we should be proud over and subsequently we should be role-models to younger people. Show them that you can work hard AND have lots of fun and relax.

Aww shit, no more toilet paper...

- KellybaNOAAAAA

My room mate

My room mate Kellibanoa is one of a kind.
Don't think this is something that happens every once in a while, this happens EVERY DAY.

He's out drinking, coming home at 3 o'clock, super drunk (I had to open).
He goes to bed and wakes up the next day. Does a gym session around lunchtime feeling like shit.
comes home and have a nap, wakes up and goes for a 3 hour bicycle ride in the dark rainy weather.
The next morning he's got a time trial race in tornado winds plus rain.

I let him have some respect.