September Overview: In case you missed it!

September, end of summer and beginning of fall, has been a very pleasant month. Nice weather around here, a lot of interesting blog subject and even a "video week" of blog.


* We started the month with a Woody Allen quote that thought us that being present represent about seventy percent of successes in life.

* I discussed the four steps to master any thing. According to NLP, all things we learn goes through four essential steps before we master them. I pointed the step of conscience incompetence as being the hardest of the four steps to overcome and that we tend to want to skip. It's not always easy to admit we suck at some task.

"Happiness comes from within. If you choose to be happy, no one and no thing can ever take that happiness from you."

* Luck, coincidence and faith. Following some event that happened to me I found this very interesting video of best seller author Paulo Coelho discussing luck, coincidence and faith. I also discuss a video I didn't like on the subject.

* I felt a motivational video from Chris Cade added an essential missing piece from the popular "Secret" video and book. The fact that things are there for us if and only if we act upon them. Thinking about our dream life and living a passive life just won't bring us far.

* Creativity in humans always comes forth when pushed by limited resources. This winning video is the perfect example of that. Simply a must see.


Finally, remember that...

"No one is coming".

Quote - A Small Quote With a Big Meaning

Some quotes are complex, some are funny, some have hidden meanings while others are straight to the point. Today's quote is short and right to the point.

"No one is coming"

I'd put an author but many people must have said those words at one time or another. But the inspired meaning of the quote, which I'll explain my view in a bit, came to me from Nathaniel Branden in his book The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem, which by the way is a must read for anyone conscious about their life.

"No one is coming" does not mean we'll forever be alone. It does not mean we'll never get help. It does not mean love does not exist. It simply means that if somebody truly wants something, they are the ones who'll have to put the effort to get it. No one is going to come do it for them. If Andy wants a great job, he can leave it to luck but chances are much better if does everything in his power to get it. No one is coming to save anyone, make others life right or even exercise for strangers. Waiting for miracles to happen on there own can be comforting but rarely yields to good results. Everyone is responsible for it's own existence.

Video: Ridley Scott Director Contest Winner

Since it is apparently video week. I have another very interesting video.

The following is the winner of a contest run by the popular movie director Ridley Scott and Phillips (as a sort of promotion for their television I assume). The challenge was to create a three-minute short using only 6 lines of dialogue. The six lines had to be used in the exact same order and could not be altered in any way (Except language, but had to be subtitled in that case). The phrases were: “What is that?,” “It’s a unicorn,” “Never seen one up close before,” “Beautiful,” “Get Away, Get away,” and “I’m sorry.”

It seems very limiting at first. Three minutes, 6 phrases. But it is often when confronted with limitation that the surprising human race comes up with the most original ideas and inventions. I discussed a similar concept earlier this year when talking about igloos and how hundreds of years ago humans stranded in the cold, with very limited resources found not just a way to build houses out of snow, but the BEST way know to man to build them which even today with all the engineers and computers have not found a better way.

Take a minute or two to think of a story using the above phrases.

And now look at what the winner, director Keegan Wilcox, has constructed with so little.



Visit the contest page for more surprising videos.

Video: Notes from the Universe by Chris Cade

It's video week!!

Yes, another video. Which means less typing for me. This video from Chris Cade is about the abundance of the Universe, that someone can get what they want from it if and only if they decide to act on it. If and only if they go all the way through. If and only if they do something about it today.

I like that particular part of it. Thinking about what someone wants (has explained in "the Secret") is important but acting on our dreams is as important if not more. Probably, more. Nobody ever climb Mt.Everest by sitting on a couch.

Enjoy,

(Reminder: If you don't want to miss any of my posts you can either, subscribe to it on Blogger, Subscribe by Email or Follow BlissOdyssey on Twitter. All those marvelous options are in the right sidebar. You should act on it now!)

Video: Paulo Coelho on Luck, Coincidence, and Faith

A very unlikely event happened to me this morning which brought me to question coincidence. I'm not going to discuss it in detail, just that it is one of those time when without any conscious reasons you do something different that usual and find out that the result of your usual behavior would have been disastrous. Now is that a coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. I wish I knew the answer to that.

Curious, a quick Youtube search returned me an unsatisfying and boring video of a mathematical view on coincidence. I say, unsatisfying because the author basically said that applied to the masses coincidence just don't look as much a coincidence after all. It's true. There is 6 billion people on earth, anything can happen to anyone. With so many people doing so many things even the most bizarre things you can imagine probably happened to someone, somewhere, sometime. And I say boring, because every example from the 9 minutes video were just additional view of this concept, which I did grasp withing the first 20 seconds of the video.

So that was one point of view on coincidence. Paulo Coelho's view on coincidence is less scientific/mathematical but sounds a lot less cynical and a lot more empowering than the idea that things only happens because they do. A view to which you can at least gain something out of and build on. This discussion is part of a series of discussions linked in some ways to The Alchemist for the 20th anniversaries of the book release. So here's Paulo Coelho on this very subject:



What's your view on coincidence?

The 4 steps to mastery

In an August video post about the Power of Affirmation, I briefly discussed neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). I also said I had a few topics about NLP I wanted to discuss, today is one of those.

According to NLP, the learning experience is divided into 4 stages.

1 - Unconscious Incompetence: This is when you don't know how to do something and you also don't know that something even exist. For example a young kid walking everywhere in the house with muddy boots, he's not conscious about house cleanness and does it all wrong. But he doesn't know, it's completely unconscious. Poor example but I think it fits.

2 - Conscious Incompetence: This is I think the hardest step to go through and probably the show stopper for grown up wanting to learn something new. This is when you know you want to learn something, know about what you want to learn but also know that you can't really do it right, yet. For example, this is me trying to play the guitar, I know the chords, I know the melodies and all that stuff but I can't play the guitar. This step demands a whole lot of effort to master.

3 - Conscious Competence: Now you're starting to know what you're doing. You've mastered your skill but you still need all your attention to perform it. Lets stick to my guitar example. We'll pretend I've practiced playing for quite a while now, I can play many many songs and it sounds pretty good. But I need to look at my hands when I play and if my attention is taken away from my playing it throws me off completely. An other example could be when someone starts driving they must keep their full attention on the road, look for signs, lights, other cars, think about the break and accelerator pedals.

4 - Unconscious Competence: This is mastery of a skill. When it's become second nature. Like driving after a few years, it becomes partially unconscious. Yes, you need to keep your attention but I'm pretty sure you don't stop to think about how to put your signal light on. All the car functions have been programmed to a reflex level in your brain. The only way to attain this level of learning is by repetition, you can't get to this mastery stage by reading on a subject or skill.

This was a very short description of the learning process. I hope you enjoyed this little bit of information. NLP is filled with useful pieces of knowledge which can be applied on your day to day lives. Sometimes, simply understanding how certain part of us is working will help us growing.

Quote - Happiness From Within

Here the quote from the Zen card I randomly picked this morning. There is lots of inspiration on these little cards and which ever card I randomly pick can always be applied to my day.

"Happiness comes from within. If you choose to be happy, no one and no thing can ever take that happiness from you."

Have a fun happy day!

A Bursting Bubble Photograph

Here's a picture I found the other day from an unknown photographer. I've found several of those pictures of a bursting bubble but this one is my favorite. It's quite magical to look at. Must have taken quite a lot of takes to get this one perfect shot.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words and it's too late for me to write a thousand words, I'll simply let you look at the picture and let you come up with the thousand words.

Enjoy.

Quote - Woody Allen - Showing Up

In this quote Woody Allen proposes a similar concept as Wayne Gretzky in his quote I discussed earlier.

"Seventy percent of success in life is showing up."

- Woody Allen

Wayne said you missed all the shots you don't take. Woody said most success of life are attributed to just showing up. When people with great success in life like those two masters of their respective fields says words of wisdom, people should listen and listen well.

Woody's quote is simple, you won't have any success if you pass opportunities. Or in other words, sitting on your couch at home won't bring you much. I doubt Woody was talking about showing up on time for an 8 o'clock sitcom.

Have a great day everyone and next time someone ask you to do something, show up! Opportunities always show up when you least expect it.