Dare to Self Improve

I’ve always liked independent movies. In order for independent films to be moderately successful, they have to be QUITE good. Unlike other movies, they don’t generate interest from theaters or viewers by having a famous cast, well-known director, or high budget special effects. They succeed because they are good.

I didn’t know anything about Slumdog Millionaire before I saw it. It was showing at the indi theater and I read a brief synopsis which sounded interesting.

The movie was AWESOME! The story if riveting and very unique compared to normal Hollywood scripts. Additionally, the film provides a lot of exposure to the broad range of Indian class and society. I don’t want to give away too much of the film, but just go see it, and if you don’t like it, you are welcome to chastise me. You’ll love it.

Self Promotion is always a little awkward. You want to tell people about this awesome thing you might have done or might be involved with, but you don’t want to come off as a show-off or overly proud.

For example, I just received a recording of my first open mic performance. I put it up online and wanted to tell a few of my friends about it. It was certainly not the best performance I’ve done since I was incredibly nervous, but I’m still proud of the effort as well as the balls it took to do it on a whim!

So I decided to post the video on my myspace and facebook page. But in order to balance out the “self-promotion” awkwardness, in the description I wrote about how nervous I was, and finished with a “Thanks for letting me share” (even though they aren’t really “letting” me do anything).

If you need or want to self-promote, I think its important to include a statement of humility. This way, not only will people see how awesome you are, but they’ll like you more for not coming off incredibly vain about it.

Yesterday during my lunch time game of basketball at work, I noticed something. As the game became closer and the intensity heated up, tempers started to flare. One person was yelling, and a couple of other people were becoming quite irritable and lashing out at otherwise regular basketball behavior.

They were getting caught up in the intensity of the game, and losing their cool. They might argue that it’s only because they’re competitive, but that’s not the reason. The more fired up they got, the more mistakes they made.

I’m intensley competitive, but during contests, I’m pretty level headed and NEVER lash out or complain about anyone. It’s just not my style, and I’m better liked as a result (I think Also, by not riding the emotional roller coaster, I’m able to dedicate that energy to focusing on playing better.

Finding your emotional equilibrium when the pressure is high is vital to personal success as well as succeeding socially!

Hello Everyone!
Not to worry…I’m back! I went on a little Holiday vacation for two weeks, and while I was gone, I didn’t much feel like blogging. Now that I’m back, I’ve got a whole bunch of stuff I need to catch up on, one of which includes resuming my little blurbs on here.

Taking a little break was nice. I was able to completely relax and not worry about any type of work. Even though I enjoy blogging and don’t really consider writing on here to be “work,” it was still nice to step away for a while, rest, and get some new ideas.

That being said, I’ll share some of my “New Years Resolutions” in my upcoming posts.

I’ve been a culprit of starting projects and then never putting in the time to properly finish them or fully committ to them. This year I’ve tried to change my ways. For the most part, I’d say I’ve made a huge improvement, though I’m certainly not quite where I want to be.

I used to always start projects, then somewhere along the way, get tired of the work and leave them unfinished. Some of the projects I’ve embarked on this year is freelance writing, writing and selling an ebook, playing music in front of people, Relay For Life, and song writing. I will admit that I haven’t committed as strongly as I should for all of these projects, but they are still alive and I AM working (albeit sparingly for some) towards an end goal in sight. I’ll dissect more tomorrow.

We all have friends that happen to fall into two sort of categories. THose who come through, and those who flake. I don’t know about you, but I get REALLY annoyed by my flakey friends. I know they don’t do it on purpose, but being a flake makes it hard to REALLY be good friends with that person.

Coming through and being dependable is also great for your reputation among people who don’t know you personally as well, such as work colleagues etc. When you bring the goods to the table, people automatcially begin respecting you more and trusting you more.

Make it a point to really follow through with things you commit to. I’ve been spread pretty thin this year, but I’ve tried to commit to the same goal. More on this tomorrow.

Yesterday I mentioned that I was going to attempt to mitigate some of my holiday eating damage by making some smart substitutions and sacrifices in some areas, while still allowing myself some holiday treats.

Yesterday was a perfect example. Allow me to outline.

Extra Holiday Treats: Healthy piece of Pecan Pie, Apple Cobbler, small cookie.
Sacrifices: Eliminated cracker snacks, extra 300 Calories of Cardio, avoided ordering a beer when meeting up with friends.

Overall, I probably came out close to even! Its all about balance this holiday season!

Uh Oh…it’s the Holidays again.

When it comes to Holiday eating, I’m just like everyone else. In the month of December, I consume more calories than during any other month of the year. Actually, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners aren’t such a big deal. It’s when people bring cookies and chocolate to work everyday, and friends have Holiday party’s with lots of treats that get me.

I have a major sweet tooth.

This year, to combat the Holiday eating, I’m going to try and make substitutions. Today, I had a slice of Pecan Pie in the morning (AFTER I ate breakfast). So now, I’m going to eliminate my afternoon cracker snack (doesn’t really even out, I know) AND do an extra ten minutes of cardio to combat this. I’ll let you know how this goes!

Celery is great for those of us who like to eat. I don’t know about you, but enjoy a nice hearty dinner. Typically, you want to taper you meals throughout the day, but at dinner time, when we also happen to be least active, most of us end up eating our biggest meal.

BUT, we can combate the health side effects of this by incorporating celery. Why?

1. Celery is extremely high fiber which means its very filling,
2. The high fiber content and unique sugar chemistry means the body expends more calories digesting celery than it absorbs from the celery.

No, eating celery is no substitute for exercise, but getting ZERO calories from a food that fills you up is a great start!

As you know, I love talking about health, fitness, and diet. I’m a big advocate of eating a 90% healthy diet. Part of my healthy diet includes a LOT of celery.

Why do I like celery so much? Well, to tell the truth, I don’t actually care for it too muck when eaten just plain. That being said, I love using when cooking anything where vegetables are used.

Celery is great at absorbing ambient flavors while not contributing too much of its own (thank god). For example, I chop celery and use it in my soups, stir fries, and salads. I even put two stalks of celery in my daily morning smoothy.

So from a health perspective, what’s so great about celery? Stay tuned.