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.