10 Ways to Seriously Turn Your Life Around

1. go vegan

even more extreme than garden-variety ‘vegetarianism’, going vegan means no meat, and ALSO no milk or milk products, and no eggs, or egg products. That’s full on! But the potential health benefits are HUGE. One has a diet based predominantly on Whole Grains and Vegetables, with little else. Pure Fuel for the belly. Worth giving a shot for 6 months.

have I done it? yes 🙂

2. take a year off life

sometimes we need and perspective to see our true place in the cosmos. Getting a break from work is the perfect time for this. Just quit … and stay at home … read … travel a little. You might need to save up a bit for this (hard to do with a family to support), but it’s well worth doing! Chill … and find who you REALLY ARE.

have I done it? yep – after first year college, I had enough saved up to take a sabbatical year. Read heaps, and challenged who I was. Free time expands the mind no end. Loved it.

3. buy an exercise machine

yeah, yeah. We all know the ‘Ab-Crunchers’ info-mercials from late night tv … they suck. $70 thrown away in an instant … for something that gets thrown into the back of the wardrobe, never to be seen after one ambitious use. But an exercise machine? there are plenty of them out there. Just find one within your price range. They work your arms and legs and lungs all at the same time. Ten minutes a day is all that is necessary. And easier (and faster) than going to the gym!!

have i done it? yep, looking over at the Orbitrek Elite that’s sitting in my room. A source of great pain and sweat … but love the damn thing! use after being on the internet for 5 hours straight lol.

4. become a cultural creative

what the hell is that? well, Richard Florida claims the world of tomorrow belongs to the individual who is Creatively Empowered. After all, we have machines do the hard physical labor, and we have computers to crunch large numbers? where will the high-paying jobs go to? well … to people that can CREATE something that didn’t exist before. Bring something into the world that is Original, Exciting, Zany, and Liberating. That’s where the Cultural Creative comes in – exactly his line of work.

have I done it? yep to this to. Came to music quite late (18 or 19) and taught myself classical music composition. Took me a decade to master, but now I’m composing pieces on a weekly basis. This blog is founded on my Original Musical Compositions. Go have a listen! (once you finish this article, that is … 🙂

5. drink your own piss

yep, serious.

have I done it? …. ahhh, yes.

6. watch … and truly understand The Matrix

the Matrix is the cult film of our times. 10 year anniversary just recently. If you can truly pierce the veil of metaphor that the film is couched in, you are in for a mind-blowing realisation. Reality? what exactly is it/? who controls it? who has the power to manipulate it? the individual? or a group of evil, mal-minded individuals? can one fight back? all good questions. This film has many of the answers.

have I done it? the searing last image of the humans plugged into a grid sucking their life juice … wow. And forget the 2 sequels. They suck. big time.

7. travel to Europe

a true eye-opener, especially for any Australian or American. They DO do things differently over there! life runs at a different pace, the arts play a much more central role … even their tv programs are better! Food tastes awesome, the cities are walkable, and the people are truly developed.

have I done it? only once, and only for a couple of weeks. Went to lovely, lovely Paris. Unforgettable.

8. kiss and make up with your family

anyone here have cordial relations with ALL their family? I certainly don’t 🙂 But you know, we only get one dad, and one mum, and perhaps a few siblings. They won’t come around again. And the childhood you had … that was once off. So it’s worth making up … and coming to peace with your folk and kin. One may regret not doing so later in life.

have I done it? here I am preaching, but nope, things still tense in some quarters. Will work on it!

9. read a book a week

what are books? they are little Idea Factories … the compression of years of life experience. Someone has condensed their full understanding and wisdom … into those lines of text. Food for the brain. Do yourself a favor, and plough through a book a week. Even if it is just fiction. Will give your dreams something to work on.

do I do it? I have done it, but not these days. I find books a little too pricey for my liking. Should go to the library, but I’m quite picky about what I read. A Fail for Me.

10. have a spiritual experience

not sure how one deliberately goes about doing this, but I’m sure it will change your life.

have I done it? yep.

honestly, do even 3 of these things, and your life won’t be the same again. It will change … for the BETTER.

Podcast Entertainment is the Best Entertainment

as the media continues to crumble in the face of the internet onslaught, many new forms are rising up before us. One of these is these is the much maligned PODCAST.

what is a podcast?

just think of it as a radio show … that has been released as an mp3 file. Guys talking, interviewing, presenting their views …

there are loads of them out there. iTunes is a good place to start searching. Podcasts are available on all topics … and are usually released weekly (although some do daily shows, mainly proper radio programs publishing on the web).

once you find a crew that you really like (check out FilmJunk or the 404) it becomes a total hook. Better than tv, better than films or video. Because its so genuine and raw. It’s REAL.

so break out of the old media paradigm, venture into something new.

Podcasts are the entertainment of the future. Easy to produce, insightful, regular … and FUN!!

podcasts, podcasts, podcasts ….

Having More Money than Free Time

the curse of the modern working life is not having enough time. One wakes up, races to work, has a hectic day, and runs around like mad in the evening. When we finally collapse into bed …. the cycle starts again. 5 days in a row.

where is the free time? the time to think? and ponder?

in the end, we earn money, spend it, and that is our lives. The treadmill of work.

remember a time when this was different? as a kid, those endless summer holidays, those long afternoons sitting on the porch, those long car rides to distant places. Then, we had TIME. Loads of it. No money, of course (how many things did we DESIRE to buy?) … but we had time. Time to learn, and muck around.

how things change.

In adulthood, we work, work, work away …. building our physical possessions (house, car, toys) … but we are Time Poor.

that’s a sad state of affairs!

Why NOW is the Best Time to be Alive

1. You can get fired from your job … today.

some may view this as a negative, but I consider it a positive! it means an opportunity to shift workplaces, try a new job, start your own business venture, whatever! at the very least you get some time off work.

2. wonderful online content

with all that free time, you’ll be able to spend your life on the web. This isn’t as sad as it used to be lol. With youtube, twitter, flickr, last.fm … you have abundant sources of super-free online content. Plus the paid options (itunes, netflix) aren’t too shabby either. In any case, one need never be bored again.

3. crumbling social barriers

at the same time our economy crashes, that means old institutions and ways of doing things are failing too. When everyone’s in the same sinking boat, it doesn’t matter what race, education, or philosophical background you come from. Everyone’s facing the same situation. The commonalities start to bind us together.

4. asking questions

when everything hits the shitter, people want to know why. We start asking questions. The media starts asking questions. We demand answers. Greater transparency is coming day by day.

5. baseball is back

a totally arbitrary reason to be joyful, but hey, it’s my blog! six months of non-stop double plays ahead. Sports heaven.

6. <insert your own reason>

NOW is the best time to be alive because …

so it ain’t all bad!!