Archive for January, 2009

Reading multiple “how to” blogs and books is a complete waste of time and here’s why…

The secret to success in life is simple. It goes like this:

1. Decide what the One Thing you really want to do is.
2. Work relentlessly at being great at doing it.
3. After you’ve been working at it for a while honestly appraise whether you are talented enough in this area to succeed (believe me, I have seen enough live music to know that sometimes hard work just ain’t enough to cover for complete lack of talent).
4. Keep working at it.
5. Get it out there (don’t hide under a bushel).
6. Don’t get distracted.
7. Keep working at it until you succeed.

This is the conclusion I have come to after years and years of digesting just about all the self-help and “how to” literature that one man should ever read.

Of course everybody’s journey is different and I am generalizing, but my point is that at the end of any self-help journey this is where you end up if you are actually going to go on and succeed.

At one point in my life I needed to read all those books and blog posts, but it all lead me back to the conclusion that drove me onward and upward when I was younger adult (and was doing quite well for myself – before I got distracted). This conclusion is simple:

If you do things, things get done.

So if you are looking for a magic bullet, there it is. Put down the self-help book, unsubscribe from the How-to blogs and to quote one of the world’s more successful individuals, Jerry Seinfeld: “Just work.”

In case you simply aren’t ready to follow this advice, then here are links to two of the more to-the-point and useful “how to succeed” posts that I have come across (but you’d be better just to get to work right now and save the reading until their is no way you could be working, which is not very often).

How To Walk On Water

The 3 Secrets To Success (says it’s about online marketing success but the points apply across the board).

As for me – I am tired of reading self-help and how-to books (unless I need a specific piece of technical knowledge) and I am convinced that the only way forward is just to work hard towards what I want (and know I am good at). I am so convinced that this is true that I am as of 2009 – documenting my journey towards my goals to prove that I am right.

“If you’ve got really smart people who are all focused on the same mission, then usually you can get some things done.”

Barack Obama

By Steve Mills

When I bought my house just over four years ago, the area behind the back shed was an absolute mess. There were weeds taller than I am, an old incinerator and rusty pieces of discarded metal poking out of the ground and out from under piles of rubbish.

Although I had never gardened much before (you tend to only do the bare minimum when renting), I saw this overlooked and mistreated piece of land as the perfect place to start a veggie garden. It got plenty of sun, I could catch water from the shed roof for a rain tank, and the weeds obviously loved it, so I supposed carrots, potatoes and tomatoes would as well.

It took me a few weekends, but I eventually cleared the area, made garden beds, set up a compost bin and I was on my way.  Over the past 4 years, having a vegetable garden has given me such knowledge and enjoyment, things that I would not have ever thought of. It is one of the most basic things we can do to feel some kind of connection to nature and the seasons.

Most people growing up in today’s society have absolutely no idea what goes into the planting, growth and care of some of the most common things that we eat each day. By becoming so disconnected from the way our food is produced, we lose perspective of the vast amount of resources that must go into feeding the 6 billion plus denizens of our planet.

Another benefit is that you get to taste what real food should taste like, and not the factory farmed, tasteless and artificially ripened versions that they sell at the local supermarket. Growing your own food is an empowering thing, and a skill that more people should have.

The list of benefits goes on. There is a sense of community when you share the surplus that you have grown with your friends and neighbors. There are fewer relaxing, Zen like moments than the time taken of an evening to go out and water your plants.

Hey, so i know this posts sounds like an advertisement for ‘Gardeners Warehouse’ or something, but seriously, find a patch of land, or even a pot that you can plant something in and give it a go. You will be surprised at the results.

Image by Laura & Garrett

OK so my last post was a bit hardcore, but it was meant to be. I wanted it to be a short, sharp, unexpected shock.

Why? Because I don’t want Rebel Zen to be just another blog. In fact, Steve and I do not intend Rebel Zen to just be a blog but something much more multi-faceted than that.

We have both of us had a break from regular posting in order to refresh and now I think we are ready to come back to Rebel Zen with a fresh perspective for 2009. And no, it’s not going to turn into a ‘doom and gloom’ activist blog BUT we are hoping to shake up the personal development scene as best we can – to confound expectation. That’s why it’s ‘Rebel’ Zen not ‘Feel Good Zen’, y’know?

What I am interested in is how can we move boundaries around and mix the idea of a personal development brand with activism, with art-for-art’s-sake, with music, with offline ‘real world’ happenings, and with whatever else we want to throw into the mix. And importantly – how can we make this something about ACTION not just IDEAS – because ideas are fantastic but without action they are just puffs of smoke on the breeze.

So yes, life is wonderful; we have the opportunity to jump on the back of life and ride it like an untamed stallion. It might not always go the way we want it to, but if we work with it then we just may find it leads us to water.

Yin, Yang and The Underlying Whole

The juxtaposition between ‘Life is fucked’ and Life is wonderful’ is the Yin Yang model at work. This model, so often co-opted and turned into a cliche, is an incredibly powerful concept (or rather underlying fact of existence) which, true to its own nature, is at once so simple and so complex that I find it hard to write about the mind-splitting ruminations I have had about its fundamental importance. I’d like to explore this some more this year.

And underlying the opposites of Yin and Yang is the Tao which is complete and all-inclusive. Represented by a simple circle, the Yin Yang model fits into it and is embraced by the Tao. And so as MonkMojo said in the comments under the last post:

“Reality contains the fucked, non-fucked and an infinite number of fucked flavors in between. It is complete. ”

This is truth. But nevertheless, this kind of psycho-babble may be of little help to you if you are having a hard time of it right now because sometimes when you are going through Hell, it can be hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. To help with this, in the next post, I will go through some practical ways to experience less of the ‘fucked’ and more of the ‘wonderful’.

Stay tuned and meanwhile, here’s to 2009! May it be wonderful!

Seamus Anthony

Photo of laughing girls by A4gpa

How’s that for a positive “personal development” message?

But it’s true; life on Earth is actually pretty fucked up.

We live on an insane planet full of misery, illness and evil. Right now millions of people are dying of horrible illness, injuries caused by accidents, crime and war or they are starving to death. They are starving to death because of “man’s inhumanity to man”, in other words they are dying because those in power are too evil and selfish to do the right thing.

People, often innocent women and children, are terrified, injured and/or dying because of war. Stop and think for a minute what war is, how truly insane and disgusting it is: Governments sending armed soldiers (usually under-educated, immature men who have been encouraged to act like savages) with high-tech weaponry to tear other people’s flesh, to smash heads and bodies in a splatter of gore, to put other people through massive, unbearable agony, burning, disfiguring, severing limbs – babies, children, women, men. The horror is so hard to face up to, so easy to ignore and yet so real for a great number of people.

“Disgusting”, you mutter – but ask yourself this: did you vote for a government that willingly sanctioned this kind of behaviour? Even Obama, while I am more than happy to give him the benefit of the doubt (God knows we could use a saviour) is, unfortunately, more than likely to give the green light to acts of barbarism and violence at some point in his reign.

You Were Never Asked If You Wanted To Be Here

Think about it. It’s one of the greatest tragedies of life, that we were squeezed out of our mother’s wombs only to discover sooner or later that we landed in a world of pain and suffering, some unnecessary, but ultimately unavoidable.

And for what purpose? Nobody knows. Some claim to know, but truly, nobody has a clue why we exist.

And we don’t exist for very long either. If you’re in your twenties, then I’ve got news for you: in the blink of an eye you’ll be in your mid-thirties and you’ll be wondering where the hell all that endless time went as life forces you to work and work and work and work…

So there it is, we all live pointless, doomed lives, and before you and your loved ones eventually die, you will no doubt experience suffering to some extent – most likely by painful, drawn-out illness.

So What Are You Going To Do About That?

That’s my point: Life is precious so what are you going to do with it?

And what are you going to do about all the extra, needless and easily avoidable suffering that evil people and corrupt systems add to the heap on top of the unavoidable sufferings of life? And this question goes for me too because – mark my words – I am as guilty of selfishness and inaction as the next guy.

What are you going to do? Fiddle with another wordpress widget while precious time slips away and while children watch their parents maimed and murdered? Write another top-ten-ways-to-hit-the-front-page-of-Digg while parents watch their children die of curable diseases because drug companies are too profit-driven to reach out and help? Watch another episode of Law and Order when you could be letting your light shine and inspiring people to build a better world?

These are the realities I am facing up to in 2009. What about you? Because soon my friend, you and I will be dead – and what if we ARE held accountable at the end? Will we hang our heads in shame? At this point I still believe that I would, and given the fact that death can come at any time, I know that I need to change this about myself and get moving.

It’s time to mobilize, people! Get busy!

By Seamus Anthony

I wrote about this ages ago here. Basically sums up my philosophy of life.

By Seamus Anthony

I was just listening to a Jerry Seinfeld interview (as you do) and the interviewer asked him what advice he has for aspiring comedians to ‘make it easier’ for them.

Seinfeld just laughed and said “No, there is no way to make it easier” (I am paraphrasing).

He then told a story about some big “How-to” comedy industry festival (of workshops etc.) and what he would do if he was asked to run it.

He said he would get rid of all the workshops, all the industry bigwigs and just gather the comedians into a big room and then unfurl a banner that reads:

“JUST WORK”

And then he would send them all on their way.

So whether or not you want to be a comedian, I think there’s a lot of truth in this (although first I think you need to know what you want to work towards).

So that’s my big resolution for this year – to just work hard at my big dream and make it real. That’s it.

P.S. You can go check out my music now on Last.fm – please drop me a comment or rate the songs or whatever that would be great you can download them for free too, please do!

Hi there – just a quick note to alert you to a new article by me over at The Change Blog:

The Power of Monomaniacal Obsession

If you like it please do give it a digg or a stumble – cheers!

Seamus Anthony