Letting Go Of Negative Emotions
American writer and statesman Mark Twain was an intelligent man who did not suffer fools gladly. He used to write angry letters to newspaper editors and anyone that peeved him. When he completed a letter, he was only satisfied after placing it in his mailbox. His wife would take those letters out of the mailbox […]
Resisting Temptation By Controlled Indulgence
43Folders has two articles of note that I feel are important to readers of this website. One is about how self-help programs become an addiction for some people. The other is about making a list of items you don’t really want so that you won’t waste money buying them. (My interpretation.) Both articles can be […]
Would You Eat In A Soup/ Soul Kitchen?
Life sometimes changes fortunes, and you can either adapt or give in. According to various reports in traditional media, the last few years has produced a new category of workers: the full-time working homeless.
These workers have full-time employment but are actually homeless, for various reasons - usually due to a temporary reversal of fortune. Some […]
What’s Your Focus - Long Or Short-Term Goals? Part 2
In Part 1 of this article, I dicussed the importance of clarifying to yourself the difference between short- and long-term goals. Now I’ll provide a concrete example, after discussing some of the elements required to successfully set and achieve a goal.
There a few crucial elements required to set and reach any goal. Some people know […]
What’s Your Focus - Long Or Short-Term Goals? Part 1
It’s been a long time since someone asked me to help them set and achieve a goal. This was something I did quite regularly for my students while I was an undergrad teaching assistant at college. I’m happy to say that several students did achieve success due to my assistance - at least, that’s what […]
Developing Your Analytical Skills To Further Your Career
During my time as a college teaching assistant, one of the skills (or lack of) that came to my attention was student’s analytical abilities. Analytical skills were sorely lacking in students prior to the rollout of the public Internet. All indications are that analytical skills are still not taught at any level of public schooling.
The […]
The (Kai)Zen of Incremental Improvement
Over the past few decades in North America, many Eastern philosphies and concepts have slowly filtered their way into the lives of a wide array of people. One such concept is kaizen. The term kaizen refers to improvement by slow degrees. While the word itself is Japanese, the concept comes from the Chinese book of […]
The Universal 80-20 Rule
Many years ago, I learned an interesting bit of theory that changed the way I approached the way I worked. It was called the 80/20 rule, but sometimes morphs into the 70/30 rule. The general concept is a rule that applies to many aspects of life, learning and business. Understanding it can make you more […]
King Midas vs Hans: Multiplication vs Attrition: Finding The Riches
You’re probably familiar with the fictional King Midas, who turned objects to gold with a touch of his hand. The downside is that he was unable to control this, and thus turned people to gold as well. But take it metaphorically, and having the “Midas touch”, of course, is a good thing. King Midas, however, […]
Spheres Of Influence
Sometimes inspiration comes from the strangest of places. Being a freelance writer and consultant, I work out of the house most of the time. At lunchtime, I watch a number of comedies while I take a break. One of them, on occasion, is The Cosby Show. In the particular episode I saw, the son, Theo, […]
Are You Experienced - Reprise
A few short hours after I posted the last entry in this journal, I came across a Squidoo lens about learning to be an illustrator. Squidoo is a unique idea from the mind of marketing genius Seth Godin.
Seth is the writer of numerous books on marketing, particularly for businesses on the Internet. He also […]
Are You Experienced?
Back in early 1982, I lived in Ottawa, the capital of Canada, for a college co-operative work term. Through workmates, I met a bunch of co-op students like myself who were in a band. One of the inevitable debates that we always had was about who the best rock guitarist was. Was it Jimmy Page, […]
Dealing With Another Person’s Illness
At the Buddhist Truckstop, I’ve mentioned previously that a number of regular customers are terminally ill. It’s unfortunately not a question of whether they’ll leave this mortal coil because of their illness, but when. While diabetes seems to be a very common ailment amongst our regulars, cancer seems to be a close second, with joint […]
Giving Yourself Permission To Stop
Earlier today, I finally followed weeks of intuition and cleared out some of the clutter in my life. For me, that amounts to culling the list of projects I’m working on. I write several weblogs/ online journals as part of my writing career, which I relaunched last June, focusing mainly on the Internet as my […]
You’re Not Alone
Yesterday, I spent over an hour on the phone with a family friend I’ve known for nearly 40 years. She and I are the oldest sibling in our respective families, we’re both unmarried, both have had career setbacks, both are going through physical illnesses that we’re trying to resolve, both are of the “Brahmin” caste […]
The Healing Light
An unusual thing happened to me today. When I woke up this morning, a voice told me that if I wanted to heal enough to get better and become a healer, I had to imagine that the light of God was glowing within me, healing me. Now consider that I’ve never not believed in a […]
Saying Hello To God
As I write this, one of my regular customers, Mark, has left my mother’s combo diner/ convenience store, which I refer to here and in my fiction as the Buddhist Truckstop (even though I’m the only fake Buddhist in the family).
Mark has just given me one of the best pieces of advice that I’ve had […]
My Ever-Changing Moods
The title’s the name of a song by The Style Council, from the 1980s. Written by Paul Weller, formerly of seminal British band The Jam - a favourite of many “mods” and “punks”, the last two lines of the lyrics are:
I wish we’d come to our senses and see there is no truth
In those who […]
Be Careful What You Wish For
Be careful what you wish for, for you just might get it. This is an old saying which has an unfortunately high frequency of coming true for me when I don’t really want it to, or don’t have a clear picture in my head of what it is that I really want. My most recent […]
Shall We Dance?
For lovers of ballroom dance who’ve seen and enjoyed the offbeat and humorous Australian film Ballroom Dancing, you’ll likely enjoy the subtitled Japanese film from 1996 called Shall We Dance? While the poor choice of colour (yellow) for the subtitles causes them to be obscured sometimes, it’s not absolutely necessary to read all the text. […]
