Do We Need Religion?

Here we go, taking a few days off and coming back with a controversial post! That's just my style, I had finals this past week, so got a bit distracted, however, I'm back! Anyway, about this controversial post of mine. I was thinking today that the whole concept of religion seems pointless in this day and age. Essentially religion's biggest aid in the world is that it tells us to love each other and be nice to one another. The whole concept baffles me, Christianity is what I'm most familiar with, so that will be my basis for most of these statements, however, I know enough about a few other religions to be able to say with confidence that once you get below the shell, all religions are exactly the same.

Live And Let Live

Something we do a lot as a society, is we love to share our beliefs with others. This is all well and good, but so many people take it several steps too far. We take something that works for us, and we shove it on other people, insisting that if they don't adopt our beliefs then they're doing something wrong.  We often times try to scare other people into believing the same way we do, without taking into account that what works for us might not work as well for someone else. 

Breaking Old Habits

Something we have been taught our whole lives is that old habits die hard. We have been taught that just because we've been doing something for so long, means that it must be really difficult to stop doing it when we discover that that action isn't what we prefer. This couldn't be further from the truth. In reality once you know something is a habit of yours, the habit disappears and it becomes a choice. This is true about addictions as well as habits. 

How To Get Out Of Your Own Way

Often times we know exactly what we want, we just have been conditioned to not know how to get there. Our society seems to be built around raising good little robot factory worker sheep, and punishing anybody who tries to make a difference.  We always herald people who managed to break out of the herd as geniuses. We tend to idolize people like Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and many other people who broke free and ended up shaping our world in a big way, yet we still think it's impossible for us. We have been conditioned to believe that those people have something that we don't, but in reality, we have something that they were able to get rid of, and that is our internal roadblocks that have been constructed from the day we're born. So in today's post, I'll be discussing how to break down those road blocks, so that you too can get out of your way and go on to shape the world around us.

How To Start Your Day

Are you the kind of person who dreads waking up in the morning? If so, you probably need to tune your thoughts to make your days flow better. This actually starts at night when you go to bed, and then continues throughout your day, but it doesn't matter when you start, you can always shift gears and think positively.

On Fitting In

This is a topic I see a lot of people dealing with. It seems like a thing almost everyone deals with, mainly in the teenage years, and I know I struggled with it for awhile. The lesson I found hardest to learn in this is that being yourself is how you manage to fit in and also be way happier about it.

You Are What You Love

You are what you love, not what loves you. I love this quote for a couple reasons. First off, it's a really good philosophy in that it doesn't matter what others think of you, and all you need to do is focus on the things you love. It helps to keep you focused on the things that actually matter, and that's an important lesson, it's important not stray too far from the things that really drive your life.  However, the second reason is where the quote really shines for me.

On Running Out Of Ideas

As a creative person I always seem to be facing the fear of running out of ideas. I come to points where I think "what if I can't come up with any more ideas?".  Now, there are definitely times where I hit writer's block, but I still have yet to run out of ideas for more than a week or so. What I've found is that the more I trust in the unlimited creativity that exists in my head, the more I'm able to get into flow. So today I would like to talk about how to overcome writer's block and the fear of running out of ideas.

We Have A Choice

There are many times in life when it may feel like we have no choice. It's something I hear all the time, people telling me that they didn't have a choice. The truth is, though, that we always have a choice. There are certainly times when the choice is extremely obvious, like when a cop is trying to pull you over, the obvious choice is that you should pull over. That doesn't mean you don't have a choice though, even in a situation like that, you could keep driving, it just wouldn't be a very good move most of the time. That's a bit of a silly situation, but in this post I'll discuss a few instances where we might think we don't have a choice, but really we do, and if we choose the less obvious choice we'll end up much happier.

Thank God It's Friday

Now, this may seem like a strange post for a Monday, but hear me out.  I'm never excited by the prospect of it being Friday, at least not any more than I am excited by it being Monday, or Saturday, or any other day of the week. This isn't just because I don't have a weekend these days due to school and work, it's because I actually love what I do for work, and I love what I'm in school for.

Universal Studios

As an annual pass holder, I like to go to Universal Studios fairly often. I love walking through the huge crowds of people and marvelling at the broad variety of people that show up at a place like that. Living in Los Angeles has given me a great opportunity to watch what people are like on vacation, which isn't all that different from how we live our day to day lives, it just takes on a different form factor which makes it easier to notice.  We seem to go through our lives with a kind of tunnel vision, only focusing on our routine. You see it all the time when there are crowds of tourists all staring at the same things, which are amazing, but there is so much more that goes unseen because of the blinders we put on.

Introduction

This blog is a little project in which I will be writing down whatever comes to my head each day. In this blog I will feature things that I find funny, inspiring, curious, or just awesome.  I don't really know how this is going to turn out, and I'm okay with that. I just want to get out of my own way and start talking about subjects that I think are important.

I hope that with this blog you can find some inspiration to be a better person, or to help make the world a better place. I hope I can make you laugh, smile, and radiate joy every day.  If you see something on here that you like, please share it with your friends and help turn this blog into something wonderful.

-Mike