LegendaryLife Blog

Looking back, it seems like every 6 months or so, I begin a new company in one way or another. I think the lessons learned by DOING something are far more valuable than not doing something or endlessly planning. One thing I have gotten better at with time though is seeing the long term opportunity of a project so that, from the get go… I have an exit or way of generating revenue from my time. This is something I never really cared about in the past but as life goes on, this kind of thinking is helping me hone my skills to waste as little time as possible.

Each new business bring with it new headaches but also great opportunities for both personal and professional learning. As long as you are having fun, the endeavor is worth it in my eyes, even if the financial payback (if there is one) is miles away.

WoodMarvels.com / 3DMarvels.com – learned about distributed manufacturing and international business. 3D practice is a bonus!

HowToChinese.com – learning about post-production, green screening and script writing

i3DS – learned about international manufacturing industry as well as product development with a minor in marketing

Dreamclue.com – learned about photography, search engine optimization and a heck of a lot of writing which allowed me to work on my subsequent books

Just keep plugging away and with time, things will work themselves out in the end.

A few weeks ago, I started on a new venture, HowToChinese.com.

Background

One reason why I started WoodMarvels.com was to keep my 3D skills on an upward improvement trajectory and the same goes with HowToChinese.com except in this case, it’s teaching myself about editing, green screening and general everyday VIDEO work. I’m always doing 3D, it’s a nice change of pace to switch to video work with all its associated challenges. I also have more than a passive interest in learning and doing business in Chinese… this is a natural fit!

What is HowToChinese.com?

I’ve gone through the tapes, books, videos etc… and although they did teach me a lot of Chinese, the material is rather dry and uninteresting. I believe I can do better! Learning a language involves learning about historical, cultural and a bit of a “travel guide” type approach is needed as well… something I saw lacking in other “learning Chinese” programs.

Why start a new business

Yes, WoodMarvels.com, 3DMarvels.com and a bunch of other sites keep me more than busy as it is, but I believe every little bit you learn in one business can be applied to improve the other. HowToChinese.com is no different. The post-production, videographing and photography involved with that business will soon pay dividends in my other businesses as I learn how to improve the quality and production streams in this new venture.

So far, the production quality has improved dramatically from the first to (now uploading) the third video. It’s rather enjoyable to take a small break while 3D stuff is rendering and dealing with the real world for a change. I look forward to the neverending challenges!

Be sure to visit http://HowToChinese.com for more information… or if you have a budding interest in Chinese, I hope these videos help!

From the moment we are born, our brains are given programs that decide our future, whether we realize this or not… they are incredibly deep within our unconscious and changing them is like walking through a mental minefield.

Brain = Computer. Culture = Software.

I struggle with getting over the software put into me growing-up on a continual basis, questioning it’s value to my life and whether it still remains relevant. For instance, during our formative years in school… I was NEVER taught that I could become my own boss. I was instead taught to become a teacher, a fireman, office worker (yuck!) and the list goes on. Striking things on your own was never part of my programming until much later in life when my parents, who are both teachers by trade, started their own business on the site. Then… the possibilities opened. New software was given to me about other ways of achieving success outside of the corporate/governmental world.

Rewriting our brains software

If you always grew-up thinking of one reality, it’s incredibly difficult for the brain to adapt at a later age, that another reality is possible. I saw a documentary about “child” suicide bombers in Afghanistan who grew-up in abject poverty, told to memorize the Koran and their whole lives that blowing yourself up is the best way to live your life. The result? They look forward to dying! You might say, that’s crazy… but the reality is that they have been programmed by people around them who think and behave int he same way. Trying to convince them that no, this is not the path you wish to take in your future and that these are all lies is like convincing an Evangelical Christian that the Bible is but a book of fairy tales. The mind just cannot believe or accept that this is even remotely possible and hence, regardless of the new information given… simply is unable to change or adapt to the new software given.

We are our software

Whether you wish to accept the fact that your life is closely governed, not by your thoughts, but by the software put into your brain by others, this is sadly a reality. Overcoming this should be a challenge taken up by everybody. Why? Well, innovation and free thinking can only be realized once you learn to question EVERYTHING! I was brought-up thinking like most people, you go to school, university, get married, have kids, work 9-5 at a job then retire. That’s easy enough to follow, it’s within my comfort zone. What is left out through is experiencing life, it’s been brought-up several times in studies that fully half of the adult population HATE THEIR JOBS. The quick answer is, quit your job, find something you love and move on with life… but if you have children, a mortgage, co-workers who are close friends. Well, you can see how challenging a hole our culture has dug for you.

Steps to rewriting yourself

1. Don’t take what you have for granted, ask yourself this very powerful question. If I were to die tomorrow, have I achieved everything I wanted out of life? If the answer is yes, then question if your goals have been too easy (you stayed within your comfort zone), if the answer is no… you have some equally harsh decisions to make.
2. Looking back on life, try to find instances where you “bucked the trend” set by others. If your life consists of being a lemming to marketing and fashion trends… ask yourself why you allow yourself to be so easily molded in the vision of others. It’s when you do something that others around you are not doing that you are truly an innovator, this needs to be cultured. It’s the only true time that your brain is overcoming your internal software. Nurture it!
3. Do something very out of the ordinary for yourself and those around you spontaneously on a very regular basis. Instead of celebrating Christmas on the 25th of December like everybody else… do it two weeks later when the bargains at stores can be had. This will not only save you a lot of money but also exercise your ability to think and act independently.

Don’t forget the reason for a strong culture and belief structure driven into us from a young age isn’t to make YOU happy, it’s to make OTHERS happy… possibly at your expense. Imagine corporations unable to find workers because they prefer to explore the world outside of an office setting, imagine governments having citizens refusing to pay taxes due to wasteful spending… imagine a world where the only limitation placed upon you was your ability to innovate from within regardless of who you were, beliefs, your position within society, economic or geographical location.

The Bottom Line

When life ceases to become a challenge, it cheapens in value.

The nursing blog has sent me a heads-up about some important information that they have put together regarding College students and STDs on campus. Most of this I already knew but some was still surprising. This should be mandatory reading for all freshmen and undergraduates!

Here is a summary, be sure to click the link for more detailed information:

• 25% of college students already have an STD (not surprising as this number is similar to that of the general US public)
• Condoms are only used about half the time
• 20% of girls have HPV, which can cause some problems with pregnancy later in life
• Half of the 20 million or so of new STD infections occur in people of college age
• 80% of those with an STD experience no symptoms, hence why most don’t even know they have it!
• HPV is the number one disease on campus
• 50% of alcoholic students consider contraception as an afterthought when engaging in risky behavior
• More than half of the students believe they can see an STD by looking, which is true but only 20% of the time when it’s actually “flaring up”.
• 60% of woman still have sex even if the guy doesn’t want to wear a condom.
• 60% of woman believed they were in a committed relationship while only 40% of men believed in the same.

I would also add that most STDs are curable but those that are not, such as HIV Disease, require regular medical attention and drugs for the rest of your life… not something to take lightly.

Buzvia: 10 Truly Shocking Stats On STDs and College Students

As my plan is to live well over a hundred years by following a very healthy lifestyle full of whole foods, vigorous exercise and lots of mental activities, I found this Ted talk by Dan Buettner rather interesting. Here is the embeded video followed by a summary of the talk’s key points. If you wish, you can read more about Dan here.

Lecture’s key points:

• based off the studies of twin lifespans, it’s been calculated that less than 10% of our longevity is based directly off our genes with 90% being dictated by our lifestyle.
• there is a lot of confusion regarding optimal health and lifestyle choices
• a team of experts visited and studied extensively the lifestyle of populations known to live a long, healthy life with few health complications. These four areas are known as blue zones and include Costa Rica, Okinawa, Sardinia and California
• longevity myth #1: you can’t wish yourself to live longer, no matter how hard you try because we are built to multiply, not live long. Your chances of living to 100 are 1 in 5 000 currently within America.
• longevity myth #2: treatments exist that can slow aging. Our bodies have 35 trillion cells… there is simply too much we don’t understand and that can go wrong to possibly know what works and what doesn’t. These cells are completely replaced every 8 years and each time, genetic and cellular damage occurs which builds up exponentially.
• a 65 year old senior ages 125x faster than a 12 year old child
• the capacity of the human body to sustain your life is about 90 years, slightly longer for woman

• in the highlands of Sardinia, there is a place where old age is a given, with 10x more centenarians than in America! They are also healthy, working and enjoying a vigorous lifestyle. Here, men live older than woman.
• diet consists mostly of plant based and whole foods made and found locally using naturally sourced products high in Omega-3 fatty acids
• they are mostly shepards, so they enjoy an active lifestyle throughout their lives
• they enjoy wine which has 3x the amount of polyphenols than any other type in the world (this is a strong anti-oxidant)
• the older you get, the more wisdom and acceptance you get within the social structure of the Sardinian society
• on the island of Okinawa, in the northern part of the island, the oldest female population can be found
• here they live a long time, die quickly with little health problems in between
• 5x the number of centenarians with a fifth of the cancer compared to America
• they have a mostly plant based diet that consists of smaller calorie dense foods – they stop eating once their stomach is 80% full
• isolation is known to shorten lifespan, so the Okinawans have a system in which they develop lifelong friendships
• American’s have adopted a lifestyle that can be divided into two categories, work and retirement but in Okinawa, there is no word for retirement. They simply live by a motto which means “the reason you wake-up in the morning is ___”
• in America, it’s the 7th Day Adventists found in California which live the longest, the study that the numbers come from tracked 70 000 people for 30 years
• they don’t eat a lot of meat, for 24 hours a week they stop everything and focus onto their social being and doing nature walks

• things that all these “high longevity cultures” have in common
• they all do daily physical activity that isn’t overly strenuous on their body or joints
• they have the right outlook on life and a purpose that drives them on a daily basis, they purposefully slow their lives down to deal with built-up stress
• they all take some “time off” to reflect or to relax on a very regular basis
• they eat food based on what is found around them and it forms the majority of their diet
• they eat mostly plant based foods, a little wine and rarely till they are absolutely full
• they put their families and relatives first in their lives and have strong social contacts
• longevity has no short term fix

The Bottom Line

A long, healthy life is a choice that involves incremental and small proactive steps through ones life.