Sunday, January 29, 2012

Moving Through

“Nothing in life has any real meaning except the meaning you give it.”  - Tony Robbins

Many people wave off Tony Robbins because they think of him as the cheesy, overly-excited, big-toothed guy they see doing infomercials on late night TV. This is a mistake because Robbins has a knack for simplifying complex ideas down into easy-to-use concepts that go beyond anything I’d have thought possible before he came onto the scene.

In this case, what he’s referring to is the fact that almost everything that happens to you has no intrinsic meaning. Is a funeral a time for celebration because the person who passed has gone on to a better place or a time to be deeply sad? Is the emotion in your stomach before you give a speech fear or your body getting you ready to perform? If you walk up to someone of the opposite sex and she brushes you off, is it because there’s something wrong with the situation, something wrong with you, or something wrong with her?

Once you recognize how arbitrary many of the things that happen to you are, you can stop merely reacting to events and start asking a better question, “Which of the possible interpretations of this event best serves me?”

Monday, January 2, 2012

Why I Don't Believe In God

So this is where I probably lose some people.

Before I start this, I feel the need to lay down the groundwork for a disclaimer, since religion and/or spirituality is such a personal and sensitive thing. My opinion on God and religion is not intended to sway or convince. I don't believe in telling people what they believe is morally wrong unless they're using said belief as fuel to do bad things (i.e. "God told me to drown my babies in a bathtub"). Outside of those crazy people, what you believe in is, to me, a personal choice; a compass, if you will, that you find works for you and your life. Some people believe in a guy in robes, others believe in a pulsing orb, while still others believe in a cow or a hybrid creature or even nothing at all; just pure energy. It's all really the same means to an end, which is