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It's no secret that we live in a very superficial, outward based society. Most of the time it seems as though people would rather look like something than actually be something. Worse yet, some people may believe that looking like something will make them something. This fact permeates movies, television, music, etc. Taking something or someone at face value is something that is prevalent at more categories than listed though, as it also reaches into the realm of ideas. Ideas are very important things. They are the seeds of growth, and properly nourished they can sprout amazing things. Ideas sprout philosophies, religions, lifestyles, inventions, etc. Subscribing to an idea at face value though is a very dangerous thing. Why would you want the very defining philosophy of your life founded through an idea you failed to explore? You must strive to find the idea behind the idea. To truly be able to apply things to your life, you must be able to use them in all aspects an...

As the chips came my way and the sense of victory filled me, my heart began to slow down, began to come back down to earth. Sure, I had just won. Sure, I had just showed up to this small place and beat some guys that knew what they were doing while I had only played a couple times. And sure, it was just a small game, one of many games that have been played all over, but it got me thinking over the subject of beginner's luck. What do people mean when they say beginner's luck? What causes it, and does it have any validity when thinking objectively? To check out this phenomena we should look at the state of the beginner while playing or doing any activity. If you look at the beginner usually they have no idea about how to go about things. Their actions usually reflect what they've seen on TV, what they've heard, or they just make it up as they see fit. This can be considered a good thing in some respects though. If you've never experienced something, you...

Are you ready to accept it? Are you ready to accept one of the greatest challenges in life? That is, to realize that you have so much more in yourself, so much more potential that it would be absurd for you to do anything but achieve it. It's something that while so motivational to believe, can also scare a person. It can scare you because you know what it takes. You know what it takes to achieve all that potential. Work. Hard, bloody, never-ending, grueling work. It's something that you must live by, something that you must realize everyday, that you always have something left in the tank, something left to give. You must believe that the greater you is always waiting around the corner, even if when you turn the corner you find another. This is so important because its the only way you can reach your goals, your dreams. If you believe you've reached your pinnacle, you've stalled, you've stopped your growth, you've stopped walking along the path. The goal tho...

I've recently come up with a new idealology when training, or making some sort of program. This idea is not original and really isn't all that fantastic when it comes down to it, but it's the application that is hard. The idea is simple, train your weakness. That's it. Article done. Sign the name and end the blog. The thing is though that this idea, while seemingly simple, can open up new frontiers of improvement for you, and not only in the realm of physical fitness. It can apply to anything. The idea behind the idea is to find what is holding back and expend all your energy on fixing it. This isn't easy though. Sure you can probably guess what is holding you back on some things, but the important things are still shrouded in mystery. You can't fix what you don't know is broken. A quote from Bruce Lee is, "If I knew the cause of my ignorance I would be a sage." If you know what's wrong you can fix it. My advice for this is to s...

I recently met up with someone in one of my college classes over this weekend. Don't know him, just recognized him and chatted for about a minute. The conversation was about the test that we'd had in the class a day earlier. This guy is always talking about how he's been in college for many years and is still having to retake classes because he's been failing them, and sure enough he tells me about his latest escapade. Apparently he was up all night the night before the test drinking and having sex with some chick, multiple times he tells me, and because of this, most likely did not do very well on the test. You know what the ironic thing about this whole story is? The class is a philosophy class, and what we're studying is Plato, namely Plato's theory of human nature. Now if you don't know, Plato believed that the soul had three parts, the Appetitive, the Spiritual, and Reason. He believed that to lead a good life, a person must control their appetitive a...

There are many questions that face us everyday. What to eat, what to wear, what to do. While these do have there place in our lives, its the tough questions that we should use most of our energy to explore. The questions that come to us while we're staring up at the ceiling and trying to sleep. The questions that seem to hit you like a hammer at random times, throwing your whole self into disarray. I will attempt to explore these questions separately. One of these questions is one that may escape us, mostly because we think we may have a firm grasp on it. That is, what is happiness? Why is this an important question though? One, it seems to be the ultimate goal of everyone. Ask someone what they want out of this life and dig deep enough, and its usually rooted in the want to be happy. Dos, because what makes people happy seems to be different from person to person. So, if it is something that every person wants, it should be easily definable right? Honestly though, if I...

Many have attempted to discover what ails us as humans. What is it that keeps us from achieving our potential? What is it that keeps us from being happy? The philosopher Plato (as opposed to the country singer Plato) believed that what keeps us from living the good life is our lack of knowledge. We achieve this knowledge from attempting to know the forms, or eternal, unchanging, essences, through the use of our reason. According to Plato, if you truly know the good, you will not fail in acting in accordance with it. This raises some questions though. What about everyday occurrences where we obviously know that something is not good for us? Knowing that bag of candy and triple bacon cheeseburger are bad for us doesn't seem to be the problem, its the act of turning it down which is hard. This seems to be the case with most everyday activities. The truth is most people know the right thing to do in many situations, but where they fail is actually following through. Knowing the...