Great read I found:
When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 Beers.
A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him.
When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls.
He then asked the students if the jar was full.
They agreed that it was.
The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar He shook the jar lightly.
The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls.
He then asked the students again if the jar was full.
They agreed it was.
The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar.
Of course, the sand filled up everything else.
He asked once more if the jar was full.
The students responded with a unanimous 'yes.'
The professor then produced two Beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand.
The students laughed..
'Now,' said the professor as the laughter subsided, 'I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life..
The golf balls are the important things---your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions---and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.
The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.
The sand is everything else---the small stuff.
'If you put the sand into the jar first,' he continued, 'there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.
The same goes for life.
If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.
Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.
Spend time with your children.
Spend time with your parents.
Visit with grandparents.
Take time to get medical checkups.
Take your spouse out to dinner.
Play another 18.
There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal.
Take care of the golf balls first---the things that really matter.
Set your priorities.
The rest is just sand.
One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the Beer represented.
The professor smiled and said, 'I'm glad you asked.'
The Beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of Beers with a friend...
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Sleep Better
A year ago I was having some real sleep problems. I’m not talking about anything to serious like waking up screaming, crouched in the corner saying something about spiders attacking me, I’m talking about sleep problems that most of us deal with on a nightly basis.
A typical night went something like this:
10:00- Go to bed
10:05- Realize that I wasn’t tired, start watching T.V.
10:40- Remember that I forgot to send an email and hop on the computer.
10:50- Finish sending the email, then check facebook.
11:59- Realize I’d been on facebook for over an hour and turn off the computer.
12:00- Go to bed
12:50- Still awake cause I never actually fell asleep.
1:15- Finally fall asleep.
2:30- Wake up thirsty.
4:30- Wake up and have to go to the bathroom. Then realize I have to get a bunch of crap done the next day and stress out.
5:30- Finally fall asleep again.
6:00- Wake up thirsty
7:25- Wake up five minutes before my alarm goes off and realize how tired I am.
How did I overcome my sleep problems? Simple I made a sleep plan. A sleep plan consists of more than just having a time you go to sleep and a time you wake up. Let me show you my sleep plan looks like on a nightly basis.
If I want to go to sleep at 10:30 at 9:30 I start my sleep plan. The first step is eating my last snack of the day, cottage cheese & beef jerky (no spicy foods, they give you weird dreams), the next step is writing down the things I need to get done for the next day in my planner and making other adjustments for the next day, followed by brushing my teeth and going to the bathroom, getting a glass of water, reading a fiction book (nothing to make you think deep) then turning off the light and closing my eyes. This plan of attack for getting better sleep has drastically improved my sleep patterns.
A couple other tips include:
Making sure your room/house is clean. It will make you more relaxed and clear your mind, it works, trust me!
Turn out the lights. Sleep in a dark room, preferably pitch black. The light entering the room can either affect your sleep patterns or make your body think it’s bright outside and simulate a sunrise, which is more likely to wake you up.
Exercise. When you exercise during the day, your body craves rest at night. In turn, you’ll fall asleep faster and spend more time in the deeper, most restful stage of sleep.
Keep the bedroom for sleeping. If you constantly do work or watch TV in bed, your mind may find it difficult to associate sleep with your bed. Keep it simple and use the bed for what it’s meant for.
Here is another interesting sleep improving article.
What does your sleep plan look like?
A typical night went something like this:
10:00- Go to bed
10:05- Realize that I wasn’t tired, start watching T.V.
10:40- Remember that I forgot to send an email and hop on the computer.
10:50- Finish sending the email, then check facebook.
11:59- Realize I’d been on facebook for over an hour and turn off the computer.
12:00- Go to bed
12:50- Still awake cause I never actually fell asleep.
1:15- Finally fall asleep.
2:30- Wake up thirsty.
4:30- Wake up and have to go to the bathroom. Then realize I have to get a bunch of crap done the next day and stress out.
5:30- Finally fall asleep again.
6:00- Wake up thirsty
7:25- Wake up five minutes before my alarm goes off and realize how tired I am.
How did I overcome my sleep problems? Simple I made a sleep plan. A sleep plan consists of more than just having a time you go to sleep and a time you wake up. Let me show you my sleep plan looks like on a nightly basis.
If I want to go to sleep at 10:30 at 9:30 I start my sleep plan. The first step is eating my last snack of the day, cottage cheese & beef jerky (no spicy foods, they give you weird dreams), the next step is writing down the things I need to get done for the next day in my planner and making other adjustments for the next day, followed by brushing my teeth and going to the bathroom, getting a glass of water, reading a fiction book (nothing to make you think deep) then turning off the light and closing my eyes. This plan of attack for getting better sleep has drastically improved my sleep patterns.
A couple other tips include:
Making sure your room/house is clean. It will make you more relaxed and clear your mind, it works, trust me!
Turn out the lights. Sleep in a dark room, preferably pitch black. The light entering the room can either affect your sleep patterns or make your body think it’s bright outside and simulate a sunrise, which is more likely to wake you up.
Exercise. When you exercise during the day, your body craves rest at night. In turn, you’ll fall asleep faster and spend more time in the deeper, most restful stage of sleep.
Keep the bedroom for sleeping. If you constantly do work or watch TV in bed, your mind may find it difficult to associate sleep with your bed. Keep it simple and use the bed for what it’s meant for.
Here is another interesting sleep improving article.
What does your sleep plan look like?
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Three Interesting Articles
Every now and then when I have something cool to show you, I will do “Three Interesting Articles” post. I hand pick them myself in order to show you some cool and thought provoking articles I find. If you have any cool articles send them to me at beniahjacob@gmail.com
Should You Give Your Money to A Homeless Person?:
http://redeemingriches.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/should-you-give-money-to-a-homeless-person/
The Effects of Cold on Sleep:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/04/health/04real.html?em
Books Affect on Our Lives-
(Warning Explicit Language)
http://www.ryanholiday.net/archives/life_1.phtml
Should You Give Your Money to A Homeless Person?:
http://redeemingriches.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/should-you-give-money-to-a-homeless-person/
The Effects of Cold on Sleep:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/04/health/04real.html?em
Books Affect on Our Lives-
(Warning Explicit Language)
http://www.ryanholiday.net/archives/life_1.phtml
Monday, August 31, 2009
Reeducation
Recently I have begun my last year of school. It’s been pretty cool so far. I’m in some cool classes and am learning a pretty significant amount about business. By far my favorite class is entrepreneurship because that’s what I’m all about.
One class I wish I was able to take this semester is Twitter 101. It must have been full or something because I couldn’t find it anywhere. I think it would be a pretty cool class to take though with a huge twitter movement going on, more and more marketers are utilizing twitters power. Some businesses are actually hiring full time tweeters as their called, to let stockholders and prospective stock purchasers more info as to what’s going on in the company.
Twitter is simple you get 140 characters to say whatever you want. You can link people to your site, tell them what you’re doing, or say something insightful that you just thought. However there are tweeters that have upwards of 50,000 followers. Imagine having all those people know about your companies latest product or that your company is about to expand and purchasing your company stock will make them lots of money. There are numerous benefits to twitter.
In reality I know they don’t have a twitter class offered at my school, but it would be nice if they did. I really believe it would help students get prepped for new career fields, in an economy that is not demanding the same old college grad.
Here is some other classes I think colleges should offer-
Personal Finance- It’s awesome that colleges are teaching finance that shows students how find PE ratios to pick the best stocks but most kids can’t budget their money to even save up to buy stock.
Speed Reading- Most people hate reading if they could get through it faster I believe a lot more people would read. Plus speed reading would create more time at work. Even better future politicians may actually read the legislation put on their desks.
Memory Techniques- Our lack of memory really hurts our chances of making it big. If you forget the name of a client ten seconds after meeting them it might hurt the sale.
Dealing with Strangers- How to get the most out of meeting new people. There are lots of people out there waiting for what you have to offer.
Utilizing Web Applications- Taking advantage of everything Google, Yahoo, and every other unknown company has to offer to improve your chances in business and life.
Health and Fitness- I meet kids who are trying to become personal trainers, yet they are 30 lbs over weight. We all need gym class.
One class I wish I was able to take this semester is Twitter 101. It must have been full or something because I couldn’t find it anywhere. I think it would be a pretty cool class to take though with a huge twitter movement going on, more and more marketers are utilizing twitters power. Some businesses are actually hiring full time tweeters as their called, to let stockholders and prospective stock purchasers more info as to what’s going on in the company.
Twitter is simple you get 140 characters to say whatever you want. You can link people to your site, tell them what you’re doing, or say something insightful that you just thought. However there are tweeters that have upwards of 50,000 followers. Imagine having all those people know about your companies latest product or that your company is about to expand and purchasing your company stock will make them lots of money. There are numerous benefits to twitter.
In reality I know they don’t have a twitter class offered at my school, but it would be nice if they did. I really believe it would help students get prepped for new career fields, in an economy that is not demanding the same old college grad.
Here is some other classes I think colleges should offer-
Personal Finance- It’s awesome that colleges are teaching finance that shows students how find PE ratios to pick the best stocks but most kids can’t budget their money to even save up to buy stock.
Speed Reading- Most people hate reading if they could get through it faster I believe a lot more people would read. Plus speed reading would create more time at work. Even better future politicians may actually read the legislation put on their desks.
Memory Techniques- Our lack of memory really hurts our chances of making it big. If you forget the name of a client ten seconds after meeting them it might hurt the sale.
Dealing with Strangers- How to get the most out of meeting new people. There are lots of people out there waiting for what you have to offer.
Utilizing Web Applications- Taking advantage of everything Google, Yahoo, and every other unknown company has to offer to improve your chances in business and life.
Health and Fitness- I meet kids who are trying to become personal trainers, yet they are 30 lbs over weight. We all need gym class.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
The Truth About Truth
So you want the truth? You can’t handle the truth! Literally, you probably can’t handle the truth. Does that mean we shouldn’t tell it?
As stated in my past posts I have lost 50 lbs of fat and put on 20lbs of muscle and still going. I am constantly getting “I don’t want to sound gay, but you look really good” from guys, and “Wow! You look really different” from girls. Where did my motivation come from? The truth!
Ever since I first started getting fat people made fun of me. I knew I was fat because “the mean kids” said I was. It’s funny that the mean kids were the most helpful. The problem came from the nice kids, the ones who when I said I was fat or asked if I was fat they would reply with some crap like “No, fat to me is like the people who are obese and have health problems and stuff” or the always nice “no you look fine.”
But does anyone want to look fine? No, everyone wants to look great. Our society doesn’t buy $85 Polo shirts or spend hundreds on coach purses to look fine. Fine is wearing sweatpants and an old t-shirt to go through the drive through at McDonalds. These nice people weren’t helping me. They were lolling me into a false sense of satisfaction and apathy about the way I looked and who I was. Deep down inside I wasn’t happy with who I was.
Ultimately the truth came when I tried to squeeze that XL shirt around my 5”11 245lb frame and realized that all those “mean kids” were just telling the truth.
Truth is a weird thing with a lot of twists to it. I’m not trying to say everyone should be jerks to each other. My goal with this post is just to have you rethink how and when the truth is appropriate.
This is a great article I read awhile back about truth(Warning: explicit language)- http://tinyurl.com/2h3mfb
As stated in my past posts I have lost 50 lbs of fat and put on 20lbs of muscle and still going. I am constantly getting “I don’t want to sound gay, but you look really good” from guys, and “Wow! You look really different” from girls. Where did my motivation come from? The truth!
Ever since I first started getting fat people made fun of me. I knew I was fat because “the mean kids” said I was. It’s funny that the mean kids were the most helpful. The problem came from the nice kids, the ones who when I said I was fat or asked if I was fat they would reply with some crap like “No, fat to me is like the people who are obese and have health problems and stuff” or the always nice “no you look fine.”
But does anyone want to look fine? No, everyone wants to look great. Our society doesn’t buy $85 Polo shirts or spend hundreds on coach purses to look fine. Fine is wearing sweatpants and an old t-shirt to go through the drive through at McDonalds. These nice people weren’t helping me. They were lolling me into a false sense of satisfaction and apathy about the way I looked and who I was. Deep down inside I wasn’t happy with who I was.
Ultimately the truth came when I tried to squeeze that XL shirt around my 5”11 245lb frame and realized that all those “mean kids” were just telling the truth.
Truth is a weird thing with a lot of twists to it. I’m not trying to say everyone should be jerks to each other. My goal with this post is just to have you rethink how and when the truth is appropriate.
This is a great article I read awhile back about truth(Warning: explicit language)- http://tinyurl.com/2h3mfb
Monday, August 24, 2009
The Comeback
Alright it’s not really a comeback. I have only been gone for a couple of months and it was a great couple of months in Destin, Florida. The only problem was limited internet access, which means limited amount of blogging.
The time off gave me a chance to think about the blog and how to improve on it. I have decided to add some of what I believe to be “cool” ideas that I will reveal in the next few weeks. What that means to you is, in the next few weeks I will reveal a more entertaining and informative view on life.
Stay posted for updates!
The time off gave me a chance to think about the blog and how to improve on it. I have decided to add some of what I believe to be “cool” ideas that I will reveal in the next few weeks. What that means to you is, in the next few weeks I will reveal a more entertaining and informative view on life.
Stay posted for updates!
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Life Gambling
I have often wondered what I would do if I were on Deal or No Deal with Howie Mandel and was faced with the scenario of only having two brief cases one with 1 cent or one with $1 million. The way the game plays out is that a broker would offer me $500,000 that I could walk away with or I could risk it all and receive either 1cent or $1million. Most people would say play it safe and take the $500,000. I don’t know if I agree with that.
I am in no way, shape or form a professional gambler, but I do gamble a lot in how my life turns out. For instance this summer I am skipping an internship to do missions work in Florida. Did I mention it’s my last summer and after this I will devote all my energy to full time work. I could potentially make quite a bit of money this summer but I’m choosing not to, to take a once in a lifetime opportunity.
I’m not worried about not making as much as usual because I can find other ways to earn money. I believe in myself and know I am capable of double my income if I put my mind to it. Maybe that is why I would go for the million on Deal or No Deal rather than take the $500,000. I didn’t have it with me when I came and I certainly can’t take it to my next life. $500,000 would certainly make your life different, but would it make your life better? If you don’t like your life with the salary you make now, how do you know you would like it with $500,000? Try to do what you have always wanted to do now, then if you believe you need more money later find ways to earn a little extra on the side. I’m sure you’re capable.
I am in no way, shape or form a professional gambler, but I do gamble a lot in how my life turns out. For instance this summer I am skipping an internship to do missions work in Florida. Did I mention it’s my last summer and after this I will devote all my energy to full time work. I could potentially make quite a bit of money this summer but I’m choosing not to, to take a once in a lifetime opportunity.
I’m not worried about not making as much as usual because I can find other ways to earn money. I believe in myself and know I am capable of double my income if I put my mind to it. Maybe that is why I would go for the million on Deal or No Deal rather than take the $500,000. I didn’t have it with me when I came and I certainly can’t take it to my next life. $500,000 would certainly make your life different, but would it make your life better? If you don’t like your life with the salary you make now, how do you know you would like it with $500,000? Try to do what you have always wanted to do now, then if you believe you need more money later find ways to earn a little extra on the side. I’m sure you’re capable.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
