The SnowHow

Category: Philosophy

  • The Secret Power Of Tiny Gifts!

    I always dream of changing the world for the better. I really do. Long gone are my plans for Bond Villain type world domination. Now it is all about making the world a little bit better with each step I take on my path.

    So how do we change the world? Do we dream big dreams? That is what most people tell you, have grand plans. For many people that is absolutely right. Dream the big dream, fight the big fight.

    Many people are succeeding with this (Just go take a look at what the Gates Foundation is doing.)

    The thing is, for most of us it is hard to change anything other than our small corner of the world.

    So why not start with that! What can you do to make the world a tiny bit better?

    Well you can be a tiny bit generous for one! Generous with your time, generous with your energy for others, generous with your smile. Care that tiny bit more for your fellow traveler on the human path.

    Smiling is easy, give away at least five to ten smiles away. To whoever you want, friends, family or to an absolute stranger. The better you get at giving them the more you will get back (and who does not love a returned smile?).

    Ok now that we are warmed up to the idea of giving I want to address the “Elephant In The Room” Money.

    Is this the point where I tell you to give to charity and help those who are less fortunate than yourself?

    NO!

    (You can do it if you want, let your conscience be your guide.)

    Let me explain what I do in the form of a story, but before I do just so as you know while writing this  I just got a smile returned (winning).

    I was recently with a gathering of friends and I was telling my mate Benji about my condom pocket (you know the little pocket in a pair of jeans just above the right pocket at the front. Yep that is what that is for). In it I put every 50 pence piece I receive in the form of change.

    You never get that many of them maybe a couple a week. So it does not really weigh you down 🙂

    I keep them there for a very important reason. I keep them there to be easily reachable for when I want to give them away.

    I give them to buskers and other street performers. I give them to people carrying around charity buckets. I give them to people selling the big issue (charity magazine). Finally, I give to people who are homeless or begging on the street.

    I used to be really judgmental of the latter thinking thoughts like “why don’t they get a job”  or ideas to that effect. Then I realized that I don’t know them or their story, so why judge?

    The point of the matter is 50p is such a meaningless amount of money for most of us. So why not give it away? It is far more valuable to those who you are giving it to than yourself! For many of them it is meaningful.

    I’ll tell you why I use 50p, and not say 20p or a £1 coin. Giving 20p makes you feel cheap. You can look someone in the eye when you give them 50p and not feel embarrassed. You get too many £1 coins so it could become really costly if that was your coin of choice. You don’t get that many 50p pieces. Around a table of 8 we had 3 of them. So you are not going to break the bank.

    So 50p is a perfect coin for this idea. So save yours and give them away. Just imagine a world in which we all did this how many peoples lives would be helped.

    There is a payoff to all this. There is no such thing as a one-sided transaction. Remember Newton’s Third Law “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction” well in the case of giving it is more like “Sow and Reap”. With your smiles, with your time and yes with your money. The more you give the more you will get back in happiness, in quality of life and of course money.

    In each of these actions we always make a positive return. There is a compounding effect in all the good things that we do. If we are abundant in our mind and our actions we will reap abundance in return.

    So that which we want we should give first. It does not have to be big at first. Think tiny gifts to start and eventually as time moves on your gifts will get bigger both from the giving and receiving side.

    So start giving tiny gifts today and start changing the world.

    Snowy

    P.s. If you think that his idea might be helpful, please feel to share it with your friends in any way you like. There are buttons to make it easy somewhere on this page.

  • How To Create Your Fate Not Be A Victim Of It!

    Do you know, absolutely know, what your future looks like?

    Ok let me ask the question in another way let’s say you were reading this article 12 months from now, 3 years from now or say 10 years from now where do you think you will be.

    Do you have a clearly defined answer to each of those time frames? Or is it a wishy washy hope, or worse an “I don’t know!”

    If not why not?

    Let’s face it none of us knows the answer to those questions as anything could happen right?

    After all we could get run over by a car tomorrow or contract some sort of deadly disease that finishes us off in a blink of an eye!

    No point in planning, as tomorrow we could be dead!

    Crikey that’s not good!

    Maybe there is a better way for us. Maybe we should get all biblical with this one. Hey, you have got to get your wisdom from somewhere and some of the “religious” books do offer us some occasional wisdom, I think that’s why they became popular in the first place.

    OK so in Provers 29 it says words to the effect that “Without a Vision, The People Perish”.

    Or to put it in plain old english “if you don’t know where you are going then you’re f**ked”

    Think about it this way, if you were going on a journey normally you need two things, a starting point and a destination. That way you can plot a path to get you there.

    You have a  point of origin and a point of destination. If you remove one of them, how easy do you think it is to get where you are going. Think about that for a second! Did you think about it? Then let us continue.

    With the first one you have a point of origin, you know where you are, so you head off, but with no final destination you could end up anywhere. You would be zig zagging all the time hopefully ending up somewhere worthwhile. You know what, you may get somewhere good along the way, and hey the journey may be really enjoyable, that is definitely possible. The probability however, is that you would just end up lost and frustrated and have wasted so much time along the way.

    Second option. You know where you want to get to but you don’t know where you are. So you want to get to Timbuktu but you don’t know where you are right now. So do you head north, south, east or west. Do you need a plane, a car, a bicycle, a boat or is it just around the corner and you can walk there? You just don’t know and if you set of in the wrong direction, as you don’t know were you are starting from then, your journey may be a very long and tedious one. Also like in the first option you may stumble upon it by accident. There is definitely that possibility.

    The obvious thing in this situation is to go back to our original idea. Know where you are and know where you want to get to. Then you can draw a straight line between the two points. Or at least plan the quickest and shortest route!

    So now we are starting to see why having a destination is such an important part of the equation in travel.

    The same thing applies to us in our life, the time equivalent of a destination is a personal vision. Knowing what we want from life and how we want our life to look in the future.

    If we just wing it with our life then we could just end up anywhere, thrown about on the ebb and flow of the tide of life. Hey we may end up somewhere good and we may not. But I want to ask you a question. Do you think that is a good strategy for your life? Do you think you might have a better time of it if you knew where you wanted to end up, and you knew what you had to do in order to get there?

    Well, who knows! There are no guarantees, but the thing is I would suggest you stand a much better chance of getting somewhere that you want to get to, if you know where that place is.

    There is a second thing that you need as with our travel analogy. You need a starting point!

    In “The Art Of War” Sun Tsu tells us to know your enemies and to know yourself!

    Our point of origin, is the second part of the statement “know your self”. This means if you know where you want to get to, firstly, you have to self evaluate the person you are right now. You will need to know all of your strengths and weaknesses, you will need to be completely honest with yourself and who you are.

    Then and only then will you know the person you will need to become in order to get to where you want to go.

    So here is what you need to take away from this article today. You need to start to develop a personal vision for yourself. Start small, start thinking about where you want to be one month from now, then start to expand it out six months, a year. Then start going for the big numbers 3 years, 5, then push it out to 10 and 20 then all the way to the end.

    Take some time today just to start playing with the idea, then when you have some ideas and you realise just how fun this can be, devote some time to some serious thinking about where you want to get to. What your hopes and dreams are, what a perfect life looks like for you.

    OK there is also a hard part, you also have to turn a pointing finger back at yourself and really make an honest analysis of yourself. This can be really hard. We as humans are incredibly good at self deception but take the time to do this. An easy way to start is to write down a list of what you are good at, all your strengths. Once that list is long enough it makes the shortfalls that little bit easier to list. Don’t worry if the shortfalls list is longer than the strengths list. You are just looking for a starting point. Once you have that then you can begin your journey.

    Do this please, you will find the process incredibly rewarding and will give you immense personal clarity.

    I will talk at length in another article about the second part of getting to where you want to go to. That deals with having a strategy. But that is for another time. For now take the time to give this gift to yourself.

    Go create your Vision and your Starting Point!

    Until next time.

    Snowy

  • Why You Should NEVER Delay Your Plans!

    The fact of the matter is based on our best evidence we only get one life. (Reincarnation and those who believe it aside.) Let me say that again. WE ONLY GET ONE LIFE!

    Really there are no second chances or do overs. This is all we get. If you understand the magnitude of that it’s bloody scary.

    How many days/weeks do you think you get? 100,000, a million more?

    On average we get about 28,000 days or 4250 weeks. If you’ve reached your 20’s you’ve already blown through 7,300 of them (1040 weeks) see what I mean scary.

    With time in so limited supply we should treat it like gold, we really should, but we don’t!

    Many of us treat time like we have an unlimited supply and the fact is we definitely don’t.

    Look we all drift from time to time. Time just seems to get away from us. That’s fine if it is a for a day, a week or maybe for one month no biggy. Any more than that and you are starting to get in real trouble.

    You see we as human being are really good at delaying and deferring our life. We never quite get around to doing the things that we want and we often defer our life for a later date when this or that might happen.

    We make no plans, set no goals we just flow on the directionless tide of life. Days and weeks go by, then months, then years and then we look back and think to ourselves where the hell did that decade go?

    Worse as you get older time seems to speed up. As a child summers were endless. Now they go in the blink of an eye.

    We look back and see nothing to show for the time that has been spent. Our memories are a blur of the mundane and everyday!

    This just won’t do!

    I recently spoke to a lady about her hopes and dreams for the future. She told me she was very ambitious, she had a plan. She had a job (she hated) but she was going to get a house, she was going to spend the next 25 years paying off the mortgage. Once that was done she was going to sell the house and go traveling around the world. She thought it was a good plan.

    Can you imagine delaying your plans for 25 years? Deferring all of that joy and wonder for 25 years?

    Maybe she will do it, and maybe she will have all the adventures she hopes for, and that all the hard work and toil will pay off. Or maybe by then she will be so jaded with life that the spirit of adventure will have left her.

    There is a short story by Haruki Murakami it is called “ On seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning” you can find it by searching for it on google. In it two people find a person who is perfect for each other. They realise this but decide to test fate and say, “well if we are meant for each other we will meet each other again” so they don’t exchange details. In time they both lose their memory of the other and by the time they meet again they are too jaded to recognise each other. (Go find and read the story, tis beautiful and much better than I have written here.)

    That’s what happens in life if you put it off for too long. The spark of adventure that was given to all of us that could be a raging wild fire, well without fuel it goes out. When we put off our hopes and dreams, when we don’t plan our life to be one of adventure and glory we allow our spark to fizzle out.

    How does your plan look? What are your goals? Or are you just waiting for life to happen to you by accident. Hoping that wonder will fall in your lap?

    Don’t defer life or life will let you! Go and claim your own glory!

    Snowy

  • 10 Life Changing Books (That Actually Can Change Your Life!)

    So this is going to be an ongoing series of articles I will write that have the number 10 in them. This one is about books that can actually change your life.

    Ok, so let me just say one thing. No matter what the authors may say, very few books have the power to change your life.  That said there are a few flecks of gold hidden in the dirt. Some of which I have put here. Now these are a personal choice and you may argue against them or think you know better. If so put them in the comments section below. Hey I am always willing to be wrong or learn something new. 

    Ok so let’s get to it. Here is the list. 

    The list is not in any particular order, so don’t read it that way. That said maybe you should start with the first book on my list…..

    1. Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson

    If you only ever take one tiny bit of advice from me it is this… Read all of the books of RAW, he will give you an education of the mind, like few other people can. He has a teaching method that he called Guerrilla Ontology (He literally forces you to think). His breadth of knowledge in far reaching subjects are in my opinion unmatched by anyone in the written world. He was the writer along with Robert Shea of the Illuminatus which can be considered the definitive conspiracy theory novel (this was back before the looney fringe got involved).

    Anyway Prometheus Rising is his master work on brain change willed! He takes you through Timothy Leary’s 8 circuit model of human consciousness, to show you how your mind works and how it is conditioned. Then he gives you techniques and strategies to smash through your own “reality tunnels”. 

    WARNING: This book is not for the faint of heart. If you have courage, and the willingness to do some personal experimentation, this book can make you really see the world for the very first time. 

    2. The inside out revolution by Michael Neill

    There are many books written about the 3 principles that were extolled by Syd Banks. This is in my opinion is the easiest to digest. In the book you will get to re-examine the nature of reality and the nature of mind, consciousness and thought and how the world really is. 

    You may get a few oh my god moments when you read this book. The way you think the world is, may be turned on its head. 

    This book is a must read!

    3. Choose Yourself by James Altucher

    This book offers clear and practical wisdom in the 21st century. For most people born in the last part of the 20th century, the old rules no longer apply. All the advice you have been given by well meaning people, is starting to look more and more wrong and outdated. No longer can you let your life be dictated by the whims of someone else. This book offers you a practical methodology to go about choosing the life that you want, not one that is foisted upon you. 

    The book is well written and James Altucher has a lovely writing style and the lessons contained in here are easy to digest and apply. Again I think this is a must read book. 

    4. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

    This book is very well known in the US but not so much here in the UK. That said if you are looking for a philosophically challenging novel, then this is your boy. This is a book about what happens when the mind goes on strike. It deals with Rand’s Objectivism philosophy and extolls the virtue of value creation as being the highest moral ideal. It also deals with what happens when you penalise people for success. The book was written 60 odd years ago and some of the insights are uncannily accurate in our modern world. 

    If you have some time on your hands give this ago. You will also find an answer to the eternal question of “Who is John Galt?”

    5. As A Man Thinketh by James Allen

    This is a relatively short book, that said it is packed with so much wisdom per sentence you would be lucky to find its peer. This might be one of the earliest examples of the self-improvement book. In the 130 years since its original publication few books in the genre have risen higher or outshines this simple little masterpiece. Allen has many other works that are worth reading but this is his magnum Opus.

    Must be read and read often. 

    6. Think And Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

    You ask enough successful people for a top ten book list, and this is the book that will appear most often. In fact W.Clement Stone once wrote this… Although I have no real way to prove it I believe that Think And Grow Rich has helped more people achieve success than any other book in history save the bible” 

    I have no idea if that is true but I do know that I have taken so much from this book over the years and before I went digital my copy had been battered and bruised by the amount of times I had read it. 

    7. The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene

    There is a funny thing that happens with this book on first reading. It will probably polarise you in one direction. You will either love it or hate it. 

    The book shows you 48 ways to gain through strategy or deception or force of will, how to gain power over people. For many on first reading this is unpalatable after all who wants to do that to other people, clearly it is morally wrong? 

    There is a funny thing that happens with this book. I have recommended it  to many people and they have read it, and come back to me and told me they hated how manipulative it shows you how to be. 

    I then have told them to read it again, this time with the notion that you need to be aware of how these techniques are being used on you, and how you can protect yourself from them. On second reading from that perspective, people always say how much they love the book. 

    8. Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It by Kamal Ravikant

    You can only love the world/someone else to the extent that you love yourself. This book will show you how to up your game. This book takes about an hour to read. Please Please Please take the time to do that the/your world will be a better place because of it. 

    9. The Richest Man In Babylon by George S Clayson. Money by Anthony Robbins

    Have you ever wondered why they don’t teach financial literacy in schools? Surely that is more important than say Chemistry (I can’t tell you how many times I’ve needed my knowledge of ionic and covalent bonds since I left school, it’s practically a daily occurrence) Understanding money and to have knowledge and power over it is clearly unimportant as I don’t use it every day…. Oh now hold on a second!!!!

    There are few good books written on financial literacy, for years the only one I could recommend was The Richest Man In Babylon. Even though it is written in parable format, the wisdom is sound and should be read and understood by everyone. 

    Now Anthony Robbins has a new book on the subject that is well written and teaches the layman how to go about understanding then winning the game of money. Go read both. 

    10. Jonathan Livingston Seagull/ Illusions: The Memoirs Of A Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach

    I just love both these books. Although they are a lot more whimsical than the rest of the books on the list i genuinely believe they offer some really practical wisdom. I must have read both at least ten times and every time I do I get new insights. Give them a go, they are perfect for when you have a spare hour. 

    Ok so that’s it 10 books that can change your life. I hope you read some if not all of them. Hey and maybe your life will change for the better. 

    Until next time. Go read a book!

    Snowy

  • The Villain Is The Hero Of His Own Story!

    It’s always someone else’s fault! No, it really is! It is definitely not your fault right?

    My boss is an asshole and he does not pay me enough, my partner just does not get me, the world is unfair, the little guy does not stand a chance, the rich/banks/government stops me at every turn, in fact everyone has got it in for me!

    Well, that sucks!

    You might be surprised how many people walk around each day with variations on that theme. The thing is they are right! All of those things are true. Let me explain.

    Your reality is based around the thoughts that you think each day. If you believe it, then it is true. Well, at least for you. You see as many people have stated we become our controlling thoughts. If we see the world as “out to get us” then more often than not you will find a way to make that true. As Robert Anton Wilson stated “What the thinker thinks, the prover proves!” actually quick tip go read his book Prometheus Rising it is one of the few life changing books, in fact read all his books.

    Moving on, you see most of us think we are the good guy that we are doing right and that we are good people. The thing is this works for virtually everyone. John Dillinger when asked why he robbed banks said “because that is where the money is” he didn’t believe he was a thief he believed he was a liberator of money from the evil banks/government.

    Hitler probably believed that bringing forth the master race was a noble pursuit no matter how he achieved this. Same goes for all empire builders in history Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, Napoleon etc.

    You see pretty much no one sees themselves as the bad guy.

    So in human terms we have normally three categories of people The Good Guys, The Bad Guys who think they are good and The Victims.

    The Bad guys we have discussed, so lets get on with the other two.

    Before I discuss the Good Guys let’s talk about The Victims.

    The Victims as I have mentioned believe that everyone has got it in for them. They see no opportunity, they think everyone doesn’t seem to understand them. They believe life’s golden ticket has been stolen from them, and as I have mentioned for them this is true.

    Does this hold up under examination?

    Well do you know what if you live in the third world, a war zone or say sub-Saharan Africa, then do you know what you may be justified in your stance. For the rest of us well, I’m not so sure.

    I’ll tell you the reason why. Pretty much all of us are the product of each and every choice we have ever made. In fact if you are reading this every choice you have ever made led you to reading this at this moment in time.

    Each day we make a plethora of different choices that affect us in the moment and also our future.

    The more good choices we make on average the better our life turns out. The more bad choices we make then on average the worse our life turns out. Yes there are exceptions to every rule, but for most people that runs true.

    Victims tend to point fingers outwards and blame other people. They never point the finger back at themselves and take personal responsibility. They think their fate is set by the hand that they have been given. And so it is!

    The Good Guys, they have a different mindset to The Victims and The Bad Guys, you see the good guys often started out just like The Victims or could have taken a pathway that would have led them to becoming The Bad Guys. The thing is they didn’t they made better choices!

    Let me say that again, they made better choices.

    You see the good guys take a look at their lot in life and decide they will take a stand for themselves. (hey, for some the lucky ones this is almost inbuilt and requires very little in the way of effort. Good for them!) They make solid choices that lead them onwards and upwards.

    The Good Guys if they start in The Victim place, don’t accept that as their final outcome and ask themselves how they can go about improving their situation. They make a better choice for themselves.

    Maybe it is to study hard in school, maybe instead of going to the bar for a beer or sitting at home watching soaps and drinking wine, they go to the library and pick up a book. Maybe they go ask the advice of someone who has already lifted themselves up and out of a similar situation. Maybe they work doubly hard on themselves rather than complaining about the way life is hard.

    You see we all get to be who we are… The Good Guy, The Bad Guy and The Victim by our choices.

    Yes, I know sometimes bad things happen to good people, sometimes really horrendous and horrible things happen to good people but the person we become after that happens will also depend on how we choose to deal with it. We are our the accumulation of our choices over time.

    So for now make better choices! Choose one area of your life right now that is not working for you and choose to do something about it.

    Snowy

  • This News Could Cost You Money, Maybe Even Kill You!

    The world is out to get you make no mistake! There is a mugger around every corner, someone ready to rob you, rape you or murder you! Your neighbour is probably a serial killer, pedophile or criminal mastermind. Every person who does not look like you is probably a religious fundamentalist terrorist, with sarin gas, anthrax, dirty bombs or weapons of mass destruction hidden in their back pack.

    It’s true it really is! Well it is if you believe the world that the media portray. That world is fucking scary. Worse than any horror film or futuristic dystopia. In their world everyone and I mean everyone is out to get you. That friend you have always had doubts about don’t trust that motherfucker he is likely to be planning something very nasty for you!

    Hey and if it is not the people, then it is some sort of disease! Right now as I write this I can tell you just exactly what is going to kill me according to the news! What I hear you ask is this horrendous thing? Well I will tell you! Are you ready for this? It’s EBOLA!!!! There I said it. oh my god Ebola is going to get me I should not write the word ebola too many times I may be chancing fate after all that shit is deadly.

    In fact it is so deadly i’m probably going to die from it before I finish this article! I better type as fast as I can.

    The thing is Ebola is serious it does kill people but unless you are a medical worker in Africa, you are really unlikely to catch let alone die from Ebola. As of writing 13 americans have contracted the disease.

    1 died from failing to receive proper treatment. The other people are up on their feet and back on the street. They were all in some way involved in the providing of medical care.

    Thus far here in the UK precisely none not one nada zip zilch have died of the disease.

    So why the furore. Well fear sells stuff! News people like diseases great for a panic.

    Most media organisations rely on advertising as their main source of revenue. Advertisers know that if people are unhappy they buy stuff. The more unhappy/worried they are the more stuff they buy. Advertisers want people to be unhappy so they go to where people are the most worried and most unhappy and put there adverts there. Bad news = More Sales. It is a simple equation.

    I get it this sounds like a bit of a conspiracy theory doesn’t it. So don’t take my word for it (never do) go look it up.

    See I told you.

    Unhappiness/advertising costs you money lots and lots of money added up over a lifetime it is a fortune, because to quote Tyler Durden from fight club “advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need.”

    Still don’t believe me well in my life alone there have been a number of things that were going to kill me that failed to. I can remember when HIV/Aids was going to kill 1 in 4 people! No joke that was the story going around.

    Hmm what else? I know the Flu’s… Avian and Swine remember them? They were touted as the next big Pandemic. Hey after all Spanish Flu killed 50-100 million from 1918-1920. So maybe it could! As long as you forget how quickly medicine and effective medical care is available to people from the latter half of the 20th century onwards. Not to mention medical/scientific advances in understanding the disease and how it spreads. Oh and back then they didn’t have the world health organisation and the center for disease control.

    Hmm what else well there was the potential for another outbreak of small pocks (never happened)

    CJD/Mad cows disease well that got a few people in the UK over a hundred in the last 20 years. That said drowning kills 400+ people a year in the UK and we don’t hear the news telling us the dangers of water!

    You get the point!

    For a bit of fun just type the words “set to kill millions/thousands/tens of thousands” or derivatives thereof into google see how many of the set to kill millions etc actually came true.

    I will tell you what is a killer of people and makes people miserable and unhappy… Stress!

    That shit will kill you son! That’s no lie.

    What is the number one causer of stress? I have no real idea but I would bet “The News” is up there on the list.

    So turn that horrendous lie filled filth off. It could save your life.

    Here’s to a news/stress free life!

    Snowy

     

    NOTE: I wrote this article about 3 weeks ago at the start of the ebola crisis. Already we barely hear about it anymore. Surprise Surprise!!

  • Beware False Prophets!

    This is the shortest article I will ever write, but maybe the most important.

    You should question anyone who ever makes an unprovable statement, talks in absolutes, says things like “as we know” or says as X (let’s say Albert Einstein as an example) has shown us (deferring to a third party) or uses big words to make themselves sound knowledgeable.

    Ask who are they, and in what way can they legitimately claim authority on this subject.

    If they cannot offer a reasonable answer to this without using the above mentioned statements, run from them, as they are a giver of opinions at best, and a charlatan/conman at worst. So measure them by that standard!

    Obviously if you follow this to it’s logical conclusion, you should take with a pinch of salt everything I say or write.

    Trust only that, that is provable but keep an open mind as to why it might be wrong.

    Until next time, think for yourself!

    Snowy

  • Don’t Be 10x Better Be 1% Better!

    If you are anything like me you are always looking for ways to improve yourself and make yourself that little bit better.

    It sounds like a good idea in theory and we would all like to do it but the thing is to make any meaningful progress we pretty much know that we would need to radically change ourselves. After all there is no point in doing things by halves!

    Even if we were 50% better than at the moment that really wouldn’t make a significant amount of difference in our lives. Hey it would help but it really wouldn’t make that much difference.

    I mean lets say I can run 4 miles would 6 really make that much of a difference.

    We earn $50,000 (£30,000) would $75,000 (£45,000) make that much difference? Hey I’m not saying it wouldn’t be nice!

    What about a double up maybe that would make all the difference!

    Nah what we really need it a really big increase something significant we need 5X or 10X.

    Yeh, lets go with 10X now we are cooking with gas.

    The thing is how the hell do you go about making a ten times leap? How you improve by 10 times, seems like a really big ask. Especially as none of us has a genie in a lamp or magic wand! The reality of ten times just doesn’t sound real.

    So what are the other alternatives? Well there is small incremental gains, but they hardly seem worth while. No we need the big radical stuff. Small and simple that’s just no good.

    Or is it?

    Let’s take a look and examine the reality of it.

    Can small gains make big improvements?

    It is at this point I want to tell you a story I heard when I was watching the Olympics in 2012. The British Cycle Team had just pulled in a record haul of medals. The mastermind of this triumph was a man by the name of David Brailsford.

    Elsewhere Brailsford was in charge of team Sky and had helped Bradley Wiggins become the first Britain to win the Tour De France the worlds most prestigious cycle race.

    So what was his secret to getting such amazing results. Well the people around him tell of his philosophy and it was this, Brailsford believed in a concept that he referred to as the “aggregation of marginal gains.” He explained it as “the 1 percent margin for improvement in everything you do.”

    Let me point out the important part again it was “The aggregation of marginal gains.” It wasn’t a 10X strategy. It was small incremental improvements. That 1% when added together with other 1% made all the difference and brought in a flurry of golds and other medals.

    Before we go any further I want to make you two offers

    Offer a) within 1 year you get to be 10 X better than you are today!
    Offer b) each day for a year you get to improve 1% from the day before!

    Which one would you choose?

    Without examination offer A looks infinitely more appealing doesn’t it?

    The thing is if you took that option you would be massively robbing yourself. Really?

    Well yes it does! It all comes down to a wonderful thing called compounding! Allegedly Albert Einstein called compounding “the 8th wonder of the world.”

    The funny thing is that 1% compounded everyday gives you a 38 X improvement over a year. Don’t believe me go check it out on your calculator. (just do this put in the number 1 then press the X twice followed by 1.01 to represent 1% now press = 365 times for days of the year you will get just over 38)

    Ok great so now we know about the power of compounding and we know that we really can make a radical difference to the quality of our lives if we just keep making small improvements.

    So the next question is in what areas of your life should you start making these improvements. Well I will be writing articles on the ten main areas of life improvement in future articles. For now I think there are two areas you should concentrate on.

    To start your physical body. (I will be talking much more about this as I have mentioned but for now, think about exercise, nutrition and sleep.)

    Ask questions like what one thing can I do today to improve my physical performance?

    Maybe you will say well I could think of my food as fuel rather than just something I use to satisfy a need. Maybe instead of sitting down in front of a TV for half an hour you could go for a walk or do one pushup. Maybe you make your bedroom that little bit darker to help aid sleep.
    Mental Health. Avoid negative people and look for ways to reduce/eliminate stress from your life.

    Ask Questions like who or what causes me the most stress in my life?

    Maybe you have a specific person or persons who always come to you with their problems and dump them on you. Maybe you begin to reduce the time you expose yourself to these persons. Maybe there is a thought that always causes you to worry about things, so maybe you reach for a better thought, at least for a couple of moments.

    If you just do that then you will start to get marginal improvements in your life and as we have seen that it is the sum total of all these little improvements that in the long run make all the difference.

    The secret to both success and failure is small things repeated over and over for extended periods. So make sure the things that you do serve you, not steal from you.

    Each day strive for your 1%.

    Until next time I hope you become at least 1% better.

    Snowy

  • What Bugsy Malone Can Teach Us About Success!

    The thing is with knowledge you have to take it as and when you find it.

    For years when people have asked me where do you get all your best ideas I used to tell them Bugsy Malone. Partially as a joke but secretly there was a lot of truth in what I said.

    You see Bugsy is not just a great film, there is also a lot of great wisdom in there that is often overlooked by those who watch it.

    If you are not familiar with the film it is Alan Parkers take on the gangster film. The difference is that all the characters are played by children. The guns don’t shoot bullets they shoot custard. The cars are peddle power. Much of the dialogue comes in the form of song. So if you will Bugsy is in essence a gangster musical with kids.

    As a child I was mesmerised by the film oh how I wanted a splurge gun and a peddle car. Jodie Forster as Tallulah was my idea of all thing glamorous, there were definitely no girls like here in my school.

    Scott Baio who played the eponymous title character was the very definition of all that was cool! He was smart he was funny, he was street savvy and he seemed always to be one step ahead of the game.

    All that is unimportant for the purpose of this article, the important point is that, in the songs there was wisdom. Some of it truly profound.

    Yep I know what your are thinking, really in a kids film? I tell thee yes!

    Ok you want proof!

    Have you ever procrastinated about anything or said to yourself i can do that tomorrow? Yep! We all have that is part of the human condition right?

    Well the film gives us some advice on the subject from the song Tomorrow. In the film there is a character who keeps on trying to get an audition for a job as a dancer from the owner of a speak easy. Everyday the owner says to the character ok you can get an audition tomorrow. The lyrics state “Tomorrow never comes, tomorrow a resting place for bums!”

    Clearly stating that if you put off living your life for too long you might end up in the worst off all situations living like a down and out! Our character knows that there is no tomorrow he states “what kind of fool do they take me for!”

    The thing is he also gives us the cure for being put off. He says “I won’t take no for an answer!” Or to put it another way I will take control of my own fate and not be at the whims of others! The whole song is a masterclass in seeing how you claim control of your fate!

    You want some more advice from Bugsy, in a song entitled “Down and Out” it gives us a cure from complaining about your situation. At the start of the song we hear these lyrics.

    You don’t have to sit around
    Complaining ’bout the way your life has wound up
    Think of all the time you waste
    And time’s a precious thing to let go by

    Talk about philosophy hidden in plain sight!

    They also go on to give your there cure in the very next lyric it says..

    Sure you’ve hit the bottom
    But remember you’ll be building from the ground up
    Ev’ry day’s another step
    That takes you even closer to the sky, so give a try

    It goes on a little further to tell us how we do it by really taking a stand for ourselves and how we can start to make progress by taking a chance and making some new changes!

    Fight and fight some more
    Until you know the world is ready to receive you

    So be a man you know you can’t be certain
    That you’ll lose until you try, so give it a try

    You want some more?

    Ok how about Karma or if you prefer sow and reap or to put it another way, if you provide value first, then you will reap the rewards! We here this in the lyrics..

    You give a little love
    And it all comes back to you

    Simple, yet completely accurate.

    It also goes on to tell you about the importance of Character and how we should strive to keep ourselves to our highest standards and be impeccable with our word after all….

    You know you gonna be remembered
    For the things you say and do

    I won’t go on any more about just how good a film Bugsy is because every time I watch it I think for both children and adults it is a philosophical masterpiece.

    That said I will leave you will one final lesson from Bugsy Malone it comes in the form of telling us that we become the sum total of the choices we make and it is never to late to start making better ones.

    We could’ve been anything
    That we wanted to be
    Yes, that decision was ours

    We could’ve been anything
    That we wanted to be
    And it’s not too late to change
    I’d be delighted to give it some thought
    May-be you’ll agree that we really ought

    There are so many other great bits of wisdom in the film take the time to watch it if you haven’t or reacquaint yourself with it if you have.

    Hey, maybe you will realise somewhere in the film that you really can be anything that you want to be.

    Until next time.

    Snowy

  • Who is John Galt? And Why You Should Give A F**K!

    When I was young I was a massive fan of all things Martial Arts. I was obsessed. I had the book, the films, the equipment and the compulsory subscription to “Inside Kung-fu” magazine. This was the late 80’s so all that was cool (well sort of) back then.

    In film there were many great stars of the genre Jackie Chan, Sho Kosugi, Gordon Liu, Jet Li and up and comers like Van Damme and Segal. The undisputed heavyweight of the genre though was still Bruce Lee (Even though he had died some 15 years earlier).

    Bruce Lee had made martial arts cool, well at least for a little while, and I was a big fan. I had all his films and all his books. The Tao of Jeet Kune Do is still on my bookshelf in my dads house.

    There is wisdom in the book statements like “Absorb what is useful, reject what is useless!” wise words Bruce!

    You see Bruce had something I didn’t, he had a philosophy. It told me so in all his books. Then I learned that Bruce had studied philosophy in university. That was it for me, if it was good enough for him, then it was good enough for me.

    Out I went to the book store, and picked up “ The Basic Teachings Of The Great Philosophers” and I was all in.

    A whole new world of ideas was opened up to me. Why was I here? What was my purpose? On and on the big questions came, with ideas of how to answer that from some of the greatest minds in history.

    My world had magnified by a multiple of ten. No longer was a this little kid from Cardiff I was thinking about the big things the Universal Questions.

    I read more and more books on philosophy, Kant, Nietzsche, Hume, Spinoza, Hegel on and on I read. Deeper and deeper I went down the rabbit hole. More questions, more answers to find.

    Finally, Objectivism and Ayn Rand landed on my door step. I read “The Fountainhead”, “We The Living”, “Anthem” but it was “Atlas Shrugged” the big daddy of them all that really rocked my world. In it I found a philosophy that perfectly suited my then self. It gave me (with the help of reading some of her more academic books) a structured belief system that I could assess other ideas against.

    I had my own me specific philosophy my own personal mental operating system, let’s call it MyPhilosophy 1.0.

    This gave me an advantage over most people my age, in that most of the people I knew if they were to think at all had unformed opinions based on hearsay or whimsy or whatever the prevailing ideas were popular in our social circle. Not me though I had a framework. And like I say an intellectual advantage.

    I would “not live for the sake of another man, nor ask no other man to live for the sake of me!” I even had the original quote next to my bed.

    My thinking has come on a long way since my Ayn Rand days (not to say I don’t still hold with many of her ideas), but that is not the point. What I had at the start was an objective measure of how to frame ideas that were presented to me. Right or wrong at least I had that measure and could make fixed decisions as I had a philosophical foundation.

    So here is the real big question “What do you believe, and why?”

    If you have no answer or have never asked yourself these questions or maybe you have weekly formed notions maybe it is time to start to think about this.

    For one it will free up so much mental energy that you have to use on trying to decide how you feel on certain subjects. It will give you to some degree logic and reason. Your views on certain subjects will be much more fully formed when you discuss things. So you may like to give philosophy a try.

    Philosophy is a hard subject to jump straight into. So I want to give you a soft in. The easiest way I know to do this is to read the wonderful novel “Sophie’s World” by Jostein Gaarder. It works as a fantastic introduction to philosophy and also has a bit of an Alice in Wonderland feel to it.

    Maybe from there you will progress and find a philosophy of your own and who knows maybe you will stand at the door of Ayn Rand and be able to answer the enigmatic question of “Who Is John Galt?” and maybe when you can you will actually give a f**k!

    Yours Philosophically

    Snowy

    NOTE: I wrote this a while ago and think maybe that it is a little rushed there is far more that I could add to this subject but hey maybe I will come back to it at some later stage. Until then give philosophy a go.