How to combat chaos

Going nowhere is not about turning your back to the world it’s about stepping back and seeing the world more clearly and loving it more deeply.”

This was a line in The Art of Stillness, a Ted Talk original by Pico Lyer.

When we seem to be hurried and bogged down with sizable to-do lists, school work, job tasks, and relationships. sometimes we tend to forget why we are doing it.

Floating in the bottom of the ocean, a burst of a dust cloud blurred my vision and for about a minute I had zero visibility. In the first 20 seconds, I panicked, I looked around to see where my instructor was.

I acknowledge the fact that I was breathing through my second stage (breathing apparatus), as I inhaled I felt the air filling my lungs and deflating my lungs as I exhaled. The next 15 seconds my attention was on my breathing.

Then came the most wondrous part of the whole experience; the stillness.

My thoughts went from anxiousness and nervousness to tranquil, comfort and peace.

One of the things you get taught scuba diving is not to be nervous or anxious. As we already know we cannot control our initial emotions, however, we can control how long they last for.

“The greatest weapon against stress is to choose one thought over another.” Pico Lyer

As I floated through the dusted cloud of sand I couldn’t help but imagine that I am here, alone, deep underwater.

A moment that, felt like an eternity or so I desired, nothing mattered. Not the stress, the overbearing workload, the meetings, the homework and projects for school, the relationships I needed to sustain and maintain, the people that dependent on me, the time that I was running out of. 

.................................Finish down here.....................................

https://karasingroup.com/2016/10/31/how-to-combat-chaos/

It feels awful being uncomfortable

Uncomfortable conversations, situations, thinking about the uncomfortable makes me uncomfortable, okay maybe it does not.

I am sure like most people you have been in an uncomfortable situation, where someone put you on the spot or has embarrassed you in some way or another in front of other people. Or maybe there was a time you were called out on something that you said you knew to make yourself look good, but it was all a lie.

You remember a time like this? Did you feel like you’ve been robbed of your comfortable little bubble?

I can remember a time like this when I said yes to a work project I had no idea what it was about. When I was having a conversation with someone and nodded a yes only to realize I would be asked details about what was being talked about after having no idea of the place or person they were talking about.

We constantly get put into these awkward positions where our emotions flutter, our blood boils, our cheeks go red, and we start to sweat.

We here this all the time “don’t sweat the small stuff”, how can we not when we have no control over our reaction or do we?

Unless you have practiced in the monastery to become a Zen teacher I am sure there is something in you that gives. That get’s uncomfortable with the small stuff, or the big stuff.

There are times when you can anticipate being put on the spot, for example presenting a project in class, or having a speech prepared at your best friends wedding. Even these times when you are fully prepared you will still get uncomfortable.

How about the times when you don’t anticipate it when someone robs you from being comfortable?

Do you blame the person or thing responsible for it? Do you take ownership and thank the person or thing for helping you grow and mature into someone else, someone you wouldn’t even recognize?

Carol s. Dweck is a professor of psychology at the university of Stanford and she popularized the concept of a growth and fixed mindset.

“The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even when it’s not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset. This is the mindset that allows people to thrive during some of the most challenging times in their lives.” She writes in The New Psychology of Success.

It is all a matter of experience. The more we do something the better we are at doing it.

When I was giving a speech on my birthday to a group of 27 friends and 6 strangers I felt in the zone, however when I was being interviewed with 3 people in front of a camera I stuttered, I made mistakes, I wasn’t perfect, I wasn’t even great.

What did that do for me?

https://karasingroup.com/2016/10/29/feels-awful-uncomfortable/ Hit the Facebook like button at the bottom from reading the post. 

An easy guide for people seeking a job.

Is there a right or wrong way to screen candidates for a position?

As we are moving towards a digital era it has never been easier to uncover the most private affairs of a potential employee.

Many corporate jobs require access to your social as if they are inviting themselves into your bedroom without any permission. Depends whose side you are looking from, this becomes pervasive for good and not so good reasons.

“YOU CAN TELL A LOT ABOUT SOMEONE JUST BY SPENDING 10 MINUTES IN THEIR BEDROOM.” BLINK BY MALCOLM GLADWELL

It’s easy to start a fake account and give that to your bosses, but through 5 minutes of digging around google and surfing your friend’s social accounts, it becomes more obvious what it is you are hiding. Your secret fetishes for weird sex toys, or your love for specialty bongs and other marijuana paraphernalia.

The resume is like something out of Jurassic park, a prehistoric T-Rex. As easy it is with thousands of online forums and application to find the best way to articulate your resume, bosses are more concerned with what you do in your personal life than your professional career.

They don’t concern about what you have done, they want to know what you can do now.

No more of these; I am excellent at organizational skills. I am capable of working in a fast-paced environment. I have outstanding interpersonal skills and I am detail oriented. (For the last part if you say anything about detail, please pay attention to detail).

No one cares about any of those because they are too vague, at least I don’t when I am looking for a potential candidate. What does excellent even mean? I want to know the truth of who you are, why you want to be hired, your true intentions, how you will contribute, and if you didn’t catch the first part, honesty.

Your detail orientated? What is it the makes you so good at paying attention to detail?

Have you researched the company you are applying for? Do you know what they sell or do, services/products they provide? Who are they affiliated with? Who their potential clients are?

WHAT MAKES YOU SO SPECIAL?

Really think about this for a minute. What makes you the good candidate?

I am speaking here from an employer’s point of view if you didn’t catch that already.

Aside from other applicants, what makes you stand out?

Every job will have different criteria for hiring, although some jobs will be looking for the same thing in the people they hire; Honest, hard working, skilled, punctual.

Think about it in terms if you were hiring. Would you hire yourself? Why would you hire yourself?

Re-engineer the process, work back words, put yourself in the shoes of an employer who’s interviewing you.

During the interview forget the script, sounding autonomys makes it much worse. Be authentic. You aren’t perfect neither is the person who’s going to hire you. It’s okay to make mistakes and be vulnerable. I would prefer to hire someone who is themselves rather than pretending to be someone they are not.

YOUR TRUE COLORS WILL SHINE IF NOT AFTER THE FIRST DAY, THEN AFTER THE FIRST WEEK OR MONTH.

Remember just as easy it is to articulate a great resume it is also easy for employers to find abstract questions that are completely unexpected for the initial interview.

I don’t want to get into when machines will do the hiring because that will be a lengthy post and we will all be doomed by then. Since machines will be more biased than humans, the reason is because they will take on human biased input/interpretations.

7 PRACTICAL TIPS FOR SOMEONE LOOKING TO GET HIRED;

You know where to find the rest right?

https://karasingroup.com/2016/10/27/practical-guide-people-seeking-job/

A time when machines will make us believe they are human

If you were truly convinced that a robot has consciousness, will you accept the robot as a loving being?

We get attached to material things, so much so that we let those material things control the way we behave and think.

Think about something that you absolutely love and if gone missing or damaged by someone else you would be upset and resent the person that did it, how it would affect your day or your week.

Emotions don’t last long, “They are like spray paint on rust.” Gary Cox

To make this more interesting imagine that you couldn’t distinguish between machine and human. A real-life machine that resembles a human. A machine that can articulate and make you believe that they are an emotional being.

This topic is fascinating not because it is a science fiction staple, but because it is happening now at an accelerated rate.

Could we call people who are bionic, machines? What separates them from humans? Their minds.

So, what if we could create a mind?

Right now, artificial intelligence can teach itself. Before we used to input statistical data and we would get the output we anticipate out of the machine. Now we cannot predict what the machine’s response will be because the machine is imputing its own software.

What does this mean for humanity? Is it a step forward?

Along with artificial intelligence comes an ethical dilemma. Do machines decide what is morally right or wrong?

What is their decision based on? If not our input, then whose?

Those are scary scenarios to consider. We are all biased in nature, and if we have input this data into a system that becomes opinionated how will a machine distinguish what is morally right or wrong?

There will always be three sides to this equation, people who just don’t care and are indifferent. People who are optimistic and of course the pessimists.

What I am suggesting here is that not only should we care, but we must care and we must consider the consequences. The reason for this is because it will affect our lives. What affects us internally can either move us towards pleasure or pain.

Imagine a world where your only interaction is with a machine. Your wife or husband is made from parts, has a mind that is programmable and does whatever you tell it to.

Although that doesn’t sound like such a bad scenario, imagine further that this machine decides when you are right or wrong and punishes you for being wrong, or for being right.

Do you see where I am going with this?

What if we are wrong? What if machines could potentially destroy humanity?

What if we become dispensable just like an ant hill is to a construction of a building?

What if it is us who stand in the way of the machines?

Those scenarios are not far from reality. The fact we must consider is that the mind and consciousness are still a very murky conversation. We know little about the mind and consciousness. We have our assumptions, but no scientific proof.

We know that the mind is powerful, but can it be recreated?

Some futurists like Ray Kurzweil suggest that we are moving towards that evolutionary step.

“Our memories are stored as a sequence of patterns. Your brain’s interpretation of the image influences your experience. Identity is preserved through continuity of the patter of information that makes us.” Excerpt from How to Create a Mind.

What Ray suggests is that our minds are simple machines and that computers will inevitably be able to analyze, store, and depict information based on the vast knowledge they learn. They will be smarter because they will be able to process more than we ever can.

People such as myself have yet to be convinced. Although, there is no doubt that machines will soon be able to deceive us into believing that they are human like you and I. It is imagination that will stand at the brink of lucidity.

Marcus Aurelius reasons to “never let the future disturb you, you will meet it if you have to, with the same weapons of reasons that arm you against the present.”

I want to leave you with one last thought. Imagine this scenario; we can transfer our mind into a robot that will outlive us. Could we then live for eternity?

Thank you for reading this hypothetical, auto-suggestive post. To be continued….

What are you waiting for? Share hit the ❤, and leave a comment so that I know you have read it and others can find this too! Thank you in advance for your prompt in taking action.

What can music do for you?

As I am writing this, in the background I am listening to Prelude and Fungue №1 in C major, BWV 846, from Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier, Gulda Pianist. To simplify, I am listening to a classical piece by Johann Sebastian Bach from 1685.

A musical piece that contains 50–80 beats per minute. I’ll explain why this matters as well the overall understanding of music, what it consists off, and how we use it to our advantage.

Why am I listening to classical music? Through the pattern recognition of the notes, I am able to tune out and focus on my thoughts and control my emotions.

Have you ever listened to music that you are well familiar with only to find yourself deep in thought and actually not remembering the music playing at all? Tuning out while being tuned in.

This happens because you go into and automated state. It is the same as driving, when you drive down a familiar route you tend to forget the drive itself and how you actually got to your destination.

But you did get to your destination safe and you disregard the fact that you forgot anything along the way.

Music is like that, although we consciously don’t perceive it, unconsciously it is doing something special.

Today I will have the privilege to attend a Strike a Chord Gala. This sounds like a rock or classical concerto, however, the purpose behind this is actually much greater than what you might think.

The gala is raising money for music therapists. That’s right, people can get help in improving their mental or physical well-being through music.

“Music therapy improves health in several domains, such as cognitive functioning, motor skills, emotional development, social skills, and quality of life, by using music experiences such as free improvisation, singing, and listening to, discussing, and moving to music to achieve treatment goals.”Wikipedia

Music is a tool that has been used for centuries. It can uplift your mood, calm you down when your stressed, and https://karasingroup.com/2016/10/21/what-can-music-do-for-you/

how can we understand body language?

What does body language tell us about people?

It tells us more than words do if we know what to look for.

I recently went to a spa and I met a masseuse whom I found peculiar.

What I found interesting was her interdisciplinary observation about my ankle.

I injured my ankle approximately 1 year ago playing basketball, the experience which I have written about, and I was surprised to hear from the masseuse which ankle was injured.

I did not specify, although she pointed out that it was my right ankle.

That kind of precision is worth writing about. Let me explain why.

We often talk more than we listen, and when we do listen we pay attention to the words. While doing this we miss the most important message the person is telling us without actually saying anything.

The posture, the hand gestures, the facial expressions are all subliminal signals. The person who is sending out these signals does it so artfully that they themselves don’t even know they are doing it.

How can we pick up on these signals? Why should we?

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https://karasingroup.com/2016/10/17/can-understand-body-language/

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How can we effectively communicate?

“HELLO, I SEE YOU, I RECOGNIZE YOU, I ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR EXISTENCE, LET’S TALK, GET TO KNOW WHO EACH OTHER REALLY ARE. ALL OF THIS IS SET IN A SIMPLE ACT OF A HANDSHAKE BETWEEN TWO PEOPLE. IT ALL RELIES ON THE FIRST HANDSHAKE AND THEN NATURALLY GROWS FROM THERE.” MR. ROBOT BY SAM ESMAIL

What is it about human interaction that is so profound? It may seem as though it is natural and there is nothing special about it until you step out and realize the full framework.

At the right time in history you were conceived, at another point in time, the person you are interacting with has also been conceived. Both of you have experienced the world in a magical, surreal way. Avoiding danger by learning all types of important skills.

Which has led both of you to understand language, a means to interact with one another. On a subtle level, you have also learned how to use your body language.

Learning this from the people you interact with; first from your parents, then from your peers, teachers, role models.

“Information defines your personality, your memories, your skills.” Ray Kurzweil

Why does this matter?

I wanted first to get behind the scope and see the contextual viewpoint, and then move in and analyze why we interact with each other the way we do.

A handshake, facial expressions, body gestures. Why do we begin by saying Hello? Why do you talk with your hands when the person who you are talking to is not even in your line of sight, ie over wirelessly transmitted radio sound waves (telephone)?

Right here is where the rest is https://karasingroup.com/2016/10/19/can-effectively-communicate/

How can we stop wasting time

The intention which you desire comes from the perception that you adhere.

Are trivial tasks a waste of time?

Here is something that I ponder myself sometimes when I do things I normally don’t enjoy because I feel like it is wasting time when I could be doing other tasks that are more productive.

Okay, so we need to break down what productivity means, and what is wasting time.

Productivity according to the google dictionary is measured in terms of the rate of output per unit of input. So what is suggested is that whatever you put in, the outcome you get as a result determines how productive you actually are.

Let’s say you spend 8 hours a day at work, well that in turn will produce 8 hours of wages. Now let’s say you work overtime and you get paid time and a half, which in most provinces it is a legal requirement. You now work 2 hours and get paid for 3 hours.

The time you worked overtime is now more productive since the output is greater than it would be generally.

Now that we understand the term productivity lets turn our attention to time being wasted.

What does this mean? What does this look like? Is it possible?

I asked the last question because this is where the message lies.

WHAT DOES WASTING TIME MEAN?

Come finish here https://karasingroup.com/2016/10/16/can-stop-wasting-time/ and subscribe to receive posts that don't get published on this platform. 

How did you get so lucky?

Do you know anyone who is lucky? Do you know how they got lucky?

I am not going to give you the cliché of hard work equals to luck, or the best luck is the luck you make for yourself, or that luck always seems like it belongs to someone else.

No.

You must be wondering why I am not following this cliché model of luck? Do I actually believe in luck?

Well, that depends on what you identify as luck. If luck is an unexpected event that has consequences, then yes I believe in luck, and I think you do too.

This is not a superstitious assumption that luck is only good and it happens to those who don’t do any good. Isn’t that what you would think? ‘How did this person get so lucky; he didn’t deserve it?’

Lucky for us, pun intended, luck can be measured, it can be faltered and it can also be sustained.

Luck is all around us. Good and bad, it is unavoidable. So, can we say that luck either brings us pleasure or pain? Yes, we can, however, that’s not where I want to go with this post.

What lens are we looking through? When something happens that is not in our favor, do we blame it on bad luck? How about if that bad luck never happened then you would have never been able to get to where you are today?

Am I lucky?

Follow the following link to finish the post, don't forget to subscribe to receive posts that I don;t publish anywhere else 

https://karasingroup.com/2016/10/12/how-did-you-get-so-lucky/

Thank you

Why hobbies increase productivity?

What are hobbies? According to the google dictionary, it is an activity done regularly in one’s leisure time for pleasure.

I think we have an understanding of what pleasure is, although I do feel it is important to identify what leisure means.

Again, according to the google dictionary; leisure is identified as free time.

Is time ever free?

That was a rhetorical question. There is no such thing as free time. Time, unfortunately, is a dispensable resource. There is a finite amount of time, so we have to re-examine what leisure is.

Maybe we can classify it as doing something at a certain time that is less productive than our work activities. Although that also possess a fault since productivity bears an individualistic definition. What I may find productive you may think otherwise.

“Leisure implies an attitude of non-activity, of inward calm, of silence; it means not being “busy”, but letting things happen.” Joseph Pieper in his work Leisure: The basis of culture goes on to say “For leisure is a receptive attitude of mind, a contemplative attitude, and it is not only the occasion but also the capacity for steeping oneself in the whole of creation.”

So why am I dissecting the question I stated above?

https://karasingroup.com/2016/10/10/hobbies-increase-productivity/

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Why an offensive strategy is much more effective

The difference between a defensive approach to an offensive can be a difference between a win and a loss in a given outcome.

Someone blames you for something you did or didn’t do, you become defensive. Your boss questions your work and you become defensive. Your wife asks why you were out late and you become defensive.

Naturally, our reaction is to retract from any situation that poses a threat to our supposed well-being. Most people do not like to be undermined and the best case scenario is to defend our position, or is it?

You’ve heard me mention victim-hood mentality. The notion of defense brings us back to the concept of victim-hood mentality. Acting as if you are the victim of a given situation, you neglect responsibility. You blame everything that is outside of your control.

Instead of taking control of what you do and how you respond, you react faultless, you blame the other person and the obstacles that got in the way to rationalize what may seem irrational to your counterpart.

“If you got yourself into this mess, you are responsible enough to get yourself out.” The power of the other by Henry Cloud

RESPONSIBILITY.

There are various types of defense mechanisms, noted by Sigmund Freud; 

https://karasingroup.com/2016/10/08/offensive-strategy-much-effective/

Also if you haven't been going to Karasingroup.com, I suggest you do because I have a couple of posts that I only shared on my platform.

Karasingroup.com , they have not been published anywhere else. Let me know what you think of the two critical business elements and how I read 14 books a month, and of course don't forget to share!

You cannot take humanity out of us

Celebrities, Royalty, Homeless, Businessmen, Employees, Musicians, Mental patients, have one thing in common; being human.

Travelling to Victoria this weekend I had the pleasure of speaking with a taxi driver on my way to a business conference. Conversations with locals tend to be very eye opening. What peaks my interest is the observation one has or lack of to their surroundings.

“The trick of asking questions is to determine if your question is a good one, just because it has never been asked does not mean it’s good.” Steven Levitt who has written Freakonomics goes to say “Overturn conventional wisdom by asking questions that people really care about and closing with answers that may surprise people.”

Thinking sensibly about how people behave in the real world can bring about a novel way of perceiving the world.

The taxi driver preceded to tell me that the royals are leaving Victoria and are heading into Vancouver. People are gathering to see them leave. One patron that the taxi driver had served, felt very privileged to have met the royals up close.

After examining this I felt compelled to think; why do we care so much about people who society deems as important, as opposed to people who we don’t notice, such as homeless people, or even just strangers walking past us on a busy street?

Finish here 

https://karasingroup.com/2016/10/03/cannot-take-humanity-us/

Staying comfortable will keep you surviving

What we do each and every day takes us back to when we first walked this earth. Wanting a house is by means shelter, wanting a big house is now social stature. Social stature permits us to thrive in an environment where others will not.

So that brings us to this question, what is the difference between our wants and needs? Do we need a big house? No, but having this big house will then attest others to accept us as rulers. He who owns more shall bestow authority over those who own less.

It may seem as though we have evolved and are much more progressed. However, in what sense have we progressed? What does progression mean? And what does it look like to not progress?

Sure technology has its advancements. The way we can understand this is by calculating. For example, the speed at which the internet is running has increased 10x as opposed to when it first became mainstream. The fact that we are now able to prolong living for people who have critical illnesses such as aids.

But what about civilization, have we progressed, how is this measured?

That depends on who is saying it. People who are living in poverty today might not be doing as well as their ancestors once did.

So is it all smoke and mirrors, yet we are pulling all the same levels? Meaning that survival at its core is what defines us and it is what guides us through this present moment in time, although the context is different.

Now in this present moment we work for food and shelter in a less risky environment, in the past, we worked for food and shelter in a higher risk environment.

So is it then risk that has changed, and everything else remained the same?

the rest is here

https://karasingroup.com/2016/10/02/staying-comfortable-will-keep-surviving/