Introducing Culture Thursday

    

"The reason one writes isn't the fact he wants to say something. He writes because he has something to say."
~F. Scott Fitzgerald~

After some thought, I have decided to move up to every day posting!  This is quite a commitment given my workload at this time, but I feel that it is do-able with a little forethought and commitment.  I will be using my Tuesday and Thursday posts to open my information mine to you, dear reader.  I will post only the absolute best finds that I have encountered in my search for truth, culture, and knowledge.  Today I want to share with you the site of a philosopher named Ravi Zacharias.  Dr. Zacharias is in my mind one of the most lucid and eloquent reasoners alive today.  He speaks from a classically trained philosophic viewpoint, and comes to some startling conclusions about the trends of culture and where we are going as a people.  His site has made available for free a massive archive covering a plethora of relevant cultural topic.  I have never heard arguments stated so logically, so eloquently, in all of my searching.  check him out!

Questions that need to be asked?

As I was considering what to post, I thought about how nice it would be to get some feedback on some of the issues that I've been thinking about recently. Additional perspective is always welcome, and almost always reveals facets of a subject that I had not thought of. So what I'm going to do is release to you all some questions and concepts that I've been considering writing a post on. Read them, think about them, and get back to me. I would really love to hear from any of you, so sound off! Here are some questions that I think need asked:

· Is teaching evolutionary theory as fact in the school system causing a detrimental effect on society?

· Is the Constitution still a viable document as is, or does it need to be amended or restructured to accommodate modern times?

· Are we Americans really as terrible as we are making ourselves out to be?

· Is MTV poisoning society?

· Why is there such a push towards “zen living” and “information diets” recently?

· What is the value of reading the classics?

These are just a few of the things that I've been thinking about lately. Feel free to comment, email me @ joeaholmes@gmail.com , or IM me via the digsby app on the right hand side of the site. I look forward to connecting with all of you!

Use Multitasking to Enhance your Focus

Vision, discipline and focus. With these three life skills in abundance, there's very little that we can’t do. I like to think of my life as blank slate upon which I am free to express myself as I choose. But what if you or I lack one of these skills? Does missing of one of these hold us back from becoming who and what we want to become? When I look at them, I can see where a deficiency here does indeed hold me back. For me, its focus. I have always had a distinct vision of what I want to do with my life, and medical school has taught me a lot about discipline (though I'm still learning). What really holds me back from my aspirations becoming reality is my lack of focus. Maybe it’s that I have a touch of ADD, and maybe it’s that I just have a busy mind, but it seems that throughout life, I've had trouble focusing on a task, and completing tasks. Of late though, I've been becoming much more productive through the art of conscious multitasking. This really first occurred to me when I realized that I constantly broke up my study by doodling, or checking on something on the internet, or just walking around my apartment. I just couldn’t seem to focus for more than about 20 minutes at a time. And so, as you can imagine, my productivity was horrible. That’s when I decided to consciously multitask. Instead of just performing random activity when my attention needed to focus, I had other things I could do that would be a productive distraction. Now I can set out things at the start of the day, and when I feel my attention drift, I pay bills, answer email, write my blog post, or study something entirely different for about ten minutes. Even on medical rotations, there is often an opportunity for some calculated distraction (ie, reading a handbook on downtime, etc). This has allowed me to indulge my desire to multitask, and actually become more productive. I realize that not everyone is like me. I have friends who need to be distraction free in order to concentrate. But if you’re someone who finds it maddening to try and focus in a “quiet study environment”, then maybe it’s time to stop fighting your nature. Put on some music, go with your flow, and be productively distracted. [photo via businessweek]

The Imperative to Create

“True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new.”

~Antoine de Saint-Exupery~

Last weekend, I went to a cabin retreat with some friends. It was just a time for everyone to relax and unwind (and contributed to the absence of posts this week). I considered working on a new post over the weekend, but I couldn't quit fiddling with my rekindled interest in ink sketching. Micalyn and I had bought art supplies to play with since the forecast called for rain, and I chose some ink and nibs. Initially when I sat down with my new supplies, I just doodled. As I continued to play around however, some great ideas began to flit back and forth in my mind. Then I really found my muse, and for the rest of the rainy day, that's what I worked on. In that moment I had an epiphany that has been burgeoning in my mind since I began writing for SqueezedFresh. I had forgotten the joy of creating. I had forgotten the catharsis of making something, instead of consuming something. We have become increasingly a culture of consumers instead of creators, and have forgotten the joy in producing something original and uniquely ours. In a prior post, I wrote about the potential power of the web to bring forth a remix culture, but I didn't really stress how important I feel it is to the human soul that this culture grow and spread. Throughout our past, individuals have always created. Many times this creativity was spurred by necessity. In this modern time, where our every need is met, what is the spark that will bring us back to the act of creation? I think that in this time of convenience and consumerism, we need desperately to rediscover the unique joy of being creators. We need to learn not only to enjoy works of art, music, and cinema, but to produce them. The tools are at our fingertips like never before. So let this be your wake up call. Get out there and cut, paste, draw, write, act, play, and create!

5 Blogs that will improve your life

Anyone who has ever read a book knows about the potential that a good read has to mold your philosophies and changed your perception of life. Well, a good blog can do the same thing. In fact, a blog arguably has more potential because of the increased intimacy between the blogger and their audience. Below you’ll find the five blogs that have enhanced my view on life in a very positive way. They have made me a better person, so I thought I’d share them with my readers.

Zen Habits- This is overall my absolute favorite blog. Leo is a fantastic blogger, and his consistently thoughtful and gracious writing has many times changed how I view the world. I couldn’t speak highly enough of this blog.

Life Remix- The recently launched Life Remix is a collection of the crème ala crème of personal development blogs. It’s a great blog for discovering other writers that you really enjoy.

Lifehacker- For all things digital, it doesn’t get any better. Lifehacker has multiple writers so it’s constantly updated and consistently useful.

Get Rich Slowly- Money isn’t what happiness is all about, and it much easier to accept that when your not struggling with debt. This blog will change how you think about money.

Lifedev- Productivity can be about one of two things. It can be about getting more done in your day, or it can by about getting your day done in less time. Whichever one of these scenarios fits you, you’ll find lots of ways to achieve it on Lifedev.

And lastly of course there’s squeezedfresh! I created this blog because I could never find anyone who was writing consistently on our ever shifting culture. So read on, and make friends with some good blogs.

Six Benefits to Creating a Personal Manifesto

“Preparation for old age should begin not later than one's teens. A life which is empty of purpose until 65 will not suddenly become filled on retirement.”

~ Dwight L. Moody ~

man·i·fes·to (mān'ə-fěs'tō) n. pl. man·i·fes·toes or man·i·fes·tos A public declaration of principles, policies, or intentions, especially of a political nature. intr.v.
man·i·fes·toed, man·i·fes·to·ing, Man·i·fes·toes To issue such a declaration.

Although most of us associate manifestos with communist regimes, the reality is that any group party or individual can create one. A manifesto is merely a document outlining principles and beliefs. In this article, I’m going to elucidate the benefits of creating your own personal manifesto. This article will be followed up by a Howto on exactly how to go about writing yours.

Six Benefits of writing your manifesto

1) Know thyself

Writing your principles, goals, and intentions out is a great way to engage in some self exploration. In fact, you may actually be surprised by what you discover about yourself when you actually sit down and make yourself articulate what you want.

2) Solidify what it actually is that you want out of life
Many times we don’t get what we want out of life because we don’t really know what we want. We drift through each day with only a hazy set of goals and aspirations. In such a state, it’s easy to make missteps. Writing out your goals in life is a one effective method to really define to yourself what you want.

3) Reassess your life’s direction
When you do write out your manifesto, you may be shocked to realize that what you want out of life and where you’re going in life are two different things. It’s very common to allow the daily grind to bury our most cherished dreams in a heap of bill paying, careless spending, and just generally following the path of least resistance. Although this realization may be dismaying, it’s a priceless epiphany if you actually want to someday live your dreams.

4) Motivate yourself
Whenever you feel like your life is going nowhere, you can always pull out a personal manifesto and draw inspiration from your dreams. If your grinding through a hard time at work or school, you can look at those dreams and know that the sacrifices you are making in your life will someday pay off big.

5) Keep a record of your personal growth
One of the neatest things you can do is reassess and rewrite your manifesto each year (or every six months, etcetera). After a few incarnations, you will really be able to see your growth as a person. It’s a fascinating and useful tool for introspection that will help you to see the person you were, as well as the person you are becoming.

6) Stay on track.
Take your personal manifesto and post it on your fridge or cubicle wall, and you will be amazed at how much easier it is to chase down your dreams. There’s something about having a tangible representation of your personal beliefs and goals that is very empowering. So go ahead create yours today!