Owner: Babblermouth URL:http://babblermouth.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2007 11:39:22 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Blazing the trail for wandering minds: Babblermouth is a variety blog with insights on personal growth, thinking skills, continuous learning and more! Site statistics:Click here
How I Quit Smoking The Easy Way 2008-01-22 14:12:00 Forget patches, hypnotists and insulting public service announcements. Quitting smoking could be easier than you think. It was for me...Why Most Methods Don't WorkFirst of all, let's not kid ourselves. Quitting smoking is obviously not easy, as evidenced by the sheer number of smokers who have quit smoking, only to return to it within days, months or even years.But the problem isn't that the smoking habit is insurmountable. The problem is that many of the methods for quitting smoking are inadequate. Indeed, all unsuccessful methods share one thing in common: they attempt to change the smoking, and not the smoker!A Hard Fact About The Easy WayAlbert Einstein once said, The problems that exist in the world cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them. The problem of overcoming Read more:Smoking
You've Come A Long Way, Baby! 2008-01-03 22:39:00 Well, another New Year's Day has come and gone. You've probably been reflecting on your life a lot lately, if only because this is the time that many other people choose to do exactly that! But where have those thoughts taken you?A Brighter Future From A Darker PastWhen people are planning a brighter future, they often find themselves looking at a dark past. Why do you want to get a new job? Isn't it because your current job just isn't satisfying you any more and the work is now longer worth the money they pay you? Why do you want to lose weight? Isn't it because you've looked in the mirror and were disgusted by what you've found? Why do you want to quit smoking? Isn't it because you've become shocked and humbled by your lack of self-control and have begun to notice some frightening health
Peering Into The Manger 2007-12-25 21:33:00 As I write this post, Christmas is rapidly drawing to a close. I had a great Christmas this year, and I hope that you have as well (if you celebrate Christmas, that is). And I have a question for you as another Christmas ends:Who did you see in the manger?A Baby In The MangerEach year, we are drawn to celebrate the birth of Jesus, the one who would grow to become our savior by reconciling the sins of man with a holy God. When we read the Gospel accounts of the nativity story, many of us see a beautiful baby boy, dreamily sleeping as shepherds and wise men graciously visit him with gifts and reverence.And if on Christmas you see a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger, then I would humbly ask you to look deeper into the manger to discover the full wonder of the Christmas story.God Al
Impossibility Is An Impossibility 2007-12-18 13:49:00 If somebody were to claim that he could turn lead into gold through the power of concentrated thought, what would you think about that claim? You'd think it was impossible, right?Then you would be wrong!A Matter Of SemanticsLest you should think that this article is about startling advances in the field of alchemy, allow me to explain: it's a matter of semantics.It is certainly improbable that lead can be turned to gold at all, much less with only the power of thought. It could also accurately be called unlikely, impractical or unrealistic.Impossibility, however, is difficult to make a case for. For a thing to be impossible, it must not be able to happen, by anyone or anything, at any time, under any circumstances. To confidently declare a thing to be impossible is to assume way too much a
Writing A Novel Is Impossible, Then Easy, Then Challenging 2007-12-11 13:44:00 As any of my faithful readers may have noticed, my blogging dropped off the face of the Earth toward the end of November. My apologies. I was participating in National Novel Writing Month, an endeavor I highly recommend to anybody.NaNoWriMoNational Novel Writing Month (affectionately called NaNoWriMo) is a contest of sorts -- its participants are challenged to write 50,000 word's worth of a novel between November 1 and November 30. That's a pace of about 5 pages a day!The novels don't need to be finished products, or even be good. They only need to exist at the end of the month. There are no prizes for winning. In fact, there isn't even technically a winner.I've done NaNoWriMo for three years now, and finished two of them. One of the many things I have learned in the process is that NaNoWr
Collective Wisdom Ain't 2007-11-15 13:50:00 Collective wisdom is no kind of wisdom. A look at the major breakthroughs in thought throughout history shows that defying collective wisdom often leads to the purest creative solutions to the questions that are pondered. The history of science and technology particularly is a progression of one case study after another that shows how new advancements rely on stepping outside of what is at the time considered by many people to be an obvious fact.Consider the case of Ptolemy. He developed a beautifully detailed and well reasoned model of the universe in which the Earth stood at the center. To account for the motion of the heavenly bodies, Ptolemy reasoned that they sat upon fixed spheres which rotated around the Earth. Since he realized that stars, planets and comets all seemed to have diff Read more:Collective
, Wisdom
This Sentence Has Over 100 Errors 2007-11-07 11:00:00 One of the classic arguments against the reliability of scripture is that there are tens of thousands of errors in the texts. You see, there are many ancient copies of the books of the New Testament. However, there are several errors among them, and many copies don't completely match any of the other copies. Some are spelling errors, others are syntax errors. Some are paraphrases rather than direct copies. And so, the argument goes, there is no way to know what the original scripture is supposed to be. Such an overwhelming number of errors, as some assert, casts suspicion over what exactly constitutes the true teaching of the religion -- or indeed the very legitimacy of such a religion.Sounds convincing, doesn't it?Well, don't throw your Bible away just yet. Here we have a situation where Read more:Sentence
, Errors
A Mentor For The Hopelessly Introverted 2007-10-30 16:21:00 You are only moments away from discovering the most intuitive teacher you will ever have access to...A mentor can be a valuable resource for when you need to adjust your attitude, view your life from a different perspective or reflect on surprising new insights. Turning to a person that you respect and that has the wisdom to help you grow is a vital component to your continued success. If you are an introvert like me, however, you may have found that it's quite difficult to find valuable mentors in your life, if only because you don't meet many people.Fortunately, your most effective mentor may not even be a person!A number of years ago, I picked up an intriguing technique from Peter McWilliams's book, "Life 101." The only prerequisite is that you need to be comfortable with meditation. On Read more:Mentor
, Hopelessly
Fools Have Answers, Intellectuals Have The Questions 2007-10-23 08:46:00 Young children are the masters of questions. And for good reason - they have had very little experience in the world, and are doing the best they can to catch up. They realize that they don't know it all, and they ask questions in order to learn more about the world around them.And now, here's a question for you to consider: at what point did you stop questioning like a child?Sadly, many of us no longer have the capacity to ask questions like children. The causes are many. Some of us may feel self conscious about asking questions because we don't want people to know that we don't know something. Some of us may have grown weary of questioning because we have found that answers only lead to more questions. Others of us have given up on questioning for its apparent futility - not everything c Read more:Fools
7 Habits of Highly Effective People...In Haiku 2007-10-18 13:18:00 Haiku, as you may know, is a Japanese poetry form that traditionally is only three lines long. The first line has five syllables, the second has seven and the third line has five. This form leads to incredibly terse statements that, remarkably, still deliver the message. In a recent presentation I gave at work on Stephen Covey's classic book, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People", I summarized each of the seven habits as a haiku. Here's what I came up with... 1. Be ProactiveBe responsible:Don’t blame you and don’t blame “them”.Action is the key.2. Begin With The End In MindSelect your goal first,Then your path is determined.Now, take your first step!3. Put First Things FirstPrioritize it:Do first what is important,Then do all the rest.4. Think Win/WinThis is what I want:We both Read more:Haiku
If War Isn't The Answer, Perhaps You Misunderstood The Question 2007-10-10 14:25:00 When the American embassy in Kenya was attacked, Muslim terrorists posed a question to our nation. When the U.S.S. Cole was bombed, Muslim terrorists posed a question to our nation. When Muslim terrorists destroyed the lives of thousands of Americans by flying passenger jets into the Word Trade Center towers, they posed the same question to our nation: can the "great Satan" of the West, America, be destroyed?America has made its answer, and continues to answer by way of the "war on terrorism". Naturally, there are some who protest, saying war is not the answer. Such a sentiment is completely understandable. War truly is Hell, and only a pure psychotic would gleefully and joyfully wage war. I, for one, fervently wish that war would never be necessary. Sadly, however, there are circumstances Read more:Question
A Map That's "Good Enough" 2007-10-03 15:00:00 I have a map on my wall from about the 17th century (a replica, that is), and here's what I love about it: it was a perfectly useful map in its time, even though it wasn't 100% accurate. I like to keep that in mind when I feel my perfectionism creeping in.Perfectionism can be a dreadful disease. Although it may not officially kill anybody, it prevents them from living. Life is action -- and perfectionism, when it reaches extremes, prevents people from taking action for fear of not performing perfectly.Perfection seems like a worthy goal, but this lofty ideal is also its downfall. Unfortunately, perfection, in any field and in all capacities, is not possible. Excellence is possible. Virtuosity is possible. But perfection? Not in this lifetime! Perfectionists fail even before they begin beca Read more:Enough
, Good Enough
The Next Big Challenge 2007-10-01 13:00:00 Ok, so you've mastered time management. You can pack more accomplishment into one day than most people can put into a week. Now you are ready for a real challenge: do nothing.If you've never tried meditation before, you are missing one of the biggest challenges you will ever face. Now, I'm not talking about meditation as a mystical or spiritual practice. This article is about meditation as a relaxation technique and a method for training the mind for which there is no equal.The goal is deceptively simple: All you need to do is sit still and try to focus solely on one thing or to avoid focusing on any one thing. No problem, right? Wrong! In my experience, nobody ever meditates well the first time.To try your first meditation, sit comfortably and close your eyes. Sit down as though you never Read more:Challenge
Indulging Modern Indulgences 2007-09-25 14:35:00 Carbon credits have an interesting partner in history. I see a close link between the growing practice of buying "carbon credits" and the curious practice of buying indulgences as sold by the Roman Catholic church in the early 1500's.An indulgence, in Roman Catholic theology, is the granting of full or partial pardon of temporal punishment for sins that have already been confessed and forgiven. In layman's terms, the idea is this: you will be punished later for your sins, but you will be punished a little bit less if you are granted an indulgence (my apologies to practicing Catholics if this oversimplifies the matter). Indulgences are typically granted for acts of piety, such as devoting oneself to prayer or reading the scriptures with great reverence.The granting of indulgences eventually Read more:Modern
Where Have All The Parents Gone? 2007-09-17 16:00:00 Maybe I am now officially an old curmudgeon, but I swear children are less respectful and more obnoxious than they were when I was a child. However, I don't think it is fair to blame the kids. In truth, kids are no different than than they've ever been -- but parents have changed quite a bit! Here are some examples inspired by real life events:Johnny has trouble behaving in school. He frequently gets into fights with the other kids, and after ignoring many failed requests to stop hitting others, Johnny is suspended. His mother's reaction? She storms into the school and demands that the school remove the suspension. Her son, she says, would never hit anybody. And besides, it would be too inconvenient to find daycare on such short notice.Johnny's mother brings him with her to visit a friend' Read more:Parents
How To Watch Football 2007-09-11 08:14:00 Ah, football season has returned. I love what football stands for: pure competition, where victory doesn't go to the team with the most skill, but with the most perseverance. The tension and drama of the game tick higher and higher as the clock continues to tick down toward that final second.Football
's life and breath are found in those final moments of the game. A team can be behind by 14 points with only 5 minutes left in the game, and still come up with a victory. In those last moments, every decision counts and perseverance is king. If they succeed, it is the come-back win at the end of the game that everybody talks about, no matter how incredible a touchdown pass earlier in the game may have been. And it's that last second of the game that has changed the way I watch football forever.
I Am Not A Brainwashed Moron 2007-09-04 09:00:00 I attended public school as a child and a public university as an adult. One thing my instructors consistently taught me throughout the years, either explicitly and implicitly (regardless of the subject), was this: Only brainwashed morons could be Christians.Since I am a Christian and am not a brainwashed moron, I feel this sentiment begs an argument. I will ignore the flagrant condescension inherent in the claim and instead focus only on its most important (and false) assumption: That the evidence for the historicity of Christ does not warrant rational belief, and that you would therefore have to be a moron to put your faith in it.I believe that this assumption is rooted in three major misconceptions:The New Testament is not a reliably historical account of events and belongs more appropr Read more:Brainwashed
, Moron
Lessons From A Dot-Bomb CEO 2007-08-27 14:48:00 The best "mistake" of my life taught me a lot about how not to run a business. You see, I have a confession to make: I'm a Dot-Bomb CEO. Here's the story of Midwestern Cybertising, and the lessons I've learned:Prior to 1994, the Internet existed as pages and pages of text, with hyperlink shortcuts that brought you to other pages of text or to new sections on the same page of text. Text, text, text. Not bad if you like to read, but people today would hardly recognize it as "the Internet". Then, a little program called "Netscape" changed everything by making the Internet a visual, multimedia experience. That moved it from the world of computer nerds and placed it firmly into the hands of businesses and consumers alike.Enter Midwestern Cybertising. Some friends and I realized that this could Read more:Lessons
Image Streaming: Here Goes! 2007-08-21 09:04:00 You are familiar with the language of the left brain. That's the voice in the back of your head saying you can do it or you'll never win, and it never seems to shut up. The right brain, however, is more cryptic. It chooses to speak in pictures. Much like the left brain, the right brain is always "on", and it is always "talking" to you.This is important, for it is through the right brain that you have direct access to your subconscious (the logical left brain actively ignores the subconscious). And it is often the subconscious that is credited with breakthroughs in science and thought! By tapping into the stream of images offered by your right brain, you tap into a deep reservoir of remarkable intelligence and intuition. This is called "image streaming".Image
streaming is a major focus of t Read more:Streaming
Fun With Truisms 2007-08-16 10:49:00 This world is woven together by surprising contrasts and parallells. One interesting side effect is that it becomes very easy to create remarkably deep insights simply by twisting phrases around contrasting or parallell themes. For example: To be a friend to all...you must be all to a friend.Simple. Rearranging the first clause creates a truism -- a sentiment that is easily dismissed because it is so pithy. But when you peer into into it more deeply, profound truth bursts forth. This simple statement addresses many searching questions: How do you make friends? How do you keep friends? What is a good friend? The answer is simple, but its meaning is great.If you enjoy wordplay, consider creating trusisms. You might even discover the soul of the universe along the way! Here are some more...To
3 Things: Time Management For Scatterbrains 2007-08-11 00:00:00 There are several books about time management, and millions of people have been able to use the information in those books to organize their lives and to schedule time for success.But for some of us, organization and schedules are as clumsy as a goose wearing rollerskates. For some of us, implementing a new time management process represents not merely a change in habits or attitudes, but a change to the very essence of our being.What is a genetically unorganized person to do? I've struggled with many systems, tips and tricks over the years. Some of them actually worked beautifully for the very short time that I remembered to implement them. But I have discovered one method that works to keep me consistently on top of my to-do list and always working toward my goals. That method is the "3- Read more:Management
, Time Management
SET: More Fun Than Reading The Directions 2007-08-02 15:14:00 This has to be the dumbest thing I've ever heard of, I thought to myself. Why did I even buy this? And I hadn't even finished reading the directions yet! Fortunately, reading the directions and playing the game are entirely different matters.Reading
the instructions for SET is a strange experience -- the premise of the game is so simple that it doesn't even sound challenging: Each card has a number of shapes on it with different colors and patterns. Your job is to find a group of three cards that are all similar or different in each characteristic.That's it.Well I learned shapes, colors and matching in pre-school, so I was afraid I must have accidentally bought a game to pass the time rather than stretch the mind.But I was wrong! The tiny little element of the game that I overlooked while Read more:Directions
Poker: It's Not About The Money 2008-04-27 16:00:00 The more I play it, the more I become convinced that Poker
is the finest card game on the table. It has an unfortunate stigma because of its ties with gambling (which can be devastating when abused), but that stigma us undeserved. Poker is a remarkable game that perfectly blends both skill and chance, and can be thoroughly enjoyed without even one penny exchanging hands.It's Not About Money
I of course cannot ignore that one of the biggest draws of poker is the high-stakes poker that you can watch on TV. Anytime hundreds of thousands of dollars, or even millions of dollars change hands within the span of only a few minutes, you have yourself a pretty exciting spectacle.While the prospect of winning money through some well-played gaming is certainly enticing, my experience has proven that th
Income Is The Least Important Factor 2008-07-10 10:00:00 When it comes to your financial health, income is the least important factor. There are millionaires who are miserably in debt!The Hope of More MoneyAssuming I'm normal and that you're normal, I suspect that you (as I once did) assume that the best solution to money problems is more money. That is, if you find yourself struggling to make ends meet, then earning an extra thousand dollars would make Read more:Income
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