Thanks for coming back, keep being awesome!

I like to think I have a pretty good grip on reality.  But the truth is, everybody lives in a different world.  Same physical world perhaps, but mentally very different worlds.  To some people, a cigarette is a great stress reliever, to another, its a disgusting habit.  In the physical world, it’s merely a cigarette, the person’s interpretation of it is what makes it valueable.  That’s why I’m pretty sure nobody knows anything, because they are only filtering it through their own model of their world. But there are many advantages of not thinking you are a know-it-all.  One of my all time favourite quotes comes from Royce Gracie, one of the biggest pioneers in the sport of MMA: “The belt only covers 2 inches of your ass, you have to cover the rest.”  What I think (my interpretation) of what he’s saying there is that you are ultimately responsible for yourself, not any type of symbolic achievement such as a black belt or a championship belt.  Once you’ve achieved those things, do you really think its going to get easier?  Heck no, its going to get harder with people gunning for the belt!  That’s why the road to mastery is never ending.  It is the journey that counts.  When you don’t think you know it all, it let’s you continue your journey, as if you are a beginner, as if you are a baby soaking it all in.

Without thinking you know, it prevents you from pre judging a situation.  It lets us be curious, to be open, to be satisfied with the present moment.  And that is the fun part, isn’t it?  Knowing is half the battle, so I guess not knowing is the other half?  Who knows.  I know you think you know, or you think I know you know, but you don’t know and I don’t know.  But we can try and find out, or not, because who knows if we’ll be right.  I just gave myself a headache.  Its like that TV show about the celebrities where they say “You think you know, but you have no idea…” or something.  I don’t know.  All I’m saying is you don’t have to know everything or think you do, because what you think you know might not be what you think you know.  Know what I’m saying?

I looked it up.  Integrity means moral soundness.  Its about staying true to yourself, of having strength of character.  Its very easy to spot a person of integrity.  You just feel it.  You know what that is?  That’s their energy blasting out at in all directions.   The rules of integrity include:

• Follow up on your commitments
• Keep your promises
• Always pay back your debts
• Love  what you see in the mirror
• Keep your word
• Be honest
• Do not compromise your values

Sometimes it can be very hard to do.  Sometimes the right thing isn’t the thing you want to do.  People with integrity don’t bend these rules to fit their needs.  Integrity is not something that blows in the wind.  But that means you have to live by your rules, and not the rules of other people.  People with integrity need not the external validation of others, only the satisfaction of living life.  To love and be loved.  To experience and feel every second of every moment of this life they have been blessed with.  Its not about taking advantage of  friends, or about lacking the guts to tell somebody you like them and instead showering them with gifts, hoping one day they’ll just magically fall in love with you.  Its about telling people to step back when they’ve gotten in your space, its about having the courage to do what’s incredible, even if nobody knows you did it.  Especially if nobody knows.  It’s about being awesome.

“Live so that when your children think of fairness and integrity, they think of you.” – H. Jackson Brown Jr.

What are lifestyle experiments? They are like 30 day challenges you give to yourself to help give you some insight on something or to help form a new habit. They take you out of your comfort zone and usually help break some bad habits. Lifestyle experiments should be fun and challenging and should be in alignment with your life goals. Here are a few that I am starting or have recently started. If you are new to this I would recommend starting out with only 1 challenge at a time.

Lifestyle experiment #1 – No disposable garbage such a coffee cups, take out containers, etc. This one will be very tough for me, but I realized how much disposable garbage I’ve been using because its convenient to do so. At lunch I grab things on the go when I’m busy at work and this will have to stop. I especially like the vegetarian soups across the street from my work, but they don’t come in bowls, only takeout styrofoam containers. I won’t be able to get any Tim Horton’s or Starbucks unless I bring my own container, either. Plus there are numerous other places I go to grab food on the go around my office that I won’t be able to any longer. This will be a challenge, and I don’t know if I’ll succeed. But I’ll try and by the end of it I’ll be confident that I’ll have reduced my consumption of these wasteful products significantly.

Reason for doing lifestyle experiment #1 – to further reduce my ecological footprint on this planet, one of my lifelong goals.

Lifestyle experiment #2 – Get rid of cellphone. I don’t really need it. There aren’t that many people that call me anymore. In all my years of owning a cellphone, I have only ever received 1 emergency phone call. I’ve been really thinking about this one and I think I’ve fallen in the trap of owning a cell phone for the sake of owning one, when in fact I’m not really getting what I pay out of it. Most people with their fancy phones don’t actually need a fancy phone, and they find excuses to buy one rather than legitimately needing one (like for work). Its a very terrible mindset in my opinion. Its like paying for a gym membership and not going to the gym. I’ve got email, I’ve got Skype, I’ve got IM, so if anybody wants to get in touch with me they can do so through those mediums.  I won’t bring my cellphone to work and I’ll keep it on silent when I’m at home to eliminate distractions.  This experiment shouldn’t be too difficult,  I literally get more wrong numbers and telemarketers calling me then people who actually are looking to speak to me. If after 30 days the cellphone experiment is a success I’ll likely reduce to pay as you go and only turn it on when I need to make a phone call and I’m not near my computer (like if I’m out and meeting a friend).

Reason for doing lifestyle experiment #2 – Cost cutting. Part of my trimming the fat and of living a simpler life.

Lifestyle experiment #3 – Stronger eye contact with strangers. I tend to not look at strangers. I think that’s a shame because strangers are only strangers because you haven’t met them yet! And you don’t stand a chance of meeting them if you never look at them. I started this habit of not looking at people living in Toronto when I noticed that if you look at a homeless person in the eyes they’ll tend to always ask you for money. However, if you don’t you have a better chance of not being asked or pretending to ignore them. Torontonians do this a lot and I picked it up. Then for some reason it generalized and I avoided everybody’s eye contact. I plan on not avoiding on contact for 30 days, including the homeless without staring at people creepily. This shouldn’t be too bad, because I have tried this before and noticed that people don’t recognize you because they aren’t looking or will smile at you or the occasional guy who tries to outstare you.

Reason for doing lifestyle experiment #3 – Purely for fun.  Who knows, might make a friend or two!

If I cheat or fail, I’ll post the updates on Twitter. http://twitter.com/landland

Get started on some of your lifestyle experiments today!