A documentation of my journey to improve my life
Tag: learning
So you want to get into shape? Well, what exactly does that mean? The concept of fitness is as frustrating as it is noisy and confusing. The wrong fitness path For most of us, we’ve committed to getting fit for all the wrong reasons. We’ve seen Hollywood celebrities parading around their rock hard and well-formed bodies and we’ve dreamt of being just like them. We’ve let the over photoshopped, over marketed perception of fitness persuade us into thinking that we aren’t...
I came to the realization recently that my whole world has basically started and stopped in my own backyard. I grew up here in Canada, I have mostly Canadian friends and everything I know about my life has basically been developed through the lens of North American pop culture (thank you Simpsons, John Hughes, and Alt Rock music). This may seem fine and pretty normal for our culture but when you realize that Canada and the United States collectively only...
Learning a new language can be one of the greatest things you accomplish in your life. It’s rewarding, insightful and inspiring, but if it isn’t done correctly, it can also be one of the most intense, overwhelming and frustrating challenges you’ll ever undertake. As I continue my challenge to learn Chinese in a month, here is Part 2 of my… 10 tips to learning a language in 30 days. Practice Practice Practice If you want to be great at anything, you...
Learning a language in one month seems like a crazy and foolish goal. How could anyone learn a complex and completely unfamiliar language in just one month?! As someone currently attempting this crazy challenge (and with the difficult choice of Mandarin to boot) I can tell you that surprisingly learning a language in a month is not only achievable but if done right, can be much easier than you could ever imagine. Here is Part 1 of my 10 tips to learning...
“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.” Ludwig Wittgenstein Like most of us, I was given the opportunity to learn a new language as one of my chosen electives back in high school. Having just been forced to suffer through basic french all through middle school and not really enjoying the process I quickly dismissed the idea of tackling a new more challenging language. I had no connection to Mandarin, Cantonese, or Spanish; to me, they seemed...
When was the last time you picked up a good book and really invested yourself into it? Not a magazine or a TMZ article, not a news update or a blog rant but a real life, paperback, ink on your fingers, read until you fall asleep kind of book. A week, a month, a year? For me it has been many years since I had bothered to attempt a real book. Excluding the odd comic book (a nerdy pastime of mine) I...
What have I learned living on $250 for a month? I’ve been asked this a few times over the course of my challenge and each week the answer seems to be different. I guess that’s kind of the best part of doing these challenges and writing this blog, I’m always progressively learning and changing my understanding of the world I’m exploring that month. Just thinking about the growth and development I’ve gained over the course of this month makes me believe that...
