Brown Rice Diet Update

That was aborted after Day 1. Greatest. Fail. EVER.

Not for typical reasons you may think though. I couldn’t have started a brown rice diet, or any diet for that matter, at the worst possible time. I realized after the first day, I had come down with a cold — a real bad one. If I were to have continued eating just brown rice for the remaining nine days I was suppose to, I’m pretty sure I would be in a much more degraded state at the moment.

The good news is, my cold has finally passed, and I’m ready to start getting s#!t done again. As for when I’m going to start this diet up again — to be determined.

In Other News

I’d forgotten that I have this work perk that allows the expensing of “learning material”, specifically in the form of books, that I have not really used yet. I figured I’ve been needing some new reading material, and I’d get back into the spirit of summer reading.

The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*CK — I saw the title of this book, and I thought that’s such an awesome title for a book, so I bought it. Seriously.

Half-joking aside, I feel we’re now living in a world where we view the lives of others through the filters of social media networks, and it has come to a point where the curated video snippets and photos of our lives, and the lives of others, have taken significant influence over the way we think about what’s important. You know, stuff that actually matter.

I mean, if you look at your Facebook feed, everybody there is having a fucking grand old time. Look, eight people got married this week! And some sixteen-year-old on TV got a Ferrari for her birthday. And another kid just made two billion dollars inventing an app that automatically delivers you more toilet paper when you run out. Meanwhile, you’re stuck at home flossing your cat. And you can’t help but think your life sucks even more than you thought.

Manson, Mark. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life (p. 7). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

I’m just as guilty for participating in this social media frenzy, but I’m at least aware of how and when I use it, whereas for others, it’s become an agent of addiction, depending on which side of the screen you’re on.

I thought it would be an interesting read to get a more in depth perspective of the psychology behind this phenomenon, find out what it is everyone’s truly after, and how one would go about treading social media & life minutiae to simply… not care?

How To Make Sh*T Happen — Self-explanatory title, and I’m always open to new and innovative ideas that will help me be more productive, not just in my work life, but in my personal life as well. Looking forward to cracking this one open!

Mass Persuasion Method: Activate the 8 Psychological Switches That Make People Open Their Hearts, Minds and Wallets for You (Without Knowing Why They are Doing It) — I actually started reading it a while back, but never got to finishing it. It’s target audience is geared towards small businesses trying to make big sales mainly through social media means. It has some interesting concepts that are worth exploring, but the language and tone of the book may not be everyone’s cup of tea.

Exactly What to Say: The Magic Words for Influence and Impact — I loved this book! It was a quick read, and had a lot of practical tips about the language we could use to turn any situation around. In fact some of the daily phrases we use have more impact then we may realize, and simply by being aware of this, I believe we could greatly enhance the way we communicate with others. I’ve actually had a separate post brewing for long time now about how I employ some of the ideas I’ve learned from this book in my day-to-day work.