The most splendid achievement of all is the constant striving to surpass yourself and to be worthy of your own approval.

- Dennis Waitley

Hectic start to a new semester for me, but what’s your excuse? Some of you are still on the Photo Restoration project (ballerina)- which some students completed, ALONG WITH THE FIRST PROJECT, over 2 weeks ago.

I was out for a day or two last week, but that shouldn’t slow you down at all. Many of you said that you wanted to move into the AICE academy program to receive AP credit and college credit for this course, but where’s the effort that deserves this kind of reward?

I need you guys to come back from the dead. I’ll be doing my part- Helping you guys find 30 minutes after school to work when you can’t find that time in class. EVERYTHING you need to know to pass the ACA exam is in the project videos 21-26. Literally THOUSANDS of students have passed the exams over the last couple years using those videos. They definitely work, but you have to watch every one, and listen to every word. There’s about an answer a minute in those videos. I’m not exaggerating.

There are 6 projects. Each of them take about a class period (maybe a little more for a couple of them) to get done. If you’re not done with them by progress reports, you will have at BEST a “C” on progress reports. I’ll be out there handing out opportunities to practice more, 30 minutes at a time.

Get up from your slumber.

Hey guys- Normal post will come a little later, but for now, CLICK THIS LINK  and vote for your favorite anti-drinking poster. Our school’s entries are letters A and D- and personally I like them the most as well. These will be stickers on school busses and the students win some cash and free software! VOTE!!!

Share this with friends and have a vote party. The most votes wins…. Let’s make Seminole Ridge a winner!!!

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.

-St. Paul in Romans

So I’m in to a new book called “The Happiness Hypothesis” by Johnathan Haidt, and there’s some crazy awesome stuff just in the first introductory chapter!! Check out split brain experiments. Seriously, this is some trippy stuff. So we all know that your brain has two main lobes (left and right), but did you know that they actually kind of operate independently? Or they can, but the right brain (logical) kind of takes things over? Experiments in split brain have revealed a side effect called alien hand syndrome. Trippy. Check out you tube for some videos on alien hand syndrome at home.

So here’s the thing. We are living in a pretty dualistic society here in America. We think of everything as either/or. Good/bad. Cool/loser. Republican/Democrat. Science/Religion. The problem is that life isn’t that way. Reality isn’t that way… as as hard as most of us are trying, we are not that way. Like Kyle’s image for today, it’s the opposite side of our coin, and you can start or end at either side. And we really need both sides for the most effective society, as Johnathan Haidt shares in this TED TALKS video. We’re all the same, we just emphasize different aspects of the same truths.

There is a part of us that is really reactive. It doesn’t think, it just reacts. It’s the reason you jump at a horror movie. You’re in a theater. Nobody there is going to hurt you. You paid money for entertainment. And you just jumped because you thought the killer was going to get you. Makes no sense.

In Happiness Hypothesis, the author talks about our lives as being like a rider on an elephant. We think we’re the rider, pulling the reigns on the elephant telling it where to go. And it’s normally that way. But the Elephant has it’s own mind and it’s own control over itself, it just chooses to (is trained to) listen to and obey the rider. But in an emotional situation where the elephant is scared, it will ignore the rider and just react to whatever is scaring it. Our brain is the same way. We have a part of us that is tamed but still kind of animal.

Ever blurt something out you didn’t mean to say? Ever get a weird thought popping in your head for no reason? (sometimes even thoughts that you think are bad or wrong!) Ever have a temptation to do something weird that pops in your head for a second? Feels like a devil on your shoulder, but no need to worry, it’s just your inner elephant.

But here’s the weird part. Like the people in the split brain experiments, some of us have not learned to keep the two sides of ourselves talking. We ignore or let run wild that part of ourselves that is “bad” or “not really us.” But we need to do more than ignore it or give in to it. We need to train it. We need the logical part of us, the one that thinks and can consider the future, to take control. And the goal is not to kill, ignore, or remove the Elephant, but to keep him under control. To tame his wild ways. To let the human part of us (these higher thinking and ordering skills are what separate us from the animals) make the choices. In fact, it’s the only part of us that can. The other part of us doesn’t choose, it just follows whatever the environment around it tells it to do. It’s a big, stupid animal.

Don’t be the big stupid animal.

There are ways to train the elephant, but it takes some time and diligence. The ancients used Meditation. It’s very effective and free, without side effects.  There are also cognitive therapies that can help (seeing a trained psychologist). Costly, but no side effects.  Today, many people use medication. Costs something, needs to be prescribed, and may have side effects. All three work to varying degrees on varying people with varying success. I won’t give any recommendations to a student on which way to go, but think about taking some steps if your elephant often is taking you places you don’t want to go.

Everyone gets somewhere. Few people get somewhere on purpose. If you’re lazy, you’ll never be in control of your own life. Do something about it. The Elephant is there. You can’t kill him, and if you ignore him, you never know when he’ll act up. But if you recognize he’s there, take the time to do some training, you can work together with him. Let’s face it, an elephant is great to have in your corner for a fight.

Poetry (I believe all art does this-s) may make us from time to time a little more aware of the deeper, unnamed feelings which form the substratum of our being, to which we rarely penetrate; for our lives are mostly a constant evasion of ourselves.
T. S. Eliot 

Just as your car runs more smoothly and requires less energy to go faster and farther when the wheels are in perfect alignment, you perform better when your thoughts, feelings, emotions, goals, and values are in balance.
Brian Tracy

Believe that with your feelings and your work you are taking part in the greatest; the more strongly you cultivate this belief, the more will reality and the world go forth from it.
Rainer Maria Rilke

Today in class we’re going to do a little experiment… Here’s how it goes if you want to do it with a friend:

1. If you had to pick one thing that makes your life worth living, what would it be?
2. Imagine the ideal or perfect situation in which you had that one thing that makes life worthwhile.
3. Imagine having that one most important thing in that one perfect situation. Everything is just how you want it. How does that feel? Think about the feeling.
4. That feeling… the feeling that you just imagined (and probably even felt to a small extent) is your core value. That’s the thing you really want out of life. You don’t want the things that get you to that feeling… but you want the things you want because that feeling is what you are trying so hard to obtain

So what’s this all about? It’s about you. Finding what you want out of life. That feeling is what you want. Did your vision of having that perfect situation that generated that feeling include being a doctor? Then don’t worry so much about how you have to be a doctor. Did that situation that generated that feeling have to do with being famous? Then don’t be distracted by fame. Did it have to do with owning something expensive? Then don’t worry about making tons of money.

For the vast majority of us, the things we want are free and easily obtainable in a variety of careers. I’ll be transparent enough to share what my situation was- I was on top if a cliff, overlooking a beautiful mountainscape, talking with some of my favorite authors and artists about the meaning of life. The most important thing to me is being able to understand beauty and being able to enjoy it, and having people around me that I respect and that challenge me to be a deeper lover of life. Fortunately for me I’m a teacher of art (beauty) and digital communications- so I get to interface with beauty from around the world on a daily basis. I am living my dream. Some of the people in this world that I really love and respect as artists are some of my students.

How does this help us? Let’s think about the things we’ve done this year- The first week of school we took some time to do the enneagramm personality test and think about our core  character traits ( extra sources: 1,  2 )and organizations you believe in. That helps you discover (or at least narrow down) your core motivations. Then we talked about the problem solving process and how to learn on your own. We talked about chasing away the dark or the bad we see in our world. WE talked about emotional health and adaptability,  and how to express yourself creatively so that your ideas that you want to share are taken more seriously and communicated with more emotion, feeling, and depth. We talked about Success in life and what the most successful, world-changing people all say the secret ingredients are. We have come a long way if your eyes have been open (and your mind!) to what we are thinking about.

If you’re paying attention and haven’t had a chance  (or been encouraged) to think about these things in the past- there has been opportunity for you to really think about what you want your life to be- Who you are, where you’re at, and where you want to go. Often, like Noah’s image  represents… all we need to do is step out of the rainstorm and into the light.

JOURNAL: What have you done with this information? Let me know in today’s journal. (5xp)

Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’
Martin Luther King, Jr.

For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.
Nelson Mandela

All of us struggle with selfishness. It’s simply the human condition to do so. The greatest men in the world (4 great men quoted above- social, scientific, spiritual, and political worldviews all represented) realize that the only way  to become a great person- one that rises above the followers- is to conquer your own selfishness. Only then, when you stop chasing after what you think will make you happy, will you finally learn to BE happy.

 In the video I had you guys watch almost a month ago about success… the speaker presented 8 keys to success, and I thought he really had only 3. This is the last one. The most elusive. The one that we’re most afraid of. The one that realizes that our success- true success- only comes through making the world better. We’re a pixel on the screen of life. And to make a beautiful world, we have to glow our own color, but in a way that cooperates with the rest of the world to make the whole picture work.

This is the great secret. And it’s wide open. Everyone can see it, repeat it, parrot it, even defend it… but so few of us do it. Most of us want to be wealthy, thinking that’s going to solve our problems… But the bottom line is that the wealthy are just as miserable as anyone else.

Here’s what makes the most happy and contented people in the world: They see themselves as a part of something bigger. They care about others. Not just their friends or family- but others… ALL others. Rich, poor, ugly, beautiful, famous, unknown, even friendly and unfriendly. The one thing that can bring you the greatest happiness is simply seeing yourself as a part of a bigger picture, finding your place in it, and realizing that you are both an important part, and also “just” a part only as important as every other part.

We are losing our selves when we lose any compassion or desire to help others. Gaining at other’s expense will ALWAYS cost you more than you get. This can’t be proven on paper with math.. but neither can anything in this life that matters… Love, beauty, happiness, meaning, purpose, contentment, compassion, faith. Nothing that matters is measurable or for sale. Yet we are often so busy striving for the tangible that we get distracted from our search for the meaningful.

This is the season that most of us find it easier to connect with the world around us. Something altruistic about the fall and early winter, isn’t there? Pay attention to the things that make you most happy. Truly content. They’re not things you can hold… they’re deep inside. They are the invisible, intangible, inextricable parts of our being that we truly long for. Pay attention to them. Keep your eyes on these things rather than the tangible distractions.

Money can be stolen. Cars can be wrecked. Relationships end. Health can fail. Beware of being so focused on the things that you use to distract you from your unhappiness.. because these things also distract you from your search to find the things that make you truly happy. It’s great to be unconscious when they’re operating on your heart. It’s horrible to be unconscious when your heart is longing to be filled with purpose, love, and meaning.

In the end… if we can look back at our lives and say “the world was better because I was in it. I contributed. I mattered.” And no matter how bad things seem… that one thing- having meaning… actually being a part of the goodness of life- will sustain you through the temporary hardships of this life. And even if you have no money, no car, no health insurance, no retirement, no boyfriend or girlfriend, no popularity, no fame, no house…

You will have peace.

Journal- Agree or disagree? What’s more important, posessions or purpose? Fame or friends and family? Are you living a life that lets you search for the important things or do you get distracted with the temporary tangibles?