Excellence as a skill, love for all others and the forest as your medic

"Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. "
- Aristotle -

You may agree with me. You may not. But the latest researches in the field of enhancing performance and replication of excellence confirmed what we, on some subconscious level, always new. Excellence is not entirely related to genetics or luck. Excellence is a skill and we can learn how to train it. Wait no more. Start searching the internet, start reading and analyzing various categories of information available to you. Strengthen your weaknesses and maximize your strengths. There is a time to shine and be th best version of the imperfect you, and that time is now.

"Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody's business. What we are asked to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy."
- Thomas Merton -

In becoming experts in various fields, we will meet some people looking at us with envy or even hate. Do not take it personal. You are not here to save the world, if you are not able to save yourself first. You cannot force others to be happy, but you can learn how to be happy yourself. Continue with your random act of kindness, even anonymously, if the serpent of pride will try to intervene along your own path. Be good, love everyone and learn from everyone.

My gift for you today - watch this movie. Learn how the forest heals you.

Quote of the day

"We are what we repeatedly do, therefore excellence is not an act, but a habit"
(Aristotle)

Oh, i can talk about this for hours. I am usually asked about learning and studying, by people who want to know how they can study 10 hours every day for 3-4-6 months, in order to pass some very difficult exam. I start by telling them that this is an impossible task, because i do not know anyone able to focus on studying for 10 hours. And i have my share of meetings with brilliant people. Then i tell them than it is possible to learn only a total of 3 to 6 hours, accumulated over a day, and remember twice as more as after 10 hours of unfocused learning. Because learning is not defined by the time spent, but by the quality of it. My first advice is to learn how to learn, to build a habit of learning without distractions, in smaller intervals of time, depending of each person optimal focus. I would suggest 30 to 45 minutes, follower by 15 minutes break. And then you can go again. 5 hours of intense study (45 min +15 min break) are enough to learn a one year study notebook in less than a month. If you add a minimal training in memory enhancing techniques (my book about this will be published at the end of this year probably), your work will be greatly improved. One day a week for complete relax, without study, will also help your brain and focus recovery from data overload. Remember, trying to force this, you can go for a while using your sheer force of will, but this is not unlimited and sooner or later you will be to exhausted to continue. While, by creating a habit, you will do this almost effortless.

Welcome to our pathways to excellence!
G.

Quote of the day and some free thinking

 'If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice.'
( Neil Peart )

No comments here.

* What is the difference in between perfectionism and striving for excellence? Very easy, the latest research showed us that perfectionism is external motivated, related to what people will think about you, while striving for excellence is internal motivated, you - the one from today - to be better than you - the one from yesterday.

** Auris institute from Lyon - a place where they seriously research magnets and the therapy using them. On top of that, they're French. Ha ha! Find more here.

*** Some very interesting TED Talk - Brene Brown on vulnerability. Click here to listen.

Aeroponics

Motto:"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."
Aristotle

*   Seems there is a way there to grow plants even if you do not have the soil. And i found quite a lot of devices on internet for this. But what is this method? What aeroponics means? 

      Aeroponics is the process of growing plants in an air or mist environment without the use of soil or an aggregate medium (known as geoponics). The word "aeroponic" is derived from the Greek meanings of aero- (air) and ponos (labour). Aeroponic culture differs from both conventional hydroponics, aquaponics, and in-vitro (plant tissue culture) growing. Unlike hydroponics, which uses a liquid nutrient solution as a growing medium and essential minerals to sustain plant growth; or aquaponics which uses water and fish waste, aeroponics is conducted without a growing medium. Because water is used in aeroponics to transmit nutrients, it is sometimes considered a type of hydroponics. Is this a solution for the future? I can think this can be applied on dessert climate or Mars for example.

** One simple equation for today. Let's call it motivational math. Are you ready? 

Achievement = talent + preparation. 

Am i right? Of course i am. If you got the raw talent, but you do not use it, you will lose it, if you want to really prepare for something, then you will need  let's say 10.000 hours for mastery (see Ericsson study of 10.000 hours mastery). But if you got both the talent and willing to prepare, then you probably can drop the numbers to 5000 hours or maybe even less. Where you can use this equation? In any domain you like. Now go, start training. Fulfill your destiny! Fly little sparrow, fly!

*** Wow, you need background in linear algebra and statistics to learn about advanced machine learning. Damn you linear algebra! Then, in a corner of my mind, somebody whispered me: "Dude, linear algebra is Flatland geography". Ok. Now i got it! Thank you Brain, guardian angel or whatever it was!