What would you stand up and speak for? These TED talks are some of the most mesmerizing and entertaining from the stage. They also express incredible ideas that can have a lasting impact on how we see the world and how we live our lives. These talks show us the art behind the absurd, the possibility of what you can do if you believe in yourself. How changing perceptions opens us up to possibilities that help us grow, understand, and even forgive.   From personal identity to assumptions we make about people, and even our inspirations. Hetain Patel and Yuyu Rau show us we are not so easy to categorize. We are a made by those who came before us, the experiences we have, and the aspirations of what we want to be. The journey can be absurd, as we change and as we grow. The encounters with different people, with different viewpoints, become who we are. The mistakes we make are not something we do, but a part of who we are. Serving us as an integral stage in our journey to become our most honest selves. Grab your Journal! Check your assumptions, particularly if they create a viewpoint that closes you off. When you find yourself pushing something away write down what you’re thinking. Ask yourself why you are thinking that way. Is this way of thinking serving you, or creating a wall that’s blocking you from an opportunity to grow? Do this and see where this newfound openness to experience takes you. See how expanding yourself makes things that might have seemed impossible before, easier. See how new insights and perspectives can make an old weakness into a new strength.   We can often underestimate small things. We can even criticize or diminish what doesn't seem to have a place of importance in the wider realm of society. Black shows us embracing your passion, no matter how inconsequential it might seem, is critical to finding fulfillment. Passion meaning the acceptance of what puts a smile on your face, of what makes the troubles of the world fall away. Maybe you were told you could never get a job doing something. Maybe you were made fun of because you liked it. Maybe you pursued it, achieved, but didn't get the recognition you were hoping for. All this back and forth distracts from what's important about doing something you love, no matter how small or ridiculous it might seem. What is important is that you love it and when you do it you are more yourself than any other time. Grab your Journal! Write down a list of things you love to do. It doesn't matter how small or inconsequential they might seem. It doesn't matter if you can get paid to do it, it only matters if you love to do it. Pick one thing. The thing you love to do the most on your list, then schedule some time for yourself wherever you can. Then do that thing, every day. No matter what. Do this for you and see how embracing doing something you love regardless of others. Gives you a stronger sense of control and a level of fulfillment that only comes from inside yourself.   We have an incredible need to be assured in our perceptions of what's around us. Apollo Robbins challenges us by exploiting perception and teaching us a valuable lesson. He shows what we can miss if we allow what we think we know to control how we see the world. The need to feel like our perceptions are infallible comes from a desire to protect ourselves. Whether that's because it provides us a sense of safety in the world around us, or that it gives us confidence what we are doing is right. We need our perceptions to be right because that is our model of the world. Unfortunately, being assured in this way comes at a cost. An inability to see opportunities that are right in front of you. This happens because perceptions come with filters. It's a core piece of how they function. So much that if we aren't paying attention, we could be taken advantage of and lose out on what's most important to us. Our perception is our focus. When we focus on something unimportant to us, our perception filter takes over. We start to see everything in the way we've set our perception to view it. Visual perception, mental perception, it works the same. How are your perceptions serving you, or hurting you? Are you losing out on what's important because you're focused on something unimportant? Grab your Journal! Take a look at your goals and your daily schedule. How are you spending your time? Why are you spending it that way? Are you accomplishing what you want, or is something distracting you? Are other things taking priority, or does the goal not feel important? Check your perceptions, for the reasons you've written down. Ask yourself one powerful question as many times as you need to- Why do you think that?   Do this and you'll find a host of perceptions that are automatic responses only serving to hold you back. You'll also find plenty of perceptions that do serve you in your pursuit of your goals. Associate the helpful perceptions with a goal, and remove them from your identity as a person. In this way, once you complete the goal your perception will go with it. Leaving room for your new goal and new perceptions that will continue to serve you. This will diminish false starts. Because when your intent and your perceptions are in sync, the ability to persist is the by-product. We each have our own unique challenges in life, but the mistake we make is putting too much importance on what does or doesn't define us. Derek Paravicini and Adam Ockelford show us incredible things are possible when we allow pure chance to lead us. When we open ourselves up to the incredible insights we can glean in support of each other amazing things happen. So many desires in life come with a prerequisite list of what's needed to achieve something. Patterns exist for a reason and it's not unreasonable to follow a pattern that lead to success once. It can lead to success again, but when we start to see that as the only way to achieve success. This is when we can miss the incredible. There's not one right way to live your life. There's not one right way to learn an instrument. There's not one right way to lose weight. There's not one right way to get a job. It's important that we research and understand the patterns that exists. We should have a list of possibilities for how to solve a problem. This is a foundation, a solid piece we put down to build on top of. The laws and rules we must adhere to if we want to build our own home. The thing to recognize is sometimes you don't have a solid flat ground to build on. There are slopes and waterways, but we can adjust, and what you can create once a foundation is set- is limitless. Grab your Journal! Challenge yourself to do something you have always said you can't do. It doesn't have to be huge, or life-altering. Maybe you think you could never solve a Rubik's cube. Go buy one, watch a video on youtube, and do it. Maybe you think you could never walk up to a complete stranger and say, hi. Go outside right now and ask a random person how their day is going. Look at your work, your life, your home. What are you not doing because everything isn't in the right place? Because you don't have the knowledge, skills, or the talent? Try it anyway, and see what happens!   Do this and you'll find that the little checkboxes see as must have, actually have no real significance to do it. Take that tiny bit of insight and apply it to your biggest problems. Throw out the checkbox that's keeping you from doing something important. Skip it, and see what happens. You never know what you are capable of until you try! The mistakes we make in life can hit hard. Some of us make huge mistakes and have to pay for them with our most precious resource- time. John Legend and James Cavitt show us the personification of what paying this kind of debt looks like. How we all come from different walks of life, but the punishment we inflict on ourselves is sometimes worse than any other. We all make mistakes, but no matter the size or impact they can still feel insurmountable if we let them. We punish ourselves without remorse particularly if we don't show others forgiveness. It's this self-inflicted punishment more than anything else that tears away our hope. It makes forgiveness seem impossible, and leads us down a path of one mistake after another. It's a cycle that leads us to decide mistakes are part of our identity. We become our worst mistakes, but the truth is we aren't those things. Whether it's your mistake or someone else's we have to learn to forgive others and so ourselves. There's no trick to this, there's no making the mistake go away. There's just accepting. Accept what you did, the effect it had, that it was a mistake, and it doesn't define you. It can feel like the mistake is the only thing that matters, but it isn't that it happened, it's what you do after. Grab your Journal! Whatever mistake you've made, that you've been punishing yourself for. It's time to forgive yourself. If what you've done lead to one mistake after another. It's time to forgive yourself, for everything. It's time to take the step forward and to decide to do better, right now! That doesn't mean you won't make mistakes. That doesn't mean that you won't make the same mistakes you've been making. It means you won't make them because you think you deserve it, or because you think it's who you are. Do this and little by little, then by a lot. You will start to do better. You will start to have more moments you can be proud of, than ashamed. Life won't seem so hard because you'll put down some of that weight from all the blame and guilt you've acquired. The burdens it feels like you have to carry, and instead of feeling tired, sad, and overwhelmed. You can reclaim the energy, perspective, and hope you need to pick yourself back up. Maybe even lift up a few others along the way. If you are going to give away your precious time as a punishment. Then use it to make a difference outside of yourself and not to knock yourself down.

What lesson did you learn today? Every day we have countless experiences. The activities we engage in, people we talk to, and feelings we have are all opportunities for growth. These lessons can be hard to see, and even if we do see them, it can be hard to distill into a single actionable idea. Finding the deeper meaning can feel like the jurisdiction of deep thinkers, visionaries, authors, or philosophers. But the ability to glean insight, even from the most mundane situations, is something anyone can do. It doesn't require unparalleled creativity. All it takes is a properly inquisitive mindset and the right questions. "I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious." - Albert Einstein Preparing Your Mindset In order to glean insight from these questions, we need to be in a Skeptical Mindset. Meaning we should remove all bias, feelings, or preconceived notions from the picture. What we want to look for is what's objectively benefiting us or hindering us. What this means from a practical standpoint is that when we look at our day, the people in it, the events that occurred, and the feelings we have. Our instinctual and immediate responses should be promptly discarded. Why? Because this is our brain engaging in it's normal but least critical pattern response. These ideas are not newly formed, even if it feels like they in direct response to a current event. Newly formed ideas cannot happen until after we've engaged the brain after these automatic responses have been removed. So take a moment let your auto response engage, discard those conclusions, and you'll be ready to engage in our 10 questions. 10 Questions to Lessons Learned Select an event that occurred in your day. It doesn't matter what it is, good or bad, big or small. As you answer questions 2-10 below, always follow your response up with question. Is this what you want, and if not what can you do to make it more in line with what's desired? How did the event make you feel? What did you do in response to this feeling? Did you intentionally think about your response, or was it automatic? Did you have a goal or an intent going into the event? Were you successful or did something get in your way? What will you do now that the event is over? Will anything follow from this event? How often does this event occur? Can you do anything to make your desired result for this event more likely and repeatable? With the right mindset and these 10 questions, we can see past the filter our mind creates. We can start realizing the steps to take for improving our daily results and finally get what we really want. These questions aren't the only questions, they are just some you can use until you become practiced enough to develop your own. When you do, we would love to hear what your questions are!

How will you answer the call? When fresh-faced 18-year-olds head out to college, they’re usually feeling a slew of emotions — from the rush and excitement of being on their own, to fear of the pressure coming their way. College life is a challenge, but not only because of the academic excellence that is expected of students. "The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today."- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.   You’re expected to do more than study than ever during this time. There are the everyday tasks, which parents used to handle, that you now must tackle on your own.  It’s tempting to go with the flow during college, but you’ll soon realize that this way of living will lead to more stress and worry, and less time to feel free and easy going.   The List Is Neverending There are many things you need to do in college. Do yourself a favor; don’t bury your head in the sand to avoid dealing with responsibilities, or ask your parents to do them for you. This is your time to prove that you can be an adult. The best thing about adulthood is that you can do it on your terms. Some tasks you’re going to be aware of, but other things you may not realize because they used to be done for you. Mainly, the things you will be expected to do include the following. Academic work – Attending lectures, studying, reading, personal development, handing in assignments on time, and keeping your grades high. Housing – Renting, paying bills, doing maintenance, finding someone who you can count on in an emergency, and setting up utilities such as Wi-Fi. The Everyday – Buy groceries to have the best food available (avoid the freshman 15). There’s laundry which needs to be done weekly, and cleaning. Setting up important appointments is your task too, like the dentist or the doctor. Living – This can mean the financial duty of getting a job to support yourself. It also means having a good social life, meeting new people and having fun.   Take Your Time To Get Things Right This list is overwhelming, especially if your parents were diligent in taking care of these things for you, but before you go into panic mode, remember that this isn’t rocket science. You’ll get used to doing these things, you just need some time and advice. Start by asking for the right kind of help. If you’re in a new state, ask your landlord or a college advisor if they can recommend a good dentist or doctor for you. There’s also Google for any questions! Get the numbers of a few handymen who can help you in a maintenance emergency and start asking around for a job too, if you’re looking for one. Moreover, browse through different grocery stores and laundry rooms. See which ones have the best prices. You’ll be surprised to know that the everyday things can eat up your finances if you’re not careful.   Create Your Kind Of Order Your mind will tell you that now that you’re away from your parents, you can do whatever you want. It’s true, but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t adhere to a schedule. Find what works for you. If study time in your parents’ house was from 5 to 7 pm every day, but that’s not when your mind is focused, then don’t do that. Don’t waste your time. College is a time to figure out how your mind works best, so you can optimize your performance and excel in a way that feels organic to your mind and body. It might sound contradictory, but a schedule will make you feel more relaxed and at peace. A schedule will free up your mind from the to-dos, so you can think about the fun and creative things. Schedule everything, and personalize it to best fit you, not how you were trained to do things. Some things you will have to work around, like lectures or your job. These engagements have set times and you’ll have to adhere to that. Other things, however, you can do on your own time. If the best hours for you to study come after 10 at night, do it then. Don’t forget to leave enough time to sleep, however, you don’t want to crash. If you’re a morning person, set up early morning studies and leave the evening to earn money on some nights, and have fun on other nights. Schedule the everyday things, and the housing details too. Set monthly reminders when your rent is due and to pay utility bills. Set up weekly reminders to buy groceries and do laundry so you don’t run out of the necessities. You can even set a reminder for a thorough clean of your apartment. You’ll save yourself time if you master the art of cleaning up tiny messes every day, so you don’t end up with a huge mess to clean in one day. Your schedule should also hold quarterly or bi-annual reminders to schedule medical appointments to stay on top of your health. Your schedule will be brimming with to-dos — this is the challenge of college life — but don’t let it be just about the never-ending tasks. Accountability and being an adult also means knowing when to stop and have fun. Your mind needs you to laugh and forget about the pressure, and your body needs you to move. Accordingly, don’t forget to schedule the fun things too, like a cycling class or a weekend away somewhere.   Keep Track Besides the scheduling, keeping track of certain things will help you function better. An expenses app is a key tool for you to know how much you’re spending, and how much you’re earning. An app like this will help make sure you’ll have money to pay for essentials such as bills and groceries. It’s also good to keep track of important numbers and account information. In an emergency, you want to be sure you have that go-to person who you can contact for assistance.   Make Your College Life An Exciting One When you accept the challenge of college life, it becomes exciting. A clearer mind means a better understanding of where you’re heading. When you’ve taken care of the stress from the little things, you can focus on the bigger picture- questions like, “Where’s this experience taking me?”  “Is this what I want?”  “How am I going to maximize this experience?”  “How am I going to use my studies to create an extraordinary life for myself?” Remember, we’re living in an age with infinite possibilities. Where working from any corner of the world is doable, and where we can work with people living on the other side of the world. So how are you going to create the best life for yourself? When you don’t have to remember which day rent is due or worry about how much you’re spending, you can mull over the amazing opportunities that life has to offer, you just need a clear mind to see them.