“Relationships with gaslighters are filled with tumult—so much so that it’s easy to feel shame. But being attracted to a gaslighter is no cause for shame. Even brilliant, successful, and otherwise discerning people can be easily seduced by a gaslighter’s many initial charms. ”
In Gaslighting: Recognize Manipulative and Emotionally Abusive People, Psychotherapist and author Stephanie Moulton Sarkis writes about gaslighting – the manipulative technique used by sociopaths, narcissists, and others–offering practical strategies to cope and break free.
Gaslighters who were psychologically abused as children learned maladaptive coping techniques so as to cope with the cruelty inflicted upon them.
Endurance is the ability to withstand hardship or adversity without giving in. It is the measure of a person’s stamina or persistence. Endurance is from the late 15th-century French verb – endurer (To withstand, bear, endure). Life is a roller coaster ride of challenges with its twists and turns; The key is to endure the hard time and hope for a brighter future even when you are down. Embracing the tough times can be very hard, but endurance is the key to finishing the race of life.
As someone who has finished 10+ Marathons, having the end in mind, enduring the pain, and persevering is the key to finishing any race. We all start the year setting goals, resolutions, wishes, and aspirations; the key to achieving your goals by the end of the year requires perseverance, endurance, and trusting the process.
“You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.” – Marcus Aurelius
Stoicism is an ancient Greco-Roman philosophy of life that’s analogous in its scope to philosophies or religions like Buddhism, Confucianism, or Christianity. It aims at helping people navigate everyday existence and the challenges that it may pose, as well as reflect on the broader meaning and direction of their lives. What should our priorities be? How should we interact with our fellow human beings? How are we to face the inevitable setbacks and finally face our own mortality? These are some of the questions that Stoicism helps us address in the pursuit of what the ancients called a eudaimonic life—that is, a life that is truly worth living.
In the new case for Gold, American Lawyer and Author James Rickards argue that gold is money, that monetary standards based on gold are possible, even desirable, and that in the absence of an official gold standard, individuals should go on a personal gold standard, by buying gold, to preserve wealth. James makes the case for gold as money in the twenty-first-century, gold’s role in cyber financial warfare, gold’s importance in economic sanctions on nations such as Iran, and gold’s future as a competitor to the world money called special drawing rights (SDRs) issued by the International Monetary Fund.
Adjunct Professor of marketing at the New York University Stern School of Business, Scott Galloway writes about the four most influential technology companies: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. Scott analyzes the four companies’ peculiar strengths and strategies, their novel economic models, their inherent capacity, their ambition, and the drastic consequences of their rise that people face in both social and individual terms.
Learned helplessness is the giving-up reaction, the quitting response that follows from the belief that whatever you do doesn’t matter.
Learned Helplessness occurs after a person has experienced a stressful situation repeatedly. They come to believe that they are unable to control or change the situation, so they do not try – even when opportunities for change become available. It is a behaviour exhibited by a subject after enduring repeated aversive stimuli beyond their control.
Neuroscience
The brain’s default state us to assume that control is not present, and the presence of “Helpfulness” is what actually learned. First however, it is unlearned when faced with prolonged aversive stimulation.
According to Zellerbach Family Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania‘s Department of Psychology, Dr. Martin E. Seligman: At the core of pessimism is the phenomenon called Helplessness. Helplessness is the state of affairs in which nothing you choose to do affects what happens to you. Learned helplessness is the giving-up reaction, the quitting response that follows from the belief that whatever you do doesn’t matter.
Helplessness is the state of affairs in which nothing you choose to do affects what happens to you.
Sometimes the circumstances at hand force us to be braver than we actually are, and so we knock on doors and ask for assistance.
Author Ann Patchett delivered the commencement speech at Sarah Lawrence College, her alma mater, in 2006. Her speech was expanded to a book – What Now? Which contains essays on hope and inspiration for anyone at a crossroads, whether graduating, changing careers, or transitioning from one life stage to another.
If all fairy tales begin “Once upon a time,” then all graduation speeches begin “When I was sitting where you are now.” We may not always say it, at least not in those exact words, but it’s what graduation speakers are thinking. We look out at the sea of you and think, Isn’t there some mistake? I should still be sitting there. I was that young fifteen minutes ago, I was that beautiful and lost. For me this feeling is compounded by the fact that Sarah Lawrence was my own alma mater.
In its bid to produce more NBA stars from the second most populous continent, the National Basketball Association has launched NBA Africa and Basketball Africa League (BAL). Africa has produced more than 80 NBA players such as Hakeem Olajuwon, Dikembe Mutombo, Serge Ibaka, Joel Embiid, Pascal Siakam, Luol Deng, Emmanuel Mudiay, to name but a few.
Fifty-five current NBA players are from Africa or have family ties there – Adam Silver
With the International roster of the NBA seeming to be reaching a plateau, the Basketball Africa League (BAL) is a step in the right direction.
On Sunday night May 23rd, 2021, Canadian-born rapper Drake (Drizzy) received the Billboard Artist of The Decade Award for his consistency in the past 10 years. The 2021 Billboard Music Awards was held at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California. The award was presented to him by his Manager, Future the Prince in the presence of his parents and other OVO team members. Drake received the award with his 3-year-old son Adonis by his side,
The highlight and the most inspiring part of the night for me was the introduction video dubbed “Certain Destiny” with Drake narrating the early years of his career, and Basketball player King Lebron James narrated the latter part of the intro.
Drake Intro video “Certain Destiny” :
Let me tell you something,
Drake 2021 Billboard Acceptance Speech:
Drizzy shared some very powerful words of inspiration about his success and what really drives him
“I’m really self-conscious about my music. I rarely celebrate anything, and just for anyone watching this that’s wondering how this happened, that’s really the answer. It’s being so unsure how you’re getting it done, that you just keep going in the hopes of figuring out the formula. Feeling so lucky and blessed that the fear of losing it keeps you up at night.”
It’s being so unsure how you’re getting it done, that you just keep going in the hopes of figuring out the formula. Feeling so lucky and blessed that the fear of losing it keeps you up at night.”
On his Hardwork and Work Ethic:
“I didn’t write a grandiose speech about how to make it work or what it took, ’cause to be honest, I don’t really understand it myself. I just know that I’ve spent an incalculable amount of hours trying to analyze all the things I did wrong, but tonight, for once, I’m sure as hell we did something right.
I didn’t write a grandiose speech about how to make it work or what it took, ’cause to be honest, I don’t really understand it myself.
Award Dedication:
“I want to dedicate this award to my friends, I want to dedicate this award to my longtime collaborators. I want to dedicate this award to all my peers, all your decisions, and the music you make really does have me tossing and turning at night trying to figure out what I should do next. Thank you to my beautiful family.”
All the Best in your quest to get Better. Don’t Settle: Live with Passion.
The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non–essentials. – Lin Yutang
The Pareto Principle (also known as the 80/20 rule, law of the vital few), named after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto who noted that 80% of consequences comes from 20% of the causes (the “vital few). Pareto made the observation at the University of Lausanne in 1896. In his first work Cours d’économie politique, he showed that approximately 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. The top 20% of the population had 80% of the wealth in Italy.
The Pareto Principle, states that 20 percent of the things you do account for 80 percent of the value of what you accomplish. This means that 80 percent of what you do is worth 20 percent or less of the value of what you accomplish.
Who Moved My Cheese? is a simple parable that reveals profound truths about change. It is an amusing and enlightening story of four characters who live in a ‘Maze’ and look for ‘Cheese’ to nourish them and make them happy.
“Cheese’ is a metaphor for what you want to have in life – whether it’s a good job, a loving relationship, money, a possession, good health, or spiritual peace of mind.
The Maze’ is where you look for what you want – the organization you work in, or the family or community you live in.
In the story, the characters are faced with unexpected change. Eventually, one of them deals with it successfully, and writes what he has learned from his experience on the maze walls.
When you come to see ‘The Handwriting on the Wall ‘, you can discover for yourself how to deal with change, so that you can enjoy less stress and more success (however you define it) in your work and in your life.
New York Times technology and business reporter Nathaniel Popper profiles the major players in the nascent rise of Bitcoin, the developers, the entrepreneurs, the history of money, digital currency, and bitcoin. Nathaniel writes about the early adopters, the skeptics, the financiers, the opportunities, and the challenges faced by Bitcoin so far. He traces Bitcoin from its invention in 2009 after the Financial Crisis through the spring of 2014.
Digital Gold is a great book for understanding the history of Bitcoin, the opportunities, and the challenges faced by the early adopters of the technology. The hacks, the vulnerabilities, the use cases, the promises, and the mystery of Satoshi Nakamoto (creator of Bitcoin). This technology is making millionaires by the day, and it is sending some other people to prison.
Gratitude is a state of being thankful and grateful for what you have, a willingness to show appreciation for and return for a form of generosity. Gratitude is from the word “gratus” which means pleasing, thankful. One of the first things I try to do first thing in the morning is to fill a gratitude journal, stating the top 3-5 things am grateful for and I meditate about them. Giving gratitude, stating positive affirmations, and having a state of positive expectation for what you want from life.
Somedays are tougher than the other but giving gratitude daily is one of the keys to staying positive even in the trying times. A lot of our suffering and unhappiness stems from our focus on things we do not have and wanting our reality to always align with our expectations. The key to continuous joy is to give gratitude for what you have right now.
“You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.”
Wayne Douglas Gretzky ( born January 26, 1961) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for four teams from 1979 to 1999. Nicknamed “the Great One“, he has been called the greatest hockey player ever by many sportswriters, players, the NHL itself, and by The Hockey News, based on extensive surveys of hockey writers, ex-players, general managers, and coaches.
Gretzky is the leading goal scorer, assist producer, and point scorer in NHL history, and garnered more assists in his career than any other player who scored total points.
As long as you love what you’re doing, stepping into the spotlight is just another chance to make an impression: Balance confidence with humility, and work on getting the most from every opportunity.
Title: The Big Nine: How the Tech Titans and Their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity Author: Amy Webb
In The Big Nine: How the Tech Titans and Their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity, American Futurist and Author Amy Webb writes about the broken nature of artificial intelligence and how powerful corporations she calls the Big Nine; are turning the human-machine relationship on its head. According to Amy, the Big Nine corporation includes 6 American corporations and 3 Chinese companies. The American portion (G-MAFIA – Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, IBM, and Apple) and the Chinese portion (BAT – Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent).
The American G-MAFIA companies are beholden to the whims of Wall Street, and they have a transactional relationship with the American Government. In contrast, the Chinese BAT companies are controlled by the Chinese Government and the demands of the Chinese Communist Party. At the center of all these is the consumer whose data is mined and refined to build the future of Artificial Intelligence.
The Big Nine companies may be after the same noble goals—cracking the code of machine intelligence to build systems capable of humanlike thought—but the eventual outcome of that work could irrevocably harm humanity.
