Contacting Elvis - The MEX

Well folks, Xmas is officially xed off the calendar and the new year is quickly approaching. The marathon is in less than a week's time and a new goal is in order. So a new MEX it is. MEX if you are new to the concept stands for a Monthly Experiment. I've done two so far, a vegetarian lifestyle experiment and a 6AM early rising experiment - each lasting for 30 days at least.

For the next experiment I've put a lot of thought into - perhaps too much. It's about time that I chose one of those many thoughts. After doing a sleep and diet experiment I thought I'd like to try an experiment in something else, an experiment in communication. And not just any kind of communication - contacting a celebrity/famous person and interviewing them. I was inspired by Tim Ferris' book "The Four Hour Work Week" where he urges participants to try this out to practice resourcefulness, bravery and communication skills, not to mention mentoring from a super successful person from the heavens.

I say from the heavens because that is usually where these people are pictured to be - in a world far far away from "our" own. It won't be Elvis as my psychic powers aren't quite that good yet, that was just to make the title more splashy. So who will it be? That is the question that I'll have to solve for the first part of the MEX.

Here are the rules:

1.No local wannabe celebrities - I'm going for somebody that is world renowned like Bill Clinton or Oprah. Although I don't think it would be either of them. ;)
2.I will ask them at least one well researched question that I am curious about.
3.If the first person I call doesn't work out I will continue to try others until I hit success. Call it an exercise in persistence.
4.Be both eloquent and charming in my approach.

I imagine the MEX will go something like this:

1. Find somebody I really admire and want to talk to.
2. Use my resourcefulness to find their phone number.
3. Call them up and use the script provided from the above aforementioned book.
4. Ask them my question.
5. Ask them if in the future I have any (very infrequent) questions if I could contact them by email.

I imagine the person I would want to contact would be a famous speaker, personal development coach, or entrepreneur.

So there is the first installation of the new MEX. Please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions on how to get famous people's contact info.

The next post will reveal my target.

Ou.yang.

Leia Mais…

MEX - 30 Days Of Vegetarianism Conclusion

Well the results are in and I'm pleased. 

I had decided on November the 5th to try out 30 days of vegetarianism.

Some of my motives to try it at the time were:

- Curiosity. Why were so many people I knew vegetarian and/or becoming so?
- I wanted to reassess my diet and everything I was putting into my system.
- The acid/alkaline diet that I've been reading about really frowns on the consumption of meats.
- I always felt like a vegetarian but never really was conscious enough about my eating to second guess things.
- I wanted to research vegetarianism where I live here in China.

The results after 30 days are:

- I feel a new sense of personal empowerment. Like I am making a difference by not eating animals. That I am in control of what I put in my body.
- I am generally a lot healthier. A lot of unhealthy habits go along with eating meat. Ie: gravy, fast food, street vendor food.
- I now understand a lot more about how the meat industry "makes" meat and how most of the world has no idea when they are stuffing their faces full of KFC...
- I feel like part of an elite club.
- A lot of cooking was done at home during this time. That's a plus because it was all really healthy cooking, a lot of greens, tofu, tomatoes and TLC.
- I found a lot of really neat restaurants in my neighbourhood that I had never noticed before.
- I feel lighter somehow. On a spiritual level.
- My friends were quite understanding of my decision not to eat meat. Even my wife's parents who vehemently opposed it began to understand why and support me now.
- I made some terrible tofu. And then I made some bad tofu. And then it got better. Now it is finally edible. 
- I have saved a lot of money! Meat is expensive here... tofu and meat alternatives are cheap! 
- I have educated myself a lot on the pros of eating veg but haven't done similar research into any pros on eating meat. If any of you have any good reading materials it is only fair that I try to balance things out. 

In closing, I have decided to continue on eating veg for the foreseeable future. It feels good. I feel better than when I ate meat. My quality of life has improved thanks to this MEX.
 

Learning, growing and understanding myself and my surroundings. Now that is living!

(( The next MEX will be announced before the week is up! :) ))

Leia Mais…

Wed Nes Day

So a normal blog-like post. That's something new to me.

Tonight I went to Xiamen University's weekly French corner. I stumbled and bumbled for the first 30 minutes but for the last hour was able to converse and talk about simple things like hobbies, hometowns and life in Canada. Most of the crowd there were Chinese students studying French, with many of them tourism students planning to do their fourth year of studies in France.

It was very interesting for me to meet all these young Chinese speaking French. Up until now I have only encountered Chinese speaking English or, well Chinese. Speaking with Emma and Li Chen Dong (two Chinese students) in French was very nice. They were third year students with plenty of smiles and patience. Thanks guys. I appreciated that.

I'm excited to start back out on my French, because after studying Chinese I plan to rock French. I now understand very well how to study language. Instead of seeing it as an insurmountable challenge (like Chinese was 3 years ago) I am enjoying the small baby steps along the way. French also seems to come a lot more naturally then Chinese did ;)

I ran my furthest run today of all time. It is sooo exciting when you do something for the first time after working so hard at it. I was running back on my final leg, finishing up what would have been around 18kms. When I should have been exhausted I was beaming from ear to ear. I was so impressed with myself. I finished up in front of my place, pushing 2 hours later - joints a little achy but not short of breath. XF had made some wonderful lotus root/carrot soup. It was just lovely. Thanks so much XF. :)

Lately I've been doing two new classes - both teaching IELTs the International English Language Test. A name that I'm sure my English as a Second Language readers are familiar with. For you first languagers IELTs is the main deal. The big test that most uni's, immigration depts and workplaces require when it comes to English leveling. The USA and a few other countries require a similar test called TOEFL. Anyway, I've been teaching spoken IELTs prep to two classes, one a class of around 10 students and the other a VIP one on one class to a Chinese girl who just got back from a year in Australia.

Both classes are going fairly well. The students are keen and I'm enjoying teaching a fixed subject. ;)

Well, my words have run dry. The above is an unedited 5 min type fest. Please feel to pick it apart for spelling/grammar errors or peculiarities.

Ou.yang.

Leia Mais…

Question Of The Week

What does financial independence mean? Is it about having millions or simply being able to have a holiday without worrying about how to pay for it? What does financial independence mean to you?

Leia Mais…

Frog Tales

What a frog lacks in tail it makes up for in tales.

My dear reader. Have a read. 
For perhaps you are a frog.


Frog Story 1

As a baby a frog fell into a deep well. He grew up only seeing a small patch of the sky and to him it was the entire world. One day a robin came and perched on the edge of the well. The frog shouted up "where did you come from?!" The robin replied "from far far away, I'm exhausted and need to rest a while." "Far away?!" replied the frog "Impossible!"


Frog Story 2

An experiment was done on a frog in a lab. The frog was taken and dropped into a pot of boiling water. Upon immediately hitting the water it leaped out with all of its might. The same frog was allowed to rest for some time before another experiment was done on it. It was now taken and put into a pot of warmish water. The temperature was gradually increased but the frog did not budge. It stayed in the water, gradually losing its energy as the water got hotter. It finally had no energy left and the water was so hot that it was boiled alive.


Frog story number one to me:


We are often found in positions where our scope of the world around us is severely limited by our beliefs about how that world should be. From time to time we are woken from our slumber. Usually it is a brief awakening. Rarely do we ever dare to leave our deep dark well entirely. My most recent 30 day experiment with vegetarianism was more about looking outside of the well than it was about not eating meat for 30 days.


Frog story number two to me: 

I can think of many people who are this sort of frog. A few coworkers of mine who constantly complain about their job instantly come to mind. How they are underpaid, undervalued, under this under that. Yet they don't make any big changes and gradually become numb as they are boiled alive.

If you have the capability to dream and imagine than you can jump out of that pot.

And a leaving thought for the day:
Dream big, because everybody else is dreaming small. 

Leia Mais…