Clip of the Week: Free Hug Campaign

Well I’m keeping Fridays for inspirational clips. The power of human touch has been said to have healing properties. And sometimes to keep ourselves going a hug is all we need.

For those who haven’t heard or seen anything about Juan Mann the Free Hugs campaign. Here is the awe inspiring video that made one of YouTubes Videos of the year.

For those who have already seen the video, hey why not see it again?! It’s always a pick me up!

The successful people I admire most are the ones who still give something back to those less fortunate. In our quest for personal development sometimes we forget to give to others. So this weekend perform a random act of kindness for someone else and tell me about it.

Spread the love. Give someone a hug! And hey if you want to give me a hug, just sign up for my RSS Feed. My goal is to hit 50 by December, help me get there!

Criss Angel No Phenomenon

“He lives his act.” -Robert Angier, The Prestige

There’s a scene in movie ‘The Prestige’ where an old, bend over, slow-moving Chinaman performs amazing tricks by making these heavy objects appear. One particular object that appears from seemingly nowhere was a big fish bowl complete with water and a few big goldfish. When the performance was over, the movies two magicians watched the old man very slowly and frailly make his way into a carriage. The movies main characters, Alfred Borden and Robert Angier, stood watching. Alfred believed the magician had the fishbowl between his legs. Robert was bewildered, how could this frail old man, carry a big heavy fish bowl between his legs during his hour-long act? Alfred still watching the man says something like, “Being old is part of his act”. Robert understanding sums it up, “He lives his act.”

One of my side hobbies is magic. Specifically mentalism. So it’s no surprise that Phenomenon is my show of choice last night.

Now every performer in this arena has a specific act. And they live that act. Some of them act like they can really read minds, some act like they can see the future and some act like they can channel a spirit to help them accomplish tasks. Magicians have a reason for their “powers”. Maybe they had an accident? Maybe they just had a natural talent since they were young? Maybe the spirit of a friend helps them? That’s their back-story.

If anyone caught Phenomenon last night you would have seen something unexpected and in my opinion uncalled for.

Why single out this one performer and not the others who have made similar claims as part of their back-story? To be fair, Criss Angel, is a Harry Houdini fan. And Harry Houdini, hated mediums, he spent a lot of time and effort exposing them. According to the shows background info on Criss, they went so far as to call him the next Houdini. Could it be Criss was trying to pull a Houdini? Maybe he was temporarily possessed by Houdini himself thereby proving the performer could be the real thing after all?

Seriously folks, I really believe Criss was way out of line here. That was not the forum to attempt to single out and belittle one of the performers just because you don’t like or believe their back-story. It was not the forum to challenge your own co-judge, the hand that feeds you. Especially when Criss, himself, proclaims to use supernatural forces and performs séances in his own show.

That was just Criss’s over inflated ego trying to act like Houdini exposing another medium. You’re no phenomenon in my book Criss…

Field of Goals

There’s a whole lot of literature out there regarding following your dreams. Which seems like a really nice concept. I like the idea. But, how does someone know it’s realistic or even attainable?

Seeing shows like “American Idol” you see that for the vast majority of the singers they have no chance of attaining their dream. Yet, they declare they’ll make it big some day.

On the other hand, you get a William Hung, who has got to be in the bottom percentile he makes it somewhat big at least for a small while. What if you’re a father supporting a wife and three kids, is it ok to leave your job and suddenly declare, “Ok going to be a world class painter”?

Several years ago, I met an aspiring actress. She told me about her dream to be an A-List actress. I asked her if she had an agent, she said “No”, I asked her if she’d been in anything, she replied “No”, I asked if she had any training or schooling in acting, she replied “No”, Then somehow the conversation turned to where she’d start, I said something like, “Harrison Ford’s first gig was an extra in some movie as a waiter”. to which she proclaimed, “Oh No! I’m not going to start as an extra, I’m going to start as the lead role”. I sat there thinking “This girl is delusional. But, good luck with that.”

It almost seems that ‘follow your dreams’ is really setting a goal for yourself. But, when is attaining that goal unrealistic?

When is it delusional or a lost cause? Comment please!

November 2007 Goal

One of the most fundamental aspects to success is Goal Setting. In order for this blog to succeed we need to set goals. As of last night my Feedburner Number of subscribers were listed at 12. Not too bad when you consider the blog is just 17 days old.
So, I am going to set a primary goal for this blog for the month of November.

My goal for this month is to reach 50 subscribers by December 1, 2007. I have no idea if I’ll make it. There are some blogs out there that have been around for more than a year and they have only 150 or so subscribers. I don’t want to be plugging away at this for more than a year only to land 150! Help me achieve this people!

Can we make it? I can sure use your help. Tell your friends, tell people interested in books, movies or tv. Tell people interested in personal development. Help me make this a success. Sign up below.

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