Look Closer: Break Away From Mainstream Think

Tune in and avert your eyes to the blank telescreen. They’re watching you sleep, telling you to eat what could be Soylent Green. Now look away and go back to bed. They will get what they need when we sleep, work and play, when we consume and OBEY.

Because we are all born in to a controlled mindset. God-money makes a death threat on ethics. Governed by greed and a stale routine. Can we just justify the means if we’re

Plugged in, tuned out? We all need to wake up because we've been detached for too long. We need to de-program from shifting with the public eye. We have a right to question why. See through the lies, re-sensitize, and look closer.

Get schooled, get married, get it on. Start a family. Hurry, move along. You might start to think, make a different move, lose your only mind that you've never used anyway. Walk on the white line. Brainwashed.Walk on the same side. Brain dead. It’s secure and safe like you need it all to be.

Peppering their punchy lyrics with references to 1984, They Live and Soylent Green, Set Your Goals manage to get across a scarily strong message in this otherwise upbeat punk-pop tune. Mainstream media is turning us dumb; turning us into a consumerist society in which supposed happiness can only come through material goods; turning us slowly into robots. This may seem exaggerated at first, but as Set Your Goals say: "Look Closer". I URGE everyone to stop walking the white line of conformity and venture off into a world of freedom and adventure. Because only once you're off the beaten track can you really discover who you actually are.

Dylan Moran's Reasoning Behind NOT Taking Photos On Holiday

With his stuttering, vaudevillian, on-stage delivery, Irish comedian Dylan Moran could initially be mistaken for a rambling drunk. Behind this persona however is an extremely sharp intellectual, and as I continue to delve into his catalogue of material he is fast becoming my favourite comic on the circut. The following extract, scribed from his live show 'Like, Totally', takes an alternative perspective on how to document your memories:

"Some people take pictures on phones.. .I don't know why people do that, it's very weird.... everybody does that now, we all take pictures! It's the same with holiday photos, you record something to look back on it... even though you're not really there when you're taking the picture because you are too busy recording it... so you're retrospectively going to look back on where you weren't... and tell yourself you had a good time. But that's what holiday photo's are. You go away and come back then show your friends: "look" "look" "it's us"........ "I know!" they reply. "I hope you enjoyed yourselves."

In my personal opinion, Moran has hit the nail on the head here. People spend so long trying to document their adventures in the most fantastic ways possible that deep down they never actually embrace and appreciate the moment they are experiencing. I've personally been guilty of this many times; most recently when visiting Machu Picchu. It was wet and overcast when we staggered off the Inca Trail towards the Wonder, only one thing running through our heads: Get that iconic photograph of Machu Picchu in all it's glory over our right shoulder. And we got it, but at an expense I have only really started to appreciate now.

As the temperature warms through the Peruvian morning, rises into the afternoon, the mist and clouds begin to lift. We however were there at 9am, with a bus to catch just before lunch. Visibility was minimal at best, and any chance of a clear photo looked to be shrinking by the minute. Our tour leader Marcelino gave a fantastic guided walk through the Incan ruins, explaining exactly what each carving meant and what each room would have been used for. I would love to share this information with you now, but, alas, I had unknowingly fallen foul of Moran's philosophical teachings. Writing this post six months down the line, Marcelino's words are simply a purple haze in my mind; a mind whose attention that day was focused directly on the sky above and the movements of the ominous cumulonimbus blanket floating through it. Yes I captured that proud moment, kilted up and draped in the Saltire flag, but would that day have been even more memorable had I stopped worrying about factors outside of my control and simply listened? I can safely answer Yes! It would have been.

The Sinatra Test: Stand Out From The Crowd by Making YOUR Personality Stick

In Made to Stick, brothers Chip and Dan Heath explain why most ideas don't survive and define the factors required to really make an idea impressionable, memorable and ultimately: stick. One of these factors is 'Credibility', which introduces a simple, but interesting, concept known as the Sinatra Test:

‘In Frank Sinatra’s classic “New York, New York,” he sings about starting a new life in New York City, and the chorus declares, “If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere.” An example passes the Sinatra Test when one example alone is enough to establish credibility in a given domain. For instance, if you've got the security contract for Fort Knox, you’re in the running for any security contract (even if you have no other clients). If you catered a White House function, you can compete for any catering contract. It’s the Sinatra Test: if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere’ (Made To Stick, pp. 151)

Now of course the difficult part of this is getting that one client, job, or investor that will allow you to take advantage of the Sinatra Test in the first place. And this is an experimental travel blog so what am I getting at? Well, whilst travelling you will hopefully find yourself in unique and virgin situations every day. Share this knowledge and life experience with your readers, create funny anecdotes to tell your friends on a night out, suck others into your reality and open their minds to unknown places and ideas. Don't just make your ideas stick, make yourself stick.

I don't watch television, I don't play computer games, and my wardrobe is a limited selection of questionable garments. Instead I put my savings and time towards two things: life experience and books. Whilst the media plunder brain cells from the mainstream society through news feeds and advertisements, I'm constantly growing as a person; out there doing the things that most people only ever experience through the box in their living room. The fact that some people choose not to read baffles me. In the immortal words of Mark Twain: "A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read." People have made an effort to extract and write down their pearls of wisdom gained from decades spent in a chosen profession or field  so that others can learn from their experience in a tiny fraction of the time. Take advantage of these gifts to enhance both your life and others around it. Combining this ever-constant flow of knowledge through text with tales of excitement and adventure, and sharing them passionately with others will truly make you stick.

Palahniuk's Laughter

"The first way in which a new generation takes control of society is through the culture; the arts, films, books, music. Through all entertainment. People who feel safe and secure in the existing society are frightened by ideas that threaten their power. People who hold the power in society want nice complacent forms of entertainment, films that comfort people and support the status quo" - Chuck Palahniuk (author of Fight Club)

Never Miss a Train Again

Ever leapt down a set stairs to an empty platform only to find all that is left of the subway car is a cloud of smoke? Ever sprinted down the High Street to catch a connection at Central Station that, unknowingly to you, left 2 minutes ago? I know I have. Timing like this could easily double the length of your commute and always leaves you in a foul, grumpy, mood.....until now.

So what is the secret to never missing a train again? No it’s not setting the alarm 10 minutes earlier; it’s not a physical trait that you can adopt at all. In order to never miss a train again all you have to do is change your mindset, a piece of advice given to Nassim Nicholas Taleb by a French compatriot and then shared with the world in his book The Black Swan:

Snub your destiny. I have taught myself to resist running to keep on schedule. This may seem a very small piece of advice, but it registered. In refusing to run to catch trains, I have felt the true value of elegance and aesthetics in behaviour, a sense of being in control of my time, my schedule, and my life. Missing a train is only painful if you run after it! Likewise, not matching the idea of success others expect from you is only painful if that’s what you are seeking. 

I've paid homage to this book in a prior blog post, but there's just so much golden information contained between its pages. This statement truly encompasses the psyche ‘living in the moment’ and not letting external factors influence behaviour. So what you didn't get that train! There’s usually another one on its way. People are constantly in a rush to get from A to B, scared that if they stop their goal will keep on moving. In rushing however, people fail to observe what other opportunities may lay outside their tunnel vision, dangling in the blind spot of the blinkers.

Life is about enjoying the journey, not about who can reach the end-point first. Next time it’s touch-and-go whether you’ll make the train, put the brakes on. You never know what doors this may open for you, and at the very least, the frustration and grumpiness will completely vanish from you commute.