What is Life Design 101?
Life design 101 is an owner’s manual for human beings. Life Design 101 is where I share successful strategies for living. I only share ideas that have worked in my life. Life Design is my owner’s manual for living. When I try something that works consistently over many years, I share it. Sharing what works brings me back to what works. The power of my testimony is life-affirming and helps me as much as it helps you.
Life Design 101 is my observational analysis of how to live a successful, thoughtful, and meaningful life.
Eight Keys to a Successful Life
Here is a short taxonomy of the areas of study of successful living I will develop and discuss over time here on Life Design 101. In short, Vagabond Buddha will teach you how to freely wander the planet being healthy, wealthy, and wise. That is the gist of Life Design 101.
- How to Take Care of Your Body
- How to Manage Consciousness for Joyful Living
- How to Identify Your Values
- How to Determine Your Purpose
- How to Manage Your Actions
- How to Design Your Environment
- How to Live Happily With Your Mind
- How to Freely Wander the Planet Being Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise
Success Through Continuous Learning
When I was 15 years old my mother gave me a copy of Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill. I was struggling in life. I was not college bound. I believed that college was for dummies who could not make it in this world because they were followers. I believed that college graduates lacked the creativity to attract money on their own so they needed college and a defined career.
The ideas in Think and Grow Rich remain some of the most influential ideas in my life. Later, I found a book called “Unlimited Power” by Anthony Robbins, which was also very influential. It taught me how to get control of myself and take the actions I needed to become free. The ideas in that book have kept me free for the rest of my life.
I have read hundreds of books since then. I continue to read and attend seminars. I believe continued learning is at the center of consistent human success. Learning is the sign of an inquisitive passionate mind.
Later, once I was semi-retired and free, I decided to go to college. I graduated with a computer science bachelor’s degree at age 37, and a law degree at age 40.
The first half of my life was focused on real estate investments. Mostly now, I have given my real estate investments to a property manager and I study the new world of computers and the Internet. The Internet has become the focus of my study now. The Internet is more interesting to me now because it is location independent. Now I travel the world as a digital nomad and learn about the new world. If you continue to learn, the world and your place in it will remain alive for you.
Life design 101 will teach you how you can freely wander the planet being healthy, wealthy, and wise.
Humans and Computers
I have a computer science undergraduate degree and a law degree. I am also an entrepreneur with Buddhist philosophical underpinnings. I have traveled the world and observed the human condition from various perspectives.
Because of this, I observed correlations between the human condition and computer science’s way of modeling human behavior. I do not propose that computer scientists did this purposefully. Rather, I propose that humans observed problems in computers and networks and unknowingly looked inside themselves for solutions.
Computer architecture and design often seem related to humans. Computer scientists seem to have observed the faults in individual humans (themselves) and used the computer ecosystem as a test tube for solving human limitations.
I am not the first person to observe similarities between humans and the computing environment. A few humans have observed similarities between the OSI layers and human communications. See e.g., “Humans and the OSI Layer” below. Other humans have observed similarities between expert systems and humans. See e.g., Expert Systems versus Humans: How do they Compare?
In the future, I will discuss how technological socialization seems to correlate and mimic human socialization. That is for another day. For now, I will just point out a few observations about these similarities. Here are just a few examples to wet your appetite: (1) Master-slave time-share process control, and (2) Big Data-Using data to guide your actions. Computer science is the art of observing and modeling humans.
Master-Slave Time Sharing
Computer operating systems have been trained to observe when programs are using too many processing cycles. The master interrupts an unproductive slave program and shares the process cycles with other programs perceived to be more productive or desirable. That is precisely the techniques that psychologists use to get human workaholics to make room in their life for love and family.
For centuries humans have recognized when their minds are caught in infinite unproductive loops. They have attempted to gain control of their mind. Many social scientists have written about this phenomena and have proffered potential solutions. Often they propose a mind-state-break solution.
Whether a mind-state-break is chemical or otherwise, these proposals include an adjustment or new positive perception. Other social scientists propose using mind-state-break to improve efficiency in human action. One such proposal is to gain control of your negative mental state first thing in the morning and place the mind in a positive productive state. See e.g., Morning Ritual Mastery (MRM).
MRM is preferred because it does not propose a chemical solution that reduces consciousness. Consult your doctor before ending any chemical solution. In addition to following MRM, I have observed the benefits of mind conditioning such as having a positive workout music narrative playing as I run.
Such a positive workout music station is available in the morning. See e.g., http://vagabondbuddha.com/workout-music-new-day/
I will further develop this correlation between the human condition and computer socialization as it becomes relevant to each idea I share. Enjoy your run.
Big Data and Analytics:
Once you have your mind in a constructive state and you are driving toward solutions, you will actually begin to accomplish things. Now you need to make sure you are heading in the right direction. You will be making progress. So you want to make sure your progress is in money making or other intended direction.
That is where big data gathering is relevant. You want to make sure you know what to study and implement. The Internet is evolving on a daily basis. What makes money today may make money tomorrow. It may not. So you have to know how to monitor an evolving Internet world.
So if you want to make money on the Internet, you have to be able to gather data and determine what direction to go. Then you have to monitor the data as it evolves and determine whether to stay on course or alter your direction. The Internet is an evolving beast and you have to ride it effectively.
Further, and even more importantly, you have to sift through the data and decide what you are most excited about. For example, the Google Keyword Planner will identify topics of study that are most searched on the Internet. Of that set, you have to decide what you are most excited about.
As we study affiliate marketing and other topics, you will learn why subjects that have a strong Internet demand are more profitable money making ($$$) opportunities. That brings the following video topic into direct focus. Find the topics that are at the intersection of your passion and high Internet demand.
Here is a video on that subject:
Conclusion:
Life Design 101 will teach you the “Eight Keys to A Successful Life” with videos and articles. I will share them here and on the Vagabond Buddha Youtube Channel. Please check in from time to time as we share more of these life design ideas with you.
I will also further develop this correlation between human evolution and computer socialization as it becomes relevant to each Life Design idea.
This is Dan Bell of Vagabondbuddha.com. Thank you for stopping by.
Bibliography:
Humans and the OSI Layers
- Proposes 3 additional human layers above 7 OSI layers. http://www.andrewpatrick.ca/OSI/10layer.html
- Evolutional layers of the human brain. Click around and see the various nuances at this link. http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/d/d_05/d_05_cr/d_05_cr_her/d_05_cr_her.html
- Layers of human brain development. https://www.google.com/search?q=layers+of+evolution+human+brain+development&safe=active&espv=2&biw=1198&bih=621&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj03YOz3LjPAhXJLSYKHUo1A0AQsAQIQw&dpr=1
- Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and adapts it to how Networks are part of a corporate Hierarchy of Needs. http://etherealmind.com/network-evolution-hierarchy-needs/
- A RESEARCH STUDY TO EVALUATE THE SIMILARITES BETWEEN THE INTERNET AND NEURAL NETWORKS IN THE BRAIN. http://www.csun.edu/~abg40883/p1a.html