Is Your Child Gonna Die?

Yes, yes, they are.

At least, eventually. It seems pretty reliable that death comes to everyone.

But will your child die in the next week? I can almost guarantee not.

(Note: For those of you who happen to have a friend/child/relative precariously close to death, I’d really love it if you chose to take whatever good you can from this article, and not pick on rhetoric, humour, or poor phrasing )

Will you be killing your child if you support their dreams?

Again, I’m thinking not.

And yet, this is super-common thinking for many parents. They’ve bought into the myth that if they don’t personally hand-direct every choice their child makes, (as they may have for much of the child’s life) then their child is going to turn into a waste, or not contribute or… die.

The thing is, parents are people too, and they often get a bad rap. They’re powerful, they’re dedicated, and then sincerely want to help.

They have one of the biggest impacts on their children’s lives. Friends, workplaces and backgrounds change all the time but there are always parents that are influencing us in one way or another. It’s really easy for kids to blame parents for their disappointments or lack of success or being held back. It feels shitty, to the parents and the kids.

Our parents are awesome people who’ve invested in another human life, and you can’t really blame them for reacting strongly when their kid is sleeping in till 1pm and playing video games all day, when all they truly desire for their child is for them to get off your ass and make some changes in their lives. That’s right, changes.

(Of course, sometimes when the child gets the guts to make big changes, parents don’t always handle it so well )

 Parents truly have the best intentions with every action. They don’t nag because it makes them feel good. They nag because they have run out of ways to help you change, except for kicking you out, and nagging feels a LOT easier then taking THAT step. They feel like their kid is wasting away and that they’re supporting it and making it happen. They’ve been supporting a child for years and I bet they’ve been looking forward to a break. So when you’re 25, still living at home and they’re still, still, still waiting for a break, I can understand why they’d start to get worried and stressed.

Imagine you’ve spent 22 years raising your little rug rat and you’ve given him awesome guidance, tool and support and will continue to do so no matter what. Here’s where it gets tricky. Your lovely son or daughter is still at home at 22 and not doing a whole lot with their life. You would love to see them out there in world making money, contributing to the world and being the fantastic person you raised them to be. It’s tough though, when they’ve been ‘half-finishing’ the same things for 22 years now, and you’re ready for a change but its not happening. From society, conditioning and our friends, parents default to just nagging kids into change or trying to coax or bribe them into doing something, ANYTHING.

There’s another way. Let them go. Drop the nagging, and drop whatever else is bothering you. If keeping them around the house with their half-finished projects feels bad to you, stop it. Tell them how much you believe in them. How you see so much potential in them. Not only that but tell them how you are really feeling. If you’ve never communicated deep feelings with your kids before, person-to-person, this may feel awkward, but sharing feelings is a natural human action.

Maybe you feel like you’re supporting their laziness and lack of action, but you can choose to support them in many different ways. You don’t have to keep doing what you’ve been doing. Perhaps you can offer to pay first and last months rent for them, or give them financial support. You can support them with time and an impending deadline by saying “I love you and will help you in anyway I can but it’s time for you to spread your wings," or you could withdraw all other support but brainstorm ideas, contacts, and connections to help them with their plan, vision, purpose, or project. And these are just tip of the iceberg!

Anyway, we had huge response to our Does Your Family Love You? post from a child’s perspective, here’s the follow up from a parent’s perspective.

Enjoy

Are you a leader or a follower?

Ever heard that question before? Ever seen a movie that applauds leaders and dismisses followers? Ever had a conversation where person A labels person B, who likes to follow the trends, a "sheep," with disgust? Ever trash-talked a politician, boss, or parent as a "garbage leader?"

These themes and ideas about leading and following, come up often because people, deep down, wish they had a handle on the subject. "Do I call myself a leader? A follower? Do I make fun of one or the other?" People have very mixed signals and beliefs about the topic.

Beliefs are very important to people, and almost everyone has incredibly strong personal beliefs about whether leaders are "good", or followers are "bad" or the opposite.

Yeup, you know if you’ve got an opinion, and you know if you have a label to toss around.

Here’s the thing though, (listen up!): everyone is a leader, and a follower.

Choose One For Fun

Variety rocks. It’s a big part of what makes life interesting, switching from one thing to another. Sure, there may be one thing that suits you most of the time, but playing around with them almost always helps. Choose to play around with the roles of leader and follower, have fun with it. By having fun with it, you acquire an understanding of what makes a good leader or follower. You acquire an understanding of what makes a good leader when you learn to follow. You acquire an understanding of what makes a good follower when you learn to lead. The ying and the yang; you can’t have one without the other, and they complement each other well. We often tend to prefer one or the other but being able to use either one at the right time makes life smooth and easy. Who doesn’t want life to be smooth and easy? You may already have switching from leader to follower down pat. So well in fact that you don’t even realize you’re doing it.

What If I Can’t Tell The Difference?

Let’s clarify:

Leaders… if you’re leading, you tend to make the final decision. You choose a direction. People ask you for your opinion and often seem hesitant or unsure until they get it. They look to you for guidance. This role often comes with some ‘responsibility.’ This can be seen when sometimes a-not-so-adept follower will blame the leader (person who had a large part in the decision) for something. A good leader will learn to accommodate this with understanding and a) be willing to take the blame and b) also lead into a new way of thinking quickly. Just because a person makes a mistake doesn’t mean they suck (or that they’re a bad leader) and it certainly doesn’t mean that we should all spend hours and hours focusing on such things.

Followers… If you’re following you tend to be ready and willing, but are looking for guidance. You lean one way or another, but usually avoid making a direct, committed decision and instead ask the people around you for their opinions, looking for them to take on the leadership role. If a leader does not come forth, you may feel like you have to do it or no one else will. Often this kind of thinking leads to anxiety and worry. Deep down, you’d much prefer to have someone else making the decisions and allow you to just continue giving input and leaving final calls up to them, and enjoying life in this way.

Note: It’s important to keep in mind that we all are leaders and followers at different times, in different moments and different situations. If you’re a master chef, it will feel very natural to be the leader in the kitchen. If you’re trying to make a website and have no idea what HTML is, then there’s a good chance you’d want someone else to be the leader in that area. Or maybe one second you were following, but inspiration struck and you suddenly transformed into the leader.

The Leader/Follower Contradiction

My experience has been that a defining factor of a great leader is the willingness to let others lead. It’s may seem a bit weird, but there it is.

“You got the power to let power go?” – Kanye West, Power.

We all have our own ways of learning things. Some people find that they need to butt heads and fight in order to be a leader and maybe they need to mess up quite a few times in order to understand how to really, smoothly, be a leader. Realizing that it’s okay to mess up as a leader, and it’s okay to allow a leader to mess up without resistance, helps. It works out. It’s okay.

It’s never quite clear what another’s story and path will be, and if they’re leading down a rocky shortcut, it’s often best to step out of the way let them have their fun, and then be there if they have questions or are ready to let a more skilled leader take over. Other times we will come across someone who just plain leads better than we do, at least in a certain areas. This is an amazing opportunity to let go and take a few hints on how we can improve our own leadership.

I personally enjoy following more than leading. We’re all leaders, but when I choose to follow, I follow only the best. That’s not to say I don’t love to step up when the time is right and flex my awesome leadership-skills. I really do. But, I often surround myself with amazing leaders who make it enjoyable and safe for me to let go and enjoy the flow of life. Being a good follower has a lot to do with letting go, and taking on the attitude of “I’m happy doing anything.” A leader who suits you will, of course, take you into account as they make decisions and want to help keep you happy and smiling. They’re going to make decisions that you’ll enjoy. Often times a leader’s satisfaction comes from an awesome follower, they get off on accomplishment and appreciation. (They like to lead you towards getting shit done and helping the cause.)

The First Follower is Still A Leader

Derek Sivers is a pretty cool dude, and he gave a talk at TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) on how a follower is still a leader. He used the example of the first follower, pointing out that a leader is someone who pioneers a different direction.

When he does this, he looks like a complete nut, and is doing something new, which is great, but the response from the general populace is often poor. Most people simply don’t have access to the vision, openness, and creative thinking needed to see the leadership in the guy who looks like a freak/rebel. They DO have the ability to join a bandwagon though. So that Leader, really needs a first follower.

This means that the first follower has to distance themselves a bit from their peers, and start liking and praising the nutcase-leader-person.

That takes guts. That takes courage. That takes someone acting like a leader.

The first follower is still a leader.

If You Get This, Life Rocks More

Learning to "feel out" when to be a leader or follower has made all my relationships much smoother. It also taught me about being aware of, and sensitive to, when others would prefer to be a leader or a follower.

When someone is arguing about going somewhere or making some decision their way, there is a good chance they are craving a leadership role. If their ideas come out with worry or confusion or hesitation, perhaps they’re just waiting for a strong leader to show themselves, and take the lead. Worry and tension comes out because the leadership position is not a position they feel comfortable in (at the time) nor do they truly want it. It shows up more as a, “If I don’t do it no one will,” kind of deal.

When you understand these subtleties, you can figure out whether to give them what they want or that it’s time to hang around someone else

First Time Hearing This? Wanna Discuss More?

You may be the first person in your group of friends, or workplace, or relationship that is exploring this. It can be a very sensitive issue, and a lot of people have been traumatized in their experiences with it, and may not be open to discussing it. Be gentle when you approach others about it, or discuss it more with others who get it first. There are people who get this stuff. Celebrities and their entourages usually have a decent handle on it, as do successful CEOs, soldiers, etc., or hey… try us here at SpiritSentient.

It Really, Really Helps

An understanding of whether you should be leading or following at any given time, is massively helpful. For me it’s the most helpful in my intimate relationship, and I can really speak to it’s awesome power in that area. I’m sure it can help in business, with prospects and employees and bosses and whatnot, but for me it’s most magnified in romantic relationships. Fights and arguments emerge when two people want the helm. Figure out what you prefer (in general, and in each moment) and then talk to your partner. Getting on the same page with your partner will be the fastest and easiest way to see the massive power of understanding the leader/follower dynamic.

A really interesting synchronicity is that Jeanette Maw of Good Vibe Blog recently posted an article on leading as a life strategy, using the metaphor of leading a loose dog back in the house. Check it out.

And a really in-depth, helpful resource: Followership @ Changing Minds.

Does your family love and support you and your choices? Do they judge them?

A lot of people I know are the world’s upcoming visionaries, entrepreneurs, and celebrities. (This is my preferred crowd to hang with.)

A lot of them deal with a tremendous amount of pressure, extenuating circumstances, and b.s. from the people around them.

This is a hot button topic for so many. People fret and stress and worry over their family’s reactions, choices, and attitudes, doesn’t it seem like there’s a better way? Surely they’re wishing for a solution…

‘Law of Attraction’ says that these people are attracting all these unsupportive things — whatever, it’s cool, either way, I’d like to offer some inspiring words and a story to take to heart and mind.

I say that people attract all these things simply because they are too scared to take an honest, committed, clear stand on what they truly desire in their lives.

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard some variation of "My family doesn’t support what I do / think / feel / choose," and this doesn’t even take into account the many times people fall asleep worrying over some tiff or argument with someone close to them.

Why does this keep happening? What can I do about it?

Well, I can give all you passion-pursuers, you up-and-coming pioneers and visionaries, a little (or much) inspirational ammo.

People have forgotten the power of clarity and committment. People have forgotten how to stand up and say what needs to be said, and do what needs to be done, for the good of all. It’s a slippery slope towards misery.

It doesn’t have to be this way though. They are amazing, uplifting, beautiful reminders available, and it felt like one flowed through me today.

What follows are some of the most powerful things I could think of, to give to all my friends and readers who’re surrounded by haters and are currently (but-not-for–long!) unsupported by the people they love.

All these words and info-graphics all came flowing out in a flurry of inspiration, enjoy

And by all means… if you like it, or feel it could benefit someone passionate you know (or someone who’s forgotten what it’s like to dream), please share it!

CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE!

P.S. If you like what I write, or feel I may have something else inspiring for you to connect with, I’d love it if you offered your support by grabbing my oh-so-powerful eBook, Idealution & Thoughtsperity, but if that’s not your cup-of-tea, help yourself with our Free Resources. Really. I mean it. More capable, happy, powerful people = a more capable, happy, powerful humanity.

Do you like art? Pretty things? Decoration which brightens the mood in a room?

Wherever you live, it’s a truly beautiful thing to appreciate and support the artists around you. Everyone’s an artist in their own way, but those who are out their passionately living their dream and touching people through their art can be elevated and supported with such simple actions from us.

SpiritSentient has gone a step further

SpiritSentient has another artist officially on board with us. Tori Mongrain, has put her gallery days behind her, and has gone rogue (– or as rogue as you can get with the class of SpiritSentient behind you.)

So what’s Tori Mongrain all about? Art With Spirit. That’s what this Toronto-Based artist offers while rippin’ up the city. Since I was small, I’ve always been a massive appreciator of art and media, and I met Tori through this love.

She loves food, yoga, art (of course), and life, here’s an excerpt from her bio-page.

I have always been the lady staring at the wall while someone is talking to me. It is not because I am uninterested; rather that something has caught my eye. Always observing the smallest details of my surroundings, I pick out the most random one as the point of focus. Small things amuse small minds I suppose, the inspiration for me is the overlooked and taken for granted.

I love…extracting that random object.

Tori’s worked, been represented, and volunteered at many galleries in the city, and she’s very in touch with the scene. She’s helped out and featured in a number of SpiritSentient artshows, and she recently started offering prints of her beautiful, brilliant, one-of-a-kind creations.

I’m a huge supporter of the Toronto art-scene, and I’d love if you felt the vibe too.

Tori has tremendous talent and an ability to filter the buzz of everyday life through her own inspired lens, and turn it into a new, soulfully textured creation that anyone can stare and marvel at for ages. Seeing her pieces online doesn’t do them justice, and the deep and powerful contrast she uses and the potency of her textured strokes are best seen up close. If you can’t get out to one of her many, many shows in the GTA and across North America, and you aren’t able to order prints, maybe you can simply connect with her, follow her fan page, donate, or tell a friend.

And the primary tool for getting to these ideas, is reading. And there are so many different ways to read, everybody has their own preferred pace, on when and how and what they like to read, it’s all amazing.

Personally, I have a very long history with reading. I’ve been reading books or blogs non-stop almost everyday since I was about 14 years old, and along the way I picked up some powerful ways (at least, I think so), that help me absorb a lot of the most quality information in a relatively easy and fun way.

When I read something difficult, like “The Web of Life by Fritjof Capra” what I do is read it like a newspaper, and jot down all the words that I don’t know. I don’t really care about the word as I write them down, I just do it and then forget about it. Just like a newspaper, you’re never worried about if you skip a few words.

And then at the end of the reading session, I simply google, dictionary.com or wikipedia the words I don’t understand.

This is a great way for some of you to read the latest book from SpiritSentient, Idealution & Thoughtsperity, especially for some of our Japanese friends overseas and those still in Toronto, enjoying our website.

Hope you guys enjoy your new reading tool, and hopefully it will motivate you to conquer new paths of learning that were previously unavailable

Let’s get right to it. Chances are you’re interested in these things:
Blogging, Niche-Marketing, Passive Income, Traffic, Comments, Tweets, Content, Success.

Awesome, but are you wasting your time? Like really, really, wasting it?

Thinking Like a King Brings Success

We’re going to address this, but first some background…

Chances are you’re not only open, but eager for knowledge, instruction, and guidance on actions you can take to do more in the above areas.

That’s the key though – chances are you’re focused on action. We have a world running around like chickens with their heads cut-off, constantly, mindlessly, seeking more actions to take.

And this is great in a way, because without action, nothing gets done. This is a simple, straight-forward, and easy to understand principle. A whole bunch of people sitting in a room meditating, don’t generally do much.

It’s worth noting though, that this intense and almost habitual focus of so many people on action, has consequences. People forget about thought, and they forget that thought and action go hand-in-hand, they are inseparable. Even our reflexes come from sub-conscious thoughts, which are thoughts that were once conscious in humanity, and have been programmed into our subconscious through evolution and repetition and necessity. There’s one more thing people these days tend to forget, and that is that thought is more powerful than action.

Thoughts are More Powerful than Action

Thought-management is one of the most powerful things you can do, and thought-management and empire-building go hand-in-hand.

That’s right. Thought is way, way, way more powerful than action. Many bloggers, businesses and experts discuss the power of using your highest leverage resources, or getting the highest leverage you can out of any particular action. This is a fantastic principle, but are you neglecting to leverage your thoughts by replacing intentional thinking with an unconscious habit of chasing after the ‘best action’?

How many thoughts do you have in a day? Is it even possible to count? I’ve heard estimates of 50,000 to 100,000, but it doesn’t really matter — the point is that there are a lot, and there are far more thoughts than actions a person can achieve each day.

It looks like this:

We can clarify the situation further…

(Okay, so I like design )

Despite the above clear views (reminds me of the 80/20 rule applied to thoughts & actions a bit,) everyone’s still so focused on action. You know what I’m talking about… there’s a million how-to’s on the web about "how-to start a blog," or "how-to travel cheaply," how-to take THIS action, or how-to take THAT action… They’re all over the place.

Ah, but there’s a good reason for this:

Supply-and-Demand.

Supply-and-demand is the basis of niche-marketing. Supply a "niche-with-a-need" with what they’re demanding (a perceived-solution,) and you’re golden.

But let’s look deeper, what exactly is a niche and what is supply-and-demand?

What Is A Niche?

A niche is a group of people with a common ‘problem’.

A group starts from one person, connecting with another person, and it grows from there. Niche’s start with one person.

When a person begins desiring something passionately, they become a niche of one. This desire is a thought. When they connect with another through community/word-of-mouth of some kind, and the two people share the same desire, they are now a niche of two. Then three, four, and it expands and amplifies, often virally.

So How Does a Niche Demand Supply?

So when a group of people all desire the same thing, it is picked up on by others in society, and those others see it as a niche. They are then inspired and motivated to create a solution to satiate the desire of the niche.

This is a graceful and powerful aspect of our current economy.

Use of this understanding, is how niche-marketers make money, and simultaneously how "the niche’s" improve their quality of life in a sweeping, way.

So a niche has a common desire and demands a solution, and as word spreads, a niche-marketer steps up to supply the demand. Simple eh?

Desire and Niche-Marketing Success

People tend to gloss over a niche-market’s desire and how it came to be. It’s like "Ok, this group has a problem, let’s make money!" — Sometimes it can really help and enlighten to know a bit of background; let’s look at desires a little deeper.

A desire is not really noticeable/apparent to most of society when it is just 1 person, with 1 fleeting thought, it requires more focus/energy.

Let’s look at this through a fictional person named John, who really wants to Tweet like a Rockstar because he feels like he’d be a lot happier in life if he could get some followers.

Let’s say ‘John’ thinks "Oh, I could really use a guide on how to Twitter Like A Rockstar", that’s great, but society won’t take notice, and it was just a fleeting thought so John likely won’t bring it up in conversation with other human beings, and no one will care to solve this problem (or satiate this desire.)

If John becomes miserable and unsuccessful with twitter, he may think repeatedly "Man I wish I knew twitter, man I wish I knew twitter, man I wish I knew twitter…" over and over, sometimes frustrated, sometimes hopeful. When this happens, his desire is strengthened. He will almost certainly mention his Twitter issues in conversation, actively search it on Google and forums, and send out other subtle signals to society for help. John does these things because of his powerful, incessant, practically habitual thoughts. He may not even realize he is doing these things, but they are real choices, real actions, that have real effects on society.

He now begins to connect with others sharing a similar desire, and a niche starts to form.

As this niche grows, now society takes notice. Now the resources of humanity and humanities main motivator can come into play. Now people realize there is a community of people willing to pay them to solve this Twitter-dilemma, and they realize they can make a living for themselves by helping this niche.

What started as a fleeting thought, became the desire of an entire niche, and hit a tipping point where other members of society were inspired and passionate about solving the problem.

A single thought is the foundation and seed for society’s greatest accomplishments, and combined with our economy, we can see it’s poetic effect.

Okay, still with me? We’ve got the basics:

1. Thoughts are more prevalent than action.
2. Thoughts are higher-leverage than action.
3. Thoughts are the foundation for action, and ultimately inseparable from action.
4. Thoughts are our primary tool for evolution and advancement in ANY area of life.

People, especially in cities, are focused on the rush-rush, fast-paced, GTD-promoted idea of taking action after action for success.

After all we’ve looked at here, it seems at least ‘vaguely productive’ (read: this is a universal principle people, use it!) to give some attention to the foundation for all this action… our thoughts.

They’re the key to true success.

There are millions of successful people in life, and they all execute very different, very creative actions to achieve their success. There’s not a huge amount of similarity in each successful person’s particular chosen actions, save that they all generally leverage well. So that’s it? Successful people leverage well, and that’s why we have millions of successful businesses and celebrities? Trying to compare each of their actions is dizzying.

Tim Ferriss will tell you that you can succeed taking direct action for only 4 hours a week, Nathan Hangen implies in his blogging-crisis podcast that success in blogging requires a lot of hard-work to succeed. Donald Trump has said "Everything in life is luck", and Richard Wiseman claims to have determined scientifically that anyone can be lucky. Creative types such as visionary artist Alex Grey will tell you to allow inspiration to come and to put little focus on deadlines. Blogger-God Seth Godin will tell you deadlines are vital – so vital they should be renamed life-lines, and all this is just tip of the iceberg. With all these contrasting actions, it makes it nearly impossible to sort out the ‘correct action(s).’

What we can do though, is examine the foundation of these people’s thoughts, and when we do, we can see that successful people have some very similar thought patterns.

1. Successful people believed they could succeed long before any physical signs of their success actually showed up. That’s right, successful people generally appear delusional for a period of time before the success arrives.
2. Successful people believe they can trust god/life/themselves, and give their all through fear and risk to pursue their passion.
3. Successful people go the extra mile, whether that means saying "no" to that client who is pushing you too far even though you need the money, saying "yes" to that client out of love and care when your mind is screaming that you should take care of some other thing, or even if it’s guest-posting for a blog you feel good about when you have many other irons in the fire (Mad love, Nathan )
4. Successful people accept success of all kinds. They accept the success of people who’ve taken a spiritual path, they accept success of those who may’ve committed crimes to achieve their success, they accept their friends success and their enemies success. They may not encourage the actions involved, but they accept success in all it’s forms, without judgment.
5. Successful people have thoughts and ideas about thriving joyously, whether they can see it or not, they truly believe that they can thrive in life.
6. Successful people realize and acknowledge the value that they provide to the world. They have no problem marketing their message because they see every contact with another human being as them providing value and giving others a gift. Whether its with fans, clients, customers, or whoever they are connecting with, they think about and appreciate the value they offer the world.

There are many other thoughts that successful people think, but this is a great start, and if you haven’t been thinking anything even remotely like this, and you are currently not experiencing the success you know you could be, try them out.

And hey, if you really want to know some actions you can take that will help you manage your thoughts, check out all the free resources at SpiritSentient.com, we love ideas and thought-management, and they’re provided to help you.

It’s high-leverage.

It’s high-value.

It’s high… fun.

Note: Thought-management is a massive topic, and I could talk on the details of it for ages, but hopefully this primer will serve its purpose.

Thank you all for reading, (and thank you Nathan for this opportunity to share with your audience,) you’re all already Kings in my eyes, and this is just a reminder to keep rockin’ – Shape The World.

I don’t even know if I really understand it, but I do know that I spent most of the month becoming an expert on it.

Christopher Nolan’s stunning summer blockbuster has taken the internet by storm. There’s so much buzz, comments, discussions and articles it’s kind of ridiculous — and I love it. You may have read my previous article on how Inception is a pop-culture masterpiece dedicated to (the emerging trend of) thought-management.

Now I’ve created an Inception Tribute Info-Graphic. I initially started it because Melodie said that I’m perfectly suited to win FastCompany’s Inception Graphic Contest, because of my passion for explanation, pop-culture, art, design, and technology… and I agreed.

So I made something really cool and sent it to them. Then I double-checked the eligibility rules, and realized I’m not actually eligible for the contest ’cause I don’t live in The States, lol.

Soooooo…

Now I’m sharing it here for everyone who’d love an easier way to get a handle on a lot of the beauty packed into the movie.

Inception (For Dummies) – A fantastic movie about ideas, that’s also jammed with cool ideas about dreams, reality, relationships, creativity, thought-management and more.

A huge Thank-You to Christopher Nolan and the entire Inception Production Team for creating a movie that basically combines everything I love. A huge Thank-You to FastCompany.com for calling out for the beautiful information-designers of the world to flex their muscles and contribute even more value to the Inception phenomenon.

Inspiration Hits!
This info-graphic came together through a week of inspiration, suggested by a beautiful muse, and went through 4 drafts, 57 re-writes, and 125 layers in Photoshop. It used 4 full watch-throughs of Inception, 4 subliminal play-throughs in the background while I worked, 100s of single scene-replays, and many conversations about the movie. Not to mention the 20+ websites, blogs, and reviews I read about it.

There’s some spoilers in the graphic and it works far better if you’ve seen the movie, but I feel it conveys the main points of the plot, the characters, the themes, the dream-sequences, and the time-line all in one graphic — even if you haven’t seen it. (I debated including the number math + specifics but in the end left it out — felt too cluttered)

It felt best to make it slightly wordier than I’d initially intended, but hey, it’s pure love for Nolan and the gang, FastCompany, typography + design.

Text Link To The Info-Graphic: http://spiritsentient.com/inception_infographic_spiritsentient.com.jpg

Note: This is a guest-post by Melodie Moore (of LotsofLove.com — Currently under renovations.)

Our families are awesome. They show us ways of living. They show us all the amazing possibilities they’ve found in their lives. They teach us many amazing things. Our parents deserve a lot of credit for contributing to making us who we are. Every parent looks at us like they would a sunny day or a beautiful painting. They want only the very best for us at all times. They want us to have all the things they didn’t. They want us to be better than them, to do more.

Can raising kids be compared to making art? I’m going to assume you’re nodding your head at this point. I would even go on to say that children become a parent life’s masterpiece. They spend years and years giving us all of their best gifts so that we may excel in the world. If you ask an artist "How do you make such beautiful paintings?" The artist will reply that it’s inspired, that it comes from somewhere else, from god, or from some intense experience that only life could arrange. They’d say that they don’t think a whole lot while creating and are mostly just focused on the process itself. While creating their art, I don’t see them thinking "Well I should do put some red here so this piece will be a marketable success, some purple here so it will manipulate others opinions, and then some yellow here so my art will attract lots of the opposite sex." Truly talented artists may easily accomplish all these things, but I just don’t see them doing it through these kinds of thoughts.

By comparing making a painting, to raising kids parents can open themselves up to the possibility that they create phenomenal things without having to worry too much about the outcome. Then they can have faith that their child’s worth will be seen by the world. They can let go and enjoy the process of painting (parenting!) enjoy the process of seeing their child blossom into whatever success he or she feels inspired to. A parent’s painting may not turn out the way they originally thought. It could also turn out 10 times better than that. They could also stand there with a paintbrush in hand for years, worrying about how the painting will turn out.

Your parents may have super-great intentions for you, and just like painting a picture, they may go through stages where they feel super-attached to how the painting turns out. This may show as stuff like "You gotta go to school, get a career, and be successful." — This all comes about because they are often very attached to exactly what you’re doing and exactly how it turns out. There comes a time when they can relax and let go, and then they can simply support you, saying "Oh honey, I love and support whatever you’re doing." It’s such an amazing feeling to have your parents support what you’re doing, and it’s hard to put your foot down and step away from that support (or lack of it), when you know deep down that stepping away from their support, because you’re inspired to go hitchhike across Canada, that may result in a famous story or book deal, and you go right ahead and do it. Your parents will surely fall into line as time goes on, but only if you’re ready to take the first step and do it.

Wouldn’t you like to feel like a king or queen in your own world? Wouldn’t you like to feel successful some area of life? There are rare tactics for doing this, that you may not be aware of.

About a month ago I wrote a lengthy guest post called "Think Like A King" on Nathan Hangen’s phenomenal blog – Building Digital Empires. The post delved deep into some less well-known methods of achieving success and building empires; it focused on thought-management.

I didn’t even know the article went live, and now that I do, I’d love it if you guys headed over to Building Digital Empires to check out Think Like A King. I felt it was really powerful and it generated some very insightful responses from Nathan’s crew.

What to do at these points?

You can focus on something that you are usually passionate about (but can’t really seem to bring it out of your system to go full force at this very moment) and keep working at it in little bits.

For example, if you go to a kickboxing class, but both your arms are injured and your legs feel numb, simply go anyways, and do the sit-up exercises and some light skipping, and that’s all you’ll do.

You’ll find that’s never all you’ll end up doing, because the motivation and energy that comes from putting little bits of love into something just grows in a cumulative way that expands and becomes more awesome as time goes on, in ways that you don’t expect.

The truth is, the more you add and build on the tiny practice things, the more your foundation for your own discipline will grow. If you are a writer, and you are in the process of “writers block”, just write something, anything and it’ll probably turn out good. One paragraph will do. Maybe more. Whatever.

It’s a funny thing that seems so simple, yet takes a lifetime to master, like all the not-so-hidden-secrets to life:

After you’ve done practicing, practice more.