Are labels for clothes only?

A couple of days ago I was made aware that London was having an election for their mayor. I had heard of Boris Johnson mainly because I thought the only people with the name Boris were German tennis players. I was told that Johnson was wanting to become prime minister so that's why he was stepping down. Good luck to him, I say.

Anyway, I woke up this morning to this article. Then I was reading this article at lunchtime. Now I ask you why am I writing about this today? Well, who cares what his religion is? I mean he's a Muslim, good on him. I'm sure that he prays five times a day, doesn't drink alcohol and doesn't eat pork products. But why do both headlines have the word Muslim in it? I mean would both of these websites have this headline: London elects it's first The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Mayor. (I know I should have written Mormon there but having the official name there made it easier to make my point) Or would they have this headline? London elect it's first bi-sexual Mayor. Actually they would definitely have the second one but the first one they wouldn't because that name of the church is not as well known as Islamic faith.

Why do we continue to give labels to people even in 2016?

I was called gaijin for the first time in a long time this morning. For those of you who don't know, the word gaijin is a Japanese word meaning foreigner. The characters are this: 外人. The first character means outside and the second character means person. So outside person. Since the guy who said this to me was outside when he said it, doesn't that by definition make him a gaijin too? Unfortunately this argument is too much for most people so I didn't bother. My point is why was I labeled as gaijin when I was just a "young" man walking to the gym at 7.30 on a Saturday morning?

So, let me go back to my question, why do we have to label people in 2016?

My answer is, I don't know. I'm sure I do it all the time without even knowing that I do. I like to listen  to the comedians out there making fun of the various stereotypes that we have in our world. By the way, if you can make fun of yourself then you have my utmost respect. To be able to make fun of yourself means that you don't take yourself too seriously and I believe that makes a peaceful society.

Maybe an answer is that it makes us feel comfortable about ourselves. Maybe we genuinely think that we are better than that particular group and we have to make sure we do that by giving them a label.

Maybe we are so keen to compartmentalise out lives that it is necessary to put everyone that we come across into groups so it is easy to live.

Good luck to Mr. Sadiq Khan in his new "job." I'm sure he will do well. I'm sure that whenever he does something controversial that the label makers will come out and make a point to point out his religious affiliations and ethnicity. That's what we do.

I wonder what the world would be like if we didn't have these labels. Hmmm, that's an interesting one. Another blog post? It might be challenging one. Stay tuned.

Procrastination is the thief of time

It has been over a month since I started this blog and finally I have hit a bump in the road. I don't know what to write about. Have you ever had that experience where you just sit there and you sit there and nothing happens? Well that has been me for the last three hours or so. Complete writer's block. 

So what can I write about when I have this problem? This blog doesn't really have a theme as such so there are many possibilities. Lets have a look at the possibilities.

1. Problem solving.

Currently I am writing this post in a private library where you pay a monthly fee to use the facility. As you can imagine it isn't perfect and they could do some better things here but for the price you pay and the view is spectacular it isn't a bad spot and there is a burrito place on the 2nd floor which is awesome. A few years a go I wrote this blog post and gave the manager of the restaurant some ideas on how he or she can get more patrons into the establishment. You could do a problem solving blog for someone or the alternative is you do it for yourself, very much like I am doing here.

2. Opinions

I was thinking this morning that I haven't really been following the American presidential election very much. I know that a former first lady, a socialist and a guy with funny hair are still in the race but that is about it. I suppose I could give my opinion on it but I don't really see it as my place to. Once thing that I do feel qualified to comment on is the Indian Premier League which seems to be going from strength to strength although does anyone else think that it is going to implode before too long? 

3. Rehash someone else's post

The easy way out of the conundrum is just to look at someone else's post and comment on it and make it your own. This is in a sense cheating but whatever gets you through the day, right. I read a blog recently that said most people do that and it isn't the best but if you are blogging  everyday like me then that might just have to be the way. As they say here in Japan, "shoganai" which means it can't be helped.

4. Review a book or movie

Yeah, I know. I am scraping the bottom of the barrel here a bit. I know every man and his dog reviews a book or a movie or even a restaurant but hey, I'm desperate here and I didn't know what else to write. You never know, your post could make an obscure book go viral and the author will then have to pay you some royalties. Well, you would hope so wouldn't you?

5. Be a guide, what to do in a certain place if you have time

A few years ago I posted this. I was using my Tokyo experience to guide people around a city and to do things that they might normally not do. You can see in that post that I suggested to go to a public bath. Most of you are probably screwing your nose up at the mere thought of that but it is a great place. My cousin didn't like the sound of it at first but after two minutes he had changed his tune. 

There you have it. That took me about four hours to get through. Finally it is done. 

The Great Motivator

I'm having one of those days that I'm sure you all have and some of you probably have more than most and that is you have no motivation to do anything. You wake up, you stare at the wall for a few minutes, you lie back down again. Thank god that it's a public holiday you think. So I was thinking, what do you do when you have no motivation to do anything? What do you do to get yourself going so that you can get the things done that need to be done?

Here are my seven suggestions. Some of these are probably generic and you find them everywhere but that's life and we don't want to overcomplicate things, right?


1. Get out of bed and have a shower.

Just this simple act of getting out of the clothes that you slept in and washing your hair and cleaning yourself and then putting on fresh clothes can motivate you to do something else, even if it is just to go down to the nearest 7/11 to buy something. The fact that you are up and moving can have a flow-on effect across the day and just by making that first step can really supercharge your day. What is that Chinese proverb? A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. There you have it, a few steps to the shower.


2. Think of the bigger picture.

Why are you doing all of this? What is the focus? You need to think about your goals and think about why you are putting yourself through this. I admit sometimes it is going to be very difficult but think about the joy and the celebration when you accomplish your goal or you get what you want, it will all be worth it. This is what helped me this morning. I thought about what I wanted and bang I was up and at 'em.


3. Have an accountability partner. 

I have a friend who I text at 5am to say that I am up and ready to go. The motivation here is for me anyway, that I don't want get a text asking where am I or a text asking why am I being lazy again. I assure you it works and to avoid these things is the primary motivator for me when I forget about the big picture. Also it pisses me off when I get a text asking where I am. I don't like being pissed off. I'm sure you don't either.


4. Weigh yourself everyday

If one of your goals is to lose weight then I suggest weighing yourself everyday. If you see that after a particular heavy night on the booze you have gone up a kilo or two then it is very easy to get your ass out of that chair and go to the gym. Also I find that if the numbers on the scales are going down on a daily basis then it is actually easier to get yourself to the gym because you want to keep that downward trajectory. I must admit that if it is going up it is difficult for me to motivate myself as I think oh well what difference does it make if I have another Big Mac? This morning I got a fantastic surprise when I stepped on the scales and found that even though I had a huge lunch yesterday and curry at dinner time and also had a couple of beers, I was still lower than the day before. So, originally I wasn't going to go to the gym today but as soon as I saw that I got a great burst of motivation and put my gym clothes into the bag and I was off. I will be working out after I post this article today.


5. Competition

I have a little competition going with my friend about a couple of things and I want to kick his butt. So the thought of winning the competition helps me to get a move on and get things done. This is like the accountability partner in that you have someone to answer to but it is also a bit fun. You could put a wager on it if you like although I'm not a gambling man ... sometimes. At the moment I see that in the current competition I am behind on points which annoyed me a great deal. I can make a comeback though.


6. Pay a fine

My friend told me that he used to have a deal with his friend that if one of them lost then they had to pay money, not to each other mind you, but to the stingiest, Scroogeiest (is that a word? I don't think it is.) miserly person you can imagine. Just the idea of giving money away to someone that you know would never, ever, ever, ever give you money or even worse never shout you a beer at the bar would motivate the heck out of me. I'm not giving my money away to that guy.

7. Accomplish something

I think another reason that I was motivated to write this is that I am building something. I have posted about 30 articles and it is building and it is quite motivating to keep this going to see what I can make out of it and see how far I can take it. I don't want to see any gaps in my blog so I am motivated to write something even though it can seem like pulling teeth coming up with ideas but that us how you grow when you push yourself. You push yourself in the gym and you see results. You push yourself in your mind and you see results.

There you have it, seven ways to motivate yourself to get things done. I hope you can use one of them or all of them to get yourself out of bed in the morning and to build something that you really want. Good luck!

What do the Foxes say?

Yesterday Leicester City Football Club were crowned the champions of the England Premier League. The first time in their more than 120 year existence that they are top of the pile in the English football pyramid. (For my American, Australian, New Zealand, Japanese readers and anyone else out there, football means soccer.)

This has been called one of the biggest upsets in sporting history and I tend to agree. To come out on top over a 9 month season over 38 games takes a lot of something and that is what I want to talk about today.

So, What can we learn from Leicester's Premier League triumph? This is an interesting question because what can sport teach us about life. Lots (heaps for my NZ readers) it seems. Before I get into this post I just want to say that I haven't really been following the Premier League this year and I am a bandwagon jumper, guilty as charged.

1. Leadership. In life you need a good leader and from what I can tell Claudio Ranieri is that. He's been there and done that and has the experience and in life that is crucial. How many times have you been at a job interview and they ask if you have any experience and you stutter and look down and try to come up with an appropriate response. Experience is everything as it allows you to get out of the sticky situations that life throws at you from time to time.

2. Loyalty. What I like about English sporting fans is their loyalty. When you ask them what team do they support you very rarely get a response like Manchester United or Chelsea unless they have been supporting them their whole lives, you will invariably get a response like Preston North End or my personal favourite, Leyton Orient. So to see the Leicester fans celebrating so passionately yesterday was a great reward for their loyalty and I hope that other smaller club fans have that kind of experience in the coming years.

Talking about English sporting fans, my personal favourite are the Barmy Army. This is the group who follow the English cricket team around the world. Inventing songs and creating an amazing atmosphere at the grounds they go to. Here is an example. I wish New Zealand sporting fans could be like this but we are quite a passive lot. Go to an All Blacks' game and you will know what I mean.

3. Passion. As a rugby follower I do get sick of watching football players shouting and gesticulating at the referees and opposition players and the diving and hollywoods and play acting can be a little boring but you can't fault the passion that the people involved with football show. From the players right through to the supporters, they live, breathe, talk football 24/7. They love it. Wouldn't it be good to find something like that where you can't stop talking about it, you can't stop thinking about it and you can't wait to get up in the morning to get into it.

4. Intelligence. We sometimes associate our sporting heroes as been rather thick (for American readers this means dumb, not fat.) and not having much upstairs but Leicester's triumph shows that to be successful in sport you need some intelligence. As I said earlier I haven't been following the season closely until the last few weeks but it seems that Leicester maybe similar to Billy Beane's Moneyball. This is a story about a guy taking a small market team in Major League Baseball in America into the playoffs by basically using his intelligence rather than just throwing money around here and there like Chelsea or New York Yankees may do.

5. Skill. You might have the passion and you might have the intelligence but without the skill you are not going to get anywhere. So Leicester maybe a small market team but their players obviously can play the game. Each of those players have grown up honing their craft, building their determination and it has all come to a head in the Premier League in 2015/2016. The players were ready and they were not going to be denied.

There you have it, the Premier League champions are Leicester City and they deserve it. There was no luck involved, well maybe the odd goal post here and there. They deserve all the adulation they will get and it will be interesting to see how they back up next season. Claudio Ranieri has already said that it will be difficult to repeat next season but you never know. Anything is possible in sport. I mean name the only unbeaten team at the FIFA World Cup in 2010 in South Africa? If you said Spain, you would be incorrect.

Pina Coladas and early mornings

I found in my bag a list of things that healthy people do before 9am. I had handwritten the list down and put it in my bag but I am not sure where I got it from so if it is your list I say thank you and I would like to credit you for this list.

Anyway, what do insanely healthy people do before 9am? Lets have a look:

1. They set a sleep schedule and stick to it. Yep, this is something that I have never done although I'm finding that the earlier that I get up I have to go to bed earlier and earlier. I was in bed before 9pm the other day although that does get a bit weird when you wake up naturally at 2.30am. What I can't believe the more I read is that successful people sleep 8 hours a day. Surely not. I can imagine that they sleep a lot less than that.

2. They wake up early ... as early as 6am. Well, I woke up at 4.45 this morning. Do I feel healthier? I don't know. I feel more awake now than I would usually be but I do find that I start fading a lot earlier than usual. I think what is good in Japan is that in the summer, it gets light very early as early as 4.30am. So it makes it easier to wake up early.

3. They drink a lot of water. As I am writing this I have a 2 litre bottle of water next to me. I'm not going to drink it all while I am writing this because I don't want it all but I will drink a lot today. I've heard that it is dangerous to drink too much water but I'm sure that there is a healthy balance. There is  one problem with drinking a lot of water, you get to know the inside of a toilet very intimately, especially after the seal is broken. In winter you seem to spend more time there than working.

4. They exercise before the day gets going. This morning I did two sets of Tabata followed by a few press ups. I never thought that exercising in the morning was any good because I was half asleep but it wakes you up and this time of the year it really gets a good sweat up. I think even if you go for a walk around the block after you get up is good too, just to get yourself up and about and moving.

5. They eat a hearty, balanced breakfast. My favourite is bacon, scrambled eggs, avocado, sometimes tomato and natto. Is that balanced? Probably. Natto is fermented soy beans. You put a little bit of soy sauce on the beans as well as a little mustard. It certainly is an acquired taste and many foreigners here in Japan don't like it although I think it is delicious.

6. They meditate. I remember I tried meditating a few years ago and I didn't really get it. I meditated this morning and I do get it. It calms you. You feel refreshed and ready to go. To me when I first started it seemed new age, hippyish, like we should be sitting around the campfire singing Kumbaya. However it is a good thing and it gets my day started off in the right way. You don't have to meditate for hours on end. 5, 10 minutes and you are done.

7. They read. Ive finished my reading for the day. It is a good habit to get into. I think I bought another book this morning too. Kindles are great, aren't they? Also Amazon is very dangerous. I'll buy that book and that book and that book.

8. They write in a journal. I did that this morning too. In the old days it was called Dear Diary. Journalling is good as you can get your thoughts and ideas down on paper on onto the computer screen whatever the case may be. This blog was originally going to be a journalling project but I found that the 10 minutes I gave myself for journalling wasn't enough for this blog. It will be interesting to have a look at my journal in a years time to see what I have written.

9. They listen to music. As I am writing this I have the headphones on and am listing to some music. I must admit that I don't keep up with the latest music as I used to but I still try to listen to the latest music. It's interesting my music taste could be described as "varied." Whatever sounds good, right?

10. They tell someone "I love you." I love you. You know who I'm talking to.

Well there you go, I can't believe it, I'm insanely healthy. Although don't tell anyone about the Corona, Fajitas, Mud Pie and Pina Colada that I had last night. That isn't very healthy. The Pina Colada was delicious though and it reminded me of this song.



I found it. Here is the original article. Presented by Tropicana. That's interesting. Orange juice seems to be taking a bit of a hammering recently so maybe it is a marketing strategy but whatever it is, it does give us something to think about.

POOR HABITS - Part 2

Yesterday we talked about the poor habits as outlined in this book. Yesterday we covered the following five:

1. Gambling
2. Drinking too much alcohol 
3. Watching too much TV
4. Negative mindset
5. You don't read

Today, lets look at the last five on this list and I will give you my take on them. Here goes:

6. You have toxic relationships 

This one can be very stressful. You can lose all of your energy trying to keep these relationships alive when the best thing is to say thank you and just walk away and never look back. Sitting here writing this article I am trying to think of examples and the one that pops into my mind the most is a guy I worked with a few years ago. He was a nice enough guy and I believe that his heart was in the right place but oh my, it was very stressful being around him and my life was not good. In the end I just had to get rid of him. It wasn't the easiest thing to do but you got to do what you got to do. 

7. One stream of income

For most people this is your job and if you lose this you are f**ked. Excuse my language but that is the most expressive word I can think of to express that feeling. 

8. No life plan

Most of us just walk around in a haze. We are on autopilot so to speak just going about our lives. We go to work, we go home, we watch TV, we go to bed, rinse and repeat. Most of our life plans are work until 65, retire and play golf for the rest of our lives. That sounds really boring to me.

9. You spend more than you make

There is always that new hot Apple product that is coming out. Do you really need it? Ask yourself that question again, do you really need it? Do you really need those new pair of shoes when the ones you have for the gym now are perfectly fine? It is about making choices. Will me buying this Apple Watch help me in the future or stuff me up now? Interesting decision.

10. Poor health habits

This has to do with your culinary decisions. I must admit that I have made some pretty bad decisions over the years because I couldn't wait for the 30 minutes to cook for myself when the shop I could buy right then and there and be eating in 5 minutes. I was definitely not thinking about the future when I was making those decisions. 

There you have it, poor habits. If you can get rid of those then you are well on the way. Good luck to you. 

POOR HABITS - Part 1

In a couple of recent posts I was talking about the good habits of successful people from this book. Today I would like to comment on the habits of poor people as written in this book. Some of my ideas maybe controversial, some of them you may agree with me.

1. Gambling

I like gambling. I like to have the occasional flutter. I have a TAB* account in New Zealand so that when I go home to New Zealand I might have a couple of bets on the horses or the dogs. (I like the dogs because it is over in about 30 seconds or so.) I also used to like to have the odd wager on a sporting fixture but don't do that much now. I think that as long as you don't overdo it then you are fine. As I said I gamble once or twice a year. The most is about $10, so I'm hardly an addict. I do realise that some people see gambling as a get rich quick scheme and this is where problems start. You can educate people I suppose but in the end it is about choices that people make. They can choose to gamble or not. I choose not to most of the time.

2. Drinking too much alcohol

Like gambling, I like to have a beer. I don't drink much, maybe I imbibe once or week or so. Even then I don't drink too much. A couple of beers, a couple of spirits. Other times I might drink more but I always say that if the Prime Minister said tomorrow that alcohol was becoming illegal it wouldn't be a big problem for me. I'd be disappointed for sure but I wouldn't lose sleep over it unlike some people out there. Alcohol impairs your thinking and it can make you really fat because of all the extra calories that are going into your body. So like gambling, everything in moderation but there are always going to be addicts.

3. Watching too much TV

I don't watch as much TV as I used to do but now with the Internet maybe I use Facebook and Youtube more than I should. It is so easy to get home after a long day at work and sit down and watch the TV. It's easy and you don't have to think much. It's perfect, right? It will crush your dreams man. People rely on it too much. I have managed to let go of my television addiction and now I have to let go of my Facebook and Youtube addiction. OK, the first I will do is delete Facebook from my phone. That's done. How can I get rid of my Youtube addiction? Any ideas?

4. Negative mindset

I have been guilty as charged with this one. I have noticed that with a lot of things that I have been extremely negative and it isn't good. The good thing is that I am aware of it and I can change those thoughts. It is quite difficult but as they say the first thing is awareness and I have to change because I believe this is the biggest thing holding me back and it probably is the same for you too.

5. You don't read

This is one that I can say that I do do. I read regularly and not novels either, I read non-fiction books and I do it on a daily basis. I read a lot of self-development books and the like and it has helped me out over the years especially  in conversations. I am able to draw on the knowledge that I have discovered in my reading time and used it to sounds half intelligent which is good right because most people who like to run their mouth do not sound intelligent at all.

This is the first five poor habits. Tomorrow we will talk about the remaining five poor habits and I will give my opinion on them.

*TAB - This is the once government owned betting agency in both New Zealand and Australia.