About

Mind-Manual is about joy. It is the joy of learning, of teaching, of growing and of just making people laugh.

More pragmatically, Mind-Manual focuses on how to use our minds better and more effectively in order to accomplish whatever it is that we are trying to accomplish. I also like to share interesting, thought-provoking or useful ideas about how to use your mind, about personal development and life in general.

I believe that as we more further and further into a world of knowledge-work, our ability to think properly and right are going to need to be refined. If you can think properly, I’d choose you for whatever over someone who may have similar qualifications but doesn’t know how to think. That’s one of the reasons Bachelor of Arts’ graduates are in demand–they know how to think and they are highly trainable.

I envisioned this site as an extension to Steve Pavlina’s Personal Development for Smart People site. Pavlina has had a huge influence on my life and his writings talk about many topics better than I ever could. So I focus on ideas which build on his ideas. An added bonus is that I am relatively new to personal development (about 2 years) compared to Pavlina (somin like 10 years), so a lot of the stuff he’s already been through and may not remember that well, I’m just going through now. I spend a lot of time in self-reflection and some of my insights into my own psyche can help you in your own personal growth.

If you like what you see, please, add Mind-Manual to your RSS feed. Thanks and enjoy your stay.

As I said before, Pavlina puts many things so well that I cannot match it, so I will just quote his front page:

This site will help you make conscious decisions in your personal development and courageously follow through on them. This means having the maturity to take 100% responsibility for your health, your career, your finances, your relationships, your emotions, your habits, and your spiritual beliefs. It requires taking a hard look at yourself, consciously deciding what kind of person you truly are on the inside, and then getting your actions to be congruent with your true self. The goal is to help you achieve outstanding effectiveness while maintaining internal balance, where your thoughts, feelings, actions, and skills are all working together to create the life you truly desire.

Personal development is hard work. If you’re looking for shallow quick fixes, you’ll need to look elsewhere. This site will help you learn to live more consciously, to summon the courage to face the unfaceable parts of your life, and to solve the deep problems you’ve not yet been able to solve. You’ll learn practical ideas to make important changes in your life, both big and small, so you can get your life on track and start living up to your potential.

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Legal Notice

Short Version

This web site provides educational information on personal development, but you are 100% responsible for what you do or don’t do with it. This web site is for smart people only. Usage by morons is expressly prohibited. If you need a warning label on your coffee to avoid burning yourself, leave immediately.

Long Version

This web site is intended to provide educational information on topics related to personal development. The publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, medical, financial, or other professional services. If expert assistance is required, please seek the services of a competent professional.

The publisher has endeavored to make the material on this site accurate. The information should be used only as general guide, however, as the publisher cannot guarantee that this information is free of typographical or content errors. Furthermore, each piece of content contains educational information only up to its original publication date.

THE INFORMATION ON THIS SITE IS PROVIDED “AS-IS”. THE AUTHOR(S) AND THE PUBLISHER WILL ASSUME NO LIABILITY NOR RESPONSIBILITY TO ANY PERSON OR ENTITY WITH RESPECT TO ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE RELATED DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY TO THE INFORMATION ON THIS SITE. NO WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE. THE PUBLISHER WILL PROVIDE NO REMEDY FOR INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES ARISING FROM THIS SITE, INCLUDING SUCH FROM NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, OR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, EVEN AFTER NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

If you don’t wish to be bound by the above, begone.

PS: If you’ve noticed, this is the same legal notice as Pavlina has, here. I hope I won’t get flogged for copyright infringement. :-p

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This page is about me.

I’m having a bit of difficulty coming up with stuff to write about me. There’s the purely biographical information, such as that I’m in Toronto in Canada or that my favourite colour is blue, which would probably explain this blue site.

I occasionally make websites, such as this one for the University of Toronto Film Festival. I’m also involved in the upkeep of Hart House Film Board website, and I’ve done some coding for them. So, if you’d like someone to make and/or support a simple website for you, contact me.

I also occasionally make videos of trials bikers. Trials is a small, bike sport, where the objective is for the rider to overcome obstacles without putting their foot down. I make these videos under the name of Insanity Studios Inc. Here are the videos I have put online. The best one is the last one. Toronto Trials 1. Toronto Trials 2. I was also involved in the production of this video. Short Bike Trials videos with James Barton (if you’re gonna watch just one, watch this one).

I write, too. I may put some of my pieces of satire/parody up here at some point. I’m writing some scripts with a very talented and funny young man, which we’re going to make into movies/videos and put online, too.

The above three activities may give you the impression that I am an artistic person. And the stereotype of artists is that they are incapable of doing anything else, but that’s not true in my case. I love working with my hands and building things. I’m extremely adept at technology, having a strange sort of “sixth sense” about them. I would have made a great engineer, and I reckon I still could.

I got into Personal Development seriously in the summer of 2006, through the help of Steve Pavlina’s wonderful site, which I had known about for a few months before then. In February of 2006, I entered into a nation-wide stand-up comedy competition which was being filmed for broadcast on national TV. Having no experience with stand-up comedy, I, of course, bombed totally and utterly. It was a wonderful learning experience for me, though, and one of the more pivotal moments in my life. I was jarred out of my previous lethargy and forced to look at my life critically. I’m glad I got on that stage. The other thing that got me into PD, I will reveal on a later date.

I have a number of long-term goals, but a very important one is that I want to be financially independent. This can mean different things, so my goal is to get to a point where I don’t have to work for a living, and have multiple streams of income. That way, I can work if I want to but I can take the day off if I don’t. The strategy for doing this involves creating streams of passive income (such as this website), investing wisely (which I will talk about on this site) and just doing what I love to do.

I want to speak about personal finance to people, particularly young people. I think that learning about personal finance is one of the best things a person can do and am saddened that it isn’t taught in schools. So, I intend to close that gap by making speeches at high schools and university/college student clubs. For free, at least, for now. Helping people gain control of an important part of their lives is more important to me than making money. If anyone in the Toronto area (or elsewhere, if you’re willing to pay for transportation) is interested in an enthusiastic young man speaking to other young people, please really do let me know because I would love to.

To recap, if you’d like someone to do the following, please let me know:

• speak about personal finance for free
• make websites
• make/help with videos/movies
• write
• offer me a job (I may be willing to move, depending on ze job, contact me for a resume)
• ????
• Profit! (ie. take all your monies) :p

Well, I love rambling as much as the next person, but I think I shall end this here. If you wish to contact me, feel free to contact me or write a comment.