Carpe diem

Carpe diem : The most famous filmic use of the phrase was in Peter Weir's 1989 film Dead Poets Society, wherein the saying was used pivotally. The first time it is used in the film is when Robin Williams' character gives a short speech to his English class:

"But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen, you hear it? — Carpe — hear it? — Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary. "

Very inspirational. Check it out if you have not seen it and make your life extraordinary.

How to discover your life purpose in about 20 minutes

Steve Palvina writes an excellent personal development blog. Here an example: How to discover your life purpose in about 20 minutes:

"If you want to discover your true purpose in life, you must first empty your mind of all the false purposes you’ve been taught (including the idea that you may have no purpose at all). So how to discover your purpose in life? While there are many ways to do this, some of them fairly involved, here is one of the simplest that anyone can do. The more open you are to this process, and the more you expect it to work, the faster it will work for you. But not being open to it or having doubts about it or thinking it’s an entirely idiotic and meaningless waste of time won’t prevent it from working as long as you stick with it — again, it will just take longer to converge.

Here’s what to do:
1) Take out a blank sheet of paper or open up a word processor where you can type (I prefer the latter because it’s faster).
2) Write at the top, “What is my true purpose in life?”
3) Write an answer (any answer) that pops into your head. It doesn’t have to be a complete sentence. A short phrase is fine.
4) Repeat step 3 until you write the answer that makes you cry. This is your purpose. "

Try it out.

When the student is ready the teacher will come

The success of Dirk Nowitzki in the Basketball playoffs can be traced back to his second father German trainer Holger Geschwindner.

From a good to know perspective is this quote: "He's ready to learn and he's listening". Not only: When the student is ready the teacher will come, but also leaving the ego at home and taking the advice and work with it.

Another excellent insight:

Their first Christmas together, Geschwindner gave Nowitzki a saxophone.
(He's switched to guitar since losing some teeth early in his NBA career.)
Geschwindner later took Nowitzki to see the opera "The Marriage of Figaro,''
adding that Nowitzki left the theater singing the songs.
"I know from my experience and my job that 30 percent of intelligence, how you move, can come from music,'' Geschwindner said. "It's just to learn the tunes, different mentalities.

Wow music is just fascinating. Also by working on different skills of yours, you become a more well rounded person.

Interactive part of the session

First thing I did when the students came in last year to the session was signing them up to be coauthers of this blog. You can check the profiles that they set up in the right hand navigation.

Once I introduced them to the concept they blogged about things that are good to know for their fellow students. Rat even posted one entry when he was home again. That really made me happy.

NYLF Wikipedia Entry

There is an entry about NYLF on the Wikipedia. I don't think the entry really does the event justice, but I think the students that have participated should write what it really is about.

In the hope to make some NYLF students aware of this interactive session, where you learn about things that are good to know when growing up and how to collaborate/express yourself online, I added a link to this blog in the external links section of the entry.