Why You Should Strive To Be Multilingual

Have you ever wanted to speak French, or Spanish, or any other language aside from English? Have you ever wanted to charm the foreign exchange student in your class or get a leg up in the meeting at work? Well the time for talking about it is over! No matter what age you are, your brain has the impressive ability to learn and retain any language that you so desire. And the social and intellectual benefits of being multilingual are prodigious.

      I once knew a girl from Lithuania who informed that from as early as 4 years old schools in her country teach multiple languages, so that by the time they are going to University they are already fluent, or partially fluent in at least 3 or 4 languages. Having been raised and educated in Scotland (which is renowned for its academic excellence) I came to the realisation that us English speakers are at a disadvantage. Second languages are not taught in schools until around the age of 11 or 12, which already sets us behind other countries by approximately 6 or 7 years. But why does all this matter? You speak English in your own country, most other countries that you would travel to you can get by with English as the locals usually know a fair bit of English themselves, and hotels prefer to hire multilinguals. Well it is this kind of arrogance frequently portrayed by English speakers that is causing us to miss out on the amazing benefits of being multilingual.

The Benefits:

Intellectual

• You become better at English: According to a study by the University of Melbourne, studying other languages helps you understand the mechanics of grammar structure - in all languages.
• You become more intelligent: When you speak multiple languages your brain has to switch between different language centres in your brain and recognise which language is being spoken. Well this cognitive skill carries into other problem solving areas in your life as well. 
• You improve your memory: You like working out your body at the gym, but you may be neglecting your most important muscle - your brain. Multilinguals learn and memorise multiple phrases, words and verb tenses in different languages. Well that memorisation is like a bench press for your brain, improving it in many other aspects of your life.
• Become a secret agent: Well not exactly, but a study carried out by the University of Pompeu Fabra in Spain suggests that multiliguals are more perceptive of their surroundings and notice small details, others may overlook.

Social

• Become a local: When you go to other countries you will be able to converse with the locals in their own language, a feat which many locals would deem admirable enough to give you the inside scoop on the best places to go in their town or country. You will also be able to have real conversations with people, adding a whole new dimension to your trip. And by speaking the local language you also narrow down the chances of thieves and scam artists labelling you a tourist with a big money sign over your head.
• Get that promotion: You have that meeting for a new deal with a German company. The meeting was in English, but you feel the meeting never went as well as you hoped. Well the after meeting dinner or drinks is the perfect opportunity to converse with the potential client in their own language. After all, it is their down time now and they probably want to talk in their own language to relax. If you can enter that comfort zone with them, then maybe they will be impressed enough to tip the scales on their decision and sign the contract.
• Expand your job opportunities: This one is simple. If you speak multiple languages you are more valuable to an employer. To call centre staff, international business folk, airport workers, diplomats, politicians, military personnel and hundreds more you are a valuable asset if you are multilingual. If two people with equal degrees of education go for a job and one person speaks only English and the other five languages. Who do you think the employer is going to hire?
• Meet and make new friends: Being multilingual opens up the doors for the amount of people you can meet as you wont have any language barriers to overcome when meeting new people. Make friends with the person sitting next to you at the bar, or on the aeroplane, or anywhere for that matter. Just become a more socially diverse individual.

I hope in this comparatively short list to number of benefits there are, I have convinced you of the immense benefits of speaking more than one language. But to prove I am not a hypocrite of my own words, I can assure you that I am following this lifestyle myself. Having recently just embarked on my journey of becoming fluent in French, Spanish, Italian, German and Portuguese. I hope you try too!

Goodbye, Au Revoir, Adiós, Ciao, Auf Wiedersehen & Tchau.

How To Get The Truth From The News

Do not believe everything you hear on the news. News sources these days often paint a picture that rarely shows the entire truth. The key word in that last sentence being "entire". I am not by any means suggesting that modern journalism is a dead art. Some of the most influential and honourable people in this world are journalists. No, I am merely suggesting that Journalists, either by the order of their superiors or by their own national pride, have a disposition against casting their beloved country in a dismal light - at least on the global scale.
      So how then do we decipher what is written in the news when some key components of a story that would besmirch the reputation of the journalist's country are left absent in the article? How then are we supposed to gain a thorough understanding of global affairs when our eyes are unknowingly obstructed from seeing the whole picture?
      A recent example of this is when I was reading a news story on a US news website about US involvement in the Arab region. This story said the people were happy the US was there and the city in question was under majority control. However, after reading the same story in an Arab news source I discovered a contradicting idea to the same story. The people were in fact calling out for the United States to leave claiming they were making the situation worse with their presence and that daily bombings were happening in this "majority controlled" city. This did not cause me to disregard any of the facts claimed, it merely caused me to question what I was reading and to try read between the lines. Neither story is 100% accurate, but neither are any of them entirely false. Details had just been left out of each and picked up by the other.
      So, now to return to the question at hand as I hope I have ever so briefly convinced you that every story is working an angle and not all angles contain the same facts. Hopefully, the astute among you have already realized that I have indirectly answered the question, but for those of you who did not catch it right away here it is - READ MULTIPLE, INTERNATIONAL NEWS SOURCES. Simple as that. One of the vital words however is "international". In order to gain a global perspective of the world you have to look globally.  Otherwise you are going to have a very narrow minded opinion on world affairs based on what the one news source you frequently visit tells you to believe.
      So research yourself! Find the newspapers, stations, magazines that suit you. But to get you started here are just a few of my own main sources of news:

• The Guardian
• BBC News
• CNN
• Huffington Post
• Al Jazeera
• France 24
• Spiegel

EXTRA: Here's an article from cracked.com that tells of five story's where major facts were deliberately left out. Click HERE to read article

Productive Mornings Are The Key To Success & Happiness (Part 3) - Morning Exercise

The closure to this mini-series is in regard to the effectiveness of Exercise in the morning. We all (should) know that exercise is necessary to having a healthy lifestyle and an efficient body, and I am a firm believer of 'healthy body = healthy mind'. Most people have good intentions of exercising and getting healthy, but not a lot of us actually see it through and it is all because of that dreaded first step of getting out the door. If you can muster up the determination and actually get out there you are going to reap many benefits, but if you want to maximize the benefits try doing your exercise early in the morning. Here's why:

1. Boost Your Metabolism - Working out in the morning is like a jump start for your metabolism, and gets that system of yours running efficiently.
2. You Are More Likely To Actually Work Out - By working out in the morning you are setting you body up for a regimen of consistent exercise. Excuses like fatigue after a long day at work or after work reports aren't a factor first thing in the morning. Consistency is key!
3. Boost Your Brain - Working out in the morning wakes up your brain and kick starts it into your day. Giving you more focus and ingenuity throughout the day. Perhaps working out in the morning is what will give you that edge to be a more appealing candidate for that promotion.
4. More Energy and Better Mood - Morning exercise makes you feel better. I have never went out running and on my return said ' I wish I never did that'. It sets you up for your day and releases endorphins making you happy.
5. Lose Weight More Effectively - Early morning exercise helps you burn those calories more effectively. By working out in the morning your body uses the calories you consume more efficiently than if you were sedentary in the morning.

Make sure you do a multitude of exercises and not just stick to the same repetitive exercises everyday. Variety is important! So after these three posts I hope I have convinced you all to at least try rising early. From a self confessed morning lark it really does make all the difference in your life. So get out there and make a truly rewarding change in your life.

Productive Mornings Are The Key To Success & Happiness (Part 2) - Importance of Breakfast

As previously mentioned in Part 1 the morning is one of the most, if not the most critical time of the day in having a successful, healthy and happy lifestyle. As I have listed off the many benefits of actually waking up in the morning now I will inform you on actually being able to function at this high level of efficiency in the morning and that is with the most important meal of the day - Breakfast! There are many out there who like to skip the morning meal and dive right into their day, but in reality you are setting yourself up for disaster. Not only are you likely to having an incredibly unproductive, unfocused day, but you are priming your body for weight gain. So if you are skipping breakfast in order to lose weight then I am sorry, but you are approaching it from completely the wrong direction. I have been an advocate for breakfast for as long as I can remember and have (mostly) won my wife around to the idea of breakfast. But enough of my rambling; here is a brief summary of importance and benefits of breakfast:

1. Lose Weight and Prevent Obesity: This a bit of a juxtaposition, but actually eating breakfast will help you to lose weight. According to a study by the American Journal of Epidemiology people who skip breakfast are 4.5 times more likely to become obese. So if you are trying to lose some weight do not skip your morning meal.
2. Reduce Risk of Heart Disease and Diabetes: The American Heart Association revealed that breakfast eaters are likely to have considerably lower blood sugar which in high levels would lead unhealthy and dangerous complications.
3. Energy Boost to Start the Day: The International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition promote breakfast as a way of feeling more energized and less tired throughout the day. Fruits, Eggs and Whole-grains are among the highest nutritionally packed breakfast super-foods and having them every morning will have long lasting effects in your life.
4. Give Your Metabolism a Boost: By having breakfast in the morning you are making your body more effective at burning food and turning it into energy. When you sleep you are actually fasting, so if you do not eat in the morning your body starts to store what it has, turns it into fat and slows down the breakdown of food in your system. By not eating breakfast you have successfully tricked your body into entering survival mode. So let your body run normally and eat breakfast. Here are some metabolism boosting breakfast ideas.
5. Improve Your Memory: According to the Journal of Adolescent Health eating breakfast has a positive effect on your short term memory and concentration. But make sure it is a nutritionally valuable breakfast as sitting down to a fattening morning meal like the traditional English breakfast (as delicious as it is) can actually have adverse effects on concentration and health. 

With these huge benefits I hope I have turned you all on to getting in that morning meal.  By just having a small meal in the morning you will be able to reap all the benefits that come with it - an easy thing to improve your quality of life.

EXTRA: To be able to get up early you need to have had an effective sleep in the first place. Here are the three nutrients you need to having a good night sleep.

Productive Mornings Are The Key To Success & Happiness (Part 1) -Waking Up Early

Waking up early is one of those terms that either sounds delightful to some or horrendous to others. Some view it pessimistically by envisioning the prospect with the image of dragging oneself out of the fluffy heaven they call a bed and force a gallon of coffee down their gullet to prevent them from going back to that bliss; sometimes known as "night-owls". Others relish the feeling of springing out of bed in the morning to greet the sun and get a head start on their day; referred to as "morning lark". I myself am a morning lark, and fortunately so is my wife. The benefits of waking up early greatly outweigh those of evening wanderers and is key to implementing success in your life.

Are you a Morning Person or an Evening Person?

Here are some of the Benefits of Rising Early:

1. Increase Your Academic Ability. Studies have shown that those who rise early have on average a full 1.0 higher GPA than night people. The idea is that you kick start your mind into starting with the sun rather than artificial light emanating from TV and laptops all night. You are also less distracted by heavy drinking and other factors detrimental to your academics.
   
2. Become Proactive. According to a study completed by Harvard Biologist Chistoph Randler morning risers are more proactive and optimistic in trying to change a situation to their advantage - a key component to success.
3. Improve Organisation. Use that extra quiet time you have in the morning. Plan what you need to do and when. It will save you flustering like an idiotic buffoon later in the day when you realise you are halfway way across town and you have a meeting in ten minutes.
4. Time To Exercise. Utterly Vital. So much so that it will get its own segment in Part 3.
5. More Effective Sleep. If you go to sleep with the sun (or close to it) and rise with the sun studies say you will have a more naturally occurring sleep as your sleep cycle is in sync with the Earth's Circadian Rhythm.
6. Be Happier and More Optimistic. Research has shown that morning larks are more happy with life than night owls. And not just in the mornings, but throughout their entire day. So if you are a night owl drowning in pessimism or depression why not give rising early a chance.
7. Quicker Travel Times. Going into work that hour early might just be the key to making you less stressed at work. No more arriving after having been stuck in traffic jams and bottlenecks. Travel early and the roads are clearer and so is your mind.
8. Most Importantly...More Time With Family. Getting that jump start on your work day may just be what you need to finish early and on time so you can come home and spend time with your family. Allowing you to unwind, relax and appreciate one of the most important aspects of life.

How To Stick To Your Exercise Regime

In order to become the polymathic man one must develop all the main fundamental skills - Knowledge, Social Development, Creativity, and Physical Development. That means ALL of these categories. If you are an overweight, piano playing, Cambridge professor who is an active member of a local social club then unfortunately you are not a true Renaissance man.  Your overweight plight is what is preventing you from achieving this so if we are to strive for true personal development we must keep our body in prime condition. After all our mind and body are complimentary to each other. So in light of all this I have highlighted some key points that aided me in maintaining my personal fitness.

• Consistency: The best way I have found is to have a program written out and stick to it. Don't just exercise when you feel like it. You'll be more accountable to stick to it when you have a schedule for it.
• Variety: Change your workout. Don't just stick to the mundane repetitive exercise everyday. You will get bored and be less likely to continue your program. Try different sports to encourage your enjoyment in exercise.
• Training Partner: Having someone who is also trying to get in shape makes each of you accountable for the other. This really works when you feel like skipping a day but your partner does not.
  
  I myself am lucky enough to have my wife (who is an NCAA division 1 track & Field/Cross Country athlete) as my partner as she shares the same passion for fitness that I do.
• Have a Goal: Having a goal gives you motivation to stick to your program. You want to avoid that disheartened feeling you get when you do not achieve something you set out to do. Make it reasonable though. If you have never run try not to set out for a 17 minute 5k in a month.
• Compete: Sign-up for a local race, or sports tournament. Competing against other athletes will spur that competitive drive within you and make you want to train harder. 
• Keep Track: Keep track of your program stats - weight, BMI, Cholesterol level, Times for certain races, when you got tired during a badminton game etc. This will allow you to see improvement and motivate you to keep on going.
• Finally...Have Fun! If you enjoy what you are doing you are going to keep doing it. Make sure you do the sports and exercises you enjoy - not just what people tell you to do. 

Striving for physical fitness is a commitment and one we must really want for ourselves. You want your health to change then go out there and change it. It will compliment the rest of your life in ways you wont expect.

P.S. Make sure you eat healthy too!

A Greater Tomorrow: Relay For Life

As I have made abundantly clear I am an individual dedicated to self-improvement and the unlocking of my absolute potential in life. However, this past weekend on a blisteringly hot afternoon in Southern California my wife and I put our own interests aside and took a small four hours out of our day to volunteer for those in need. We dedicated our afternoon to volunteering with Relay For Life in the city of San Fernando, CA. Relay For Life is a charitable organisation partnered with the American Cancer Society to provide funding to research teams fighting to cure cancer and to give aid to the patients and families of those affected by the brutal disease.  Programs like these need as many volunteers as they can get for as little or as much time as people can donate. Sacrificing our own time selflessly to help others is part of what makes us human beings. It reminds us that there are others out there not as fortunate as ourselves and only together can we work to end the pain and suffering that happens to individuals all around the world. I may have only been able to donate four hours of my time but if we all do a small amount we can be a part of something great. I most certainly will be donating much more of my time as often as I can spare it and I urge you all to do the same. The world needs your help. GET NVOLVED

Britain Has a Wimbledon Champion Again

Andy Murray has defeated Novak Djokovic claiming the Wimbledon Title. He also got a whopping £1.6 million in prize money, so all in all a good day at the office for Murray today.This win marked him as the first British tennis player to win the competition in 77 years and he even did so in straight sets - Click HERE for the match statistics. The 26 year old has had an unpredictable history with Wimbledon which has landed him in multiple semi-finals and the final in 2012 in which he was defeated by Roger Federer. A defeat which surely drove his motivation for returning the following year with absolute resolution to win the title - a feat which has spawned the hashtag #wimbdledone. This competition was not an easy road for the Scot with both the Quarter final and semi final putting him on the brink of defeat before fighting back vigorously. Andy Murray has done what many could not do for decades and today I am a proud national of Scotland and Great Britain to have been alive to witness such an accomplishment for British tennis.

Tennis Rankings:

London Grammar Music

Music is one of the most potentially beautiful ways into a person's heart and mind. I have an incredibly eclectic taste in music and this enables me to have a certain level of open-mindedness when listening to all genres of music. Being a musician myself when I discover remarkable new music I instantly go into flurry of sharing as I believe everyone should experience this greatness (not always do people agree with my musical opinion). Even though I am in California I still feel the need to listen to BBC Radio 1 to get a lot of my music fixes and today I came across this beautiful piece of music by a band called London Grammar. Their sound graced my ears on the Zane Lowe show on BBC Radio 1 and the music instantly captivated me. I strongly recommend checking them out. Their debut album is to be released on September 1st, 2013 and they are currently touring around the UK. Click HERE for dates!

Books Every Man Must Read

I recently came across an article on the Art of Manliness that struck my interest. As a self confessed man intent on self improvement this article struck home pretty quickly (in fact the website itself is full or quirky and useful articles for every man's needs).
     It shows a list of 100 essential books for every man no matter your walk of life. I found myself astoundingly limited on the number of these I had actually read and have challenged myself to read all below. Here I have extracted the books that I found most interesting and made a few additions. For the AoM full list click HERE.

1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli
3. The Republic of Plato: Translation by Allan Bloom
4. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
5. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
6. The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann D. Wyss
7. The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer
8. Ulysses by James Joyce
9. The Art of War by Sun Tzu
10. Politics by Aristotle
11. Animal Farm by George Orwell
12. The Stranger by Albert Camus
13. On The Road by Jack Kerouac
14. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
15. The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux
16. Paradise Lost by John Milton
17. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
18. The SAS Survival Handbook by John 'lofty' Wiseman
19. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
20. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

I am currently plowing my way through this list to augment my literary diversity. Even if you aren't a literary obsessive or know-it-all (I certainly aren't) I encourage you all to try and read these, you have to start somewhere. Good Luck!