Hello everyone and welcome back to the blog!
This is the final post on this site since Blogger sites are rather hard to share all over the internet, I will be working on making something a little more professional in the coming days and I will post it here once I have something to lead you all over to it!
Happy Trails everyone!
Hello everyone and welcome back to the blog! Today I wanted to do another Top 5 list and this time I wanted to take a look at something a little different...my Top 5 music genres! These are of course my own taste and if you like these or don't this is not a judgement against you or anything, I just felt like talking about my favourite types of music! So, without further ado let's dive into the list!
Job-Career-Passion-Mission Hierarchy
By Marcus Levis
2019-06-24
In
my travels throughout the working world, I have to say that there has been
nothing I have seen or thought of that could explain the working world more
than something I picked up and expanded on from The Minimalists; Joshua Fields
Milburn and Ryan Nicodemus. In one of their podcasts where they were talking
about jobs and in general the working world and more so about us all finding
something that aligns with our values and beliefs and not just doing something
to get “that all mighty dollar”. Josh mentioned that there is something that we
all should strive to do which is to take our Jobs or Careers and turn them into
something we can become passionate about (or to go and seek out what it is that
we are passionate about) and eventually with enough refining and drudgery we
can turn it into our mission. I decided to take this and expand on it and call
it the Job to Mission Hierarchy. I am going to expand on what each level is,
how to move up and why I feel, much like The Minimalists, that we should all be
striving for the mission.
The
first level is Job. This requires no experience to get started in, this is
often involving retail, restaurants or even base-level jobs to get you in, that
again require no experience. You may need experience in these jobs in order to
move from one level to another, but there is no educational requirement for
these jobs. A dishwasher in a restaurant does not need a university degree to
do that job, a sales representative in a retail store did not need to go to
school for fashion to be able to sell shoes. They are often filler jobs,
serving the purpose of getting us to a place where we can eventually shoot for
that career-level employment and examples of this would be kids getting jobs in
high school, the jobs we all worked in College/University or even the basic
jobs that new immigrants tend to work when they first come over so that they
can get some money coming in. Now, I know of people who at the very basic level
are very content sticking it out working for Walmart or Tim Hortons for the
rest of their lives. They live simply, they can move up the ranks, but do not
kid yourself, these are still not careers despite what you may tell everyone.
If I can get in and work under you without experience, and without any
education, and just putting in my time, move up and eventually replace or even
move above you, it is not a career but a job. The biggest piece about jobs is
that they really only satisfy one aspect; money. You need it, and now you are
getting it, no one really feels fulfilled scrubbing toilets in some greasy
spoon for the rest of their lives (trust me, I was there at one point). Careers
can satisfy much more.
The
second level is Career. To achieve this, there is often an educational barrier
of some sort. A 2-year college diploma, a 4-year bachelor degree, these
employment situations may start off as entry-level and not paying much (or in
terms of unpaid internships, not at all), but there is a chance through either
more education (i.e.. Going to Uni after College, or going for that Master's
Degree) or through the old adage of “putting in your time” you can eventually
move up the ladder, get salary and benefits within most organizations, and a
lot of these even entry-level positions pay more than most stages at the Job
level. Careers can satisfy on both a monetary and emotional level, but let's be
real here for a second, it is still in the bottom half of the hierarchy for a
reason, they are not and should not be the end of achievement. Most people (I
would rough it out to about 80%) are more than okay just striving for some
mediocre job paying them 50-80k a year, with the salary and benefits and just
sitting comfy on that. Why not? They can afford a mortgage on a house, start a
family, go on vacations, do almost anything that you would want to do with that
amount of money, but there is one area where careers lack; achievement. When
you are just sitting pretty making your money over there in the corner, having
had a college/university experience in your past, and making the best life for
yourself possible, you are missing out on feeling truly fulfilled by doing
anything more than just effecting your small circle of influence that you have
created. This is the reason why a lot of people will go through all of this,
the education, starting the family, buying the house and then it will all fall
apart because there is something that is missing; the passion. It is not there
with Careers.
The
third level is Passion. Passions are the beginning of the top part of the
hierarchy and this is something that not all people have the luck or joy of
ascending to, and it is not because they cannot, it is because this often
requires either a lot of sacrifice, breaking apart systems and things that you
have created for yourself, or getting lucky and knowing what you are passionate
about before investing 20+ years into the career you have chosen. Passions are
often harder to eke out into the open because we all naturally have regrets and
worries; “is this the thing I want to do for the rest of my life?” “where is
the money in this?” “I do not know if I want to put myself through that much
schooling...” and a whole host of others because society and the average person
do not have the drive...or do we...but it is just that we think that at the
career level we have it made. People see the house, car, family, vacations
pictures and assume that they have all that society wants them to have and that
they need not achieve any more. That to me is just human arrogance and
laziness. People should then once they have all of the things that they could
need, begin the next phase which is looking for your passion. Something that in
and of itself gets you excited to get up in the morning, something that whenever
it is happening it does not feel like work, something that comes natural to
you, and more importantly, you should be doing it regardless of whether you are
making your money from it or not. If you have your passion on the side while
you are working a career, and then one day you can make that transition that is
the ultimate goal. Your passion is a job that is not a job, a lifelong career
that is not a career, and something that transcends work. Whether that is
teaching, writing, playing sports, gardening or whatever. You may also notice
that it seems like I have mentioned things that many people pass off as
“hobbies”, but that is truly where passions sprout from, things you enjoy
doing, then you find a way to get good (son) and then eventually when you are
feeling confident you can move on to making some money and then eventually
supporting yourself and your lifestyle on something that you are passionate
about. It is a lengthy process, but worth it in the end. Now, to many people
this would seem the end of the line, but if you notice there is still one level
left; Mission.
The
fourth and final level is Mission. A mission begins once you have finished all
of the above steps from the passion and are now fully supported on your
passion. Now you are turning around and giving back to the community at the
very least, and trying to change the world at the very most. You have become
proficient at the particular passion; you could even say that it is “your
calling”, and now you are giving back to the world because you are in a state
where you can afford to do so and have nothing much more to gain personally, so
you want to see the world succeed. Whether that is going from teaching in a
high school classroom to teaching English to children in a foreign country, going
from practicing writing philosophy to publishing the next great philosophical
piece, going from gardening in your backyard to running the local botanical
gardens. It is taking that passion up to a level where more people than just
you and those closest to you benefit. The mission is the ultimate end goal, and
if we were all striving to achieve this (and we all can), the world would be a
better and happier place. If everyone could do what they love to do, support
themselves on it, the world would not only be a more fulfilling place, but one
painted in all of the colours and told in all future stories.
Marcus
Levis (Age 23)
Hello everyone and welcome back to the blog! Today I just wanted to give everyone a little sneak peak into at least a portion of the plot of my current works 2101. I hope that this will help build the idea of the world that I have created and I also hope you like it.
2101 is obviously set in the 22nd century right at the beginning of the year. The world has been taken over by Big Data who has managed to hack into the human genome using the Bhav-Link technology of the microchips that were implanted in the brain stem in order to eventually control the human race.
It is an ode to/love letter to George Orwell's 1984 as I look into the future and in a sense envision how things in the world that we currently have, get out of control (differently than they already have). I can only hope that there is an elegance to the story in a similar way to 1984.
Wish me luck and talk to you all tomorrow!
Hello everyone and welcome back to the blog. First off, Happy April 2022! New month and of course it is also the birthday month for me and so no matter what I am always a little excited (despite turning 26 I do not care). I wanted to take some time today to talk about the progress on my book 2101 and just let everyone know where I am at and of course since we are going into a weekend, I will be taking the weekend just to rest up and prepare to knock it out of the park come Monday.
So, when I started the book back in July 2021 I really only worked on it for a few hours. I got maybe 1500 words into it as a place holder idea and then left it until I rediscovered it when launching this blog. Between July 15th, 2021 and March 20th, 2022 only around 1500 words total...I am now sitting at around 12-13k words as we enter into the first day of the Camp NaNoWriMo that I talked about yesterday. This is a massive improvement. I also have a few side documents that I use to scribble ideas into and I know that the camp technically started today, but I will not be starting till Monday as I need to relax this weekend and take a breather (everyone is entitled to that).
I have now completed the first three chapters of the book and I am now working on Chapter 4, I am actually quite impressed with how things are moving along and I think one of these days soon, when I am much further along...maybe I will share the 1st chapter of the book here on the blog? At least what it will look like at that time I think will be something pretty cool! I will however talk more about the book tomorrow and reveal a little bit about the plot of the book just in case people are interested.
Thank you for reading and see you tomorrow!
Meditation
on Karmic Influence
By
Marcus Levis
2019-06-04
The definition of something such as Karma is
officially lost on the average person living in the 21st century except
those who happen to practice faiths and spiritualities in which it is incorporated
(Wicca, Paganism, Hinduism ect.). I am of the belief that Karma affects more of
the day to day lives of all of us now then it ever has. I hear a lot of people
use this term in my day to day with a lot of them not really having a deep
understanding of how it truly affects them. Karma is all over the place and
exists constantly. Karma is dished out or awarded based not just on our
actions, but the intentions behind them and how severe we mean those
intentions. I could do something nice for someone, but if I am thinking in my
head how much of an ungrateful asshole they are, and that they should be lucky
that I am even helping them at all, this will negate any positive karmic value.
Karma is of course awarded in a score. This is
something that I will touch on later in a separate piece of work, since it is
quite complex, but for now I will focus on the level of influence Karma plays
in all our lives. It is in every thought, every action and every emotion. Karma
itself does not take a physical form, but it persists in a way that is easily
manipulated by the universe. In that way, and that way alone can Karma always
be with us.
We must watch the way that we speak as it can be in
the harshness of our language. We must watch the way that we think because it
can exist between our thoughts and we must watch the deepest feelings of our
souls as it can manifest itself even in there, and in there it will and can
cause the most damage. It can even exist n our dreams though that one is up for
debate, but there are a few points to be merited for that.
We must not fear Karmic recompense, as if we do, the
negative repayment for our actions will be far worse off in the end and the
positive repayment will be less so to the point where we may not even believe
in ever doing good things for the old adage “no good deed goes unpunished” is
only true in this sense. One is never truly punished, only delayed the desired
gratification.
Karma’s positives and negatives will show themselves at
different times. The positive payouts will be not immediate, but always done
with your best interest in mind. The negative payouts will always come when it
would most inconvenience you as that is part of why they are negative payouts. The
universe does not like owing anyone and will always return itself to a neutral
state as best possible. If a deed is done with such an amount of positivity
that the universe could not pay out all at once, then it will trickle out over
a long period of time, but one day it will neutral out, same goes for something
negative, though that tends to then come with many later in life obstacles.
Karma is a huge influence and its reign should never
be questioned as it cannot be stopped even if few tried. It is here to stay and
this is how I believe that it exists even more than ever today in the 21st
century!
Marcus Levis (Age 23)
Hello everyone and welcome back to the blog! Today I want to talk a little bit about the preparation that I have had underway for Camp NaNoWriMo April 2022! This is going to be my first one, and I want to try to explain the camp as best I can and then talk about what exactly I have done to prepare for it.
NaNoWriMo is the National Novel Writing Month and it takes place in November of every year. The organization NaNoWriMo runs that event on their website and really it is all about getting yourself into writing and it is all about honour system, self-reporting. The main event in November is to start a brand new piece of work (usually) and starting from scratch, try to write 50,000 words in the month which usually averages out to about 1,667 words per day.
They also run these smaller "Camps" twice a year in April and July where you can work on any project and even prepare yourself for the larger event in November.
For me what this turns into is me working on 2101 and preparing for April 2022 Camp NaNoWriMo by putting an additional 10-15k words into my book in order to have the story already well started for when the month starts. I am also trying to add 50,000 words into the book by the end of April 2022. This will in my opinion really get the book on the way towards being completed. Somewhere between 60-70k words should be where I find myself after the month is over and it will be one hell of a nice effort.
By the time I get to July 2022, I think I would either want to work on the same project and get it right to the end by August 2022, or if I can manage to finish the book before July 2022 camp, then I can work on another project that I have waiting in the winds.
Just thought I would let everyone know what the process has been like and I have now finished the first three chapters of the book which really helps to create the world of 2101. I will talk more about that book in a future entry soon!
See you all tomorrow!
