‘We know everyone has been anxiously waiting (including us) for another career panel and the panelists for the date have now been set! Come join us at the Herman Miller Showroom on Saturday, May 19th to listen and talk to some major folks from the music industry. On the panel will be producer Ray Romulus of Stereotypes, manager/A&R Brock Korsan of Sony-Columbia and publisher Juan Madrid of Warner/Chappell.
Hear inspiring stories, what it’s like to work in the music industry and how you can work in it too. Doors open at 2:30 pm. If you aren’t in LA and want to watch the panel, we got you. We will be streaming the event live HERE. Save the link! For those attending the career panel, the event is free but seats are limited so you must RSVP above. See you then!‘

www.behindthehustle.com

A special thanks to everyone who contributed to the video (Pharrell Williams, Cooper Sierra, Romarius LaMon, Jon Genius, DP, DJ Frank Nitty, DJ Trixx, DJ MG, DJ Showtime, Spotlight Ent., Keith Claytor & Brettnee Nelson of Time Frozen Photography, Mom (Migdalia Narvaez), Deborah Davila, Surrita Harris, Shirley Narvaez, Tatianna Bennifield, Everyone at Manhattan Community Board 9, Danielle Chase, Fatal of the Paperboys, Cam Fletcher, Ty Brown, MusicKidd

Big K.R.I.T. (http://bigkrit.com/) is quickly transforming from man to legend. Reared on the fertile banks of the Mississippi Delta, hip hop pioneer “KRIT” is inextricably linked to the strength of his roots. KRIT sat down with Clarissa Dolphin (www.dolphinink.biz) to enlighten Broccoli City about the historicity of his craft and how the soul of the South is encapsulated in his sound. The Def Jam record label artist’s new album Live from the Underground will be released in June.

BUKU Music & Art Project was a two-staged indoor and outdoor progressive music festival banging on the banks of the Mississippi River in March. The bass rippled waves in waters ravaged by hurricane Katrina, the surrounding Gulf of Mexico still gurgling oil. Many revelers came from all over the Delta and adjacent states to see Grammy-winner Skrillex, Avicii, Diplo, A-Trak, and Wiz Khalifa for the first time. The atmosphere propagated by the fecund humid swamp air was one of begetting: the palpable parturition of creating and defining an unprecedented cognizance.

DOLPHIN:     I credit the South to be the origin of all modern music period.  We had Buddy [Bolden] up in the 1910s with his [Ragtime] band walking down Bourbon Street.  And then we had 70 years of Jazz as a result.

BIG K.R.I.T.:  Mm-hmm.

DOLPHIN:     And so we had this 1980s movement and now we have 30 years of Hip Hop.

BIG K.R.I.T.:  No doubt.

DOLPHIN:     The South is really representing in the last 5 years.

BIG K.R.I.T.:  Mm-hmm.

DOLPHIN:     How your music and Southern Hip Hop is in general — contributing to the current evolution of Hip Hop — we’re 30 years in?

BIG K.R.I.T.:  Yeah, I would like to think that one is staying true to what I grew up listening to as well, remembering that the way 808 drums, you know, kicks and samples, and incorporating the Blues and the soulful aspect to it.

There was a certain kind grit to Southern Hip Hop, when I first came up listening to it that I felt like was our own sound.  And I got that from listening to UGK, Outkast, 8Ball and MJG kind of people.  And so that to me is like okay, I want my music to sound like that. 

And so that is what I have been trying to accomplish with the mixing of my beats and my instrumentals.  And then remembering that Blues was so impactful when it came to our music that even going and sampling Muddy Waters and B.B. King and, you know, these kinds of artists in my music was all important.  Thank you.

DOLPHIN:     BUKU, this is the first of its kind?  This awesome City has been devastated by Katrina and oil spills; what are you feeling about bringing your music to such an intimate festival and seeing people rocking out and just enjoying themselves?

BIG K.R.I.T.:  I am excited.  For one, you know for one, for the two cultures of music to be blending, Electronic Dubstep and Hip Hop and I had the opportunity to work, do a show with Girl Talk and Pretty Lights just how music is changing.  Everybody is more willing to work with each other, you know.  I heard that Skrillex is going on too.

I am excited to see him hit the stage; just to be part of this atmosphere, man, because people just want to make quality music now.  And it is not so coastal and it is not so, oh my genre is better than yours.  You know, it is just for the overall aspect of the music.

DOLPHIN:     Yeah, it is beautiful.  It is authentic now, man.

BIG K.R.I.T.:  No doubt.

DOLPHIN:     So what is next for you?  Are you still working on your Def Jam Album now?

BIG K.R.I.T.:  Yeah, boom.  It comes out on June 5th.  It is called Live from the Underground.  I just let everybody know at SXSW know that B.B. King is featured on my album. I’m excited because I dropped three free projects; K.R.I.T Wuz Here, Return of 4eva and 4eva N a Day.  And Lord willing, I have built up confidence in my supporters to actually go purchase my Album.

DOLPHIN:     Yeah I’m about to get it.

BIG K.R.I.T.:  Thank you.

DOLPHIN:     I’m from the West Coast, straight up Cali, L.A. represent and I find that we have very distinct Hip Hop cultures all around the country.  West Coast to me is Cipher, Battle, Shout Out culture.  What I find interesting about Southern Rap is that you guys kind of do your own rendition of other artists’ songs by using their choruses or throwing your verse on their beat.  And referencing them.  What is that about?

BIG K.R.I.T.:  I mean that was taken from a freestyle aspect.  If you’re talking about more Choppin’ the Screws, Screwing up your Hook, taking people’s beat instrumentals and putting verses on them; it was a point and time where Southern Hip Hop necessarily wasn’t on the radio per se.  So what we were doing was taking other people’s tracks and putting our verses on them, and they would somehow become hotter than the originals.

And so we were making noise like that.  But it is still a basis.  If you’re talking about UGK and Outkast and things like that, there was a lot in the soul in the music.  It is just that we pay homage.  It is a lot of paying homage and we don’t mind.  It is kind of — it is just a traditional kind of thing to do.

DOLPHIN:     Yeah I get it.  I get the Southern hospitality.  That geniality ruminates even if your songs are obscene, you know? I really get that.  Thank you so much for that history.

BIG K.R.I.T.:  No doubt.

The musicians Clarissa spoke to for Broccoli City were elated to share their thoughts on the cultural genesis taking place in the music scene today. According to them, digitalism has inexorably altered the way we commune with our kind, elevating niche to mainstream. The “fall of the superstar” has been supplanted by fertile collaborations between artists across all genres. Eclecticism reigns in a society where individualism has fused with collective consciousness.

Electronic music producer FIGURE’s (http://imfigure.net/) vigorous bass stuns marrow in bones on impact. CEO of DOOM Music FIGURE sat down with Clarissa Dolphin (www.dolphinink.biz) to enlighten Broccoli City on the inspiriting terror that dwells in his sound. The industrious musician tours around the world and is constantly creating new music for his fans.

BUKU Music & Art Project was a two-staged indoor and outdoor progressive music festival banging on the banks of the Mississippi River in March. The bass rippled waves in waters ravaged by hurricane Katrina, the surrounding Gulf of Mexico still gurgling oil. Many revelers came from all over the Delta and adjacent states to see Grammy-winner Skrillex, Avicii, Diplo, A-Trak, and Wiz Khalifa for the first time. The atmosphere propagated by the fecund humid swamp air was one of begetting: the palpable parturition of creating and defining an unprecedented cognizance.

DOLPHIN:     Your sound has a dark sexuality; I call it Sultry Chainsaw Music [laughs].

FIGURE:         Yeah I can see that.  Yeah.

DOLPHIN:     Do you like horror at all?

FIGURE:         Yeah um, I’m honestly — entertainment wise, it’s like 90 percent horror movies or like soundtracks of stuff versus like actual music.  So it happens with a formula; what I make is within the idiom construct, but it’s all just influenced from that stuff.  That’s all I do.  Like the moment I get home, the moment it’s TV time it’s just like scary movies through the whole time.

DOLPHIN:     Me too [laughs].

FIGURE:         Yeah it’s so fun.

DOLPHIN:     So the thing about your music is that it has this like horror, terror back kind of drop.  But personally, I’m on some U.K. Garage Todd Edwards like fuckin’ house shit, right?

FIGURE:         Right, right.

DOLPHIN:     But you make me want to shake my ass.

FIGURE:         [Laughs]

DOLPHIN:     So I’m wondering how you balance this like horror –

FIGURE:         I think it’s because I started with Hip Hop for a really long time.  I have a long run with it.  Like I traveled with it and everything; nothing has crossed over to me now with it — I use the same name and everything, but it’s that there’s a difference in electronic beat and sort of like a Hip Hop groove.  Like more for the booty than the head I guess you would say.

It’s the groove.

Yeah it’s the booty groove more than the groove for the head I guess, drum wise.

But maybe that’s what it is.  I don’t know if that grounds because it’s — and the Beat here too is a bit faster in electric dubstep or whatever, so it has a Hip Hop thing.  It has like a Club vibe, but it’s dubstep noises over Hip Hop drums I guess you would say.  So I guess it’s the same — yeah, you get that Hip Hop balance.

But it’s not Hip Hop.

It is to me.  Like I’m just making beats; I’m not looking like oh my goodness I’m trying to make this new single.  Like it’s just a beat to me but it’s a full beat without a Rapper.  That’s how I look at it.

DOLPHIN:     I feel you.

FIGURE:         Maybe it translates like that, I don’t know.

DOLPHIN:     Well it certainly does [laughs].  I went to the University of Pittsburgh and I did — like I’m born and raised in L.A. City Girl.

FIGURE:         Mm-hmm.

DOLPHIN:     I traveled to New York [on the train] and I went through Pennsylvania — I know you’re from Gary, Indiana, and I was scared shitless.  I saw like an aborted fetus—

FIGURE:         Yeah, yeah.

DOLPHIN:     —Like on a billboard and all this shit in this back country.

FIGURE:         Yeah there are like signs on the side of the highway that’s says “Satan is Real”.  And then you drive off and you look in your rearview mirror and it says like “God is Coming”.  It’s creepy shit.

DOLPHIN:     Creepy shit.  And so I’m in the middle of these woods, see this like Deliverance fucking house and I’m like dude if this train stops some inbred cannibals are going to come on and eat me alive.

FIGURE:         Yeah, you’re going be in your own movie, yeah.

DOLPHIN:     You’re going to be in your own movie.  So I’m wondering if that pastoral setting enhances this whole haunting terror nature that you have in your sound?

FIGURE:         Well the only thing that really comes like from maybe the culture that I grew up in, like not music wise or anything assiduous — there are a lot of old churches and old weird buildings in the woods and when we were younger, that’s what we would do.  We would break into old creepy churches.

And there were churches with nooses hanging and no one knows why and instead of the seats facing where like the Preacher would be, they’re facing towards the door and they’re nailed down.  So it’s not like some kids got in there — there was just weird stuff.  Like that’s what we used to do.  We would either go skate or we would go look at scary shit.  Or just try to stir up some hornets I guess.  I don’t know.

Like it didn’t really just like transfer over from that, but maybe that’s — but I know there are some back highways that people think it’s funny to like dress people — like I guess the rednecks that would be around there — and they hang dummies from the trees over the back roads, the streets just to be funny.  Imagine driving and not being from around there and you see it and you’re like fuck and there is this dummy hanging from a tree.  Yeah, maybe that’s an undertone that has affected me.

DOLPHIN:     That would scare the shit out of me.

FIGURE:         I never really considered that because I grew up with it so I never thought that it like seeped through.

DOLPHIN:     Cool.  Thank you for bringing that up.  It’s really awesome.  What’s next for you?

FIGURE:         I’m just working on a whole lot of music.  A lot of it has a home, which is my label [DOOM Music] and my like team’s label.  And a lot of it is I’m just making [tunes] because I’m playing enough that I don’t want to play — I want to play new stuff for every — I want to play a new song every show almost.  It’s not really just a music schedule that’s next.  It’s like whatever show is next, that’s what is next.  I want to plan for the future, but I’m always for what’s tomorrow.

FIGURE:         Like do I have a new sound for tomorrow.  I don’t know just a bunch of new music.  For all the fans and stuff.

DOLPHIN:     Got you man.  How do you feel about being at BUKU?  This is the first festival of its kind; like New Orleans has been ravaged by Katrina.  And with oil spills and shit and it is an awesome cultural place.

FIGURE:         I’ve heard so much about New Orleans like so much positive stuff, and I’m just really excited to be at the festival and I’m like really excited to wake up tomorrow and be in New Orleans and not have to — like have no responsibilities and just do whatever I want.

Because my flight is really late and my manager is from here, and she’s going to how me, not the tourist New Orleans, but like the real New Orleans.  Yeah, I don’t know, the festival is awesome.  I love it.

It’s real close together too.  You don’t have to walk down a hill and all through this stuff and like break a sweat to get to the next stage.  Like you see the stage and you walk over; it’s all right here.  It’s cool, yeah.  It’s like a little condense cultural — yeah, it’s awesome.

The musicians Clarissa spoke to for Broccoli City were elated to share their thoughts on the cultural genesis taking place in the music scene today. According to them, digitalism has inexorably altered the way we commune with our kind, elevating niche to mainstream. The “fall of the superstar” has been supplanted by fertile collaborations between artists across all genres. Eclecticism reigns in a society where individualism has fused with collective consciousness.

STAY TUNED FOR MORE INTERVIEWS!

Electronic big band duo Big Gigantic (http://biggigantic.net/) are masters of sonic synthesis. Crowds are blown away by the melodies created when Jeremy Salken’s on the drums and Dominic Lalli’s blowing lungs into his saxophone. Jeremy and Dom sat down with Clarissa Dolphin (www.dolphinink.biz) to enlighten Broccoli City about their musical diversity and their thoughts on how the industry has culturally transformed. Big Gigantic is hot on the festival circuit and will be performing at several events throughout the summer.

BUKU Music & Art Project was a two-staged indoor and outdoor progressive music festival banging on the banks of the Mississippi River in March. The bass rippled waves in waters ravaged by hurricane Katrina, the surrounding Gulf of Mexico still gurgling oil. Many revelers came from all over the Delta and adjacent states to see Grammy-winner Skrillex, Avicii, Diplo, A-Trak, and Wiz Khalifa for the first time. The atmosphere propagated by the fecund humid swamp air was one of begetting: the palpable parturition of creating and defining an unprecedented cognizance.

DOLPHIN:     I was really interested in your name because to me, it’s kind of like homage to Big Band Jazz, but it also deeper than that.  It’s like Big Gigantic you know music creating something that is bigger and more gigantic than the Self.  So what’s the story behind that?

DOM:             I wish it were that.  I wish it were that. [laughter] — That would be amazing, honestly.  I mean the story behind that is pretty much I was walking down the street one day and I was like Big . . . Gigantic, and I was like okay that could be a pretty good band.  And then I was like I’m going to hold on to that one.  And then I started a MySpace page like four years ago — three years ago.

And I started putting my beats on there.  And so that’s pretty much it.  But I — Yeah when I thought of it, I was like yeah this definitely like a keeper, my first thought [laughs].  I know it’s not that exciting [laughs].

So it’s like a double positive thing.

DOLPHIN:     Yeah it is a double positive.  I get that.

[Laughter]

DOLPHIN:     What has been really interesting about this festival specifically is that the line up kind of reflects this emergence in music in general of kind of like Middle America coming up. It seems like just in general like this Hollywood process is no longer really being embraced.

Like you guys are from Colorado, you guys got a local scene going on.  So I wonder how you guys feel about you know the state of affairs in music, just in general?

(above image: Jeremy Salken [left], Dominic Lalli [right])

JEREMY:       I don’t know I think it is a really exciting time right now because there are a lot of underground kind of electronic and stuff like that that is getting more attention, and there is this huge scene that is developing around it.  But it is nothing like — you know it happened in a lot of different genres.

It happened in the Hip Hop genre like 10 years ago or so, you know what I mean?  Like Jurassic 5.

People like that were doing this thing down low and then it started catching wind and everybody got excited about.  And that’s I think finally happening with Electronic music.  And it’s more from like what it was in the 90s which is more like Four on the Floor or like Jungle stuff and it has kind of changed and obviously dubstep is like a newer kind of formation of that.

And I think it is cool, this scene right now.  It’s super grass roots.  Everybody is kind of finding out about stuff through their friends or through you know like different — like Facebook or online media, and like social networking.  It’s cool.

DOM:             It’s like a super grass roots movement that you can feel is happening and that is why festivals like this are popping up.  I feel like this particular thing is even — the way that it is so like catching wind in the Pop world.  It is like pop culture is catching wind of it and it’s like and going what is that?

When it usually doesn’t happen that way.  You know it’s — this shit’s killing so we need to grab and scoop that up.

And I think a lot of — even the Pop kind of artists are like this is some — this is the new shit, and like we don’t know if you all even know what it is yet.  You know what I’m saying?

It’s like that’s the underground thing that I think that you’re kind of talking about.

DOLPHIN:     There is no definition really, right?  We’re all defining now?

DOM:             Yeah.  Skrillex winning the Grammy this year really takes that whole thing to the next level.  And David Guetta getting his stuff out, and getting on the Pop Charts; you see a big fusion right now.  It’s insane.  It’s crazy.

I feel like we’ve been watching the whole thing you know.  I feel like we’ve been calling it for years.  I feel like every since I started Big G everyone has been like dude, this — and everyone was like can you believe it?  And I’m like yeah I can, but I’m kind of like didn’t you see it like four or three years ago?  Like I feel like it has been all this thing.

It’s been like on the rise for sure.

And everyone is finally like oh okay; like it’s cool.

DOLPHIN:     [Laughs].

DOM:             It’s like naw dude this shit’s been around.

You know like in Colorado at least like we had different artists coming in and we were having warehouse parties and shit.  And then Derek [Vincent Smith] from Pretty Lights and it was a house party and then everything blows up, and you know it’s been pretty — honestly I feel like I want to write a book about it because I feel like I got an inside scoop.  You know it’s cool.  It’s super cool.  It’s like fascinating.

DOLPHIN:     About your guys’ creative process, do you ever feel like your ideas get cock-blocked at times?  Like naw dude I want this?  Like mix it like this?  If you do, how do you guys rise above the discord to create a sound that is mutually satisfying to you both?

DOM:             Well yeah, I think musically we just kind of always really try to — you know we have always tried to fuse a lot of stuff.  You know like I love Drum and Bass; well I love [Underground]; so I love this part.  I love this song or this style.

What I love about that?  I love this little part or whatever.  Or I love the Hip Hop vocal of this.  Or I love the way — you know always mixing all that stuff together into just one thing.  I feel like if you keep it honest enough you know with yourself and what you think you know, I think it’s going to come out more individual.  You know like your own sound to it.  Do you know what I’m saying?

So if you take all the elements and then you like try to keep it as real as you can in what you think and what you want to really get in what you want to do –

And then it is going to come out pretty naturally like your own thing.  So you know it’s not like a battling thing; it’s not like a comparing, it’s more just like let’s put it in the pot, shake that shit up, and stir it around and get something that’s true to our sound, which is big drums, heavy drums, heavy bass, and a lot of content.

Mixed in a very like dancy kind of thing you know.

DOLPHIN:     I was listening to Nocturnal for the past few days and it’s kind of like — I just define it as Electro Ballroom.

GROUP:        Yeah [laughter].

DOLPHIN:     I love it.  It’s like Big Band with big beats.

GROUP:        Yeah, yeah.

DOLPHIN:     How do you guys define yourselves?  Do you guys define yourselves at all or?

DOM:             Well, Electronic Dance Music.

JEREMY:       Yeah.

I mean we do a bunch of different tempos and styles and stuff like that so.

Yeah.  We don’t want to like — I mean it’s hard to kind of figure out what it is.  To not box it in.

Yeah and then doing that kind of puts you in that like okay it’s this kind of music and right now we play every different style that we can.  It’s just like as musicians both of us try and play — you know before Big G when we were doing bands and stuff like that; like I’ve been in bands from everything like Punk to like Motown to Afro Cuban to everything; like we’ve all played Jazz.  We’ve all played the range and we like being that ah, diverse.

Because we just love music and all different styles of music so it’s like why — there is no reason to be like okay we’re just this and that’s all we do — Just keeping it open.

The musicians Clarissa spoke to for Broccoli City were elated to share their thoughts on the cultural genesis taking place in the music scene today. According to them, digitalism has inexorably altered the way we commune with our kind, elevating niche to mainstream. The “fall of the superstar” has been supplanted by fertile collaborations between artists across all genres. Eclecticism reigns in a society where individualism has fused with collective consciousness.

STAY TUNED FOR MORE INTERVIEWS!

To get your advanced tickets just click here.

Rest In Paradise!!

i am OTHER seems to invite “thinkers, outsiders, and innovators” to join the movement. The main objective of Williams: it to make “others” think outside the box and be independent, rather than follow trends.

Deep Ocean Technology has started the beginning stages of the Underwater Hotel, which will be located in Dubai in the Persian Gulf. The hotel will consist of 21 rooms, a diver center and a bar up to 10 meters deep. It will also feature a unique lighting system, which will illuminate the scene outside the hotel rooms. Would you spend the night in this Underwater Hotel?

1. GIVE UP YOUR NEED TO ALWAYS BE RIGHT
There are so many of us who can’t stand the idea of being wrong – wanting to always be right – even at the risk of ending great relationships or causing a great deal of stress and pain, for us and for others. It’s just not worth it. Whenever you feel the ‘urgent’ need to jump into a fight over who is right and who is wrong, ask yourself this question: “Would I rather be right, or would I rather be kind?” Wayne Dyer. What difference will that make? Is your ego really that big?

2. GIVE UP YOUR NEED FOR CONTROL
Be willing to give up your need to always control everything that happens to you and around you – situations, events, people, etc. Whether they are loved ones, coworkers, or just strangers you meet on the street – just allow them to be. Allow everything and everyone to be just as they are and you will see how much better will that make you feel.

“By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try. The world is beyond winning.” Lao Tzu

3. GIVE UP ON BLAME
Give up on your need to blame others for what you have or don’t have, for what you feel or don’t feel. Stop giving your powers away and start taking responsibility for your life.

4. GIVE UP YOUR SELF-DEFEATING SELF-TALK
Oh my. How many people are hurting themselves because of their negative, polluted and repetitive self-defeating mindset? Don’t believe everything that your mind is telling you – especially if it’s negative and self-defeating. You are better than that.

“The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive.” Eckhart Tolle

5. GIVE UP YOUR LIMITING BELIEFS
about what you can or cannot do, about what is possible or impossible. From now on, you are no longer going to allow your limiting beliefs to keep you stuck in the wrong place. Spread your wings and fly!

“A belief is not an idea held by the mind, it is an idea that holds the mind” Elly Roselle

6. GIVE UP COMPLAINING
Give up your constant need to complain about those many, many, maaany things – people, situations, events that make you unhappy, sad and depressed. Nobody can make you unhappy, no situation can make you sad or miserable unless you allow it to. It’s not the situation that triggers those feelings in you, but how you choose to look at it. Never underestimate the power of positive thinking.

7. GIVE UP THE LUXURY OF CRITICISM
Give up your need to criticize things, events or people that are different than you. We are all different, yet we are all the same. We all want to be happy, we all want to love and be loved and we all want to be understood. We all want something, and something is wished by us all.

8. GIVE UP YOUR NEED TO IMPRESS OTHERS
Stop trying so hard to be something that you’re not just to make others like you. It doesn’t work this way. The moment you stop trying so hard to be something that you’re not, the moment you take off all your masks, the moment you accept and embrace the real you, you will find people will be drawn to you, effortlessly.

9. GIVE UP YOUR RESISTANCE TO CHANGE
Change is good. Change will help you move from A to B. Change will help you make improvements in your life and also the lives of those around you. Follow your bliss, embrace change – don’t resist it.
“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls” Joseph Campbell

10. GIVE UP LABELS
Stop labeling those things, people or events that you don’t understand as being weird or different and try opening your mind, little by little. Minds only work when open. “The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don’t know anything about.” Wayne Dyer

11. GIVE UP ON YOUR FEARS
Fear is just an illusion, it doesn’t exist – you created it. It’s all in your mind. Correct the inside and the outside will fall into place.
“The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.” Franklin D. Roosevelt

12. GIVE UP YOUR EXCUSES
Send them packing and tell them they’re fired. You no longer need them. A lot of times we limit ourselves because of the many excuses we use. Instead of growing and working on improving ourselves and our lives, we get stuck, lying to ourselves, using all kind of excuses – excuses that 99.9% of the time are not even real.

13. GIVE UP THE PAST
I know, I know. It’s hard. Especially when the past looks so much better than the present and the future looks so frightening, but you have to take into consideration the fact that the present moment is all you have and all you will ever have. The past you are now longing for – the past that you are now dreaming about – was ignored by you when it was present. Stop deluding yourself. Be present in everything you do and enjoy life. After all life is a journey not a destination. Have a clear vision for the future, prepare yourself, but always be present in the now.

14. GIVE UP ATTACHMENT
This is a concept that, for most of us is so hard to grasp and I have to tell you that it was for me too, (it still is) but it’s not something impossible. You get better and better at with time and practice. The moment you detach yourself from all things, (and that doesn’t mean you give up your love for them – because love and attachment have nothing to do with one another, attachment comes from a place of fear, while love… well, real love is pure, kind, and self less, where there is love there can’t be fear, and because of that, attachment and love cannot coexist) you become so peaceful, so tolerant, so kind, and so serene. You will get to a place where you will be able to understand all things without even trying. A state beyond words.

15. GIVE UP LIVING YOUR LIFE TO OTHER PEOPLE’S EXPECTATIONS
Way too many people are living a life that is not theirs to live. They live their lives according to what others think is best for them, they live their lives according to what their parents think is best for them, to what their friends, their enemies and their teachers, their government and the media think is best for them. They ignore their inner voice, that inner calling. They are so busy with pleasing everybody, with living up to other people’s expectations, that they lose control over their lives. They forget what makes them happy, what they want, what they need….and eventually they forget about themselves. You have one life – this one right now – you must live it, own it, and especially don’t let other people’s opinions distract you from your path.