WILLPOWER

How many times have you felt as if life is slipping away from your fingertips? How many times have you felt that you are not living the way that you have wanted to live?

Life is a priceless gift, and it would be a great pity if you did not live it to its fullest. So, how does one live life to its fullest?

The fulfillment in one’s life lies in the fulfillment in one’s GOALS and attaining the state of balanced HEALTH. Some may argue that there are other requirements for the fulfillment of one’s life, but I see them as subgroups of these two major requirements. Goals are crucial, since success in one’s goals is success in life. If you want something, set it as a goal, and achieve it. Health, even though we underestimate it, is a key component of fulfillment in life. And the definition of healthy that we prescribe as “not being sick” describes just a component of being truly healthy. Health encompasses physical fitness and psychological equilibrium, as well as lack of malady.

Multiple studies have concluded that two personality traits repeatedly lead to a happy and successful life. The first is intelligence, but, since it is given, and cannot be greatly influenced, we will not dwell upon it. The second is maybe even more important, but, most importantly, it can be increased in amount. This crucial component is WILLPOWER.

We have all heard about it, but do we really understand what stands behind that word? In short, willpower is the control over one’s thoughts, emotions, and impulses. A person that wields that control, can direct himself/herself into behavior that is in accordance with his/her goals, and direct away from behavior or actions that can hurt the realization of his/her goals. A common example is the struggle with facebook. You have a goal of getting into a nice college. To get there you have a smaller goal to get good grades. And they, consequently, depend on the grade that you will get on tomorrow’s test. And today you have a choice: you either study or you squander your time on facebook. Now the part of you with full willpower supply will say no to facebook, but an empty willpower you that you often find yourself to be, indulges in the shallow satisfaction of wallowing on facebook.

How can willpower be increased? How can one become the MASTER OF ONE’S SELF? Even though the road toward a significant increase in willpower is not easy, it can still be achieved.

Set a goal. Fulfill it. Repeat.

That is the essence. You don’t want to wallow for 15 minutes before you get up from bed. Write down: “Tomorrow I’m getting up the moment I open my eyes”. The next day it will eat up a significant deal of your willpower, if you actually do it. You get up, find the paper with the goal, and put a little mark or swish. The day after, it will consume a portion somewhat smaller. Put another mark. Each mark gives you more encouragement and more willpower. Repeat the procedure as long as it becomes a habit. And when that happens, it will require no willpower for you to get up the second you wake up.

I believe this system can be employed to many aspects of life, not just morning rituals. Every success brings more willpower. More willpower leads to greater successes. It’s a “vicious” circle.

In next posts I’ll cover other areas of life that I think lead to its fulfillment, such as fitness and health, as well as some psychological issues that trouble the average person.

Till then, get up the second you wake up, it will help you in many ways!

ART: The Pop Art Movement

By Ljupcho Naumov

"Pop art is about liking things."

-Andy Warhol

This simple quote by Andy Warhol captures the essence of pop art. This artistic movement melts the boundaries between the high-art of the elite and the low-art of the masses, and introduces a form of expression that is understandable to everyone. Containing elements from mass culture, the pop movement truly made art universal.

The origins of pop art date back to the 1950s in England, in a time of optimism resulting from the post-war end of rationing. Celebrating the newly established consumer society, pop art regularly featured images known to the general public, including those from advertisements, comic strips, magazines, television and cinema. The pop art movement, like other, was a rebellion against the previously established and accepted style: abstract expressionism. Abstract expressionism developed after the Second World War, and is the first American artistic movement to achieve worldwide recognition. It is primarily concerned with communicating the emotions of the artist, and it is famous for being rebellious, anarchistic, and idiosyncratic.

Examples of Abstract Expressionism

One of the first artists to flourish from the British pop art movement was Scottish sculptor and artist Eduardo Paolozzi. Paolozzi investigated how humans can fit into the modern world to resemble our fragmented civilization through imagination and fantasy. His most famous work is the collage I was a Rich Man's Plaything. It is considered to be the first work referred to under the name pop art, and the first to display the word pop.

Paolozzi’s I was a rich man’s plaything

Another noted artist from the British pop art movement is Peter Blake, an artist who made collage based paintings of movie stars and pop musicians using images from magazines, comics and advertisements. His most famous work is the album cover of the Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

In the States, the Pop art movement arrives in the 1960s. In America, the movement meets a much more zealous audience, an audience mesmerized by consumerism, the ideal of pop art. One of the first and maybe most eminent American pop artists is Roy Lichtenstein. Lichtenstein, surprisingly, started his artistic career as a follower of abstract expressionism but later converted into the new, popular style. He is famous for his comic-book based works, in which he showed scenes of sentimental love or violent action.

Lichtenstein’s Girl with Ribbon, Kiss V, Drowning Girl, and Ride in the Car. The dots reflect the cheap color printing process of newspapers and comics.

The most prominent of the pop artists known to the general public is definitely painter, printmaker, and film producer, Andy Warhol. His name is synonymous with the pop art movement. He started his career as a commercial artist, drawing images for magazine illustrations and advertisements. With this exceptionally well-suited starting point, Warhol was immediately immersed into the pop art movement. The artistic works of Warhol frequently featured famous movie stars, pop singers and other similar icons. His Marilyn diptych soon became the crown of pop art.

Warhol’s Marilyn diptych and Eight Elvises. The Eight Elvises was sold for 100 million dollars.

The pop art movement changed the world of art forever. It replaced the epic with the everyday, the unique with the mass produced. It diffused the high art with the low art. Pop art proved to be likable to everyone, just as Warhol said.