There are a lot of things that can seem daunting for the new language learner, but few things have a reputation for being so tedious and time consuming as learning vocab.

While I’ve talked in the past about some of the things you can do to learn words from your environment, easily memorize new words, or even quickly memorize a whole list in order, I want to share one more method I like for memorizing whole sentences in just a few seconds – singing.

There are few disciplines that have as numerous and as far reaching benefits as meditation. Beyond the psychological benefits of promoting a sense of centeredness, well-being and clarity of thought it also has numerous physiological benefits – relaxation, lowered blood pressure, reduced stress hormone release and a lowered heart rate just to name a few. In addition, no one has ever shown meditation to have any negative side-effects.

For all of the proven benefits of meditation, most of them achievable with an investment of only five to ten minutes per day, why isn’t everyone meditating?

The most common answer people give is, “I just don’t know how to get started meditating.” That’s understandable. There’s a lot of mystique in modern Western culture surrounding the practice of meditation and that can make it appear strange, esoteric or even daunting. Thankfully, that’s all just misconception. You can start meditating today with these simple steps and in no time at all be reaping all those great benefits.

We recently were invited to give Duolingo – a new online language learning system – a try during their trial period before they’re open to everyone (their official launch will be on June 19th, 2012). After using it for a while, here’s what we think.

Duolingo first caught our attention because of its unique concept. The site’s goal isn’t just to teach people languages, but to crowdsource the translation of the Internet into as many languages as possible. By having language learners learn and practice by translating actual sentences from the web the content gets translated and people learn – everybody wins.

For me growing up there were three games that formed the Holy Trinity of the Nintendo 64: Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, & Mario Kart 64.

Ok, so Starfox 64 and Super Smash Bros. 64 also deserve honorable mention, but Holy Quinary just sounds like a shrine to Sliders so we’ll stick with the Trinity.

Out of all those games, Mario Kart 64 easily had the biggest impression on me.

Why?

Because it taught me the secret to leading a happy, successful life.

It’s not unusual to hear me from the hallway squealing in the shower after a hard workout. Not just once, but multiple times. It’s something I do out of a desire to reduce delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) and recover faster so I can go as hard as I can on my next workout. After reading this article, maybe you’ll start squealing in the shower too.

Thankfully it’s not necessary every day as it’s most effective right after a strenuous strength session, so your masochistic efforts to have more awesome workouts will only come around a few times each week. I’m talking about Contrast Water Therapy, or its more common name: Contrast Showers. When done right, they’ll reduce DOMS and not only make your rest days more restful, but enable you to go harder your next work day.

“Sometimes life is like this dark tunnel. You can’t always see the light at the end of the tunnel, but if you just keep moving… You will come to a better place.” – Uncle Iroh, Avatar.

I know – it’s super cheesy to use a quote from the kid’s show Avatar – but this piece of wisdom from Uncle Iroh to Aang as they were digging a tunnel is a somewhat profound life lesson neatly wrapped into ten seconds and is so easy to understand that a child could get it. Unfortunately somehow this lesson is lost on many – myself included – and honestly I wish it was a lesson I had learned sooner.

There are a lot of fitness apps out there. A whole lot. It’s not surprising given the wide proliferation of smart phones, but with so many options to choose from both paid and free, how do you know which fitness apps are really worth it?

We’ve narrowed the list down to three must-have apps. Unlike most fitness app reviewers, we don’t just look at whether the app does what it says it will or has boatloads of features. Instead we think the things that make a really fantastic fitness app are all about fun, motivation and convenience. They have to make working out something you enjoy, motivate you to go out and do it and be as convenient and intuitive as possible to let you use them whenever and wherever you need to.

As much as Caroline picks on me for being a Zen master and never getting stressed or concerned about anything, the fact is I am not one. Even so, that hasn’t stopped me from finding ways to apply Zen principles to my everyday life.

I’ve always had a love for the martial arts and a side passion for philosophy, Eastern, Western and everywhere in-between. I’ve found that the parts of philosophy I really love are the parts that you can directly apply to life. Maybe that’s just a reflection of me following Bruce Lee’s philosophies, who knows. Either way I think the real meat of philosophy is in practicalities, not pontificating or postulations. As a result I’ve collected four states of mind from Zen teachings and the martial arts world that you can work toward to make you a happier more effective person.

“There’s no rehab program for being addicted to freedom. Once you’ve seen what it’s like on the other side, good luck trying to follow someone else’s rules ever again.” – The $100 Startup

What if you spent your life doing the things you wanted to do, working only on projects that you want to, going where you want to go, and having a happy, meaningful existence?

For many people living life on their own terms is just a dream. A fantasy they don’t even consider because it doesn’t seem possible. After all, who actually does that?

The truth is, lots of people.

“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.” – Bruce Lee

Being like water is a fairly common goal within the world of martial arts, regardless of style. Students of everything from gong fu to karate to muay thai have sought to improve themselves by emulating its fluidity, force and formlessness. Not only martial artists can learn lessons from it though. So what does it mean to be like water, and how can doing so help improve our lives?