First, the good news: 2015 was a fantastic year at the movies. There were great original stories, sequels done right, adaptations that match their source material, and more. But for every great movie, there are a ton of bad ones too. For those of you with short memories, 2015 was also when we watched Ed Helms (The Office, The Hangover) bathe in raw sewage, the Entourage crew prove their alpha-douche toxicity could not be contained to the small screen, and a recent Oscar winner giving such an over the top, hammy performance while at the same time wearing such a sparkly costume, that I reckon he’s been taking wardrobe inspiration from Jareth the Goblin King (if you haven’t seen Labyrinth, you really should).
Read moreChange Your Life and the World with a Book (AlphaNerd Book Club Introduction)
Increasing the amount I read has had an incredibly profound impact on virtually every aspect of my life. From entrepreneurship and leadership to motivation and personal development to health and science, I have gained invaluable knowledge and years worth of wisdom through a relatively small investment of my time in these books. Furthermore, works of fiction and biographies stimulate the imagination and expand creativity and problem-solving skills. I wrote in my article on Implementing Small Habits to Create Big Change that the habit of reading daily has added more to my life and moved me closer towards reaching my goals than any other of the habits and routines I have. I generally strive to make the most out of my time by eliminating bad habits, minimizing frivolous activities, and maximizing the number of productive events in my schedule. Consuming books - either through reading or listening to an audiobook - is an extremely productive and rewarding activity that I find myself making more and more time for and continue to reap the benefits. I want to share this with you by not only providing motivation and strategies to read more, but also by distilling the information I have learned from my favorite, most life-changing books in a new series of AlphaNerd Book Club articles
Read moreThe 15 Best Films of 2015
I'm often able to squeeze in a dozen or more films in the last couple weeks of December - mostly stuff that others have told me is worth checking out that I either missed when it came out in Chicago or titles that simply never came out locally. I hope you dig the list and that it gives you some ideas for purchases, streaming, rentals, and most importantly, going to the theater and checking them out on the big screen (a few of these are still in theaters). I saw a lot of good movies this year, so condensing this to 15 was not easy...
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