100+ People- Part 3

In Part 3 of the 100+ People That I'd Lket to Meet, I wanted to cover people that inspire and motivate us as well as authors.

Inspiration And Motivation

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you're properly motivated and inspired. I like to think that anything is possible and generally have a positive outlook, but don't we all need some motivation and inspiration from time to time!

• David Allen- Is the legendary creator of GTD (Getting Things Done). He has a couple of websites Davidco and GTDTimes. There are millions of GTD fans around the world that would love to spend some quality time with him. He is on Twitter @ gtdguy

• Tony Robbins- He's an motivational and inspirational great. His website is here. He regularly tweets nuggets you might find useful. He is on Twitter @ tonyrobbins

• Stephen Covey- Author of "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People". His website is here. He is on twitter @ StephenRCovey

• Brian Tracy- Motivational author and speaker, author of numerous books and tape series. His blog is here. He is on Twitter @ briantracy

• Zig Ziggler- Legendary motivational author and speaker. His website is here. His son is on Twitter sharing his insights @ TomZiglar

• Oprah- How can you describe Oprah. She has been a positive force and has an incredible network. The mention of a book on her show is enough to put in on the New York Times Best-Seller List! Here website is here. She is on Twitter @ Oprah

Authors

"the story" has to be one of the oldest forms of communication that we have. Before people were capturing history and stories down in written form, they were verbally passing them from person to person and generation to generation. Literature is full of wonderful authors through the ages (probably the reason that we have libraries!) Good writers can get a message accross to readers in different places and in different times, they can inspire people to take action. For as long as I can remember I've wanted to write, in fact writing the great American novel is one of the goals that I have listed at 43 Things.

• J.K. Rowling- She created the world of Harry Potter. All the stars seemed to collide and the series has become one of the most read and discussed of all time. How many kids have been inspired to read because of Harry Potter? Her official website is here. Although she doesn't tweet much, her official Twitter account is @ jk_rowling

• Dan Brown- Author of the Di Vinci Code, as well as Angels & Demons, both of which have been turned into movies. His website is here. I didn't find him on Twitter, but there are a lot of "Dan Brown"s there so who knows.

• Stephen King- Chances are that you've probably read one of his books or seen a movie made from one of them, and no, they aren't all horror stories. He has written so many things about such a wide variety of topics, it would be great to get some of his insights into writing, ideas, and inspiration. His website can be found here. When I was on his website, the FAQ section says that he isn't in an social networks nor does he plan to be.

Stay Tuned

So far we've met some Internet Stars, Leaders in Motivation & Inspiration, and Authors, who'll be next? Be sure to look for 100+ People That I Want to Meet Part 4 and the rest of the series and you can read the intro here. Feel free to subscribe to this blog via email or your rss reader, there are several options available in the upper righthand corner of this blog.

Photo credit: "New York City skyline 3" courtesy of davidlat.

What Will This Decade Mean To You?

January 1st started not only a new year (2010) but also the second decade in the 21st century. With a new year it is often nice to look at your life and think about some changes you'd like to make. Lots of people will make resolutions but one thing this is different about this year compared to the other nine coming up in the decade is that it the first and it provides us a good chance to look at the coming decade and think about what it will mean to us. I put together a MindMap (based on FreeMind freeware) with some areas that you might want to think about reviewing.

A New Year, A New Decade

One of the things that I really like about the start of a new year is that it gives you a chance to push the refresh or restart button on your life and the direction that you're taking it. With the start of a new decade, it is like adding a turbo function to this button as well. Maybe 2009 was a good year for you, but many of us are happy to put it behind us and start on 2010.

Six-Level Model for Reviewing Your Own Work (from GTD)

David Allen talks about The Six-Level Model for Reviewing Your Own Work within his GTD (Getting Things Done: The Are of Stress-Free Productivity, p51-53)

• 50,000+ feet: Life
• 40,000 feet: Three to five-year vision
• 30,000 feet: One- to two-year goals
• 20,000 feet: Areas of responsibility
  
• 10,000 feet: Current projects
• Runway: Current actions
  

This or any number of other goal setting disciplines is a good place to start and then expanding out into the other areas of your life that I've briefly touched with the MindMap pictured above. I didn't touch on the runway, but most of the other levels are found within this article.

Time Horizon Goals

Looking at some of the traditional time horizons that people often use to set goals you might want to have a look at where you want to be in one year, two years, five years, and ten years. You might ask what you want to be doing, what your life will look like, what you would like to have accomplished and so on. Going out ten years might even be to far but at some point you'll want to give it some thought. In the last few decades there have been an awful lot of changes and many of us could not have imagined in our wildest dreams some of the changes that we've seen, so don't be afraid to think about this far out, if you need to re-think or modify some of your planning, don't be afraid to make mistakes.

Career

Now is a good time to look at where your career is and what track you're on. Are you doing something that you can imagine doing all your life? Are you training to do something that you'll be happy doing once you've completed your initial education and training? Where do you want to go with your company? Where do you see your career going? Remember that there are a lots of new jobs that have popped up in the last few decades, so who knows what the future will bring but why not give it some thought.

Education

Some of you might be going to school now or are thinking about going to school, while others might be thinking about learning for a new career. A decade is enough time to become a doctor or attorney (or at least get you on your way). Think about what you'd like to learn both professionally and personally. You might want to also decide to become a life-long learner. With iPods, MP3 players, and eBooks, there are almost limitless possibilities to learn. Your outlook on education and learning might have changed since the last time you really thought about it.

Relationships And Families

Regardless of if you plan it or not, there will be a lot that happens to you and your relationships in the next ten years. If you're not married, maybe you're thinking about getting married or maybe you wonder if the person you're with now is the person that you want to marry. If you don't already have kids maybe you wonder if you want to have kids or how many you wish to have. You might also be wondering what kind of changes you need to make to get ready for kids. Now is also a good time to do a review of your friendships. Are there people that you spend too much time with or maybe those that you don't spend enough time with? Are any of your relationships toxic? These are the people that bring you down so that they have company in their constant sorrow. Are your friends holding you back from accomplishing your dreams and goals. Is there anything that you'd really like to do with your spouse? Maybe there is the class the two of you always wanted to take together or that dream trip that you wanted to take. How about your kids, is there anything that you'd really like to do with them in the next ten years? Maybe you want to put away some money so you can help them to go to school or get married. Maybe there is something that you'd thought about doing for years with one or more of them. How is your relationship with your parent(s) and how healthy are they? Have you discussed what arrangements they'd like if and when they're no longer able to properly take care of themselves? Do the want a DNR (do not resuscitate order), in the event that the decision needs to be made? How is your relationship with your siblings? Is there some patching up that can or should be done? Maybe you just want to see them more. Relationships can give us some much but they can also be very demanding, so why not access your key relationships?

Your Life's Purpose

At the 50,000 feet level of GTD, you have those questions related to meaning in your life. While not everyone will ask about the meaning of life, most people will wonder why they're here and what their purpose in life is. This can be very difficult and many people avoid really giving it a whole lot of thought, while others just seem to know what they were born to do. If you think with the end in mind this might help you. What do you think that people will say about you when your gone, this might help you to find your purpose. If you knew that your life was going to end at the end of this new decade what is the most important thing for your to accomplish? If there was something that you knew that you could not fail if you did it, what would you do?

Someday/Maybes

Someday/Maybes is often mentioned within GTD and it refers to those things that you might do one day buy aren't within your current plans. It is kind of a collecting spot so that they don't distract you all the time when you're trying to do other things. If you're doing some sort of GTD Weekly Review, you might already be reviewing them on a regular basis but with the start of a new decade is an opportunity to consider the items in this list. Maybe you're now able to do some of these in the next decade. If you decide to move some of these things to active goals and projects then you'll want to think about when you want to do them, what needs to be done, and your next actions, and so on. Maybe there are some other things that you want to add to your list. There might also be some things on your list that you'd never do in a million years so after giving it enough consideration, why not remove the things you know that you'll never do.

Health And Fitness

Many people will start a new year with a resolution related to health and fitness. Maybe you want to quit smoking, change your diet, do some kind of exercise program, and so on. There are lots of things that you can do in this area and there are lots of reasons why you should do any number of them. I just hope that you find something that you want to do and have the motivation to keep going, not that this quickly becomes one of those discarded resolutions of days gone by. Because we're looking at the longer time horizon, you might think about running a marathon or a long bike race, something that you need to prepare and train your body to be able to do. You can also think about if you can do any of these goals with family or friends so that you can help keep each other motivated and be more likely to succeed. Health and fitness is one area that you shouldn't overlook when doing your decade planning, so be sure to give it some thought and come up with some goals and plans that motivate you.

Projects

Projects within the GTD world are anything that take more than one step to do. This probably greatly expands what you'd view to be the projects in your life. Within your private world there are those things that you're working on when you have spare time or extra money, or maybe they're even the focus of every waking hour (they might even spill over into your dream time). Then there are your projects at work. You probably have some projects now if you give it some thought. What things do you like to do? You might want to set up some projects related to these things. Would you like to climb Mount Everest? How about that book you always wanted to write (maybe you even started it)? What about that car that you wanted to restore? By finding something that you want to do, deciding/finding out what needs to be done, planning it (including determining your next action), and doing it, you'll find that there are a great many projects that you can do and finish. Of course there are projects that are more complex and will require more consideration (especially budgetary considerations).

Volunteering And Charity

Do you currently do any volunteer work or give to charity? You don't have to tell me, but this is one area that you should probably look at when doing this decade review or in any number of other reviews that you might do. What charities or volunteer groups are you currently involved with and what ones do you want to become involved with? Are you happy with your current level of involvement? Are there any changes that you wish to make in this area? Besides doing some good in the world, volunteering and charity can help you make new friends, give new meaning in your life, give you an added sense of purpose, and take your life in directions you might never have imagined. I'd be curious to hear how many people took an interest in a charity or volunteering and made a career out of it. Think about all the wonderful things that you could do in the next ten years, if you give it some thought and planning!

Location

How often have you thought that you'd like to live by the ocean or move to the mountains? Why not give some serious thought to where you live? Even if you don't decide to move so far away, maybe you've always wanted to buy your very own house, or maybe you're just not happy with your apartment any longer. Your location might be a by product of your job or some other factor but almost anything that you do in this area requires some serious planning before you can truly execute it. Even if you're happy with your current home or apartment, maybe there are some renovation projects that you'd like to do in the next ten years (if not I'm sure that some will surface). With proper planning and budgetary consideration you can probably make some of those renovation projects a reality.

Hobbies

What do you like to do with your spare time or when you suddenly have some free time? What are the things that interest you? You should give your hobbies a review. Are you doing them enough, are there things that you do that will allow you to do more of them or spend more time and money on them or maybe you need to do the reverse? Maybe you can turn a hobby into a business or career. Maybe there is a convention related to your hobby that you've been wanting to go to, why not do some planning so that you can attend some events related to some of your hobbies. How great it can be to make friends that like to do similar hobbies and that you can actually do activities related to your hobbies with. A cousin of mine took a motorcycle trip across Europe several years ago. What would you like to do with your hobbies in the next ten years?

Travel

I've always be fascinated by travel and visiting far off places. If you're someone that travels a lot now, then you might not want to think about any further traveling but for the rest of us there is probably some place that you've always wanted to go, something that you've always wanted to see, or some people that you've always wanted to visit. If you don't actually plan some travel, the likelihood that you actually make your travel dreams come true are very small. Time and money are two of the biggest barriers to full-filling your travel dreams, so planning is a must. Where would you like to go if time and money weren't holding you back? We have some friends that moved to New Zealand and have made a few friends over the years in Australia, so it would be nice to see them. I mentioned location earlier, you might think about moving to a location that will allow you to travel to your dream destinations or maybe even move to your dream destination. Also for those frequent travelers, maybe it wouldn't be too hard to arrange to fit some of your travel dreams into your routine travel or make good use of your frequent flyer miles.

Priorities

Do you know what your priorities are? If you don't, then it is pretty easy to spend your time, energy, and money on things that don't really matter to you. As part of your decade planning, you should think about what your priorities are. By knowing what your priorities are you can make better use of your time, money, energy, talent, and you can get any education or training necessary to help you in aligning your life with your priorities.

Planning And Making Time

Planning and making time is probably the area that most people fail at. We often get caught up in life and we run from one crisis to the next. If you don't do more planning and making time for your priorities and the things that are important to you, other things will take over your time and attention and it is more than likely they won't be things that you would have chosen! In project management there is a saying that goes "Failing to plan is planning to fail". I also really like the title of the George Harrison song "If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there".

I hope that you'll all give some thought to what this next decade will mean to you. Why not start with the MindMap above, create your own MindMap, or use whatever method works best for you to think about what you want to do in the next ten years.


Photocredit: You can find the MindMap above at Flickr.

The November Edition of The Better Life Blog Carnival

Welcome to the November edition of The Better Life Blog Carnival. As I prepare for The Holiday Spirit Blog Carnival, I thought that I'd publish one more edition of The Better Life Blog Carnival. This will be the last edition of this blog carnival that I will publish this year. I enjoyed publishing The Better Life Blog Carnivall over the year and look forward to seeing all the great submissions next year. This edition includes over 30 articles all to help you live a Better Life, so there is bound to be something for everyone.

Boredom

Tisha Tolar presents Getting Bored With Yourself? posted at Empowering Mom.

Travel

Edan presents Park City Ski Resorts posted at Park City Condo Lodging, saying, "Find out all about Ski Resorts in beautiful Park City, Utah, site of the 2002 Winter Olympics."

Alvina Lopez presents Traveling Cheap When You’re a Student – Here’s How You Do It posted at MasterDegreeOnline.

Kristen Garcia presents Make The Most Out Of Any Vacation posted at The Happy Mother, saying, "In our current high stressed world, it is more important than ever to have a nice, relaxing vacation."

Personal Development

Cody Butler presents Personal Development Success posted at Dream Life Coaching Blog. Ask your questions., saying, "Article detailing the basic principles of personal development success."

Mike King presents The Key to Personal Development. Belief posted at Learn This.

Tiffany Colter presents
Balance, Not Deprivation posted at Hidden Leaks, saying, "A balanced life comes not from depriving yourself financially, but finding the middle ground that allows spending AND saving on a reasonable basis. This article shows you how."

Broderick Durisseau presents Overwhelmed? posted at Broderick Allen - Personal Growth and Enjoying Life's Journey.

Relax presents Knowledge can become your enemy if you are not careful (The Curse of Knowledge) posted at The Wise Curve, saying, "Common sense tells us that knowledge brings power. But do you know that knowing too much might do you harm?"

Arin Vahanian presents Why Life is About Choice posted at Super State.

Lucky Balaraman presents How To Find Happiness, Step 1: posted at Calm and Cool.

Relationships

lkodanko presents How to Still Be Newlyweds...no matter how long it's been! posted at Words On Wendhurst.

Weight Loss

Lucky Balaraman presents Get the Weight Off Your Mind in 10 Minutes a Day posted at Calm and Cool, saying, "If that title has the ring of a typical fitness course to it, there's a good reason. There are a lot of similarities between mental fitness and physical fitness. A mind burdened with useless attitudes is as unhealthy as a body blanketed with layers of fat. And wouldn't you know, just like there are guaranteed prescriptions for bodily fitness, there are indeed several foolproof prescriptions for mental fitness. It's two of those mental fitness prescriptions that I am going to touch upon now. They are uncannily similar to certain prescriptions for physical fitness. You'll see..."

Productivity And Focus

SpiKe presents The 80/20 Rule And The Importance Of Value posted at Organize IT.

Tisha Tolar presents You Must Be Able to Say No posted at Empowering Mom.

Erick Simpson presents Disconnecting - Time to Quiet the Noise and Refocus posted at Managed Services.

Sue presents Abraham Hicks Says "There Are No Wrong Choices" posted at Helping Your Entrepreneurial Spirit Create Self, Create Health and Create Wealth.

Customer Service

Ben presents Eight Ways to Beat Bad Customer Service posted at Money Smart Life.

Health

Erika Collin presents How to Prepare for a Pandemic: 100 Tips, Tools, and Resources posted at Masters in Health Care.

Joel Gray presents Healthy Cooking for Special Diets posted at Health Tips 101.

Tips

Billeater presents
You want Tips? You Can't Handle These Tips! posted at Billeater.

Yoga

Mike Batey presents Jivamukti Yoga posted at Yoga Mad, saying, "Created by David Life and Sharon Gannon, Jivamukti yoga is a yoga style that combines physical, spiritual and philosophical aspects of traditional yoga. The Jivamukti method of yoga is one of the nine internationally recognized styles of Hatha yoga, the other eight being Ashtanga, Iyengar, Viniyoga, Sivananda, Integral, Bikram, Kripalu, and Kundalini."

Career

Matthew Paulson presents How to Stay Relevant on the Job and Reduce Your Layoff Risk posted at American Consumer News.

Money And Finance

debt kid presents 3 Books that Changed my Financial Life Forever posted at DebtKid.

Jack Schmidt presents 7 Tools For Your Money Belt posted at SectorMatic Money Journal.

Frugal Living

MoneyNing presents Inheriting Generations of Frugal Living posted at Money Ning saying, "Think ahead and do something for your future generations. Start saving."

MoneyNing presents How to Deal with Frugal Advice posted at Money Ning saying, "Don't just skip the article if you think it doesn't apply to you as it might be useful later on in life."

Homemaker Barbi (Danelle Ice) presents Are Frugal Sacrifices Worthwhile? posted at saying, "Are Frugal Sacrifices Worthwhile? It is important to look at your large goals and make sure that the way you live now is helping you to get your money to be meaningful for you."

Andrew Cowan presents Moving to a smaller apartment - Personal development - frugal living posted at Andrew Cowan, saying, "I recently moved to a smaller apartment which has been beneficial in more ways than just the financial. That said, I am "making" $300/month from my decision to downgrade my apartment. Money in the bank!"

Other

Jack Schmidt presents 10 Ways to Fuel Your Own Economy posted at SectorMatic Money Journal, saying, "SectorMatic Money Journal: Personal Finance - Everything for the Big Spender on a Budget. Now you can live like a fat cat, even if you're on a money diet. Laugh all the way to the bank with Jack Schmidt and SectorMatic. It's for you!"

Sonja Stewart presents The Casserole Club Makes a Comeback! posted at Parenting Squad.

That concludes the November edition of The Better Life Carnival. You can submit your blog article to the next edition of The Better Life Blog Carnival using our "Submit an entry to “The Better Life Carnival” carnival submission form. Past posts and future editions can be found on our "Blog Carnival index for “The Better Life Carnival”blog carnival index page. We hope that you'll stay with us through the Holidays and check out or other posts as well.

Photo Credit: Ponta de Areia courtesy of rsocar

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Announcing New Blog Carnivals

Systems-Overload is pleased to announce that we’ll be hosting three new blog carnivals in 2009. I really enjoyed hosting The Holiday Spirit Blog Carnival and plan to run it again starting in November through shortly before Christmas (look for more on this in future posts) and I was pleased to see what a variety of posts were submitted.

The variety of posts that were submitted to The Holiday Spirit Blog Carnival got me to thinking that hosting some other blog carnivals could be a win-win-win situation. First, it widens the opinions, view, and advice that can be offered by our humble operation. Second, it exposes our readers to other blogs that they might not have otherwise discovered. Third, it gives other bloggers a chance publicize their articles. On a more selfish note, this also allows me the chance to read what other bloggers have to say!

Being a father I’m interested in all kinds of things related to family life. Most families are busy, active, and facing many challenges that are shared by many other families so a recurring blog carnival about family life could be a valuable resource to many of us. We can all learn from each other. We often find that while we think that our problems are unique, the circumstances probably are, but there is enough commonalty to many of our challenges that chances are someone else has already dealt with it before (or at least something closely resembling it). If you’re a blogger with a family maybe you have some tips and tricks for various things related to family life. What are some activities that your family likes to do? What are some things that you do to balance home and work lives? What are some quick healthy meals that you fix and your family enjoys? How have you solved some behavioral problems with your kids? How are you teaching your kids about the value of money and saving? How are you helping your kids plan for their futures? How are helping your kids with their homework? What creative ways are you stretching your family budget? If you’re a new parent or have young children you might be faced with sleeping problems (both for yourself and your kid(s)). If you have teenagers, you might be dealing with rebellious kids or wondering how to keep your kids out of trouble and interested in school. If your own parents are getting older and facing health issues you might be wondering how to deal with issues related to taking care of them or wondering how to deal with issues related to several generations living under the same roof. Single parents raising children face other challenges that might not be understood by households with two parents but certainly understood by other single parents. If you’re a divorced parent that doesn’t have primary custody, you might be wondering how to stay involved in your children’s lives and how to keep a civil relationship with your former spouse. I hope to address many of these concerns with posts at The Family Life Blog Carnival. If you’re interested in submitting an article for this carnival you can do that here. If there are some topics that you’d like to see covered feel free to express this in the comments appearing after that blog carnival edition (or even at the end of this post). I’m currently planning to publish the first edition on January 19, 2009, with one edition planned each month through June so stay tuned here for further details or all currently planned editions are indicated a The Family Life Blog Carnival.

I’ve been interested in being more productive for a few years now. Like many other people I found G.T.D. (Getting Things Done) by David Allen. Reading the book along with some of the blogs that I follow made me interested in writing about productivity and getting things done. Many of us are busily going through our lives and struggling with all that we have to do, so you can understand why GTD and other productivity systems are popular. GTD gives a lot of flexibility into how you use it and has developed an almost cult following and sometimes there are some interesting discussions between GTDers about the “right way” to implement it and practice it. How have you implemented G.T.D.? How do you manage to keep up with your weekly reviews? How do you keep all of your lists updated and current? How do you maintain and track your Next Actions? Has your Some Day/Maybe list become unmanageable? How do you manage to work on your “own” pet projects, when your schedule is swamped? How do you manage to stay focused and productive on the road? How do you work in teams around the globe? How do you manage all your email and all your communications? I hope to tackle some these and other productivity topics at The Carnival of Productivity And GTD. If you’re interested in submitting articles you can do that here. I’m currently planning to publish the first edition on January 26, 2009, with one edition planned each month through June so stay tuned here for further details or all currently planned editions are indicated a Carnival of Productivity And GTD.

We’re all looking for ways to lead better lives. Maybe you want to lead a more frugal lifestyle. Maybe you’ve decided that there is too much clutter in your life and you simply want to simplify your life. Maybe you’re looking for more D.I.Y. (Do It Yourself) projects that can save you money. Maybe you’re looking for ways to save money in these trying economic times. Maybe you’re looking for ways to lead a healthier life. I hope that The Better Life Carnival will have articles on these and other associated topics. If you’re interested in submitting articles you can do that here. I’m currently planning to publish the first edition on February 9, 2009, with one edition planned each month through June so stay tuned here for further details or all currently planned editions are indicated a The Better Life Carnival.

So we’re pleased to announce and host The Family Life Blog Carnival, Carnival of Productivity And GTD, and The Better Life Carnival. We look forward to all the great articles that you all will submit and we look forward to sharing them with you all. We hope to help harness the power of community and the internet. If you have any ideas or topics that you’d like to see covered feel free to leave a comment. Stay tuned, feel free to subscribe via email or RSS, and be sure to share articles that you like with friends and favorite us at your various social networks (like Delicious, StumbleUpon, and Digg).

Photo credit: "Global1" courtesy of thanx

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9 Plus Things I Want to See in 2009

Happy 2009 everyone! A new year always brings the promise of a brand new year, especially if you weren't happy with the way the last year went. It gives us a chance to make changes and even encourages it. I'm not going to make any predictions for the new year, but here are some things that I'd like to see in 2009.

• More out of the box thinking and solutions. Doing the same old thing will often get you the same old results. Many of our big problems today require looking at things differently and maybe even thinking of some bizarre solutions. Brain storming means that you don't judge ideas while you're coming up with them, only later when it comes time to evaluate them. Remember that most of the world at one time believed that the world was flat.
• Back to basics. Somethings have become so complicated that few people understand them and if no one truly understands something, how is it supposed to work? Many regulatory agencies have become delinquent in doing their jobs. Many of the financial institutions that became troubled in the last few years weren't doing proper Risk Management. Many athletes and sports teams find success when they return back to the basics and find their way again.
• A Manhattan Project for Alternative Energy. Dan Carlin suggested in his Common Sense podcast that if we could do a Manhattan Project for alternative energy similar to that done for the atomic bomb with a government and industry focus on the subject that we could solve many of the problems we face. Can you imagine the kind of research and development that could be done if even 10% of the money spent annually on the military by the U.S. was spent on this! If big industry and several large governments were working on this jointly this could be tackled.
• A replacement for plastic. Plastic is everywhere (I notice tea bags were indivitually packaged in plastic at work the other day) and many people don't realize that it is a petroleum product, meaning that oil is needed in order to produce it. Even if gasoline engines in cars and trucks were replaced with hybrid and so on, there is an amazing amount of plastic used in everything.
• An end to "the war on" mentality. There has been a war on drugs, more recently the war on terrorism, and a whole host of wars on this and that, the idea of declaring war on various problems doesn't work. In the past wars usually had some way to determine if they were successful or not, they had clear objectives, and they usually had some kind of timeline. Even the Hundred Year War had a beginning and end. You just wonder how long all these "wars on..." will last. The Cold War last more than half a century, how long will the current war on terrorism last?
• More Bi-partisan efforts by the American government as well as effort by polictical parties in other countries to realize that they need to look after the needs of their people. "Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power." George Orwell in 1984.
• An end to Management bounuses for getting rid of people or for "off-shoring" work. There is something obscene about management getting huge bonuses when they lay-off or fire thousands of workers or move thousands of jobs off-shore just to save some money.
  
• More focus on the long run. Wall Street is so focused on companies quarterly profits that few companies are really looking the long run and aren't therefore willing to take some steps that would be good for their company but might take longer to yield results than a quarter or two.
  
• Treat other people the way that you'd like to be treated. Can you imagine if people stopped to think about what they were doing before they did it, what effect it would have on the people that they're doing it too, and if they'd like it if this was done to them.
• Treat the world with a feeling of stewardship and responsibility. We were all given the chance to live on this world, think about how we're leaving it to our kids and grandkids. We also need to show more respect for the animals living here as well, I'm not saying that we all need to become vegitarians but there is an awful lot of mistreatment of animals (i.e. dog fights)
  
• Lastly, more concern for other people. I often think that the daily news has made us calous to the trials and tribulations of others. So often it seems that people want to blame the victims for their misfortune.
  

Many people have started or will be starting New Year's resolutions. Here are some articles that you might want to check out as you plan or go about your New Year's resolutions.

• New Year's Resolutions
• Creating Realistic New Year's Resolutions
• 14 Simple Things You Can Do To Improve Your Life
• Be A Mentor
  

I hope that the things that I want to see aren't too pie in the sky and that we can move forward on many of them. I also hope that 2009 will be a great year!

Photo credit: Happy New Year courtesy of gabriel77

Advice for This Year's Graduating Seniors

"In Line to Graduate" courtesy of harrykeely

Congratulations to the graduating class of high school seniors this year! I do hope that you’ll take the time to celebrate the fact that you did make it this far. Many high school students over the years have dropped out of high school and will never complete it, while others will get their high school equivalency, so those of you that are graduating can take pride and celebrate this big achievement in your life. If you’ll listen, I’d like to pass on some lessons learned through experience that you can apply and that you might want to apply in the coming years.

What are you going to do with your life? This is one of the biggest questions facing people at this stage of your lives, so you are not alone in facing this question. One of the problems is that many people get overwhelmed and become unable to decide, putting it off or never really deciding. Before stressing out any further, you should realize that your choice now doesn’t have to be your choice for your entire life. Many guidance councilors tell you about lots of studies and research that pointing to the fact that you will probably not work for one single company all of your adult life, but probably a series of them (you might even start your own company or companies). Also more and more people will be changing careers several times in their lifetime. As technology and society changes, there are more and more totally new types of jobs that didn’t exist before. Before investing all the years required to become a doctor or a lawyer, I’d suggest finding out if it is something you really want to do or not. Take the time to find out about professions that interest you and get to know people that are actually doing what you want to do. Ask them about doing what they do, you probably have a million questions about it. There are some good coop programs that you can join where you can get exposure to fields that can help you decide if really want to do that or not. Coop programs can be good because you can build a valuable network and get experience that can be useful in landing jobs later on. If there isn’t a coop program you can join, maybe you can become an intern or go to a conference related to the profession that you’re interested in. Many college students change majors multiple times, so you might think about talking to some of the instructors in the major you’re thinking about and ask them about courses in that area that would give you a good idea of if you really like that subject or not. Unfortunately, many of those “Intro” classes don’t dig deep enough into the subject for you to decide if you like that subject or not, some do.

Become a life long learner. Maybe you didn’t like high school and therefore think that you don’t like learning. Changes are that you didn’t take a subject that interested you or your teachers weren’t able to find a way to motivate you to learn, don’t give up on learning. I’m sure you’ll run across many subjects that you’d like to know more about or that you think are fun, this is when you can easily become motivated to learn. In collage, and in life, many people will take courses, learning only what they need to in order to pass, but not a whole lot more. Think about the time that you’re investing in your classes, don’t you want something to show for this time. If you have to pay something for your classes, there is probably a better chance that you’ll want to get more out of your classes, because you now have an investment in these classes. Remember that learning doesn’t end in the classrooms of high schools and colleges, but life is the biggest classroom of them all.

Keep an eye on your money. If you haven’t had much exposure to making and keeping a budget, you’ll need to learn how. Hopefully, it won’t take you too long or be too expensive. If you spend more money than you take in, then you will go into debt. It seems to become easier and easier all the time to go into debt. There are some things that you’ll probably want to make payments on because you can’t afford to pay for them with the money that you have in your savings, for things like a house or car this might make sense to get a loan and make payments, but you should avoid making payments for the other things that you buy. When you’re making payments, you’re paying interest and fees for the privilege of having something now. When you look at how much you’d actually pay in interest, fees, maintenance, and other costs associated with having or owning what you wish to purchase, you might find that the true cost of ownership is higher than the pleasure or value you’d derive from making payments. For your bigger purchases you can make payments to yourself (as my grandpa used to like to say), so that you earn interest on your money while saving up for it, instead of paying interest while you own it. Because everyone has a limited income (some people have more than others), you probably can’t afford to buy everything that you want (or think that you want). Try to avoid those impulse buys, especially the more expensive ones, often these things become stuff that is just lying around later adding to your clutter. Avoid the credit card trap. The credit card companies often have campus representatives that make it easy for you to get credit cards, offering gifts for you to apply, they might start your credit limit out small, but it is too easy to buy stuff on your credit cards and find out that you have quickly built up a huge debt. I fell into the credit card trap in college, thinking that I would get a good job and pay it all off then, but it took me several years to pay off this debt, often working two jobs! If you can’t afford to buy it with your savings, chances are that you probably can’t afford it and shouldn’t buy it. Do you really need what you’re thinking about buying? Think twice before you buy anything, especially on credit.

Don’t give into peer pressure. During high school you probably heard about MADD and SADD, so while you might already be aware of problems with alcoholism and drug use, it might not have hit home yet. In many colleges and universities, even today, there is a lot of binge drinking (and drug use). Don’t do either of these activities to be accepted, especially to join a fraternity or sorority. If you’re asked to do something that you know in your gut is not right, then you should really consider not doing it. Don’t be talked into something to be accepted and liked. Are the people that would ask you to do such things really your friends? Do they really have your best interest at heart? Are these really people that you want to be your friends? Look for positive peer pressure, people that motivate you and push you in a positive direction.

Seek out mentors. There are a lot of decisions and choices that you’ll need to make in the next few years, which you’re probably not used to making. With some of your bigger decisions it would be good to have some kind of sounding board that you can run them by before implementing them. If you have family and friends that you can use, that it great, but you’ll probably want to seek out some mentors during your life. You might want to find someone that has been successful in the field you wish to work or someone that has been successful that you might be able to leverage their knowledge into your field and life. Even when you think that you know it all or don’t need any help, you’d be surprised what you can learn from somebody that has already succeeded or experienced what you’re going through now. It is really good when you can learn from someone else’s life lessons and not have to reinvent the wheel every time. You might even find that you’re in a position to be a mentor to someone else. Everyone is knowledgeable about something and everyone has something that they can contribute. Can you imagine how much different the world would be if there was more of this exchange; the multiplier effect alone would be incredible.

Some lessons you have to learn from yourself. While I can’t recommend enough getting involved in mentoring, leveraging the knowledge of others, and building your own social network; there are just some lessons that you’ll have to learn for yourself. There are some things that you’ll have to learn the hard way by doing it yourself. There will be times that you have to take the journey and no one else can do it for you. Sometimes you’ll get advice and decide to act against it or maybe even use it but there are still lessons that you’ll learn or that you have to be the one to do it. Maybe your parents tried to teach you about handling your money, but you have to get into debt before you realize that they were giving you good advice. Sometimes going through it yourself hits home so much more than hearing others tell you about it, and sometimes you’ll need this. Until you have failed and succeeded you don’t know what they feel like.

Take chances. Many people go through life letting the fear of failure stop them from doing many things that they’d like to do. Don’t let this hold you back. While you shouldn’t do every crazy thing that goes through your mind (maybe talk to your mentor before you do some of the crazier and dangerous things) most things in life involve some kind of risk. Starting a career or a business involves some risk. What is the worst thing that would happen to you if you failed? Most inventors didn’t come up with their invention on the first try, so they kept trying until they found something that works. It took Thomas Edison over 10,000 attempts before he invented the light bulb, when asked how it felt to have failed 10,000 times, he replied that he didn’t fail but he found 10,000 different ways that didn’t work. We have many wonderful things today because someone took a risk. Many people later in life don’t regret what they did, but what they didn’t do.

Treat others the way that you would like to be treated. I can’t stress this one enough. While you don’t need to be everyone’s friend (and don’t have the time that this would involve), you don’t need to treat other people either. Ambition and competition can be a very good thing, but those people that you hurt along the way might not be willing to help sometime when you really need it. The world would already be so much better if everyone incorporated this rule and lived it! You need to learn that there are so many times in life when there is more than one good way to do things and that you don’t have a corner on market for how to do whatever. There will be a lot of arguments in your life about how to do things, if you take the time to listen, you might be able to lessen or avoid some of this. Having said that there will be disagreements, you can’t please everyone all the time, nor should you always try. People are one of the greatest resources that we have in this world, but so often we don’t treat each other very well and we don’t consider what our words or actions will do to other people. In so many things that we do, it is the relationships that we value the most (or should). I wrote a post with some other advice for dealing with people that you might want to check out.

Discover the power of focus and motivation. When you’re really motivated, it is amazing some of the things that you can do that you would have never dreamed that you could do. I hope that you’ll find your passion, something that you’re really good at, that drives you. Not everyone can be Einstein or the latest pop star, but there is probably something that you’re good at and that you really enjoy doing, I hope that you find it. Ask yourself “Is there something that I love to do, that I would do even if I didn’t get paid to do it?” It is by being able to do these things as your livelihood that you’ll find motivation and passion in your work. Many of you will be entering college life soon and there are many distractions that can keep you from studying. In fact you’ll find that there are many distractions in life trying to capture your time and attention. Several years ago a friend of mine, who was interested in becoming a doctor, told me about a family friend of his that was a doctor and who advised him that he needed to focus on his studies because he’d have the rest of his life to chase girls. Sometimes you have to focus on certain things now in order to enjoy the benefits later on. When you can’t seem to find the needed motivation, maybe you need to take a look at why you’re doing something, maybe the reason that you want to do something isn’t compelling enough for you to actually do it. It doesn’t hurt to check this from time to time anyways. Life changing events can cause you to re-examine your priorities and focus.

Live and enjoy your life! There is only one now, so don’t wait for tomorrow or some other event to start living. Sometimes you should stop to enjoy the moments in your life. Maybe you could watch a beautiful sunset/sunrise. Now becomes yesterday and tomorrow you’ll look back on today, hopefully with little sorrow and regret. One day, today might be part of the “good ole days”, so why not make it that way today? You have no guarantee that you will have a tomorrow, or that you will have it with those you love, so try to make the most of today. Know that there will be sorrow in your life and times that might cause you to question the meaning of it all, but know that you do have a life to enjoy, and if you honor your relationships, you have friends and family that add so much value to your life. There are so many wonderful things that you’ll experience in your life and so many great things you’re going to do, why not get started!

I have probably rambled on long enough. While my advice is not exhaustive and won’t help every situation, I believe that it is a good point to start. Do you have any advice that you’d like to pass on to the graduating high school senior class? If you have any other comments, I would love to hear them. If you liked this article, please consider subscribing to the blog via RSS or email, share it on del.icio.us or on Digg and pass it on to anyone that you think might appreciate it. Thank you. :)

On Deck…

I’ll be publishing posts about…

• The next in my series of weight loss strategies
• My next Spotlight on the web.
• More on productivity, web 2.0, social networking, family, parenting, health, and other things that you can use.

Other Posts That You Might Also Like to Read…

• Make Better Use of Your Subject Line
• Does Your Approval Process Work For You Or Against You?
• The Customer Is Always Right
• Lessons Learned
• Keep Your Projects Simple Stupid
• Why Not Create Tasks Right From Your Inbox?
• Treat Others The Way That You Wish To Be Treated
• Easter Greeting…14 Principles for Dealing With Other People
• Are Your Assumptions Holding You Back?
• Who Mentored You
• GTD Overview
• Keep Your Projects Simple Stupid
• Why Aren’t You Working Your “Someday/Maybe’ Projects?
• Is It Time To Review Your Insurance Coverage?
• Should One Parent Stay Home After Your Child Is Born?
• Teaching Our Kids About Money
• Heart Check

Lessons Learned

Girl pointing at monitor courtesy of Chance Agrella

Within the project world, somewhere before you shut down a project, you should have a least one lessons learned session, where you capture items that have been learned from the project. This is something that can and should be applied in other areas of your life as well. The lessons that you learn in life are a big part of your never ending life’s education. Your own life is probably full of them, things that you have learned from experience. They can be as simple as don’t cross the street before looking both ways.

A famous quote once went (before being “modified” by a recent president) “Fool me once, same on you, but fool me twice, shame on me”. So while it is human to make mistakes and it is even expected that you’ll make lots of mistakes in your life, you should avoid to keep making the same mistakes. One version of Hell, must be a person doomed to eternally making the same mistake(s), realizing that they’re making the mistake and doing it anyways.

Within the project word, you try to get key project members together for at least one session where they discuss lessons learned from the project. This doesn’t have to be negative, it can be positive lessons or things that we did right that we should do again. Some projects do periodic sessions to make sure that they capture more of the lessons and that they can apply them before the project is over. Discussing and communicating lessons learned is all that more important in those big projects/programs where communication can be an issue, certainly efforts need to be made to make sure that the left side knows what the right side is doing, the more people involved the more likely it is that someone has learned a lesson worth sharing. It is most certainly a crime when a project makes the same mistake twice (or continues to make the same mistakes) because lessons weren’t learned or communicated. Often times projects/programs and companies keep reinventing the wheel when they don’t need to (and it isn’t one of their deliverables)! I have thought for several years now that every company should create a lessons learned database that is highly visible within their company. While it might not need to be right on their intranet homepage, there should be a highly visible link to it from there. Everyone in the company should be able to see the lessons learned by projects in the past so that they can avoid making the same mistakes. Within the operations and ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) they will often already make use of a Know Errors database, companies might also consider that their employees have read access to this as well. Maybe a wiki might serve this purpose, but the point is that the information is easily accessible and can be leveraged by your company.

Within your work and personal life, you should be recording your lessons learned. If you’re working on some project or activity, before you walk away from it, never to look back, do your own review. Ask yourself…

· What did I do right? You’re looking for things that are repeatable in other contexts. You do want to keep in mind that you’re not writing a manual (that could be goal of a different activity).

· What went wrong? Please remember this is not an exercise aimed at placing blame. This is only to identify where things could be done differently if given similar enough circumstances.

· What can I, or should I, do differently next time? If it seems like there a lot of ideas for one item, you might want to think about have a brainstorming session (where the goal is to list as many ideas as possible without judgment and they’re evaluated separately so that innovative ideas aren’t discounted or dismissed)

This is a really good exercise, especially if you have experienced failure in something you attempted or did. It can help you to receive some closure and to move on. Before wrapping up your session, you might ask other people whose opinions you value, how they have handled similar circumstances or what they might have done in your shoes. You might just be surprised to see how many other people have faced similar circumstances.

After you have recorded your lessons learned, don’t horde your knowledge and experiences, be willing to share. You might be able to share this with other family and friends. Maybe you can share it with colleagues at your company or within your industry. You might even think about being a mentor and sharing it that way. I think that it is really tragic that mankind can’t harness the knowledge of our species, so that we don’t keep making the same mistakes. Certainly some things we all have to learn for ourselves, but there are so many others where we could benefit from someone else’s lessons learned.

So next time you’re getting ready to end an activity or project and you think that there are some things that could be learned from it, why not do your own lessons learned session? Have you made use of lessons learned?If you have any other comments, I’d love to hear them. If you liked this article, please consider subscribing to the blog via RSS or email, share it on del.icio.us or on Digg and pass it on to anyone that you think might appreciate it. Thank you. :)

On Deck…

I’ll be publishing posts about…

• The next in my series of weight loss strategies
• My next Spotlight on the web.
• More on productivity, web 2.0, social networking, family, parenting, health, and other things that you can use.

Other Post That You Might Also Like to Read…

• Treat Others The Way That You Wish To Be Treated
• Easter Greeting…14 Principles for Dealing With Other People
• Are Your Assumptions Holding You Back?
• Who Mentored You
  
• GTD Overview
• Keep Your Projects Simple Stupid
• Why Aren’t You Working Your “Someday/Maybe’ Projects?

Why Aren't You Working on Your "Someday/Maybe" Projects?

Florida Gulf Coast courtesy of hortongrou

Why aren’t you working on your “Someday/maybe” projects? These are those projects that are you’ve been thinking about doing but aren’t currently doing, commonly referred to in GTD (Getting Things Done) as those “Someday/Maybe”. David Moldawer at Lifeclever has come up with a unique way for you to accomplish more of those “Someday/Maybe” projects.

Everyone has those things that you want to do but put off. Maybe you want to write a book, paint, start a new business, any number of things. In many cases we put them off because we don’t think that we have the time to do it and focus on more pressing and urgent matters, putting it off till we have time. In most cases we don’t have huge slots of time until retirement (or worse still death), so most of us don’t do many of our dream projects.

The idea is that you take 5 minutes daily to make choices about your “Someday/maybe” project(s). The steps are as follows:

1. Shut out all those external distractions.
2. Grab 3 index cards
3. Set your timer for 5 minutes
4. Make 3 choices about your project(s).

So often, it is all the unknowns about our projects that keeps us putting them off. If you’ve made a lot of decisions about your project(s), you’ll be more able to organize them and make real progress. When you know what it is that you need to do or have made some basic or key decisions, you can work on your project(s) in chunks as it fits into your schedule (or you make it fit into your schedule). Rome wasn’t built in a day, or so they say.

David Moldawer refers to this as Creative triangulation, which he says “is all about separating your creative selves, making the high-level decisions at once without getting bogged down, and then connecting the creative dots separately.”

Of course there will be those projects that you still can’t do now, but you can take away your excuse for not doing many of those things that you’ve always wanted to do. You might not be able to afford to take that dream vacation to that far off land, take a cruise on the QE2, or start your company because money is truly an issue. You may however, give yourself the time to figure out how to finance it after all, but allowing yourself some creative time. You also engage your mind and make come up some creative solutions, when you’d least expect it.

While this might not work for all of your “Someday/maybe” projects, it can help you make real progress on a lot of them. Why not start today? Do you have any other ideas or tips on how to accomplish those “Someday/maybe” projects or do you have any other comments?

If you liked this article, please share it on del.icio.us or on Digg and pass it on to anyone that you think might appreciate it .Thank you. :)

A Winning Attitude And Weightloss

Photo "Salad" courtesy of woodsy

"When we win, I'm so happy I eat a lot. When we lose, I'm so depressed, I eat a lot. When we're rained out, I'm so disappointed I eat a lot." Tommy Lasorda

Losing weight is like so many other things in life, a large portion of its success can be attributed to having the right attitude. I talked with a friend the other day who said that she had just “outed” herself at the weekly Weight Watcher meeting. She had told her group how she had told her group how she was frustrated because since the Christmas holidays she seemed to keep gaining and losing the same pounds and not getting farther in her weight loss. Her group leader and the rest of the group provide a lot of support and encouragement and it seemed to be the thing that she needed to get past that plateau. It was one of those moments of clarity for me, when I realized that so much of success in life is dependent upon having a positive, can do, or the right attitude.

When I say “Diet” in a room of 100 adults, most of them will cringe or tune me out. What is your reaction when you hear that four letter word? One of the problems is the definition the way that we think of diets. Diet has many definitions including its most basic; “the usual food and drink consumed by an organism (person or animal)” (Dictionary.com), but most people tend to think of diet as “the act of restricting your food intake (or your intake of particular foods)” (Dictionary.com) and to “eat sparingly, for health reasons or to lose weight” (Dictionary.com). Sadly, many people look at a diet as a short-term highly regimented limitation on your food intake with little choice, that it sub-consciously doomed to failure. With the later definitions and beliefs it is no wonder that most “diets” (of the short-term choleric and quantitative restrictive type) fail, before they even really start.

My friend said that she would have days where she was already over on her points and figured that eating this or that then didn’t matter and that since her group was on vacation that she still had time to lose weight before the next meeting. This is a common defeatist attitude that people on “diets” often have. Life does go on and while you might find yourself having to “deviate” for a meal, a day, or so but then you need to get back to following what you know is in your own interests and not give up.

Since food is our body’s fuel and is needed for most everything that we do and can have such a dramatic impact on a whole host of health related conditions, it would be to our benefit to be more selective about the kinds and amounts of foods that we do eat. You would not put diesel into your car, if it ran on normal gasoline, or if you did it probably wouldn’t run for very long!

Heat disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes; while they can’t always be totally eliminated by diet alone, a lot of the effects can be minimized through diet and you might be at a stage in your life where you can still ward them off with a healthier diet.

Most of us have reasons to live. That is maybe you want to see your kids grow up, maybe you want to see your grandkids grow up, maybe you have exciting plans for your retirement. Whatever the reason, most of us have a reason to live and a reason that we use to help us find our attitude and motivation.

There are a lot of “diets” out there and while many of them aren’t really designed to work on a long-term basis, there are still many others that can be successfully used (you might need to modify some of them slightly). Some basic elements of a good menu of foods designed to help your body perform better and increase your health, while losing weight include the following…

· You must like enough of your selections that you can follow it on a long-term basis. I remember hearing about a cabbage soup diet and thinking that there is now way I could do that for very long. You should also be able to add recipes and other items to the selection available.

· The diet isn’t designed so that you’ll lose too much weight to fast. While crash diets, can help you lose weight quickly, losing huge amounts of pounds in a short period of time often leads to that yo-yo effect of gaining back all that you lost and gaining even more.

· The quantities of foods and the types of foods that you eat should not leave you feeling like you’re starving after having just eaten. This will almost invariably lead to cheating on your diet.

· Most diets don’t have provisions for those occasions where you don’t have good choices available (going to parties, the holidays, and so on), if your diet has such provisions, this is definitely a plus.

· The diet is made up of foods that your body needs. If your diet doesn’t provide the nutritional elements that your body needs then you might be able to use some supplemental vitamins but it is better if your body gets all that it needs from your diet.

· Should be easy to implement, with the items that you need to buy available at local stores. A family member went on a diet where she and her husband had to buy a lot of special stuff that was very expensive and while they did lose a lot of weight at one time, it all came back (and then some).

· Can you easily return to it after that occasion where you where at an event where it wasn’t possible to eat things from your diet’s menu selection? While this could fall into the easy to implement item from above, your diet should get bonus points if accommodates this point, better still if it helps you deal with those events by offering menu items you can eat or suggestions.

I have previously recommended the Lose Weight With The Power of One as a must have diet book. While it doesn’t to tell you what to eat, it will give you some strategies that should be following in incorporating any changes that you plan to make to the types and quantities of food that you eat. It is written in story form, which helps you to better absorb the strategies.

When you have found your reasons, motivation, and a “diet” that is sustainable, then you’re stacking the cards in your favor. Remember that there will probably be times where you won’t be able to follow your diet, in which case you accept this and make the necessary adjustments at the next snack, meal, or day because it is in your best interest to be healthy and you stand to gain the most of anyone by a healthy you. Do you have some tips on finding or keeping your motivation while on a diet or do you have any other good diet tips, I’d love to hear from you.

If you liked this article, please share it on del.icio.us or on Digg and pass it on to anyone that you think might appreciate it .Thank you. :)