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Sunday, June 29, 2008

Half Year Review




As June draws to an end, we reach the half way point of 2008, as such you might want to take a look at your half year results. If you’ve read anything about GTD (Getting Things Done), you’ve probably heard about the weekly review. So while you can incorporate this into your weekly review, you could also do a special review for it.

Is part of my half year review, I’ve identified some of the things that I have done and plan to do. What is to follow are both highlights and low lights, all have an impact on where I am at this point.

On April 11th we bought a dog. This was one of my goals at 43Things. I wrote about our excitement in picking him up and having a dog again after several years of not having a dog. I wrote about bringing him home. I’ve been writing about him at our family blog from time to time. Having a puppy is in many ways like having a baby except that the puppy is already walking, running, and doing all kinds of things that babies often don’t do until they’re toddlers. Getting a puppy is a life change, especially for those that have never had a dog or that it has been several years. As with having second child, there is now the interaction between our dog and my daughters and us that makes for many of the challenges you face. While all of our lives are so enriched by having our dog, it means that all of our planning now needs to include him, much like adding another child to your family (or even adding your first).

On May 13th we had a fire in our garden hut. Ultimately our backyard shed was destroyed along with all that was in it, and much of our backyard fence was destroyed as well. Nothing in the hut was salvageable, so all of our family’s bikes, all our gardening equipment (lawn mower and assorted garden tools and supplies) were destroyed in the fire. While there is all the work that needed and still needs to be done as a result, there is also the effect that this has had on our lives. We were all shocked and horrified to discover the fire in our backyard; the flame itself had to be over thirty feet and as our backyard is not that big, it was really close to the house. The fire itself was one of those adrenalin pumping events and I’m so glad that nobody was hurt. I’m sure that the girls have had some nightmares somehow related to this event and my wife couldn’t sleep for several days, I believe that her sleeping patterns have been permanently affected by this event. There is a whole host of effects that this has had our lives, it has certainly changed many of the plans that I had for the year.

I wrote about posting my 100th blog entry at our family blog in May. I have spent a lot of time writing posts between our family blog, this one, and a private one that I created a few years ago in honor of my mother. One of the things that I wanted to do as a kid was to become a writer, so while I haven’t written the great American novel yet or made the NY Times Best Seller List, I’m writing. I enjoy writing and would like to find more time to do it.

I really like to travel, so I was excited to go to Copenhagen, Denmark for a client visit on my current project. I got to do a nice tour of the city (I’ll post the pictures at the family blog sometime in the near future). The first night of my trip I had to stay in Malmo City, Sweden because I was unable to book a hotel in Copenhagen, so I got to see a little bit of Sweden as well. While it doesn’t look like I will be going to Italy this year, I did get to get to see a little bit of Denmark and Sweden, something that I hadn’t planned to do this year.

I started a new project at work. I have worked the last two years on the same project, (which is kind of rare in the project world), so it is always interesting to change to something different after a period of time. The new project is challenging and does require a lot of time and energy.

My youngest daughter, Sarah, learned to ride her bike without training wheels. One of the big events in most parents’ lives is when their child learns to ride their bike without training wheels and this was no exception. There is usually a story that goes with in, and in our case of course there is.

One last thing that I accomplished before moving on to second half of this year is that I read books 5, 6, and 7 from the Harry Potter series. Having seen all the movies (that have been released to date) and read these last three books, I was able to start listening to all the HP Progs podcasts that I recorded for my wife. I had avoided listening to that point because I didn’t want to spoil anything. At the moment I’m listening to the podcasts on my way to work and when I’m driving around without the girls.

2008- The Second Half

Some of the things that are currently planned for the second half of this year include…

My father and Aunt Betty are visiting next week. Last year I visited Paris and Scotland with them and we had a real nice visit. Because I’m so busy on my current project and because dad is recovering from a heart attack that he had last October and recent surgery on his knee, we won’t be doing any large trips like that but I’m sure that there will be many nice day trips (many with out me) and we’ll have some great times together. I know that the whole family is looking forward to the visit. I think that it will also be good for the girls because it gives them incentive to speak more English and will probably give Sarah a supercharge in this area.

Our oldest daughter, Anna, will be starting first grade on August 5th. She already had a sleepover and farewell party at the kindergarten. Her last day will be this Friday. This is a big step for Anna and us. I know that there will be a lot to look forward in this area. Something that is almost as hard to believe is that Sarah will now be one the oldest kids in the kindergarten, when Anna’s group leaves! Sarah will be starting first grade next Summer.

I’m fast approaching my 100th post for this blog. I’m often wondering when this will happen and what posts I will write between now and then. I’m hoping to increase my readership, but still need to work out how to do this. I’m also hoping that I’ll see more comments and involvement from those that read my posts. As with many authors, we’re looking for proof that we’re being read and making an impact. I hope to get more feedback so that I can improve the blog, so I’m open to suggestions here.

At work I have a training session coming up very soon. I will be going to Amsterdam for a week long training class. I also plan to get involved in a mentoring program to sharpen my skills and as one those goals at work that I have committed to.

So this is a look at my half year results and what I have planned for the next six months. Have you given any thoughts to what you’ve accomplished in the first half of 2008 and what you have planned for the second half? 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…

Posted by Systems Overload at Sunday, June 29, 2008 View Comments
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Friday, June 27, 2008

Dating And Relationships Rule One


 Hobbit and Kira


I was looking at the post, Tips on How to Land a Date as a Geek, and it got me thinking about dating and relationships in general.  I thought that there were some good ideas in the post but it got me thinking.  There are a lot of single people out there looking for that special someone and maybe some of them have even given up on the idea that there is a special someone for them.  I was thinking that I had some ideas that could be applied to dating and relationships, regardless of if you’re a geek or not. I plan to cover more of these ideas in the coming weeks, sprinkled in with my other normal posts. So without further adieu, here is my Dating and Relationships Rule One…




Do things that you like to do, especially when there is the possibility that you can meet people while doing them.  The reason that this is my first rule is that you need to meet people.  If you stay home, you’re not likely to meet people (unless you live in a college dorm, apartment complex, or some place where there are a lot of people).  If you have a look at what you do on a daily or weekly basis, how much of your time do you spend where you’re actually likely to meet new people?




Besides meeting new people, this gives you a chance to meet people that like at least something that you like.  Wouldn’t it be great if you could date someone that shares some interests with you?  If nothing else, you would at least have that in common.  If you date long enough, you’re bound to have been on a date with someone that has nothing in common with you and you eventually see that there is no real way to sustain the relationship.  If you both share at least one common interest that you enjoy, then there is at least hope that a relationship can grow.




Lastly, while you might not meet the large number of people as you might going to a local popular bar, you’ll at least be doing something that you like to do and you’re getting out of the house.  Going to the bar just to meet people can be very depressing and unrewarding for many people, and you have no guarantee that you’ll meet quality people anyways.  By doing things that you like to do and meeting people through those activities, you’re setting yourself up to meet better potential matches.  If the activity you’re doing is something that you really like to do, you’ll have more fun than just staying home.




One word of caution, do think about what activity you’re going to do and think about if you’re likely to meet new people that you might be able to date.  If you’re a girl looking for a guy, you probably won’t find too many single guys hanging out at candle or Tupperware parties, or other activities that typically don’t interest most single guys.  If you’re a guy going to a Star Trek or computer event will probably yield few eligible girls, most of the girls there are probably already there with someone else (maybe they only went as a favor to their boyfriend).  In either case you might still make friends with someone that has single friends (and that could open up a world of possibilities).  If you do decide to do the activity with low potential for meeting people, you should do so realizing that is the case, but at least you’re doing something that you like to do. 




So I hope that you’ll take more time to Do things that you like to do, especially when there is the possibility that you can meet people while doing them.  Do you have any tips about dating and relationships for all those people searching out there?  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 Than You Might Also Like to Read...









Posted by Systems Overload at Friday, June 27, 2008 View Comments
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Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Using Microsoft Project in Multiple Sessions

Microsoft Project open on one monitor while Microsoft Outlook is open in the other



Are you familiar with the multi-session functionality of Microsoft Excel and Word? That is where you can open up different files in different sessions allowing you to compare them from one monitor to another. For those of you that use M.S. Project, have you ever tried to get multi-sessions to work within Project? After surveying a few colleagues, checking help, and Google, it seemed that nobody had done it before. This seemed rather odd to me.



Why would you want multi-sessions in M.S. Project? I had several different template schedules that I wanted to use to incorporate tasks into one schedule and this was my first thought of how to do it. It seems that a lot of people that are working with Project are only using one monitor, so they haven’t thought about having more than one session open. I’m usually working with my notebook’s screen as my primary monitor and I have an additional monitor, so I make use of two monitors. If you’re only using one screen or monitor then multi-sessions for Project probably doesn’t give you a lot of benefit. Within a normal single session of Project you can arrange multiple schedules vertically, horizontally, or in a tiled manner, in addition to looking at a single schedule at a time. Within a single session of Project, when I view multiple schedules at the same time they appear to small and you have to constantly dart around to see what you need to see. If you're only looking at one schedule at a time, then you have to jump from schedule to schedule. The problem that I saw with using a single session of Project was that you spend too much time going back and forth between schedules as opposed to comparing what you actually want compare.



One session of Project stretched over two monitors


After discussing my problem with one colleague, I tried stretching the Microsoft Project session across my two monitors. This ultimately was the answer to my problem. Now I could have the schedule open that I wanted to adjust open on one monitor, and look at another schedule for tasks that I wanted to add on the other monitor and I had the other schedules that I wished to look at in a smaller size that I could expand as I needed them. While this was not the multi-session solution that I was looking for, it did serve my purpose.

To set this up, you’ll need two monitors or screens. I’m currently using Microsoft Project 2003, so I have not tested other versions to see if they’re able to do this as well. Open Project up so that it is not maximized, then stretch it out over both screens. I would suggest that leave a little space on the bottom of your monitors, as a safety measure. Now you can put the two schedules that you wish to compare on separate monitors. See the second picture for an example of this in use. If you want to have other schedules open, reduce them so that you can easily grab them to expand as necessary. Note if for some reason you need to use another application while you have this set up, you’ll probably have to do some fine tuning to get it working properly again. I recently tried this Microsoft Powerpoint and it works there as well.


Using the expanded Project Session (my terms) allows you to quickly compare multiple schedules and to make changes to your schedules with more ease than the trying to cope with just one session on one monitor. Do you have any other tips for handling M.S. Project or schedules in general? 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, photography and other things that you can use.

    • Other Posts That You Might Also Like to Read…


    Posted by Systems Overload at Tuesday, June 24, 2008 View Comments
    Labels: ,

    Friday, June 20, 2008

    Have A Happy, Fun, And Safe Summer



    For most people living in the Northern Hemisphere, Summer is fast approaching. Here are some tips for you to have a Happy, Fun, and Safe Summer.


    On the Water

    • When boating or other water sport activities, remember to have proper life vests and floatation devices for everyone involved.
    • If you’re out on your boat of jet skiing, remember it is just as bad to be drinking while operating these devices as to drink and drive. If on a boat you might want to have a designated driver, when there is consumption of alcoholic beverages.
    • When operating a boat or jet ski be conscious of your surroundings, so that you don’t crash into a boat, jet skier, or a swimmer. Also remember that when you’re driving that there will be a wave produced depending upon the speed you’re driving.
    • When boating or jet skiing it is more fun bring a friend along, you can also keep and eye on each other in the event that some accident or tragedy should occur.
    • If you’ll be taking a boat quite a ways from shore, make sure that you have a working radio, some way to communicate back to shore if necessary.

    When Grilling

    • When grilling, be sure to keep an eye on the grill so that kids and animals don’t get hurt.
    • If using a charcoal grill be sure to properly dispose of your ashes. Try putting some water in your receptacle to dose and cinders that might still be active. Your ashes can smolder for several hours after you have grilled and if there is a sudden gust of wind or more air introduced to the ashes, they could re-ignite.
    • If using a gas grill be sure to take proper precautions because gas can be explosive after all.


    Outside in General

    • Drink plenty of water and fluids. Don’t wait till you’re thirsty, because then you’re already getting dehydrated.
    • Bring a rain jacket or rain gear. If you’re going to be outside for a long time and are not at home and it seems like it might rain. We’ve had several days already this Spring where we had sun and rain in the same day, so you never know.
    • Be sure to bring sun tan lotion. Even when you don’t see the sun, you can get sun burned (especially on the water).


    So with an eye towards safety, you can have a Happy, Fun, and Safe Summer. It also wouldn’t be a bad idea to take a first aid CPR course. I hope that everyone has a great Summer. Do you have any other Summer safety tips? 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…

    Posted by Systems Overload at Friday, June 20, 2008 View Comments
    Labels: ,

    Wednesday, June 18, 2008

    Firefox 3 Is Finally Available!

    Firefox 3 is finally here!


    If you haven’t heard by now, Firefox version 3 has finally come out of beta. I downloaded it and installed it not that long ago. In honor of occasion the folks at Firefox have organized Download Day a promotion that, if successful, would put the download of Firefox 3 in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most software downloaded in 24 hours. If you download it by 11:16 a.m. PDT June 18, 2008 (U.S Pacific Daylight Savings Time), 8:16 p.m. Central European Time, 10:16 p.m. in Moscow, 2:16 p.m. in Toronto and EDT U.S., 3:16 p.m. in Rio, in China and Japan the end time is already June 19th at 2:16 a.m. and 3:16 a.m. respectively, you can help Firefox to qualify. You should only download one copy per machine, so if you have more than one machine, you could download more than one copy, but be sure to download only once on each machine, check out the Download Day site for more information.


    Most everyone has heard of the Guinness Book of World but for most of us having our names associated with anything listed in the annual book or at their website is not very likely. The Firefox site mentioned world records that a man ate 108 smarties with chopsticks in 3 minutes, a man had 153 clothes pins attached to his face, 1.721 people played “Smoke on the Water” at the same time, and one man made a balloon dog behind his back in 9.26 seconds in their promotion for the download event. So here is a chance for you to be tied to a world record.


    I wish the folks at Firefox good luck with this campaign. Are you taking part in any of the download activities? 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…

    Posted by Systems Overload at Wednesday, June 18, 2008 View Comments
    Labels:

    Tuesday, June 17, 2008

    4 Simple Things You Can Do To Build Success Into Your Diet

    "doughnut" courtesy of nazreth


    One thing that plagues many people on diets is dealing with the “what do I want to eat? Syndrome”. You can start your diet with a big bang and be totally motivated until…You come home one day after an exhausting day at work and the last thing that you want to do is figure out what you want to eat, so you grab something easy, quick, and probably unhealthy. In order to effectively get past this hurdle that you’re bound to deal with a million times you need to do some preparation upfront. While I wrote this with dieters in mind, this can be applied by those who aren't on a diet, but want to be able to deal with the "what do I want to eat? Syndrome".

    Do your preparation and planning when you have the energy and motivation. A big part of being productive is being motivated and having the energy to do it. This holds true for dieting and weight loss too. While you’re motivated and have the energy, you can work on building success into your diet. When you’re tired and unmotivated is generally not a good time to do things, from a productivity and diet stand point. You’re not likely to be creative and you’re more likely to fall into the easy traps. So try to do your preparations when you have higher energy levels and are motivated, or at the very least the day or night before. You can harness the smarter, thinking, and awake part of your brain as compared to the autopilot mode that we’re often in when we have a tough day.

    Maximize your use of left-overs. Many of us are turned off by left-overs, maybe you had some meatloaf surprise or strange mixture of items that were sitting in your fridge that you probably didn’t like when they weren’t left-overs as kids and this has resulted in a dislike or dread of left-overs for many people. If you find a recipe or meal that you like, why not double or triple the portions and put it in your freezer. When you don’t have much energy or motivation it is pretty easy to thaw something or to reheat. Plus, if you let enough time pass from when you made it originally, the meal won’t seem like a left over.

    Plan your meals ahead and shop accordingly. When you’re motivated and have the energy to do it, why not plan your meals out for a week or so? You can look through your favorite recipes to be inspired or maybe list some meals that you and your family enjoy and think about what day you would like to have what. Maybe you could ask your family for suggestions of things that they would like to have. One word of caution here, the energy and motivation idea applies to them, so if you ask them at the wrong time they might be challenged to name a single thing. After planning the meals that you want, be sure to look for all the necessary ingredients and buy them. It is really frustrating and a motivation killer to start cooking something and find that you’re missing some that is a key ingredient and that can’t be substituted with something else.

    Buy or prepare healthy snacks for those snack-times. You know that you’re probably going to want to snack at sometime, so why not make sure that you have some healthy snacks that you can eat when you’re in a snacking mood. That way you can avoid those unhealthy foods that many of us eat when we’re in a snacking mood.

    By using those times when you’re motivated and have energy, you can build success into your diet and be ready for those times that you don’t feel like making a “real” decision about what to fix for dinner. Do you have any tips that work for you in dealing with the “What do I want to eat? Syndrome”? 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…

    Health and Diet

    Other Systems-Overload Topics
    Posted by Systems Overload at Tuesday, June 17, 2008 View Comments
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    Sunday, June 15, 2008

    Happy Father's Day, American Version



    I just wanted to wish all of you in the U.S., Happy Father’s Day! In Germany we usually celebrate it in the month of May and it usually celebrated on a Thursday, this year it happened to be celebrated on May 1st. I wrote about my father in honor of the occasion.

    I’d just like to say that if you haven’t already done something for Father’s Day (even if you have already, why not), give some thought to your Dad. Many of us have had wonderful Dads. Some of us may have strained relations with our Dads, but maybe now is the time to reach out and offer an olive branch. For those of you fathers out there that have been negligent on the Dad end, why not try to heal those relationships? Sometimes the communication in our relationships becomes labored, maybe even non-existent, and maybe water starts to collect under the bridge. I hope that it doesn’t take some kind of tragedy to bring you closer to your Dad, or that you lose your father only regretting that you didn’t mend that relationship. Dad can be a good guy to have in your corner. He is usually one of your biggest fans, before you do a single thing.

    To all you Dads out there, take a bow. To you new and expecting fathers, welcome to the club, you’re entering a challenging and wonderful world. You’ll receive some of your greatest joy through the life of your kids, you’ll also receive some of your greatest sorrows. When our oldest daughter was new to this world and I was driving to the hospital one day, I heard “With Arms Wide Open” by Creed, I already owned the CD Human Clay that contained the song and had heard several times, but it was like I was hearing it for the first time. I instantly connected with the words of a man that had just heard that he was going to be father and was wondering if he would be up to the task, who wanted to show to world to his child. This instantly became Anna’s song. Later on when my youngest daughter was born we had a theme song for her as well. Here song is by a German band that I’m not able to find online at the moment, I will need to search for this and see if I can find it. I recently heard “Till I Was A Daddy Too” by Tracy Lawrence, the song talks about an appreciation that the writer experienced for his father by becoming a father. I’ve embedded the YouTube video above, you can say that this is a dedication to the new and young fathers, and even to the old battle-tested fathers as well. If you’ve been to a wedding in the last few years you might have heard “Butterfly Kisses” by Bob Carlisle, you can see the video on YouTube here and there is a CD with two different versions of the song on Butterfly Kisses (Shades Of Grace). Another song that is destined to be played for many daddy/daughter dances is “I Loved Her First” by Heartland, the song can be found on the CD I Loved Her First and there is a Youtube video here. One of the oldest and probably best knows songs about being a father is “Cats In The Craddle” by Harry Chapin, where he talks about how his son grew up without him hardly being around, an inspiration to parents to be there for their kids. You can find several versions of this on YouTube, I even heard a version from Guns N Roses! You can find this song on the CD The Essentials, although I’m sure that it is on more than one album. These are all songs that talk about being a dad, so pick one or all of them, turn up your speakers, and think about dad.

    Do you have a story to tell about your dad, or about being a dad? 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…

    Posted by Systems Overload at Sunday, June 15, 2008 View Comments
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    Saturday, June 14, 2008

    Advice for This Year's Graduating Seniors


    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…

    Posted by Systems Overload at Saturday, June 14, 2008 View Comments
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