there are times I just sit down and am inspired to write. I go until the train has run out of gas, sit back & see what happened.
Tonight was one of those times with the initial topic of “What does it take to have a better society?”. Your thoughts?
5 Ideas for 2012 that can Change Your Life
January 1, 2012 By 2 Comments
We are quickly heading towards the end of 2011, and I am thinking about how I desire 2012 to be different. Here is a quick list of things I’m considering doing to make 2012 special:
Picture a day
take at least one picture each day
Variant: post a picture a day
Read 5 hours per week
Spend an average of 1 hour each weekday, this should cause you to knock out a number of books, no matter if they are audiobooks, physical, or electronic
Cook Something New Each Week
Find some recipe that looks interesting to you. Cook it.
Bonus idea: take pix, post about it
Try a New Hobby & share it
Start something new for you, record your progress & share what you have learned online.
Start with whatever network you already have (Google +, Facebook, a simple website) and improve your sharing over time.
Interview Someone Each Week
Share what you learned from that person with both the masses & send it to someone specific that you believe will gain from meeting this person.
Change Your Life?
Each of these ideas take very little additional work to be accomplished, but the fact is that you have to be intentional & consistent to achieve them. There is also options for you to expand and do more, but a key is to start.
What will you do different in 2012, anything from this list?
Listening Today
December 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Today I managed to do something I’ve not been able to do in a while.
I sat down & listened to some great audio, taking notes & sharing some thoughts.
This time it was based around the top downloaded episodes of StartingCube in November. This time last year I was planning on doing a podcast that was based on sharing great media that I found. Thoughts, quotations, clips, audio, video, and even text. It’s one thing to seek out keys to success, life, and achieving your dreams, but a more important step is sharing the greatness with others.
All people, at some level, want to impact or shape the world in a way that they desire. Finding, sharing and promoting stuff that I believe should be is part of how I do just that.
November was in interesting month for StartingCube Downloads. There were two driving forces:
- Stay At Home CEO
- Searches
With Stay At Home CEO, a project just starting & focused on helping Stay At Home Dads & Stay At Home Moms build businesses, I started it much the same way as StartingCube – an idea & a date. On the designated date I released stuff to the world. It’s interesting that Cube 61 was one of the top downloaded since that is one of the ideas presented there.
I wrote a lot in that post & just listening to those five episodes really helped with how life is going right now. I really should re-listen to episodes on a more regular basis.
With there being over 62 episodes, you could listen to one episode per day and not repeat an episode in over 2 months.
Another thing is I plan on start releasing new episodes in January 2012. There should be a post on my mindset involving that soon.
Attention Economy on SAHceo
December 6, 2011 By
It’s been a busy month, already. This morning I am thrilled that I had a flash of creativity & pounded out a short article for Stay At Home CEO.
Already this month we have traveled over 1,000 miles. One 8 hour of drive time turned into 12 hours door to door … in the driving rain. The other direction was 10.25 hours door to door.
Of the next few weeks of December we have more traveling & family coming in to stay with us. It’s all a wonderful time of the year, but many things are fighting for my money, energy, time, and attention.
I’m trying to be careful with it & in turn think about what others around me. They probably have just as many things fighting for their attention, time, energy, money, and other resources.
I’m pretty happy with how this post turned out & the artwork I managed to put together with it. Thanks for your attention & if you want to go a step farther comment or share this post with someone else who is trying to do too much.
Reflect, Thank; Dream, Plan – our process to success
November 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment
My family has this process that we started the fall after my wife and I were first married. It stems from my frustration of Thanksgiving being overlooked & disdain for New Years Resolutions. Currently I am calling it Reflect, Thank; Dream, Plan.
Reflect
The first step is to look back on the past year, or longer, and see where you have come from. What all has happened?
Having twin one year olds this Thanksgiving, I can say that the year went by fast. We both have much to be thankful for, especially the growth in our babies and each other — both as individuals, as a couple, and family.
Thank
This part is simple, but important – be thankful & speak to people what you are thankful for. As a general practice I am trying to be encouraging more in the day to day, but there are still some specific people who have had an impact that I try to go out of my way to thank.
Dream
This moves from the past & present side to the future. Dreaming what the next year or longer should be. Currently I am thinking about a model based on relationships for viewing your world, so:
- Yourself – physical, mental, spiritual, capabilities
- Family – the special relationships around you
- Business – if you are an employee – you are a business hiring out your services to your employer. If you own or desire to one one, then you have a slightly different relationship
- Society – other people who are not in your business, or family.
So, what are the dreams for those four big areas? What about the subparts? Can you paint a picture that you are aiming for?
Plan
The practical steps you intend to take to make your dreams reality. Before you fully make plans you need to make goals. Goals are important because they are the measuring stick of how well your plans do, but doing the important work to write out the steps you are going to take to make the dream a reality is also vital.
My family is in the middle. We talked about reflecting and thanks recently. This week my wife and I will talk about our dreams for the next year – thinking in those four big fields. If you can have one dream for each & work on just four things over the course of a year – it will be amazing, as long as you take the steps of really making a good goal and then a plan.
Location Independence – posted on SAHceo
November 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment
For years I’ve valued having Location Independence in the work I was doing.
I enjoyed the time I was in the St Louis Arch and a client called asking about a change to a website. I told him I would get to it when I could & after getting off the call I realized I could from my phone. In moments, from the top of the St Louis Arch I had the site adjusted & an email off to him.
Now that I am a Stay At Home Dad, the ability to work where I am is even more important, but to do so you have to go through some steps.
This post on Stay At Home CEO titled Location Independence goes into three parts: Plans, Tools, Ability
They are not complex steps, but vital if you want to have more freedom and liberty in your life.
White Chocolate M & M’s, ah?
October 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Saw these today … generally I like M&M’s, but this one is too scary for me.
If I saw them at a party I would try, but not purchasing myself.
Why I am not at the Dave Ramsey party today
September 28, 2011 By 1 Comment
I know & like Dave Ramsey.
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[mp3 - 13:22]
First learned of him while I was in high school & got to know him enough in 2004 that he would recognised me in a crowed in 2005, though not today. I hope his new book, EntraLeadership, is a huge success. Today he is on his book tour, in our home area, broadcasting from outside his office & celebrating being a New York Times Bestseller. At the party is free food, music, book signings, giveaways. The type of thing I enjoy, but things have changed & I could not bring myself to go.
My mother is a wise woman, growing up she focused on training each of her children how each should go by having custom rules based on the tendencies of that child. My natural tendency is to do more & more, thus the rule was that I could not have more then 3 activities (soccer, scouts, band, church, etc) at one time. At least one of my siblings had a minimum, for that child would not do any outside activities. Our parents also had veto power over activities & sometimes forced a particular activity on us.
This helped me learn about myself, or at least helped in the process.
Nearly 11 months ago my world changed.
I once interviewed Andrew Peterson, as a part of Artist Insider. He is a musician who learned enough about business to have his own company. This is something that most artist are not interested in all, so I was fascinated with what would cause him to do so when so many others would not.
The answer Andrew gave was the birth of his children. I did not understand this until recently. For Andrew it was motivation to learn about business, for me it is focusing my resources, especially my time. Looking back, this was a lesson my mother was attempting to teach me for years. It took the birth of my first two children & more to really get me back to it.
In the Last Few Months
This has been building. I would often think back on episodes of StartingCube, from How to Succeed to How To Change, What to do Next & Overcoming Adversity, and many more. I thought about Good To Great & the hegehog concept.
Then two key posts of my own:
The first is a process of setting priorities, the second – how I currently think of life in terms of producing & investing, consumption, and relaxation, all things we all need.
The big thing, the big reason why I decided not to head to Financial Peace Plaza today is that it does not fit with the main focus I have right now. I need more production & investing. I need more focused consumption.
Long term I will continue to help people solving public problems with private solutions.
I need to learn more about building businesses, meet more people, and improve my abilities and results as an investor. Today, was a step in self discipline of saying no to a good thing to spend time working towards something great.
If you want more, listen to the mp3, or check out the links. Cube25 [How to Succeed] & Paint The Picture are two great places to start.
this evening a post I threw up a couple months ago came to mind. Titled “production, investing, consumption & relaxation – A way to look at Life“
