Month: October 2016

Pema Chodron has a useful working meditation. When random thoughts arrive simply say the word, “Thinking.” Then go back to focusing on your breath and create more space for yourself.

If you’re stressed out because of work. Just say the word thinking. When your relationship with your spouse hits a bump – thinking. When you’re worried if you are not going to pay the bills, or if someone has said something that hurts you, or if you are feeling desperate (or lonely, or tired, or hungry) – thinking.

It also works when you trying to overcome something you are struggling with. If you have an urge for a cigarette, or want a drink, or feel the need to watch something that you shouldn’t be watching on your computer – thinking.

No need to over analyze whether these thoughts are good or bad. Shed the labels. You are not ignoring or hiding from your thoughts but letting them pass through you.

Be gentle and kind to yourself.

• Credit Cards – The national average is 15% interest.
• Buying a new car – The average car payment is $485 over 86 months. Cars lose an average of 40% of its value in the first 4 years.
• Leasing a car – Residual value (how much it will be worth when the lease ends); the lender may figure that a car selling for $30,000 today will be worth $15,000 4 years from now, and will calculate monthly payments to cover that loss in value.
• 30 year mortgages – You can save over $85,000 in interest alone just by switching to a 15 year fixed rate (example used: 3% interest on a $200,000 house).
• Personal Mortgage Insurance (PMI) – There simply is no need for it if you can be patient and put 20% down on your house.
• Out of State Tuition – Average price is about $16,000 per semester for an out-of-state public university. That is about $9,000 more per semester for in-state universities.
• FICO scores – You could have an income of over a million dollars this year with no debt and have a FICO score of 0. This is not a true measurement of wealth.
• Waiting on Social Security – Those who are starting out in the work force can put away $100 a month in growth stock mutual funds with a long track record with returns in the 12% range will retire as millionaires. It is that simple. If you can’t put $100 away right now, can you do $80? $60? Just start putting something away.

Resist the foolish choice. Be patient. Challenge the status quo. Ask the question do I really need to play this game? Is there a different game I can play? Do not accept or comply with the idea that you need to have something. We are all smart and very capable people.

Stop when you’re done.

No one signs up for a marathon thinking they are not going to get tired. Of course, you are going to get tired. Every runner has to find a place to put the tired if they are going to finish.

It’s a shame for the person who didn’t commit to go to the gym for 3 years and quits after 3 months.

Most people find a way to get from A to B in the shortest distance. So if it’s easy, everyone is already doing it. It’s not about the tactics. It’s about grit. It’s about pushing through the dip. If you are not ready to finish what you started, then don’t start.

Anything worth doing, is worth seeing through.

During the destructive years of the dark ages, Europeans lost the art of glass blowing. It took several hundred years before tradesmen from Venice, Italy regained these techniques. The Venetian Merchant Fleet, who controlled the Mediterranean, monopolized the industry by banning the import of all foreign glass and exiled all the glassblowers to the island of Murano – effectively controlling the means of production.

This model of discovering and coveting was perfected during the industrial age: own the factory and get rich.

But when the World Wide Web came along it changed everything. Ideas became cheap. Because now we are connected to three billion people. The factory became the laptop and access is for anyone with 500 bucks.

In the age of connection, it’s no longer about who owns trade secrets rather who is sharing them. So when someone pirates your song, this is a good thing. It means someone out there has taken the time to find you. Your ideas begin to spread. And if it’s good, we’ll trade something for more of it.

The mistake people make today is thinking they can keep an eye on things. But there are no more islands to hide on. Monopolies don’t work anymore. The record industry is proof of this. And soon the movie industry will follow. Collaboration is on the rise. Look at Linux, or Kickstarter, or YouTube.

So let go. Loosen your grip. Give us what you have to offer. Don’t be afraid to let someone take your ideas. Sharing is what brings us closer together.

It’s fate to live in this specific time. It’s fate when we are born into a nationality. It’s fate when we are raised in a wealthy family. It’s fate because we have no control over the development of these events.

But character is not luck, chance, or destiny. Character is a learned attribute. No one is born with good character. It’s a skill that anyone can develop.

“It’s just the way I am,” is not an excuse for poor character. Because it’s not fate’s fault for where we are today. Our weakness of character is what causes us to act against our will.

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.” – William Shakespeare (Julius Cesar)

Fate is what we begin with – what we inherit. Yet, it is character that determines how this journey will go.

Twitter is a modern-day CB radio. Ebay is a digital flea market. Craigslist is taken straight from the classifieds.

All new technology is made from mixing and matching old and primitive tech.

Technology is a tool. Like money. Or a hammer.

You can try to run away from it. But probably fail. So the other option is to run with it.

Here are some cool tools to run with:

• Use Last Pass to keep all your passwords safe and secure.
• Feedly keeps every blog in one place. Cuts time from aimlessly surfing the web.
• Evernote helps organize random thoughts.
• First, it was Napster. Then, came iTunes. Now, we have Spotify.
• No phone is complete without Audible.
• Everyone is using Slack for projects.
• Google Docs is one of the best ways to collaborate with your friends.
• You don’t need a million-dollar investment angel to get your dream running. Use WordPress to create something meaningful.
• Want to check if the reviews are legitimate? Fakespot has your back.
• Dark Sky is a fun way to check the weather.
• The name of your next project awaits with Wordoid.

Pro-wrestling is fake. So are toupees. And the National Enquirer. (My apologies to those who are now finding out.)

It turns out there are lots of things in our world that are fake. There are many industries that thrive on tricking people into believing something is (or isn’t) real. People are willing pay to escape reality.

“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist,” said Christopher McQuarrie.

We don’t even know what we are up against. We have become distracted. It is keeping us from being the person we were born to be – our best selves.

Technology is opening up more doors. Some of us will use these opportunities to make a difference. Others will use it to hide.

Hiding from the world makes it impossible to separate the shadows from the light.

The theory of the The Long Tail by Chris Anderson goes like this: sell toward a large number of different niches rather than focusing on a small number of hits.

The curve is what we see in community service. Service is left to the top 20% at the Head to do 80% of the work. While the other 80% at the Tail is doing 20% of the work.

The People of the Tail  have fallen into a trap that the work they do doesn’t matter. They have tricked themselves into thinking they are not good enough. But they’re wrong.

The difference at the Head is mentality. People like us do stuff like this.

Yet, the People of the Tail have more power than they think. They are the ones that can enable the impossible. The mistake is to believe that real change is only left for people at the Head like Jacqueline Novogratz, or Seth Godin, or Donald Miller. No one is going to pick you to lead. Nobody picked them. They showed up.

Putting your efforts into The Long Tail is the key to leadership. Leaders ignore the glamour of one big hit. So if you want to lead, here’s the question you have to ask: can you get out-of-the-way enough for others to lead?

Politicians, bureaucrats, and management can’t do it. Which is why they fail to make real change over and over again. They can’t get out of their own way for the power of the Tail.

Our job as teachers, leaders, thought provokers, ruckus makers is to help the Tail level up. We need to assemble the tribe. Stand up and say follow me. Let’s go do this thing. And if it works, you go out and do it again. Then again. And again. One day you see the world is a different place from when you started. It is a world that you can be proud of.

It’s up to you to make the difference.

Stephen King’s advice for those who want to learn how to write well is, “Read and write 4 to 6 hours a day. If you cannot find the time for that, you can’t expect to become a good writer.”

Malcolm Gladwell adds in his book, Outliers, that anyone can become an expert in their field by deliberately practicing for 10,000 hours.

If you follow King’s advice, you can hit Gladwell’s 10,000-hour rule in about five years.

Not as long as someone might think to become an expert in your field of choice.

But it requires patience. We have to decide if we are going to show up every single day. That’s what the pros do. Of course, you don’t feel like showing up today. But we promise ourselves that we will start tomorrow. Tomorrow comes and now we are looking for the short cut to make up for lost time.

So start where you are. Instead of looking for the short cut, take the long cut. The one day at a time strategy. Average work for average pay isn’t acceptable for anyone’s standards anymore. It’s not enough to make a ruckus. Turning pro is your best option.

If you can’t be good.

Be great.

When all else fails: Be grateful.