I used to ignore my finances, especially when I was in school, because I hated to see that I had little money and a lot of debt. In hindsight, I would have done a lot better if I had a plan to follow and an easy way review my finances. The plan I recommend is…
Become A Getting Things Done Superhero by Working Less
Many people talk about saying “no” to a lot of things so you have time to do the important things. I agree with this, but I want to expand on it a bit. I create time boundaries. I realize that time spent working and the results I create are mostly independent of each other. I also…
Thoughts of A Recovering Engineer
Through my working career I have always watched what works well and what does not, while making mistakes and learning along the way. In addition, I am a personal development junkie and anything I learn I use it to make my job easier. No matter what I am doing I always need the help of others. There…
Growing Your Superpowers Through Intentional Inactivity
I am constantly looking for ways to let go and relax more in my life. One tool I love is sitting and relaxing for 30 minutes each day. I typically do this 5 days a week. I find a place where I will not be distracted by technology, people, or anything else. I just sit…
Moving the goal
Many of you listen to Dan Miller or have read his books. His brand is built on finding the work you love. It is a great concept and it makes us strive to learn more about ourselves. I believe you can find the work you love, but not everyone has the right approach. If people are not careful…
Healthcare Debate Problem Solving Superpower
What are your thoughts on the Healthcare Debate? No matter what they are, I get the feeling that they were not sure what problem they were trying to solve even though I agree there are a lot of problems. I want to use this topic to show you proper problem solving technique. I have led many groups…
Convict Conditioning Book Report
Lately I have been looking for an alternative to weight lifting and going to the gym every day. I was so excited to find this book Convict Conditioning (affiliate link). Paul Wade was incarcerated for many years and wanted a workout program. Contrary to what television shows us, inmates do not have the greatest lifting…
Hard Work Update 4/1/12
Things got a bit turned around between the last Hard Work update and this update. I was coaching for Pursuing Your Calling with Brent Green and Cindy Hirch and Brent’s life started changing in awesome ways. These changes made him decide to pull back from the coaching so he could focus the more important changes to…
Forced Sincerity Superpower
“Any emotion, if it is sincere, is involuntary”~Mark Twain What means more, apologizing automatically or apologizing in opposition to your emotions? What is the point of an apology? Andrea and I sometimes argue. We get frustrated and disagree. Sometimes (most) it is my fault. Eventhough, I still want to argue. What if it wasn’t my fault? I still want…
“I hate my job” Creates Road Rage
Have you ever gotten angry while driving? Was it on the way to work? I have. While driving to work every day I notice people cutting in and out of traffic, speeding up just to hit the breaks again. Everybody is in a hurry. Why don’t these people leave for work a little earlier? Could…
No Free Coaching
I love helping people. I hate helping people that don’t do anything with what I give them. I have learned that giving things away for free rarely works. I have tried coaching for free (for learning) and I was stood up two times in a row by the same person. To combat this I put…
You Are Not Greedy Enough
I have been considering the concept of greed and how it relates to some of the happenings over the last few years (banks failing, mortgages not being paid, Madoff, etc.). I argue that these people were not greedy enough. Take a look at someone like Madoff. If he was more interested in his needs over the…
How to Learn a New Language
Over the last few years I have been growing an interist in learning new languages. I think it comes from my interest in building new relationships and I cannot do that as effectively when interacting with people who speak a differnt language. I have tried a few tools, and I am always looking for better ways to…
How to Get a Job With One Phone Call
I was living in Knoxville, TN (in 2008) and was looking for a job in Kansas City, my home town. I found several companies I was interested in working for and began calling them. Notice I did not start by searching for open positions. I was called and asked if someone would talk to me about the…
Watch Out for The Experts
Things are getting complicated. We have to rely on experts more now then before, and the need of people with specialized knowledge is growing. For example, it used to be that teenagers worked on their cars, but now they are so complicated that an expert technician is needed to do most of the work. Don’t get me…
Do You Understand This Advertisement?
When I saw this advertisement I thought “how clever”, then I wondered how many people understand it. Being a chemical engineering nerd I know that Au is the atomic symbol for gold, but how many other people know it. This led me to think about advertising in general. If you are going to be advertising anything you…
So You Want to Save Money?
I always knew what restaurant.com was, but I did not pay much attention because I don’t want to get stuck spending money on things only because I have a coupon. A few weeks ago I had a friend give me the low down on how to use it. I first started at restaurant.com and found some restaurants which I…
Dave Ramsey’s Plan Does Not Work For Everyone
Maybe this will get me some hate mail. Dave Ramsey‘s plan works great, but it does not always work for everybody…or does it. I want to use this topic to address thinking for yourself. Essentially Dave’s plan is a set of decisions that a person can make which will help them to prosper. We use…
How to Stay Positive
I am generally a very positive person but it takes work. It is easy to stay positive when everything is going well but when things go bad is a different story. One technique I use is to consider everything a learning experience. When something goes bad and I start to get upset I ask myself “what did…
Nerding it up on Nanobots
I am going to nerd it up, so feel free to skip it if you like. I listen to a podcast where weird things are discussed and one of the topics they like to cover is The Singularity. The Singularity is projected to occur within the next 50 years based on the Moore’s Law. One of the key things that may…