Category: Self Development

2017 Year in Review

O God, Thou sellest all good things to men at the price of effort.” -Leonardo da Vinci

This year was about getting re-settled and getting re-situated. The main themes of the year were moving the family to La Crosse, selling the house in Tipton, the ramping up of t-shirt sales, and the ramping down of client work.

The work I was doing was different. Instead of making blog posts I would make over 1000 t-shirts. Instead of listening to podcasts on my way to and from work, I would spend more time with my wife eating out or taking the kids to the park.

January

At the beginning of the year I lived alone in a one-bedroom, studio apartment.

I designed t-shirts and sold them on Amazon when I wasn’t at Marine Credit Union.

One day in January, Jason and I went to the ice caves with his family.

And towards the end of the month I went up on Grandad Bluff to take a selfie.

February

In February I went to Kansas City to meetup with my wife and my aunt Peggy in Garden City.

Later on that month my boys visited me in La Crosse and took them to the quarry.

I’d go on walks along the La Crosse river during breaks at work.

And I kept making new t-shirts. This is from a bumper sticker my Grandpa Wade had on his truck.

March

In March, Suzanne and Carmina visited me and we went to the Mall of America. We haven’t been back since.

After they left I played Minecraft with Samuel remotely online.

Jason and I explored the coffee shop on the corner. It was the only time we did that.

April

In April I went back to Tipton to visit for Easter.

I took the kids to the park for one of the last times.

My brother, Mitch, came over and I gave him a t-shirt.

We took the kids to see their Grammy.

I went for my first bike ride of the year.

Jason and I went to Taco Bell.

I went to a payments conference in Austin, Texas with Jason.

I saw my aunt and uncle in Austin while I was down there.

I hiked the Balanced Rock Trail along Devil’s Lake.

And then Carmina came to help me move out of the apartment.

May

I rode my bike across the Mississippi for the first time. It was an odd feeling doing that from my house.

I continued walking on the trail at work. The leaves were starting to come out now.

We celebrated the lives of Joe and Helen O’Banion, my wife’s grandparents, in Tipton.

I was back at home alone. I mowed the yard for the first time.

June

I had to make my own breakfast.

But then I met this guy at Taco John’s. He recognized me from Instagram.

But at home I was still all alone in an empty house.

But then the kids arrived (along with a lot of help from my Mom, Dad, Mitch, and Jennifer)!

Magdalena setup her workstation in the basement.

July

I took the kids out for hot chocolate at the Root Note.

The Cobb’s came over for ice cream.

And we met new friends, the Miller’s, at Ranison’s for ice cream.

Samuel enjoys building things. We sold the house in Tipton. Suzanne drove back to sign the papers.

I went on a Dragon Boat race with Jason and Marine Credit Union.

Because we live close to work now, Suzanne would come bring me lunch and we’d go to the park to eat.

For my mom’s birthday, we drove back to Indiana to see her. My aunt, Mary, also drove to see her from Missouri.

But then my Aunt Peggy got sick so I went and visited her before she died.

August

The family came together for a meal in Garden City.

We celebrated my Aunt Peggy’s life.

See also Peggy’s 50th Birthday Party from August, 2006.

It was good to get the family together for a time.

I took a selfie with my two brothers.

And with my dad.

Back in La Crosse we went for a walk along the marsh.

We also walked to the Mississippi River.

Suzanne continued growing her essential oils business while I continued making t-shirts.

The kids went on a plane ride around La Crosse.

They were all very excited.

The girls were growing up.

The lights were going out.

It was a very exciting time.

September

In September I went kayaking with Jason.

I visited my mom in Franklin.

While I was there I visited my friend, Hans.

I recreated the Shog logo in Adobe Illustrator and turned it into a t-shirt for me and Samuel to wear.

Amalia learned how to ride a bike.

The kids really got into LEGO building.

And at the end of the summer we finally made it to the beach.

October

We went kayaking again. It was getting darker again.

Jason and I went to Minneapolis to see a graphic designer and tour the city.

I visited my mom and took a picture of my dad’s bookshelf.

Suzanne’s aunt Kathy visited us in La Crosse.

Suzanne and I visited New Glarus Brewery south of Madison.

Magdalena started swimming and I went to one of her swim meets for the first time.

We dressed up for Halloween.

November

I hung out with Hans in Franklin.

Kevin started a hot cocoa stand.

Carmina was in a ballet.

Suzanne and I started going on more dates.

December

I visited the Pearl Street Brewery.

Jason and I made a podcast.

I kept walking on the trail by work.

The kids had a good Christmas. I was glad to have everyone in the same place.

Like Andy Bernard says in the television show, The Office, “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good ole’ days before you’ve actually left them.” Well, maybe there is. Sometimes you just have to stop and pay attention to the moments you’re in and be thankful for them. They may never happen again.

Never thought we’d get old, maybe we’re still young
May we always look back and think it was better than it was
Maybe these are the moments
Maybe I’ve been missing what it’s about
Been scared of the future, thinking about the past
While missing out on now
We’ve come so far, I guess I’m proud
And I ain’t worried about the wrinkles around my smile
I’ve got some scars, I’ve been around
I’ve thrown some pain, I’ve seen some things, but I’m here now
Those good old days -Macklemore

December 31, 2017
2015 Year in Review

This is what I have observed to be good: that it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given them—for this is their lot. Moreover, when God gives someone wealth and possessions, and the ability to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil—this is a gift of God. They seldom reflect on the days of their life, because God keeps them occupied with gladness of heart.” Ecclesiastes 5-18-20

In January I helped Jason renovate his great room. I occasionally do carpentry on the side and Jason needed trim installed. During that time I discovered Jack’s Donuts. I was beginning to build out my ‘breakfast brand’ persona online.

I also got a chance to go to Chicago for a HVAC tradeshow. GoServicePro had a booth there and I helped tell people about the system in hopes of getting some demos scheduled back at the office. It worked.

In February, my kid’s mom and I went to Nashville for the iTHRIVE conference, which is a Young Living Essential Oils business conference. I watched the baby during the day and we hung out together at night.

In March, my kid’s mom and I went to Kansas City to attend an essential oils conference for men. While out there we had the opportunity to have dinner with my aunt, Peggy. It was good to catch up with her and see her again.

In late March, Twitter released Periscope and I had some fun making live videos with it. Making more videos was one of my resolutions for the year. I wanted to ‘do the things I asked my clients to do’ and one of those was make videos.

In April I started a new company with Matt Geddie and Rahul Sahni. It’s an import/export company that connects buyers and sellers around the world. I had to learn about Alibaba and international trade. We ate a lot of food together.

I also started creating more videos of myself in order to document more of my day-to-day life. I started posting them on Facebook and YouTube. I got a lot of weird questions and comments, but I was trying to practice what I preach.

I called the videos “1-minute updates” and started creating a new video every weekday. I would record them on my way to work while driving in the car. I told people it was “practice” for making videos.

In May, I started working nights and weekends at Skinny and Company more. My daughter, Amalia, had a birthday. She turned 2. On Mother’s Day we all went up to the Indiana Dunes State Park. It was a cold, fun day. We have lots of neat pictures.

Jason and I held a Minecraft Conference for the kids. They got to play Minecraft together and teach other about what they had been learning. Jason and I also went to a concert in Fountain Square. While I was waiting on Jason to show up I made a video.

The boys wanted to go fishing so I bought some fishing rods from Wal-Mart and we headed down to my parents house. This was their first time fishing, but the only thing they caught was a frog. It made me realize I still don’t like to fish.

In June, coworkers at GoServicePro (Hans and Chris) and I started doing weekly ‘food challenges’ where we would go get a similar food and do ‘blind taste tests’. We started with subs and moved on to various foods throughout the month like dark sodas, hot dogs, and gourmet hamburgers. This was all practice shooting and editing video using iMovie on my iPhone.

Kevin and Carmina finished up Soccer. I had fun watching them play and going on walks with the other kids along the river behind the soccer fields. I even got to play one game against Kevin. Afterwards, I took the boys to get ice cream.

My kid’s mom wanted me to help her landscape the yard so we started trimming back old bushes and tearing down vines that had grown up against the house. Eventually we took down the back deck, too. It was hard work, but it looked better when done.

I attended another “Dude’s Game Night” at Jason’s house with some guys that are friends with Jason who have become friends of mine including Cullen, Chris, and James. Sometimes Hans comes too. Jason’s wife makes lots of good food. It’s a good time.

Carmina and I both have birthdays in June. My mom came up for Carmina’s birthday party. Jason took me out for waffles on my birthday and then we went on a “Tour of the North” another day. We went to Marion, Huntington, and Upland.

At the end of the month, we went up to the Indiana Fiddlers Festival with my parents. The kids enjoyed listening to the music and walking the trails. At work, Michael, a new guy started. Michael had a beard too and he appreciated my beard.

In July I celebrated my brother’s birthday with a trip to Steak n Shake with his daughters. During this month my kid’s mom, Suzanne started doing Periscopes for her business. Jason and I went to a Foxing and Mewithoutyou concert in Indianapolis.

And then we found out my mom had cancer.

My brother, Scott, and I celebrated my mom’s birthday at Red Lobster. My kid’s mom, Suzanne, attended a Young Living convention in Texas for a few days, leaving me alone at home. Here’s what we talked about before she left:

My daughter, Magdalena, made me salsa. It was good. When Suzanne got back, she started making bars of soap and shampoo for Skinny and Company. August is our wedding anniversary. My brothers, Mitch and Scott, got together at BW3s to discuss family matters.

Later on that month my mom had us all down to her house to take group, family photos. Back in Tipton I took my two sons to their first high school football game. The baby, Amalia, has started to grow up and is going on more walks with us.

In September, Jason and I took a road trip down to Bloomington and walked around the IU campus. I had a dream about a ‘red caboose’ restaurant in Tipton and then Noblesville’s train museum gave out caboose rides at the Pork Festival.

I went down to visit my parents in Franklin and my dad gave me a guitar. My kid’s mom went on another business trip, but this time to Utah. I started helping out nights at Bonzi Sports again by helping him setup Opencart. Jason and I kayaked the White River.

In October I went and saw The Martian and my mom started chemotherapy. iOS 9 came out and McDonald’s started serving breakfast all day. I took a week off from GoServicePro to meet with clients during the day and take a family vacation to see my Aunt Janice and Uncle Dan in Texas.

We first drove to Chicago where we went to Millennium Park and Lou Malnati’s. The next day we flew to San Antonio where we saw The Alamo and walked the River Walk. We then drove to see my Grandpa Stauffer and then finally to see my aunt and uncle.

It was the first time I’d flown since June of 2000 when I went to Texas for a wedding. Dan and Janice’s daughter, Amy (my cousin), was getting married. It was good to spend some time with the two youngest children and Suzanne – and to see Grandpa, Dan, and Janice.

One of my goals on the vacation was to make a decision whether to start a new company (if so, what type) or continue on the path I was on already. I thought about it all week and on the plane ride back to Chicago I finally had an answer.

I started Breakfast Club Me as a creative outlet and to practice building a consumer brand and online marketing using social media, email, and video. It would build on the ‘breakfast guy’ brand I had already built up naturally over the years.

My first product would be a t-shirts that said things like, “Biscuits”, “Waffles”, and “Sandwiches”. I didn’t know much more than that when I started. But to get started I found some similar shirts online and started creating content right away. Within 30 days I had my first product.

In December we got fiber optic Internet installed at our house and we really started ramping up soap production for Skinny and Company. My kid’s mom makes their shampoo bars and I make the wood molds and do the stamping. This is the part of the post where I tell you what I learned.

Kids grow up. They only ask you for “big jumps” or for you to take them to the park for a short time. After a while, they stop greeting you when you get home and sleep in when you leave in the morning. When a child asks for a hug. You stop whatever you’re doing and give it to them.

December 31, 2015
The Only Way Out is Down

Sometimes I wonder what life would be like if it was more like Minecraft. I wake up alone in the middle of a foreign, undeveloped terrain full of wild animals and scary beasts. My only tools are my fists. I’ve got 12 hours until sunset.

Sometimes I fantasize about escaping through tunnels. When I was young I wanted to build a secret tunnel outside my brother’s basement closet wall. I never did, but I wanted to. I still think about digging a hole in my basement floor.

Maybe that’s because I’m an introvert. At least I am some of the time. I know this because I get energy when I’m alone. But when I’m alone, all I want to do is find things to share with other people. So maybe I’m an extrovert. Who knows.

The only times I’ve been alone in real life is when I chose to run away. People naturally group together. We are naturally social. It gets harder to make friends as an adult. You have to be more intentional about it, but it’s still possible.

In elementary I had a wooden fort in my backyard I made from recycled fence material. In middle school I built forts out of osage orange trees and old telephone poles. When I got one fort done, I’d start another. I do the same in Minecraft.

I go out exploring until I find a good spot to built an outpost. I then spend a few days to a few weeks setting up a small outpost. Sometimes people come behind me and the outpost grows into a town, but by then I’ve moved on.

I’m a developer. I develop new procedures, new roads, new towns, new ideas, and new products. I help get things started and then I move on. I’m a maker, a doer. Less talking, more action. But enough about me. Let’s move on.

August 27, 2015
Underutilized Me

I work 8-5 and do IT support and web design nights and weekends. My wife sells essential oils and makes soap for Skinny Coconut Oil. We have 5 kids. I go to church 2 times a week. I have an hour commute.

There’s just not a whole lot going on.

I’m underutilized. There are whole evenings where no one has any work for me to do. There are no meetings to attend. I spend entire Saturdays and entire Sunday afternoons with no work requests. So what do I do?

I rest. I meet with friends. I read articles on the Internet. I make videos. I tweet. I update my website. I go for a walk. There is still more time. There is a ton of time. I take the kids to the park. I read to them. Still more time.

There have been times in my life where I’ve felt overwhelmed or underwater. But even in these times, with a little bit of diligence and perspective, the short periods were not as bad as I originally thought. It was okay.

In January of 2012 I wrote, Problem Solver Seeks More Things to Fix, which I later regretted when hard problems began to present themselves (be careful what you ask for). But that’s essentially what I’m doing now.

The world is apparently changing exponentially, but the news seems slower than ever. We are living in amazing times, so why do I feel bored? Why do I just want to throw rocks in the creek and climb a hill?

Do I need more purpose in my life? Do I need more goals? How do I determine success? What do I want? Maybe I’m being too introspective and I’m asking the wrong questions. Maybe I should look outward more.

Who can I help more? How can I start thinking more about other people’s needs, rather than my own? How can I seek to add more value to the world than the value I take from it? What I can I do to get started?

In order to reach my next goal of earning $20,000 a month, I’m aiming to create $200,000 a month in value to the world (or $2.4 million in value per year). This changes how I think about the problem I’m solving.

I don’t know how I’m going to get there, but I’m going to document the process so you can follow along with me. I’ve heard that if I ‘take massive action’ or even if I ‘work a little bit every day’ I’ll get there. We’ll see.

August 19, 2015
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Weedeating

I hated to weedeat. I never wanted to do it again. I thought that if I killed the grass, I wouldn’t have to do it again. Every spin of the plastic blades was murder. I wanted the grass to die. And it did.

But something worse returned.

Bare ground, like power, abhors a vacuum. There is always a nefarious weed seed ready to grow in place of the previous grass. But unlike grass, weeds grow at a faster rate, and in weirder directions.

Instead of simply trimming the grass, now I had to trim the tops and sides of the crazy-haired weeds. They too would have to die. But there was nothing I could do to kill them. It was me who had to change.

Instead of fighting the grass, I would work with it. Instead of trying to kill the grass, I would simply trim it back. Two things happened: I started to actually enjoy weedeating and the grass didn’t die.

Zen masters who trim bonsai trees seek, “a kind of oneness with nature and with the universe” and they used it as a discipline to aid enlightenment. Trimming bonsai trees was also used as a means to meditate.

When you’re out weedeating you have a lot of time to think. This time can be used to appreciate nature and practice an attitude of gratitude or it can be used to be vengeful and hate your life. I’ve done both.

Thomas Campbell, physicist, author, and expert on consciousness, believes love is the opposite of fear and love lowers entropy while fear increases entropy. 1 John 4:18 says, “perfect love drives out fear.”

When we decide to love what we are doing and change our attitude about work, we reduce entropy and help bring harmony to our lives and the lives around us. In this, I’m reminded of this poem from 1100 A.D.:

When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world.
I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation.
When I found I couldn’t change the nation, I began to focus on my town.
I couldn’t change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family.
Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself,
and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself,
I could have made an impact on my family.
My family and I could have made an impact on our town.
Their impact could have changed the nation and
I could indeed have changed the world.”
by Unknown Monk, 1100 A.D.

August 16, 2015
Mindset

One of the words I kept hearing over and over in 2013 was “mindset”. Mindset is kind of the new hip way to describe what our elders used to call “attitude“.

A mindset can be positive or negative, just like an attitude. A positive mindset is about overcoming limiting thoughts and having an abundance mentality.

When you start to reprogram your mindset to a more abundant mentality, you stop seeing problems and start to see how your limiting beliefs that are getting in the way.

“What stops people are their limiting beliefs about themselves, their self worth, what they don’t actually have. What I’ve found is that people are not actually afraid of failure, they’re very afraid of success,” said Dane Maxwell, founder of The Foundation, an organization that helps people start software businesses by overcoming their limiting beliefs.

Pat Flynn, a leading business leader said, “One of [the common themes that millionaires have] is that they don’t have that fear. They train themselves to be excellent ‘receivers,’ to be open and willing to receive massive amounts of money, which for some reason a lot of people are scared of. I know I kind of went through the same thing. I could feel myself sabotaging myself…not taking it to the next level when I totally knew that I could have. I think the whole mindset thing is so important.”

Dane Maxwell continues, “There are a lot of things that you can logically explain, but for whatever reason you can’t seem to make it happen. You’ve got a limiting belief, you’ve got something you’re stuck with, you’ve got a road block and you’re not going to be successful until you get that thing reversed. And unless you have a kind enough, compassionate enough, gentle enough teacher that without judgment will help you reverse that, you’re not going to move forward.”

You have a finite amount of mental energy so what you choose to spend it on matters. In business you might call this an opportunity cost because thought spent in one direction could prevent you from spending thought in another direction. What you think about is incredibly important because it influences everything else in your life.

There is a war going on in your mind. What are you doing to win? Are you moving towards success or are you self-sabotaging? “The Power of 1%” says that, “Just 1% [improvement] per day…has a dramatic effect and will make us 37x better, not 365% (3.65x) better at the end of the year.”

If you improve 1% a day you will improve 3800% in a year.” –James Altucher

I started writing this post on September 6, 2013. Almost 2 years later I’m just now completing it. What stories have you started that need completing? Let’s complete more stuff, 1 day at a time. A year from now we’ll be 37x to 3800% better. 🙂

July 9, 2015
How Do I Meet New People as an Adult?
A lot of people (myself included) often wonder how to meet new people as adults. As a child the interactions were facilitated and it seemed easier, but as adults it’s still possible – we just have to do more work to get the same results.

Here are some things you can do to facilitate friendship:

Attend Meetups

One thing I’ve learned about meetups is that to make the lasting friendships there, you can’t just show up and leave. You have to stay until the end, see who’s still around, and then ask them to go get a beer or a coffee afterwards. In that way, you’ll create a much deeper, longer lasting relationship with someone that could become a friendship.

Change Habits

Pick one habit to change such as your drive home. For example, instead of driving straight home, stop at a park and walk around. If you see someone there, talk to them. If you are the first person to leave work, be the last person to leave and engage in a deeper conversation with one new person. If you always take the same streets home, purposefully take a different path and pay attention to what you see. You might find a new place to hang out (and meet new people).

Or, instead of driving to work, see if there is a way to carpool, walk, or ride a bike to work. You could also wake up one hour earlier than normal and be the first person in a local coffee shop in the morning. If you don’t know the name of the barista or checkout person at the gas station, ask them their name and tell them yours. The next time you are there, greet them by name.

By making slight changes to your daily habits, you can cause unknown, unintended, changes (like the butterfly effect) that will lead you down a different path than the one you’re on now. In addition to small changes in your actions, here are some pretty standard things you can do to “meet new people” and “make friends.”
1. Be thankful for the life you already have.
2. When someone asks you to do something you wouldn’t normally do, consider doing it this time.
3. Join a local church.
4. Find a local meetup on meetup.com.
5. Start a new habit and do something consistently to see who else is doing that same thing consistently. Talk to that person.
6. Help someone younger than you or older than you without expecting to get paid.
7. Look for ways to volunteer.
8. Join a coworking facility.
9. Consistently visit a bar or coffee shop at a certain time.
10. Be the friend you want to have – invite other people to lunch with you, tell other people what you are doing and invite them to join you, throw a party at your house or apartment, rent out a gym and play some dodgeball, join a softball or kickball league, play a pick-up basketball game at the local park.
To do the things you’re not doing now, you’re going to have to do the things you’re not doing now. That means taking a different path through life, doing things a little bit differently, going places you normally don’t go, doing things you normally don’t do – and being consistent about it.

People who don’t have a clue what they want in life usually don’t know themselves very well. We all like to live in our comfort zones. Same life, friends and activities for years. We think that when we are more comfortable that we are more happy. But the key to happiness may be in getting out of your comfort zone.

The key is to throw yourself in situations which are out of your comfort zone. Go on a trip somewhere obscure, preferably alone. Take some odd job, Do crazy stuff. Break your barriers. Don’t just sit and think about what your passions are. Go find them.

When you do things that normally isn’t you, you will discover what truly is you.

It can be very difficult to get out of our comfort zones – they are comfortable after all. But comfort does not equate to happiness. I think we tend to believe that we know who we are, when in reality we have settled for what we are currently because we are afraid to get out of our comfort zones.

The best part about getting outside of your comfort zone is that it gives you one of the greatest feelings that money cannot buy: Appreciation. We are all aware that we don’t know what we’ve got until it’s gone, but that understanding hits a lot harder when we experience it first hand.

Why is it so hard to make friends as an adult?

As one New York Times article stated, “As external conditions change, it becomes tougher to meet the three conditions that sociologists since the 1950s have considered crucial to making close friends: proximity; repeated, unplanned interactions; and a setting that encourages people to let their guard down and confide in each other”, which are things school and college are perfect for. The people at work would be the next best thing, but aren’t always the pool of people you’d necessarily want to be friends with (sometimes).

But there are other ways to get these types of interactions – frequenting a coffee shop or bar, church, or meetups that other like-minded people also frequent – all take care of those points. When we are little we make friends where we find them. Do you live next door? You’re my friend. Do you sit next to me at school? You’re my friend. Generally we have similar, but limited interests. But as an adult we filter out the people we don’t agree with politically, socially, or for other reasons. By the time we get to the few people left there’s a very small pool of potential friends via self-selection.

It may not be that it actually gets any harder to make friends as you get older, rather that you get better attuned to what you want in a friend.

As an adult I only hang out with people that I actually like and who I feel a mutual sense of value with: they bring something good to my life, I feel I bring something good to theirs. It takes time to find people like that, but it’s worth the effort.
March 3, 2015
The 100th Monkey Effect: How Ideas Tip

Back in 2009 I was listening to a Coast to Coast episode regarding “Mind Viruses & Genetics.” Author and speaker in the field of self-development, Dr. Wayne Dyer, and foremost authority in bridging science and spirit, Dr. Bruce Lipton, discussed how genes and DNA do not control our body, and how MEMES, or mind viruses, are infecting our population.

Whether you believe that thoughts can interact with the universe, God, or control the cells of our own bodies is beyond the scope of this post, but I would simply like to point out some new terms I heard while listening to the episode. The first term is “phase transition,” which is a physics term for when electrons in an atom line up to cause a transition from one phase to another such as from a liquid to a gas. This tipping point happens when a set number of electrons line up, causing all the other electrons to follow, which changes the atom’s phase. The author called that point the “100th monkey.”

According to Wikipedia, the Hundredth Monkey Effect is where, “a learned behavior spreads instantaneously from one group of monkeys to all related monkeys once a critical number is reached. By generalization it means the instantaneous, paranormal spreading of an idea or ability to the remainder of a population once a certain portion of that population has heard of the new idea or learned the new ability.”

You may have heard of the physics term, “quantum entanglement” which is “a possible property of a quantum mechanical state of a system of two or more objects in which the quantum states of the constituting objects are linked together so that one object can no longer be adequately described without full mention of its counterpart — even though the individual objects may be spatially separated. This interconnection leads to non-classical correlations between observable physical properties of remote systems, often referred to as nonlocal correlations.”

Along with doctors who noted that cells taken out of a body respond to stimuli from their original host, you get the gist that there may be undetectable ways that matter communicates at the quantum or atom level, the cellular level, and at the organizational level (as with the 100th monkeys effect). W. Edwards Deming, the engineer whose quality management systems transformed Japanese manufacturing, noted that if you get the first 15 percent of any system right, the other 85 percent flows easily.

At first I thought this was like Pareto’s 80/20 rule, but now realize it is more like the tipping point or the 100th monkey effect. I’ve noticed in working with one of my clients that when we create a new system, such as a tracking sheet, once we get buy-in from a certain number of individuals, the success of that system grows from there. But that could be more of a network effect rather than a ‘100th monkey’ thing.

The reason I wanted to mention all of this is because I have noticed lately the power of the individual. Anything that ever happens can be traced back to one person first having the idea – and then sharing it. Once shared with enough people to get critical mass, it tips, the electrons align, and the phase transitions. The point is, although things happen best within teams of at least two people, ideas begin with one. If you have an idea. Share it. Maybe know one else will ever have the same idea.

If Tesla had kept alternating current to himself, we would all be using Edison’s direct current today. That’s just one example, but there are many. The hyperlinked web you are using right now was invented by one man, Tim Berners Lee. It’s not just inventions, its deciding to love someone. It’s whatever you can imagine. I encourage you all to imagine, to stretch your mind, and cast off feelings of doubt and self-sabotage. Tell yourself you can and you will.

Transitions have that kind of split personality where a lot changes, but very little gets done sometimes. Even static people can do that to themselves when they spend all their time preparing and organizing and never taking action. A friend of mine once announced he’s going to get a divorce and moved out of his house. His productivity level plummeted. I think that sometimes growth comes from stability, other times it comes from an uprooting.

Around the same time I was listening to 50 Prosperity Classics. Like Canfield, co-author of Chicken Soup books and others have suggested, we hung a note on our front door that has a dollar goal, a list of things we’d do or buy with the money (pay bills, carry cash in our pockets, be able to help others, go out to eat guilt-free, get a faster computing experience) as well as actual checks made out to us. In addition, I started speaking to myself things like, “I can be rich. I am rich. I can make [X] dollars a year. I do make [X] dollars a year.” and even “I can be a good father. I can love the Lord our God with all my heart, mind, and soul.”

What I began to notice from that practice was that normal inputs like web design requests and computer repairs started hitting my sub-conscious mind differently. When they came in, my “gut” said, “You make [X] a year. You can’t be coding websites anymore. Hire someone to do that so you can multiply yourself and make more money in less time. You build businesses for other people to work in. That is what you do now.” Yeah, I know, my gut is long winded – its kind of like those Chinese translations on TV, satirized by Wayne’s World, only in reverse.

In that radio show I listened to on Coast to Coast AM, one of the guys said that the sub-conscious or “habitual” mind as he called it makes up 95% of our behavior throughout the day and that much of what we do is automatic. Only 5% requires us having to think to make decisions. This means that we have a huge opportunity to manipulate this habitual mind to our liking and to our benefit. The more I read and listen, the more I find that most writers are all saying the same things. “Ask and it
will be given,” and “Tell yourself you can and you will.”

February 18, 2015
How to be Intentional about Capturing Ideas
You may have been to meeting with your boss that requires you to write something down or record meeting minutes or minutes from the meeting. You may have been driving to work and had a great idea or been in the shower and wanted to write something down, but couldn’t. These are all typical times when you might want to capture an idea.

Epiphanies, Bright Ideas, Moment of Inspiration, and Flashes of Brilliance

It’s kind of the opposite of writers block where you’re sitting down in front of a computer screen or looking at a blank screen or a blank sheet of paper and having to figure out new ideas. What we’re talking about here is capturing ideas when they come. We’re talking about being intentional about that idea capturing process.

Being Prepared to Capture Ideas When they Come

In order to be intentional about capturing ideas, you need to be prepared for when ideas need to be captured. For example, let’s say you are in a meeting at work. What materials are you bringing to capture that material? For those ideas you typically would have a notepad and pen and you’re jotting down ideas as they are spoken. But if you’re really intentional about idea capture you might have a notepad in the car and a marker system on a suction cup in your shower. I recorded this blog post using voice recognition on my phone while driving, for example.

A Repeatable Method for Capturing Ideas

What I’d like to propose is a repeatable method for capturing ideas in any environment using a variety of tools. For example, you may find that for a work meeting it is better to record ideas on Post-it notes instead of lines on a paper or you might find that it’s better to use Evernote or to record the audio on your phone while driving rather than using the voice recognition function in a Note. However you might find that the voice recognition software built into modern smartphones can help you record ideas while driving, but you might find that the crayon in the shower is the best technology for that environment.

How to Process New Ideas Once You Have Them?

This prompts the question: What do you do with the ideas once you have them written down or recorded in some fashion? That brings us to the next part of the method: organizing the ideas that you’ve captured. Captured ideas can be organized using an even wider variety of tools than the ones used to capture them. Typical tools to organize ideas include:
- pen and paper
- software like word processors or spreadsheets
- apps like Evernote
- Post-it notes
What matters is that you create a system that’s useful to you to turn the ideas into action.

Turning Ideas into Action: Execution

The third phase of the method is to turn ideas into reality. After a meeting, typically what happens is you’ll come back to your desk and you’ll type up the notes from the pen and paper into a Word document or an email and you’ll send those out to the attendees of the meeting. They might store the document on the file server or Dropbox and then it may or may not be referenced sometime before the next meeting to remember what you did at the previous meeting. What if instead each idea was treated as an individual object instead of a line in a document? This is similar to how a database works and a simple database creation tool called “Trello” works. It’s similar to creating bulletin boards and a bunch of white note cards that go on those bulletin boards. Since every idea is an object, it can easily have an owner and a next-action step. From there, it’s all about accountability.

The 3 Step Method from Idea Capture to Execution
1. Capture the ideas however you can
2. Treat each idea as an individual object
3. Assign each idea a next step
January 25, 2015