Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Challenge Number One

Ok, for the first challenge, i wanna do something exciting...
  • give a free 90-120 minute seminar
  • seminar must provide feedback that i can apply to creating my product
  • solicit attendee feedback

Ok, more details to follow - this is gonna kick ass!

Monday, September 10, 2007

Excess and Eustress

Two things jump out at me today: excess and eustress.

Some interesting points in Tims book about both: 1) good things in excess become their opposite and 2) distress is bad, eustress is good.

The things I cannot pull myself away from are the things I need to cut back on or replace. I do many things but a few I do too often... these things will be moderated over the next weeks and replaced with tasks/challenges that produce eustress.

I sometimes focus my energies in the wrong places and that creates distraction; however, I now have a reason to focus. I will post one task and one challenge that will replace two things I do in excess.

Rock and Roll

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Intro

Hi everybody,

Welcome.

ive been reading The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss and its got a good hold of me... for one, i'm working the 8 hour per day / 5 day per week gig that is quite easy 4 me and pays perty well... um, as well as a corporate job can pay.

in any case, i realized many moons ago that my mundane life was going to continue on its course for some time. what i didnt realize was that i could do something to change it. in addition, i didnt realize that it was my fear holding me hostage from considering alternatives.

enter a good friend (tr), a good book (four hour work week) and a new support system (lc). this odd cocktail somehow jarred something in my brain and ive now got this bug up my ass. i got excited about getting out of my 9 to 5'er... i got excited! finally, there was something more for me than accounting reports and financial forecasting. i believe i have found a way out!

now i'm ready to begin experimenting and taking the risks that i -- for a long time -- could not take due to fear. stupid fear.

ive not yet read the entire book, i stopped at p. 203 and started over. ive been thinking of my muse and ive tried the comfort challenges.

tonight i documented my fears. have you ever done this? after typing for 5 minutes into notepad, listing my fears, i was like WOW!, i feel great now. then i documented what i could do to fix any "problems" that occurred due to my fears. i felt even better.

here's what i came up with:

  • i fear leaving behind a good job and not knowing what is to come
  • i fear having no money in my bank account bc i am not getting paid regularly
  • i fear being unable to live this material lifestyle ive become accustomed to living
  • i fear taking too much time off of work and losing my job
  • i fear losing 80% (or more) of my savings due to spending without earning
i then asked myself, how can i recover from a worst case scenario? how could i overcome having no more savings? where would i live? how would i eat? ok, lemme figure this out...

It seems as if i have a few options:
  • if i needed a job, i could ask friends who do job placement for my industry
  • if i needed a place to sleep, i could stay with a friend who has an empty bedroom
  • if i needed food, i could eat college style for a couple months (raman noodles, pb&j)
  • if i needed money, i could work random gigs (i.e. find work in the help wanted section)
  • if i planned ahead, i could follow Tims advice to create a muse, set it on autopilot, and then liberate. this is my preferred method, btw :D

in any of the above cases, nothing is as bad as i once thought it was -- especially now that my fears have been documented and im working on finding my first muse.

IM BACK BABY, YEA!

ps - thanks you tr, lc and Tim Ferriss