Archive - March, 2010

The only easy day was yesterday

March 30, 2010 in Journal with 6 Comments

David Goggins is a Navy SEAL, ultra-marathoner, and I’m pretty sure he’s also a cyborg. Just saying. Either way, he is a fantastic example of what it means to blow out the walls of personal expectations and make something remarkable happen.

I may never run a 150 mile foot race or have the opportunity to go all Jack Bauer on Bin Laden, but I can push my own boundaries and expectations of what is possible for me. We all have moments of clarity when we surprise ourselves and realize that we sell ourselves short. I was told that today, that I don’t believe confidently enough in myself and my abilities. So I’m going to take David Goggins advice tomorrow and invite you to do the same:

  1. Try something that will truly test your soul’s limit.
  2. Stay at something until it’s uncomfortable. Then go a bit farther.
  3. Write this on a sticky note and read it aloud: “My life doesn’t have a finish line.”
  4. Replace the things you do to just fill time–email, planning instead of doing, Twittering, whatever–with a narrow window of time dedicated to accomplishing just ONE thing with excellence.

Just four things in one day. That’s it. I’m going to give it a shot and let you know how it goes. You do the same and we’ll compare notes tomorrow. Deal?

The Math of Ideas

March 30, 2010 in Journal with 5 Comments

The only way to have great ideas is to have a lot of ideas. There’s no shortcut and no trap door.

Our culture, which is addicted to “Just Add Water and Stir” success will tell you otherwise, what with the proliferation of blogs focused on this week’s “5 Ways to _______ (whatever)”. Most of them are, at best, common sense wrapped in a shiny cover or regurgitated posts from somewhere else. Somewhere along the line, Tweeting them out gave them more authority. Not sure how that happened.

Either way, it all comes back to the math of ideas, which is governed by the rule above: The only way to have great ideas is to have a lot of ideas.

60% of your ideas will be downright lousy. You’ll love most of them and cry when they die.

35% will be mediocre to decent, but will lack true greatness.

4% will be good ideas with potential…but will never go anywhere.

1% will be great. And, chances are, you will have to go through 100 ideas to get to the one.

Here’s the good news, though: The fact that you have to go through a lot of ideas to get to a great one totally takes the pressure off. So, most of your ideas won’t go anywhere. Big deal. The chances are pretty good, though, that the ideation process will uncover ways of seeing the world or whatever problem you’re trying to solve in a new light. And that’s worth it, so go start a Cat 5 brain hurricane.

iPhone App Fave: Hipstamatic

March 24, 2010 in Journal with 0 Comments

I’ve got a lot of love lately for the Hipstamatic iPhone app. A friend of mine, Jason Dominy, introduced me to it during a secret coffee tasting we were at recently. It’s a photo app that let’s you take pictures and stylize them so they look analog (in other words, “old”). Despite all of the crispness and HD awesomeness that kabillions of megapixels gives us, digital cameras are missing some of the organic feel you only get with film. Especially film that has a mind of its own and changes depending on the conditions.

So, all you photogs out there…if you’re an iPhone user, drop the $1.99 and get this app. You’ll thank me later.

Are you a Hipstamatic user? If so, email me a photo and I might post it here on my blog.


The BlessiCurse of Social Needia

March 23, 2010 in Journal with 0 Comments

Social Media is, maybe, the best thing to happen to the web. Few would argue that the connectivity and innovation are a great blessing. It is. But as time passes I hear more and more people say under their breath that social media is, perhaps, also one of the worst things that could’ve happened to us as people. A curse, if you will, or at least a slushy mix of good and bad.

Call it a blessicurse, like a Jackalope or those European man purses or skinny jeans.

True, I think the advent of social networking has created a generation of narcissists who believe celebrity is a God given right. I also think applications like Facebook give us the quick fix of acquaintance without any of the hard work that genuine relationships require. It scratches our bottomless neediness to feel noticed, wanted, and told that we really are living a meaningful life. Continue Reading…

Page 1 of 212»