What you see, isn't always real...
Thursday, January 07, 2010
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Time Management
Yeah, I know, you can't manage time, you can only manage you and your use of time.
Argue that for 5 minutes and waste 5 minutes of your life, or just read this from the DLM Blog:
Over the past six years, I’ve picked up a lot of time management tips. Some of them have been helpful and, frankly, some have been useless. Here, I’ve compiled the ten that have served me best. And yes, I’m sure you’ll have heard some of them before ... but are you actually doing them?
It doesn’t matter whether you’re self-employed, employed or a student: over the past six years, I’ve been an undergraduate student, a full-time employee, a part-time postgraduate student, and a freelancer – and these tips work for all those situations!
Argue that for 5 minutes and waste 5 minutes of your life, or just read this from the DLM Blog:
Ten Essential Time Management Tips
Posted: 28 Dec 2009 11:38 AM PST
Over the past six years, I’ve picked up a lot of time management tips. Some of them have been helpful and, frankly, some have been useless. Here, I’ve compiled the ten that have served me best. And yes, I’m sure you’ll have heard some of them before ... but are you actually doing them?
It doesn’t matter whether you’re self-employed, employed or a student: over the past six years, I’ve been an undergraduate student, a full-time employee, a part-time postgraduate student, and a freelancer – and these tips work for all those situations!
- Three Important Things
This is the “big rocks first” technique of scheduling your three most important tasks into your day and letting everything else flow around them.
In case you’ve not come across the “rocks” analogy before, it goes like this:
You’re given a jar, three large rocks, a handful of pebbles and some sand. If you pour the sand and pebbles into the jar first, there won’t be room to force the rocks into it – but if you put the rocks in first, the pebbles can flow around the rocks, then the sand can be poured in to fill the gaps. - Always Carry a Notepad
How often have you been stuck waiting for a train or standing in line at the bank with absolutely nothing to do? Keep a notepad in your pocket or purse and you’ll always be able to do some productive work: whether it’s an outline for your next project, a list of ideas for new products, or a few notes for an article or short story.
If you have a PDA or phone that you can type on, try using that instead of a notepad – you can transfer your notes to your computer. - Make Checklists
Do you ever find yourself procrastinating on big projects – or spinning your wheels without much idea of what needs to be done next? For almost any project, a checklist is a good way to keep on track. You might keep checklists like:- Books and articles to read for your next essay
- Steps to take whenever you take on a new client
- Office procedures, such as closing up at night
- Books and articles to read for your next essay
- Work in Short Bursts
Many people make the mistake of trying to work for long hours at a stretch. Inevitably, they run out of energy quickly – or end up working inefficiently. It’s much easier to concentrate when you’re working for a short time period, which is why students are normally advised to study for 20-45 minute bursts, taking frequent breaks.
If you’re struggling to concentrate on work, set a timer for twenty minutes, and see how much you can get done in that time. Twenty minutes of concentrated work can be more productive than two hours of fiddling around. - Do One Thing
Our world is becoming faster and busier than ever. It’s all too common for us to be replying to emails, keeping up with friends on Twitter, and holding a conversation with colleagues – while trying to get that big company report finished. No wonder we end up working late.
Experts now believe that it’s better for us to concentrate on one task at a time, rather than multi-tasking: every time we switch between different tasks, we have to refocus – and we’re also likely to get distracted. - Pay Yourself First
If you’ve done any reading on financial management, you might have come across the idea of paying yourself first – setting aside money towards your long-term goals each time you get your paycheck. You can apply a similar principle to your time, either on a daily or weekly basis.
“Pay yourself first” by spending an hour before work each morning on your goals – not on household chores. (If the chores really need to be done, you’ll get them done in the evening.) - Get Enough Sleep
Many of us try to cram more into our day by cutting out sleeping time: but this can be hugely counter-productive. You’ll never be able to focus well when you’re yawning over your keyboard and if you push yourself too hard for too long, you may end up getting ill.
Some people can function well with under eight hours sleep, but most of us need to be getting at least seven hours. - Track Your Time
Where does all the time go? I’m sure that’s a question most of us have asked ourselves recently. Of course, it’s not hard to find out: simply spend a week keeping track of your time, writing down what you do each hour.
Don’t make the excuses that you “don’t have time” to do this – it’ll only take a few extra minutes during the day (simply make a note of the time you start and end each task) – and it can reveal some uncomfortable truths about where you’re spending the bulk of your time. - Schedule Time for Emails
When you sit down at your computer in the morning, what’s the first thing you do? For many of us, it’s checking emails. It’s easy to get sucked into replying to just one thing ... only to find that it’s lunch-time and you’ve not really accomplished anything.
If you find yourself checking emails whenever you’re stuck or procrastinating, then set yourself rigid times to read and reply. You could try 11am and 4pm – it’s unlikely that anyone really needs a reply from you at 8am. - Delegate Whenever Possible
Finally, the best way that I’ve found to free up my time is to delegate. The more tasks you can pass on to other people, the easier it’ll be to cope with your own workload. This might mean training a subordinate to take over some of your tasks at work, it might mean hiring a virtual assistant for your home business, or it could just be getting your spouse or teens to cook dinner once in a while.
Many of us find delegating stressful, so here are some tips on how to do it right.
 | Written on 12/28/2009 by Ali Hale. Ali is a professional writer and blogger, and a part-time postgraduate student of creative writing. If you need a hand with any sort of written project, drop her a line (ali@aliventures.com) or check out her website at Aliventures. | Photo Credit: woodleywonderworks |
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Video Time: Drive Time
When I lived in Detroit 20 years ago, one of my favorite January activities was the Auto Show.
Take a look at this:
Take a look at this:
Monday, January 04, 2010
Remove the Double Standard
From the AOM Blog:
What Can Manly Men Expect of Women?
Posted: 20 Dec 2009 05:38 PM PST
Awhile back, Leo posted these delightfully nostalgic and funny “Marital Rating Scales” from 1939 in the Community:
After having a good laugh, what Kate and I both noticed after reading through these charts was that while we could imagine a modern day woman expecting her husband to live up to most of the standards on the Husband’s Chart, if a man expected a woman to adhere to the Wife’s Chart, he’d probably be met with the look of death.
Now obviously some of the expectations on both charts are just silly, and part of the reason that the Wife’s Chart seem even sillier is that a woman’s place in society has changed far more than a man’s during the last 70 years.
But it’s also indicative of a new double standard that has emerged in our modern age. Women are still free to flog men for their shortcomings and expect a lot from them, but if a man has any expectations for women, the conversation is bound to go something like this:
_________________________
It seems like men are catching onto to this movement to recover some of the good things of the past, while holding onto the progress we’ve made. I was just reading this interesting article in the NYT about how 20-something men are rejecting the whole casual, let it all hang out Baby Boomer vibe that’s dominated society for the last few decades and are starting to want to dress up and look sharp. This quote, from a college professor, particularly stood out to me:
“But the younger generation is looking at getting dressed up and making their mark,” Mr. Cohen continued. “It’s a real generation gap here. I teach at three different colleges, and I am amazed how dressed up some of the students are. Girls still come in their hoodies and pajamas, but boys come in their suits.”
In some ways, the new movement towards a return to traditional manliness needs women to be on board to be successful. After all, if you have men opening doors and asking women on real dates, and they’re just laughing in your face, that’s clearly not going to work out too well. And if you have men striving to be their best, but they feel like women aren’t even trying, you’ve got a recipe for creating strained relations between the sexes and bitter and disillusioned men who think all women are an unappealing mess who are not worth the trouble of dealing with (something you already see in certain online communities).
We often get emails from women who praise us up and down for the mission of the Art of Manliness. “This is just what men need!” they say. “I love the idea of bringing back traditional manliness!” they tell us. We love that women are on board with the movement, but it makes us wonder, “Okay, if men are manning up, what are women going to do to follow suit?”
After all, if women say they’re not in favor of a genderless society, and they want men to be men, then they have to be prepared for the flip side of that equation. A world where women are women.
Now don’t get me wrong. A man’s desire to man up should really have little to do with women and their opinion of him. Basing their lives around the opinions of women is exactly where men have gone wrong these last few decades. A man should want to seek true manliness out of his desire for confidence, honor, and self-respect.
But it’s also wrong-headed to think that womanliness has nothing to do with manliness. It would be hard to define manliness unless it was juxtaposed beside femininity, the way we wouldn’t be able to define dark, without the experience of light.
And it’s also indisputable that men used to be motivated to be honorable men because they felt they got something in return from the women in their lives. Manning up involves some sacrifice, but men didn’t feel like they were the only ones making an effort. Men dressed up, took women on dates and paid, brought home the bacon, took care of their wives, and acted as the rock in the family. In return, they could count on women to look classy and attractive, be charming, cook dinner, take care of the house and kids, and make her man feel like king of the castle.
But these days a new double standard has emerged where it’s okay to celebrate men manning up, but telling women they need to recover some of their femininity is offensive. To wit:
A woman telling a man to stop looking like a slob and dress up. Awesome!
A man telling a woman to stop looking like a slob and take care of herself. Sexist!
Saying that men should stop hooking up with women. Awesome!
Saying that women should stop sleeping around. Sexist!
Saying that men should get off the couch and go to work. Awesome!
Saying that a woman should be nurturing with kids. Sexist!
Saying that men should take the initiative in relationships. Awesome!
Saying that a woman should let the man lead (ever!). Sexist!
Well, you get the idea. The are a few reasons for the disparity. The first is that men spent most of world history in a position of privilege (although there were real downsides to being a man during this time, too). Then the women’s movement happened and they lost that position. So when it comes to recovering aspects of traditional manliness, men are excited to get on board (not because they want the exact same position back, but simply because they see the past fondly). Women, on the other hand, fought for the last few decades for the position that they now find themselves in. So even if they aren’t totally happy with it, looking back to recover what was good about the past makes them feel like they’re betraying what their sisters fought for. And if anyone suggests that bringing back some old school femininity might be a good idea, it’s been ingrained in them that they should be offended.
Second, women have historically been put on a pedestal, as the protectors of morality, while men have been disparaged as being baser in their nature. So it’s always been socially acceptable to castigate men but not women, because of the implicit understanding that women were just naturally pure and didn’t need much external encouragement to be “good.” Some feminists still seem to hold to this idea-that men and women are equal, but really-wink, wink- we all know that men are actually pigs. A real head scratcher to be sure.
But these days women say they don’t want to be on a pedestal, that putting them there is sexist! So now that we’re on equal footing, can we admit that today’s women need some work too?
Could we perhaps say that equality shouldn’t mean embracing and outdoing men in things that were traditionally considered masculine? That making out with other chicks for attention and lifting your shirt for beads and getting smashed and burping the alphabet and dressing in sweatsuits really has very little to do with being “liberated?”
That if men are going to know their way around a kitchen, that maybe women could, too? (I know lots of women my age who couldn’t cook to save their life.)
That you can’t insist on both being treated like a princess while also being a totally “independent woman?” (And that these dual impulses are driving men nuts?) And that a lot of relationships are falling apart not because there aren’t any good men to be found, but because women are so paranoid about “losing their identity” that they can’t settle down and give themselves over to being with a man? (Did you know that 2/3 of divorces are initiated by women?)
Now don’t get me wrong. We’re certainly not advocating a “Get back in the kitchen!” movement. Just like traditional manliness, recovering traditional womanliness will require sorting through which is the baby and which is the bathwater. And that sorting seems like an even more difficult task than it is for men. A veritable minefield where PC-ness, reality, history and progress collide.
But that is where I’d like to start this discussion. What aspects of femininity do you wish women would once again embrace? If you’re manning up, what do you expect of women? I’m also interested in what our female readers have to say about the subject.
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Sunday, January 03, 2010
Staying Connected
When I was growing up, as a child of the 60's and teen of the 70's, we had fewer options for communication and entertainment.
Fort Wayne had 3, then 4 TV stations. Today over 70% of our market subscribes to some form of cable or cable like service.
I still remember my home phone number, 483-3818 which my parents had for over 20 years, then for some reason changed it.
Every member of my family and step family have their own personal phone numbers now due to the cellphone revolution.
I usually don't text, it is a pain without a qwerty keyboard on my phone. And I don't have a smartphone yet, no need for one, because I use my laptop for my internet connections.
I am on Facebook and have a MySpace account and LinkedIn Profile, a few blogs, a couple of email accounts and use Twitter daily.
How do I keep track of all of these? Mostly through email. I have alerts sent to my email from all these other online sources. So why do I have these online sources? Because it is not about me, it is about how the people I want to stay in touch with, want to stay in touch.
A couple days ago, I got a message from a client via Facebook. I had an inquiry for services via Linked In. And it works.
Last week I met about 50 new people face to face who are on Twitter and when I added them to people I follow, most of them did the same. Which resulted in my taking the next step in organizing my Twitter activity with Twitter Lists.
Is all of this connectivity to much? Sometimes I wonder. Like this weekend at church. There was a young family sitting in the pew in front of us. The Dad had a Bluetooth earpiece stuck in his right ear, that kept flashing. Next to him, his 4 year old son and 8 year old daughter both had cellphones that they were looking at during the service. I watched the Mom, and she acted as if this was all normal.
What's normal these days depends on who you are I suppose, what about you?
My Sources Part 3
Yesterday I disclosed some of the background of what I do here and revealed a couple of the sources for the material I post.
I get updates in my email from these sources, since email is still the most commonly used form of electronic communication I have with my clients, I check it a few times a day.
Harvey Mackay, was one of my mentors 20 years ago and I will use his weekly column a couple times a month either on this blog or the Collective Wisdom Blog.
Here's his latest:
Harvey Mackay's Column This Week
Quotes to help you toast the New Year
One of the most innovative holiday greetings I received last year came from friends who sent a holiday card labeled "Quips and Quotes to help you toast the New Year." Since I am an aphorism junkie and always on the lookout for creative and interesting ways to stay in touch with my friends and readers, I especially welcomed their effort.
In fact, I liked it so much I decided to create my own version. Here is some of my best advice to guide you through 2010 and beyond.
- They don't pay off on effort ... they pay off on results.
- No one ever choked swallowing his or her pride.
- Don't just mark time; use time to make your mark.
- People don't plan to fail, they fail to plan.
- Technology should improve your life, not become your life.
- The best way to be somebody is just to be yourself.
- The best vitamin for making friends is B1.
- It is not a question as to who is right but what is right.
- The difference between failure and success is doing a thing nearly right and doing it exactly right.
- Many people hear ... but few people listen.
- There is no free tuition in the school of experience.
- The person who has no goal does not fear failure.
- The best way to get even is to forget.
- It is better to forgive and forget than to resent and remember.
- Make decisions with your heart and you'll wind up with heart disease.
- People have a way of becoming what you encourage them to be—not what you nag them to be.
- You can win more friends with your ears than with your mouth.
- When you kill a little time, you may be murdering opportunity.
- Education is an investment and never an expense.
- Ideas won't work unless I do.
- It's never right to do wrong, and it's never wrong to do right.
- Your smile is more important than anything else you wear.
- Gratitude shouldn't be an occasional incident but a continuous attitude.
- Helping someone up won't pull you down.
- Those that have the most to say usually say it with fewest words.
- If you don't learn from your mistakes, there's no sense in making them.
- People wrapped up in themselves make pretty small packages.
- When is the last time you did something for the first time?
I also wanted to share these gems from unknown authors whose wisdom is timeless.
- Smart is believing half of what you hear; brilliant is knowing which half to believe.
- One thing I can give and still keep is my word.
- Those who beef too much often land in the stew.
- Compromise is always wrong when it means sacrificing principle.
- Most people say they are willing to meet each other halfway; trouble is most people are pretty poor judges of distance.
- If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.
- Most people aim to do right; they just fail to pull the trigger.
- Most people fail in life because the wishbone is where the backbone should be.
- Courage is not the absence of fear; it is the mastery of it.
- Friendship doubles our joy and divides our grief.
- Happiness can be thought, taught and caught—but not bought.
- Burying your talents is a grave mistake.
- Praise, like sunlight, helps all things to grow.
- Life just gives you time and space—it's up to you to fill it.
- The heaviest thing I can carry is a grudge.
- A stumble may prevent a fall.
- Failure is no more fatal than success is permanent.
Mackay's Moral: Not just words to live by, words to live better. Happy 2010!
Miss a column? The last three weeks of Harvey's columns are always archived online.
More information and learning tools can be found online at harveymackay.com.
Saturday, January 02, 2010
My Sources Part 2
Earlier today, I shared with you one of my sources for material. Here's the latest from another source that I refer to as DLM which stands for Dumb Little Man:
6 Ways to Start the New Year Doing Instead of Dreaming
Posted: 31 Dec 2009 07:13 AM PST
It is the time of year where many people will attempt to develop their New Year’s resolutions. Whether you have one resolution or a thousand, wouldn’t it be a fabulous accomplishment to be able to say to yourself that 2010 was the year you stopped dreaming about accomplishing your resolutions and started to do them?
Dreaming about what you want to get done is not a bad thing, but many of us seem stuck in the days after January 1st thinking about losing weight, starting a business, or saving more of our income instead of making it happen.
To help you start the New Year right, here are 6 ways I have thought of that you make 2010 a year of doing instead of a year of dreaming:
Change Your Mental Map
In the article, “Leading Again for the First Time,” Dr. Chip Souba makes the assertion that “Sustainable success begins with transforming people first by changing their mental maps and thought patterns.” In my studies of success, the people that are most successful are the ones that change their perceptions of what they can do and as Dr. Souba said, change their mental map.
When you change your mental map, you are not changing what you believe to be true or false, right or wrong, but you are changing how you perceive success in accomplishing your goals. Many of us fall into the trap of thinking that our past failures signify future failures. That is a mental map we have created that has now defined our future. When we change our mental map, we realize that our past failures do not define our future and that we can accomplish the goals we set this New Year.
Increase Your Learning on the Subject
For many of us, the New Year gives us a few days of rest before we have to go back to work. This is a good time to sneak into the library and research your resolutions. I personally like to do my research in the libraries of a large public university. There I have access to search tools and databases that allow me to find peer reviewed articles and data on the topics I am researching. For non-research types like me, our local public library can give us access to:
- The forms needed to start a business.
- Books on how to get our finances in order.
- Exercise and diet DVDs, books, and magazines
- Online programs to learn a new language, learn about traveling to other countries, develop a resume, and a variety of other self-help topics.
- A staff of people that are paid to help you find information.
Eliminate Wasteful Activities
The primary complaints that I hear from people about why they fail to accomplish their goals is that they do not have enough time. This is coming from the people that hit the snooze button 9 times before getting out of bed, watch two hours of TV a night, and spend every 20 minutes checking their e-mail and Facebook status updates.
Spending some time doing a relaxing activity is not a bad thing, but when you are spending over two hours a day playing Farmville, you have some free time to get more done in your life. I recommend that you spend the next few days trying to cut your TV and Internet time in half and spend that time working on accomplishing your resolutions.
Set Realistic Time Horizons
You didn’t put that 20 pounds on in a week, so don’t expect it to come off the day you start your diet.
We live in a world of instant gratification. Due to the pace of our lives, it has become difficult to accept that being successful in accomplishing your goals takes time. If you are looking to lose weight, then give yourself the room to make mistakes over the coming week. Just because you ate a pint of Ben and Jerry’s doesn’t mean all is lost. It just means you need to be realistic about your goal and strive to a long term goal of feeling better and weighing less.
Whether it is a savings goal, business, or personal, we all try to believe that things can change overnight. They can’t, so we need to make sure that we create time horizons for our goals that push us to accomplish them but don’t set us up for failure.
Recruit Others to Your Cause
If you need help losing weight, then join a support group. Trying to save money? Join a savings club. Want to start a business? Then join a local chamber of commerce. For many of your goals, there are free or low cost groups that you can join that create a support network that will help you stick with your goals.
If there isn’t a group available, then try to find an accountability buddy that will push you to stay in line with your goals. This should be someone that you can speak with in confidence that will tell you when you are keeping to your goals or need to get back in line.
Take Action Now
Don’t wait until January 1st to start your resolution. If you want to lose weight, then get your workout clothes on and take a walk. When you return from your walk, throw away all of the junk food in your house, make a menu for the next month, then create a healthy shopping list for the next two weeks.
If you want to save money in the new year, then why don’t you pull out the credit card and bank statements, figure out what monthly expenses can be eliminated, and make the calls to cancel subscriptions, reduce your cell phone bill, and other subscriptions you are no longer using.
Don’t wait for something to happen, the clock to strike midnight, or a mystic vision to reveal what you are supposed to accomplish in the New Year. IF you want to be successful then pick up the phone, get out and start moving, or pick up the pen in write. Whatever you want to do, get out there and do it right now! It is the best way to get you started in accomplishing your goals.
 | Written on 12/31/2009 by Chris Elliott. Chris helps small businesses figure out what their big idea is, how to get it to market, and how to get people to notice their wonderfulness. He is also a dynamic speaker and trainer in personal growth and public speaking. You can catch him blogging at As A Dude Thinketh. | Photo Credit: kkalyan |
My Sources Part 1
I'm going to add some extra posts to the Really Blog this weekend to let you in on a few secrets of mine.
1st off, I normally post 2 times a day on this site that you are reading right now.
A year ago, I decided to promote my hometown, Fort Wayne with a Fort Wayne site of the day. I dabbled at this in 2008, then on January 1st 2009, made a commitment to doing it every single day, and I'll continue in 2010, with a mixture of new and repeats from last year.
Then in the afternoon, I post something fun, insightful, or personal.
(I also write and edit several other blogs that range from marketing/advertising/sales to political, to, well, all together there are over 40 updates a week. This is made possible by the schedule ahead feature that is built into blogger.com.)
Anyway, on this blog, one of my favorite sources is the Art of Manliness Blog. Later today I'll add a couple of other sources. Here is their year end wrap-up:
Posted: 01 Jan 2010 11:26 PM PST
Whew. Am I ever glad 2009 is over. For Kate and I, 2009 was a mixed bag. At the beginning of the year we suffered a family tragedy that put us in a funk for much of 2009. But I think the experience brought us closer to our families and helped us understand that you can’t take anything for granted.
Despite that early setback, we had a lot of success personally and with the site. I graduated law school in May in the top ten of my class. Running the blog and doing law school at the same time nearly put me in an insane asylum, and I’m grateful to be able to now concentrate on AoM full-time.
Here’s a breakdown of some of what went on with the Art of Manliness this past year.
1. The biggest news of the year was the publication of our first book, The Art of Manliness: Classic Skills and Manners for Men. Thanks to your support, we sold out of our entire first print run in just two months. The publisher hopes to have the next print run out in a couple of weeks. We’ll keep you posted.
2. In April we started the Art of Manliness Community where men from all over the world can come together to discuss manly topics-both the fun and the serious. In just 8 months, over 6,500 men have joined up. Thank you to the regulars who make the Community such a great place to hang out. Make sure to stop by if you haven’t already.
3. We teamed up with TankFarm Clothing to create 12 awesomely manly Art of Manliness T-shirts. Show off your Art of Manliness pride by picking one up today. Our thanks goes out to TankFarm Clothing for making the t-shirts possible.
4. In June, we ran a month long series called 30 Days to a Better Man. Every day we provided AoM readers with a different task to complete that would help them become a better, more well rounded man. If you’d like to do the program, you can download our easy to read 30 Days to a Better Man eBook for just $2.50. Or you can still go through all the Better Men posts online for absolutely free. They’re not going anywhere.
5. In September I started a weekly podcast. The podcast thing is still fairly new to me but hopefully I’ll keep getting better at it. I plan to continue bringing on guests to talk about topics of interest to men as well as our Man Stories series.
The Most Popular Posts of 2009
And now, without further ado, here are the most popular Art of Manliness posts of 2009:
1. 100 Must See Movies: The Essential Men’s Movie Library
2. The Ultimate Push-up Guide: 35+ Push-up Exercises
4. Every Man Should Be Able to Save His Own Life: 5 Fitness Benchmarks
5. 5 Classic Cocktails Every Man Should Know
7. 7 Exercises to Make You Look and Feel Like a Man
8. The Essential Men’s Library: 50 Fictional Adventure Books Edition
10. 15 Manly Smells
11. Motivational Posters: Theodore Roosevelt
12. Motivational Posters: Winston Churchill Edition
13. The Mad Men Guide to a Manly Haircut
14. Choosing Man’s Best Friend: A Guide to Canine Companions
15. 13 More of the Worst Products for Men
16. How to Exit a Room Like a Man
17. How to Shave Like Your Great Grandpa: The Ultimate Straight Razor Shaving Guide
18. How to Look Like a Million Bucks for Under $200
19. 5 Gut Busting Football Conditioning Drills
A Thank You to Art of Manliness Readers
This year the site grew from 25,000 to 56,000 subscribers and from 400,00 to 900,000 visits a month. Kate and I are tremendously grateful for your support. Thank you for sharing AoM with your friends and family. Thank you to those who made the site an interesting and welcoming place to visit by sharing your respectful and insightful comments. I was always amazed at the great dialogue that would take place. Thank you to those who emailed us feedback and suggestions. Thank you to those who shared your appreciation for the site with us and helped keep us going. You all are a wonderful group of gentleman (and ladies), and it’s a privilege to associate with you and have you aboard. It’s truly inspiring to know that there other other men out there who are unwilling to settle for mediocrity and want to become the very best they can be.
Looking Forward to 2010
We’re very excited about 2010. We have so many subjects that we can’t wait to write about and start discussing with you. And we definitely feel there’s a manliness movement afoot that’s getting bigger and bigger every day. More and more men are putting away the kid stuff, are saying no to society’s low expectations and stereotypes of men, and are starting the journey to rediscovering the lost art of manliness. We’re happy we could be a part of it. Let us all push onward and upward in spreading the ideals of honorable manliness in our families, with our friends, in the workplace, and in our simple day to day interactions with others.
What are your favorite Art of Manliness articles from the past year? (Or of all time?) Your feedback is always welcome and helps us improve the site.
Let’s make 2010 the year of manliness!
DownloadThe Art of Manliness Free Man Cookbook DownloadThe Art of Manliness Guide to Being a Gentleman Hawaiiabera Discount Code: AOM Check Out These Related Posts:By the way, I have downloaded and used their Art of Manliness Cookbook, most recently at Christmas!
Friday, January 01, 2010
The Future
Or more specifically, Your Future.
On this first day of a new year, think about this from Seth Godin:
How far away is your future?
Let's try a thought experiment:
A flying saucer comes to Earth, destroys a major city to get our attention, then announces that in 10,000 years it is coming back to destroy the Earth. In order to eliminate any doubt, it then blows up Mars.
Assume for a moment that you believe the threat and there's nothing we can do about it...
Question: how would knowing that the planet would disappear in 10,000 years change your typical day?
Okay, now run the same story, but 1,000 years from now instead.
You can probably guess where this is going. What if it were twenty years? If it were twenty years, how would that change things?
Most of us assume a single range of focus that we care about. And it's usually right around the corner, or even closer.
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