ScLoHo's Really?

The New ScLoHo Website

2011-10-03T06:05:00.001-04:00

On Sunday October 2, 2011, I launched a new website, Scott Howard aka ScLoHo at http://www.scotthoward.me/ .

While I set up domain redirects for the 4 separate blog sites, like this one, you will most likely need to resubscribe to the RSS and newsletter feeds on the new site.

Why the move? Here's the answer = http://www.scotthoward.me/2011/10/03/welcome-to-the-new-scloho/

:)

Fort Wayne Site of the Day

2011-10-02T06:00:00.000-04:00

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Fort Wayne Site of the Day

2011-10-01T06:00:00.000-04:00

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Yes, Bowling is a Sport

2011-09-30T16:08:00.001-04:00

Wrapping up best of Really? archives this week with:

Last time I went bowling, I had all of the above except the beer. Mt. Dew was my drink.

The next time I go, I'll be better prepared thanks to this piece from the AOM blog:

How to Bowl a Strike

Fort Wayne Site of the Day

2011-09-30T06:00:00.000-04:00

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Balance

2011-09-29T16:08:00.000-04:00

This is a transition week, and I've scheduled a few Best of Really? posts from the 2011 archives. Like this one from January:

Living in Real Life too

Before you had a computer and a cellphone, (if you are that old!), you had an off-line life.

In order for you to spend time online, you had to reduce time you spent doing something else.

Do you know what that was, that you used to do, before you started spending time online?

Do you spend less time watching TV?

Do you spend less time talking with your spouse?

Do you spend less time exercising?

Do you even know what you used to do with the time you created to be online?

Please use your time online appropriately.

This means different things to each of us.

If relationships are being neglected, make changes.

If there are other projects that are being neglected, make changes.

One more point on this subject, and it's about giving.

These days, my kids are grown, getting married, making grandkids and doing the things I did 25 years ago.

My wife and I have more freedom with our time than we did years ago. Yes, we both work at least 5 days a week, but without kids we really enjoy being able to pick and choose what to do after hours.

One of the things I do is give of my time. Some of the organizations that I am involved with include the Fort Wayne Central Lions Club, The Anthony Wayne Area Council (Scouting), The Fort Wayne chapter of the American Advertising Federation, The Gus Macker Basketball tournament, The Three Rivers Festival, and a few other events and organizations as they come up.

We also attend a weekly worship service at our church and have launched a couple of businesses.

And just because our kids are in their 20's, doesn't mean we are not involved with them. Between last year and this year, we have 3 weddings, another college graduation, my stepson had a daughter, his third child; and my youngest and her husband are expecting their first child.

Everything that I'm aware of right now with our kids will be over by mid-August, but they will be replaced with new things.

I challenge you to keep a balance in your online and off-line lives, use the online world as a tool, not a replacement for life in the flesh.

Fort Wayne Site of the Day

2011-09-29T06:00:00.001-04:00

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In Case You Missed the News

2011-09-28T16:08:00.000-04:00

I am preparing for an online transition this week, so I have scheduled some repeats from earlier this year including this one from July:

Thought I'd take a moment and let you know what I've done this summer in case you missed the announcement a few weeks ago.

After 8+ years working in sales and management with the Summit City Radio Group of stations in Fort Wayne, Indiana, I decided to accept an offer from Cirrus ABS, also headquartered in Fort Wayne.

This new opportunity is wide open as I help Cirrus find clients for their Net-Centered Marketing Agency.

Every year, while working in the radio business, I had people contact me asking me if I would consider working for them, and I always said no thanks.

This time was different.

I get to apply my marketing consulting background to the web world and help businesses and organizations find solutions that are cost effective and make good strategic sense.

I don't need to know how to write code to build websites, because we have 30 others at Cirrus ABS who handle those details.

I'm here to to act as an interpreter between the geeky-tech world and your business world.

Quite frankly, it is amazing.

I'm also in my 5th year on the Board of Directors for the Advertising Federation of Fort Wayne and involved with multiple other volunteer organizations.

Anything I can do to help? Just ask.

And please think of me first when you are needing anything web related.

My contact info is:

SHoward@CirrusABS.com and 260-255-4357

:)

Fort Wayne Site of the Day

2011-09-28T06:00:00.001-04:00

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Silly?

2011-09-27T16:08:00.000-04:00

This week I'm featuring Best of Really? posts from the 2011 archives. This is from February:

Make Room for Silly

I read this yesterday from the DLM Blog.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did:

The Happiest Day of a Dying Marine's Life

Posted: 25 Feb 2011 10:12 AM PST

A few weeks ago, while packing up after a speaking program for a high school’s support staff, I had the privilege of chatting with one of the custodians. His name was Frank.

Frank shared with me a story from his childhood, starring his father, a career Marine. The family operated pretty much as you might expect under the head of a someone who’d spent his whole life in the service and saw action in two wars. The kids had buzz cuts. The household was in perfect order. And when Dad spoke, you listened.

One day, during a family drive, Frank’s father came to a stoplight. He abruptly put the car in park and announced, “Alright everybody! It’s time for a fire drill -- everybody out of the car!” The rest of the family was temporarily stunned, but what choice did they have? An order was an order! Within moments, they joined the 5-foot-8-inch spark plug outside and did several laps around the parked car. Then he commanded the eldest son, who was only 13 at the time, to get in the front seat and drive.

“But Dad,” the son exclaimed. “I don’t know how to drive!”

“You can drive. Let’s go!”

Well, the son did what he was told, and after a few shaky, herky-jerky blocks, the dad ordered the car to a halt, saying with a chuckle, “You’re right. You can’t drive. I’ll take it from here.”

The family’s shared laughter lasted for miles and miles and years and years. According to Frank, from that day on, his dad was a changed man.

Frank’s father died last February from emphysema. While he was in the hospital, in the middle of his final battle, the old man reflected back on his years. With tears in his eyes, he declared that day to be the happiest day in his life. Not the day he was married. Not the day his kids were born. The day he ordered the Chinese fire drill. The family that was with him on that memorable day was with him as he shared his deathbed reflection. And that night, he passed way.

Not only had Frank’s dad seen war firsthand -- with an abundance of wounds to prove it -- he also watched his brother die in the attack on Pearl Harbor. At the time of the famous fire drill, his duty to turn boys into men and train them for war weighed heavily on him.

It’s hard for me to imagine the burden he carried and the nightmares that must have perpetually haunted him. But what a testament to the power of a small rebellion! Imagine it with me: a disciplined, serious, strait-laced Marine who one moment is navigating the family station wagon and the next is circling it wildly with reckless abandon, amidst a chorus of silly giggles and hearty chuckles.

Today, there are many people who are being asked to do more with less. Our world is still wracked with war. We hear story after story of people losing their jobs, their homes, their battle with cancer. Perhaps you are among them.

Life isn’t easy. Sometimes it seems too hard to bear. But no matter how hopeless or heavy it seems, hang in there.

You see, as difficult as things can get, I am encouraged and inspired by the fact that sometimes, a tiny action -- a decision to zig instead of zag -- can be more powerful than corporations, governments, or an army of powerful tanks.

So even if the cause seems lost or a solution out of sight, try instigating a small rebellion. Who knows? A random act of silliness may just turn the tide and turn today into the happiest day of your life.

Written on 2/25/2011 by Jason Kotecki. Jason is a cartoonist, author, and professional speaker. Jason and his wife Kim (a former kindergarten teacher) make it their mission in life to fight Adultitis and help people use strategies from childhood to create lives with less stress and more fun. Stop by www.KimandJason.com for more tips for escaping adulthood.

Photo Credit: Jason Kotecki

Fort Wayne Site of the Day

2011-09-27T06:00:00.000-04:00

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96% of the world can't see this

2011-09-26T16:08:00.001-04:00

This week I'm featuring Best of Really? posts from the 2011 archives:

Because you have a computer you are in the Top 12%.

Internet access puts you in the Top 4%.

Fort Wayne Site of the Day

2011-09-26T06:00:00.001-04:00

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Transition Time for ScLoHo

2011-09-25T16:08:00.004-04:00

This week my afternoon updates that I post at 4:08pm are going to be some "Best of Posts".

Here's why:

This summer when I transitioned from my 8+ years at Summit City Radio to a new career with Cirrus ABS, my co-worker Kevin Mullett challenged me to create something new.

Since 2003 my online persona has been as ScLoHo.

It actually began back in the 1990's when I was looking for a unique email address. Then when I launched my first blog on the Blogger platform I began using ScLoHo as a 1 name identity.

My given name is not unique. Google Scott Howard and you'll come up with the character that Michael J. Fox played in the movie Teenwolf; you'll find doctors, basketball players, crooks, restauranteurs, just about any profession has a "Scott Howard" in it.

ScLoHo is a mashup of my First, Middle and Last names: Scott Louis Howard. And while I have not purposely hid my identity, there are some people who know me only as one or the other.

The challenge that Kevin gave me was to create an online identity as Scott Howard.

My challenge was the transition. This is not a simple task, but there is enough stock in the ScLoHo personal brand that I decided to accept these challenges.

Earlier this year I bought domains for each of my websites and Blogger made it simple to change from their domain to the custom domain without losing any of the "juice" that I had built.

After talking with Kevin, I bought another domain which will be the new home of all of the blog posts that I post starting in October. ScottHoward.me is the domain in case you want to check it out as I am still developing it.

One of the challenges I'm learning is WordPress. Blogger (also known as Blogspot) which has been the home for most of the websites I've been working with, has been very easy to use and even customize.

While WordPress has plenty of options, the Dashboard interface and posting is different from Blogger and it took awhile for this limited geek to learn the differences.

ScottHoward.me already has over 100 posts that I imported from my other sites. In my learning process I discovered how to export then import over 4000 blog posts, out of the 11,000 that I have created in the past 8 years.

For those of you that have been using WordPress all along, you probably haven't had some of the struggles I went through.

I was also looking for a way to organize 4 separate websites into one new site with 5 or 6 categories.

I needed a theme that gave me the option of presenting all the updates, or the updates according to category, in a layout that would be easy to navigate for both you and me.

And I wanted to be sure I was employing Search Engine Optimization along with Social Sharing options. Quite frankly, these were not a big priority until recently when I started working for Cirrus ABS.

Cirrus is the largest website development company in the area and what attracted me to them was their understanding of marketing which is the heart of what I have been doing since 1986. Cirrus developed their own Content Management System which is the heart and engine of their Web platform and makes SEO and Social Sharing very, very easy for our clients.

But I decided to initially build ScottHoward.me on the WordPress platform so I would have that background knowledge of the capabilities and limitations of WordPress which is commonly used by many website developers.

One thing I have learned off the bat is that WordPress is not out of the box friendly to non-professionals the way the Cirrus Small Business Suite is very friendly.

(If you want more info about Cirrus's website solutions, or net-centered marketing, just drop me an email: Scott@ScLoHo.net and mention Cirrus in the subject line.)

One of the ways I have promoted my 4 blogs was social media including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. These will continue to be a factor with the new website.

In the past year I have posted 46 updates per week spread over the 4 blogs. There will be a new strategy in place with the new site as I continue to strive for quality over quantity.

I still have lot's of work to do to be ready for the official public launch of ScottHoward.me, but am confident that most will be put in place over the next 7 days.

:)

Fort Wayne Site of the Day

2011-09-25T06:00:00.000-04:00

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Saturday Night Classic Music Video

2011-09-24T16:08:00.001-04:00

A bit of R & R:

Fort Wayne Site of the Day

2011-09-24T06:00:00.000-04:00

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You Don't Need the Weather Channel

2011-09-23T16:08:00.000-04:00

From my archives:

from the AOM Blog:

Forecast the Weather Like Daniel Boone

Fort Wayne Site of the Day

2011-09-23T06:00:00.000-04:00

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Time to Unstuck yourself?

2011-09-22T16:08:00.001-04:00

from DLM:

5 Crippling Beliefs That Keep People Stuck, Unsuccessful, and Mediocre For Life

Posted: 23 Aug 2011 09:48 AM PDT

Is it just me, or is the whole “fitting in” thing highly overrated?

Yes, there’s a certain comfort in going with the flow, being one of many, and following the same path as millions before you. Yes, it’s easier to not be stupid and put yourself way out on a ledge and risk your predictable and stable life. Yes, it’s fun to fantasize about one day someone walks in and “discovers” your hidden brilliance and plucks you from your normal life and drops you into the one of your dreams.

But eventually, it becomes obvious that the “discovery” will never come and that stability and security is an illusion. I know, because I’ve been there. For years I took a typical approach to my life. Follow the crowd, get a decent somewhat stable corporate job, and avoid rocking the boat by making any drastic changes. But eventually I realized three things...

No matter how stable or secure you think your situation is, everything can change in an instant
The longer you go with the flow and wait for someone to give you an opportunity, the harder it gets to break out and make changes
Pretty much the only future that comes with following the masses and taking the “safe” path is a life of perpetual mediocrity

Sooner or later, you begin to reconsider. I mean, no, you don’t have to be a daredevil, quit everything, and go run away in an RV – not that kind of drastic – but would a little change and excitement be that bad?

Hell, a little risk might even make you more secure.

So, you embark on your quest to stretch your comfort zone. You explore different ways to expand your horizons. You think about going back to school or traveling. You think of quitting your job or starting a business online. You consider starting a blog or finding a hobby. You brainstorm all the possible ways to break free of your everyday-average-boring life and forge a new path.

And if you’re lucky, you find something that works. No, maybe you don’t get your dream life, but maybe you pick up an interesting hobby or get a better job. Maybe you add just a little bit of color to all that mediocrity. It’s nice, but you still haven’t really changed anything in a meaningful way, and you wonder why.

In my experience?

It’s because you don’t have your mind right. You have these little devils sitting on your shoulder, feeding you lies about how the world works and how you should act in it. You probably picked up some of these ideas from your parents, others from your teachers, and still other from your friends and co-workers.

And if you let them, they’ll cripple you. You’ll go through your whole life feeling like you were meant for more than this, like you have enormous potential just waiting to come out, but never quite sure why you’re always living an average, mediocre, boring, uneventful life.

We can’t let that happen.

Below, you’ll find some of the most common beliefs that hold people back. Take a look, and see if any of them look familiar:

Crippling Belief #1: It’s gunna happen because I deserve it
Many of us grow up with a feeling of entitlement. Now I’m not talking about the bratty spoiled valley girl who thinks the world owes her something – most of us aren’t that bad.

More often, the feeling is more along the line of thinking we deserve a decent job because we got good grades in college. Or we should be paid well because we’re smart. Or we received that competitive award or internship that we worked hard for, so the world should reward us for being so awesome and hard working.

And that’s where we really get screwed up - the hard working part. When lazy people feel entitled to success it’s just sort of neurotic. If you just sit on the couch doing nothing 24/7 of course you don’t deserve success. But we live in a “by your own bootstraps” society that says that if you work hard, you’ll succeed.

The fact is none of these things mean you deserve anything. Not school, not grades, not work, not awards, not even a good work ethic.

What you deserve is equal to whatever value you can bring into the world. You can be the hardest worker in the world, but if you never create anything new and valuable with that hard work, you’ll always be held back.

And you’ll be frustrated as all hell.

The fact is people who never bring something new into the world, who never create, who create new value that wouldn’t exist without them, will live a mediocre life. Work ethic leads to massive success when it’s focused on bringing new value into the world. Work ethic leads to frustrating mediocrity when it’s focused on maintaining value that already exists.

Stop maintaining value. Start creating it.

Crippling Belief #2: Big changes take a while to happen
One of the biggest explanations people have for why they’re not successful is that building a success takes time. Sure, I may not be successful now, but if I just hang in there, keep working hard, things will snowball, and eventually everything will be alright.

It seems reasonable. After all, no one (but those Jersey Shore people) gets famous overnight, right? Everywhere you look, there are stories of successful people persisting when there was no hope, trudging forward one weary step at a time, unwilling to quit, clinging fiercely to their dreams, manifesting success through sheer power of will.

It’s inspiring...but it’s also deceptive.

Yes, becoming successful often takes time and yes, you should slap anyone who claims to have the “secret” to overnight success. But it’s not because after you pay your dues the clouds will suddenly part and you’ll be handed that one lucky break that you’ve earned through years of toiling.

It’s because, in the beginning, you do everything wrong. You do things that don’t work and screw things up royally. Most of us get beat up by the journey for a few years until we figure out the right path. It’s not about working hard until it happens. It’s about struggling to figure out how it works for you and working through all the mistakes in the process.

In other words, you’re not waiting on the world to present you your opportunity. The world is waiting on you. It’s not the action of working that leads to success. It’s the action of seeking solutions to the last set of mistakes you made to find the best path from where you are now to where you want to be.

Yes, persistence is important. Yes, learning takes time. Yes, it’ll probably be slow and painful. But the sooner you learn, and the more you focus on solving your mistakes and moving forward intelligently, the sooner it will be over. So get busy.

Crippling Belief #3: My current situation is secure
A lot of people are crippled by a thought process that goes something like this:

I’d really like to do something different. Find a new job, start my own business, kick off a new blog – I’d love to forge my own path. But I don’t want to rock the boat because my current situation is secure. I’ve got a decent job. I’ve got a decent income. There’s a chance of career advancement in the next 3 to 5 years. Sure I hate it, but I need the security for me, my family, and my future...

And that makes sense. Why throw away your secure situation for a huge risk, a huge gamble, that could possibly lead to the independence and freedom you really want?

Unfortunately, 9 times out of 10, that security is an illusion. It’s fake. That security just doesn’t exist.

Ask any number of factory workers about job security. Many of them worked at the same job and the same company for years. They were extremely hard working and good at their job. But overnight their jobs were replaced by machines, the factories downsized, and all their hard work, time, and security disappeared in a blink of the eye. And what were they to do? Their skill set depended on factory jobs that no longer existed...

But many people say, “but I’m not a factory worker...I have more transferable skills.”

Heh.

That’s always the fall-back plan in job security. In the unlikely event that I get fired, at least I have a set of skills that are transferable.

But here’s the thing about transferable skills. Most common “transferable skills” basically everyone has. Yes, things like communication, writing, organizing, web savviness, managing, and spreadsheet-making are useful in almost every work situation, but almost every person in the work force could claim those same “transferable skills.”

And it’s a simple question of supply and demand. If everyone has the same skills you can prove you have, then those skills aren’t all that valuable to the marketplace – and that makes people expendable.

Real security is tied directly to the skills and knowledge that you have any that you can prove you have. Saying you have good writing skills is one thing. Having a well-written blog that demonstrates your writing skills is quite another. Saying you are a good salesperson is one thing. Having a spreadsheet of your successful sales data is another.

Real security means not having to rely on one job, or one career, or one boss. Real security means owning your market value and that means having actual valuable skills that you can prove objectively.

If your situation is different than that, then your security is an illusion and you better start working on building your own security as soon as possible.

Crippling Belief #4: I’m already smart, skilled, and talented
So, let me guess:

You’ve always been pretty smart and pretty good at a lot of things. No, you haven’t been featured in Time Magazine, but your teachers loved you in school and your family and friends think you’re swell.

Maybe you’ve won some sort of recognition or award even for something you’ve done – and it went straight to your resume.

You believe all of that makes you different. When you set out to get success, get a great job, start your own business or blog, you believe things will be easier for you than all of the other half-wits out there. Unlike them, you are talented and if they can have success you’re guaranteed to succeed.

...good luck.

I wish I could say this thought process amazes me, but I had this same damn mindset for the longest time. That’s why something like 80% of people believe they are “above average,” which is obviously impossible. But because we tend to be deluded into believing we’re different, because we believe we’re smarter, skilled, more connected, or more talented, we’re just about guaranteed to succeed.

We’re kidding ourselves. The difference between believing that you could be better than everyone if you just put yourself out there and actually becoming more successful than them is like the difference between being really good at NBA Jam and playing professional basketball.

It’s one thing to imagine the potential world where you’re the great success you believe you could be and actually building that real world success.

The bottom line is this: if you don’t want to be perpetually mediocre, you have to be serious about building value in the “real world”. You’ll need to commit to ignoring theoretical things like “if I put myself out there, I could be great.”

Your potential is pointless. Potential by definition does not exist. The only thing that exists is what you’ve achieved in the real world. Anything without a tangible result – all your elusive talents, skills, and possibilities – just doesn’t count.

Crippling Belief #5: I’m not good enough yet
There is an opposite crippling belief, though. Maybe you don’t think you’re smart enough, skilled enough, or talented enough to start making real achievements in your life. Well, at least not yet.

You need to learn more, have a bit more experience, get a couple more connections or find a different situation. You’re meant for something great, but there’s a bunch of stuff that you need to do first before you can really make something happen. You’re good, you’re just not good enough yet.

And you know what? You’re right.

But then again, no one is “good enough.” The most successful people in the world aren’t “good enough.” In fact it is precisely that feeling of not being good enough is what motivates many people to do more.

It’s not a barrier, it’s motivational dissatisfaction.

The totally not kept secret is that you can’t wait yourself into action. The more people wait for something to happen before they can act the easier it is to find something else to wait for. I see it all the time in online business. People wait until they know how to set up a beautiful website. Then they wait until they know the best traffic strategies. Then they wait until they have the perfect lead generation bribe. Then they wait until they have a successful blog. Then...well, you get the idea. There’s always something to learn or do before actually selling something.

Waiting to get good enough to act never works and it’s not even smart. People don’t actually learn from studying, not in a way that lasts. People learn from mistakes. People learn from all the little and big failures that steers them to the right path. Waiting to be good enough is just being afraid to fail, which is a shame because failing is precisely how you’ll become better.

So, don’t be crippled

The real lessons here are ones you’ve heard a million times. Take immediate action and build as much value as possible. That’s really it. And as most advice, it’s much easier said than done.

And some of the path forward is obvious. But if you ask me, the root thing we need to do is change the standard we hold ourselves to when it comes to our own lives. We need to own the value we provide the world. We need to do whatever we can to take action immediately. We need to stop giving ourselves credit for potential and focus on giving ourselves credit for the things we’ve achieved in the real world.

And if we haven’t achieved much, we should be grateful when we realize it because that’s when you’ll have to start achieving...

...because you’ll know the other option is a life of mediocrity.

Written on 8/23/2011 Joey Weber. Joey teaches people how to improve themselves while getting paid to do it (that sexy intersection of personal development and online business) over at Find Your Damn Purpose.

Photo Credit: Hudson Gardner

Fort Wayne Site of the Day-Trolley Tour

2011-09-22T06:00:00.001-04:00

This is the day for the annual Fort Wayne Museum of Art Trolley Tour.

Every day leading up to the event, I have been featuring an organization associated with this years tour.

Get details by going here, or just show up!

Fort Wayne is a Terrible Town

2011-09-21T16:08:00.001-04:00

That is what some folks say.

Maybe it's the numerous Mens Health Survey that say we are stupid.

On the other hand we rank #3 in sexual satisfaction. And #23 in overweightness.

I wonder if it's all tied together, but that's not really what I want to talk about.

Usually people who have a negative attitude about, well just about anything.

I disagree.

Fort Wayne is not a terrible town.

Maybe it is my age, or perspective that time gives, but I really think that we are much better than the naysayers believe.

My family moved here in the 1960's when I was 6 years old and I stayed until 1978 when I took my first full time radio job.

I returned in 1980 for about 3 years, but came back for good in 1998 after my Dad died.

I wasn't planning on staying, but when I met my wife and she showed me what she loved about Fort Wayne, I was hooked.

Hooked on her, and on Fort Wayne.

Now that our kids are all married off and living on their own, we've decided to stay.

This past weekend I visited the Johnny Appleseed Festival.

The weekend before, it was Tourist in Your Hometown weekend.

There are always more things to do than I have time for.

Believe it or not, one of the reasons we live in Fort Wayne is also that we like to leave town.

It could be a short trip to the Grabill Fair which we did this month.

Or a weekend trip to Indiana Dunes and Illinois and back again.

We've made trips to Ohio, Michigan and other parts of Indiana and explored Bed & Breakfasts all over the region, all is possible because we live in Fort Wayne.

I often will run into people I know, or those that know me on a daily basis, because I get involved and reach out.

(Sidenote: I'm more of an introvert than extrovert, but I push myself because I also like people and those connections.)

I could go on and on, but what inspired me to write this today was an awareness of a project that Nick Arnett is embarking on to make our area even better. It's called 12 Cities 12 Months and you can learn more about it by visiting the website.

In the past 12 months, I've been involved due to a couple of connections. I was nominated and selected as one of 101 Connectors in Northeast Indiana. I am also on the Citizen Advisory Panel for Vision 2020.

I have to admit that when I first heard about the Vision 2020 project I was a skeptic. But over time, I have seen the value and now am wondering how to make it real. That's what Nick's journey is all about.

What are your thoughts on Fort Wayne?

Fort Wayne Site of the Day-Trolley Tour

2011-09-21T06:00:00.000-04:00

One of my families favorite events is the annual Fort Wayne Museum of Art Trolley Tour.

Every day leading up to the event, I am featuring an organization associated with this years tour.

Get details by going here, and to visit today's site click on pic.

Join The Cool Kids

2011-09-20T16:08:00.001-04:00

And not just kids.

Adults too.

Of All Ages.

With one thing in Common.

A desire to learn more about Social Media.

The last Tuesday of the month is when we have the Social Media Breakfast Fort Wayne.

We almost always have it at the Northeast Indiana Innovation Center. (Map is here).

The cost = free.

We ask that you reserve your seat by signing up via Eventbrite since seating is limited to 80 due to the size of the room.

Keep tabs on the Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/smbftw

Fort Wayne Site of the Day-Trolley Tour

2011-09-20T06:00:00.003-04:00

Better Than Dancing With the Stars

2011-09-19T16:08:00.000-04:00

It's Monday.

That means ABC will be alternating between Bachelor Pad and Dancing with the Stars for the next 9 months.

I'm waiting for the season premiere of House on Fox.

If you really want to see some dancing, go here: http://pogpog.com/v/the-greatest-dance-number-ever-filmed/

Fort Wayne Site of the Day-Trolley Tour

2011-09-19T06:00:00.001-04:00

What A Mess?

2011-09-18T16:08:00.000-04:00

I saved an article that Chris Brogan wrote about relationships that I believe all of us should read.

It starts with...

Untangled

Posted: 14 Sep 2011 03:03 AM PDT

We go about our lives quite tangled up with other people’s lives, whether we want to admit that or not. We carry with us tangles from our past connections, and tangles from worries about future events that haven’t even unfolded yet. These tangles affect our choices and decisions and feelings all the time, if we let them.

Untangled

This has been on my mind for a while, as I’ve been learning to see my own tangled self. I wrote about taking back your strings not too far back, but with the context that we let other people twist us up with their own choices. The more we come to see this, the more we can help ourself get untangled.

Continue reading on his site.

Fort Wayne Site of the Day-Trolley Tour

2011-09-18T06:00:00.002-04:00

Saturday Night Classic Music Video

2011-09-17T16:08:00.001-04:00

From my disco days:

Fort Wayne Site of the Day-Trolley Tour

2011-09-17T06:00:00.002-04:00

Fort Wayne Site of the Day-Trolley Tour

2011-09-16T06:00:00.001-04:00

Are you Really More Productive?

2011-09-15T16:08:00.001-04:00

I worked for a few years as a thermoformer operator in a plastics factory.

My job was to produce the maximum number of parts in a 12 hour shift while keeping quality within the spec guidelines.

I kept records of "recipes" that I used for setting oven temperatures, water cooler temperatures, cycle speeds and factored in external factors such as room temperature and other variables.

My creativity was used in a semi-scientific process with an end goal in mind. I was pretty good. i was promoted a few times. I was a mentor and teacher to others. But eventually I quit.

I wasn't passionate about plastic.

I returned to the marketing world where my creativity involved writing ads and advertising campaigns and all the other stuff that wasn't as easily measured. Formulas were more theoretical and less concrete.

Now I work in a combination of those worlds, with my position in sales as a Solutions Consultant for a website development company.

There is the creative marketing/sales side and the hard numbers analytics provides via the actual web technology.

DLM has some thoughts on the subject:

Is Your Passion for Productivity Hurting Your Career?

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 11:21 AM PDT

Confession: I’m a productivity junkie. I love the “more with less” mindset. There isn’t a time management technique I haven’t tried.

But, as a career coach, I’ve seen many cases in which passion for productivity has actually been a hindrance to career success

What do I mean? Well, being productive is obviously a good thing. We all need to get stuff done. But an over-emphasis on doing can sometimes cause performance problems in the professional world.

To help you understand what I mean and figure out if your passion for productivity is harming your career, take a look at the statements below. Do any ring true for you? If so, it may be time to focus on doing less—and thinking more.

You’re dividing your attention.
Multitasking sounds great in theory but it doesn’t really work. When we attempt to split our attention between tasks, one—or both—will inevitably suffer.

When we multitask at work, we end up making mistakes that ultimately have to be repaired. It’s a time suck and it’s also a poor representation of your capabilities. Multitasking can also be downright rude. People feel disrespected because you’re not giving them—or the work—its due attention.

The real skill to hone in the workplace is concentration. Improve your ability to focus on the task at hand and then smoothly transition that concentration wholly to the next task. Avoid the temptations of multitasking and learn to engage fully in the moment.

You’re rushed.
The “go, go, go” mantra of corporate America keeps most professionals in a permanent state of urgency. With an ever-growing to-do list, they feel compelled to constantly rush through their work and get to the next thing. In the process, careless errors happen. This mentality also contributes to huge amounts of stress, which can end up damaging your professional relationships and reputation even further.

Never sacrifice accuracy and good work for speed. Moving quickly is not the sign of productivity. The faster you move, the more potential there is for trouble. Slowdown. Pace yourself. Be intentional in your actions.

You’re focusing on quantity over quality.
All too often, productivity junkies get into a mindset of “more is better.” The more time you put in, the more successful you’ll be. The more you do, the more you’ll achieve. However, this isn’t always the case.

Productivity is not about doing everything. It’s about doing the right things well. It’s
not about working all the time; it’s about using your work time wisely.

It’s far better to complete just a few important items on your checklist rather than tons of unimportant ones. It’s better to work really productively for a shorter period of time than semi-productively for a longer period of time. In the workplace, it’s always smart to focus on quality over quantity.

You’re doing too much.
Productivity junkies like me are notorious for biting off more than we can chew. But systems and time management techniques won’t help you if you can’t help yourself. Say “no” once in a while. Set limits. Establish realistic expectations. Stop accepting more and more work just because you want to prove that you’re productive. We get it.

I’ve seen it time and again: Taking on too much inevitably leads to anxiety, stress, missed deadlines, and mistakes. It’s a sure-fire way to perpetuate the negative productivity cycle. Break out of it. Use your passion for productivity in the workplace for good, not evil. Get it under control so it doesn’t accidentally drag your career down as it has for others.

Written on 8/24/2011 by Chrissy Scivicque. Chrissy is a career coach and the founder of EatYourCareer.com. She helps professionals develop strategies and take meaningful action toward achieving career goals. Pick up a copy of Chrissy’s FREE career workbook to find out just how nourishing your career really is and how you can make it even more so.

Photo Credit: orcmid

Fort Wayne Site of the Day-Trolley Tour

2011-09-15T06:00:00.002-04:00

September 22nd is the date for the annual Fort Wayne Museum of Art Trolley Tour.

Every day leading up to the event, I am featuring an organization associated with this years tour.

Get details by going here, and to visit today's site click on pic.

Are You Making a Difference?

2011-09-14T16:08:00.001-04:00

First of all, you are.

Unless you have absolutely no friends, relatives, communication with anyone what so ever, you are making a difference.

I define difference as influence.

You are either a positive, negative or neutral influence.

Truth be told, no one is really a neutral influence.

Last evening I was invited to a working, brainstorming dinner with "101 Connectors".

While all the details are not important at this moment, towards the end of our meeting, I realized that we were a small handful of people who connect, influence, and make a difference .

Your words, your actions, your appearance, your attitude, your willingness to give and to take are all being observed.

Not by big brother, but by strangers whom you may never meet face to face.

You have the power to (be):

Thoughtful

Considerate

Share

Help

Give

Teach

Train

Encourage

Change a life

Save a life

These items and the dozens more I could list do not require money, lots of time, or anything more that what you currently have.

It's a challenge to you and to me to take an additional step out of our comfort zone, open our eyes a little more, listen a bit louder, and make a conscientious decision to make a difference.

Join me, won't you?

Fort Wayne Site of the Day-Trolley Tour

2011-09-14T06:00:00.000-04:00

Bad Words

2011-09-13T16:08:00.001-04:00

I admit it.

I've used them.

Not regularly, so when I do, if there is someone around, they know I must be really upset.

Harvey has some wisdom on losing our temper:

A person who loses his temper usually loses

By Harvey Mackay

Lately it seems like every night when I watch ESPN to get the day's baseball scores and highlights, I see another pitcher throwing a temper tantrum in the dugout after a poor performance.

San Francisco Giants star relief pitcher, Brian Wilson, had one of the more visible meltdowns when he was pulled from a game in the ninth inning. He proceeded to storm into the dugout where he picked up the water cooler and heaved it against the bench. Then he grabbed a bat and pummeled that same water cooler, and then punched a cardboard box.

What was more alarming was what Wilson said afterwards, "Give yourself 30 seconds to completely lose it, then come back and be part of the team."

Did I hear that correctly?

Does that mean that it's okay for your teenager to come home and trash the house after a rough day at school -- just for 30 seconds? Or should the employee who blows up at work be forgiven for knocking over the water cooler? That only takes 5 seconds. How about people who go crazy verbally and cuss a blue streak? A lot of very nasty and damaging words can be uttered in half a minute!

Is this out-of-control behavior acceptable?

Absolutely, definitely, positively, most certainly NOT! When you blow your stack you add to the world's pollution. These hotheads don't understand that every time you lose your temper you advertise yourself -- and you're not selling a positive. Nothing cooks your goose more than a boiling temper.

I spend a lot of time on the golf course and I've seen more than my share of temper tantrums on the links. As an avid golfer, I understand frustration -- and a temper is the first thing a golfer has to control. A little white ball shouldn't tee you off to the point of ugliness.

Since golf is half mental, those who take a grim delight in being temperamental usually are more "temper" than "mental." I always say, if you lose your head, what is the use of the rest of your body?

Maybe this is why baseball Hall of Famer and Cubs great Ernie Banks said, "Baseball reveals character; golf exposes it."

But back to work. Keeping your temper in check is not just essential, it's the mark of a professional. Where two or more people work together, disagreements are an ever-present part of the landscape. There are plenty of ways to be unhappy about a situation without being unpleasant. Consider these ideas:

Figure out what you're really angry about. Are you upset at the current situation, or is your discontent a carryover from previous events?
Count to ten -- or twenty or thirty if necessary. Just as you can't un-ring a bell, taking back angry and hurtful words is next to impossible.
Excuse yourself for a few minutes if possible. Walking away from a volatile situation gives you a chance to collect yourself and measure your reaction.
Take care of your health. Studies show that people who eat properly, exercise and get enough sleep are better equipped to handle stressful situations.
Share your concerns calmly. It takes two to tango, but things slow down if one of them does a waltz instead.
Give the other side a break, even if you think they're wrong. You may discover there are other unrelated factors at work that are guiding the discussion. Diffusing the tension can lead to a better resolution.
Choose your battles according to how important the outcome would be. Never fight a battle just so you can say you won. You won't be perceived as a winner, you'll be labeled a bully.
Accept that some things are just beyond your control. As competitive as I am, I have come to realize that I can't have my way in everything.

A Native American grandfather was talking to his grandson about how he felt. He said, "I feel as if I have two wolves fighting in my heart. One wolf is the vengeful, angry and tempermental. The other wolf is loving and compassionate."

The grandson asked him, "Which wolf will win the fight in your heart?"

The grandfather answered, "The one I feed."

Mackay's Moral: When a person's temper gets the best of him, it brings out the worst in him.

Fort Wayne Site of the Day-Trolley Tour

2011-09-13T06:00:00.002-04:00

It's Your Life

2011-09-12T16:08:00.000-04:00

I wrote this two years ago:

My wife and I have talked about this.

My best friend Ron and I have talked about this.

And I've talked to my own kids about this.

The person who gets ahead in life is often the person who has earned it.

And one way to earn it is to do what others are not willing to do.

In my line of work, I come across men and women every year who are creating their own future, perhaps by starting a business, or by taking advantage of the opportunities that are available.

This isn't luck, this is more than that.

When I was a senior in High School, there was another young man that worked at the grocery store at the corner of Anthony and Crescent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, whose name was Dave.

I worked there too as a carry out, over 30 years ago. But I had dreams of working somewhere else too. I wanted to work at a radio station and by the time I was 19, I had launched my full time radio career as a disc jockey which later led me to the advertising and marketing business I am in now.

11 years ago, I moved back to Fort Wayne, and just last weekend I saw Dave at the grocery store. Doing the same job. I hope he is happy. If I needed a job, I know I could do that job again, but I have other ambitions.

The advice I gave my kids, is the first step is to get a job. Any job, as long as it is legal and not harmful. Next, you learn that job and gain skills and either discover you like that type of work, or you hate that type of work.

I was a bus-boy and dishwasher as a kid. Hated it. Liked having money, but it motivated me to try something else. So I applied and was hired elsewhere, then quit the restaurant business.

The Art of Manliness blog wrote recently on this subject:

The Importance of Paying Your Dues

Posted: 30 Aug 2009 09:19 PM PDT

As a member of a Generation Y, I’m always on the look out for articles about people my age. While many sociologists and employers have very positive things to say about my generation, they also make critiques. A common criticism that many employers have about young people entering the workplace is that 20-somethings want all the trappings of a successful career but aren’t willing to put in the work needed to earn them. Young people just don’t want to pay their dues anymore.

Which isn’t surprising. Many members of Generation Y grew up getting trophies and accolades just for trying. In high school and college, many of these young people (and their coddling parents), demanded they receive good grades even if their work was shoddy. Consequently, the idea that you might actually have to earn success through hard work has gotten lost on many “millennials.”

Lifestyle pundits encourage such an attitude by saying that paying your dues is an antiquated idea. That really depends on how you define the phrase. If it means slogging through 80 hour weeks to move up the corporate ladder to a position that pays well but you hate or if it is used to make you jump through pointless hoops for no reason other than your higher-ups had to, then yeah, it’s not a very helpful philosophy. But to me paying your dues means putting in the time and work to attain your dream job.When you’re moving from point A to point B, it doesn’t matter if B is being a CEO or a rock star; you’ve got to pay your dues to get there. Here’s why.

You have to start somewhere. I know a couple of guys my age who are unemployed and living with their parents because they can’t get the job they feel they deserve, and they refuse to work a “menial” job because they think it’s beneath them. They expected to jump into their dream job right out of college. But you have to start on the “bottom” in every job, not only if you’re looking to move up the corporate ladder.

Reading through our “So You Want My Job” interviews, a common theme has emerged. The men who now have their dream jobs often started out working at the “bottom” to get the experience to move into what they really wanted to do. Jason Stoltzfus, started out as a regular roadie, and learned the trade and skills needed to become a guitar tech. Eitan Loewenstein put on sketch shows for an audience of two in a dingy theater above an ice cream shop before getting roles in national commercials. You’ve got to start somewhere and pay your dues to move up in the world.

Success comes from years of hard work. Not only do many millenials expect to land their dream job right away, they also expect to immediately live the same lifestyle they had when they left their parents’ house. They want nice clothes, nice furniture, a brand new car, and a nice house the moment they set out in life. Of course, in order to do this right off the bat, these young people have to take on huge amounts of debt.

I’ll admit that I get to thinking like this sometimes. I would love to have the same lifestyle I had when I lived with my parents. It was nice! But then I remember something my parents told me one day when I was moaning about not having money to buy some frivolous thing, and it put everything in perspective for me.

They said, “Brett, this house, the cars, the nice clothes, and the video games for Christmas we were able to buy for you and your siblings are the result of years of hard work. It didn’t happen overnight. We started out living in a one bedroom house with a metal roof in the middle of the New Mexico desert. But with patience and perseverance, we were able to make a life for our family.”

That shut up my whining.

In the age of seemingly overnight Internet millionaires, it’s easy to forget that success comes from years of hard work. Even the overnight successes weren’t really overnight. Take Facebook for example. Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook back in 2004. In just a few years it has become one of the most trafficked sites on the internet and has made Zuckerberg a millionaire.

While it seems Facebook is your typical overnight success, it was actually years in the making. Zuckerberg started programming back in middle school. While most teenagers were playing video games and watching MTV’s Total Request Live, Zuckerberg was hammering out code. Consequently, when the muses visited Zuckerberg in his dorm room, he was ready with the knowledge and skills to build Facebook. Even after Facebook launched it would take a few years for the site to grow to where it is today.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, he posits that greatness comes through adherence to the “10,000 hour rule.” Pointing to people like the Beatles and Bill Gates, he argues that their success came from practicing their skills for 10,000 hours, not through some inherited genius.

We’d all love to be rich overnight, but unless you win the lottery, it just isn’t going to happen. The path to success is hewed through years of dedicated and relentless hard work. In short, you have to pay your dues before success comes.

Recognize tradeoffs exist when you live by your values. In news articles and blog posts discussing Generation Y, employers gripe that these young people don’t want to work as much, but they still want the high salaries and cushy benefits. As a law student, I heard about this a lot. Senior partners at firms complained that new associates were demanding lower case loads and fewer required billable hours, yet they still wanted the nice six figure salary so they could have the freedom to have a life outside of work.

I understand Generation Y’s desire to work less and have more time. Many from this generation came from homes where their Boomer parents were workaholics and hardly spent anytime with the family. But time is money. If you value your time, expect to earn less. If you value wealth and money, be prepared to put in a lot of hours at work. The key is to figure out what you value and accept the tradeoff.

Some might argue that there are plenty of people out there who make lots of money, but aren’t slaves to work. I’ll concede that such people exist, but would follow up with inquiring on what that person had to do to get to that position in life? More likely than not, they had to hustle their butt off. Exceptions exist, but I’m pretty sure most of these types of people spent years investing all their free time and money with the hope they would have more of it in the future. They had to make a trade-off: less time and money now, for more of it later. In other words, they paid their dues. Which takes us to our next point…

Be willing to make short-term sacrifices for long-term goals. I like to study the lives of successful men to see if there are any principles I can glean from them and apply in my own life. A common trait among successful men is that they were willing to make short-term sacrifices, for long-term goals. They were willing to pay their dues upfront in order to reap rewards later.

My dad is a good example of this. His goal starting off in life was to be a federal game warden. After he graduated college, he started looking for a job as a state game warden so he could get the experience he needed for the fed job. But no job openings existed for a year. So my dad worked in a liquor store to make ends meet until an opening came up. It’s not the most glamorous job for a college graduate, but my dad was hungry and humble enough to do whatever it took to reach his goal.

Albert Einstein didn’t become a world renowned physicist right after he got his diploma. He graduated college trained to become a professor, but like in my dad’s situation, there weren’t any job openings. Did Einstein whine and complain that because he finished college he was entitled to a job? Nope. Instead he got a job as a clerk in a patent office in order pay his living expenses. In his spare time, Einstein continued his real work as a scientist and developed the special theory of relativity.

If you have a great goal, be willing to make sacrifices for it. If you want to start your own business, you may have to moonlight it a few years until you can quit your day job. Spend all your free time getting the skills and putting in the work to make your dream job a reality. If you want to get out of debt quickly, you may need to take on a second job delivering pizzas or working as a coffee barista. Whatever your goal is, you’re going to have to pay the piper upfront before the dance begins.

DownloadThe Art of Manliness Free Man Cookbook DownloadThe Art of Manliness Guide to Being a Gentleman

Fort Wayne Site of the Day-Trolley Tour

2011-09-12T06:00:00.002-04:00

Looking Forward

2011-09-11T16:08:00.000-04:00

This weekend has been a time of looking back on the past 10 years since 9-1-01.

As we reflect and talk about that deadly day in our history, remember to also look forward with these words of wisdom from Harvey:

Identify and develop your greatest strengths

By Harvey Mackay

I have had the privilege of mentoring hundreds
of people over the years. I always ask them two questions: What do you like to do? What are your strengths? Most have a good idea of what they like to do, but you wouldn't believe how many people don't understand their own strengths.

One of the secrets of success is making the most of your strengths. First, though, you have to determine what your strengths are -- and that may not be obvious, especially if you're just starting out or looking to make a career change.

Your strengths develop from a variety of sources: natural ability and aptitude, formal education, job experience, internships, research, hobbies, volunteer involvement, and so on. You may not realize the depth of your knowledge or expertise, and that can seriously limit your job search or career path.

If you are in college, by all means take advantage of some of the aptitude and career placement tests to determine your strengths, weaknesses and hidden talents. If you are not in school, you can find tests online or at your local library. Industrial psychologists are also most helpful in identifying areas that you should consider pursuing -- or avoiding.

A recent article in Classroom to Cubicle, an online magazine for college students and recent graduates, cites a list of the 10 most sought-after skills assembled by Quintessential Careers:

Communication Skills (listening, verbal, and written)
Analytical Skills/Research Skills
Computer/Technical Literacy
Flexibility/Adaptability/Managing Multiple Priorities
Interpersonal Abilities
Leadership/Management Skills
Teamwork
Planning/Organizing
Problem Solving
Multicultural Awareness

And you thought that all that mattered was your college major or your last job!

While it's tough to possess all those skills, especially for someone just entering the job market or switching careers, chances are past experiences will lend themselves to developing specific areas of strength. Zero in on the skills that make you special by looking for these clues:

What tasks attract you? Think of the types of jobs that you look forward to, that you'd find some way to do even if you weren't paid. Research companies that employ people in those jobs and start your search there. If you are passionate about a specific cause, that's a good springboard as well.
What tasks do you lose yourself in? When you're involved on certain tasks, do you forget what time it is and how long you've been working? These will usually be the jobs that use your skills best. As crazy as it sounds, I recently spoke with a new grad that got his job in part because he was able to reach a specific level in a video game. The employer interpreted that as a sign of creative problem solving. By the way, he also had demonstrated communication skills.
What do you learn quickly? You probably struggle with mastering some skills, but others you pick up effortlessly. That's because you have some natural talent and a deep desire to learn more. My readers have heard it a million times: You don't stop learning when you finish school. Be a lifelong learner.
What do other people ask for help with? Pay attention to the jobs you're assigned and the favors people ask you for. They wouldn't come to you if you weren't good in those areas. An insurance company customer service rep recently shared with me that she has been promoted to a key IT position, working as a customer liaison to help the computer jockeys develop consumer-friendly programs (which often generated a lot of customer service calls.)
Where do you succeed? This may seem obvious, but some people miss the forest for the trees. Take a look at the tasks you've done best; they'll use your most important skills. Don't confuse activity with accomplishment. What you are best at is not necessarily what you spend the most time doing.
What brings you satisfaction? No matter how tired you are, some tasks make you feel good at the end of the day. You'll do better in life and on the job by concentrating on work that you find fulfilling.

Mackay's Moral: It bears repeating: Do what you love, love what you do and you'll never work a day in your life!

Fort Wayne Site of the Day-Trolley Tour

2011-09-11T06:00:00.001-04:00

Saturday Night Classic Music Video

2011-09-10T16:08:00.000-04:00

from 1978:

Fort Wayne Site of the Day-Trolley Tour

2011-09-10T06:00:00.000-04:00

Success?

2011-09-09T16:08:00.000-04:00

Earlier this year I was given one of those rubber bracelet type things that are supposed to either be a reminder or show support of a particular cause.

The yellow Lance Armstrong "LiveStrong" bracelets were the first to really take off.

The one I have has a simple reminder that I've heard for years and tried to live, but it's a good reminder. Mine says "Celebrate All Wins".

This applies to the work I do, it applies to the accomplishments of others, no matter how big or small, we need to recognize and appreciate these moments.

And as a Christian, it helps me to be thankful to God for these are not just wins, but blessings.

DLM recently posted a piece on success:

Why Success Is Highly Overrated

Posted: 03 Sep 2011 08:26 AM PDT

‘Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It’s courage that counts.’ John Wooden

We hear the word success heralded from the rooftops. We also hear the latest and greatest formulas being thrust at us.

Why?

Because deep down we all want to be successful.

There is a constant surge for success. There is an increased striving towards success. Yet there is so much more that makes up the success story, and that includes its two companions: failure and courage.

So let’s take a closer look at this word that has been highly over-rated.

Success Is Never Final
Mountain peaks are wonderful places from which to get a great view. But the facts are that on the other side of every peak there is a valley. So if you define personal success by a mountaintop experience today, you are setting yourself up for disappointment tomorrow.

This is why I liked what Robert Schuller proposed some years ago when he wrote a book with the title, ‘From Peak to Peek’. It’s so important when you have a ‘success’ moment that you already have your eyes set on the next mountaintop or goal that you are going to pursue. Sure, it’s fine to pause for a moment and celebrate, but I would rather live a successful life than build towards a single successful event.

Success was never meant to be final. Success was designed to become part and parcel of each and every second that you and I live.

I don’t base my success upon my feelings or upon the accolades of others, but rather I choose to live a successful life filled with successful habits, successful actions, successful words, and successful relationships. And if from time to time I have successful peaks, I share the joy of my success with others and position myself to start the journey towards the ascent of my next peak.

Success is never final. It’s simply the sign of greater things to come.

Failure Is Never Fatal
I often talk about one of the staff members in my ‘University of Success’. His name is Professor Failure.

The only thing success has ever taught me is the need for humility. Failure is what has taught me some of my greatest lessons. And the greatest thing it has taught me is this – to ask better questions. One of which is, ‘What can I learn from this?’

By asking better questions I have received better answers that have then positioned me to live a successful life in every area of my life.

To fail is not to be a failure. And it won’t kill you.

If failure is treated with the respect it deserves – as a place of learning – it will in fact breathe fresh life into the fulfillment of your dreams. With each lesson learnt and applied you will be drawn ever closer to the creation of a significant life.

It’s Courage That Counts
Anais Nin writes, ‘Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.’

I know this from personal experience.

It takes courage to write and self publish a book while you have three rejected manuscripts sitting beside you. It takes courage to walk the streets promoting your new web design company when you don’t yet have a web designer on staff. It takes courage to submit your articles to well-established blogs when you’re still the ‘new kid on the block’. It takes courage to ask for interviews of successful individuals when you haven’t yet done your first interview. It takes courage to follow your passion and not the status quo.

Yes, it’s courage that counts.

So what courageous activity are you pursuing today? Share it with us and inspire us.

Motivational Memo: Courage pushes through the fear barrier by applying massive action.

Written on 9/3/2011 by Peter G. James Sinclair . Peter is in in the ‘heart to heart’ resuscitation business and inspires, motivates and equips others to be all that they’ve been created to become. Receive your free copy of his latest eBook Personal Success Blueprint at – http://www.motivationalmemo.com and add him on Twitter @PeterGJSinclair – today!

Photo Credit: kenny barker

Fort Wayne Site of the Day-Trolley Tour

2011-09-09T06:00:00.001-04:00

Word Pictures

2011-09-08T16:08:00.000-04:00

Recently my wife and I attended a poetry reading at the 3 Rivers Food Co-op in Fort Wayne.

This is the second time for us, and we don't do it because we enjoy hearing people read their poems.

It's just to be supportive of a friend who is a published poet and was reading.

But somewhere along the way as my mind was wandering, I noticed the way certain phrases were creating word pictures in my mind.

Take a moment and read each of the following slowly, and pause before you read the next one.

Grassy Knoll

September 11th

Hot Buttered Popcorn

BBQ Ribs

Christmas Eve

Road Trip

I could go on, but what are some phrases in your life that create a vivid word picture in your mind?

Fort Wayne Site of the Day-Trolley Tour

2011-09-08T06:00:00.001-04:00

VideoTime: Musical Flash Mob

2011-09-07T16:08:00.000-04:00

I saw this video over the weekend. Going to watch it again, join me:

Fort Wayne Site of the Day-Trolley Tour

2011-09-07T06:00:00.000-04:00

Labor for Yourself?

2011-09-06T16:08:00.000-04:00

Over the past 25+ years I have spoken with hundreds of business owners.

Many had the urge to be their own boss and took the plunge.

I've seen too many fail because they didn't plan properly.

Harvey shared some advice this summer:

Before you start your own business, take this entrepreneur test

By Harvey Mackay

I have never met anyone who left his or her job, whether fired or voluntarily, who started his or her own business -- and regretted it. What these people always regret is not having done it sooner. This includes people who eventually failed and had to go back to work for someone else.

Afraid to try something new? Most of us are. But our regrets will invariably be for what we didn't do rather than for what we did.

So are you ready to be an entrepreneur? Do you have the right stuff? Before you take the plunge and start your own business, take this test:

Do you need a new idea? It isn't the quality of the ideas you have that will determine whether you are successful, it's the qualities you bring to those ideas. New ideas are wonderful if you can come up with them. But your best chance of success is working hard, using established values and ideas if necessary.

Who are your customers? "Everyone" is the wrong answer. If your concept is going to succeed, you have to identify a realistic target audience, big enough to be profitable yet small enough for you to service it thoroughly.

Why should anyone want to buy your product or service? Find an unmet, unanswered need by identifying a market segment that isn't being served or is being served inadequately. For example, take the post office which served everybody, but unprofitably. Then FedEx and UPS jumped in and redefined the industry. They are profitable, while the post office is bleeding red ink.

Who is your competition? If there is a market for your product or service, someone is supplying that market. He may be using another product. Or she may be using a nearly identical product that you can beat on quality, performance or service. Either way, the existence of competition is a mixed blessing. It doesn't really matter how many others are doing something similar. All you have to do is find a way to do it better.

What advantages does your organization have over the competition? Management? People? Product? Service? Financial strength? Reputation? Recognition? Marketing? One is not enough. Sometimes all are not enough. But you can usually beat better-financed competition with superior customer advantages.

Do you have a business plan? If you haven't gotten around to that, make one before you do anything else. It serves several very useful purposes. It forces you to think your way through the startup process and your long-range goals. It's also a document you'll need if you plan on getting outside financing from anyone except your relatives. If it isn't persuasive and effective to an independent outside businessperson, that might tell you something about your real chances for success. Your plan should include a situation analysis; objectives; target audiences; mission statement; objective; strategy and tactics; execution; budget; measurement; and time and action calendar.

What do your banker and lawyer say? Bankers see and evaluate business plans all day long. That's their business. They might even have seen one like yours. And while you're at it, ask if they would lend you money to finance your business. Attorneys can help you avoid pitfalls. They are there to protect you.

What does your mentor say? Find a "tiger," preferably someone who's been around the block. Retired professionals are a marvelous resource for this kind of advice. I can't urge you enough to check out SCORE. They have access to people with every imaginable kind of business experience. They also have the time, patience, skill, wisdom and understanding to help and sometimes, just to listen. They are invaluable at helping you expand your network of contacts.

Have you done an honest self-survey? Do you really want to do this or are you just trying to escape your own problems? Be brutally honest and make sure the problem is not you. If you're going to be an entrepreneur, you have to believe in yourself more than you believe in anything else in the world.

What will you do if you fail? Don't be discouraged if you do fail. Few entrepreneurs make it the first time they try. Failure teaches you not to fear failure because if you can survive it to fight again, you haven't failed. You have only heightened your appreciation of success.

Mackay's Moral: If you're looking for a big opportunity, look for a big challenge.

Fort Wayne Site of the Day-Trolley Tour

2011-09-06T06:00:00.000-04:00

Ending & Keeping Relationships

2011-09-05T16:08:00.002-04:00

At this very moment, I am wrapping up a family Labor day gathering.

The details have caused some folks to give me a few curious looks when I shared with them what I would be doing today.

The family party is at my ex-wife's in-laws.

Karen and I divorced in 1995 after 13 years and 3 kids.

It was those three kids that kept us in a relationship.

A different relationship than husband and wife to be sure.

And each of us have remarried and are very much in love with our new spouses.

But we decided to maintain a civil relationship as parents.

I admit we've had our battles over the past 15 years, but we work thru them eventually.

And we have been thru a lot with weddings, college graduations, and now grandkids.

Maybe it helps that we live in separate cities, about an hour apart. Far enough apart to prevent the causal bumping into one another, but close enough to make contact when needed.

One of the reasons Karen and her husband Steve invited my wife Kathy and I over was the gathering of all of our kids and their spouses.

We've had a few in the past several months including holidays and a couple weddings but those were filled with the busy-ness of those events and today is a much more relaxed gathering without any extra agendas.

The relationship dynamics between former spouses can be tricky, and I am blessed to have a wife Kathy who is also a believer in creating new relationships out of broken ones when it is appropriate as I am also friends with her ex-husband and his family.

One of the keys to this is how you end the relationship and with some tips, here's a story from AOM:

Dim & Dash: Breaking Up

When you were a kid, did you ever read the comic “Goofus and Gallant” in Highlights Magazine? Goofus and Gallant were two boys with very different attitudes and temperaments. The comic would show how each boy would respond in the same situation–Goofus always did the wrong thing, while Gallant always did the right thing. What would those boys be like as grown men? We’ve decided to imagine in a new twice-monthly comic series called “Dim and Dash.” Drawn by Ted Slampyak, the comic will be a fun way to present quick reminders on the right way for a man to act. Hope you enjoy!

Fort Wayne Site of the Day-Trolley Tour

2011-09-05T06:00:00.001-04:00

Saying Thanks

2011-09-04T16:08:00.000-04:00

Good Stuff from Harvey:

2, 4, 6, 8 - Who do you appreciate?

By Harvey Mackay

A university professor began reflecting on the people who had a positive impact on his life. In particular he remembered a schoolteacher who had gone out of her way to instill in him a love of poetry. He hadn't seen or spoken to her in many years, but he located her address and sent her a letter of thanks. A short time later, he received this reply:

"My dear Willie, I cannot tell you how much your note meant to me. I am in my eighties, living alone in a small room, cooking my own meals, lonely, and, like the last leaf of autumn, lingering behind. You will be interested to know that I taught school for 50 years and yours is the first note of appreciation I ever received. It came on a blue-cold morning, and it cheered me as nothing has in many years."

The teacher's note brought the professor to tears -- and then he began searching for others who'd shaped his life, just to say thanks.

If only more people held onto gratitude the way they hold a grudge!

None of us got to where we are alone. Whether the assistance we received was obvious or subtle, acknowledging someone's help is a big part of understanding the importance of saying thank you.

It's more than just good manners. Saying thank you -- and meaning it -- is never a bad idea. It appeals to a basic human need to be appreciated. It sets the stage for the next pleasant encounter. And it helps keep in perspective the importance of receiving and giving help.

Retailing giant Sam Walton wrote ten rules for success, and the Walmart founder didn't mince words when it came to being thankful. The fifth of Walton's rules is "Appreciate everything your associates do for the business."

I wish I could convince every business owner and manager to adopt that attitude. If you have hired well and provided the necessary tools that allow your staff to perform their jobs, and they have achieved accordingly, the next logical step is acknowledgment of their efforts.

The cost of praising someone is nil -- but a recent study has found that the payoff can be huge. Employees want to be seen as competent, hardworking members of the team. Good managers want satisfied, motivated, and productive staff members. What better motivator than thanking employees for their contributions to the company's success?

A Personnel Today survey of 350 human resources professionals found that the greatest factor in workplace productivity is a positive environment in which employees feel appreciated. According to the survey, two-thirds of the respondents said they felt a lot more productive when they received recognition for their work, while the remainder said they felt a little more productive.

Just feeling productive can be motivating in itself. When workers don't feel productive, frustration sets in, according to 84 percent of the survey respondents. Here's a startling result: 20 percent said they felt angry or depressed when they weren't able to work as hard as they could.

How to best praise effectively? Try these ideas.

Be sincere. Give praise only where it is due.
Give public praise. The goal is to encourage employees to keep up the good work, while simultaneously encouraging others to put out greater effort. Praising in public raises general morale.
Be specific in your praise. Identify exactly what the employee worked on and what he or she accomplished. Don't just say, "Well done, Maggie." If the employee feels the praise isn't genuine, it could have a negative effect.
Provide some lasting recognition. Consider a letter in the employee's file or a simple celebration for the department that overcame a tough challenge. Appreciation is not a one-shot event. It needs to be ongoing.

A smart manager will establish a culture of gratitude. Expand the appreciative attitude to suppliers, vendors, delivery people, and of course, customers.

All links along the chain are essential to your success. It's so easy to ignore the person who delivers office supplies, the tech who unfroze your computer, or the customer who referred you to a great new account. Big mistake. They all deserve acknowledgment, especially if you want to preserve the relationship.

And while you're at it, don't forget your favorite teacher.

Mackay's Moral: An attitude of gratitude should have wide latitude.

Fort Wayne Site of the Day-Trolley Tour

2011-09-04T06:00:00.001-04:00

Saturday Night Classic Music Video

2011-09-03T16:08:00.000-04:00

One of my favs...

Fort Wayne Site of the Day-Trolley Tour

2011-09-03T06:00:00.002-04:00

Another Reason to Blog

2011-09-02T16:08:00.001-04:00

My daughter Rachael used to keep a journal.

Lots of them.

She's a writer.

She introduced me to the world of blogging back in 2003 or 4.

I decided last night to take a trip down memory lane and see what I was doing 5 years ago.

I recorded it right here on this blog.

Have you started blogging yet?

Fort Wayne Site of the Day-Trolley Tour

2011-09-02T06:00:00.002-04:00

Can I have your Attention?

2011-09-01T16:08:00.000-04:00

All of us could do a better job of listening.

Here's a few tips on being less of a jerk.

From DLM:

7 Powerful Tips To Becoming a Better Listener

Posted: 22 Aug 2011 08:18 AM PDT

When people speak, do you listen? How much of what's communicated do you internalize?

Recently, I was talking to someone who was not very present in the conversation. Even though she would nod and say "Yeah" the whole time we communicated, her follow-up comments would reveal she wasn't listening 100%.

For example, there was a point when I talking about A, but she kept replying to me as if I was saying B. I thought it was really strange, so I repeated what I said in a slower, more precise manner. But the same thing happened - while she would nod and say "Yeah" while I was speaking, her reply suggested she did not get the gist of what I was trying to say.

At that point, I was entirely baffled. After engaging in a few more conversations with her, I realized it was a norm with her. She often nodded and looked like she was following the conversation, but her comments were often off tangent. It would seem that even though she exhibited "signs" that she was listening, she was never really listening.

Listening is an important skill - more so than one may realize. We use it all the time - at work with our managers and co-workers, in presentations, in relationships, in social settings, with our families. Believe it or not, we even use it when watching TV and films!

In my work, listening is especially important. When I'm coaching my clients, it's important I listen and understand their underlying problems (that may even elude them), so I could ask the appropriate coaching questions to forward them. When I'm communicating with the readers at my blog, it's important I read between the lines and "listen" to what they're trying to say, because words alone may not convey their intended messages.

I've learned that being a good listener takes more than just hearing what the person has to say - it requires conscious desire, conscientiousness, and practice. In this article, I share my 7 personal tips on how to be a better listener:

Remove All Distractions
In this day and age, in our quest to get as much done as we can, we multi-task the whole time - from web browsing, checking emails, replying emails, working, talking on the phone, fiddling with our phones, writing in our notebooks, etc. So when people approach us to talk, it's natural we add that to the list of things we're doing at the moment, vs. giving them our full attention.

To be honest, I do this myself, especially if it's just a short or casual conversation. I think it's fine if you're able to attend to the other party's request. However, if the person is trying to tell you something important, or share something personal, you should ideally stop what you are doing and give him/her your full attention. What I do is I close the lid of my laptop (hence eliminating all distractions), turn myself towards the person and give him/her my full focus. Doing so is a sign of respecting him/her.

Be Present
Are you present when you're around other people? Or are you lost in your own thoughts?

In the example I shared in the opening, it was apparent my friend was not present during the conversations. Even though she would nod as a sign of acknowledgement while others were speaking, her mind was lost in her thoughts. Hence, when it was her turn to speak, her comments would be off tangent to what was being communicated.

To be a good listener, you have to be present. Being present means (a) not being preoccupied physically (b) not being preoccupied mentally. The former means to remove distractions, as I mentioned in Tip #1. The latter requires you to clear your mind of other thoughts and focus on the person speaking. This means to stop thinking about the argument you had at work with your co-worker in the morning, the report you've yet to finish, or where you're going to have your dinner, and to pay attention to what's being communicated now.

How does one become more present? I see it as an ongoing path, rather than one end goal. One activity that never fails me is this 15 minute brain dumping exercise, whereby I clear out mental clutter instantly. Meditation is another useful habit that helps me to be more present - instead of thinking about the past or the future, I'll be in the current moment, which is the moment we are living in anyway.

Wait for the Person to Finish Speaking (in the start)
It's good etiquette to let the other party finish what he/she wants to say, before you butt in with your comments. I know there are times you feel you get what the person is trying to say and you can't wait to share your comments, but hold it off in the beginning of the conversation. Because the person may have other things to share but can't because you are speaking.

I find that often times when I just sit and wait, the person will often have something to add on - which I would never have known if I had interjected or stepped in to speak. Once I get a hang of what the person has to say and where the person is coming from, I'll be more open in interjecting, while being conscious of the person's needs and letting him/her go ahead if there's anything he/she wants to say.

Don't Assume Anything
An important part of listening is not to assume. When you assume, you automatically layer over what the person says with your presumptions, which makes it near impossible to have any meaningful conversation. While the person may say A, ultimately you can only hear B, simply because your mind is not open to receiving new information in the first place.

When it comes to communication, err on the side of safety and assume you know nothing. In this regard, questions are your best friends (see #7).

Look at the Sub-Text
Powerful listening requires you to understand that the words articulated in a conversation do not always represent the person's intentions. Many times, we are not 100% clear about what we're trying to say, and talking is really our way of processing our thoughts.

In this regard, don't rely too much on the words communicated, per se. Instead, look at the sub-text - such as the facial expressions of the person, the tone of the voice, the body language, the choice of words, and so on. What is the person trying to say? What do you think he/she is feeling? What is he/she thinking behind his/her words? Combine this with what he/she is saying to you and you'll get a lot more out of the conversation.

Clarify to ensure you got what the person is saying
At every stage of the conversation, clarify to ensure you got the message right. This can be done by simply paraphrasing what he/she just said, in your own words. Sometimes we may take away one message when it's really something else, and it's not good to assume without clarifying first (see #4).

What I do is I'd interject every now and then and make 1-2 clarifying statements, such as "Ok, so what you're saying is that ..........., right?", in which the person simply needs to say "Yes" or "No". This helps ensure everyone is on the same page before any more new information is shared.

Ask Questions
Questions are highly important in any conversation. Firstly, there are things which the person does not share (either because he/she thinks you already know them or because he/she thinks they are irrelevant) that you can only uncover by asking questions. Secondly, questions lets you get more information about specific areas you are unclear about, such that you get a better picture of what the person is saying.

My conversing style involves a lot of questions, especially at the beginning of the conversation. This is because because I see this as the "understanding" or "information gathering" phase. Rather than overshare at the start, I prefer to understand the person and get a good grasp of who he/she is, then share my point of view. This has worked very well in my communications with others, as others quickly ease into their natural persona and open up about what they want to talk about. Because of this, it has allowed me to easily connect with others and develop meaningful relationships - which is what we want to achieve at the end of the day.

Remember that listening is one part of what it takes to build meaningful connections with others. Check out my related posts at Dumb Little Man which will help you build stronger relationships with people around you:

Written on 8/22/2011 by Celestine Chua. Celestine writes at The Personal Excellence Blog, where she shares her best advice on how to achieve personal excellence and live your best life. Get her RSS feed directly and add her on Twitter @celestinechua. If you like this article, you will enjoy one of her top articles: 101 Things To Do Before You Die.

Photo Credit: Ed Yourdon

Fort Wayne Site of the Day-Trolley Tour

2011-09-01T06:00:00.002-04:00

Another Approach to Productivity

2011-08-31T16:08:00.000-04:00

from DLM:

Not Getting Enough Work Done? Try Taking More Breaks

Posted: 16 Aug 2011 08:20 AM PDT

It’s five pm on Friday, but you’re staring at a stack of work that you really need to get finished.

You’ll be working over the weekend ... again.

And you promise yourself that next week, you’re going to be more organized. You’re going to work harder. You’re going to focus.

Except, somehow, that never seems to work.

You’re wondering what the heck you’re doing wrong.

Well... You’re Not Taking Enough Breaks!

I’d guess that your typical day looks something like this: you’re sat at a desk for hours, stopping only to grab a sandwich (which you might well scoff down in front of your computer).

No-one can stay focused for hours on end, so you find yourself getting tired and demotivated as the day wears on. You end up on Facebook, or texting your friends, or watching a funny clip on YouTube.

At the end of the day, you feel frustrated and fed up.

You might start thinking all sorts of negative things: I’m so stupid, why did I waste time on Facebook?

And you’ll try to come up with solutions: I just need to be more self-disciplined.

But the truth is, no-one – however productive they are – works solidly for eight hours. Chances are, your work requires a fair amount of mental energy, and you need some down time to maintain your energy levels throughout the day.

So how do you do that?

You plan, and take, regular breaks.

How Taking More Breaks Works
I’m trying out a new system right now. It’s designed to solve a couple of problems:

Problem #1: I sometimes get pulled off-task by emails, Facebook, Twitter, the news...
Problem #2: I work from home (I’m a writer and writing coach) so I don’t have any sort of physical activity built into my day.

So, now, during the mornings – my peak writing hours – I work for 22 minutes at a time, then take a break and exercise on my elliptical trainer for 5 minutes. (I’m allowing 3 minutes for transition time.) That means I’m only working 44 minutes out of every hour. Surely I’m getting less done?

Actually, no. I’m able to concentrate much better – if I know that I’ve only got ten minutes before a break, I write faster! And because I’m getting up and moving during the day, my energy levels are higher too.

Try It Yourself
If you work in a traditional office environment, you might not be able to adopt a system like mine. But you can still take regular breaks – which will help you stay on task.

How about:

Every hour, take a few minutes to have a quick walk around the building and grab a glass of water from the water cooler.

Set an alarm on your computer to pop up every 45 minutes to tell you to take a five minute break from what you’re doing. Check Facebook, tidy your desk, grab a snack – whatever you like.

The crucial thing is that you get straight back to work when your break is over. Otherwise, you’ll just slip back into old habits of wasting time.

You might still be a bit skeptical about whether taking more breaks could work for you. All I can say is ... try it! And let us know how you get on: the comments are open.

Written on 8/16/2011 by Ali Luke. Ali writes a blog, Aliventures, about leading a productive and purposeful life (get the RSS feed here). As well as blogging, she writes fiction, and is studying for an MA in Creative Writing.

Photo Credit: Brian O'Donovan

Fort Wayne Site of the Day-Trolley Tour

2011-08-31T06:00:00.002-04:00

7 Steps to Happy

2011-08-30T16:08:00.000-04:00

from DLM:

7 Steps That May Dramatically Boost Your Happiness

Posted: 07 Aug 2011 11:14 AM PDT

You’ve probably read countless articles that promise you better happiness, only to be disappointed. I know what it’s like to not get exactly what you’re looking for from an article.

When I was reading a lot of personal development articles and books, I was looking for a magic bullet that would somehow infuse my life with happiness. However, it wasn’t until I realized that I alone had to take responsibility that I started seeing dramatic results from the simplest of tips.

The tips in this article are common-sense, practical, and simple. They won’t magically do anything, because the magic lies within you. When you take responsibility, the tips and tools you have don’t matter, because it is you who decide how they impact your life.

Be Here, Now
Most people are stuck in either the past or the future; recalling bad memories, or imagining bad things happening in the future. The good news about the past is that it's over. And the future? Well, it isn't here yet, is it?

By being in the here and now, you will be more aware of what's going on (obviously), and you will be feeling much happier as you return your awareness to your body. And yes, that means even when you’re feeling bad. It’s crucial to stay aware when you’re feeling bad. What most people try to do is drown their feelings by eating, drinking, smoking, and so on.

It doesn’t help.

Cherish Your Relationships
Imagine going to the end of your life. If you somehow could imagine the last 24 hours of your life, think about what would be important to you at that point in time. Is it money? Is it appreciating the fact you worked 30 years at a job you despised? Or is it the people around you, and the experiences you’ve had?

When I did this, I realized that what was important were the relationships and connections I have with the people around me. What you do and accomplish is fine, but that too shall pass.

Remember to keep your priorities in check. Discover what is truly important in your life, and it will dramatically increase your happiness, because you will have what most people lack—focus.

Kindness
Remember an experience when either you gave something to someone or received something. It feels good, doesn’t it? It feels good to give, and it feels good to receive.

Kindness can be tough at first if you haven’t practiced giving, but as you become more comfortable with giving and helping, you’ll come to like it.

There are a lot of different sources that say that what you give comes back to you. The more you give, the more you receive. I’ve certainly found that to be true in my life. Whether or not it’s true for you is up to you to discover.

Personal Growth
I began my personal growth journey at the young age of 16. I started with lucid dreaming, and followed the clues from there.

You've probably bumped into personal growth books, audios, and even videos. Some of them have been tremendous, while others have been let downs. The real secret is to keep going until you find something that resonates with you, because when you do that, your life will begin to change. The only problem is that sometimes it may take a while, and you might run into frustrations, and begin to wonder if all of his personal growth stuff is really worth bothering with.

And believe me, it is.

See Through Goals
The goals you set should keep you flexible, and not give you tunnel vision. You see, when you set goals, it's good to be specific, but you also want to be open to all the possibilities around you. You never know where you will have a breakthrough, or where that one idea will come from that changes everything.

You just never know.

And when you're not as attached to your goals, you will feel freer, and naturally this will lead to more happiness, which in turn will increase chances of your success.

Embrace Death
You can die at any moment.

A scary thought, isn’t it?

It helps you stay focused on what is important. It also has the tendency to completely melt away your fears. What is it that you really want to do with your life? What are some of the excuses, fears, and obstacles that are stopping you from doing that? And how do you think you can overcome those and start moving toward what it is that your heart truly wants?

If you answer the above questions seriously, you may just find yourself strangely motivated to start taking action. There's nothing like following your heart when it comes to feeling happy and joyful.

Follow Your Heart
And that brings us to the last point. Most people are out of touch with their emotions and particularly with their hearts. We've been conditioned to be logical and to have everything make perfect sense. The only problem is that life doesn't really make sense all the time (or most of the time?)

And some of the greatest opportunities and adventures of life are not discovered by logic, but by following your gut and your intuition.

When you consider deep down what it is that brings you happiness, and go after that, you will notice that your life changes in accordance.

Now, you don't have to change your whole life all at once, because if you begin with only one step today, you will be surprised at how far you can go, and how happy you will feel.

What are you waiting for?

You’re not supposed to have an answer to that question, you know?

Written on 8/07/2011 by Henri Junttila. Henri writes at Wake Up Cloud, where he shares his personal tips on how you can live the life you know you deserve. When you feel ready to take action, get his free course: Find Your Passion in 5 Days or Less. And if you liked this article, you will enjoy one of his top articles: 77 Great Quotes That Will Change Your Life.

Photo Credit: goaliej54

Fort Wayne Site of the Day-Trolley Tour

2011-08-30T06:00:00.003-04:00

You Are More Than Your Career

2011-08-29T16:08:00.000-04:00

Powerful words from Harvey:

If you want life's best, see that life gets your best

By Harvey Mackay

It all started with an innocent question at a conference where I was speaking. After I was introduced to one of the organizers, I asked her, "And what do you do for a living?"

"Wrong question, Harvey!" she replied. "It's what I do for a life that matters!"

Her 10-second answer was enlightening: She loved and cared for her family and friends, worked as a systems analyst for a small start-up, took harp lessons, volunteered at the history center, and took her faith very seriously.

This was a woman who had her priorities in order. She valued every minute of every day. She was determined to live the best life she could.

I realized a long time ago that you have to grab hold of life. You can't sit there and let life pass you by. You have to make things happen, not just wait for things to happen to you. But we all know that's easier said than done!

Philosophers through the ages have tried to define the meaning of life, and I'm not about to try to pick up where they left off. But I've heard some creative comparisons, simplistic to be sure, but clever nonetheless:

Life is like a canvas. You fill in the picture.
Life is like a mirror. We get the best results when we smile at it.
Life is like a bank. You get out what you put into it with interest.
Life is like a cafeteria. You must help yourself.
Life is like a garden. Plant good seeds and tend them, and the bounty is plentiful.
Life is like a chocolate chip cookie. It's best enjoyed hot and fresh.

Let's face it, it is a lot easier to create analogies about life than it is to explain life.

Maybe we should adopt one of Benjamin Franklin's habits. Every day of his adult life, he set aside time to examine two questions. In the morning he asked himself, "What good shall I do today?" Later in the day his question changed to, "What good have I done today?" This process is sure to produce more than philosophy.

Or we can practice the thinking of Charlie Brown of Peanuts fame, who said, "I've developed a new philosophy. I only dread life one day at a time."

I love Charlie Brown, but I feel sorry for the kid. With such a glum outlook, he's missing all the good stuff.

What makes for a good life? Most people would say it would include people who love you and whom you love, work that you find rewarding and productive, comfortable surroundings, adequate food, good health, and for many, faith.

Because you are often defined by the work you do, and you depend on that work to provide many of the things you need, I think it's absolutely essential that you find a job or volunteer opportunity that aligns with your values and ethics. And always remember, you have to give before you get! Put your heart into it!

My friend, the late Norman Vincent Peale, agreed with my thoughts: "By the good life, I mean one that is intensely interesting, even exciting. It is a life that is full of meaning and rich in satisfaction. Such a life is not free of difficulties or problems; victorious levels of experience. The good life is based on a definitive value system in which job and enthusiasm serve as both cause and effect."

Today, I'm offering a Mackay's Moral bonanza -- some gems that you can learn from and carry with you when life seems to be handing you the proverbial lemons:

Life is ten percent how you make it and ninety percent how you take it.
Life is like a ten-speed bicycle. Most people don't use enough of their gears.
One of the greatest truths in life is that "No" is a complete sentence.
The stumbling blocks in life are nothing more than stepping stones.
The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything.
Every day is a gift! That's why it's called the present!

Mackay's Moral: It's never too late to become what you could have been.

Fort Wayne Site of the Day-Trolley Tour

2011-08-29T06:00:00.003-04:00

Speak Up

2011-08-28T16:08:00.000-04:00

from DLM:

How to Get Exactly What You Want, Right Now

Posted: 18 Aug 2011 10:27 AM PDT

Some people say it’s OK to not get exactly what you want in life. Some say you should settle for good enough because you wouldn’t want to get disappointed. I couldn’t disagree more. You can get everything you want, and you can get it now. In this article I’ll show you exactly how to do that.

As you keep reading, you will be pleasantly surprised at what you discover. You see, most people don’t know about this, which is why they are chasing something they don’t have to chase.

You can stop looking for the answer, because it’s already here.

What Do YOU Want?
The first thing you have to get clear about is exactly what you want. Do you want to have a dream life and live someplace warm? Do you want to find your soul mate, or find work that makes you amazingly fulfilled and happy?

Ask these questions of yourself right now and pick something that you really think would make a big difference in your life if you had it today.

The Truth About Middlemen
We've been told that when we get stuff, we will be happy. And, you probably think that when you have something, when you are a certain way, or when you're with a special person, you will be happy.

We've all been there, and I'm still there from time to time. We are human, so we will feel these feelings now and then. But the truth of the matter is that every one of these “things” are middlemen to what we really want.

Thinking Makes It So
When you really think about it, haven't you felt good, at peace, and fulfilled without having all the things that you thought would make you happy? And haven’t you gotten what you wanted and not felt how you thought you would feel? It is not the external things and events that make us happy, but what is inside of us.

We've all been happy at one point or another, which means that you can be happy whenever you want. The things that we are truly after are good feelings. It’s all on the inside.

We want to feel good, and we want to avoid feeling bad. All our fears are just about us being afraid of feeling bad in the future. However, when you think and worry about your fears, you feel bad instantly, so in essence you are replaying the event you’re afraid of over and over in your head, which makes it happen now.

Feeling, Then Getting
There's an easier way to get exactly what you want, which is to feel good now and then go after the things that you prefer to have, be or do.

So how do you get to these feelings underneath the things?

That's a great question, and the answer is very simple. Actually, the answer is a question. Let's say you want the perfect relationship. In order to get to the bottom of that and discover the feeling, all you have to do is ask yourself the following question: What would that give me that I wouldn't otherwise have?

When you get the first answer, keep asking that question until you get to the end of the line. And when you get there, notice where in your body you're feeling the feelings and how they move around, if they move.

This will instantly give you the feeling that you're after. You don't have to use the middleman to get there, because you can feel it now.

What Would Happen If?
What would happen if you felt good right now? As you read this, you may doubt what I'm saying, because after all, we have to work hard to feel good, or at least that's what we've been told.

Who knows if this is true?

And why wouldn't you want to feel good all the while you're working towards what you want to get from life? Isn't it easier to feel good while making tremendous progress? Obviously, sometimes you'll get stuck in a negative thought pattern, but you can always return to feeling good if you really want to.

Remember, you can get exactly what you want. You can feel amazing right now.

Written on 8/18/2011 by Henri Junttila. Henri writes at Wake Up Cloud, where he shares his personal tips on how you can live the life you know you deserve. When you feel ready to take action, get his free course: Find Your Passion in 5 Days or Less. And if you liked this article, you will enjoy one of his top articles: 77 Great Quotes That Will Change Your Life.

Photo Credit: magnetbox

Fort Wayne Site of the Day-Trolley Tour

2011-08-28T06:00:00.002-04:00

Saturday Night Classic Music Video

2011-08-27T16:08:00.000-04:00

Yes, I played this on the radio:

Fort Wayne Site of the Day-Trolley Tour

2011-08-27T06:00:00.003-04:00

GPSing it

2011-08-26T16:08:00.000-04:00

I used to not worry about GPS.

I would carry a phone book in my car for the map and address features so if I ever needed to get "unlost", I could.

Then last year when I got my first smartphone, I started playing with some of the apps and recently have been using the Google Navigation when I travel out of town.

Others are doing it too according to this report from Mediapost:

Smartphone Leads You On

According to a new U.S. study of mobile map usage by comScore, 48 million mobile users accessed maps on their mobile device during the three month average period ending May 2011, an increase of 39% from the previous year, driven in large part by the increase in smartphone adoption. The study found that map usage via mobile applications was the primary access point for smartphone owners as the map app audience doubled in size over the past year.

A comparative look at map usage among fixed-Internet users (i.e. accessing from a home or work computer) found that map visitation saw a slight decline in total audience in May 2011 versus the previous year, dipping 2%, while still maintaining a substantially larger audience of 93.8 million visitors.

Map Category Audience for Mobile and Fixed Internet Access (May 2011 vs. May 2010)
	*Total Audience (000)*
	*May-2010*	*May-2011*	*% Change*
Fixed Internet Map Access	95,579	93,817	-2%
All Mobile Map Access	34,675	48,099	39%
Source: comScore, July 2011

Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile, says "The strong growth in mobile map usage and flattening of desktop map usage is indicative of broader behavioral shifts being wrought by smartphones... For years, consumers have been able to check directions on their desktop computers prior to leaving their home or office, now smartphones allow people to skip this step and access maps on the go, as they need them, showing off one of the most powerful capabilities of mobile - just-in-time-information."

The number of smartphone map users (which accounted for 4 out of every 5 mobile map users) reached 38.2 million in May, an increase of 75% from the previous year and outpacing the total smartphone audience growth of 57%. Applications represented the primary access point for approximately two-thirds of smartphone map users, while browser map access was about half as popular as apps and grew at half the rate.

Smartphone Browser and Application Usage for Map Access (3 Month Avg. Ending May 2011 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending May 2010; Total U.S. Age 13+)
	*Total Audience (000)*
	*May-2010*	*May-2011*	*% Change*
Total Smartphone	21,873	38,208	75%
Accessed Maps via Application	13,036	25,815	98%
Accessed Maps via Mobile Browser	9,187	13,712	49%
Source: comScore MobiLens, July 2011

Among all mobile users (smartphone and feature phone) who accessed maps on their mobile devices, 88.9% did so from a car or other vehicle, with 16.9% doing so while walking, running or biking, and 13.6% while using public transit. The most utilized types of maps were graphical maps with turn-by-turn directions.

Mobile Map Usage by Mode of Travel and Type of Map (3 Month Avg. Ending May 2011; Total U.S. Mobile Audience Age 13+: Smartphone and Feature Phone)
*Travel Or Map*	*% of Mobile Users Accessing Maps*
Driving or riding in a car or other vehicle	88.9%
Walking or running or biking	16.9%
Using public transit	13.6%
Type of Map or Directions Accessed (Multiple OK)
Graphical map with turn by turn directions	64.0%
Graphical map without turn by turn directions	48.3%
Turn by turn directions without graphical map	46.0%
Source: comScore MobiLens, July 2011

For more information from comScore please visit here.

Fort Wayne Site of the Day-Trolley Tour

2011-08-26T06:00:00.000-04:00

4 Months Until Christmas

2011-08-25T16:08:00.001-04:00

Hard to believe, but it's true.

Here's a few shots from my families past Christmases:

The first shot is my son Josh and I doing Karaoke at home.

Number 2 is actually from a few years ago when my wife created a bit of confusion with her winter daises that turned blue in the cold!

The next two are from our annual snowflake contest, and the last shot is from my Aunt & Uncle in Maine who create dozens of live wreaths that they send to friends and family in December.

Fort Wayne Site of the Day

2011-08-25T06:00:00.004-04:00

Click on Pic

What Have You Learned?

2011-08-24T16:08:00.000-04:00

There have been a lot of milestone moments in my life the past couple of years.

When I turned 50 about 3 weeks after my son Josh turned 25, I reflected on all that had happened in my life since I was his age and my enthusiasm for the next 25 years grew.

Also in my family, we've had the weddings of 3 of our kids, the birth of my first grandson, and a second grandchild is due next year.

I walked away from my radio marketing career after 8 years with the same stations to join a website development firm that specializes in internet-centered marketing. And it was this last event that really got me thinking about how much I have learned in the past 2 months since I joined Cirrus ABS about the workings of the web.

My marketing background skills are transferable to the web world, and I've built on my personal knowledge base.

My parenting skills have continued to grow as my kids are now becoming parents and young adults.

I could share a list of what exactly I have learned in the past couple of years, but my challenge to you is to reflect on your own life anc come up with your own list.

It begins with the question: What Have I Learned?

Fort Wayne Site of the Day

2011-08-24T06:00:00.000-04:00

The next BIG event in Fort Wayne. Click on Pic

VideoTime: Free Stylin'

2011-08-23T16:08:00.000-04:00

An amazing video:

Fort Wayne Site of the Day

2011-08-23T06:00:00.001-04:00

Click on Pic

30 TV Multitasking Tips

2011-08-22T16:08:00.000-04:00

I could live without a television.

Oh, sure there are a few shows I still watch regularly, but more often I am not just staring at the tube.

I am often doing stuff on my laptop at the same time.

Here's a few ideas on how to juggle a busy life and still catch your favs from DLM:

30 Ways to Make TV Watching More Productive

Posted: 19 Aug 2011 03:21 PM PDT

Do you ever hear yourself saying "I just don't have time" yet find yourself plopped in front of the TV for the better part of every evening?

As our to-do lists grow so does our stress and anxiety over getting everything done. While we can't add any more time to our day (unfortunately) we can use the time we do have in a more productive manner. Let's face it watching TV isn't that interactive or demanding. Below are 30 simple little ways to make the most of your TV watching time.

Things you can do while watching TV:

Fold laundry - Plop the basket beside you and fold while you watch.

Iron - Drag the ironing board and iron out into the living room and turn that mundane task into something that's a little more bearable.

Give or get a massage - Lay on the couch or get on the floor with your significant other and give a back rub or foot massage. At each commercial break switch it up just to keep it fair.

Stretch - Get down on the floor and stretch your legs, your back, and your arms. You'll feel great and if you're an avid TV watcher I'm pretty confident your flexibility will improve in a matter of a few weeks.

Write out a meal plan for the week - Brainstorm some meal ideas for the coming week. You can take it a step further and create a list of go-to meals or meals you can make ahead and freeze.

Brainstorm for a new business, a holiday, or activities to do with the kids - Don't filter ideas just write them down as they come to mind. Sometimes the best ideas come to us when we're not focused on finding the best ideas.

Write out your Birthday cards or Christmas cards - Don't wait until the last minute to get your cards done. For most of us it takes quite a bit of time, so doing even a few each evening can lighten the load.

Put pictures in a picture album - I'm sure I'm not the only one with a tub full of pictures that I don't know what to do with. Grab the tub of photos and start putting them in photo albums. If you want to sort them first, use a few nights of TV watching to do just that.

Things you can do during commercials:

Pack the dishwasher - It doesn't take long and even if there is a pile you can do it over multiple breaks. Don't have a dishwasher? No problem. Break one: Fill the sink with warm soapy water and let the dishes soak. Break two (maybe three): Wash the dishes. After that dry them and put them away. Done.

10 sit-ups 10 push-ups 10 squats - TV watching is a sedentary sport. Get on the ground and get active during the commercials. It doesn't have to be much just move.

Take out the garbage - Grab a garbage bag and go throughout the house emptying the smaller bins into it. Take the full bags outside to the garage or back door for garbage day.

Do a quick reset of the room you're in - Commercial breaks aren't long but it's amazing how much you can get done. Pick up shoes, toys, books, magazines, dishes etc. and put them where they belong.

Address a letter, stamp it and put it in your bag for tomorrow - Mailing letters is one task that seems to continually slip my mind. Use the commercial break to put your letter or bill payment in an envelope address it and put it in your bag so you can mail it tomorrow.

Drink a glass of water - If you're like most people you're not drinking as much water as you should be each day. Get a tall glass add ice and fill it with cold water.

Floss your teeth - This takes very little time and is something most of us don't do often enough. It's a little action that can be great for your health.

Dust the furniture in the room you're in - Grab a microfiber cloth, an old sock or damp rag and run it over all flat surfaces in the room. Get under the keyboard and the DVD player. Get the top of the TV, picture frames and the backs of your chairs.

Clean a bathroom - Fill the sink with warm soapy water, spray the tub and toilet, let it soak until the next commercial and it'll clean up super easy.

Make a sandwich for tomorrow - The key to a smooth sailing morning is to start the night before. Make a sandwich or put together a salad, dole out some yogurt and grab a piece of fruit throw it in your bag for tomorrow and you're set to just head out the door!

Bathroom break - Enough said ...

Send a quick email - 2.5 to 3 minutes is usually long enough to get an email put together, if not you could get a good first draft started at least.

Read a few pages of your book or a blog post - Hit the mute button grab your book or fire up your feed-reader.

Write your to-do list - Give a bit of thought to what you'll do tomorrow. Think about errands that need to be run, calls that need returning, gifts to be bought and what to have for dinner.

Choose clothes to wear tomorrow - Run to your room and decide what to wear tomorrow. Choose clothes that fit you well and that you feel great in.

Let the dogs out - Most dogs will jump at the chance to get outside even it's only for a few minutes. Do it.

Purge a drawer or filing cabinet - Choose a drawer that's close to where you're sitting and pull everything out of it. Toss or recycle what you don't absolutely need and put items you no longer use, need or like in a pile to donate. Put the remaining items back in an organized manner.

Make your bed - Even if it's half an hour before bed go and make it. It's awesome getting into a bed that's made the sheets pulled tight, comforter straightened and the pillows fluffed up a bit. Heaven.

Make a quick phone call - Call your mom, your sister, your brother or friend and make or confirm plans for tomorrow.

Get changed into work out clothes - If you've settled in for a night of TV odds are you won't be too excited about the thought of exercise. During the first commercial break get changed into your work out gear so by the end of the show you're good to go for a bit of a work out.

Get a healthy snack - Grab a piece of fruit, trail mix or yogurt. Make healthy choices, keep your snack size to something smaller than your fist to keep you from over-eating and eating mindlessly.

Press mute and just sit in silence - There are very few moments during our day when we can truly sit back and enjoy the silence. Press mute and just enjoy how quiet and still everything is around you.

There are a lot of ways to be productive with very small bursts of time. Sure, you can Tivo your way passed the commercials but you may just be fast forwarding by a quick opportunity to get something done!

Choose one or two items on this list to do each evening and you just may be surprised at how many little extras you can get done.

Written on 9/26/2010 by Sherri Kruger. Sherri writes at Zen Family Habits, a blog celebrating all things family. Sherri also writes on personal development at Serene Journey, a blog dedicated to sharing simple tips to enjoy life. Republished on 8/20/2011.

Photo Credit: SFB579

Fort Wayne Site of the Day

2011-08-22T06:00:00.000-04:00

Click on Pic

Relaxing

2011-08-21T16:08:00.000-04:00

How you do it, depends on what you do when you're not relaxing.

From DLM:

3 Forms of Radical Relaxation

Posted: 25 Jul 2011 11:38 AM PDT

At the end of a long day, you probably want nothing more than to relax. You’ve spent hours writing emails, attending meetings, and commuting. Now it’s time to unwind and recharge for the next day’s battle.

But here’s the thing. Most of what we call “relaxation” isn’t actually all that relaxing.

Take watching TV. The television gives you an illusion of relaxation. You get to plop down on the couch and lose yourself in other people’s drama. But the relaxation effect is only partial. Your mind still needs to process the rapid-fire images and sounds. Your nervous system still recoils during a tense moment of TV drama.

Surfing the web is the other leisure time trap. The freedom to surf from one site to the next can give you a momentary rush. But the more you get lost in email, Facebook, and Twitter, the more your brain and nervous system must remain “on.”

The big idea here is that it’s not just work that drains us. It’s also the way we “relax.”

What does actual relaxation look like? Consider three key practices of radical relaxation: movement, stillness, and breath.

Movement
If you’re like me, you spend 98% of the workday sitting. All of this sitting leaves the body tired and tense. The muscles of the hips lock up, the legs get stiff, and the shoulder and neck muscles strain. If you want to dissolve this tension and relax, sitting is about the last thing you should do. You need to move.

As long as you are moving, it doesn’t matter what you do. You might walk, run, ride your bike, dance, or do yoga. The goal is simply to get a fresh supply of blood and energy to all those areas of the body that tense up during the workday.

Stillness
Once you move the body, practice experiencing stillness. This isn’t just about finding stillness in the body. It’s the practice of finding stillness in all areas of life. To be still is to experience a pause in the constant stream of thoughts. To be still is to give your nervous system a rare chance to let go.

There’s no single way to experience stillness. You might find it in a 15-minute meditation practice. You might find it while lying on the ground outside, looking up at the stars. You might find it stopping at the half way point of a run or walk to check out the view. Or literally stopping to smell the flowers.

The goal is to give yourself the rare experience of nothingness. No stimulation. No deadlines. No effort. No strain. By coming into stillness, you can begin to experience a truly radical form of relaxation.

Breathing
Move, get still, then breathe.

Breathing is to relaxation as wind is to the waves on the ocean. The calm breeze creates stillness. Chaotic gusts create storms, swells, and tidal waves. Likewise, calm, deep breaths create relaxation and stillness. Tight, choppy breaths create agitation, anger, and fear.

So the most powerful way to relax is to bring your attention to the breath. Ask yourself throughout the day: what is the quality of my breath right now? Is it short and constricted? Or is it long, deep, and effortless?

If you’re like most people, you will find that your post-work breath matches your inner state. If you feel tired or irritated, your breath will feel anything but deep and effortless.

The good news is that since your breath matches your inner state, all you have to do to relax is change your breath. Simply bring your attention to your breath and consciously shift it. Extend each inhale and exhale, inhale deep into your belly, and allow yourself to relax.

The most difficult part of radical relaxation isn’t the actual practice of movement, stillness, or breathing. It’s breaking out of our habitual attachment to non-relaxing forms of “relaxation.”

So next time you come home from work and grab for the remote or reach for the laptop, catch yourself. If you really want to watch TV or surf the Internet, then make a conscious choice to do it.

But if you want to relax and recharge, consider shifting from digital distraction to radical relaxation. Instead of TV and the Internet, consider movement, stillness, and breathing.

I’m curious to hear what you think. What does your practice of radical relaxation look like?

Written on 7/25/2011 by Nate Klemp. Nate earned his PhD at Princeton and is a professor at Pepperdine University. He founded LifeBeyondLogic.com, a website dedicated to exploring philosophy as an art of living. You can follow him on Twitter @LifeBeyondLogic and on Facebook. Download a free copy of his new ebook, Finding Reality: Thoreau’s Lessons for Life in the Digital Age.

Photo Credit: Public

Fort Wayne Site of the Day

2011-08-21T06:00:00.000-04:00

The Sunday newspaper used to be stuffed with classified ads for jobs. Not so much anymore.

This site is maintained by a good friend of mine in Fort Wayne that might be exactly what you are looking for in your career search.

Click on Pic.

Saturday Night Classic Music Video

2011-08-20T16:08:00.000-04:00

Another Friend video this weekend:

Fort Wayne Site of the Day

2011-08-20T06:00:00.000-04:00

Can you guess who this is? Click on Pic for the answer.

9 More Frugal Friday Tips

2011-08-19T16:08:00.000-04:00

from DLM:

Nine Easy Tricks to Cut Your Spending Today

Posted: 11 Aug 2011 08:09 AM PDT

How often do you resolve to spend less?

And how often do you actually manage that?

We’re constantly faced with opportunities to buy something – as we walk down the street, as we drive past stores, even at work with the vending machine or canteen nearby. And with online shopping, we can buy at any time of the day or night, with just a few mouse-clicks.

If you’re spending more than you want to, though, these are a few simple ways to cut your spending – without having to do any complicated budgeting, and without having to rely on willpower.

Write a Grocery List
Simple, yep, but this one trick can make a big difference. If you often find yourself buying groceries that end up being thrown away, or if you get lured in by the cookies or ice-cream, then having a list will help. It also prevents repeated trips to the store to pick up that one thing you forget...

A list lets you buy exactly what you need: no more, no less. It takes just five – ten minutes to write a grocery list, and you’ll easily save that much time in the store.

Leave Your Credit Card at Home
If you often find yourself spending more than you should when you’re out shopping, then leave your credit card at home. Take cash, or a debit card: that way, you can only spend what you actually have.

Record What You Spend
Just as keeping a food diary helps you lose weight, keeping a spending diary helps you save money. If you have to write down that bottle of cola and candy bar, you’re more likely to resist buying them.

A spending diary will also highlight patterns: any areas where you’re spending more than you realise, and where you might be able to cut down.

Try the Store Brands
If you normally buy branded products, try the store’s brand instead, or even a value range. You might be pleasantly surprised – sometimes, there’s little or no difference in quality (the products may even be produced in the same factory, by the same methods, and simply packaged differently).

Take a Packed Lunch to Work
It only takes five minutes to make sandwiches in the morning – probably much less time than you spend heading out from work to buy your lunch. A packed lunch will cost you far less than getting food from a store or restaurant – and it’s often better for your health, too.

You can find more tips on packed lunches here.

Add Items to a Wishlist
When you’re browsing an online store, add any items that you like to a wishlist – don’t buy them straight away.

As Trent Hamm explains here on The Simple Dollar, adding items to a wish list “takes the edge off of the immediate desire. I can also return to those ‘wish lists’ at a later time and determine if it was a ‘whim of the moment’ desire or something I actually have a use for.”

Block Online Shopping Sites
If you’re really struggling to control your online spending, then try blocking any problem sites for your browser. When you really need to make a purchase, you can unblock them – but the extra step involved will help prevent you from going onto those sites “just to browse”.

Use Coupon Codes
Any time you’re making an online purchase, search online for “coupon code” plus the name of the product or store. You might not find anything – but you might save 20% or more, with just a few seconds’ work.

Many sites offer regular roundups and emails of coupon codes – try Retail Me Not for starters.

Ask “Do I Need This?”
Any time you’re thinking of making a purchase, ask “Do I need this?”

Of course, there’ll be times when you want to buy something that you don’t strictly need – but asking the question can help you to become more self-aware about your purchasing habits. If you’re considering putting money down for something which you don’t need but which you think you want, then give yourself a day or two to mull it over. Often, that initial impulse to buy will just vanish overnight.

There are nine tricks here for you to try – but do you have a tenth to add? Share your ideas in the comments below.

Written on 8/11/2011 by Ali Luke. Ali writes a blog, Aliventures, about leading a productive and purposeful life (get the RSS feed here). As well as blogging, she writes fiction, and is studying for an MA in Creative Writing.

Photo Credit: Monochrome

Fort Wayne Site of the Day

2011-08-19T06:00:00.001-04:00

Click on Pic

Read like Harvey

2011-08-18T16:08:00.000-04:00

When was the last time you read a book?

What book would you recommend and why?

Let us know in the comments.

Here's Harvey:

Open a book ... open a mind

By Harvey Mackay

Our lives basically change in two ways -- the people we meet and the books we read

My friend, the late Charles "Tremendous" Jones shared this notion with me several years ago, and as an author, I took it as both a compliment and a challenge.

In fact, I thought it was so powerful that I use it in all my speeches.

And I have first-hand experience on the importance of books in our lives. My first book, "Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive" sold a lot of copies. But the best part was the feedback from readers: Thousands told me the book has changed their lives. Again, I am both honored and daunted. That was an enormous responsibility to assume.

Let me share the biggest secret of a really life-changing book: If you have found a book that taught you a tremendous amount, you need to go back and read that book three, five, seven and 10 years later after you've had different experiences. It is not enough to simply read a motivational self-help book. You have to study it, underline it, highlight it and take notes. Good books should never be put away permanently.

It doesn't matter whether you are a paper-and-ink fan or a Kindle/Nook devotee, books are your ticket to places you can only dream of. A good read can stretch your imagination and spark your creativity. Books inspire, comfort, teach and entertain. Inscribed on the Thomas Jefferson Building at the Library of Congress are the first eight words of a quotation by famed American author Henry David Thoreau, "Books are the treasured wealth of the world ..."

Reading researcher Kylene Beers of Yale University says something happens to U.S. kids as they make their way through school. "About 100 percent of first-graders walk in on the first day and are interested in this thing called reading," she says. "Eighty percent of graduation high school seniors tell us thy will never again voluntarily read another book."

J. K. Rowling is credited with reviving the interest in reading with the fabulously popular Harry Potter series, and the Twilight books hooked legions of fans. There is no lack of good reading material. And yet statistics tell us that the average person reads just three books a year.

Three books! Not only am I an advocate of reading everything I can get my hands on, I am a huge proponent of lifelong learning. When your career or family schedules preclude enrolling in a class, books provide another avenue. Read to expand your mind. Read for fun. Read because you are interested in something -- and read to become more interesting. You'll never waste your time if you are reading!

American writer Clarence Day said, "The world of books is the most remarkable creation of man. Nothing else that he builds ever lasts. Monuments fall; nations perish; civilizations grow old and die out; and, after an era of darkness, new races build others. But in the world of books are volumes that have seen this happen again and again, and yet live on, still young, still as fresh as the day they were written, still telling men's hearts of the hearts of men centuries dead."

Individuals read to live life to its fullest, to earn a living, to understand what is going on in the world, and to benefit from the accumulated knowledge of civilization, according to a U.S. Department of Education study by Bernice Cullinan of New York University. Even the benefits of democracy and the capacity to govern ourselves successfully depend on reading.

Another angle on the benefits of reading good books came from the late Norman Cousins, editor and writer for the Saturday Review, who said: "There is a simple non-medical technique for increasing longevity. This system goes by the name of 'book.' Through it, man can live hundreds of lifetimes in one.

"What is more, he may enjoy fabulous options. He can live in any age of his choosing. He can take possession of an experience. He can live inside the mind of any man who has recorded an interesting thought, any man who has opened up new slices of knowledge, any man who has engaged in depths of feeling or awareness beyond the scope of most mortals. This is what good books are all about."

Mackay's Moral: A person without knowledge is like a house without a foundation.

Fort Wayne Site of the Day

2011-08-18T06:00:00.000-04:00

Click on Pic

Screw Up Everyonce in Awhile

2011-08-17T16:08:00.000-04:00

I'm not talking about Jackass style antics.

But test a few boundaries, get out of your comfort zone and check out these ideas from DLM:

Do You Make These 8 Personal Development Mistakes?

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 10:06 AM PDT

Most people suck at improving themselves. Even when they’re trying their hardest to become a better person, they wind up running on the dreaded personal development hamster wheel – hours of effort, zero results.

It’s not because they’re stupid. It’s not because they’re lazy. It’s definitely not because it’s not possible. It’s because they’re making the mistakes that most people make when they’re trying to change their life for the better. That’s why there’s so many people reading self-help blogs, self-help books, and taking self-help classes and yet so few people making a meaningful and lasting difference.

So here’s a list of the eight most common (and most damaging) mistakes that people make in personal development.

Are you guilty of any of these?

Are You Fixing Your Weaknesses?
Don’t you just hate being bad at things? It makes you feel dumb playing tennis when you’ve only ever played against Wii characters. You feel small when someone mentions James K. Polk and expects you to know he was the 11th American president (not that anyone would ever expect that).

So it’s natural to focus the majority of your personal development time on fixing your weaknesses. That’s all well and good, but you get a much better return on that time if you focus on improving your strengths.

Think of it like this. The vast majority of any successes you have in life will be because of your strengths. Your career security will be based on the strengths you bring to the table. You’ve probably heard of the 80/20 rule (80% of the results come from 20% of the efforts). That’s what I recommend here:

Focus the majority of your personal development efforts on your top 20% of skills, strengths, and talents. For the rest of the 80% do what you can to avoid them, delegate them to someone else, or create a system to avoid doing them. If a weakness is preventing you from hitting your goals, then get just good enough so that you can continue to focus on becoming an expert at what you’re good at.

Do You Want to Become “Better”?
Why do you focus on personal development? Well, to be a “better” person. To have a “better” life. To have “better” skills.

...What does “better” mean?

Every sane person on earth wants to be “better” in a bunch of ways. That’s a good thing – we’re ambitious. But “better” is a vague goal. We all know the thing about vague goals – vague goals produce vague results. Or in other words, vague goals don’t produce real results.

Your personal development path must have a purpose. There has to be a reason you’re working on whatever it is you want to improve. That’s the only way anything will actually ever happen. Change “better” to something like “know how to build a website so I can share my advice.” That’s how personal development actually happens in the real world.

Are You Learning Awesome Theories?
Theories are awesome and a lot of them are amazing. Seriously.

An investment strategy can sky rocket your wealth. A lifestyle design philosophy can get you out of the cubicle. A productivity system can help you get a whole heck of a lot more done.

But theories are also like crack or girl scout cookies – they’re addictive.

Once you’re exposed to a compelling theory or philosophy about something, it’s hard not to try to learn everything about it. Then it’s hard not to look for all the other competing theories or philosophies and learn everything about them. Then it’s hard to not look for comparisons to figure out which one’s best.

Worst of all it’s hard to bring any of the theories into real action.

It’s helpful to remember this simple concept – “everything that’s not stupid works.”

For example, there is an infinite number of ways to lose weight – choose from a million diets, exercise programs, supplements, gyms, programs, etc. – but nothing works if you’re doing nothing but researching.

It doesn’t matter if you have the #1 possible theory. It’s better to just find a path that’s not stupid and stick to it. (You can always improve it later). Learning theories isn’t personal development. Implementing them is.

Have You Never Had a Major Failure?
Avoiding failure makes you feel successful. After all, failure is bad. Right?

Well, kind of. No one should try to fail. That would make you weird. But if you’ve never had a major failure, then you’ve never really tried to succeed. If you’ve got your skin in the game for long enough something will go wrong. Period.

Don’t believe me? Name one successful person who’s never failed.

The strange paradox of it is that you cannot learn much from successes, but the bigger the failure the more you learn. In most aspects of life, people tend to look at the successes and copy them so that they can avoid the failure. The first part is good – copying previous successes is just smart. But you should expect to fail eventually. The only possible way to avoid failing is to not try in the first place.

Work hard for those failures, because that’s the best way possible for you to grow.

Are You Crazy Busy?
Everyone intends to improve themselves, but it’s just damn hard to find the time (see New Years resolutions).

You got work, family, obligations, travel, chores, and sleep. Who has time to work on themselves?

Yep, it’s tough.

It’s really got to be a matter of priority. How much of a priority is it that you improve yourself, your skills, and your life? It may be obvious that that’s a top priority for you, but real world implementation may be a bit tricky. Time may only allow you to settle for reading advice, not implementing it.

There’s two solutions:

First, you can schedule time for whatever kind of personal development you want to focus on. Then you guard that time with your life.

Second, if you can’t do that for whatever reason, you need to find ways to incorporate your improvement in other activities you have to do anyway.

Truth be told, you should probably find a way to do both.

Did You Choose The Newest and Shiniest Version?
It’s easier to think that the newest thing out there is the best. The newest strategy, technique, tactic, idea, book, etc.

It’s true with a lot of things – technology and medicine being two obvious examples. It’s not true with a lot of others.

Want to get an amazing memory? The best current memory courses are variations on methods from ancient Greece. Want to calculate crazy math problems in your head? India had that figured out about 2,500 years ago.

We like bells, whistles, and that new car smell, but sometimes we’re missing the old and tested approaches to things. Most personal development is about subjects that are timeless – the mind, the body, the spirit, selling, finances, communication, friendship, love, etc.

I guess the point here is no matter what you want to improve about yourself many people have gone through the same thing. Don’t make it more complicated than it needs to be.

Is Your Personal Development for Personal Development’s Sake?
If “personal development” doesn’t have a result, then it doesn’t count.

By “result” I mean a tangible, objective, other-people-can-see-change kind of result. That means you have to get something from your improvement efforts.

What’s that something.

Well, if you truly improve yourself then you should see some of the following things come into your life:
- More money (gasp!) – Yep, if you’re more skilled then you should command a higher income whether your self employed or work for someone else
- More confidence – You’re more confident when you’re good at something. The more you improve, the more that should happen.
- More influence – The more you improve in a noticeable way, the more others will value your opinion on things
If you’re not seeing those things, maybe your personal development path isn’t quite on track. Instead, focus your personal development efforts on things that will cause real world effects.

Do You Love to Read?
Loving to read is great, but dangerous.

It’s dangerous because it takes you to another world. When you’re reading your imagination sparks and you are inspired by great possibilities. The world in your head is fantastic!

...then you go back to the real world.

With your personal development, spend maximum 25% of your time reading, learning, and researching. The other 75% (or more) should be spent taking action.

Let’s be honest, with most things we already know what we need to do, or at least where to start. Wanna be fit? Start with jogging before work and stop eating fast food. Wanna make friends? Start by joining a club or organization. Wanna be productive? Close your email.

For something we just don’t know how to do, finding that information is simple – Google it.
New information can inspire and motivate, but more often it can derail. So, maximum 25% reading and minimum 75% doing.

So Put Yourself Out There
Testing the quality of your personal development efforts can be one of the most powerful things that you can do today.

Making mistakes can be frustrating (especially when it comes to something personal), but identifying those mistakes allows us to improve. Most progress starts by noticing a mistake and deciding to do something differently in the future.

The worst personal development mistake didn’t make the list. The worst mistake is ignoring or refusing to do anything about failures. It’s turning a blind eye to potential learning opportunities. When that happens, people are doomed to continue running on that personal development hamster wheel.

I didn’t include it, because folks in that situation will always be stuck. On the other hand, if you’re passionately pursuing improvement and have an open mind to change, you’re almost guaranteed to succeed.

So go out there and become great.

Written on 8/9/2011 Joey Weber. Joey teaches people how to get paid to improve themselves (that sexy intersection of personal development and online business) over at www.FindYourDamnPurpose.com. If that sounds interesting, check it out by >>Clicking Here Now<<.

Photo Credit: m.gifford

Fort Wayne Site of the Day

2011-08-17T06:00:00.000-04:00

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Survey Says...

2011-08-16T16:08:00.001-04:00

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(ignore the code above and keep reading)

No, it's not Family Fued...

It's a study about cell phones and driving:

No Talking While Driving

According to The Harris Poll of 2,163 adults surveyed online between June 13 and 20, 2011, 60% of drivers with cell phones use them while driving even though 91% of adults know it is unsafe to do so. This is particularly common among younger drivers with cell phones. In addition, 22% of drivers with cell phones send or read text messages while driving. However, the percentage of drivers with cell phones who use them while driving has fallen over the last two years, from 72% in 2009 to 60% now. And, the number who text while driving has fallen a little from 27% to 22%.

Trend Of Talking On Cell Phone While Driving (% Of Adults Who Drive And Have A Cell Phone)
	*2006*	*May 2009*	*June 2011*
Talk while driving (net)	73%	72%	60%
All the time	6	10	5
Sometimes	67	62	55
Never	27	28	40
Source: HarrisInteractive, July 2011 (Note: rounding; signifies less than .05%)*

Several studies have shown that drivers who use cell phones while driving are much more likely to be involved with accidents, and it is believed that texting is even more dangerous. Recent research has shown that both hand held and hands-free cell phones are almost equally dangerous because they are equally likely to distract drivers. However, 77% of the public believe that hands-free phones are safer.

72% of Echo Boomers, aged 18-34, and 69% of Gen Xers, aged 35-46 are more likely to use cell phones while driving than Baby Boomers, aged 47-65 (59%), and much more likely than drivers over 65 (32%) to do so

Frequency Of Talking On Cell Phone While Driving (% of Adults who drive and have a cell phone)
		Generation				Type of driver
Frequency	Total June 2011	(18-34)	(35-46)	(47-65)	(66+)	>Avg.	Avg.
Talk while driving (NET)	60%	72	69	59	32	62	59	38
All the time	5%	11	6	3	*	7	3	4
Sometimes	55%	61	64	56	31	55	56	34
Never	40	28	31	41	68	38	41	62
Source: HarrisInteractive, July 2011 (Note: rounding; * signifies less than .05%)

57% of drivers rate themselves as better than average drivers. Only 1% rate themselves as worse than average. 66% of men are much more likely than women (48%) to think that they are better than average drivers

Texting while driving is also much more common among younger drivers. 49% of drivers with cell phones under 35 send or read text messages while driving compared to only 24% of Gen X, 11% of Baby Boomers and less than 1% of people over 65.

Frequency Of Sending Or Receiving Text Messages On Cell Phone While Driving (Base: Those Who Drive And Have A Cell Phone)
Frequency	May 2009	June 2011	Generation
			(18-34)	(35-46)	(47-65)	(66+)
All the time	5%	2	7	1	*	*
Sometimes	22%	20	42	23	11	*
Never	74%	78	51	76	89	100
Source: HarrisInteractive, July 2011 (Note: rounding; signifies less than .05%)*

60% of drivers who use cell phones while driving use hand-held phones. This number has declined from 72% in 2006 and 66% in 2009;

Hold Cell Phone Or Use Hands-Free Device While Driving - Trend (Base: Adults Who Ever Talk On A Cell Phone While Driving)
Phone	2006	May 2009	June 2011
Hold phone	72%	66	60
Hands-free device	28%	34	40
Source: HarrisInteractive, July 2011 (Note: rounding; * signifies less than .05%)

The large majority who know that it is dangerous to use a cell phone while driving has increased from 82% in 2006 to 91%

Hands-Free Phone Is Safer? - Trend (Base: All Adults)
	2006	May 2009	June 2011
Safer (NET)	70%	71%	77%
Much safer	13	19	14
Somewhat safer	57	52	63
Just as safe	22	20	17
More dangerous (NET)	8	9	6
Somewhat more dangerous	6	7	5
Much more dangerous	2	2	2
Source: HarrisInteractive, July 2011 (Note: rounding; * signifies less than .05%)

The percentage of the public who live in states that require (or, which they believe, require) the use of hands-free phones has increased from 14% in 2006 to 38% now.

The implications of these findings point to several important conclusions, says the report:

Most drivers with cell phones are behaving in ways (talking on cell phones and/or reading or sending texts) that greatly increase the likelihood that they will be involved in accidents, and injure themselves and others
Furthermore, many of them believe, probably wrongly, that if they use hands-free phones they are safer
The problem may be made worse by the fact that most drivers think they are better than average drivers and, perhaps, that their driving skills can keep them out of trouble

The report concludes that "... the need for laws to ban all cell phone use and texting while driving, including the use of hands-free phones, except in emergencies..."

This Harris Poll was conducted online within the United States. Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online.

For more from Harris, please visit here.

This report is from Mediapost.

Fort Wayne Site of the Day

2011-08-16T06:00:00.001-04:00

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Having it Both Ways

2011-08-15T16:08:00.000-04:00

What is "it"?

Read on from DLM:

Happy Now, Happy Next Year: Balancing Short-Term and Long-Term Happiness

Posted: 12 Jul 2011 03:09 PM PDT

How happy are you?

Happiness is becoming a huge area in psychological research and even in government policy, with the UK government exploring a “happiness index”. It’s tough, though, to define exactly what happiness is, and what makes us happy.

There are two broad ways of looking at happiness, though: short-term happiness (a great cookie, a bottle of wine) and long-term happiness (financial security, achieving your goals).

Both types of happiness are valid, and important. The problem is, they’re often in competition.

Let’s say you’ve got a goal of losing 50lbs this year. You know you’d be happier and healthier if you weren’t carrying that extra weight. To achieve long-term happiness, you need to go on a diet.

In the short-term, though, it’s not that easy. A slab of chocolate cake, or a large glass of wine, might seem like just the thing to cheer you up at the end of a long day – or to celebrate with friends.

It’s the same with lots of other goals. Perhaps you want to save up money for a fantastic holiday abroad in five years time – but in the short term, that means cutting back on eating out and buying new DVDs.

Or maybe you’re trying to get qualified for a new career – something that would make you much happier in the future, but that requires a lot of hard work right now.

Looking to the Long-Term
Most of us find it much easier to see immediate rewards – and consequences – than ones which are years away.

If you want to achieve your goals over months or years, try:

Creating a vision board or another visual reminder of your goals, so that they’re constantly in front of you

Breaking your dream into smaller steps, so that you’ve got something more immediate to focus on

Writing down your reasons for pursuing this goal, so you can go back to your list whenever your motivation flags

You might even want to hire a life coach to help you stay on track: accountability, and expert support, can make a huge difference. (If you’re not sure about coaching or want some suggestions on how to coach yourself, life coach Tim Brownson has a great free ebook called “What the Hell is Life Coaching?”)

Don’t pin all your hopes of happiness on some far-off future, though. There’s no point working a 60 hour week and making yourself thoroughly miserable in the belief that things will be perfect as soon as you’re making a six figure salary.

Life is for Living – Right Now
If you’ve got a tendency to prioritize long-term happiness at the expense of day-to-day pleasures, then start looking for some small ways to bring a little joy back into your life.

I’m not suggesting that you go out and get drunk every night, or that you stuff yourself with cake or go on a spending spree. There are plenty of other ways to enjoy yourself.

How about:

Setting a budget for discretionary spending, so that you can buy magazines, computer games, books or whatever it is you enjoy

Looking for forms of exercises that you find fun – exercise boosts your mood right now, but also improves your health over weeks, months and years

Giving yourself time each day for leisure activities. (And I know TV gets a bad rap, but I personally think there’s nothing wrong with watching your favorite show once in a while.)

Of course, the best activities are ones that you enjoy right now, but that also help you build a happier future.

How happy are you? Do you need more long-term or short-term happiness in your life? Feel free to share your thoughts and ideas in the comments.

Written on 7/12/2011 by Ali Luke. Ali writes a blog, Aliventures, about leading a productive and purposeful life (get the RSS feed here). As well as blogging, she writes fiction, and is studying for an MA in Creative Writing.

Photo Credit: shawnzrossi

Fort Wayne Site of the Day

2011-08-15T06:00:00.000-04:00

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The Next Stage

2011-08-14T16:08:00.000-04:00

The next stage that I'm thinking about is with my family.

In the June 2006, my youngest daughter, Tiffany married Jon Lloyd.

On the weekend of October 10, 2010, 10-10-10, my son Josh married Madeline Helser.

A few months later, on Memorial Day weekend this year my oldest daughter, Rachael married Brandon Kelly.

And this weekend, my stepdaughter Abby married Jeff Morris.

What's the next stage?

How about grandkids?

I've already had an early start, as my stepson Ian is Dad to two boys, the oldest became a teenager this summer.

And the same day that Rachael was getting married, her little sister gave birth to Calvin, whom I got to spend a bunch of time with today.

Speaking of Rachael, she also has a due date at the end of February, 2012.

It's a fun and growing family that this only child is blessed to be a part of.

Fort Wayne Site of the Day

2011-08-14T06:00:00.001-04:00

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Saturday Night Classic Music Video

2011-08-13T16:08:00.000-04:00

Last month I listened to this song for the first time when my step-daughter Abby asked me to create a special version of this song for her upcoming wedding reception.

The day for that wedding and reception has arrived and as this posts online we are between the two.

Abby became Mrs. Morris this afternoon and this evening this song will be one of the ones that she dances to.

By the way, over the past 11 years that I have known Abby, I have also known her father, Dwight.

And out of respect for Dwight and his relationship with Abby, I often refer to her as my step-daughter, even though I love her as much as any and all of my others.

Fort Wayne Site of the Day

2011-08-13T06:00:00.000-04:00

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BAROMETER	WIND	WEATHER
High, steady	SW to NW	Fair with little temperature change for one to two days
High, rising rapidly	SW to NW	Fair with warmer weather and rain within two days
High, falling rapidly	E to NE	Summer: rain in 12 to 24 hours Winter: snow or rain with increasing wind
Very high, falling slowly	SW to NW	Fair, with slowly rising temperatures, for two days
High, falling rapidly	S to SE	Rain, with increasing wind, in 12 to 24 hours
High, falling slowly	S to SE	Rain within 24 hours
High, falling slowly	E to NE	Summer: light winds, fair Winter: precipitation in 24 hours
High, falling slowly	SW to NW	Rain within 24 to 36 hours
Low, rising rapidly	Shifting to W	Colder and clearing
Low, rising slowly	S to SW	Clearing soon and fair for several days
Low, falling slowly	SE to NE	Rain for one or two more days
Low, falling rapidly	E to N	Northeast winds heavy with rain or snow, followed in winter by cold

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Balance

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GPSing it