What are you seeking in life?
Fame? Fortune? Recognition? Revenge? Remembrance?
You might get them.
But eventually, inevitably, they all fade away.
The truth, knowledge, and understanding, however, do not.
Seek those.
Category Archives: How to
Before any speech
Need to give a speech? Use your iPad to record yourself.
Because the written word is not the spoken word.
Watch yourself. You will:
- Know what works and add to it.
- See what sucks and change it.
- Build undeniable confidence.
Watching yourself speak asks the ultimate question: How do you really sound?
Record, watch, repeat. At least 7x. You’re welcome.
[This works wonders. Just ask my dad, recent father of the bride.]
Cruising altitude
What do you do every morning on autopilot? Drive to work? Your morning shower routine? A 30 minute run?
Having to figure these things out every morning would be exhausting. New route to work every day? Getting cleaned up in a different order every day? Changing the duration and path for your run every day?
Exhausting.
Same thing with making breakfast.
Figure out 1 breakfast to make. Turn on autopilot. And basically, go back to sleep.
Just like the real pilots.
Why Does My News Feed Show That?
Facebook recently spoke about their news feed. Their algorithm filters through an average of 1,500 news items and delivers us a mix of 300.
The results are staggering. Increased revenue. Increased engagement. Increased satisfaction (addiction).
It’s kind of like Facebook took its top 20% (300 / 1500) of its toolkit and ditched the rest.
No algorithm required for that math.
For 20 minutes per day
I listened to “Startup School”. It’s a podcast recording of Seth Godin’s seminar for entrepreneurs. I probably listened to that 15 track lecture 1,000 times.
Then I stopped. And so did my momentum on lifeisnoyoke.com.
Until I stumbled across this: Seth Godin’s recent post about how audiobooks changed his life.
Irony? I’m never sure. Coincidence? Maybe. Funny how things work themselves out?
For sure.
You get what you pay for. Usually.
If you hire developer for 50 cents on the dollar, she is going to do a half-ass job. Usually.
If you pay your consultants like a pimp, in decent pay, love and drugs (alcohol), they will be hard-working, loyal soldiers. Usually.
But, if you take money out of the equation completely, what do you get? Nothing in return? Nope.
You get their best. Always.
Which way to Oz?
As the pressure builds and stress increases, sometimes you have to laugh.
When my girlfriend tells me she has earned the right to take the elevator down three floors because she works out every day, I have to laugh. Didn’t she read the athlete and the elevator?
When my condo’s management spends 200k on a new fitness center, only to, without first benevolently communicating concerns to the residents, remove half the weights and machines because of a single resident’s (out of 350 units) over-sensitive noise issues, I have to laugh. How could you guys be so dense?
When some of my best friends are still slaving away for an IT consulting firm working on meaningless projects during all their waking hours, I have to laugh. Why are you wasting your life to make someone else rich?
No, situations like these aren’t inherently funny. In fact, when I’m tired or stressed, little things like this are, at first, aggravating. Infuriating, even. But, what’s the point in feeling that way?
It’s like a fork in the road. One way is “get angry”. The other is “have a laugh”. And when “have a laugh” path seems the toughest, most uphill, that’s when it’s most important to go that way.
Are you one of those people who takes the “get angry” route?
LOL.
NOTE: I can’t stand it when people use the term LOL. But, I have laugh at the irony of it being the only substitute to me actually doing my “have to laugh” laugh.
You want to be liked?
Dear Facebook friends and acquaintances,
I tried to say this subtly. And it’s just me looking out for you. So, I’ll say it again. More directly this time.
If you have a fan page that you want someone to like, like their page first. Then, ask for a like.
I’ll say it even more clearly. Like my fan page, first. Then, ask me to like yours. Not the other way around.
Give then take, people. You’ll be liked a lot more.
It’s easy to say “They don’t get it”
Your jokes that killed it at one wedding speech but bombed at another. Your music that moved millions in Nashville but was laughed at in Portland. Your software that made magic in one demonstration but was lackluster in another.
When you’re on stage and fail, the first reaction is “They don’t get it.” And that may be true. So, why were you there in the first place? You’re doing the same material for a different audience.
Don’t you get it?
What’s the cost of do not disturb?
For my music at work, it’s $3 per month. That I paid to Pandora.
For my readers at lifeisnoyoke.com, it’s a typo here and there. That’s a cost not paid to an editor.
For the writer, it’s a longer walk to a quieter Starbucks. That’s paid in his time.
The costs to avoid interruption are small. But, to avoid commercial breaks, pop-up ads and loud talkers, the costs are completely worth it.
So, if the costs are so small, how come more people don’t pay?