Because you only live once…
Other
Reflective Living – Thinking like a Blogger
Sep 7th
One change that I have noticed in myself since deciding to blog is that I am living more reflectively. I look for hidden lessons in everything that I do. I am forever asking myself the question ‘What can I learn from this activity?’
I started doing this as a way to generate blog posts. Life is something like this: Go to a ball game? Link it to Lifestyle Design. Go fishing? Link it to Lifestyle Design. Have a boring day at work? Link it to Lifestyle Design. The more I look, the more I can find little lessons in life.
And its not just me. Look at any regularly updated blog and you can find articles where the writer did something interesting but not directly related to their topic, but they were able to extract a lesson from the activity and write about it anyway.
Living Reflectively
For the next week, pretend that you are a blogger (or be a blogger if you are one), and try to find a blog post in everything that you do. Ask yourself these questions:
- Why am I doing this?
- What can this teach me?
- How can this relate to (insert topic of choice)?
You don’t have to actually write the entries unless you want to, but just try to come up with a title and short outline. The more you do this, the more that you will start finding the little lessons that are hidden in life. This is an easy way to teach yourself to be more reflective.
What lessons were you able to learn from everyday activities today?
Work Meditation
Sep 4th
I learned about a new technique that I have been trying out with some success. It is similar to some of the techniques that I have used in the past, but I like the way that this technique is frame. It is called Work Meditation.
So you have probably either done or know of regular meditation where you sit down, close your eyes, and try to completely clear your mind of all thoughts. (A task that can be rather hard.) I have tried this kind of meditation before and haven’t been all that successful with it yet. But the basic idea behind this is to train your mind to be controlled – not have it control you.
But what if you could meditate 8 hours a day, that would help you learn to be even more focused, right? Yep. And that is exactly what this technique is all about. Here is what you do:
1. Pick a task that you have to do.
2. Choose how long you want to work on it.
3. Then work on it non-stop for that period of time.
4. Each time a distraction comes up or a random thought appears, just acknowledge that it was there and dismiss it, just like in mediation.
This may sound easy, but there are a lot of distractions that can come up. The phone may ring. You need to just ignore it. A co-worker may try to ask you something. You need to tell them to come back. You may think of an important errand to run. You need to get it out of your head as soon as you can, either my jotting a note down and just forgetting about it. You have to stay focused for the amount of time that you are doing your meditation for.
Tips for Work Meditation:
- Prepare for each session by closing down all other open applications (including email) and addressing some common issues you may have, such as plugging in the laptop so your battery doesn’t die on you.
- Have a notepad handy in case you need to jot something down really quick to get it out of your head.
- Set a timer. That way you don’t have to worry about the time. You just work till the timer goes off.
If you try this technique, I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments. I learned about this technique here.
Controlling your Life
Sep 2nd
One of the biggest struggles that people have in starting their own Lifestyle Design Business is having the financial and time freedom to do so. Most people only have a vague idea about where their money and times goes. How much do you really spend on coffee?
Without the ability to control your time, money, and responsibilities, changing your life for the better might be a struggle. You can’t quit your job because you don’t have enough savings to cover you while you start a business. You can’t work on your business because you have too many other obligations in your life. You can’t find important items because you have too much stuff cluttering your space.
All of these things fall under the category of life control. You must first master yourself before you master the world. In order to really be able to follow your UnWork, you must first control yourself and your life.
I believe Life Control is a big issue for a lot of people that want to follow their UnWork. For this reason, I am going to make Life Control one of the topics of this blog, along with specific UnWork information. You will begin to see more info on this topic as time goes on.
I’d love to hear from you any thoughts on Life Control and its necessity when trying to find and follow your UnWork with a lifestyle design business.
Stuck in a Rut
Aug 24th
Being in a rut is like being stuck in quick sand. You really want to get out but your just don’t know how – and it just keeps pulling you farther in. You didn’t mean to fall in. It just happened.
Okay. Now what? How can you get out of the quicksand?
First off… Don’t panic. Fighting it will only stress you out. You must be level headed and strategic.
I currently feel quite stuck and it can be overwhelming at times. There are reasons that I need to being doing what I am doing now and reasons that I should not be doing what I am doing now… and that can be quite frustrating at times. I tend to get overwhelmed too easily and panic. But that usually does no actual good (although it does let off a bit of steam).
But what from there? This is where I tend to run into trouble. So I’m going to open this up to audience participation…
How do you deal with being in a rut?
Winchester Commemoratives Vol 2
Aug 9th
So this is a post I should have written a month ago, but didn’t. So I’m writing it now. A project that I have been working on for 3 years now finally finished.
My grandfather wrote a book in the eighties called Winchester Commemoratives. It is about, you guessed it, Winchester Commemoratives – those fancy guns that no one ever shoots but collect like crazy. It was published the same year I was born.
Well right before he passed away, he wrote the next book: Winchester Commemoratives Vol 2. He hadn’t finished it though, so that is where my mom and I stepped in to work on it. My mom edited while I did pictures. It took a long time and I learned a ton about print publishing, but we finally got it published.
I’m very proud of it. You can check out the project here:
Honesty, Friendship and Empires
May 18th
I went to Pei Wei for lunch today, which is the land of free fortune cookies. I, of course, helped myself to a handful. After opening a few that were about food (I don’t think that a Wonton a day will actually keep the doctor away), I got one that rang true:
Honesty and friendship bring you fortune.
I have never seen a truer fortune cookie (except maybe “You like Chinese Food”), because honesty and friendship are the key ingredients to building an information business online. If you are dishonest, people won’t believe you and won’t buy anything you sell. If you don’t build friendships, you miss out on a whole range of partnership opportunities.
I’ve seen this first hand in the case studies that Chris Guillebeau put together in the Empire Building Kit.
The what?
About a month ago, I signed up for the Empire Building Kit brought to you by Unconventional Guides. All I knew was that I was working on building my online business and could use all of the help I can get. The turns out to be one of the best purchases I’ve made all year. The kit consists of interviews with real online emperors that you are guided through over the course of one year by email. That’s 365 emails! Add to that a No Question Left Behind policy and your get the Empire Building Kit. I recommend it to any UnWorkaholic out there!
I think this product is so great, I signed up to be an affiliate. I would never recommend something that I didn’t think you could benefit greatly from! But I am getting a referral fee if you buy the kit through my link.
How’s that for honesty? 
and now for the friendship:
I’d like to extend Chris’s No Question Left Behind policy. If you have a question about building your empire and becoming an UnWorkaholic, send them to me and I’ll answer every single one. This is true whether you buy the kit through my link or not.
10 People You Should Follow on Twitter
May 7th
There is a meme on Twitter where you link to people that you enjoy following on Fridays. It’s called Follow Friday. The trouble is that you don’t know why people enjoying following the people they link to. Well, a few weeks ago Chris Brogan had the idea to do Follow Friday through your blog, allowing you to give more details about your follow friday choices. I really liked this idea.
So here is my Follow Friday choices for people who are interested in an UnWork lifestyle and those who just like awesome people. All of these people are awesome!
1. Nathalie Lussier – Also known as the Raw Foods Witch, Nathalie helps people transistion to a raw foods lifestyle. She even got me interested in raw foods! She really is magic! She is an awesome example of living the UnWork lifestyle.
2. Pace Smith – The idea for this blog actually came from a conversation I had with Pace at South By South West in March. She runs the Freak Revolution along with Kyeli (next in this list), which is a blog about personal development for freaky people. I am currently taking their 52 Weeks to Awesome e-course, which I’d recommend to anyone looking for an awesome personal development course.
3. Kyeli – The other half of the Freak Revolution. I enjoy the honesty and openness of her tweets and love staying informed about the cool stuff the she and Pace are up to. Check out their Manifesto.
4. Chris Guillebeau – Chris is an inspiration to me. He writes about the Art of Non-conformity. He has a goal to travel to every country in the world in 5 years. How awesome is that! I am currently enrolled in his Empire Building Kit, which is one of the best resources about Lifestyle Businesses that I have found. Also, if you want to be truly inspired, read his Manifesto. Seriously… it’s a must read!
5. Charlie Gilkey – Charlie writes about Productivity and how people can “Do Epic Shit”. I use his blogger’s and freelancer’s planners to keep track of all of the stuff that I do on this blog and in my life. They are simple and that’s what makes them work so well. Follow him for announcement about all of the awesome stuff he does and writes about. Like this.
6. Pamela Slim – Pam is the author of Escape From Cubicle Nation. She is awesome and gives a ton of really good information about starting a lifestyle business so that you can quit your job. She even wrote a book about it.
7. Corbett Barr – Corbett writes about Lifestyle Design and building high traffic web sites. I really enjoy reading his posts and tweets because I always learn something.
8. Jonathan Fields – Jonathan starts every day with the question, “Morning, friends! Who can I help today?” He writes and talks about finding a life… not just a job. Well worth the read and the follow.
9. Chris Brogan – Chris Brogan is a Social Media Guru. I learn something every time I read his blog. If you are marketing online, you should be following Chris.
10. Ed Dale – Ed Dale is a bigger Apple fanatic then I am. And he is an Internet marketer who runs a really awesome free training program every August. His program, the 30 Day Challenge, gave me my start in internet marketing. Everyone with a website should do the challenge. Even if you don’t end up following his program on your stuff, you will learn a ton about how the Internet and search engines work. Oh, and did I mention that he loves his iPad.
There are many more I could include, but I limited myself to 10.
Who would be on your list of 10?
