If you use the internet on a consistent basis for personal use or for work like I do, then you probably have a toolbox of online applications you depend on to make your job easier and to save time. Here are some I use on regular basis which you may want to check out. And the best part is they are all free!
Gmail (http://www.google.com): Before discovering Google’s Gmail, I was dependent on Microsoft’s Outlook for my email needs. But not anymore. With its intuitive interface, accessibility from anywhere, and multitude of features, why use anything but Gmail for your email client? Seriously?
If you’ve been reading my latest articles from this week (and if you haven’t, here they are: Into The Great Wide Open, Identifying Areas Of Your Life To Change), you’ll know that I’ve been talking about how I want to transform my ordinary life into an extraordinary life. Today, I’m going to wrap things up by going over the goals I have for the next six months. By doing this, you and everyone else can see what progress I am making along with seeing what goals I reach and / or achieve.
There are three reasons I have chosen to do six month goals. The first reason is six months is a relatively short period of time but long enough to make real progress towards long-term goals in addition to achieving short-term goals. The second reason is to help keep myself motivated. I believe the more time that is allotted towards achieving a goal, the less likely you are to stay motivated. And the last reason is things change. No one knows what the future may bring. My feelings or motivations for a particular goal may change in time. It’s only natural. Besides, the shorter time span means you will enjoy the fulfilment and happiness achieving your goals even sooner!
In my previous article,Into The Great Wide Open, I talked about how I was going to chronicle my journey from an ordinary life to an extraordinary life. Not that I’m living a horrible life or anything remotely close to it. But if you are like me, you know there is more to life than “just getting by”. And you probably feel (as I do regarding myself) that you are capable of so much more. But for one reason or the other, you haven’t taken the necessary steps to take your life and yourself to the next level.
So what I will be doing now and in the future here at My Adventure Today is writing about my experiences- good and bad- as I work towards building the future and life I envision for myself and my family. As I mentioned already, I talked about the impetus for doing this in my previous article. Now I’m going to go over those areas of my life I want to make some changes in- some changes which you yourself might be wanting to make.
When the idea to start this blog first planted itself in my head, the intention was to create blog which inspired people to take that exhilarating leap into the great wide open. So my focus was to write articles dealing with goal setting, lifestyle design, productivity, and everything in between. Some of my favorite ones so far include The Formula For Success, How To Successfully Reach Your Goals, and Are You Doing What You Love To Do?.
But those kind of articles only carry so much weight to them. It is one thing to read about the power of belief or how to set goals but seeing those things put into action- that is where the real magic is! This is why I’m going to focus more on talking about my own experiences as I jump into the great wide open.
For the last week and a half, my wife and I have spent a lot of time watching the 2010 Winter Olympics currently going on in Vancouver, BC. While there have been some great competitions, one of the more enjoyable parts of watching has been the interviews and stories done on some of the medal winners and personalities of this year’s Olympics.
Two stories in particular were very inspiring and are great examples of how important belief is in being successful. One story was on Norwegian downhill skier Aksel Lund Svindal who 3 years ago had a horrific skiing accident during a downhill course at the Golden Eagle jump in Beaver Creek, Colorado. As a result, he was hospitalized for weeks recuperating from extensive facial, back, and neck injuries.
While some people after such an accident would call it a career or find it too difficult mentally to compete, he told the interviewer he believed in himself and his abilities and resumed training soon after being released from the hospital.
Last week, he beat out the US champion and favored-winner, Bode Miller, to win Gold for Norway.
Growing up, it was drilled into me by my dad and granddads you have to work hard in life if you want to have anything. So it was only natural I would carry this belief with me for most of my life. While I do believe some hard work is involved in being successful, it isn’t necessarily “the” work ethic to have.
For example, have you ever had to dig a ditch? I’m not talking about a little ditch for a stream of water to flow through. I’m talking a ditch three to four feet in the ground over, let’s say, six feet at the least? It’s hard work which can take hours to do with just a shovel, pick, and sledgehammer. I’ve done it before so I know it’s hard work. While this kind of work can potentially pay well, at the end of the day, you are sore and too tired to really enjoy the fruit of your labor: your pay for the job.
Another example would be the belief that working longer each day ultimately leads to success. I’ve been guilty of this as well. I would put in between 8 to 10 hours just about every day, hardly taking a full day off, and I was miserable. Instead of focusing on results, I was focusing on packing as much work as I could into those 8 to 10 hours as I could. In my head, I thought I was working hard towards my goals but I wasn’t. Granted, I was working hard but I wasn’t getting any closer to my goals.
Chances are if you are reading this, you have, at the least, a small interest in changing your life. The reason (or reasons) you want to do this could be a number of things. Regardless of what the reason is, changing your life- or redesigning your life- all begins with the realization you have to change some aspect of your life for the better.
I recently reached this point myself. I wasn’t entirely happy with the direction my life was going. There were areas of my life I knew I had to change in order to have the life I truly want. This is a good place to be at because this is when you are most likely to initiate change.
Quite the heady question. This is a simple question I’ve been wrestling with for the last couple of years. Granted, it isn’t as easy as it sounds. This is mainly due to not only what it is you love to do but also what your individual situation is. To make matters even harder, you may find what you love to do isn’t something you can do for a living or may end up being something you enjoy but not really love enough to do for a career. But we will leave this problem out of the equation for now.
Back to the question raised by this post, after reaching the age of forty, I have found myself looking forward and backwards on my life. While I have been fortunate to have been able to pursue some interests as a career, I haven’t actively pursued something I actually love to do as a career.
Recently, I revisited a great article The 80/20 Rule on Yaro Starak’s excellent blog Entrepreneur’s Journey. If you are not familiar with the 80/20 Rule it goes like this (according to this Wikipedia 80/20 Rule entry):
“… for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.”
Essentially, what this means that 80% of any result comes from 20% of the effort. This is just a broad generalization of the 80/20 rule. You can narrow it down and apply it to just about anything in life which produces a result.
The 80/20 Rule post got me thinking about how I could apply it to my own businesses. One of the points Yaro discusses in his post is the need to identity what should be ignored. This means ignoring what doesn’t help you produce or holds you back from producing the result you are looking for (the 80% part of the equation). It got me thinking what I can start ignoring today which will help me produce the results I want.
There’s nothing like an inspirational story to get your day off on the right foot. Here is a clip taken from a 16-minute conversation / interview between Tony Robbins and John Reese where they talk about how John was able to go from being $100,000 in debt to making over $1 million in a 24-hour period!
But the gist of the conversation was how John was able to build on little successes which ultimately culminated in the $1 million in 24 hours. It is these little successes which we need to focus on instead of the ultimate success (whatever that may be for you). People have a tendency to put all their time and effort into their ultimate success goal that they forget the little successes are like steps to the ultimate success goal.
So check out the short video clip (you can watch the entire video over on Tony Robbins’ blog ), and let us know what you think of it in the Comments below. Thanks!
My name is Wesley Craig Green and I'm an entrepreneur, writer, and dreamer.
If you are interested in lifestyle design, personal development, taking control of your life, and building your own personal empire- then this is the blog for you!
@PatFlynn I'm reading The Magic Of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz. Should be able to find it on Amazon. Great, inspiring read so far.3:08 PM - Mar 3, 2010
Identifying Areas Of Your Life To Change- http://ow.ly/1dQPl3:06 PM - Mar 3, 2010
RT @remarkablogger: 3 Deadly Ninja Comment Tricks for Maximum Blog Traffic http://bit.ly/dvUJ3v (pls RT) - Great tips! Thanks for sharing.3:06 PM - Mar 3, 2010
Into The Great Wide Open - http://ow.ly/1cY4Y5:10 PM - Mar 1, 2010
I have to admit, following only a handful of people on Twitter makes Twitter funner and more enjoyable.10:38 AM - Mar 1, 2010
If you use the internet on a consistent basis for personal use or for work like I do, then you probably have a toolbox of online applications you depend on to make your job easier and to save time. Here are some I use on regular basis which you may want to check out. And the best part is they are all free!
