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The speed of things
Sometimes things seem to take forever to happen and then it's all go. Things are happening and you are a little out of control. Like Keanu Reeves steering a runaway bus in Speed.
Perhaps this is why Albert Einstein said, "People love chopping wood. In this activity one immediately sees results." I feel sure this is because something is happening in a controlled way.
For example: The past month leading up to Lauren leaving the country has taken forever, and now she has gone it seems time is speeding up, and I have a list of things to do before she comes home. I know that if I muck around the time will disappear and nothing will have been done.
This can happen daily if you're not careful. You put something off you don't really enjoy to do something you do, and the day is gone, and the thing you needed to do, that moves you ahead, isn't done.
This is not procrastination this is some strange anomaly (in the time space continuum?) that keeps you on your toes and makes everyday fun and a challenge.
Have a great week, do the things that don't light your fire first so you can relax and enjoy the things you do.
Spirit of Adventure
I got a phone call from a friend last week saying that as he drove across the Harbour Bridge the Spirit of Adventure sailed underneath. It reminded him to ask me if I still had my spirit of adventure.
First of all that must have been an amazing sight. The Spirit of Adventure under sail is very impressive. Then it made me think do I have my spirit of adventure? I feel sure I do. Coming to work in Auckland traffic is an adventure in itself most mornings.
Have still got your spirit of adventure? Yes you do! If it's not immediately obvious it is hidden away just under the surface and is easy to get to.
The spirit of adventure is an attitude you decide to have in whatever you are doing. Thinking everything is an adventure will bring out inspiration, passion and creativity in what you are doing. An example is my morning walk to get a coffee to get a coffee. I smile at the people I see, I have a chat to the team at Sliced and really take notice of what is around me.
A spirit of adventure means I am open to opportunities and you will be too if you take on this attitude.
Have a terrific week. Enjoy what you do and make it and adventure.
First of all that must have been an amazing sight. The Spirit of Adventure under sail is very impressive. Then it made me think do I have my spirit of adventure? I feel sure I do. Coming to work in Auckland traffic is an adventure in itself most mornings.
Have still got your spirit of adventure? Yes you do! If it's not immediately obvious it is hidden away just under the surface and is easy to get to.
The spirit of adventure is an attitude you decide to have in whatever you are doing. Thinking everything is an adventure will bring out inspiration, passion and creativity in what you are doing. An example is my morning walk to get a coffee to get a coffee. I smile at the people I see, I have a chat to the team at Sliced and really take notice of what is around me.
A spirit of adventure means I am open to opportunities and you will be too if you take on this attitude.
Have a terrific week. Enjoy what you do and make it and adventure.
Time is running out
This week is the start of some big changes for me. The designers (friends) next door to me are moving office, I'm expanding into their old office, my girl is counting down until she finishes her job this week, and then we are counting down until she leaves the country for three months.
Phew!
So, this morning I knew I had to be up early-ish to get my MondayMotivator written before an appointment at 8.30am.
Crap! I slept in. It's 12 past 8 right now and I am really thinking hard and I'm running out of time. I'm saving as I go so I don't lose what I'm writing and struggling to think of anything meaningful to you.
I just realised though this is a typical morning for almost everyone. Someone once said, "Never miss an opportunity to make others happy, even if you have to leave them alone in order to do it."
I'm going to leave you alone today. Nothing to think about except to have a terrific week and if you get a bit low, email me and I will fire off something to pick you up.
Challenge Yourself Day
Today is Challenge Yourself Day. In the world of days for this and days for that I decided to make up my own day.
Challenge Yourself Day is the day of the year where you challenge yourself to have one thing done by the end of the day. That one thing has to be big enough for you to succeed and big enough so that it will really make a difference to your current situation.
General George S. Patton said, "Accept the challenges so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory."
The thrill of getting that one thing done, even if it's the only thing you get done today, will make a huge difference to the rest of your week. Start it now.
My challenge is getting proposals and invoicing done. Now you would think that these would be obvious things I really need to get done. However, with meetings, helping staff, and fixing things they sometimes get put on the back burner.
So my challenge today is to get my invoicing sorted and sent to my accounts lady.
What will yours be? Let me know by posting a comment.
Do you have control?
What do you have control over? Your body? Your mind? Your brand?
The first two are relatively easy. You have a lot of control over your body because you can choose what you eat, when you exercise and the environment you put it in. You have control over your mind because you can decide what to ignore, what to take in and choose your thoughts.
Your brand though. Do you have control over that? By brand I mean the relationship you have with your friends, family, work colleagues and the world. How they perceive you.
Today you have more control than ever over how people see you. You have control over what you put on Facebook, what you Twitter about, what you blog about, what you listen to and what you say.
Does this mean you have to mindful about what is coming from you? Yes it does but it also offers you a chance to be remarkable. That is; worth making a remark about in something you are passionate about. Something outside your usual 9-5 job that you love doing.
There are more opportunities to follow your passion and have control over your life than ever before. Take them by learning about them and showing people who you really are and what you care about.
What went well today?
Last week I had a few days where nothing seemed to go right. I was lost, my head wasn't in the game, whatever you want to call it, I was going nowhere fast.
This of course caused problems in other areas of my life (read my personal life) because I was vague ab
out stuff, frustrated and a bit short tempered.
Then I had a thought on Friday; what went well today? I started to list the things that had gone well. Little wins I had had and even compliments people had given Spikemail about our new website (you can see it here).
I felt great. I got my focus back, started to hustle and then in the words of Gary Vaynerchuck stopped crying and crushed it.
This is a simple task to do that will make a huge difference to your life. When you are low write down what went well and read through the list. You can start with getting out of bed and getting into the office on time and go from there. The list will be huge will stop you focusing on the couple of things that didn't go your way and focus on what went well.
Have a terrific day and thank you for reading.
Why @guykawasaki must think I'm an idiot.
Last week I made a bit of an idiot of myself when I sent a link of a new background image to Guy Kawasaki. Guy is someone I admire for his simple and easy to understand marketing and business ideas.
So how did I make an idiot out of myself? It went like this.
Tuesday April 07. Looking at Guy’s Twitter page and see it has a big black space on the right hand side. I decide to resize the background image, put it on my server and send him a link to it.
Me: DM guykawasaki: Resized your background image http://bit.ly/yj8hK
Guy is in Spain but I get a DM back.
Guy: DM Thanks. Is there something wrong with my current one? It's 1280 now.
Me: DM guykawasaki: For some reason 2048X1707 seems to be the perfect size. Yours had lots of black on one side instead of filling the background.
Guy: DM I get the fail whale when I try to upload the new one! I'll try when I get back to CA. Thanks again!
Me: DM guykawasaki: Bum! I will sort that and resend you the link. Have a good flight.
What?! I checked the background image out and it’s over 800k. I'm thinking great, I look like an idiot now. Damn Fireworks.
So I resize it and send this;
Me: DM guykawasaki: Its was too big. Here you go http://bit.ly/4dAZXe Been interesting trying to find the right size. Im on a 15" MacBookPro.
Because he probably gets heap of DM's I resend the link to him on Wednesday 08 April.
Me: D guykawasaki: Trust you had a good flight. Here’s the link to the resized and tested bg http://bit.ly/4dAZXe
Thursday April 09. I can still see black on his background but I decide to be persistent because he hasn't been on Twitter personally today so has probably got lots of messages.
Me: DM guykawasaki: Hi Guy. I can still see lots of black on your bg. No fail whale with this one http://bit.ly/4dAZXe
I hear back from Guy.
Guy: DM I can't figure out how to save as anything but .htm. Can you email to guy@alltop.com? Thanks!
Guy: DM I think I just did it. Pls check. Thanks!
I check his page and yay no black. Fire off an email to him;
Hi Guy,
Looks great.
Well done. Thank you.
Glenn
End of the background image saga. So, what have I learnt from this?
Lastly, I hope Guy doesn’t think I'm an idiot and if he does at least I can't see the black anymore.
So how did I make an idiot out of myself? It went like this.
Tuesday April 07. Looking at Guy’s Twitter page and see it has a big black space on the right hand side. I decide to resize the background image, put it on my server and send him a link to it.
Me: DM guykawasaki: Resized your background image http://bit.ly/yj8hK
Guy is in Spain but I get a DM back.
Guy: DM Thanks. Is there something wrong with my current one? It's 1280 now.
Me: DM guykawasaki: For some reason 2048X1707 seems to be the perfect size. Yours had lots of black on one side instead of filling the background.
Guy: DM I get the fail whale when I try to upload the new one! I'll try when I get back to CA. Thanks again!
Me: DM guykawasaki: Bum! I will sort that and resend you the link. Have a good flight.
What?! I checked the background image out and it’s over 800k. I'm thinking great, I look like an idiot now. Damn Fireworks.
So I resize it and send this;
Me: DM guykawasaki: Its was too big. Here you go http://bit.ly/4dAZXe Been interesting trying to find the right size. Im on a 15" MacBookPro.
Because he probably gets heap of DM's I resend the link to him on Wednesday 08 April.
Me: D guykawasaki: Trust you had a good flight. Here’s the link to the resized and tested bg http://bit.ly/4dAZXe
Thursday April 09. I can still see black on his background but I decide to be persistent because he hasn't been on Twitter personally today so has probably got lots of messages.
Me: DM guykawasaki: Hi Guy. I can still see lots of black on your bg. No fail whale with this one http://bit.ly/4dAZXe
I hear back from Guy.
Guy: DM I can't figure out how to save as anything but .htm. Can you email to guy@alltop.com? Thanks!
Guy: DM I think I just did it. Pls check. Thanks!
I check his page and yay no black. Fire off an email to him;
Hi Guy,
Looks great.
Well done. Thank you.
Glenn
End of the background image saga. So, what have I learnt from this?
- Get it right the first time. If you are going to do something for someone test it before you send it to them.
- Guy Kawasaki is a nice guy. He tried, answered and even used the image.
- Twitter backgrounds are a black art. With so many different screen sizes out there finding the perfect background size is harder than I thought.
- Be politely persistent. Following up and keeping in contact does work.
- Spell check. Check the spelling of my Tweets so messages make sense.
Lastly, I hope Guy doesn’t think I'm an idiot and if he does at least I can't see the black anymore.
Long weekends and Easter eggs
Another long weekend and we are at the beach overindulging on Easter eggs and enjoying a few extra days off. This morning the place is especially busy as everyone is looking at a friends wedding pics while I figure out what to write and time is running out.
Few things against me today; slow internet, I'm not on my laptop and the bach is crowded making it hard to think.
I have typed things out, deleted, typed and deleted as I attempt to get my thoughts down. It reminds me of a quote by Josh Billings, "Consider the postage stamp: its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing till it gets there."
So today I have been a postage stamp, stuck myself in a corner and kept writing until something made sense. Perserverance is an important character trait to me and when I get to the end of a project the feeling of accomplishment pushes me to do more.
Have a terrific week and when your surroundings don't quite allow you to do what you think is your best work, perservere because you never know what is going to come from sticking at it.
Few things against me today; slow internet, I'm not on my laptop and the bach is crowded making it hard to think.
I have typed things out, deleted, typed and deleted as I attempt to get my thoughts down. It reminds me of a quote by Josh Billings, "Consider the postage stamp: its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing till it gets there."
So today I have been a postage stamp, stuck myself in a corner and kept writing until something made sense. Perserverance is an important character trait to me and when I get to the end of a project the feeling of accomplishment pushes me to do more.
Have a terrific week and when your surroundings don't quite allow you to do what you think is your best work, perservere because you never know what is going to come from sticking at it.
