Entries from October 2006 ↓

John Lee Hooker was a boogie man.
Boris Karloff was another boogie man.
That ghoulish pumpkinhead is yet a different sort of boogie man.

Give me the music boogie man all day long.

Be a halloweiner!
Dress up.
Get candy.
Eat most of it in one sitting.
Get sick.

Boogie, man!

Coach Parcells made that statement repeatedly today in his press conference. Last night the Cowboys defeated the Carolina Panthers, 35-14. Dallas started their “new” quarterback, Tony Romo. They scored 35 unanswered points and Parcells was seen smiling, hugging and kissing players in the last seconds of the game. It’s all good when you win!

Golden Slumbers - A Father’s Love is a collection of heartfelt songs celebrating the bond between father and child. Following in the footsteps of the Grammy nominated “Golden Slumbers – A Father’s Lullaby” the album brings together artists from all different genres sharing their own unique perspectives on what it means to be a dad. The album features contributions from such Grammy Award winning and critically acclaimed artists such as Dave Matthews, Phil Collins, Michael McDonald, Smokey Robinson, Jon Secada, Carlos Ponce, Richard Marx, Buddy Jewell, Will Downing, Solomon Burke, Loudon Wainwright III and Kirk Whalum, with a special appearance by James Earl Jones.

It’s nice to see dads taking positive actions to express love and devotion to children. I was unaware of this project until today. It was released in April, 2005. Just thought I’d share it with you. Buy it here.

Even casual users of email are expressing frustration over the sheer volume of garbage hitting their inboxes. Spam. All the trash forwarded by friends - jokes, funny photos, links, stories and more. Duplicates from all sources. Newsletters we subscribe to. Newsletters we’ve never subscribed to. Solicitations.

My guess is that about 10% of the messages I get are worthwhile.

Here are my conclusions:

1. If I do not know or recognize the sender - to the trash it goes.
2. If I know the sender, but the subject line is non-existent or unclear - to the trash it goes.
3. If I know the sender and the subject line is present and clear - I’ll open it.
4. If I can determine the usefulness of the message within 5 seconds - I’ll keep it.
5. If I can’t determine the usefulness of the message within 5 seconds - I’ll trash it.
6. If it gets past these “gatekeepers” and demands a reply - I’ll reply.

I figure this will help me eliminate over 90% of my inbox. If something arrives that is important, but it didn’t get past my gatekeepers - too bad. The sender can send it again, or bug me about why I didn’t respond. And I’ll tell them I deleted their message because it had no subject line, or because I couldn’t determine the usefulness of what they sent me. I’ll be an email bully asking them to please fix the problem so it’ll be given proper consideration.

Time is our most precious commodity. Why should we tolerate robbery of our time - even from those we know? Why shouldn’t we be bullies, if necessary, to better manage our inboxes? Something has to be done or we’ll never be able to get to the stuff we actually do need to read.

Proper preparation prevents poor performance. Better said, “Proper preparation CAN prevent poor performance.” It SHOULD prevent poor performance. Of course, the reality is that rarely does exceptional performance follow poor planning.

Front-end work requires extraordinary effort. And it does pay off in spades. Yet, people often neglect it choosing rather to shoot from the hip. Many people improvise their way through life.

Students don’t map out their academic journey. They wander through college and often under perform.

Business people don’t map out a course for success. They meander through life with mediocre performance.

Families don’t create a course of action that will foster healthy relationships and solid learning for the next generation. They let life happen, too soon realizing their family isn’t what they would have liked.

Poor performance is everywhere - in every realm of life. Proper preparation isn’t the cure-all, but it would certainly help. Proper planning requires two things that many people don’t enjoy: thoughtful calculation and writing.

Thoughtful Calculation

No plan can be created with it. Proper preparation always requires it.

Whether you’re a coach creating a practice plan for your team, or a father creating a plan for your family - thoughtful calculation is necessary. This may mean you spend some time alone with your thoughts figuring out what matters most to you. It may mean you spend time with your spouse thinking of what you want to create with your family. It may mean you spend time with your assistant coach figuring out how to better prepare your team.

With all the doing that goes on there is often little or no time for thoughtful calculation. We’re too busy for thoughtful calculation. Yet, we can’t afford to skip this crucial step. We have to create time for it. Our success depends on it.

Set aside some time today to map out the future you want. Ask yourself the tough questions, then have the courage to answer them.

“What do I most want?”
“What am I willing to sacrifice so I can have it?”
“What do I most need?”
“What steps can I take today to help propel me toward what I want/need?”

The questions vary. There are lots of them. They all need time and space in your mind. Give them serious consideration. Thoughtfully calculate what you want/need - then create a plan to help move you along.

Write It Down

In business it’s often said, “If it’s not written down, it doesn’t exist.” That’s probably true in other areas of life, too. All the thoughtful calculations you’ve done need to be written down. Create a written plan for what you want.

Businesses are constantly encouraged to write a business plan - even existing, mature businesses. It is a plan of action. It’s a road map to show them how to achieve the goals they’ve established. It prevents the meandering around that often happens in a business that is searching for answers. Journeys go much smoother when you know where you’re going and how to get there. That’s what writing will do for your life.

Write your own story. Write down your destination. You must know where you’re going. Now, create an action plan to get you there. Create steps and milestones to help chart your progress. Make these actions you can take. Don’t write down, “Win lottery. Move into dream house.” Instead, write down specific actions you can take, starting today, that will propel you forward toward the life you seek to create.

Life is your own creation. Good things happen to all of us. Bad things happen to all of us. Take full advantage of the good things that happen. Don’t let bad things derail your plans. Take them in stride and overcome them - either by moving past them or by getting them out of your way. Make life what you want by paying the price upfront to plan it properly. You’ll drastically increase your chances for making your dreams come true.

A sign? A person? A circumstance? Fear?

Today, the thing stopping me from writing more is TIME. I’m too busy today to post anything meaningful. So, I’m going to ponder what’s stopping me from making necessary/helpful changes.

There come times when you just have to get off the fence and do what you know is best - even though you may not want to leave the comfort you currently enjoy. I often get stuck on the theme of moving on. More and more I think it’s a necessary component of growth.

Here’s a review by Car & Driver. And another one by Edmunds Inside Line. And another one by Automobile Magazine. And another one by About: Cars. Finally, here’s Mazda’s official site on the car.

“This will look good.” Is it possible this person thought that?
“This will be comfortable.” Surely they didn’t think that.

People amaze us with bizarre and strange decisions. Others amaze us with foolishness. More often than not somebody is heard asking, “What were they thinking?”

I’d love to know what this person was thinking, but then again I must ask, “Were they thinking?” Does this person ever look in the mirror and reflect on the question, “What was I thinking?”

I’m no doubt better off not knowing the answer. I struggle against my own foolishness. I don’t need to go borrowing more from others.

For a few months I’ve been observing those one page sites that you can scroll down about a mile - you know the ones, they sell something for $39.99 (or more). Usually some ebook or downloadable file that claims to make you rich. Here’s an example of one. They also send out emails daily - sometimes more than once a day! And they network like crazy. I suspect they’re all the same person working under the guise as many different companies with many different angles. Somehow one of these self-proclaimed gurus got my email address and the avalanche began. In time I was getting more than 20 different ones each day - supposedly from different outfits.

Hitting people’s inboxes with many messages - at least one every single day - must work. And those one page sites must work, too. No matter what they’re selling they all look and read the same. I often wonder how much revenue one of these sites generates. I’ll bet it would shock me how high the number is.

Examine one of these sites. They contain elements that clearly work. They promise easy money you can earn from home, simple/profound learning or some other wonderful benefit. They promise many satisfied customers. Testimonials are a big part of their pitch. They appeal to everybody’s sense of wanting more from life. They offer FREE stuff from their circle of friends. They offer an electronic product, something you can download.

It’s brilliant really. The one page website is low cost. The time and effort to create the “product” is the only real investment. There’s a bit of cost associated with the newsletters that go out every single day, but the content is usually worthless and often re-cycled.

Thanks to the Internet these people have found their gold mine. And they seem to be mining it like madmen on a mission. The dollars have to be spectacular. I’m fascinated that they work, but the sheer volume of them seems to indicate that web surfers respond positively to them - at least enough to make them worthwhile. Passive income at its finest!