Corona Lockdown
Well, this life under Corona is shifting things around for me. I’m putting my business activities on hold so that I can be a full time teacher given we are all homeschooling now. My daughter hates it but hey – there is no B option here. So I’m dialing into this new life routine and learning how to build discipline around these new obligations. A few years ago I probably would have been a stress-educed freazoid over this whole thing. A lot of therapy and mediation have allowed me to passively accept this whole thing. Its a major milestone, and …
It’s 2020 , Do You Have the Resolutions Started?
I had a game plan for 2020 started in November, but now that the new year is upon us I thought I’d share some of my goals with you. I decided this year to keep things simple and workable with SMART goals in mind. The first goal is to eliminate video game play from my life. I’ve recognized that my obsessiveness cues in to wanting to master things, and video games is a trap for people who are wiling to sacrifice time for mastery. The problem is that the satisfaction from video games is fleeting and the reward of mastery …
Tis the Season
It’s that time of year, the smell of fresh pine, the crisp air, the sparkling lights, and of course the crunch of the number counter on my banking app as money goes flying out of the account! It doesn’t help that the holiday gods have cursed my with anniversaries, birthdays and 12 billion other events in the month of December. But who needs money when you have holiday cheer! It’s time to get out and take it all in, the holidays, the liveliness, everything that makes this time of year special. It’s great to respect the short seasonal time we …
Nietzsche’s Lessons from my Daughter
You may have no idea who Friedrich Nietzsche is but I bet you have heard the quote “That which does not kill us, makes us stronger.” Friedrich Nietzsche , Twilight of the Idols That line has echoed in a bajillion songs and has shown up in an equal number of movies. I first saw it in the beginning of Conan, the Barbarian – which was a fitting lead to the character of Conan. And surely, we go through our own trials and tribulations on a daily basis that help us adapt and overcome life’s challenges, and most of us , having faced our …
Giving Back
In my early IT career, it was expected that a person just jump into whatever topic they were studying and learn through books and hands-on experience. Then, slightly later in my career, I stumbled into training. Training is a different type of learning device. In book study and hands-on training, you have the luxury of ignoring things. When you have to teach something, you are expected to know the subject matter. There is this extra pressure of knowing the thing you are instructing. But there is this other element – the idea that by teaching the subject, you get more …
Cutting Wasted Time Out of Your Day
I was having a discussion the other day about my use of the Pomodoro Technique in pacing myself through daily work when the topic had shifted slightly into cutting out the “dead time” from your daily schedules. That dead time is the stuff we do daily that has absolutely no pragmatic use to our career, family or personal life. By reflecting on those three “umbrella” areas, you can usually determine whether the thing you are doing has any meaningful contribution. Understand, I’m not saying you should ONLY do meaningful things. Rather, I’m saying that if you feel that your time …
Happiness Doesn’t Have Dollar Signs
My trip down the FI path has taught me a lot about happiness. I find a lot of happiness walking in my garden. I can also find a lot of frustration ( looking at you hungry caterpillar). I run almost every day, that brings me a lot of happiness. I do yoga and finish with a smile. I have spend money on things that made me happy. I have the occasional dinner out with friends. And sure, the food was good. Ask me in two weeks what I ate. The “..with friends” part is what brought me the true happiness. …
Climb Mountains
How do you climb mountains? That’s easy – one step at a time! The other day a mountain came and woke me up, in the form of a panic attack . Thankfully, I had enough training to beat the sucker down and not let it control me. Its taken years of practice, but I’m here to tell you that hard work does pay off. If you are suffering from anxiety issues and not doing anything about it, take control and go get help. Find a therapist, find a yoga instructor, find a meditation group. Find someone and get the process …
Not Listening: A Good Way to Build Animosity and Start Fights
I recently got wind of turmoil in my congregation, and without getting into details, it’s completely about lines of communication being severed and people stepping up their defensiveness in response. I can’ t tell you how many times I’ve seen this situation play out over my life. Group A has something to say, Group B counters with something, and then there is this escalation because neither side will compromise or be willing to accept that they can’t find common ground. In my situation, Group C (the congregation leadership) steps in to shut down the discussion (via a online forum) and …