It's All About the Environment

I'm sure in looking at the title of this post, a few of my friends reading this are hoping for an erudite post on greenhouse gases, carbon footprints and the magic of Al Gore's haircut... but I'm terribly sorry to disappoint. This is all about your gym/training/fitness environment and the power it has on your results.

I've come across several good pieces (all from pretty different points of view) and each with a common theme - if you associate yourself with positive influences and people, you're going to get better results. Is this high level nuclear physics? Hardly, but I've found that these kinds of statements are of the kind of thing people nod their heads in agreement to, but then do nothing to put into practice (and I can be just as guilty as anyone else in this regard, fo' shizzle). I found three little nuggets of goodness on the idea of environment and what it can do for (or against) you:

MSNBC has a piece about how gym friendships create a positive peer pressure environment which keeps people working out. It's like a nice little support group to keep you on the right track. However, I personally prefer the next 2 pieces since they are much less fluffy and get into the meat of the discussion a little more.

First, Jason Ferruggia (a pretty cool guy I had the chance to meet and buy a beer for once) wrote a piece called "The Company You Keep" over at EliteFTS. What I love about this piece is that it is like the MSNBC piece, but really magnified to show you how the people you choose to work out with (whether as a workout partner or just the people who surround you in your training location of choice) impact your progress like few other things. I can personally vouch for this because when I've been at the "chrome and fern" style gyms (see photo), it's just not the same for my training.

How driven do you feel to do better and get stronger if you are surrounded by people who put in zero to no effort? Who look like they are killing time or using the gym as purely a social environment as opposed to improving themselves? I contrast that against situations where I was with people who, for example, were stronger than I was... and suddenly... even in the course of a single workout, I was stronger too and lifting weight I never previously did. It's not magic at all, but it just seeing these other people and what is possible, things can suddenly become possible for you too. While you may not want to train to become huge or deadlift 700 lbs, I think there is a lot to be taken from Jason's article.

The last piece is by Chris Shugart over at T-Nation and this one is from the other side of the
motivation spectrum: toxic people. You hopefully recognize these people around you and how they can slowly, subtly kill off your positive attitude and motivation through cutting little comments that can erode your will over time. Again, you may realize there are negative people out there and can identify them a lot of the time... but what happens when they are not Betty Busybody from the office and instead... they are your spouse? Parents? Best friends? Do you recognize the insidious little game being played right in front of you by someone you love and trust?

Give each of these articles a shot since they have 3 different approaches to the common theme of what you surround yourself with will undoubtedly affect your success.

How Not To Eat... Ever.

I'm a bit of a health freak 99% of the time, whether its working out at the gym, playing sports, taking carefully researched supplements or watching what I eat (and when I eat too). But like just about anyone, I do enjoy tying on the feed bag for the occasional splurge into the craptastic world of fast food. And when I do walk down that dark path of high fat, sodium and delicious goodness, I carry a whuppin' stick. If you are going to do it, go big... just don't do it all the time or else you will not be going big... you will just be big.

Men's Health pulled together the 20 Word Foods in America and that list... wow. You almost die a little inside just reading the thing. It's not as if the items on the list come as some kind of surprise, but geez, when you actually read the nutritional breakdown, it really floors ya. How about On the Border having 5 salads with more than 1,100 calories? Or a Carl's Jr. burger with 111 grams of fat?

MH also provides a Restaurant Report Card giving you the skinny (Ha ha! See what I did there? Ohh, I'm such the clever fellow.) on many popular restaurants and which (generally) are healthier than others. I do need to point out that I don't think this ranking is really all that great. Relying strictly on total calories per entree as the deciding factor strikes me as a bit weak since actual macronutrient breakdown (protein vs. fats vs. carbs) is pretty important as well. I do agree on Boston Market being a very nice option and that Panera's sandwiches are absolute calorie BOMBS. I love how their Web site tries to give you the impression of their sandwiches being lower in calories than they are by only showing half portions. Nice try, home slice.

Don't Be That Guy: World's Worst "Hunter"

I used to do a "Don't Be That Guy" thing over at my old blog and thought I would bring it over here. I think it will work because Lord knows avoiding the stuff these damn fools do certainly is a good life improvement tip. Now on with the show...

There are many things in this life that are easy to get confused with each other. Twins. Wallabys and kangaroos. Me and Brad Pitt. The list goes on.

However, when you try to claim that in an attempt to shoot...


... and you really shoot...


... I cannot say you are a terribly credible guy... or a halfway rational one. Call me kooky, but I am just a stickler like that.

Life Is Bigger Than Your 3 to 4 Cube Walls

Leo and his very fine blog zen habits had a post the other day that truly struck a cord with me and I believe it would do the same for countless cube-dwelling denizens like myself: "Escape Your Location: How to Become Free From the Office". Isn't that the dream of office workers everywhere? To find some way to not be stuck in a beige/gray cube for 8-9 hours a day?

I cannot be the only one who discovers an instant shot of productivity when I am doing work out of the office. There is always the potential for distraction when you are not in the comfy confines of the traditional workplace, but if you are professional about what you do and you truly do get your job done well... does the fact that you are not around for the Friday morning office bagel club really matter?

One of the more powerful suggestions is #8 under tips - reduce your needs. I plan on doing a fuller treatment of that idea in this blog soon. It's a concept I have been rolling around in my head for the past few months... how acquiring more stuff does little to make you happier and only ends up limiting you many times (not all the time, but more often than I think a lot of us... including me... care to admit).

Mind Like A Steel Trap... or A Wet Waffle?

I don't think I am rocking anyone's world when I say we live in a fast-paced, multitasking, get more done in less time world. Every new form of technology that is first sold as "making things easier" or "providing flexibility" seems to inevitably create a new way for work and the world to follow you pretty much everywhere (and yes, I'm talking to all of you Crackberry users who need information hits like heroin junkies). Personally, I find all of this to be a real brain drain for me. Now, some people chalk this up to getting older (and have you ever noticed people chalk a lot of things up to getting older?) and I don't buy it. Not at age 35 anyway.

I think it's an unfortunate consequence of trying to do so many things at once that I've found myself being pretty bad at focusing on just doing one thing at a time. It's like a fuzz has built up on my brain. OK, think of it this way: Imagine you just ate about four Krispy Kreme doughnuts and the sugar crash is beginning to kick in. Then, you turn on those God-awful presidential debates and try to figure out what the hell any of them are talking about since they all lack the ability to answer any question directly. Got that image? Yeah, that's how I was feeling for a bit. Just... muddled.

To combat that, I picked up for myself a nice little Nintendo DS Lite with the game Brain Age 2. So, instead of me rambling endlessly with more written words, you can enjoy my rambling in video format. Seriously, how much better did your life just become?

Oh and my apologies for the lighting in the video. I am still a bit new to this kind of thing so the production values are a wee bit on the low end of the spectrum. Mea culpa.

Stuff I Like: The Go Bag

If there is a Web site out there that I cannot recommend highly enough, it's Lifehacker. Spend a few minutes there and you will rapidly see a large piece of inspiration for my own site (although I happen to do a number of tweaks that they do not and have a slightly different focus). Regardless, it's a wonderful site and they come up with cool tips and nuggets of goodness daily.

A recent fave of mine is their concept of the "Go Bag" which you can see all sorts of examples of here. Essentially, a Go Bag is any kind of bag you would use to throw all of your daily essentials in before heading out to attack the day. The Lifehacker crew wanted to see what various members would use for bags and what life equipment they would put in it before venturing out into the adventure that is human life.

I just put my own Go Bag into action after picking up the REI Singular Sling Bag 2.0 (in Madrona... 'cause I guess calling it "maroon" was too tricky) and setting it up for daily use. And the results you can see here to the right.

So far I don't have everything in it I would like to, but off to a decent start thus far. Starting from the top and working my way down there is:
- my camera
- my Nintendo DS Lite
- my cool wallet my bro got me in Argentina
- my Moleskine notebook that I use to jot down random thoughts and, especially, blog ideas
- my 30gig iPod (ok, so the link is to the 80 gig one)
- my Motorola Q
- my Cabela's mini multi-tool (seriously handy little bugger)
- hand sanitizer
- a basic pen
- my current R.A. Salvatore book (I find these things addictive)
- my latest copy of Men's Health.

The one thing missing is a laptop, but I am working my way up to that slowly but surely. And please bear in mind... this is a sling bag... not a Seinfeld style "European carry all"/man purse. *shudder* But thus far, I am finding the Go Bag handy because everything I have in it is something I used to find myself thinking before, "Damn... I wish I had my..." The big thing is the camera and the notebook since with my seeking to get this blog moving, I need to be able to get ideas and snap up photos for content when the moment strikes.

Give the Go Bag a try and let me know how it works out.

Winning the War in the Corporate Trenches

Office politics is usually a term referred to with disdain and often accompanied by a sneer. The term conjures up images of bootlicking toadies, backstabbing corporate climbers and untold amounts of cronyism within an old boys' network. None of this is terribly pretty.

The funny thing I've found is that the notion of office politics described above is not terribly accurate in a lot of ways. Do those kinds of nefarious activities occur in companies of all shapes and sizes all around the world? Of course they do, but that's not truly the full extent of what office politics means. In fact, think of the times you may have heard a co-worker blame office politics for their not getting ahead in the company. Now think of how often you thought they were airing a legitimate concern as opposed to your knowing it was more of a sour grapes moment. My guess is that you usually found the gripes more unfounded than based in moments of a true "screw job".

That's because office politics is less about being a kiss-up and really more about how you operate within the system of a corporate office. Many describes this as "knowing how to play the game", but I have a hard time thinking of it as a game given how serious it all is to the future of so many different people. To me, office politics, in its most proper sense, is most about:

• networking with people across your organization and organizations with whom you work;
• learning how to toot your own horn (because if you don't do it, who will?);
• understanding who can help you with your career or a project and who will not; and
• at the most basic level, figuring out how to get what you want out of your job and career (without being a complete jerk in the process).

A really nice article was done on the topic over at BNET called "How to Win at Office Politics". One caveat I would provide to the article is that the section on "Reconciling Mars and Venus" to describe how men and women handle office politics differently is definitely a reach and I would not place too much stock in their ideas on gender differences.

One piece I would like to emphasize on my own that is touched on in that BNET piece is to be careful of how you handle promoting yourself in the workplace. I am in very full agreement with the need to let other people know you are doing well, but there are some definite limits. Let me describe a person that you probably know (and unfortunately, I definitely do):

You walk down the hallway to the water cooler and run into Biff, someone within the office you know only casually. You do the usual pleasantries, say hello and ask Biff how he's doing. No sooner does the question finish on your lips than Biff launches into how he is working on projects for Executives X and Y and how many hours he has been working and blah blah blah. And this is not a sometime thing… it's almost each and every time you run into Biff. There really are no normal conversations with Biff because Biff is very busy selling Biff and all his delightful Biffness.

This is absolutely painful to endure as a listener and has the exact opposite effect than is intended – you don't sell anyone and your co-workers end up doubting that you really do any real work at all. All talk and no walk. Now, don't let this stop you from trying to promote yourself more at work… just don't pepper every conversation with it.

On a closing note, I do plan on writing about the workplace in my blog, but since I am actually fairly decent at office politics, I will avoid another cardinal sin: talking out of school. Many an erstwhile blogger has been unceremoniously dumped from their jobs by blogging in a little too much detail about what happens at work or about particular co-workers. I'm here to share some lessons learned… but there is a reason everyone at work sees me as the diplomat – Ma Kuzia didn't raise a fool.

Things To Do Before You Die

I think everyone has some kind of list of things they feel they just need to get to before they hit they call it a life and retire the old jersey. I have a few that rattle around in my noggin and while many of them are not completely epic, I don't think things on these kinds of lists always need to be luge Mount Everest naked while singing the national anthem.

It is interesting to see what others pop onto their lists, as I found here. That looks to be a somewhat solid list, but as with any list that someone else makes, it is less-than-perfect for my own goals. First off, I ain't jumping off of anything with a damn elastic band attached to my fine self. Second (and I do not see one on this list that necessarily hits on this point), I am not doing anything that involves my #1 rule of vacations - no activities that could involve my being eaten. Shark diving? Seriously? I am not going to throw away the thousands of years of evolution that have firmly entrenched me and you are the top of the food chain so I can try to match Jacques Cousteau. Ain't gonna happen.

My hope is to get a list going and then incorporate some/all of it into my daily (or every other week) goal of doing something new and blogging about it here. I have actually done at least one of the things I really wanted to do and that is get my motorcycle license. Umm, I don't actually have a bike yet, but hey... got that license! Baby steps, baby steps. This one was a big one for me because it is something I've long been both fascinated by and a little scared of. Heck, even though I have the license I am still a little scared of it because in the Basic Riders Course I took, you top out at maybe 20 MPH or so on the bike. I am wondering what it will be like when I finally get a bike and hit 60 MPH on a highway surrounded by traffic... but deep down in my heart, I just have to do it.

Here are a few ideas of things I am looking to try soon:
- snowboarding
- run a 5K and possibly a marathon
- run with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain
- play running back for the Dallas Cowboys.

Yeah, the last one is likely not going to happen, but I want to stay consistent with the one thing I've said I've always wanted to do. Plus, I have mongoose-like quickness and I think I would be a great change of pace back. See, I'm not even demanding the starting job since I'm such a team player.

For a slightly more amusing list, see here from Maxim. #76 is my favorite ("Teach a monkey martial arts and then kick its ass.") and I need to figure out some way, some how to make that happen. If there is anything life has taught me, it's that kung fu monkeys are high comedy. Hell, any monkeys. Period.

And my buddy TC Luoma over at T-Nation has his list of things you don't have to do before you die (and it's a funny list, although I disagree with the running of the bulls part).

But I am curious to hear what other people have on their list since it does tell you a lot about your own individuality by showing what are some of the most important things to you. If I get some good ideas, I hope to try them myself on here and let y'all know how it went (even the trainwrecks).

How The Heck Do I Do That: Exercise Resources

While I am by no means the authority on exercise, I have been training for these past 17 some odd years and have picked up a few things along the way. Some of these lessons came from those who are experts, some I developed on my own and some... well... let's just say they came as the result of some rather painful experiences (like the time I was playing around on a leg press, push the sled so hard it left my feet with 90 lbs on it, stopped paying attention and had the sled come crashing down on my knee caps).

A really common question I get is, "I have absolutely no idea how to do X", whether X is a particular exercise or maybe even an entire bodypart. Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, may the light shine upon ye, oh seeker of rock hard glutes and all that happy nonsense that makes life worth living (because, ya know... where would we be as a human race without glutes you could bounce a quarter off of?)

Here are some of my favorites that should help along:

EliteFTS.com
Let's get one thing really clear about these guys - they are about as hard core as you will find when it comes to training. Period. They primarily focus on powerlifting, strongman and such, but their site (and products) are absolute the best. You can find their exercise index here and if you look at the left-hand menu, you will see it broken down into various exercise types. The only downer is they are not in video form, but on the major plus side, their descriptions of how to perform the movements are spot on.

ExRx
This is one of the more common sites I've seen referenced across fitness and training forums to actually show someone what a particular exercise should look like. They use animated GIFs as a form of video and while they are a little small and grainy, they do get the job done.

University of Wisconsin La Crosse Strength and Conditioning Center
This is an excellent index of exercises and all of them have videos. While I find this list uber-kick ass, it might be slightly less useful for someone looking for (as an example) more typical arm exercises. Many of these exercises are geared towards athletes... but in all honesty, the general population would be better served with more people training and using these same movements as opposed to doing inner and outer thigh machines...which I am convinced were made by dudes interested in trying to check out women in short shorts and sell it as exercise.

Useless... unless you actually enjoy ogling and elevator eyes.

I will add more to this list later if I can, but I have also found some excellent exercise videos on YouTube. Now, here is a ginormous caveat on using YouTube for examples of proper exercise form: the site is full of people doing some of the dumbest nonsense with the most craptastic form on the planet. I see some of these videos of people straining with bad form and too much weight and wonder if that's what orthopedic surgeons and chiropractors use for porn. However, the EliteFTS guys have some great stuff and it's also pretty funny (especially if you aren't easily offended).

I will leave you with this video, though. This is possibly some of the best form for a barbell squat you will ever see... and the fact she takes a nice sniff of ammonia before doing the lift? 100% diesel. She could easily kick the ass of half the guys in my gym. I love it, so enjoy.

Keeping Your Finances Mint-y Fresh

We all want to be better with our money (at least I do), but is it just me or is it not a pain to track all of it? Where are you spending those hard-earned dollars that seem to flow out as fast as they come in? Are you dropping cash at Whole Foods like a Halo 3 addict drops cash on Red Bulls and snack cakes? No? That's just me? Damn...

But it is an important topic during the most consumer-frenzy of times right now as people invade every retail outlet known to man for their Black Friday deals. It looks like things have gone to a new level this year with places opening up at 1 freaking AM. Ugh. So how to tame the spending beast and keep a few more sheckels in your pockets or at least know where those hard-earned coins are heading? For me, I am trying Mint.com, seen here in a delightful photo.

Mint.com is part of an ever-growing wave of personal finances Web sites designed to help you track your expenses, figure out where you are killing yourself and even offering a list of deals that could save you money based on services you are currently using. So, whether it's Mint, Wesabe, Mvelopes or a potential Web-based version of Quicken, there is certainly more resources than ever (with Mint and Wesabe being free) to help you in the quest to manage the almighty dollar.

At its core, Mint pulls in information from each of the financial institutions (banks, credit unions and credit card companies) you provide to it and then categorizes your cash flow for you. This obviously begins with a leap of faith in providing to Mint all of the necessary log-in information needed for Mint to automatically gather all of this information and there is a key crux of the matter: Are you comfortable with your financial information being pulled in real-time by a 3rd party? The folks at Mint do go into a fair amount of detail here about what they do to protect your critical information, from encryption in the data transfers, using the same tool as many large banks for gathering your information and even hacking their own site.

Once you are into Mint, the site allows you to get an overview of each of the accounts you have enabled Mint to pull data from. Here is a snapshot of my own account (with the more critical information blurred out from your nosey types), but at least giving you an idea of how Mint displays your transaction information.

Mint can also break down your spending into nifty pie and bar charts by category as well.

In addition, Mint seeks to provide you with offers to save you money by doing an analysis of your current credit card rates, spending habits, monthly bills, etc. Again, this gets down to a matter of whether you find this like a creepy financial Big Brother eyeballing your accounts or a personalized way to provide relevant offers. Of course, these offers don't hurt our buddies at Mint too much since I am sure there is a financial benefit for them if you end up signing up for the offers. There has to be some way to pay for a free site. I am more prone to think of these as being an improved means by which to view some potentially money-saving offers (although I am not sure how the offer below saves me much money right now since I am looking to pay down a balance and would rather enjoy a 7.9% APR vs. 13.74%):
So here's a quick summation of the whole Mint shooting match:

Good Times
- Pulls together information/financial transactions from a wide range of financial sources
- Mint categorizes items automatically and while it may be off on occasion, it is pretty simple to change the categories on a one-off or permanent basis.
- Interesting feature to compare potential savings or deals based on accounts you have or purchases you have made.

Ehh
- While it is great at pulling in past transactions, Mint does not have any features (as of yet) to put in future payments, credits, etc. In this sense, having a personal financial program like Quicken or Money really is a big benefit.
- No support for investment account information
- For the privacy-phobic, it may be scary to have a third party pulling all of your financial information into one place.

I think it is well worth a try since it's free and easy enough to stop the service if you are not finding benefit to it. In the end, it is like almost anything when it comes to money - if you are not being vigilant about it and making use of your personal finance tools, no amount of snazzy gadgetry is going to do you much good.

Turkey Day - Pre-Meal Prep

Well, here's my first shot at doing a vlog (or video blog). Just a quick demonstration on how I decided to take my own advice to prep for some serious turkey-time later in the day. FYI - When you attempt this kind of activity, it is inevitable that at least half the time, someone will stop and ask you if you need some help (which is kind of nice, when you think about it).

How To Handle Turkey Day Like A Pro

Ahh... Turkey Eve. Such a magical evening. People busily prepping for the next day's festivities, assembling pie crusts, baking and getting last minute necessities. Not me mind you, but... you know... people. I am just responsible for picking up some green beans and rolls 'cause requiring more of me on the high holy of cooking days would be a Geneva Convention level crime. Seriously. Nobody wants a part of it.

OK, here's the thing you need to know about handling Turkey Day like an absolute pro and not some kind of wide-eyed rookie noobster. First and foremost, handling Turkey Day like a pro has absolutely nothing to do with preparing the sumptuous meal many will enjoy. This is all about how to take down as much chow as possible without already being a competitive eating... *ahem*... "athlete". See my main man pictured with this post (my nephew Sam) from a few years back - he's got the right idea. It's strictly about being an absolutely lethal calorie killer. No mercy. And with that, onto my essential tips:

Be sure to eat breakfast
If there is only one tip of mine you follow, let this be it. The biggest rookie mistake is looking to starve yourself the day of Thanksgiving as if that will somehow allow you to pack in more during the actual meal. Oh the horrors of this one since it ends up being lose-lose: you miss breakfast (which is a vastly underrated meal to begin with) and then your stomach tightens up such that you get stuffed faster during the meal you were hoping to knock off in epic style. Seriously... eat some breakfast. Oatmeal works well, ya crazy fool.

Exercise early that day
This one might sound a little counterintuitive, but it definitely helps. Think about it: Aren't you always hungrier during the day when you exercise or are active early? It does not need to be anything elaborate, but I will tell you that if your chosen activity is a little more on the taxing side, you will be giving your metabolism a nice kick for the rest of the day... which means more pie and more pie is always good. I am hoping to get some video up of my morning exercise choice tomorrow because I have it all planned out and it's a doozy.

Skip the milk and don't load up on early rolls
Milk, while a wonderful beverage, is an appetite killer, especially at key moments when you need to reach down deep into the depths of your soul and take a long, hard look at yourself and ask... "Can I truly eat a 4th helping of stuffing?" You have to be prepared for that moment, people! You can't just waltz in ahead of time all cocksure that you'll know how to handle the big moment when it comes! You have to mentally prep! Visualize! This is war, my friends!

Oh and the rolls thing? That's just obvious - rolls are great, but don't let those doughy little buggers take up the room too early when you have not had the chance to sample everything else.

Proper clothing
Two words and two words only: elastic waistbands.

Go forth and be gluttonous... at least just for this one day. And in all seriousness, I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and actually takes a few minutes to be thankful. I know I personally have a lot to be thankful for, so it's nice to have a day devoted to feeling gratitude.

Who Do You Rely On?

Over the past couple of years, I have gotten to know Alwyn Cosgrove, one of the best coaches/personal trainers around by both meeting him, having a few beers with him and exchanging a bunch of e-mails with him to boot. While I have certainly gained from his training expertise, he has been a great source of support and understanding as Christie has gone through all of her treatments for her leukemia. Alwyn knows a thing or two about blood-based cancers: he's had to beat it... twice. The second time involved a stem cell transplant that literally saved his life (as it also did for Christie).

He's got a great post on his blog that I wanted to point out about how to cull through the mountain of information available to us in uber-modern 2007. How do you decide who to rely on when looking for information or help? Keyboard jockeys with little to no experience? Or those who have proven themselves continuously in the trenches of their chosen field? Excellent food for thought (which is never a problem with Alwyn who always has something interesting to say).

And before you point out the borderline obvious notion that I could be easily described as one of those keyboard warriors dishing out advice in areas where I know next to nothing, let me put up some preemptive defense for me and my blog. If I have proven experience in something, I will post freely. If I do not, I will find those who do to make it useful for you or I will take you along on my journey to learn about that area.

I think that is going to be one of my biggest pieces of this blog, in the end: I am posting a lot of these ideas and tips as part of my own daily advancement towards a better life. Some days I will do well and others, not so much, but hopefully we all benefit in the end. Plus, I am incredibly handsome and charming, which is a bonus.

Anyway, enough of my rambling. Check out Alwyn now and thank me later... or don't, you ungrateful punk.

Something New Each Week

I'm giving a bit of thought to finding something new to try each and every week and then posting about my experiences here. This could really be just about any activity you can imagine, really, but the point would be to figure out something to try and give it a whirl. It could be from the simple of trying some completely new food or a new sport (for some reason, I am thinking of trying a bit of snowshoeing when the white stuff hits here in New England.

The point is to venture out a bit of the comfort zone and see what happens. Isn't that where the growth kicks in anyway? Out there where things are a little less than cozy?

I got the idea (in part) from the fact that Google has these groovy blog widgets where you can put a poll on your site. I am thinking of letting readers decide what I will do. Now, please bear in mind that my list of new stuff is not going to include shark wrestling or snuff films, but I'm hoping to at least come up with poll items that would be personal stretches for me (otherwise this is a wussified endeavor in the end). I mean, putting on my pants left leg first vs. right leg first is not really the path to personal growth (although it admittedly would feel weird to try that).

Suggestions for the poll?

Living A Full Life

"I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."
- John 10:10

Now, before you think I am going to turn this into a holy-roller style blog, let me put the above into context. I recently took a trip out West to Texas and Utah that did a lot for me in an area I feel is often overlooked by me (and likely by many people in modern life): perspective. I long ago lost count of the multitude of times in my life I have come to the jarring realization that I was living some facet of my life without the benefit of some real perspective.

And isn't that just so easy to allow to happen? You get up, rush through breakfast, get to work, get caught up in yet another fire drill that you've come to believe is of "mission critical" importance, stay too late at work, maybe get some time to go to the gym or get home for dinner a little late and then spend a little time seeking to unwind before going to bed. Sheesh... I got exhausted just reading what I wrote. That little day in the life view is not terribly unusual for a lot of people and one of the big problems with it is how ridiculously easy it becomes to see all of that as your sole world view.

Yikes.

So my trip out West pulled me out of a rut pretty much identical to what I described above and let me reclaim that precious, precious perspective (and also sharpen my alliteration abilities too). I'll get into the trip a little more in later posts, but whether it was the people I spent time with or the amazing vistas I took in (see the above photo of Zion National Park for proof of that), I just began to realize that I really had a lot of things totally out of whack... hence the quote I found in John 10:10. You don't need to be a Christian to appreciate the idea of how important it is to have life and have it abundantly.

My point of realization was that I was pouring an inordinate amount of my time, energy, efforts and self solely into work and my loved ones and friends were just getting leftovers and I damn well knew they deserved better. So therein lies the crux of the matter: If you keep allowing yourself to get bogged down in something that is not or should not be the primary driver of your life (work, stress, depression, addictions, fears, etc.), how in the world do you ever snap yourself back into proper perspective?

Here's what I think works well:

1. Solo time. How much time do you take in any given day to be free from distractions of every kind? 5 minutes? 10 minutes? Not at all? Build time into your day for just a bit of quiet time - it works absolute wonders. This can be meditation, prayer, taking a walk during lunch or just staring out the window at 2:35 PM on a weekday to clear your head for a few minutes.
   
2. Read more. Nothing like some jolts of information to make you realize there is much bigger world than that stack of papers on your desk. Newspapers, books and blogs (especially mine) certainly work well here.
   
3. Volunteer. While I have this #3, I would not put this one here from a ranking perspective (it just occurred to me third... gimme a break). Unleashing your inner do-gooder is an absolute win-win. You will come in contact with people who appreciate your help and you will get that much needed dose of how small problems really are. It's hard to be worked up about bad sales numbers when dealing with children battling leukemia or someone at a men's shelter who is just glad you are serving him a meal during the holidays.
4. Get out and talk to people. While this one popped into my head as more of something for the workplace, I am thinking this may be a bit more universally applicable. When was the last time you walked around to talk to your co-workers and just spent time listening to them without an agenda of your own? This is something I know I need to do more (especially as the supervisor of 9 people), but it can be really powerful to focus on the thoughts, needs and desires of someone else and put your own aside.
5. Floss. OK, OK... this has nothing to do with perspective, but holy mother of God... am I the only one who is not freaked out by Dr. Mayo saying "flossing can add 10 years to your life" or Dr. Raul Garcia firing out "Floss or die!"?!?!? I feel like I need to continuously run Glide between my teeth every hour of the day. Maybe that's twisted perspective. See, I made it fit in the end.
   

So what do you do to pull it all together a bit more? How do you stop your personal slides into the world of "Woe is me!"?

Oh So Googly - Why I Dig Google Apps

If you didn't know already, you soon will... but I am a big fan of the Google. Time and time again, I find some new trick or tool or Google developed doohicky (sorry for the technical speak) that is smart, simple and well-designed. As a result of my enjoying almost all things Google, I have moved to where everything about this blog and everything about my home e-mail is all hosted with Google.

Along the top bottom of the blog, you will likely see a banner advertising something called "Google Apps" and ya might be wondering, "OK... I know Google does a whole bunch of stuff and I still want to punch myself for not jumping on their IPO... but what exactly are Google Apps?" In a nutshell (as opposed to in a conch shell cause, ya know, those are only good for making impromptu calls that it's time for a luau), Google Apps is a means to bring all of Google's nifty features into one place for your company, organiztion, team or family.

For me, I have everything for Kuzia.com all under Google and what is so great about it is that I do not even need a separate e-mail hosting service any more. I can access all of my e-mail for Kuzia.com on Gmail and I can also access it from home using any mail program of my choosing (such as Outlook, Outlook Express or my current fave, Thunderbird). So, you and your group can share calendars, documents, e-mail and so on all under any domain name you happen to snap up for yourselves. You can even have there be one common start page from which all of this goodness is accessible.

Oh and my favorite part... it's free. Sure, you can upgrade to larger accounts for a user-by-user fee, but for my own purposes, I can do everything I want all within the gratis version. It's definitely something to give some thought to, especially if you are:
- interested in a means by which to better organize your group (such as everyone in your family pops their calendars up onto the site)
- looking for an e-mail solution where you can access it anywhere and not be forced between choosing between a Web-only vs. e-mail client format.

Give it a whirl and let me know what experience you have with it all.

Blog Rebirth

After many months away from the keyboard (at least from a blogging perspective), I decided it was high time to return to the pajama army. This time around I am coming at all of this from a slightly different perspective than last. My previous blog (Here's What I Think About That...) was really just whatever the heck was running through my head on any given day. That can certainly be a perfectly fine little blog, but I think I knew I always wanted something more. I am hoping this new blog is it.

So what, pray tell, is this more that I hope to achieve? Fair question.

For the past few months, I have been wanting to get a blog together and I wanted something that was a little more focused... but on what exactly? It then hit me that there was a topic I find inherently fascinating and I could write about seemingly ad nauseam (although I'm shooting for not causing actual nausea in my beloved readership): the little things that make life better. Books that make you think. Blogs that give a new perspective on old problems. Things about fitness and health I've picked up during the past 15 or so years (and the people who have influenced those thoughts). Ideas on how to handle issues that arise in the workplace. Basically, how to live life a little better, one step and tip at a time.

There are certainly some rather robust sites out there doing that already and I am looking to collect a bunch of them for my links on the right hand side of the blog. Lifehacker has certainly affected my thinking on this topic, but this blog is not looking to be Lifehacker Jr., but it's own unique entity on the Web. It's going to take some time to keep this moving along, but a true goal of mine is to make this blog much bigger (in terms of content, readership, quality and general snarkiness) than anythign I've attempted before.

And why the heck not? After turning 35 years old almost a week ago, I've come to some basic realizations that I think you personally gain over time (even though you have heard many of them throughout your life, I've consistently found time to be the primary catalyst to get these truths to really sink in). One of these maxims is that you only limit yourself most times in this life, so I am avoiding that like the plague. Does that mean this blog is going to be the biggest thing on the Web by dint of my own raw determination? lol Probably not, but hell... why not go for as much as possible and let events fall as they may?

So, it's good to be back and now here's to hoping for some content that anyone who stumbles into here will appreciate and gain a little something from each and every day.

Oh and the new site name - a good friend of mine (Sharee) came up with it and I liked it. Very catchy and in line with my thinking for the blog. It's not that you should never live life with a certain sense of contentment or zen, but that little tweaks along the way certainly make things a lot more interesting.

So, any questions here? Any questions here? Let's get it on.