Let’s see.  I read The Thank You Economy, by Gary Vaynerchuck.  I wasn’t really impressed.  I suppose it was more targeted at large corporations.

I have been increasing my twitter involvement.  I never really used it to connect with other people.  I’ve learned you have to treat twitter like a cocktail party.  I don’t drink and have never been to a cocktail party so maybe that’s why I haven’t figured it out until now.  Twitter is a good place to meet new people and build relationships with existing contacts.  The average person thinks of twitter as a way to stalk people and share mundane tasks.  The right way to look at is a 24-7 networking event and you are allowed to jump in a circle with anyone you want and try and be a part of the conversation.  This doesn’t mean that everyone can have a personal conversation with celebrities.  You can try but you have to realize that just like any celebrity in a public forum they are being bombarded with people wanting a few seconds of their time.  The real value comes by finding others with similar interests as you and simply having small talk.  Be genuine. Don’t do it simply because you want more followers (you do) but it only works if you really care to get to know people.  Then what happens is your network of influence slowly grows because your new friends have friends and you get opportunities to meet even more people.  End result: you get more opportunities.  Just this month I got some side work through twitter!  I highly recommend everyone read Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuck on how to really use twitter.

We All Have The Same 24 Hours

I have some great ideas for posts because I recently took a training course on Lynda.com for time management.  It was a very intensive course which the instructor usually charges Executives $2400 for one 9 hour session to completely get organized and learn how to manage the chaos.  I have plenty of chaos so it was awesome and, dare I say, life changing!

On top of that, I stumbled upon a free e-book on focus and time management that works as a perfect complement to what I learned in the large training.  I plan to do a post to share what I learned, the changes I’ve made and where I still need to improve.

Slowly But Surely: Getting Fit

My goal for May is to lose 10 lbs.  I am starting at 217 and want to reach 207 by the end of the month.  By the end of June I want to be under 200.

We unfroze our YMCA memberships and Monday we, Sarah and I went and got on the treadmills.  I decided I would make an attempt at my goal to run 3 miles in under 24 minutes and I did it!  23:46. We are going to go to the YMCA with the kids 3-5 times per week to exercise for 30 minutes then play with the kids in the pool.  We plan to do this during peak utility hours to save money on our electricity

Other Micah 3.0 Stuff

Today TonyRobbins tweeted a link to page that lists 101 sites for free tutorials.  That will definitely come in handy!

Haven’t done much photography lately.  I have done some and need to upload them to Flickr.  Today I got my iMac replacement and it actually works this time!  Now I can start learning how to make iPhone apps.  Have touched the piano or guitar.  I did spend some time with a friend who can play almost any song on the guitar and I talked to him about the best way to learn. He recommends getting a chord chart and practice, practice, practice!!!  I guess I should get a guitar first.

Octonerd is doing well and I can hardly keep up with the work but I think I will go ahead and use these funds as they come in to get everything I need for Micah 3.0  that way I can start working on everything sooner.   That is why I got the iMac.  Next Up?  Adobe CS5 or Canon T2i?  Which would you get?  I think I have more use for CS5 now but would love have a nicer camera for photos and video.

I did start making some fun videos and would love to do more and improve in that area. Here is an example of what I’m talking about.

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If something is of high priority we typically should do it before anything else.  I view the first few hours of the day as the key to success. 

Morning Routine

I have a vision of the perfect morning routine and that is what I would like to make a reality.  It goes something like this.

• 30 minutes - Pray/Meditate (outside preferably), Study the word of God.
• 1 hr - Exercise and Stretch while listening to inspirational/educational podcasts or audio books.  (I may have to start a push up routine)
• 30 minutes - Breakfast with family and read scriptures together and pray.
• 30 minutes – Shower and get ready

The exact times are not as important as the routine itself the order can even be flexible.  The whole idea is to make these activities a priority.  Feed the body, mind and spirit right away!

Evening Routine

The kids go to bed around 8pm.  Before that I try to spend quality time playing and having fun.  Between 6-8pm is already a well established routine thanks to my wife.  We clean up dinner and play until about 7pm then baths, get ready for bed, read books all happens. 

After 8pm I have been known to waste time.  I like to decompress but I constantly have projects to be working on but what I really want to do is relax.  What ends up happening is I don’t really relax and I don’t really spend focused time on my projects so I end up staying up late to finish freelance work.  Then I get little sleep and my morning routine is shot and I am more stressed and more work gets piled on and I stay up late again and the proccess continues until Sunday when I finally crash and, thankfully, I have a policy to not work on Sunday because that is the only time I let myself really decompress. I have even been able to take an afternoon nap every once in a while.

I’m not sure how to be more successful between 8-10pm  I still need to figure out what the best routine would be.  I think I need to have a true go to bed routine where I really wind down because I typically go until I can’t hold my eyes open then shuffle into bed between 12 and 1am on the typical night and 2-3am when things are really crazy.

Weekly Habits

Most of the other goals can be achieved by establishing weekly habits.  

• Monday night as a family night.  We gather together to discuss the week ahead and to teach our children and have fun together.  
• Tuesday night will be the night I focus on my projects such as Thintopia and Octonerd.  I will also spend an occassional Thursday or Saturday on these projects.
• Wednesday nights I have Boy Scouts / Mutual
• Friday. With 3 children it can be difficult to make time to go on dates.  I want to get into a habit of spending time weekly to talk and spend focused time together.

Thursday, Saturday and Sunday will be free nights although Sunday I will focus on rest and creative persuits such as music and photography.  Thursday and Saturday will be more focused on work.

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In Q2 I want to broaden my horizon. I want to focus on personal development, mental and spiritual goals as well as improving my fitness. Earlier this month I discovered my passion and got a glimpse of my purpose in life you can read a little about my Micah 3.0 Project. For the past month I’ve been figuring out how I want to approach this project. There were some unknowns about my work situation and I was considering leaving the 9-5 by the end of May to pursue this project full time. This week I found out that my best option is to stick with my day job until the end of the year. My schedule will get more flexible when I start working from home this Summer but I will still have to balance my efforts with my full time job. That’s okay, as long as I stay focused on the end goal and continue to make progress I am okay with that. If anything it will force me to be more efficient and to focus on what matters most for every free moment.

One quarter of a year is equivalent to 13 weeks. I will set 12 week goals and allow for a one week buffer because “stuff” happens. For example, during the next 12 weeks I will be taking a 5 day boy scout trip to Southern Utah. I am really looking forward to that and also hope to work on my goals while on the trip.

So here are the goals.

Mental

1. Read 3 books:  The Thank You Economy, ReWork and Delivering Happiness
2. Develop 1 iPhone application:  This will be a simple app that I want to make for the youth group I lead to help them reach their personal development goals.

Physical

1. Reach 200 lbs
2. Run 5K in under 24 minutes
3. Do a full unassisted pull up

Spiritual

1. Develop a habit of daily prayer and scripture study
2. Visit the temple at least once per month
3. Help at least one boy in my group achieve Eagle Scout

Social

1. Meet 3 people I look up to online (Adam Baker, MrArturoTrejo, TheRenMen)
2. Attend Fitness Bloggers Conference in Colorado

Family

1. Weekly date night with lovely wife.
2. Weekly family night

Career

1. $5K revenue for Octonerd LLC
2. Outsource at least two projects
3. Establish weekly interview schedule for Thintopia

Recreational

1. Trip to San Diego
2. Trip to Zions National Park
3. Practice Photography Weekly
4. Learn to play a favorite song on Piano

Financial

1.  Create and stick to a family budget.

There you have it.  How did I come up with these goals?  I first tried to picture where I want to be 10 years from now.  I tried to get a picture of where I would be physically, mentally, spiritually, financially, etc  I then jotted down the eight categories above and began thinking of measurable and realistic goals.  These goals aren’t perfect and I need to be more specific with some.  Part of me sees this big list and gets overwhelmed but then I realized that I’m not going from couch potato to ultra productive.  I am just upping my game and getting organized.  This really just represents an overall goal to stop wasting time.  I read a post recently by Brandon Pearce who has done a great job balancing his time over the past few years.  He shares down to the minute how he spends his time in a typical week.  If I am going to succeed I am going to need to be aware of how I use my time and be very strict with not wasting time on activities that aren’t helping me reach my goals.  Several of my goals have to do with daily or weekly habits.  The next three months I will be developing a routine that will allow me to be much more productive.  I plan to work hard and play hard.  What are your goals?  Am I too ambitious?  I have much more that I want to do. This just represents what I think is realistic.  My next post will go over my routine and how I plan to accomplish each of these goals.  Stay tuned and don’t forget to subscribe.

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Everyone is self actualized.  Maslow’s hierarchy of needs have been met.

I wonder how Housing, Food, Waste, Maintainance, Clothing, Transportation would look. 

It can be fun to imagine. So here is how it works. You can’t focus on the whole world just yet. Let’s focus on a small community. Better yet, focus on your own home! That is the only way Utopia could happen. Each individual reaches personal utopia then family, then neighborhood, community and so on and so forth.

Level 1: Basic Physical Needs

At this level everyone has plenty of food, water, sanitary way of disposing of waste and sleep (FAIL! I’m losing and we’re only on step 1! It is 2:35 AM as I write this). In a world view, the water and waste are a real issues. Food can be an issue too. If possible, have a year supply of food and water. Also, learn to produce less waste. In a pinch you’ll pretty much be forced to.

Level 2: Safety and Security

This level is met when your home has sufficient resources to protect your family and you aren’t constantly worried about your health and your family is not in immediate danger. Get yourself some good insurance, good deadbolt locks which could be thrown away in full Utopia but let’s focus on our family before we get carried away. Focus on your health and fitness. This has a few benefits. You’ll likely avoid some serious diseases and you’ll be more likely to protect you family from physical harm. If a bear attacks your house, are you in good enough shape to fight him off? Or at least runaway and hide before he mauls you?

Level 3: Relationships

Humans need love. The secret here is to give. Be a good friend. Be the best spouse and you will likely get what you give. Books upon books have been written on this subject. My simple advice is to stop thinking of yourself and you’ll be amazed at the results.

Level 4: Self Worth

To be honest, if you have perfect level 3 you’ve already perfected level 4. Others will respect you and you have learned to respect them. You have overcome your Ego and you see your true worth is to share your talents with others.

Level 5: Self Actualization

So you have no worries in the world. You love yourself and everyone and you don’t care about being better than the next guy and you are finally free to be you. You aren’t pursuing prestige or fame and you are confident in your abilities. You are free to be creative, spontaneous, and 100% genuine.

You see everything for what it is. You aren’t careless but you have no fear. Without fear you have no need for malice. You are nearly perfect. Does this mean you go ahead and spend every day at Disneyland? Probably not. Are you someone that has handed your life over to God to be a missionary like Mother Theresa? Maybe. You are you! Self-actualization means you have created reality. Nothing fake.

Is this a goal of yours? I wouldn’t mind reaching level 5. I think the key is to get rid of bad habits, extra baggage. Your electronics, job, title, car, house, number of facebook friends, twitter followers or youtube subscribers don’t define you. You define you. Focus less on what the world deems important and find what is really important.

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How To Debug Software

To find bugs we run software in “debug mode” this means that if a serious error presents itself the program we use to edit code stops the software and shows you the line of code where the error occurred. The debugging program also tries to give you some context. You can see the last few things that happened before the error occurred. Where the error occurred usually isn’t where the bug is. Errors typically occur because the software doesn’t have the necessary information or data it needs to do its job. The real bug almost always takes place somewhere in the code before the program breaks. The next step is to set some “breakpoints” and run the software again. Breakpoints tell the debugging program to pause and then the programmer can start stepping through the software one line of code at a time while watching the data change. You can even set flags on a given piece of data so that you get alerted anytime the data changes. This lets the programmer determine where exactly the program failed to get the necessary data or lost data.

I am going to be honest here. I think I am pretty awesome. I am not the greatest person that ever lived but I feel like I am in the top 10%. That is pretty awesome. Don’t worry, you are likely in that top percentile if you are reading this, or at least really close.

Fix My Code

Okay, so here is the deal. I am not as awesome as I want to be. I have a lot of character flaws. I procrastinate, I am addicted to sugar, I am lazy, I pick my nose. Wait. Before I get carried away revealing too much and ruining my street cred (maybe it is too late) I want to hear from the people who know me best. I know it can be hard to point out people’s flaws…at least to their face. That is probably another flaw of mine or maybe it is a talent. I am so good and noticing other people’s flaws. I am afraid that I am leaving some of my own flaws unnoticed.

I feel like everyone needs to know if they are “that guy”. “That guy” never seems to know they are “that guy”. Who is “that guy”? He/she could be anyone really. It could be that person who is a terrible singer and they don’t know it and they like to do karaoke or perform at every chance they get. The facebook friend that posts horoscopes and farmville updates daily. You know the person. That person that you wish you could tell them what everyone else sees but they don’t.

Have you ever wondered if you are “that guy”? I have. I like to believe that I am not. But, “that guy” probably thinks he isn’t either.

Whether you know me or have just read my blog for the first time; I want you to leave a comment (anonymously if you prefer) telling me the flaws I have. Be specific, don’t just say, “You kind of bug me sometimes.” Maybe I have bad breath and I don’t notice. Maybe my clothes are too tight. That’s just it I don’t know and I really wish I did. Be honest, Be specific and don’t just tell me I am awesome. I already know that. Tell me something I don’t know. If I don’t get any feedback I will be forced to assume I am perfect and you don’t want that. This is your chance. Have at it.

Help me debug and improve.

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My Bad Example: Do As I Say, Not As I Do

Last October I had a great idea for a website. It was going to be amazing. It is called CraftBattles.com The idea started from wanting to take our annual pumpkin carving contest online so friends and family all over the country could participate. Then I thought, what if I did a different contest every season such as gingerbread houses, easter eggs, etc. Then I took it a step further and thought I should open it up to all crafts and just leave it up and restart it every once in a while. I worked hard in October to get the site working and get friends and family to submit their photos. Things were going good and traffic was on the rise. I even decided to make it easy to share your craft on facebook for your friends to come vote for. It was perfect and it was going to go viral. Guess what. The site has been up for nearly 6 months and has done practically nothing for the past 5 months. Could this site be big? Sure. Was it a bad idea? Maybe. There are a lot of reason why it hasn’t succeeded. One being that I haven’t followed through. The site is very basic and could use some real improvement. I did the minimum necessary to get it functioning and little else to improve the usability. I also gave up quickly on getting the word out. My plan was to visit craft bloggers and start getting the word out. The biggest problem is I am not crafty and the subject doesn’t interest me all that much. I was looking for an easy win and when it didn’t take off I gave up.

We want the world! We want to have the next million dollar idea, get six pack abs and change the world. This is a good thing. But…

You Gotta Want It

This is simple yet I often skip this step. Did I really want a website about crafts? Probably not. I just wanted to create a site that would go viral and see if I could make a few bucks. I am not a crafter. Money usually isn’t the best motivating factor. Really try to imagine your new and improved life and what it takes to get there. You may want some of the perceived benefits of reaching your goal but deep down inside you may not want to reach your goal. I can say I want a chiseled physique but when I come across guys who spend their life in the gym and are 100% dedicated to getting that physique I can’t really say I want to live their life. I just want the results.

The REAL Secret

If you have determined that you truly have found goal worth pursuing, congratulations! You are now ready to make it happen. Now go and buy every book on the subject, spend all day reading blogs about it, Cut pictures out of a magazine, Sit and think about it every waking moment, if you think about it enough and stay completely positive and don’t doubt; it will magically just happen. Hold on, hold on. I’m kidding! I hope you don’t buy that garbage.

Be realistic about how long it will take to achieve your goals. Set a deadline to shoot for. Begin the planning process. Like I said, most people lose steam between 1-4 weeks. Pathetic, I know. So in your planning you need to break down your goal to something reasonable you can accomplish this week. Something very small that you know without a doubt you will be able to do. This can be difficult because we have a lot of excitement and we may be tempted to set a big goal the first week. We might say, “I am going to blog, vlog, tweet, run, lift weights every day this week!” And, we may have the motivation to do it. Slow down, slow down! Well, disclaimer first: It is possible to go full steam ahead right away and make it but this is only in rare cases and with rare people. I’m not going to stop you. But believe me, I’ve done this too many times and failed. What really works is setting yourself success in small increments. This week do just a little more than you did last week. If you did nothing last week do very little this week and when you do reward yourself. Pat yourself on the back. Feel good about actually doing something no matter how small it may seem. Accomplishment feeds your motivation. Plan your first several weeks so that you improve every single week. Don’t worry so much about the end goal. Just focus on improving each week however small the improvement may be and celebrate those improvements.

If you don’t accomplish your goal on a given week don’t repeat the same week. Repeat the previous week. You already know you can do it. You need to prove to yourself you haven’t lost what you have built so far. Really try to set your first goals so that you don’t reach this point until you are at least 8 weeks into it. If you have improved every week for 8 weeks and properly celebrated you will be much more prepared to handle a small set back. If you have a set back the first week you either set a bad goal or you skipped the first step of this process and you really really have the wrong goal.

A Good Example

I ran a half marathon almost 5 years ago. When I started training I think I could barely run two miles. I found a program where I know I could make it to week 4 and was pretty sure that if I made it that far I could make it to the end. I then found a race that was scheduled a week or two after I would complete my training plan. Roughly every week I added a mile to my long Saturday run. I did have a setback or two but they didn’t happen until I had already reached the half way point. I wasn’t going to give up then. It was a great feeling to know that I had followed through with my plan and reached my goal. I also lost about 25 lbs in the process which was an extra bonus!

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Why did I not take the class? I knew that the highest paying jobs were lawyers, doctors, accountants and engineers. I didn’t want to waste my time with artsy stuff! It wouldn’t help me get into college!

I don’t want to sound like I have regret because I don’t but I do want to say my opinion has changed and my life’s experience has changed my attitude towards art and creativity. I have always enjoyed the arts but I have ignored them.  Many of my learning goals now relate to the arts. I want to learn photography, music and graphic design most of all.

My Camera

I didn’t know much about cameras when I got married but I knew I wanted a nice camera.  It was 2005 and we were both still in college. For my birthday, my wife let me get a nice camera. It was about the nicest digital (non SLR) camera we could get and it wasn’t cheap. I think we paid something like $400 for it. It is a Canon S2 IS. It was been a good camera. It does video and has a nice 12x optical zoom. I remember that was one of the features I was most interested in. I also wanted to make sure there wasn’t a shutter delay. My camera at the time took forever to take pictures after pressing the button.

Fast forward 5 1/2 years. Last week I took my first course on Lynda.com. It was a sweet course about Photography and exposure. I learned all the ins and outs of shutter speed, aperture and ISO settings.

15 seconds wasn't enough time to get the "H" on the end of my wife's name.

I actually learned some settings on my own camera that I never knew how to use all these years. I was motivated to get out my manual to see what my camera was capable of and I was surprised how much I could do. I learned that I could change the shutter speed to 15 seconds. This is cool if you want to take interesting pictures at night. I also learned that my camera has some serious limitations.

ISO Makes Good Photographers Great

The ISO range on my camera is 50-400 and at 400 the images are really grainy. In case you don’t know (I didn’t really), ISO is basically a setting where your image sensor amplifies the light as it captures the shot. ISO is unique to digital photography and can compensate for low light. So I basically learned that my ISO capabilities are pathetic. To get a good image without using the flash I need to be outside in sunlight. Nice DSLR cameras these days have ISO ranges up to like 3200!

Why do I want to upgrade my camera? It mostly comes down to the image sensor and the quality of image it can capture. There are a few other nice benefits of owning a DSLR; for example, you can look like you are professional. Although it seems like more and more people are opting for fancy cameras. Sometimes I think this is similar to soccer moms with SUVs. They have them for looks and never take them off the paved road. Especially after taking this class and learning how much I could do with my existing camera I couldn’t help but wonder if the people I know with nice cameras actually know how to use the different settings or if they mostly use them like point and shoot cameras. I don’t want to do that.

Going Pro

My goal is to work with what I have and prove to myself that I will not put an expensive camera to waste. I have some ideas of how to become a professional and I think they just might work. I can totally justify getting nice equipment if I’m making money with photography. More on that later. I have a long ways to go before I can consider myself a professional.

If you know photography help me out please. Critique, critique, critique. I really want constructive feedback don’t just tell me these look good because I know they have a ton of room for improvement. I want to know what I can do now with what I have to improve.

Photos I’ve Taken This Week

K, Thanks.

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Just Do It!!!! Do It Now!!!

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Some rules exist whether we know them or not.   But more often we give ourselves rules that really do not exist!  They’re all in our head.  Rules are a good thing.  Don’t get me wrong.  Good rules free us and bad rules bind us.  What rules have been imposed upon you or maybe you have set on yourself limit you from your potential?  You define which rules you will live by and which ones you choose to ignore.  Choose wisely.  I choose to have ice cream for lunch today.

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