I sometimes feel cheesy about setting goals and resolutions for the new year.  I am not very good about keeping many of my goals (I am often overly ambitious), but I think that not setting goals is worse than setting them and failing.  If nothing else, it will be a fun thing to look back on at the end of next year to see where my dreams/thoughts were at this time.

I am also going to try a new strategy for goal setting this year: rewarding myself for accomplishing specific goals. I don’t get the prize if I don’t reach the goal.

For 2010, I resolve to:

1. Read 20 books.  I want to read most evenings, and not just focus on heavy reading (philosophy, religion, etc.).  Prize: A Kindle or the rumored Apple Tablet (if it turns out to be a good e-book reader).
2. Read the entire Bible, cover-to-cover.  I have attempted this feat several times, but I want to fully read the entire book.  I want to make my own decisions about what the Bible says instead of relying on others to interpret it for me.  Prize: A goatskin R.L. Allan Bible.
3. Be capable of performing all Crossfit “Girl” workouts as Rx’d (without scaling).  I think this is ambitious, but I want to try.  It will require a year of hard training and solid nutrition.  Prize: A longer, healthier life + new workout gear.
4. Have less possessions.  I want to end 2010 with a lot less stuff than 2009.  I love the spirit of the 100 Things Challenge, but I haven’t committed to that yet (but I am getting close). Prize: Freedom

Happy New Year!

A year ago I was a Crossfit evangelist.  Actually, I was a junkie.  It seemed like I was having a conversation with everyone I knew about the awesomeness of Crossfit.  I ponied up $1K to get my Crossfit Level 1 cert so I wouldn’t kill myself and with the aspirations of opening up my own Crossfit gym.  I tried to get an affiliation for DailyBurn to do some stuff there, but got a little jaded when they turned us down.

Then, for a number of reasons, I stopped doing Crossfit a few months ago.  I took a stab at running, tried some P90X, etc.  None of them were sticky. However, some friends of mine opened a Crossfit Gym about a mile from my house (Crossfit Impulse) and I joined up this week.  And I love it.  I really can’t wait to get to the gym today, knowing that it is going to kill me.

Working out at an actual Crossfit gym is worth the price in my opinion.  The community, access to the proper equipment, and training is worth the extra bones.  If you have never heard about Crossfit, you can check out crossfit.com, or if you are in Madison/Huntsville I really recommend coming to check out Crossfit Impulse.

Side note: I learned something over the past few months that is related to my recent gym woes. I am never going to be an early riser.  The main reason I was dreading going to the gym was that I had to get up early.  I am 30 now, and at some point I have to give up the dream of getting up early to go to the gym and go with a schedule that works for me.  This Crossfit gym meets in the evening, so it is perfect.  No excuses now, but honestly I don’t think I will make any.  I really enjoy it, and I can’t wait for a 400m walking lunge tonight!

As the main business development contact for DailyBurn, I have a constant battle: new business opportunities and inquiries. Don’t get me wrong, I am happy to be in a place where people are reaching out to us, but the management of the constant emails/calls/meetings can be a real drain on productivity.

Maybe it is because I come from the South, but I tend to at least want to respond or have a quick call with most of the new incoming inquires. You never can tell which opportunity will result in a big deal! Plus, it is just polite to follow up with people.

The problem is, if you schedule calls and do emails every day, you don’t have the time to do other things that are typically more important. My strategy is the Thursday Afternoon Call-a-thon. Here is what you do:

• Reserve Thursday afternoons for your Call-a-thon. I block off time later in the afternoon because I am more productive on other work in the mornings.
• Schedule back-to-back calls, every 30 minutes, on Thursday afternoon. These will usually be all new opportunities so I can gauge how important it is and whether or not I should devote more time to the opportunity. 30 minutes is a good time amount… it prevents calls from dragging too long, and gives you an out if the opportunity isn’t going anywhere (e.g., “Sorry, I have another call I need to take”). In fact, I usually state that I have 30 minutes at the beginning of the call so that they won’t be shocked when I need to jump off.
• Recommend two time slots, and let them pick. This prevents unnecessary back-and-forth over email, another productivity drain.

Thursdays work for me, but you might pick another day.  Trust me though, this works!

Choosing a name for your child is a very difficult job for parents.  My wife and I have three children now, and each name was very hard to decide.  Boys names were much harder than girls names, and I think I have a theory for how my mind chooses a good name for a girl.

1. Did I have a good experience with a girl/woman with that name in the past? My first daughter was named Abigail Nicole.  I have never had a difficult time with anyone that has either of those names.  In fact, after Abby was born, my mother informed me that I was in a playgroup while in preschool.  There were three girls in my small playgroup; one of the girls was Abigail and the other was Nicole.  Subconsciously I had two good experiences with girls that had those names.
2. Did I know or “know of” a large number of girls/woman with the specific name that were cute/pretty/attractive? My second daughter was named Katherine Birdie after my grandmothers.  We call her “Katie Bird”.  I can think of both cute girls and attractive woman named Katie/Kate.  Same with Abby and Nicole.  I think subconsciously we do not want to chose a name for a girl if there was some “not-so-attractive” person we know with that name.

As an entrepreneur, one of the things I constantly battle with is getting lost in the day-to-day and not focusing on the long term.  If you have a startup, you know this first hand.  By the time you process your email, interact with customers, touch base with your team, and put out the daily fires there is little time left to plan, build, and move forward.  If I had to pick one thing I have learned about myself while creating companies the past 5 years I would say it is that I know I have a tendency to work on lots of short-term tasks and put off the grander, larger things I should be doing more.  Part of it is habit, and part of it is that I like putting out the fires.

So far, I have learned two things that can help me refocus on the larger picture and not get lost in the weeds:

• The importance of turning off email and twitter when concentrating on meaningful work.  If you live in your inbox then you get nothing done during the day except for email.
• The importance of scheduling an off-site (well, in our case, on-site) meeting with your strategic thinkers to step away from the day-to-day and look toward the future.  For our company, we do a week long retreat every 6 months, rent a house, and get to work.  The last session was very helpful to us and I expect even greater things this time.

Last summer my family moved to Boulder, Colorado and we absolutely loved it. Outside of our family ties and church, there is not much keeping us from moving back. I find many things that I loved about Boulder lacking in Huntsville. Many of these things can, and should, change in my opinion. Here are just a few things that I think could greatly benefit the Huntsville area:

• Quit building out and concentrate on improving the city. We don’t need more cotton fields turned in to subdivisions and more cookie cutter houses. Quit building houses in East Limestone, Hampton Cove, etc. Quit building crap in Monrovia for that matter. I wish Adams/Hunter homes and all those companies did not exist and that we had government policies in place to limit their growth.  They are a disease.
• Build houses and create a market for houses that are smaller, but higher quality. We don’t need bigger houses to hold more of our stuff. We need high quality, well built, environmentally friendly homes in this area.  The homes need to be in the city (not the county), and building them needs to be in the DNA of future city planning.
• Support bicycle and alternative transportation by building more bike routes, wider lanes, and proper city planning. The greenways are just a start.  Lets get serious about alternative transportation.  We have the weather for it. And, it is just one more way to help Alabama get more healthy.
• More healthy (and preferably vegetarian) restaurants.  I don’t care if they are more expensive, but I would love to see restaurants that support local farms, only use organic produce, buy grass-fed beef, etc.
• Build a whole foods, or similar grocery stores, especially in Madison.  Kroger is doing better at offering healthy foods, but we have a long way to go.  I would love to see something like Sunflower Farmers Market in Huntsville/Madison.
• Allow for more recycling possibilities, both at home and in public areas. Seriously, we can’t recycle glass bottles?
• Build more coffee shops.  Starbucks is good and all, but we need more good coffee shops in the area. The coffee shop culture is important for a young tech crowd.

I would love to hear what you think.  And, if you are interested in Huntsville development projects, I found the Huntsville Development News blog to be very interesting.

I am convinced that if Christians truly believed that Jesus was literally coming back to earth and that His return was imminent, that missional living would be no longer be an issue in the church and that the Christian life would look radically different. I think this is specifically true for the American Christian.

How would life be different? Here are just a few thoughts:

1. New life priorities would surface. Time idling and doing things of no value would seem like more of a waste. Family time would be truly cherished and the things of God would be the topic of conversation. Small group studies would feel alive. Christians would be bold to share their faith, but with a humble pleading not an arrogant pushiness. Relationships would be restored. The church would worship.
2. The allure of sin would diminish. Sin would look like the filth that it is and have no power over the Christian. There would be no time to sin and repenting and turning from sin would be faster and seem more necessary.
3. The constant need and desire for entertainment would lessen. We wouldn’t watch TV or spend our finances on things that are fleeting. Sports, video games, movies, hobbies – they would all lose significance.

While I am very far from being mindful of of the second coming most of the time, every time I consider it, my focus changes, my stress eases, and my heart becomes glad. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

What do you think would be different if Christians truly believed what Jesus said about coming back?