Will 2010 be a repeat performance

I thought I'd blog on 2009 since it seems very natural to do so. Here is a short list of things I'm grateful for that happened in 2009.

1. My kids and I have continued to develop better and better relationships.

2. My wife and I have continued to develop a better and better relationship.

3. I was given a trip to Cabo in February. My first trip to Mexico and it was all expense paid.

4. I was given an opportunity to start several online business starting a year long process of learning. It has been an awesome experience and one I will continue into next year.

5. I participated in a legal proceeding where I started by representing myself. I discovered for myself the self-care in both participating and working on your own legal defense and hiring a lawyer.

6. I realized how much I have learned about intellectual property, business management, and contracting in the 15 years I've been working in corporate america.

7. I realized how wide my knowledge about product development, manufacturing, and quality assurance are big assets in the work I want to do promoting and selling gaming products.

8. I discovered the answer to my business objectives was to return to a hobby I have been not involved in for more than 15 years. Who knew that gaming would come back as a solution to many issues.

9. I have discovered that my spiritual self has always been with me and that god is on my side. His support guides much of what I do.

10. I have come to a deeper understanding that my desire and my abilities do not need to match perfectly when I start something. I can fail at things and it will not only be just fine its actually the road to success.

11. I am more willing to push for something I want because I have learned that the only downside of forcing things forward is that I have to face my fear. Facing my fear is one of the biggest challenges of my life.

12. I realized with the death of my father that I too had a limited physical experience here and that I would not let up while I'm here.

My plan for 2010 is simple. Continue to be creative and live in the moment. My goals are simple and challenging.

To anyone who reads this before or after Jan 2010. God bless you.

Transition

Many things have happened in my life since my last blog post. Which is the primary reason for my lack of posting.

The biggest change is that my father died in a motorcycle accident on September 11th 2009. He was 60 yrs old. I am 40yrs old.

My dad and I were good friends. Over the last 23 years, after I came to live with him in High School, I have come to understand and accept my dad and our relationship. It has always been a struggle for me being from a family with many dysfunctions but my dad's long stint with recovery from Alcoholism was a major influence on me as a young man and began a life long process of change that I continue through today.

When I was in seventh grade I went to live with my dad in Salem, OR. He was newly sober after realizing that he was addicted to Alcohol. A sobriety that would last until his death. I believe that it was this time in my life which gave me the clarity and sobriety to avoid alcohol addiction. Thank you dad for getting sober early enough in my life that I could learn from you prior to embarking on my adult path.

Over the remaining years of my child hood I would come and go from different family arrangements and eventually I came once again to live with my dad. He had divorced and remarried in the 4 years that I hadn't lived with him. So as I entered 11th grade I settled into what seemed like the first Father-Son relationship of my life. Of course neither of us were skilled at being a father and son and we had a lot of baggage to overcome but we did reach an understanding and developed a relationship that would last the next 23 years of my life.

It was this relationship and the lessons I tried to learn from my dad's mistakes that have propelled me into adult hood. I was little D and he was big D. Although in many ways my dad never was the kind of father I want to be he was a good one. He tried his best. It was with this acceptance that I found great peace in my life around this relationship.

However, on September 11th I became big D. Gone from my life is the person who my mother said I was just like. Gone from my life was a man I never saw achieve the things he wanted. My father taught me many things, but the lessons I've learned the most from him were things he learned the hard way.

I am not really anything like my dad. Physically, emotionally, and personality we are very different. There were some similarities in mannerisms but beyond such affections we never set our sail the same way.

My father was content at being a mechanic for nearly 40 years. While he wanted more for himself he never took the risk to strike out and go for it. As I strive into the future I will look back upon the life of my father with love and fondness but also with a resolve. A resolve that my life is not a reflection of his. I am not limited by my belief structure. I create and modify my beliefs to reflect an ever growing understanding of truth.

My father loved many, many people. My father was a great man and he will be remembered by the hundreds of people he loved. My life was enriched by him and I will resolve to life my life in a way that would make him proud.

--Religious Note

As you may or may not believe in an afterlife this portion of my blog post may ring true or not.

In my life time there are three people who I know are watching out for me from the afterlife. My grandfather Kester, my grandfather McLeod, and my father. I know that they are part of a long chain of ancestors who I am connected to through god.

As a spiritual being I am connected to them even after death. I know they will always be with me.

Focus back on Self-Care

Well all, its been a very busy month. I can't believe how much I've been enjoying life through spending time with my wife and kids, working hard, and learning.

So this post I wanted to point out some tools that I have found usefull in not only getting through my days happy but actually being spiritually fullfilled.

1. Spend as much time as possible enjoying nature. This is something I'm just learning to do and I dont' do nearly enough.

2. Spend some time each day taking stock in the little things that need doing in your environment. The little things bring a lot of joy.

3. Spend some time each day in prayer or meditation. Relaxing your mind from the "figure it out" rat race by just connecting with god creates ripple effects in your life.

4. Study something. Increasing knowledge and exploring new topics is always inspiring.

5. Be careful with your words and monitor your emotional state closely. The more you learn about how your feelings are really determined by your own thinking the more you'll likely realize that saying things and trying to fix problems you percieve from an emotional place really don't get you want you want and create conflict and strife.

I know for me the daily activities can get me off my track and they surely have over the last few months. But I realize now more than ever its vital for my mental progress and health to practice good self care.

Dave

Twitter Management

As some of you may know I started a few months ago connecting with people through twitter.

My goals of this were simple. Connect with people of similar knowledge, skills, interest, and objectives as myself.

I realized quickly that this was a hard task. With thousands and millions of people out there finding the ones I was interested in seemed harder than I expected. And also, it was time consuming to manage.

Pretty quickly I figured out I wanted to automate many of the tasks I was doing manually. The problem was I didn't have the time to develope the tools and still do everything else I need/want to do. I was a customer looking for a solution. :)

My requirements were simple:

1. Automatically follow people who tweet keywords I'm interested in.

2. Follow back real people who follow me.

After days of playing with different tools I didn't find it. And then one day my friend Ray Levesque says, hey check out Tweet Spinner.

The problem with Tweet Spinner is the UI. The simple layout hides the powerful functionality. In addition it isn't intuitive how to configure and setup the options.

But once you do have them setup its great. If you like to Autofollow people you can do that but unlike other features this one allows you to filter out people based on keywords they use. It doesn't eliminate ending up following bots but it reduces it a lot.

But the feature I like best is the Follow On Keyword. Tweet Spinner monitors the public domain and if someone tweets about something I'm interested in I can follow them.

If anyone has other questions about Twitter I'll be glad to answer if I know something about the question.

Dungeons and Dragons

I haven't been blogging much while I focus on my Outsourcing site content development.

But I wanted to blog about my newly rediscovered interest in D&D.

As a kid I played D&D and the friends I made playing the game are still close to me more than 20yrs later. The game for me was an activity, a hobby, an exploration of who I wanted to be and a way to stay busy as a kid.

The benefits of playing were:

1. An increased interest in academic fields expecially European history.

2. An increased understanding and interest in the nature of things, physics, and psychology.

3. An increased expression of creative energy and exploration of my creative process.

So as I reach 40 I realize that there was something I desired in my life and that is a giving back to youth and youthfull ways.

My love of games has never really died down including 3 yrs of playing World of Warcraft. But today I find my desire is more to connect, create, and learn than to accomplish. Online MMOs are more about accomplishment since the world is created for you, the stories you can tell are limited by the lore of the game designers. So that has led me back to Paper based games.

Well recently I have been visiting gaming stores. Those gaming stores have brought me closer to another understanding. I want to be a presence in the lives of younger people. To help them find themselves and reach their potential. Gamers are my peeps. Playing games is my hobby and therefore is a perfect synergy for me.

So I'm working on a D&D Campaign and I'll begin running it next month at the local gaming store. Its going to be a blast. I'm looking forward to making new connections and exploring my creative side.

Recovering From Surgery

Over the last week I've been in for surgery for a repair of an umbilical hernia. Can't say as it was a big deal but since I've only ever had two procedures before in my life it is not normal course of business for me.

I fared well. I am healing and have been off the pain pills for more than 24hrs. The surgery was on Wednesday morning and my last pill was Friday in the middle of the night.

In that time I've done really well emotionally with plenty of rest and relaxation. I can tell you that the experience has been a good one for me and I am glad I took care of this minor health issue instead of waiting. 

Some of the things I've done to help my recovery:

1. Listened to and followed my Dr.'s instructions.
   
2. Was mentally and physically prepared before the surgery by getting plenty of rest, exercise, and healthy eating the previous two weeks.
   
3. Was mentally prepared from being away from work. As many of you are, I am an important team member. Being away produces stress for me because I have a desire for things to go well at all times. I have a very high bar around project execution.
   
4. Prepared my spiritual practice ahead of time and invited others to pray for me. 
5. Empowered the people in my life to make decisions for me. I did not stress over any detail of running the house, getting food, finding keys, etc... I let others take that burden and let whatever perceived mistakes happen just be "the way it should have gone."
6. I did not invoke stress as a coping mechanism against fear. I let my feelings come and go and kept free of worry and anxiety. When I felt fear I reviewed the information I had and if I didn't have any questions I realized I was hooked by unrealistic fear and meditated instead.

These things really helped me in staying clear, being alert and attentive to what was happening, and in the end contributed to a fairly stress free experience. 

I think I'll be doing these things more when I'm not going in for surgery.

~Dave

Giving back

Over the last week I've been really gaining a lot of new connections on twitter. Its been fun to get a chance to meet all of the new people. But for the most part the connections really haven't gone very far. They seem to stop after just a moment of @SOandSO and back.

I think this may be because we are all being plowed by so many offers. We are getting numb because we can't tell which ones are of value and which ones are just noise. 

I have been following up on every new follower by looking at their twitter profile and the web page they link.

What I've seen are hundreds of offers of lists of things to do, things to buy, or services to purchase. With 700 followers and so many offers for purchases I haven't been able to filter enough to find the offers where people want to work with me on something, offer me assistance, or just take care of something I need. Perhaps we are scared to just give away our time. Perhaps we only do that for close friends or people we think we'll do business with in the future or charities. 

Even when I thought of the idea of just giving away support myself I was scared and angry at the thought. The voices that stop me from action came shooting from inside my head, "My effort and even my idea wont be appreciated, no one will want my services, they won't value my time, they wont understand my intent, they won't see that I really do value their needs, they wont like me."

The idea almost died on the vine just then. 

But then my higher self came in and I realized that I need to be the change I want to see in the world. 

So I'm offering to do something for the first five people to ask me. The maximum time commitment I can make for each task is 2hrs per task and I will complete the task within a week. I'll be doing one or two of them a day.

Here are a few things I can do very well:

1. Project Planning: you provide me description of the project and what the end results will be I'll help you build a schedule.

2. Code inspections: you provide me some code in any of the following languages and I'll provide you my feedback. C, C++, Java, C#, ActionScript, VB Script, etc... you get the idea. I'm a senior software engineer by training.

3. Project Scope definitions: you provide me with the context of your project in as much detail as you can and I'll provide you up to a two page project scope document.

4. Design review: you provide me a software design and I'll provide you a design review against standard design methodologies.  I have been designing software since 1992 so I have some knowledge in this.

5. Project Assessment: provide as much detail as possible and I'll provide you an assessment and 10 things you can do to improve your project performance. Also, if you provide the necessary schedule and completion data I'll provide you an earned value assessment.

6. Professional coaching about a work environment or work process problem. I'm willing to make the long distance call on my dime (which is already paid for because I have unlimited calling time.)

7. Anything else you can think of that I can help you with.

I am offering these things for free. You pay nothing. I will not store your email address or contact information for any purpose. I will not bug you about the services I offer or products I sell.

Again this offer is: I will perform any of the above 7 tasks for you within the next week. I can spend a max of two hours on each task but I'll give you a full dedicated effort on your task.

If anyone who reads this would like to also participate in this giving exercise let me know and we can find a way to start spreading the load. 

The first five people to contact me I'll list here and we'll get things rockin.

My email is djkester (at) gmail.com. Please, include "Plz, help me with" followed by the task in the subject of your email.

Dave

My Ego wants you all to know I'm cool

I realized that as I explore the use of twitter I am drawn more and more to asking questions and trying to learn about other people.

This is oposition to the desires of my ego which wants everyone who talks to me to think I'm smart, capable, and fun. But the reality is that ego centric statements mostly result in very flat, one-sided, and frankly boring conversations.

What I prefer is for people to communicate with me with regard to their passions, desires, and capabilities in a way that opens the conversation. Exploring how we are similiar and unique at the same time.

So many of us on Twitter are trying to push ourselves up to increase our influence. The goal is not a bad one. "Try to reach a larger audience for our ideas and capabilities." And it is a strong elixer for our egos. The possiblity to reach so many others so quickly and have them really desire the information is like a drug to that ego centric part of our psyche.

However, as I participate in twitter I find that I am more and more desiring to understand my fellows through tweets that reveal themselves. I'm less and less desiring to impress and captivate my followers. 

Perhaps its the therapy I've done that has really shifted me. I don't really know why, but I am more and more inclined to learn. I have often given lip service to a Ghandi quote, "Seek first to understand and then be understood." But with twitter I'm actually seeing the value in doing this.

I find the entire experiment of social networking to be a great and expansive way of finding new connections and reaching my goals of interconnectivity.  I think its exciting and fun.

So please, let me know what drives your passion in life and what you think is fun and cool.

Dave

History Of F1337 Command

The day I dinged 70 I wanted to celebrate. I wanted to feel that way everyday.

Do you know the feeling I'm talking about? The third day straight of grinding? That feeling that your weekend is running out and you'll have to go back to work still wanting to play?

When I returned to work after hitting 70 I had to leave that feeling of elation and high behind. I had to basically forget about my favorite activity of the last several days. I had to forget about being a 70th level priest and be a 38yr old Project Manager again.

Oh well, back to Dockers(tm) and a Polo shirt. Back to the office grind. Only the grind at the office wasn't the same level of fun as grinding Orcs, Trolls, or Murlocs.

I can tell you that as a stable productive father of two with a history of great success in his life. I was decidedly wanting to be at home on the computer. Not because I didn't love my job. Not because I didn't engage well with others in society. Not because I didn't understand complex dynamics of human relationships. It was actually more as a result of these things. No other place could I be the smart, complex geek that I wanted to be. No other place did I get to convince 20 other people to get online at the same moment suspend the rest of their miserable lives and play like those lives depended on it. I can't even get people to stop looking at their cell phones during a meeting at work. instead of being anti-social while playing I was actually hyper-social.

It was obvious to me at the time that while these geeks I played with hadn't figured out how to monetize forming guilds, and completing objectives there were building skills that if put to economic pursuits would make them rich. It was clear to me that being a geek was becoming something special and something the default world hadn't figured out how to utilize yet. I realized that the skills developed in the pursuit of role playing games, technology, and being the master of Star Wars trivial pursuit is about to make a huge shift to the mainstream.

The geeks arecoming of age, developing team skills that any Project or Senior Manager would marvel at. Its my belief that the ability of geeks to organize around common goals and objectives in a virtual work environment and accomplish goals is part of what is driving the world wide distribution of work.

And I was glad to be part of it. I started looking for ways I could externalize this realization. Something that would remind me subtly of my inclusion in this group and still not make me stand out in a crowd. So I began to search. After looking high and low I never found anything that fit the bill. No clothes really fit the bill. When I was on my honeymoon we went shopping and I could find anything. No one at Pike Place Market in Seattle (where I live) had anything. It was weird. Its like being a geek has been something we learned to keep hidden along with our D&D books.

In fact I never found anything that I really wanted. I was a bit upset. The company who made the game I played only had a few t-shirts. Licensed outfitters were only offering crappy t-shirts and hoodies with huge graphics. Geek supply companies made products by the truck load but nothing I could or wanted to wear to work.

Over the next two years this problem and my life continued to come up again and again. Someone needed to create something that would feed this new capable group of productive people. The REI for geeks needed to be built.

To make something that brought both of our worlds together. It had to be a a brand not just some stuff. It had to speak to my inner geek. A brand that would show that smart comes in all kinds of forms. A brand that my friends would be proud of and still reflect well on geeks everywhere.

So I began to dream. And I began to learn. But then about a year ago I realized something critical to the company. It had to exist the same way the guilds did. I had to be based on a community. A community of people who wanted to create, and build it. A standard corporate structure of employees and managers wasn't going to work.

It had to have functional organization. It had to have the correct charter and plan. It had to have a DKP system for distributing the loots of the business. It had to allow for rapid growth and a dynamic command structure.

So over the last year i've been working on developing the ideas. Using my knowledge of operating in the business world and operating in the virtual guild world. F1337 Command is the manifestation of those ideas. A corporation with only one employee but with hundreds of members. A corporation that pays royalties to the creators for everything on the site. A company that spreads the wealth to the newb just as much as the old timer. Because instead of rewarding time-on-the-job it rewards success against the mobs.

Only this time the mobs would be benefiting as much as the contributors. Because instead of slashing, shooting, and casting we are designing, creating, and delivering great products to our customers.

If you read all of this then you are a valiant soul. I love you. Perhaps you have some thoughts of your own. Perhaps you'd like to share them. Perhaps you'd like to contribute to our site. Perhaps you'd just like to get to know me better. No matter i'm open to all your questions and comments. Please, email me, follow our projects, follow me on twitter, buy our products, join our creative programs. We would love to hear from you.

I wrote this for the F1337 Command Web-site. Its reposted here with their permission.

HALT

Hey all, I wanted to share with you all a very effective self-help concept I've been using with great success. 

Some back story:

I have been working on personal change for about the last 6 years now. Over the that time I've done a lot of therapy and personal development. During this time I've been working to change my behaviors that didn't get me the results I wanted from my life. 

Back to now:

Recently I've been struggling with changes to some of the most persistant self defeating behaviors. Those being over eating, distracting with movies, games, etc... 

Well during this time I've heard the acronym HALT mentioned off and on. It stands for Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired. The idea is that when your hungry, angry, lonely, or tired you are normally the most likely to not take good care of yourself. Its these times that we are the most likely to want to escape into our addictions.

So about 3 weeks ago I decided to make a two changes in my routine. 

1. When I'm feeling like playing video games, or other distractions that don't help me achieve my goals or renew my spirit I'll stop and ask myself if I'm HALT. If I am I'll first determine what I need for myself to change that state. If there is nothing at hand that will help me I'll simply stop and listen to three meditation songs and relax. 

2. I will checkin with myself three times daily and see if I'm HALT.

I want to report great success. I have had so many good experiences with the relaxing meditations I can't list them all. I haven't spent anytime on what could only be called an addiction to flash based video games (even though it was often only a fleeting high.)

So for now I will continue my new practice of meditation instead of distraction. Its been a great experience.

Go with god and love.

Exercising your personal Demons

Hey all,  its been a while since I had the time to do some blogging. Been busy working, playing, and creating.

Since its been a while I wanted to share a bunch of different stuff. But in the end the top proirity was to share with you an exercise in personal growth that I've been conducting over the last week.

As some of you know I'm engaged in a theraputic process which includes twice yearly therapy intensives. I attended one on the 6-8th of March. This was like many of the intensives a great opportunity to heal mental wounds of the past. In this case however, I also found that I was able to heal a spiritual wound of the past.

We went through a guided meditation whereby we learned about one of our personal demons. 

In my case I focused on my personal demon of destraction. You see in my life I use distraction as a coping mechanism.  In learning about this demon it became clear that while my demon wasn't necessarily creating problems in my life that the outside world could see it was causing problems for me in accomplishing my goals. 

What I learned was that my presonal demon of distraction really needed was a sense of security and safety. For me I never felt safe and secure as a child and therefore developed these methods of coping based on that childhood situations.

Over the last week instead of allowing myself these indulgent distractions I've meditated instead. The result has been good. I'm building a wealth of spiritual resources and understanding. 

Its amazing how much better I feel after a 12 min meditation instead of 1+ hr(s) distraction.

Thank you universe for the wealth and prosperty of spirit, mind, and body that you bring me.

Dave

Practical Process Improvements

Those who know me know that at work I am all about improving and I'm extremely practical. I push hard on people to make the changes necessary to accomplish out goals in companies I work in. 

I'm annoying to those who aren't effective and don't produce work products. Now that I have become more familiar with oversees outsourcing in my work I see the same issues that have plagued the organizations I've worked in for years.

I am going to launch a sub-scription based service that will serve as a resource for companies in this situation. The goal of this company will be to provide several services that outsourcing companies need.  Some of them are:

1. Practical Solutions to real problems.

2. On-going connectivity to industry best practices in an engaging interactive (WEB 2.0) format.

3. Online Mentoring capabilities. (more on this TBD based on a discussion with a mentoring site service provider.)

4. etc..

I'm seeking your help if you read this blog. Please, send me your ideas on a name for such a company. 

I have a few of my own but I thought I'd reach out to you all and see what new ideas come to me.

Cabo San Lucas

I thought I should blog about my upcoming trip to Cabo.

This will be my first vacation out of the country. For me its a big milestone in many ways. One I'm beginning to experience the rewards of my new attitudes and outlooks on life. Two I'm beginning to realize that good things can happen to me even without me "making it happen." 

Here are some hurdles to such a trip in my life right now.

1. I can't afford it.

2. I didn't have a passport.

3. I didn't have a plan to get to be able to make such a trip.

4. My wife is afraid of flying.

5. I feel guilty when I spend big money on stuff like this.

The universe is my alley and it is teaching me. 

1. This trip was a bonus from my boss. I am not paying anything more to go on this trip than I would staying at home.

2. We got our passport in one day after turning in the paperwork. Which we had to wait two weeks to get a birth-c for Erin.

3. My plans are to begin to expand outside and travel to India. This comes a first travel out of the country. I think the universe is preparing me.

4. My wife is getting therapy to overcome her fear of flying. And she thinks of this trip as a test drive of her new psyche.

5. I have done a lot of therapy on my own personal pschye. 

I am looking forward to 5 days in the sun!!!!

First Internet Business off the ground

Well all, I launched my first internet business today.

After a month of working on product development and getting it all ready its live.

http://www.mydivorcemanagement.com

The site is ready for business. I'll be reporting off and on over the next couple of weeks as it progresses. But here a few highlights of materials I used in helping me get to this reality:

1. The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris

2. The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch

3. Fatcow.com

4. SiteShop.com (a free service of Fatcow.com)

5. Paypal for taking credit card orders.

6. Advertising Secrets of the Written Word by Joseph Sugarman

I have a few people I'd like to thank in helping me reach this goal:

1. Ed Chapman for recommending "The Four Hour Work Week" to me.

2. Justin Scott for recommending readings and being a great supporter and awesome close friend. You desirve more than this but...

3. Erin Kester for editing and supporting me while I shared all my learnings with her.

4. Vince and Sandra Horan for their awesome support in my pursuits.

5. Karuna Poole for helping me get past my blocks in reaching my goals.

6. Amma for reminding me that talk is cheap its the doing that is hard.

7. Raj and the crew at AE for making it a great place to work.

8. To Scott East for his "I'll be standing by" support through the last six years.

9. To many unmentioned inspirations.

Valid Responses to Drama

Sometimes in the world we run into people who are not all that healthy. These folks are often called dramatic or causing drama.

A model that helps us understand the nature of these dramatic interactions and our role in the communications that get going is the "Drama Triangle."

However, what I want to share today are some simple guidelines I use in avoiding drama with people who I must interact with but that are often attempting to get me on the triangle. 

In these situations here are my normal responses to comments attempting to get me into the drama:

1. I understand your point.

2. Are you asking me to make a change?

3. I have already committed to a change you asked for.

4. I have already said I will not commit to the change you asked for related to this item.

5. I understand what you’re saying and I respectably disagree with your point of view.

6. You have already said this about me several times and if you continue to attack me I will end the conversation.

7. Will you explain why you think this is a problem? (Ask for clarification)

8. Silence (learn the power of the pregnant pause.)

In case you need to present informaiton to this person (which I rarely do verbally) you should simply state facts. But in my experience there is not normally a good reason to present data to a person attempting to engage you in a dramatic conversation. Its best to write the facts down and present the information to the person that way.

However, if you need to respond or provide information constrain it to facts that are available from sensory input. 

Meaning if what you are talking about wasn't heard, seen, smelled, touched, or tasted you are probably not stating a fact but instead a conclusion or judgement. 

The facts should speak for themselves and differences in opinion, judgements, or conclusions are simply that differences. 

Further you should base your actions on your conclusions, judgements, and opinions but do not attempt to force them on to other person by trying to convince them that you are right and they are wrong.

Doubt a self imposed reality

Tonight I began my journey to go on a vision quest.

In the beginning of this journey I had several revelations but the most re-occuring was the observation that I have doubts in nearly everything I am trying to accomplish.

So I'm going to do the following to address my constant brain chatter which is the manifestation of my doubt and causes me anxiety.

1. I'm going to develop a daily reading to help me achieve me goals and release doubts. A couple of items for that reading already inspired are:
   • I have clarity and purpose.
     
   • The universe is my ally
2. I'm going to obtain an object that I use each morning to capture the doubts that my subconscious mind has generated each night.

My goal in these activities is to free my mind each day of the doubts that are in the subconscious which have been there most of my life. In this way I will be free to accomplish all that I desire.

The 80/20 Principle

I started listening to "The 80/20 Principle" audio book. And the rap referenced in the beginning of the book wont get out of my head. 

My current three thoughts on the 80/20 Principle aer:

1. That 80% of my extra weight comes from 20% of my food. 

My conclusion. Instead of changing what I'm eating and when I'm going to only adjust the size. When i eat fast food I'm ordering the smallest adult sizes of the items I want.

2. 80% of nutrients come most likely from 20% of my food. Because of this I'm going to focus on identifying those items I eat with the highest nutrient value and ensuring I get them each day.

3. 80% of your judgements of things result in small to no outputs. So the decisions you make are generally fed only by 20% of your judgements.

This frees my mind to not focus so much on judgements because I now can understand that most likely 4/5 of those judgements actually don't do me any good.

I know this isn't a principle that should be flailed around like a bible of how to organize but putting things in context of 80/20 is very empowering to me.

The 4-Hour Workweek

This is my first post after listening to the Audio Book of "The 4-Hour Workweek." by Tim Ferriss.

At this point my mind is still realing from the shear number of actionable things he presents in the book. 

My inner critical parent is working overtime trying to keep from believing in my own ability to achieve. Today I will augment listening to the book by listening to a ZAO meditation as well.

If you have not read "The 4-Hour Workweek" by Tim Ferriss don't. It'll just disturb your life by giving  you a new perspective and actionable steps you can take to live up to the four agreements Don Miguel Ruiz lists in "The Four Agreements." 

Those being:

"Be Impeccable With Your Word" (especially what you tell yourself.)

"Don't Make Assumptions" (especially regarding the nature of work and the world.)

"Always Do Your Best" (even when you don't believe in your own ability.)

"Don't Take Anything Personally." (the universe is not conspiring against you.)

Dave