Hacking Your Passions

On a hike with friends in the woods last week, one person asked the following question to everyone in our group:

“If you had to describe yourself using just one word, what would it be?”

Everyone answered more quickly than me. I take questions like that pretty seriously, and found myself irrationally afraid of answering incorrectly. The closest I came to was “connected” because it has many meanings I think apply to me (though my second choice of “geek” would have been fairly accurate as well).

That question, and the process I went through to get to an answer, got me thinking on another path. Maybe the appropriate follow-up question would be:

“If you could choose one word to be described as by everyone who knows you, what would it be?”

What do you aspire to be remembered as, as opposed to what you believe you would be remembered as today. How would you like to be able to most accurately describe yourself? In one sense this is harder than the first question, because it’s more theoretical and less concrete than the question asked of me by my friend on that trail in the woods. But in another sense, it is easier in its lack of need to be based on the reality of now. It is an opportunity to create a new, somewhat different shade of you.

As alluded to in a recent post, I have been working on focusing my life through a simple, specific set of goals or, if you will, mission statements. Between last night and this morning, I came closer than ever to figuring out what one of the big mission statements ought to be. It came partially out of conversation with a friend last night (in a bar this time rather than in a forest) and partially while walking this morning along a canal with my wife. This new mission statement is:

“To inspire myself and others through my actions. To be outstanding in the pursuit of my goals. To be generous in my respect for and trust in others, so that others may come to trust and respect my generosity.”

To be remembered, in one word, as “Inspiring”. That’s my dream.

What’s yours?

Attend SXSW next year.

People who work with me for very long tend to begin to refer to me as a “Jack of All Trades” (which I’ll now refer to as JoAT in the remainder of this article). I have always been someone that takes everything on that comes my way and does a decent job at it. My job title has never been something that encapsulates even a small amount of what I do. In relationships, I tend to have many strong acquaintances rather than a few extremely strong friendships. This lack of focus on any specific aspect of any part of my life has served me well, and plays well to strengths of mine such as connecting things and ideas, looking to the future, strategizing, and growing social circles.

I have noticed life beginning to nudge me in another direction lately. Not to move completely away from my JoAT style, but to rebalance and refocus. The balance point is difficult to pinpoint for me. On one side of it, I’m too focused on too few things, and some things I’m responsible fall through the cracks. That can be remedied either by reducing the level of focus on what I am paying attention to, or by removing some of the things I’ve taken ownership of without necessarily having need to. The other side of the balance is where I feel I am now, spread so thin that I can’t afford to focus on anything too much because there’s too much that needs my attention. In fact, there is so much demanding my attention right now, it’s nearly impossible to focus on anything but the essentials for very long at all. (Look at how long it has been since my last blog post here, for example.)

Brad Bollenbach recently wrote about keeping things simple. Provided within that writing is the following list of questions, which I have decided is a good starting point for figuring out how to find my focal balance again.

• What’s my goal?
• How will I know when I’ve achieved it?
• How am I measuring my progress?
• How well is my current approach working?

A clear example of something I can apply these questions to is the work I’ve been doing on my book. My goal is to write a book anyone can use to figure out what their passions are in life, how to spend more time doing things that strengthen the things they are passionate about, and why you’d want to spend more time doing that. (That’s probably too long of a mission statement, but it’s where I am right now). I’ll know I’ve achieved it when the final manuscript is sitting in my hands and the hands of my publisher. So far so good. But… I’m really not measuring my progress. I don’t even have a loose, qualitative way to express my progress on it. So that’s a huge question mark, and something easily indicative of a lack of focus on the project. My current approach is so-so. I’m collecting lots of information, and the concept is getting more and more refined, but I need to get a lot more organized about the project.

I’m going to work through this more over the weekend and report back in a blog post update.

I had several goals going into the Blog-A-Thon.

• Write a huge number of posts
• Have the content of the posts be meaningful
• Establish the three new blogs I had in mind to begin - Heartprint, Internal Innovation, and Resolution Revolution
• Write at least one new post on each of my eleven blogs
• Introduce my group writing contest
• Have fun
• Learn about myself
• Help others

I accomplished all but the first and fifth ones, and I am working on getting that fifth one tackled before evening’s end. 

I also got a lot of things done in the last 31 hours that I had no idea I would accomplish. I sort of planned on just writing, but life got in the way in interesting ways. Besides writing, I

• cleaned the bathrooms
• did five loads of laundry
• made the beds
• vacuumed
• joined a gym (and was not particularly upset by most of my measurements)
• had dinner with my wife’s parents and aunt
• filled a swimming pool
• slept a reasonable amount of time

So the answer to “was the day particularly successful” is a resounding “yes”! no one contributed any money to Make a Difference, but I think I didn’t market that well either. I’ll give that more thought - would sure like to get some donations flowing their way.

Anyway, tomorrow will be time for doing chores around the house and out and about. But chances are, I’ll get a few blog posts in too. And I’ll be quite happy with it, I suspect.

I have picked up a few neat tricks over the last year and a half, now that I’m at least occasionally a business traveller. Ways to fold clothes in on themselves so as to maximize space, minimize wrinkles, and get a week’s worth of gear in carry-ons for airplane travel (so as to not have to check luggage in). The somewhat inexplicable and potentially frustrating inverse relationship that seems to exist between the speed/cost of high speed internet access at a hotel and the cost of the room per night (cheap hotels almost always have better and free access, and seem more likely to have wi-fi).

Reading through this list of forty additional tips, I’m seeing a few that could come in handy in the future, like…

Buy something from a local store. Want to blend in? Try making a purchase from a local grocery store. The local bag will make you look more like a native and is much less likely to be stolen than an expensive purse or day pack.

Split up cash and credit cards. When traveling, alone or otherwise, it’s always a good idea to keep at least some of your money and credit cards separate. This way, if you do lose one set you’ll have another to fall back on and your trip won’t be disrupted as heavily.

Keep your hotel’s phone number and address on you. You don’t want to end up stranded in a foreign country with no way to get back to your hotel. Keep your hotel’s business card with you so you can show it to the cab driver if you don’t speak the language and have the number handy so you can call if you need to.

I spent a year of my life recently going through an intense development program at the company I currently work for. I learned untold numbers of new skills, and built significantly on those I already possessed. I learned over time how to succeed in that role, how to take the potential it held and what was expected of me and push myself to harness the opportunities present and excel. In other words, I would deem my role in that program a success.

As I moved into my new role in the company, I wondered how to take what I had learned and apply it to the new tasks at hand. What had made me successful in meeting/exceeding expectations in regards to my previous responsibilities, however, didn’t necessarily transfer one-for-one to the new role. I addressed this discovery with a friend and fellow coworker, who challenged me to consider that what worked before might not apply at all to the new job. Some things have, but it has been wonderful and an entirely new journey to learn what I need to do differently to meet and exceed the needs of my new team.

When I read this post regarding getting past done, and learning what you can from the successes and failures of a project once it’s passed, the first thing I thought of was this “aha” I had, of taking the new role and treating it like, well, something new, different, with different needs and responsibilities and expectations.

I really enjoyed this list of different ideas on how to stay productive. There are many things I had already known and taken to heart on the list (and some that are sort of obvious, I think - though I don’t like to presume), but there are a few gems that I definitely need to pay more attention to:

29. Shut the room door to block distraction - I hate to do this when I am home since I’ve already not seen my wife all day, but if there’s something I just have to get done in a small amount of time, I need to just explain that, close the door, git’r done, and then enjoy relaxing time with my wife afterwards.

26. Read books on subjects that interest you to refresh your mind - I do read a lot of self-development books, but I’ve been neglecting about every other kind of reading. I need to focus on some autobiographies and history reading to satisfy that part of my curiosity, and I probably need to delve into fiction more often and let my imagination run around in some non-reality-based worlds for a while.

6. Look in the mirror and compliment yourself, just say “God, you are good looking !” - Seems a bit goofy, but I’m game to try something new tomorrow morning

I hadn’t really thought about it in exactly these terms before, but when I came across this article on how to back up your life, I figured it would be worthwhile to review it and see if there are any gaps I need to plug in order to feel like I’ve got a good back-up plan myself.

Career - I’m feeling pretty good here. I have a great career going at my current employer, and I’ve always been a jack-of-all-trades sort of person, so if the job I’m in comes into jeopardy I’m comfortable that my skills can cross over into lots of different opportunities. I update my resume about once every six months, though nowadays it’s just so it’s not so ominous when I need to do it, plus it is fun to see what resume builders have happened in the last few months that need adding. And I have a solid enough nest egg if “something unforeseen happens”.

Finance - I’ve been putting away for retirement at the almost absurd-seeming age of 22 (especially considering what a moron I otherwise was, relatively, at 22).My wife and I are in eternal live-below-your-means mode, and I don’t think it’s in us to ever really change that way of life.

Your Personal Records - honestly, the biggest issue in all of this might be the backing up of information. I’m not a hoarder of things, but I am a hoarder of bits, of information, so it’s always a struggle to keep up.

Question: did this article miss anything important we should be thinking of “backing up” in our lives.

Beginning oh, say, NOW, I will begin blogging for 31 hours. My goal of blogging 31 times on average over the course of the 31 days of January is a HUGE stretch to reach at this point, so I’ll need to do something huge to even come close. Something like blogging for 31 hours straight. I will blog across all of my different blogging outlets at some point in that time span, including:

• Iain’s Den
• Follow Your Passions
• Hacking Your Passions
• Harness Your Passions
• Four Hour Challenge
• The Winter Festival of Pie
• Orange
• 100 Lists of 100

And three all new blogs:

• Heartprint
• Internal Innovation
• Resolution Revolution 

There will also be a contest. Details to come.

Generally, the fact that we as human beings need to spend a good 25-33% of our existence sleeping has been a constant source of frustration for me. However, this argument on the importance of sleep and how it can actually lead to increased productivity… well, it made me feel better about things, for this morning at least.

Consider for a moment some of the negative results of a constant habit or way of life where you never get enough sleep: there is a malfunctioning of the brain; reaction time slows down; ability to focus attention is impaired; your memory lapses and your ability to think creatively suffers; you feel drowsy and you lack good judgement in both minor and critical situations.

Now where’s my coffee…