Alpha Exploration

Over the weekend I had my first coaching lesson with Shann Vander Leek, as well as the chance to again read her e-book Getting Your Groove Back.

Over the past few weeks its been real trying for me, both with an increased workload and longer hours at the office as well as handling of a newborn son (mine and my wife’s first).  Add into the mix my desire to move into the next phase of my life as far as a different career goes and it can be downright overwhelming at times.

I admit to going into the session without a real understanding of what I can expect a life coach to do for me, or why I even needed it.  However, thirty minutes later and I have newfound respect for those that pursue that career path.  I had done some of my homework and I know what I want to do over the next two years, but whether it was reasonable, or even able to be done in the timeframe I was picturing was still uncertain to me.

Not anymore.  The two year plan I have is full steam ahead and I’m looking forward to the gradual transition of things.  She was able to convince me that I’m right in what I am trying to do and I’m running with it.

It has always been a thought of mine, watching sunrises and sunsets, quiet time, loving your life, both socially and career path, laughing every day, being spontaneous, able to up and leave on a whim, reading, having adventures and the every so often adrenaline rush.  Fun times.  Life doesn’t afford everyone those opportunities though.  Or does it?

Sunrises are not meant to be viewed by only one person.

In talking with her and reading her book again, it’s more and more obvious things are easily accomplished with the right mindset and a little work ethic.  Nothing in life is free unfortunately, but even that is minor if you are actually enjoying what your doing.

Schedules can help us accomplish things but it also limits us, keeping us tied to a strict regimene, I mean, how many times do we actually put “call wife and say hello” on our calendar?  It’s something we plan on doing but doesn’t get done as often as if it were actually on a schedule.

I want to be schedule free.

Lucious Living, as Shann puts it, is exactly that.

Filed by jclements at 9:15 am under Review, blog
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Image by Health In Motion (http://healthinmotion.wordpress.com/)

E-book Review: “Reclaim Your Dreams: A Uncommon Guide To Living On Your Own Terms” by Jonathan Mead

As a new blogger, it was with great excitement I received in one day two seperate opportunities to review e-books for the first time.  The first one that came in via email was Jonathan Mead’s Reclaim Your Dreams, so I spent the last hour absorbing all 85 pages of it.

Most self-help books/e-books start the same way, they hype themselves up to what you can expect to change in your life, tell you how the outcome should be, then give you overrated and, for the most part, unrealistic ways to solve them.  That is not to say the way described is not possible and doesn’t work, quite contrary it probably does, *if* you followed it.  However most of us seeking help or looking for a change have already tried several methods and usually the most obvious ones at that and are really at a point in our lives where the usual just isn’t enough for us.  Blame it on willpower, confidence, or whatever, we just typically don’t follow through.  I have been one of those types for longer than I care to admit to anyone, including myself.

Jonathan’s book however is a welcome change to that and actually provides me hope on that what I am out trying to accomplish in my life right now is actually obtainable.

Divided into two parts totally eight chapters, it contains enough material and quotes that even a bullet list of key sentences would be enough to inspire you.

To me a key part that differentiates his book from others is he is not providing you a check-list of things you must do to obtain your goals.  Instead, he gets you to understand yourself better, to bring to light how you function and how you operate so that you can inevitably fulfill your goals in a way satisfactory to your preferred lifestyle, or way of being.  I say that just before I tell you that there are exercises for you to follow, but I think they are just that, exercises, they help you accomplish but aren’t what actually does the accomplishing, that is reserved to the change of attitude and mentality you hopefully adopt during the course of the book.

For me, there are definite ideas and exercises in the book that I have never fully brought to light in my own self, such as just what exactly are my dreams, what do I want to accomplish in my lifetime, and the dreaded line I’ve heard before but never gave the time of day until now, how do you want to be remembered when you die.  Just the idea of the “To Stop” list instead of a “To Do” list is completely new to me yet makes so much sense, why didn’t I think of it before?  The ‘Points To Meditate On’ make good endings to each chapter, giving you a time to reflect over what you have just read, rather than moving forward and possibly downplaying the importance of the previous chapter in itself.

A book like this has to be lengthy to some degree, I’ll give him that, so if your engulfing everything like I did, chapter one becomes a blur by the time you read chapter eight as so many ideas are brought to light, so this weekend I’ll definitely be spot-reading over chapters again as I try to implement the ideas in my own routine.  Every chapter had key phrases that clicked in my head that I look forward to reading again to solidify them in my mind.

For those needing a kick in the pants, this is definitely worth reading.  If nothing changes in your life afterwards, I can promise you it won’t be the books fault.

“Ditch the mainstream and embrace the unstream.”

Filed by jclements at 4:18 pm under Review, blog
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I was recently moved by a blog post I read on Happy Lotus.  In it, Nadia explains about how you are never able to completely get rid of your ego, but you can learn to deal with it, an issue I’ve recently pondered but in a different way.

I was originally going to try to explain the same thing but from the point of view of how I saw it, but I don’t want to detract from the original post.

I recommend you read both the post and the poem within it, they are well worth the time.

http://happylotus.com/2009/06/03/your-thoughts-are-not-who-you-are/

Filed by jclements at 3:54 pm under Family, blog
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Likes:
reading books
exercising with someone
World of Warcraft
Magic: The Gathering
horror movies
going to the theatre
Delphi programming
Big Red
Coca-Cola
jack Daniels
Ice 101
Minute Maid Limeade (concentrate)
Five Alive
Fruit Punch Gatorade
black t-shirts
velcro sneakers
browsing the internet
making compilation/mix cd’s
cleaning house with someone
sitting on the couch watching tv
spending time with friends
playing Blackjack or poker
doing nothing with nothing to do
taking a drive
visiting stores for the first time
visiting new restaurants
trains
lighthouses
reading self-help ideas
daydreaming
El Camino’s
most music
powerful music played loud
playing in the rain
driving in rain on empty roads

Dislikes:
most green vegetables
constantly being hungry
yellow and orange cars
dirt
bugs
creepy, crawly bugs
anything that’s boring
having to nap
having nothing to do
bill collectors
car salesmen
Tab cola
Crystal Light
food with brain matter consistency
having unfulfilled dreams
ignoring my own dreams for others
being both a hippo and a sloth
knowing what to do and not doing
some music
being indecisive
being shy
stuttering
being afraid to express myself
thoughts in my head when others view me
a day with way too many errands
losing control
forgetting things
being too literal
traffic
driving in rain on full roads

Filed by jclements at 11:13 am under List, blog
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I have upgraded to the new Wordpress 2.8, hopefully the transition went well, as I didn’t take the time to backup my databases, but if you see any issues please comment.

Filed by jclements at 1:16 pm under blog
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When you have to do something, whether for your job or being asked for something by a friend, how do you perceive it?  Is is work?  An inconvenience?  A favor to be later repayed?  Does anyone still give freebies anymore?

In the last decade it seems today’s work ethic has changed so much.  Everything ounce of effort has to be justified, scheduled, and ultimately compensated, assuming it was deemed worthy in the first place, and even then it may not come without balking.

I’ve personally witness people ranting for over an hour about work that would have taken under fifteen minutes to get accomplished if they did it without procrastinating.  Are we really that shallow now?  I have very rarely every gotten satisfaction out of ranting, even when I did not want to do something; I just do not see a benefit from it as it certainly doesn’t help you get the job done quicker.

In giving this some thought, it seems people have grown accustomed to frustration.

I don’t mean people crave frustration, but today’s model almost requires some form of frustration.  We, as a people, take on too much, so we get frustrated we can’t do it all.  Already being overworked in our mind, being asked to do more can be overwhelming.  Some of us do not like the process of delegation or asking for help, so that can cause some frustration, and some of that reluctance can come from knowing how much we don’t like being asked.  Getting even a simple thing accomplished can be a vicious circle.

Alot of the issues come from our own greed and selfishness when it comes to our time.  To us, our time is valuable.  We can easily spend ten minutes of our own time sitting around doing nothing and feel good about it, because it’s what we want to do, however when asked to give five minutes to a cause, well that’s too much, what’s in it for me?  Don’t mention the fact I wasn’t doing anything constructive anyway.

How can this mindset be changed?

When we realize just how little we are giving up of ourselves and our time when we’re asked to do something, I think things could start to change.

So how do we do this?

Documenting our wasted time is probably not the best solution.  Who wants to know just how much time we sit around being worthless.  I suggest documenting the time you are actually being constructive.  You would obviously need to include time spent eating, sleeping, driving and whatnot.  For most people I think it may just come as a shock as to how many hours short of 24 hours they have when only documenting hours of productivity!

I am going to start doing this myself and will post my findings on Twitter. It will definitely be interesting to see what I think I am going to see.

Filed by jclements at 10:23 am under Rants
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As mention in a prior post, I’ve been a fan of Queensryche since their very early days back in the 1980’s with their debut EP.

Besides King Diamond, they have been one of my favorite groups to put out concept albums, they do it well, with 1988’s Operation: Mindcrime being their shining star, often compared and grouped in with such works as The Wall and Tommy.

I personally have seen Queensryche in concert on two occasions, one of which where they opened for Metallica, which still is one of my favorite concerts of all time.

If you were to ask me, starting with 1997’s Here In The Now Frontier and on through Operation: Mindcrime II, they have not been the same. Geoff Tate has always been one of my favorite singers ever, but the music wasn’t the same, and as a fan, it seemed like they didn’t put the feeling and emotion into it that they did when they were younger.

I do not speak for 2007’s Take Cover, as quite frankly, I haven’t heard it.

Fast forward two years to this years American Soldier.  When I heard it was another concept album, this time about war, World War II mostly, veterans, and the like, I admit to being somewhat excited.  I hoped they would deliver, both for who they were as a band, and being one of the few bands who, in my opinion, can deliver a concept album very well.

I was not disappointed.

I had the fortune that my birthday was near its release, and my sister managed to meet the band at a signing and scored me an autographed copy of the CD.

Can I say it’s as good as Operation: Mindcrime?  No.  But it’s damn close.  The special quest vocals, Geoff’s voice, the music and interview pieces, and even the lyrics are reflective of a matured style and production.  The 11th song of the album, Home Again, is one that is now on day two of repeat in my car CD player and just an amazing piece.  Tate admits to not writing about his own views this time around, but about other people’s stories, and it comes through nicely in the new tracks which is quite a change for Tate.  Only peaking in the 25th spot on the Billboard top 100 (for perspective, Operation: Mindcrime only peaked at the 50th spot), this album is still very much worth checking out.

“Welcome to the show!”

Filed by jclements at 3:01 pm under Review
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Most people have heard of Twitter and most likely a vast majority of those have even signed up for it.  For many, the mystique is gone and the account is no longer being used, sitting there to rot like tons of other websites that have been signed up for and long forgotten.  I personally have over 100, and maybe even over 200 disposable addresses for sites I couldn’t tell you how long it’s been since I visited, and like everyone else, I wanted to see what the hype was all about.

It probably took a week before I realized what I had in front of me.

1) Finding resources

As some know, I work as a computer programmer.  Still using a somewhat old language, Delphi, finding competent programmers and toolkits isn’t an easy task.  A quick Twitter search of “delphi programming” revealed all sorts of links, sites, programmers and online resources, even email lists I never knew about.

2) Ways to enjoy your hobbies

We all have hobbies, and more than half of us have hobbies that only us or us and one other person actually participate in.  For instance I have a fascination with railroad trains, mostly the old steam engine ones, but modern ones are cool too.  A quick Twitter search of “train pictures” and you can come across links for test runs of new light rail systems, pictures of motorcoachs, stories of people who ride trains on a daily basis, news of recent derailments and even photo journals of trans-continental train journeys.  It’s an easy way to find people interested in what you are, even if not all of them live near you.

3) Networking

Never before have I found such an easy way to get in contact with people doing what I want to do and willing to share their secrets more than I have with Twitter.  Just a quick search on WeFollow and you turn up with tons of CEO’s, entrepreneurs, bloggers, motivational speakers, everything you need to help get you motivated to get past your funk, out of the job you hate, or better yet to improve the job you already love.

4) Instant updates

The biggest advantage of Twitter, in my opinion, is when you check your timeline, what you are seeing is typically what people are doing/thinking/experiencing right now, all your data is fresh and up to date.  It isn’t like a blog post where someone was raving over a new idea, yet by the time you logged in and got caught up on the site, the idea has been expanded upon or worse, no longer relevant.  There’s only so much time in the day, the most useful information is typically always the most current and that’s the first thing you see, get you to it so you can get on with the rest of your day.

5) Following is free

Some would tell you that the more people that are following you, the better.  However it could be argued the more you follow the better.  Follow anyone and everyone at first, find who has the most interesting and relevant to your lifestyle tweets, then later remove the rest.  It doesn’t require their permission to follow them and for the most part, you definitely won’t be the guy with the highest followers or most followings, so use the service for what it’s capable of.

6) Fellowship

More than once I’ve heard a friend talk about someone else that I have yet to meet.  With the very nature of tweets, you can know get to know someone before you’ve actually met them.  Watching conversations over trending topics is interesting at least, valuable at most.

7) Involvement

I’ve read more than once blog post or article that I’ve really enjoyed and wanted to thank the writer for, however if your like me you hate to post an entire comment with just a “Good post, thanks for writing!” line to it, seems such a waste where an actual useful comment could have gone there.  This sort of thank you post just screams tweet, reply to them and leave your message, 30 minutes later it’s long since scrolled off their screen and no longer taking up space, but you said it.  Also, even the big guns of the industry have a bad day or have plans they look forward to, reading what those are and replying with a simple one line message probably opens more avenues of communication than you’d imagine and makes the whole process more fun.  Getting your name known happens many ways.

All this is above and beyond your own need to tweet, which is another post all-together.

Filed by jclements at 2:42 pm under List
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Since I first started using the internet, and really since self-teaching myself computers back in 1983, I’ve wanted to share what I know.  Real world application has always been of interest to me, not short-lived fads even if they are exciting.

This will still contain alot of personal content, not personal enough that I won’t go public with it, obviously, but will primarily focus on the spreading of ideas, concepts, and new technologies and how to properly utilize them in your own life, and will give examples as to how I use them in my own life.

Such things as spam free inboxes using disposable addresses, how to properly use a search engine to find the best results, what is Twitter and what does it do for me, and other issues that those who don’t spend all of their time researching, may be unfamiliar or uncertain with.

Filed by jclements at 9:43 am under blog
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Me and my wife will be starting a fitness plan soon, as both of us have goals on weight loss and just increasing our overall fitness.

For those interested, you will be able to track my progress when I start on Twitter #jcweightloss.

Interested in joining us?  Check out Testosterone Muscle and Mind And Muscle.

Filed by jclements at 1:23 pm under Fitness, Weight Loss
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