Actions Speak Louder Than Words
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Continuing the recent trend of discussing personal development and procrastination, I happened to be talking to a friend today on a very similar topic. The essence of the conversation boils down to just 2 things:
- Nothing is achieved without action
- Only one thing stops you from taking necessary action and that’s YOU
Seriously, think about it for a moment. Think about anything you have achieved in your life, and think about how that came about. Did the opportunity walk up to you and hand everything over on a plate?
I doubt it was that easy, though occasionally it can happen that way. No, I’m fairly sure that for most of you, your main achievements came about when you had some thought or other, and you followed up on that with action.
This applies to everything; dating, getting married, achieving success, running a marathon, climbing a mountain, raising a family or getting a job.
So now think about all those things you wish you could do, all the things you intend to do “one day” and the things you have long since filed away in the “too hard” basket.
The only thing standing between you and achieving any (or all) of those things is your own inaction. It really is that simple.
Is It Just Me?
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I’ve recently started thinking (again) about improving my organisation, and generally keeping on top of things. It’s actually prompted me to re-think my attitude to “lists” but more on that shortly…
I have literally just caught myself wasting yet more precious time, Googling, digging up eBooks on my removable HDD and “agonising” over which system I should use to better organise the various strands of my life. I reckon I easily chewed up a good hour or so, supposedly with the aim of coming to a decision on the choice of tool, yet deep down I already knew exactly what I needed to be doing.
So, I ask again, is it just me?? Is this some symptom of a mental state specific to me, or does this betray some natural tendency of a larger group to waste time?
Let’s be clear here, in my mind I was doing exactly what I was supposed to be doing, and the stated aim was a noble one that would produce a valuable result. Yet in reality it was nothing but sophisticated time-wasting, brought into being (I imagine) by my subconscious mind. Why?
You see, when you get to the heart of the matter, I have just 2 core needs when it comes to keeping on top of the daily detail of things; getting things out of my head so they aren’t forgotten, and a way of helping keep me on track with the things that need doing (instead of spending time on pointless exercises).
Forget all the fancy tools, drag and drop “Web 2.0” style apps, PIMs, organisers, spreadsheets and databases… my trusty pocket book and pen are all that I need and the implementation is simple…
Whenever something occurs to me, it gets written down in the book at the end of the current list being maintained. If it’s a really simple task that can be done immediately, then it gets down immediately and gets crossed off. But in any case, the thought is out of my head, it cannot disappear down any of the crevices of the mind, and it’s not getting in the way of other, more useful, thought processes.
The other side of the equation is to have the discipline to constantly work down the list, ticking items off as they are done and, periodically starting a new list containing just those items that are still outstanding.
In many ways the underlying principles are similar to the famous “Getting Things Done” method, but the implementation is a whole lot simpler.
As implied earlier in this article, this approach requires me to reappraise the idea of “lists”. I’ve long held the view that if something is important, it will keep cropping up and automatically grab your attention. If something is not important, it will slowly fade into distant memory. This is the argument I would put forth against the use of lists, and in particular the use of “todo” lists in various personal organiser systems.
I was wrong. When I sat down recently to work out a number of things that needed doing, I started to experience the re-emergence of old thoughts and ideas that I had no idea were still lingering in the background. It took me by complete surprise, but what was even more surprising was how refreshing it was when I blasted out all those lingering thoughts into a written list. My mind literally felt as if it had been spring-cleaned.
And so that brings me back to the original question, again. Given the recent experience and change in attitude towards lists, given the fact that I have had it in mind to use a simple pocket book list system for a little while now, why why why did my mind take me down the path of looking at other “options”?
If you can answer this, then either you’ve cured my specific illness, or you may well have cracked a major cause of procrastination – either way I’m sure the answer is intriguing.
More Goals Than United v Wigan
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As mentioned before, I have refused to do New Year resolutions for many years now, and have no intention of starting to do them again now. However, what I have done this year is to take some time to reflect, look forward, and work out exactly what I want from life, rather than just letting life be something that happens to me.
Much of this change in outlook has come from 2 big events this year; the arrival of our son Kian, followed shortly afterwards by my 40th birthday. The “life begins” mid-life “crisis” could be at play here, however in my head at least it’s a simple case of a good time to review things.
I have worked out a number of goals, some small and some that are a bit “out there” and audacious. For now, as 2010 looms large, I want to share just a couple of those. Partly because this could be of interest, but mostly because I want to commit these ideas to the written word, and impose some pressure on myself to achieve them.
Goal 1 – health and fitness is a long-standing issue that being a father again has brought to a head. I basically want to be able to run around the park with Kian when he’s older. There are other reasons for wanting to lose weight and get fit, though I can’t think of a better one than for the sake of a high quality family life. Being in good shape is pretty handy for boosting energy and achieving other goals of course!
I actually joined a gym in May 2007, got my weight down from 135kg to 110kg, then pretty much failed to make the short trip down the road for the last 9 months or more, and I’m now back to 135kg. Having a baby in the house was an excuse, and a poor one at that. Fact is, the only thing stopping me from going to the gym is me.
My goal is to hit 95kg – the maximum weight for a tandem parachute jump – to put this into context, I think I was that weight between the ages of 18 and 20.
Goal 2 – I’ve always had the thought in my mind to work for myself – quite simply I make a shit employee, and I generally hate being one. This year I’ve done some serious soul-searching and dabbling with various ideas, and finally got around to registering the Avallach business name in July. Due to typical “wife, kid, mortgage” obligations (along with the ex-wife and kid ones) I’ve been building things in my “spare” time.
The net effect of this is a complete detachment from what I do in daylight hours, and a burning desire to go into business on a full time basis. I have no idea where the date came from, but I have set 30 Sep 2010 as the target date for my “farewell” morning tea.
I have NO idea how this will happen – probably a combination of getting my hands dirty with sales stuff and working my balls off – so if anyone reading this happens to have any ideas, needs something developing, or a wedge of cash to fund a startup with big ambitions, then drop me a line!
Double Negatives Are Not Positive
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It seems that a pattern or theme is beginning to form, with many of my online musings taking more of a “personal development” direction, and this is certainly no accident; it mirrors development and changes that are happening in the flesh.
One of the things that I noticed recently is the sheer volume of negativity that I allow to break through the barriers, and a similarly negative slant on many of my rants and rambles. One way that this manifests itself is with sarcasm. While I appreciate the value and genuine humour to be found in sarcasm, I do find myself being overly sarcastic at times.
To be perfectly honest, as I head towards “grumpy old man” territory I find myself increasingly drained by sniping, bitching, moaning, taking the piss and ranting about socio-political injustices. In a way, I think I’ve got to the point where I understand that no matter how much I rant about something, the object of my ranting doesn’t give a toss (if indeed they are even aware of me), and my energies would be better spent in other directions.
The more I think about this, I realise that this pretty much extends to all facets of my life, and is actually getting in the way of many of the things that I wish to achieve in my life.
So, 2010 (and beyond) will be a time of positives, with anything with a potential to “drain” me being ignored or put to one side. Whether that’s the petty bitching on an Internet forum, or my ongoing despair at the way the WA public sector continues to be run by committees of amateurs – it all stops right now.
Procrastination
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No matter where you look, irrespective of field of endeavour and regardless of the aims and objectives, you can always find a good supply of people struck down by the “disease” of procrastination.
I myself am incredibly prone to this condition, and it is without doubt the number one target on my personal hit list for 2010 (and the last few days of 2009). On a personal note, I feel more confident taking this on having beaten the nicotine habit (ignoring the occasional backwards slide). I say that because, ultimately, the habit of putting things off, and the addiction to nicotine share the same cure; brain power.
This cure is simultaneously simple and seemingly difficult, yet why should that be? All it takes to give up smoking is to make a decision to never buy, beg or borrow) cigarettes again, and all it takes to cure procrastination is a decision to act now rather than some time in the future.
Simplest thing in the world, yet you find yourself in an almost schizophrenic state trying to fight the urge to buy cigarettes, or constantly beating yourself up for continuing to procrastinate.
I don’t claim to have the full explanation as to why this is, but you can be sure it’s got a lot to do with the science behind habits, their formation and their ongoing reinforcement. My theory is that it’s learned behaviour at the level of the subconscious mind, and the schizophrenic sensations are caused by the conscious mind battling the subconscious.
The trick then is to “program” the subconscious with new habits and behaviours; there’s all sorts of techniques around, including NLP and hypnotism, but ultimately I believe the key factors are persistence and being consistent. If the conscious mind keeps telling the same story over and over again, the subconscious will eventually take that on board as the new “reality”. Those other things are, perhaps, useful tools that can accelerate this process, but the core principle remains simple.
So, that’s procrastination cracked, what will I do with the rest of the year? 
Getting Things Into Focus
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As we approach the end of yet another year, it is only natural to look back, reflect, and contemplate the year ahead. In my case, 2009 has been particularly eventful. This year I hit 40, celebrated the arrival of a wonderful baby son, and said a sad farewell to our 4-legged Greyhound "daughter" Billie. It’s also been a very interesting year from the point of view of personal development, with my priorities, direction and attitudes changing in subtle (and not-so-subtle ways). No doubt this has partly come about due to the major events listed above, and there’s been a definite "life begins" theme running since May.
One of the things I’ve read a lot about lately is what Napoleon Hill calls "Definiteness of Purpose". The more I think about it, the more I realise that I have been fairly vague with my business efforts, and overall ambitions. At the same time, I can also see that these things HAVE become more clearly defined over time, so there’s some positives for sure. Many moons ago I had a vague notion of maybe winning the lottery, and the usual "if I was rich" day-dreaming that usually accompanies such thoughts. I most definitely had a phase of "money sucks – materialism sucks – we should find ways of living without money" but in the end this hasn’t turned out to be terribly practical (OK so I could sell the house and adopt a basic nomadic lifestyle, but my wife probably wouldn’t appreciate that).
I eventually arrived at the point this year where I was (sort of) able to reconcile anarchist and socialist tendencies with a growing appreciation for capitalism and business. I had also spent 20 years noting the things that I liked and disliked about different companies I worked for. Without a shadow of a doubt, it was time to make my own business a reality. So Avallach Technology was registered as a business and my thoughts turned more and more to this area.
The "problem" with Avallach so far has been a certain degree of vagueness – ideas have been growing in my mind, they’ve even been scribbled on notepads from time to time, but I have never truly laid out the reasons why I am doing this, and what it is I want to achieve. That’s not to say that some things haven’t been clearly defined, they certainly have and Express Webz is a shining example of this. No, the issue here is more about overall "strategic" thinking, putting some overall shape on things.
This is the "definiteness of purpose" that Nap Hill talks about; establishing what it is you want to do with your life and allowing those goals to completely fill your mind, leaving no room for doubts, fears, negative thinking and so on.
I already know the 4 main strands to what I intend to do with my life – my next task is to flesh these out more fully, commit them to writing, and commit to achieving them. For this to happen, I’m going to need to be a lot more organised, and certainly exhibit more self-discipline. All in all 2010 is going to be a massive year on many different levels. The thing is, I know I can achieve them and what is more, I know the sacrifices and efforts are going to be worthwhile.
Watch this space as I fully intend to share these plans via this blog – perhaps it will be of value to someone else caught in a similar situation, who knows? What I do know is that publishing those types of thoughts will a) scare me shitless and b) help build strong foundations to my efforts.
OK, so there’s a lot of "me" and "I" in that, but if you can’t be self-indulgent at this time of year, when can you? LOL
Happy Solstice!
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Depending on where you are in the world, today is either the Winter Solstice (shortest day) or the Summer Solstice (longest day). Now a funny thing happens at this time every year, I usually start telling anyone who will listen that the celebration of Christmas on Dec 25th is a hijacking of much older pagan traditions. This is usually done to wind people up, to make a point when someone says something like “we should get back to the original meaning of Christmas”, or just for a bit of fun. I actually love Christmas and always get excited when we get within a few days of the day itself.
But anyway, this year I thought I’d simply blog about the pagan origins of Christmas and hit a wider audience
Dec 21st is an important time in the northern hemisphere; having experienced the harsh realities of winter, with the sun decreasing in strength and sunlight hours decreasing, Dec 21st marks the point where daylight hours start to increase again and the hope of spring and summer to come. With our ancient ancestors surviving on food stored for the winter months, it is welcome light at the end of the dark tunnel of winter.
The theory goes that leaders of these ancient peoples were clever enough to recognise a pattern and cyclic nature to the seasonal changes, and were able to work out ways of identifying when the shortest day occurred. Grand rituals performed at the time of the mid-winter solstice were carried out, to encourage the return or rebirth of the sun.
Lo and behold, a few days later the daylight hours were increasing noticeably, and the ritual was deemed to have been a success. With winter being such a harsh time for people to endure, this would have been cause for great celebration leading to feasting and festivities.
Scan the ancient cultures of the world and you will find many festivals around the time of the Winter Solstice, many of which follow a common death-rebirth theme. Some examples are listed on the Winter Solstice Wikipedia Page also some good solstice and festival information on ReligiousTolerance.org
It may be coincidence, but consider the phrases “birth of a sun” and “birth of a son”. Food for thought at least?
Now don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas, I love hearing Christmas carols, I even get a warm fuzzy feeling when I see a good quality nativity display. But if you’re looking for the “real meaning” of Christmas I would suggest considering ALL the traditions associated with mid-winter, and realise it is a celebration of hope at many different levels. Starting with hope of a return to warmer weather and plentiful food supplies!
Anyway, all that aside I hope you have a truly meaningful, enjoyable and memorable festive season. For me that includes spending time with family, getting in touch with family, going to a boxing day football match when I have had enough of family and one critical component I refuse to compromise on; watching the musical version of “A Christmas Carol” with Albert Finney on Christmas Eve!
Merry Christmas, Happy Saturnalia and Solstice Greetings to one and all!
p.s. you’ll notice that I didn’t even start on the whole issue of the southern hemisphere being in mid-summer, but maybe I’ll blog about that another time
I Admit It, I Like Windows 7
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Having spent the last few years running Ubuntu exclusively on my laptop, I had started to believe I would never go back to Windows. Then a couple of things happened; firstly I was evaluating Windows 7 on a laptop that would handle XP but not Vista. Once I’d switched off the eye candy, had things looking Windows 2003 Server-ish and installed Google Chrome for web browsing, things were running pretty well. I was reasonably impressed.
Then my wife pointed out that the lease period on my laptop was up, and suggested a trip to Harvey Normans to see what the options were in terms of upgrades etc. A couple of hours later, and quite unexpectedly, I was playing with my new toy; a Sony VAIO (my previous machine was a VAIO as well, I love them) VGN-FW55GF with 4GB RAM, ATI graphics and Windows 7 64 Bit (Home Premium).
With the extra resources, processing power, and improved graphics adapter I am allowing Windows 7 run in its full eye candy glory, and I have to admit Microsoft seem to have produced a good-looking system that performs well.
Obviously an Ubuntu 64 Bit Live CD will be in order at some point, just to make a comparison, but for the time being I’ve rejoined the Microsoft world. I never thought I would say this, but it seems MS have finally produced an operating system that beats Windows 2000 Professional.
Of course, I still need to remove all the trial software crap, install Chrome as the default browser (IE8 is crap no matter how you look at it)
Remember Remember, To Give In Movember
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I’m a little late putting this info out this year but… I am once again growing a moustache for Movember – team name ‘Caught by the Fuzz’.
After going from 70s porno, through “The Chopper”, to a bizarre creation that went the full width of my face last year, I decided to go “minimal” this time around, with the “Oliver Hardy”:
(This was taken about a week ago)
The reason I put down my razor for one month each year is to help raise awareness and funds for men’s health – specifically prostate cancer and depression in men (Beyond Blue)
What many people don’t appreciate is that close to 3,000 men die of prostate cancer each year in Australia and one in eight men will experience depression in their lifetime – many of whom don’t seek help. Facts like these continue to convince me I should get involved and I am hoping that you will support me.
To sponsor my Mo, simply click this link: http://au.movember.com/mospace/34021/ and donate online using your credit card or PayPal account
Alternatively…
If you prefer to make a cash donation (after your big win on the Melbourne Cup!) let me know and I’ll sort out a receipt for you
OR
Write a cheque payable to ‘Movember Foundation’, referencing my Registration Number : 34021 and post it to:
Movember Foundation, PO Box 292, Prahran, VIC, 3181
Remember, all donations over $2 are tax deductible.
Movember is now in its sixth year and, to date, has achieved some pretty amazing results by working alongside The Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCFA) and beyondblue: the national depression initiative. Check out further details at: http://au.movemberfoundation.com/research-and-programs.
http://au.movember.com has heaps of useful information.
Thank you
Gary
“GO” %^&! Yourself
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So, Google have decided the world needs another programming language huh? They might have a point, if they had produced something radically different, but they didn’t.
Google’s “GO” is just another C-like language with object-oriented features, supposedly making software development really easy and helping you avoid all the nastiness. They claim all the simplicity of something like Python, while providing the “safety” of C and C++.
That last bit is hilarious – C is relatively safe in the hands of an experienced developer, C++ can tie you in knots before blowing your brains out.
They also claim part of the motivation is the lack of a new systems language in the past decade. Like I say, if this had been a different solution from everything else, they would have a point, but this is just another set of syntax and semantics performing the same old same old.
Delphi only just sits outside the 10 year timeframe, C# falls within it. Both very similar in style and structure and both very easy for programmers with C/C++ backgrounds to pick up. Furthermore, options exist for compiling Python to native code.
My guess is that this is a student or work experience placement project that they thought they would put out in the wild and it’s full of meh-ness to be perfectly honest. The world needs another programming language like this, like a hole in the head.
Still, it’s more headlines for good ol’ Google eh?
