1) Minimize

The first tip is probably the most important.  You just can’t do everything in life.  When you try to do too many different things and get spread too thin, this is the single biggest threat to becoming a quitter.  Instead, focus on what you really want to spend your time doing and minimize out everything else.  For example, I was signed up for several survey-taking websites.  I had made decent money over the years taking surveys, but I figured out that it took up considerable time to complete the surveys and took time away from what I really wanted to be doing with this blog and other online ventures.  I chose to quit the surveys so I could finish more items that i really wanted.

• Quit what you don’t really want or need so you can focus on finishing the important things.

2) Commit

Once you have cleared away the extraneous items and tasks, look at what you have left.  If you really are passionate about something then take the time to reflect on why you want to accomplish that project and imagine what it will feel like to complete it.  Make a commitment to the task and make a conscious commitment to finishing the task.

• Knowing why you are doing something – and having a vision of what it will feel like to complete it – can help you make it to the end.

3) Serialize

Now that you have committed to a small selection of items, put each part of the task in an order and do the steps one at a time.  One huge risk of being a quitter is taking a shotgun approach and doing a little here and a little there.  You can’t tell how much progress you are making and it isn’t clear what to do next.  If you know exactly what comes next, it makes it easier to overcome that inertia and jump back in when you have time.

• Do things one step at a time to get to the finish.

4) Organize

Having good organizational skills will help you immensely when it comes to finishing projects.  Keep all your supplies or equipment organized and in good shape.  Being organized will help you to track how far along in the project you are so you can clearly know what is left to accomplish.  Also, when everything is well-organized you will find that you want to keep going and it will be easier to pick up where you left off.

• Clarity will help you see where you are in the process and make it easier and more enjoyable to keep going.

5) Segment

This is somewhat in opposition to #1, Minimize.  You can’t completely minimize and only have a single thing to work on, so segment your life into different areas.  Then when you have a specific area, it is much easier to apply all the rest of the rules to a specific segment.  For example, I had a ton of books I wanted to read and I had about 4 different books that I started and never finished.  I segmented “book reading” and got my act together.  Then in this narow space, I was able to apply the other tips much easier.  First, I made a commitment to set aside time for reading and finish everything I had started.  Then, I serialized reading them by putting my books in a stack right on my nightstand and read only the top one.  I also organized my reading by setting up an account at goodreads.com to track the books I had read, were currently reading, and planned to read.

• Divide and conquer: apply all the other tips to each segment of your life.

Logan Challenge

I challenge you today to start with #5 and segment areas of your life.  Then find one segment – an important one, or maybe a small simple area to get you moving – and then apply the tips to that area.

Good luck, and make sure to give me feedback if this was helpful or if you have your own suggestions.

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I figured out that saying “dig” in my head while working out is a great inspirational thing.  It is short, simple, and conveys so much in such a simple 3 letter word.  Dig for more energy, dig deeper into your reserves, dig in and push yourself further than you have before.  So now, while running or doing another set of boring reps on the weight machine, my new mantra is “dig”.

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Sherwood Forest Faire - Paolo Garbonzo Performing

For Austinites wanting to do the renaissance festival thing, our choices so far have been a long drive out to the Texas Renaissance Festival towards Houston in the Fall, or a long drive to the Scarborough Renaissance Festival up near Dallas in the late Spring.  Well starting now (Spring of 2010), we have a new option in the Sherwood Forest Faire which is a mere 35 miles east of Austin, Texas on U.S. Highway 290.  It opened for the first time this past weekend, and my family and I went yesterday on the festival’s second day of existance.  This is my review – with an eye for the vegetarian aspect as well as the family fun.  They are open from 10:00 a.m. until dusk and we got there around 11:00.  The drive is so much better and easier than the hike out to TexRenFest.  It was short enough that the kids hardly had time to get restless.

First Impression

The last bit of the drive there was a pain – over a stretch of rough pavement and then an even rougher stretch of dirt road.  Once at the festival, the faire grounds were impressively large and everything seemed well constructed.  I was surprised at the number of large permanent buildings already built.  It is evident that they have really committed to this project with the sheer size and scale of what they have built for a newly-opened facility.  Much of the construction of things like fences, bridges, and stages was done with rough-sawn wood boards so it gave the impression of being rustic construction, but was very solid.  A number of the food and merchandise shops were full-on buildings – some even two story and a few of the bar areas had huge concrete slab seating areas.  The toilet situation appeared to be all port-a-potties (I really like the constructed bathroom facilities at the Texas RenFest), so they have room to grow in that area.  Other than that, everything I saw was solidly constructed and looked great.

Being the first weekend ever of the festival, the turnout of people wasn’t huge.  This was both negative and positive; each of the different stage areas had sparse audiences which both made the performers more accessible while also making the shows seem less like a proper production.  When thinking about it in hindsight – and considering the size of the festival grounds and the number of different stage areas – the turnout was really pretty good.

Faire Food

Ah, faire food – my favorite.  If you are trying to eat vegan or strict gluten free, you probably already know this isn’t a good place for you.  For vegetarians, however, there was plenty of food and it was excellent.  We had fried cheese sticks (our kid-approved favorite), french fries, cheese quesadilla, nachos, and churros with ice cream (another kid favorite!).  Other veggie-friendly items I noticed were veggie burritos, hummus and pita, cheese pizza, fried jalapenos (which I tried to order, but they were out), fried eggplant strips, plus the usual suspects like funnel cake, roasted nuts, and kettle corn.  Note that the menu on their website is not complete.  They actually had much more variety at the faire than they list on the website.  The food was a definite highlight for myself and for the kids.

Entertainment

We caught a few of the shows and it was the standard renaissance festival performances.  As I commented above, the low turnout made the shows we saw seem more intimate, but less like the large performance spectacles I am used to.  I was surprised to see that they had a jousting arena set up and .  The program ($1 just inside the gate) lists 22 different performance areas.

Final Thoughts

Sherwood Forest Faire - Archery Demonstration

I was impressed, we had a great time, the kids enjoyed it and they are already talking about going back.  Other than just continuing to get the word out to get more guests to show up, I really didn’t see any faults at all.  Make sure you check it out and help them get going.  The festival runs now through April 4 on the weekends and you can buy discount tickets on their website, or from HEB stores.  I’m looking forward to next time.

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1) Set Goals

if you don’t have goals for yourself, then there is no way to judge if you are doing good or not.  It is much too easy to let things go without having the focus that a goal gives you.  What ever you decide on for a goal, it should be something tangible and it helps immensely to write them down or document them somehow.  Having a goal of “lose weight” is no good.  A goal of “lose 15 pounds” is better, and “lose 15 pounds in the next 6 months” is even better.  Make sure you quantify your goals, put them in writing, and set a time limit if you can.

2) Do it for Yourself

While doing things to please other people, or for some outside motivation can work sometimes, the only way to truly create good habits is to do it for yourself.  You need to own the task and make it fully yours.  Don’t work on losing weight because your partner wants you to; if you really and truly want to lose weight make it your task.  This gives you not only ownership and power, but it also takes away an easy scapegoat.  By being responsible to yourself you take away the possibility of blaming someone else if you fail.  If you don’t really want it for yourself, then maybe it isn’t right and you should rethink what you are doing.  You can always revisit your ideas in the future if you come to truly want to do it for yourself.

3) Be Consistent

This is really the nature of habits.  Make it habitual and create a rhythm and pattern.  Figure out a weekly schedule for exercise and stick with it.  This also applies to building on your successes, or consistently improving.  If you haven’t exercised in a while, it is much better to start slow and consistently build on that.  If you get out and run one time a week, do that for a month and then add a second day so you are running twice a week.  Be consistent about what you are doing and about building on your habits.

4) Make Your Good Habits Easy

Now this tip is more accurately “make your good habits as easy as possible” because what ever you are working on probably isn’t easy. So do what you can to make your activity as easy as possible. For example, find the best time of day for you to exercise.  If you can get up early and exercise – and it leaves you feeling good all day – then do that.  On the flip side, if you find yourself eating in front of the TV at night, change that routine and maybe exercise in the evening.  Also, try to string things together.  My gym is close to my kid’s school, so when I bring them to school I go dressed to exercise and work out on the way back.  Find simple things that you can change to make the habits easier.

5) Remind yourself Why

When you are in the middle of another set of crunches and you really don’t want to continue, it is hard to see the forest of why you are doing this.  Take time to reflect and continually renew why you are doing what you are working so hard on.  This can be reflecting back on the goals (you did set up goals, right?!), or reflecting on why you made this commitment to yourself.  Whether it is for a healthier, slimmer body, or feeling better about the way you look, it is vitally important to remind yourself why.

Do these tips apply to your situation?  Got a tip yourself or an interesting way you applied these?  Be sure and let me know.

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So Delicious Coconut Bars

I recently discovered coconut milk and have been drinking it and using it in smoothies. It is awesome for that, but these vegan coconut bars are awesome!

They are by So Delicious (yes, that is the brand name!).  The inside is ice cream made out of coconut milk and they come in either plain chocolate (on the left) or coconut almond which has flakes of coconut and slivered almonds in the chocolate crust.  Both flavors are awesome and I have stocked up and always keep a few boxes in my freezer.

If you haven’t tried coconut milk, it is a great-tasting alternative to cow’s milk and to other non-dairy drinks like soy milk.  The coconut also has great health benefits.  This quote is from Why Coconut on their website:

• Coconut represents a vegetarian-sourced saturated fat consisting of medium chain fatty acids (MCFA). Scientists have long recognized MCFAs such as lauric and capric acid for their anti-viral and anti-microbial properties. The body utilizes MCFAs as energy instead of storing them as fat.

Here is the list of ingredients on the frozen coconut bars

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Life is Now

In reality shows like Survivor, they have an intense experience with a group of people, and when it is all done they have the reunion show where everybody (mostly) gets along and they can rehash what a great experience it was.  Life isn’t like that.  There will be no reunion show.  Life is the show.  What you are doing right this moment is your life and it is defining who you are.  Are you happy with it?  Do you want to change?  What is stopping you?

Later isn’t Guaranteed

There are too many things on my to-do list that I have put off until “later”, but the reality is that there is no guarantee that we will have a “later”.  If you died today, what would you regret not doing?  If you have an answer to that, you should work on making it happen now instead of later.

Constant is Artificial

We tend to create an artificial sense of constancy and consistency in our lives.  By creating routines and patterns, many going back years, we create a feeling that life is constant.  It is anything but constant.  It is an ever changing and evolving thing and that is exactly why life is such a beautiful thing.  Embracing the change and evolution is another big way to life now.

Logan Challenge

Today’s Logan challenge is to find one thing in life that has been lingering on your to-do list and do it today.  Don’t save it for tomorrow, or later, do it today.  It can be something as simple as cleaning the bathroom, or as huge as moving to a new country.  Use this one thing to start a positive motion for you.

Make sure you leave me comments on what you plan on doing, or your own helpful tips for self-motivation.

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The blog is official now – I have completed the incorporation of this blog, so please welcome Lopaul Industries, LLC to life!  I want this to be more than a casual hobby, so I committed to making it a business and have begun investing in it and treating it as a business entity.

Look for new and current posts.  I have a notebook full of ideas and a number of draft posts already in progress.  I also have exciting ideas about how I can help my readers with motivation and inspiration.  Please stay tuned as I kick this thing into high gear and start cranking things out.

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Keep Perspective

This one is the hardest for me.  I feel an obligation to get angry at stupid drivers or feel that it is my responsibility to police other driver’s bad moves.  All that this leads to is the potential for road rage – both for yourself, or being on the receiving end of someone else raging.  Instead, remind yourself that it isn’t your job to correct other people’s stupidity.  Keep your perspective on two things:

1. Traffic is fleeting and fluid and it doesn’t really matter exactly where you are in the traffic flow
2. It doesn’t matter how right you are if you end up dead or injured

Instead of focusing on a stupid stranger and getting emotionally involved with them, think about your family or your own personal hopes and dreams for the future.  Stay emotionally involved with the people and things that matter to you and it will be much easier to ignore that moron.

Create Good Habits

Figure out things that minimize stress during the actual drive and do them consistently.  For example, instead of trying to pick which lane is going the fastest and changing lanes back and forth, I like to get way over to the left lane and just stay there for most of my drive.  This way I don’t have anything to do except watch the car in front of me and wait for my exit.  This also applies to the reverse by finding ways of avoiding stressful driving situations.  For instance, if there is a section of your commute where you need to change several lanes of traffic quickly and it is usually a hard, stressful merge, either change your habits – like changing lanes sooner – or find an alternative route to avoid the stressful section.  You can’t always cut out all the stress, so do your best to quickly merge or get into a better position and then get back to focusing on relaxing.

Keep Your Mind Occupied

You need to pay enough attention to drive safely, of course, but sometimes the best thing to do is turn up the radio or tune in to a favorite morning DJ.  Keeping your mind focused on something else makes the problems of the road seem distant and less important.  If you are laughing or enjoying yourself it will be harder to get upset over yet another long commute.

NET – No Extra Time

This is an even more useful alternative for using your time.  I picked this phrase up somewhere from a motivational speaker and it has really stuck with me.  I plan on giving this its own post in the future, so I’ll just touch on it here.  The concept is to accomplish tasks during time that would otherwise be wasted.  You are not using any extra time – you need to be in your car for that commute anyway so you might as well make use of the time.  Accomplishing tasks can be anything from listening to audio books, planning out your day, catching up on phone calls (with a good headset of course!), or even taking public transportation so you can pull out your laptop or a book.  Anything you can accomplish during this time will cost you no extra time.

Avoid The Commute

This is not always possible, but avoiding the drive – or at least the rush-hour drive – completely is the best possible solution.  If you have flexible hours then you can try to schedule your day to avoid rush hour driving by coming in early and leaving early, or coming in late and leaving late.  If your job allows, talk to your boss about telecommuting.  I have made arrangements that during projects which don’t require in-person meetings I work from home anywhere from 1-4 days a week.  This has really helped out and saves time, gas costs, and the headache of driving completely.

I hope these tips get you thinking about ways to improve your commute which will make life just a little bit better.  So remember to focus on who and what is important to you in life instead of the morons you meet for a few seconds or minutes during your drive, get into good driving habits and avoid bad ones, and make the most of your time in the car.

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Keep It Simple

I researched for a long time and there is a huge range of rice cookers available.  My first stop was to our local large Asian supermarket.  I was totally surprised to find way too many choices and most of them very expensive.  Most of the models were over $100 and I really didn’t know what the difference was.

I finally decided to keep it simple and purchased this Aroma 4-cup Rice Cooker for under $30.  It couldn’t be easier as it has a single button that works like a toaster – push it down and the unit automatically pops the button up when it is done cooking the rice.  I wanted to get something so I could get started cooking more rice and get into the habit of feeding my family more rice in general.  If I find that this isn’t full-featured enough, then I will upgrade to a more advanced model.

Use It

What ever you end up selecting, make sure you use it.  I stocked up on rice trying to keep a few different varieties on hand.  With the simplicity and speed of a dedicated rice cooker, there is no excuse for not using it often.  Even with the bare-bones unit I selected, there still is some trial and error and it takes time to figure it out.  My first few batches were dry and a little on the hard side.  I figured out that if I add a little more water and/or let the rice stand in the water first it turns out better.  Also, rinsing the rice first really helps get rid of the excess starchiness of the finished rice.

Then Get Fancy

After using my rice cooker for a few months, I have now started to experiment more with it.  Tonight I used vegetable broth instead of water and I added zucchini and tofu right into the pot when it cooked.  It turned out great and my wife even went back for seconds (which doesn’t usually happen with my rice experiments)!

I am happy that I purchased something and this unit has already exceeded my expectations.  What ever rice cooker you decide to purchase, I urge you to pick something and start cooking.  Eating more rice is a great way to improve your vegetarian diet and it is naturally gluten-free too.

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Tracking Books

For quite a while now I have been wanting to keep track of the books I read so recently I went looking for software or a website to keep track. I found a few good websites. My favorite is goodreads.com. It is free to sign up for an account and can easily track books. It has “shelves” which you can assign books to. By default you have a “read”, “reading”, and “want to read” shelf. You can add your own named shelves such as “I own it” or and other category you want to track.  There are a few other free websites so be sure to look around if this doesn’t fit what you want.  For software, I really didn’t find anything good – most people just suggested keeping an Excel spreadsheet like I do for my biking log.

iPhone Notes

I love carying my iPhone with me because I always have a place to jot down thoughts.  The Notes program is perfect for miscellaneous thoughts, ideas, or things to follow up on later.  You can even sync Notes with your Mac so you have them available on your computer.  This is a two step process:

1. In iTunes with your iPhone connected, in the left panel select your iPhone under Devices.  Then select the Info tab and scroll down until you see Notes and check the box that says “Sync notes”.  Now click Sync in the lower right corner and it should sync the notes onto your computer. Tip: the computer may warn you with a scary-sounding message like “this will change over 50% of the notes on your computer.  Are you sure you want to continue?”.  If you don’t have any notes already on your computer, this is perfectly normal and safe to continue.
2. The notes actually appear in the Mac Mail program.  If you don’t have Mail set up, you will have to do that now to be able to see your notes.  Once configured, the notes appear in the left pane under Reminders, Notes with the first line of the note appearing like the subject of an email, and then the entire note appearing in the email body section.  Very handy!

I hope you enjoyed these additional tracking tips.  I really like having an accumulation of data over time.  It is great to analyze for future reference, and also just to refer back to since it is so hard to remember everything.  Let me know if you have other data that you like to track or have found good methods.

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