Archive for October, 2009

Happy Halloween!

Posted by enrique s in Links on October 31st, 2009

As we get ready for the trick-or-treaters, here are a few pictures of the pumpkins that I’ve carved over the years. The Grim Reaper is a talking prop that I made from directions found on the Monster Page of Halloween Projects. I’ll have to learn how to take pictures in the dark. Enjoy!

The Grim Reaper

Some pumpkins, or Jack O’Lanterns:

Howling Wolf

Cannibal Jack

Evil Grin and Pirate Skull

I can’t seem to find the Harry Potter and Pokemon pumpkins that I carved when my kids were little. I’ll also try to post this year’s model, which I still have to finish. Don’t eat too much candy!

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Haunted Woods and Pumpkin Patch is a Special Event There are many fascinating activities and events that begin in mid October and continue through the thirty first of the month, also known and celebrated as Halloween. People all over the country explore local haunted houses, and they also provide many seasonal job opportunities and extra income for adventure seeking......
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Spookley: Celebrate Halloween With This Special Square Pumpkin Halloween is quickly approaching and it’s always to find new ways of celebrating. Are you familiar with Spookley? Spookley is great Halloween story about a square pumpkin that learns the thing that makes you different makes you special. On Halloween after all the trick or treating end the night......

Grim Reaper, Halloween, Jack O'Lantern

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Avoiding Agita: Get a Hard Copy

Posted by enrique s in Career, Self-Reliance on October 27th, 2009

bild 243
Photo by *_filippo_*

From: Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

Main Entry: ag·i·ta

Pronunciation: \ˈa-jə-tə\

Function: noun

Etymology: S Italian dial. pron. of Italian acido, literally, heartburn, acid, from Latin acidus

Date: 1982

: a feeling of agitation or anxiety

Agita online

My company maintains databases on an intranet that can be accessed by anyone who has the proper rights. These databases contain links to documents that have been scanned in a pdf format, such as contracts, purchase orders, invoices, etc. It’s a step in the right direction towards the goal of a paperless office. Yeah, right, like that’s going to happen in my lifetime.

404

Sometimes, though, the links are broken. You try to retrieve a signed copy of a contract, and you get a 404 error. Or, in a few cases that I’ve come across, the wrong document is attached. Oops. It was a good thing that I checked closely, because the billing terms were different, or the shipping address was that of another customer. You can’t take everything at face value.

Human error

Sometimes, I’ll get an email that contains incorrect information. If I know it’s bad dope, then I can dispute it. I’ll reply to the sender that the info is wrong. But what if I didn’t know better, and I ran with the bad info? If I screw something up because of it, I can use the excuse that it was in an email, right? It might not be my fault, but it caused me some agita anyway.

The awful truth

We’ve become conditioned to believe that whatever we read on the computer is the absolute truth. Why would someone take the time to post mistakes? It gives us the opportunity not to follow up, because, supposedly, some “expert” has done the heavy lifting for us. We can easily shift the blame, because they made the mistake of disseminating the bad info. Shame on them.

The buck stops here

OK, so someone else screwed up, not you. It wasn’t your fault. But now, it’s your problem. But you could have avoided the problem in the first place by performing a little due diligence. I’m not saying that you have to double-check everyone’s work; just do it on a Pareto basis. You can bet your ass that if it’s of great importance to my company and to my reputation, that I’m going to ask the person to hand me a hard copy. Then, I can check it myself, and avoid any problems before they get a chance to happen. I hate paper copies as much as the next guy, but I can always recycle it later.

So, if you have a job of critical importance, either to your company or your career, give your paperwork another once-over. It could save you some agita in the long run.

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agita, due diligence, hard copy, Pareto

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A Letter to My Future Self at Retirement

Posted by enrique s in Retirement on October 26th, 2009

2008.11.12 - The letter
Photo by a.drian

In my son’s English class in 8th grade, he was asked to write a letter to himself 4 years into the future, the year he would graduate high school. His 8th grade teacher mailed the letters to all of the students soon after graduation. We got a kick reading about the assumptions that he had made 4 years ago about what his life would be like, such as what car he was driving, what college he was going to attend, did we ever catch Osama bin Laden, did A-Rod ever come through in the postseason, etc. Inspired by my son, I decided to go a little further into the future, and write a letter to myself to be opened at the time of my retirement. So, cue the swirly effects as I take you many years into the future…

Dear Old Fart,

If you’re reading this, then I can assume that I made the right decisions many years ago, because you’re able to retire. You’re welcome. I’m glad you’re able to enjoy the fruits of my sacrifices, and my investment savvy. OK, I’m probably making you sick with my arrogance, but you’re probably sitting pretty in a financial sense.

In order for you to reach this stage, you had to stick to the plan that I laid out for you. You continued to excel work, work to full retirement age, and to religiously invest in your 401(k). You stuck to index funds, as the expense ratios wouldn’t eat up any gains that you made. You lived within your means, because the only person you had to impress was yourself. And you must still be married to that gorgeous woman, who’s the true brains of the marriage. ;-) I’m glad you didn’t screw things up, or you’d be a greeter at Wal-Mart, wrangling shopping carts and subsisting on dog food.

I hope that the kids are settled into their chosen fields. I can only hope that they’re not still living under your roof, or all of those lessons on self-sufficiency and responsibility would have been for nothing. If they are still living at home, it’s time for you to help them get their shit together. They have to grow up sometime. Make them read Your Money or Your Life again, and send them out into the Real World. It’s time.

I hope you’ve taken care of yourself physically as well as fiscally. You better not be one of those old, slovenly, beer-bellied guys that wear black socks with shorts. I worked too hard on my appearance to have you turn into a buffoon. Take some of that nest egg and invest in some new threads and a gym membership. But don’t tap the savings too hard; you should be able to siphon off 4% of the total and still live a life well beyond subsistence.

Are you still living in the original house? Sure, it wasn’t huge, but it was one that we could afford, and somehow we found enough space for all of us to live comfortably. The key was not accumulating “things”, but experiences. If you are moving to warmer climes, I hope they have the Yankees on cable or satellite. Did A-Rod ever come through in the postseason?

Lastly, I want to wish you a happy retirement, old-timer. I’m sure you gave it your all every day at the office, so you should have nothing to be ashamed about. Your reputation should be intact. I hope that you’ve inspired some others along the way. My advice would be to never stop learning. Did you ever learn to play the guitar? Now’s a good time to add it to your “bucket list”. New challenges keep your mind young. Anyway, have fun spending my money. It should last you a long time.

Sincerely,

Your Younger Self

OK, it’s a little too arrogant, but it serves a purpose. Would you rather read this letter at retirement, or one that starts with:

Dear Old Fart,

I hope you like working, because years ago, when I should have been investing my hard-earned money, I blew it on gadgets and expensive vacations, so you’re shit-out-of-luck when it comes to retirement. Enjoy the dog food!

Make your plans now, and stick to them, so that you’ll have a happy letter to open in your golden years, and not one filled with a bunch of excuses.

What letter would you write to your future self? What would you tell them? What questions would you like to ask?

Follow me on Twitter: CorpBarbarian

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4% solution, 401k, A-Rod, regrets, Retirement, Your Money or Your Life

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Don’t Be a Weasel! 5 Rules for Accepting Blame

Posted by enrique s in Career, Leadership, Rants on October 23rd, 2009

Your not a Bunny!!!
Photo by law_keven

Yesterday, we had our monthly program review with our director. One program manager had bad news about one of their projects. Let’s call him Larry. He did a good job explaining, in great detail, about where they went wrong, and the steps that his team needed to take to finish the job. He didn’t get ripped too badly. But then, he said something that will come back to haunt him, and earned him the Mark of the Weasel!

Pointing the finger

The item that was being produced under Larry had firmware that was developed under another job, headed by Mike. Larry was almost finished with his explanation, when he threw in a parting shot. He blamed the “poor” design of the firmware as a contributing factor to the cost growth. I know for a fact that this was not true. Mike, who also knew that this was bullshit, also was in the room, and I could see the smoke start to pour out of his ears. He kept his mouth shut, but I don’t think Mike will be helping Larry the Weasel again any time soon.

Incurring wrath

The point was, Larry is the program manager. He’s ultimately responsible for the success or failure of his projects. He gets all of the credit when things go right, so he should be prepared to take his lumps when things go wrong. Blaming an innocent bystander just to avoid the wrath of your boss is a weak tactic. Plus, you run the risk of incurring the wrath of the person who you blamed. I know that Mike is sharpening his knives, and will probably inform the director that the firmware passed all of the required tests, and that Larry is full of shit. The director will probably ask himself: Is this type of leadership acceptable? Has he no character?

Corrective action

When you’ve “screwed the pooch”, so to speak, here are the steps that you should take to keep your credibility and your job:

Rule #1: Fess up, and right away

Raise your hand and take the blame. You want to leave as much time as possible to correct the mistake. Don’t sit on the problem, and hope that it just goes away. As one wise man said, “Bad news doesn’t improve with age.” Deal with it now, swiftly, like ripping off a band aid.

Rule #2: Accept responsibility

Don’t try to weasel out of taking the blame. If you screwed up, admit it. People will think more highly of you. They will eventually find out the truth, anyway. Admitting your faults will help you keep your credibility. People like working with those who have character; people of character can be depended upon.

Rule #3: Have a recovery plan

Even though Larry broke Rule #2, he did have a plan to mitigate the problem. Don’t just drop a load of crap for someone else to clean up; explain how you’re going to make things right. And make sure that you have the concurrence of everyone involved; you don’t need any dissension.

Rule #4: Execute the plan

Now that you’ve identified the problem and planned a recovery, follow the plan. There’s nothing worse than not following through on your promises. It’s that character thing again. Get to work!

Rule #5: Lessons learned

At the end of each South Park episode, either Kyle or Stan will sum up their latest misadventure by saying, “You know, I’ve learned something today.” Don’t just file this lesson in the deep recesses of your mind. Write it down, and share it with your peers. You might be able to save someone else, and your employer, additional heartache in the future.

So the next time that you mess up at work, rather than trying to weasel out of responsibility, follow my rules and accept the blame. You’ll show that you have character, and everyone will like you better for it.

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accepting blame, character, mitigation plan, recovery plan, South Park, taking blame, weasel

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The Trojan Horse of Purchased Vacation

Posted by enrique s in Career, Frugality, Money, Rants on October 22nd, 2009

Day 4 - Paying off debt
Photo by quaziefoto

It’s signup time for our annual benefits elections at work, and one of the options that we have is the ability to “purchase” additional vacation time. What this means is that you can elect to have the company deduct from your paycheck the cost of this additional time off. A percentage of the vacation cost is deducted each week from your paycheck, on a pre-tax basis, because it’s wages that you are voluntarily forfeiting. It’s treated the same way tax-wise as your 401(k) contribution.

How it works

For instance, if you make $25 per hour, and would like an extra week’s vacation for next year, the company will multiply the $25 times 40 hours to arrive at $1,000. The $1,000 will be divided by the number of weeks, 52, to arrive at a weekly deduction of $19.23. Therefor, your weekly gross pay would be reduced by $19.23, resulting in $980.77, and lowering your gross wages for the year by $1,000.

Vacate now, pay later

You get to use this purchased vacation just like good-old regular vacation. It gets added to your vacation “bank” on January 1st, so you get to use it right away, while you spread your “payments” out over the remainder of the year. You could burn the entire 40 hours in January on an island vacation, and not make your last “payment” until December. Sounds like a sweet deal, doesn’t it?

A public relations coup

Why does the company offer this benefit? You could say that the company values healthy, rested, stress-free workers. But I’m a realist, and see the financial benefit to the company. You are, in effect, signing up for a voluntary furlough. The company will save a week’s pay, albeit spread out over the entire year. Multiply that by hundreds, if not thousands of employees who opt for the same deal, and voilà! The company has improved its cash flow without inflicting any pain. In fact, the company looks like a benevolent Big Brother, because it has given the employees the illusion of a benefit, improving corporate goodwill, while reducing your annual pay. The employees think that they’re getting something for nothing. Just like the Trojan Horse (or, if you’re a Monty Python fan, the Trojan Rabbit). This is genius, I tell you!

Low man on the totem pole

Of course, most of the people that purchase vacation are probably newer, recently-hired employees, the low people on the totem pole, with little accrued time in their vacation banks. For them, this looks like a good deal. And by THEM, I mean ME, since I frequently change jobs, and many times can be considered a new employee. But in my case, I also get a week’s worth of personal time, and two weeks’ worth of sick time. That’s 6 weeks, counting my 3 weeks’ worth of regular vacation. And I didn’t even include the 10 paid holidays that I get each year. If I’m out more than 6 weeks in a year, I probably should start looking for a new job, because I live in America, land of never-ending work. Companies are more liberal with vacation time in other countries, like Lithuania and Brazil, where a minimum of 4 weeks vacation is mandated by law.

Trojan Horse

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t purchase vacation; you might have a valid reason for needing the extra time off. I’m just saying that you should weigh the advantages (extra time off) against the disadvantages (less money in your pocket) before jumping on the bandwagon with the other lemmings. You may feel it’s a gift from your company, while it’s really a Trojan Horse to your personal finances. You’re really signing up for a pay cut. I’m not falling for it, and like the French castle defenders in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, I’m flinging the Trojan Rabbit right back at them.

How about you? Are you planning on purchasing any vacation from your employer next year? Do you think it’s a good idea, and that I’m wrong? Let me know in the comments.

Stay tuned as I decline even more benefits from my employer: Subscribe

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Brazil, cash flow, Lithuania, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, purchased vacation, Trojan Horse, Trojan Rabbit

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10 Jobs that Require No Bachelors Degree

Posted by enrique s in Career, College, Debt on October 21st, 2009

Attention high school grads: You don’t have to rack up a mountain of student loan debt in order to secure a good career. And you don’t have to go to the School of Hard Knocks, either. A recent Yahoo! Hot Jobs article listed ten jobs that require no bachelor’s degree, meaning you’ll keep your education borrowing to a minimum.

Source: Yahoo! Hot Jobs: Good Pay Without a 4-Year Degree

Here’s the list, with the median annual pay for someone with 3-5 years’ experience, plus my two cents worth:

Network installers, network administrators, computer systems administrators - $49,801

This involves computers and wireless networks. Looks like a pretty broad description, as I see these as separate jobs. I know that our network administrators don’t get their hands dirty by pulling cable and lifting ceiling tiles. I wonder what the breakdown is between the different categories.

Police officer - $47,485

Some departments take people right out of high school. A clean record would help speed the acceptance process along. You probably have to pass a standardized test, also. A nice pension and benefits, but the risk of getting shot would move this one down the list for me.

Court reporter - $47,275

As the article says, job security. We live in a litigious society. Is this a fancy name for the stenographer who types every spoken word? I know there must be plenty of downtime due to frequent court recesses, not to mention long lunch hours.

Clinical laboratory technologist - $47,081

I love all of the CSI-type TV shows, but I wouldn’t want to be picking through someone else’s dead flesh and guts. Dressing a deer is one thing, but I don’t think that I’d be comfortable handling human tissue samples.

Heating-ventilation-air conditioning (HVAC) installer - $44,814

I know someone who does this for a living. Crawling around in attics during the summer doesn’t sound appealing. I sweat. Alot. I’d lose enough weight to look like a normal person. I’d probably be healthier, too.

Computer numerical control - $44,629

This one’s good if you like working with robots in a manufacturing environment. I was always amazed by the CAD/CAM workstations at one of my previous jobs, but the noise was deafening. I’ll stick to the office side of manufacturing.

Solar energy systems installer - $44,460

This is a potential boom industry. My company has increased their investment in energy-saving equipment, and the federal stimulus bill has created a demand for these jobs.

Correctional officer - $42,795

I worked with an engineer several years ago who had taken the county corrections officer’s civil service test while he had been between jobs. He was called a few years after taking the test, and wound up accepting the position and going through the academy. His name appeared on the cover of the local paper as one of the top overtime earners in the county. He made close to $100 thousand in overtime in one year!

Security and fire-alarm systems installers - $41,417

As the price of security systems drops, the demand goes up, requiring more installers. Training can be done in two weeks for about $1,000. That’s a quick turnaround time, and allows you to start earning money right away.

Aircraft mechanic - $39,584

This job has better pay than an auto mechanic, and an unending demand for air travel will provide a steady growth in this field. I wonder if they fly for free?

Can you think of any other jobs that weren’t listed in the article that meet this criteria?

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Excel How-to: A Macro to Hide Blank Rows on a Spreadsheet

Posted by enrique s in Excel on October 19th, 2009

Today, a coworker asked me how to hide a row on his Excel spreadsheet. This was a fairly large spreadsheet, with about 150 rows and 30 columns. After showing him, he started to hide every other row, which would be an incredible waste of time for someone in his salary bracket. So I offered him a solution: a macro that hides (and unhides) the rows by pushing a button. Really two buttons. Here’s how I did it:

We’ll start with a simple spreadsheet. You can follow along with this one: Hide_Row_Excel_File_No_Macros.xls

If you’d rather view a completed file with the macros already present, click this one: Hide_Row_Excel_File.xls

Here’s what the raw spreadsheet looks like:

We want to be able to hide and display the blank rows, so we’ll need to write a couple of macros. First, we’ll put a formula in column D that checks if column C is blank. The formula =if(C6=”",”HIDE”,”") is entered in cell D6:

Then, we’ll copy the formula from cell D6 down the column through cell D40:

The macro will run on a simple loop, repeating for the necessary number of times. We’ll assign a number to each row to determine that number. It just a formula that adds one to the cell’s value above it in the column. We’ll enter the formula +E5+1 in cell E6:

We’ll copy this formula from cell E6 down through cell E40:

Next, we’ll establish the number of times the macro needs to run. We’ll use the formula =max(E6:E40) to determine the number of repetitions, and enter it in cell G1. We’ll enter a zero in cell F1; this will be used as a counter:

Now comes the fun part. We’re going to record a macro! It’s fairly easy. We’ll record a few simple keystrokes, and then edit them for our use. But first, select cells E6 through E8. Then, from the top menu, click Tools, Macro, and Record New Macro:

We’ll name the macro HIDE_ROW and click OK:

Now, we’ll record keystrokes. From the top menu, click Format, Row, and Hide:

Next, click the little Stop button that looks like this:

We’ll need to edit the macro that we just recorded, so from the top menu, select Tools, Macro, and Macros:

Then, select the macro named HIDE_ROW, and click the Edit button:

This will display, in Visual Basic, the code for the macro that we recorded:

We’ll replace the existing code with this. This will allow the macro to repeat for the appropriate number of times, and check to see if each row should be hidden or not:

When you’ve finished entering the new code, close the Visual Basic editor by clicking the X in the upper right corner. Next, we’ll want to make it convenient to run the macro. We’ll do this by creating a button. From the top menu, click View, Toolbars, and Forms:

This will display the Forms toolbar. Click on the second box down on the right hand side, which is the icon for the Button:

I placed the button over cells I2 through J3. A dialog box will pop up that will prompt you to assign a macro to the button. Select HIDE_ROW and click OK:

You can edit the name of the button by selecting the text and typing over it:

Now that we can hide the blank rows, we want to be able to display them again, or “unhide” them. Let’s record another macro to do this. First, select cells D6 through D40. Remember the steps to record a macro?:

We’ll call this macro UNHIDE_ROWS:

Then, we’ll record the necessary keystrokes. From the top menu, click Format, Row, and Unhide:

Next, stop the recording by clicking the following button:

We’ll want to create another button for the new macro, so let’s display the Forms toolbar one more time by clicking View, Toolbars, and Forms. The Forms toolbar looks like this:

Select the Button icon, and place it over cells I6 through J7. Assign the UNHIDE_ROWS macro to this button:

To finish, edit the text on the button:

Now, just click the buttons to run the macros. Click the Hide Blank Rows button to hide the rows, and click the Unhide Blank Rows button to display the rows. If you have any questions at all, please feel free to ask them in the comments. I’ll get back to you promptly.

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Seek Discomfort

Posted by enrique s in Career, Motivation, lifehack on October 16th, 2009

Photo by colinedwards99

There are always two choices, two paths to take. One is easy. And its only reward is that it’s easy. - Unknown

Just about every piece of advice tries to make your workday less stressful. To-do lists help us rank our tasks in order of importance. We’re offered the following steps to deal with those dreaded tasks:

Don’t do it
Delay it
Deflect it
Delegate it
Do it imperfectly
Do it

Why does “Do it” wind up at the end of the list? Why such an aversion to a challenge? Do these self-help gurus doubt our capacity to rise to the occasion? I think we’re passing on great opportunities for personal growth.

When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I’ve never tried before. - Mae West

Because I get bored easily, I’m always experimenting. I guess you’d call it Lifehacking to some degree. Perhaps this makes me a little weird, because I can’t just leave well enough alone. For instance, I gave up drinking coffee this summer. People ask me: Why? Do you have a medical condition? When I tell them that I just wanted to see if I could do it, they look at me like I have three heads. People just don’t tackle hard things anymore. We’re becoming a nation of wusses.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Rather than run from change, I embrace it. I’ve changed jobs several times just because I felt that I needed a new challenge. So have many other famous people. It’s a little scary to leave a place where you have a routine for a new job where you don’t know anyone. But I think the first step to real personal growth is to break out of your comfort zone.

So I challenge you today: Skip all of the easy items from your to-do list. Pick a challenging one, something that you’ll really have to apply yourself in order to finish. The Big Kahuna. Then get busy. It may take you longer than the other “gimmies” that you’d normally tackle first, but you’ll get more satisfaction when you’ve completed it. I know, because I did this a few days ago. It was a killer assignment, with many complications, and I had to involve other people in order to move forward. But after 3 days, I completed this magnum opus, and gained some respect from my peers for my work ethic.

So it’s time to get uncomfortable. Let me know how you made out.

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I Don’t Have Time for This!

Posted by enrique s in Productivity, Rants, lifehack on October 13th, 2009

Tunnels of Time
Photo by fdecomite

“I don’t have time for this!” That was a favorite line of one of my bosses. Whenever he felt overwhelmed by problems or demands, he would recite his tagline. I always wondered how he had the time to leave work early for a golf game, but that’s another story.

Time of your life

Our lives are ruled by the clock. Our alarm clock wakes us up. We may listen to the car radio during our drive-time commute. We have a start time, and a quitting time. In between there’s break time and lunch time. You may have to record your work time on your timecard. We put in overtime at work, whether we’re paid for it or not. This takes away from our time spent with our loved ones. After another drive home, it’s dinner time, then a short leisure time before it’s bedtime again. Another day shot to hell, and what have you accomplished? Lather, rinse, repeat. This is how most of our lives are structured.

Ruled by the clock

I want to know: Who the hell came up with such a rigid system? Why do we let the clock and calendar rule us? We’re concerned with the number of days until Christmas. We have to act now on a limited-time offer. Don’t be late for work, or they’ll dock you for the time missed. Another year older? Wow, how time marches on. My calendar’s clear for that afternoon, so let’s get together. Only two months until swimsuit season. And my favorite: How long is it going to take?

Practical reasons

I can understand why we use time. We need to know when the liquor store opens. We want to be paid for every minute that we work. We want to know how long the wait is for a table at a restaurant. But I don’t understand why we use time against ourselves. We set time limits on achieving our goals. We hurry things up at work, only to do a half-assed job because we rushed to meet an unrealistic deadline. We mark off the years of our birth, only to reinforce the notion that we’re getting older.

Shitcan the time measurements

Now, I’m all for efficiency and managing your time effectively. I say, measure time for when it’s truly needed, like at work. But don’t let it discourage you when you’re not at work. Don’t stress about not making it to the store before it closes. You can wait until tomorrow. Don’t worry that you’re a year older. Age is just a number, an arbitrary measurement. What does it mean, anyway? It’s not like you’re going to turn 70 and drop dead. This isn’t the world of Logan’s Run, where you were euthanized when you turned 30, culled like an old chicken.

Dreamtime

The Australian Aborigines have two sets of time, both existing in parallel. One constitutes the daily grind, and the other is a “dreamtime”, a spiritual plane that exists separately. I say, live in the dreamtime. Measure your age in terms of quality, not quantity. You can become wise and experienced without acting like an old geezer. Stop dwelling on the numbers, and start examining the true essence of your life.

Do it before you run out of time.

Follow me on Twitter: CorpBarbarian

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Living in the Past

Posted by enrique s in Motivation, Rants, lifehack on October 12th, 2009

gold
Photo by archangel_raphael

I heard some people at work sharing war stories. You know, how many home runs they hit in their senior year in high school; how much hair they used to have; how thin they used to be in college. I even heard one guy admit that he was just “going through the motions”, that he wasn’t motivated, and that he was more productive when he was younger and less jaded. Wow. Pretty honest.

20/20 hindsight

It’s pretty honest because usually, people tend to glorify their past accomplishments. We put too great an importance on what we’ve already done, and not enough thought into what we plan to do. Our goals are loosely defined, lacking the clarity of our past endeavors, because they haven’t happened yet. It’s funny how 20/20 hindsight can sharpen our memories of the past that we’d like to have had.

I ain’t as good as I once was…

It reminds me of that Toby Keith song, As Good as I Once Was, where he laments that he’s a shadow of his former self, but that he’s got enough left in the tank for at least one more try. I’m no fan of country music (I’m more of a Zeppelin fan); I guess some people like songs about dead dogs, pickup trucks, and the South rising again. To each his own. But as I dodged the twangy guitar riffs and cornball references to cowboys and rednecks (his words, not mine), I found a message to take away.

There’s plenty of daylight left

Even though I’m in my forties, I feel that I’m just hitting my stride. Sure, there are things that came easier when I was younger. But I also made lots of mistakes in my youth, so things tend to balance out. I have more tricks up my sleeve than my 20-something self, more rounds in the chamber. If our youth is the morning of our lives, then our middle age is our afternoon. I kind of like the afternoon. It’s when the sun shines brightest. Which is a good thing, because I’ve still got plenty left to accomplish.

You know the good ole days weren’t always good
And tomorrow ain’t as bad as it seems

- Billy Joel, from Keeping the Faith

Maybe we never were as good as we thought we were. But we can always strive to be better. As long as there is air in our lungs, we have a chance to do things that will make our past accomplishments pale by comparison. Start today. Think about what you’d like to achieve. It doesn’t matter if you’re going bald, or if you’re 50 pounds heavier than high school. Even if you’ve “lost a step”, you’ve still got plenty left in the tank. Write down those goals!

I say, start creating your future today. Don’t waste another moment by living in the past.

Follow me on Twitter: CorpBarbarian

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Archive for October, 2009

Agita online

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Human error

The awful truth

The buck stops here

Pointing the finger

Incurring wrath

Corrective action

How it works

Vacate now, pay later

A public relations coup

Low man on the totem pole

Trojan Horse

Time of your life

Ruled by the clock

Practical reasons

Shitcan the time measurements

Dreamtime

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