Ten Excuses You’re Not Going to Use Any More

For our Idea Tribe: Day 66

I wrote this blog post back in February when I was really motivated – for a day or two. I’ve since gained back much of the weight I lost. I have this issue lately; whenever I get within an inch of meeting my fitness goal, I get comfortable and sabotage it. Now that that’s been written, I’m starting to think it may be a pattern with other ambitions.

Reality check: I’m chronically tired and aching. My pants are getting tight again. I am not getting ahead at my job that is 1.5 hours from my home – a job I can easily do anywhere for anyone.

Excuses/Stories That I Can’t Afford to Tell Myself Any More

1. I’m too tired to: exercise, make my lunch for tomorrow, do one more chore around the house
2. I’m too inexperienced to apply to be a project manager
3. I’m too English to make $15K more a year
4. I don’t have enough time to formulate a way to earn passive/side income
5. I have too much to do to go to bed early
6. I’m too scared of the outcome to do what I know is right
7. This job affords me time to write on occasion, so maybe I should just stay here awhile longer
8. I’ll just make one more lateral move to see if it’s the move that will change my career path
9. One more chocolate bar won’t hurt
10. Beggars can’t be choosers (re: job hunt)
11. I knew what I was getting myself into

What Are Your Ten Superpowers?

For our Idea Tribe: Day 62

Today’s optional theme is influenced by James Altucher‘s amazing podcast from this past week with Jim Kwik: Brain Coach and Superhero.

1.    Event planning/project management

2.    Baking up a mean cheesecake

3.    Resourcefulness

4.    Rationality

5.    Calm in the face of calamity (except when using Windows 8)

6.    Not bad with a pen

7.    Bionic wit. Maybe not quite bionic, but bionic-ish. OK – just wanted to use the word bionic in our superpower list.

8.    Approachable like a neodymium magnet for every obscure person who feels like telling their life story to a stranger

9.    See through obstacles with my zoggles (zero obstacle goggles)

10.  See through negative situations with ability to spin anything into a positive with my opti-oggles (optimistic goggles)

11.  Copius connector

12.  Great support person – probably due to my co-dependent issues, but it’s all about making whatever we have work for us, right?

13.  Ability to shock people with what comes out of my mouth

Ten Ways to Be a Great Entreployee

For our Idea Tribe: Day 62 For those of us who work for someone else and want to bring up our game, as well as for those who have employees who you’d like to be leaders, what are ten ways to be a great entreployee?

1. Become an expert in the aspects of the job that you love
2. Take courses relevant to the position and industry to help with #1
3. Speak up when you see a problem, but only speak up with creative solutions on hand
4. Be innovative with new ways that the company can save money and share those with management
5. Be innovative with new ways that the company can make money and share those
6. Include your job in your gratitude reflections.
7. Don’t be a desk martyr. Take your earned time off so that you don’t become resentful of your employer. Being refreshed will give you fresh outlook.
8. Remember that your contribution has a major impact on the bottom line.
9. Become trusted to work autonomously. Finish projects before their deadlines, if possible, and over-deliver.
10. Treat everyone as though they’re your best customer – your supervisor, your colleagues, your suppliers and all customers (even if they only represent $1 in sales). That’s likely how you’d want to be treated.

10 Benefits of Writing Idea Lists for 60 Days

  For our brilliant Idea Tribe: Day 60

1. Claudia and James Altucher have joined our tribe, which is a bonus that I didn’t see coming. Thank you for being here, for everything you share, for inspiring this community to come together, and for being within our reach.

2. The iTribe is becoming stronger with each day of ideas. 30 iTribe members x 60 days of listing = 1800 idea lists = communal idea machine! That’s quite the impressive idea collective, which keeps getting more compelling as we rotate new members in.

3. With daily writing, creativity and the stimulus our Idea Tribe brings, I am a happier person.

4. With being a happier person, I can feel that I am a kinder person. I am looking at people and situations with the perception of, “What can to help you and/or this situation?”

5. I have been practicing graphics almost daily and getting a better eye for it.

6. I feel committed to our idea journey, which gives a sense of accomplishing something valuable.

7. I have solutions at the tip of my tongue more often than not.

8. I now wear zero obstacles goggles (zoggles!) meaning I am starting to see that most hindrances can be evaporated. It might even become a superpower.

9. Some formerly reticent iTribe members have ascended, are sharing which has enhanced our community. Progress!

10. Last but not least, you’re all remarkable. Can’t thank you enough for showing up every day.

Twelve Thoughts on What Choose Yourself Means to You

For our Idea Tribe: Day 59

There are so many interpretations of what choosing ourselves is. The most important thing is, what does Choose Yourself mean to each of us personally? Here is where I’m going with what we call being a Choose Yourselfer:

1.    Knowing what it is that makes me tick and doing it – not just talking about or wishing I was doing it.

2.    Being able to articulate how to go about doing the above.

3.    Being authentic with myself so that I can be authentic to others.

4.    Committing to being a lifelong learner.

5.    Writing something every day; a list, a blog post, in a journal or anything as long as I take the time to exercise the writing muscle daily. Actually, any way I can exercise the creative muscle will lift my spirits.

6.    Committing to improving by that 1% everyday in all areas of the four daily practice and having awareness about those improvements.

7.    Committing to improving my community involvement every day. To me, community is its own entity because it is so influential and boundless in terms of opportunity, thus has become the fifth leg of the daily practice.

8.    Openly sharing knowledge with those who genuinely want it.

9.    Being open to other experiences.

10.  Practicing kindness.

11.  Being a good example as an open, adventurous, authentic, creative and determined person for my daughter.

12.  Hopefully, doing something that I love for a living one day – be it full-time and/or part-time for extra income.

Ten Ways You Can Surprise Someone in Your Life in a Way They Would Like

For our Idea Tribe: Day 58

For today’s optional theme, we borrowed a list from Claudia Azula Altucher‘s book, “Become An Idea Machine: Because Ideas Are The Currency Of The 21st Century”, chapter 39: “Ten Ways in Which You Can Surprise Someone in Your Life in a Way They Would Like”. It can be a loved one, your kids, your partner, a co-worker, etc.

1. Kids: Pull them out of school for a surprise fun day, such as a movie, to see animals, to go shopping, or to do their favourite thing.
2. Colleague: Give them credit for work you’ve done.
3. Colleague: Send an unexpected compliment about them to their manager and HR.
4. Anyone: When you can tell they are really tired and need a break, give them a gift certificate for a massage. Have done this for my single mum friend and for a friend who is a kindergarten teacher; they appreciated it as much as they needed it.
5. Family members: Surprise them with a night or weekend away somewhere special. Do the packing, be the chauffeur and don’t tell them where they’re going until you arrive.
6. Friends with kids: Offer to babysit for free so that they can have a night off. Often the expense of paying for a babysitter is what stops them from getting out of the house.
7. Loved ones: Unexpected “just because” presents on non-holidays.
8. Family members: Surprise them to come home to find something(s) completed that’s been sitting on the “Honey Do” list for too long. Okay – I wrote this because I’m projecting my secret fantasy!
9. Idea Tribe: Write an unsolicited list of ten things you think would add value for your a fellow iTribe member.
10. People you manage: Surprise them by letting them go early for the day – paid. My boss does this one in awhile and it is always so appreciated when he does.

Ten Things You Can Do to Get out of Your Comfort Zone…

For our Idea Tribe: Day 57

Ten Things You Can Do to Get out of Your Comfort Zone and Do You Hope to Do Them One Day?

Twelve reasonable and doable ideas came out of this list.

1. Cross-train in a department that I am not familiar with and which seems intimidating. I will do this.
2. Do karaoke – sober. No promises here!
3. Insist that everyone at work communicates to me in French so that I practice more. This is a should do, but I’m coming to terms with the fact that I’m really not interested in being fluently bilingual.
4. Participate in an open-mic amateur stand-up night with Scotty and Spil like we’ve been threatening to do for years. Bucket list!
5. Go without make-up everywhere. Getting better at this with parenthood.
6. Become a single parent. Seems inevitable, but relationship ambiguity sometimes seems easier than that thought.
7. Live by a strict financial budget for at least three months. This is doable.
8. Live by a strict time budget for a month to see if it helps balancing work/family/health. I will do this.
9. Offer to proof-read someone’s self-published book(s) for free. If they say “no thanks”, move on and offer this service to someone else. Start building a proof of proofing résumé this way.
10. Start writing articles for Medium and LinkedIn with my real name attached.
11. Get a client for anything to bring in a second stream of income. Do something small just to break the comfort ice.
12. Stand up for myself. Always.

Ten Reasons Why Adults Only Laugh Five Times a Day (Instead of Three Hundred Like Children)

For our Idea Tribe: Day 55

This list idea is borrowed from chapter 37 of Claudia Azula Altucher’s book, “Become An Idea Machine: Because Ideas Are the Currency of the 21st Century”. The statistic is that adults only laugh about 5 times a day, while children laugh on average 300 times a day. Why so? What happened to us? It’s a great one to ponder as I watch my toddler running around and screaming with so much joy. This list is making me conscious about stripping her fun away.

1. Toddlers love to be naked, then one day, some grown up comes along insisting that they be clothed all the time. That dulls down life right away.
2. Little kids enjoy throwing food, amongst other things, and alas some adult tells them they must stop doing that, like, “Big girls eat nicely.” How boring.
3. Most kids really like running around in the dirt and getting filthy. Much to their chagrin, we make them bathe. Joy killers.
4. Children love letting their imaginations go wild, they make up stories and even imaginary people. And then some a-hole adult enforces staying in reality at all times.
5. Little ones love signing aloud. At some point, we make them feel that it’s inappropriate to do all the time and then they become self-conscious about singing.
6. Kids love gas, i.e. burping and farting. “Woe!”, we say, “You must’nt do that.” It’s natural, but hold it in for a little longer.
7. Children love giving and getting affection. They do so without asking permission. Somehow, as we age, this isn’t openly tolerated anymore.
8. Kids are artists. We’re all artists, but children are encouraged to be creative as a part of their development. And then we steer them towards becoming accountants or something else society deems will pay the bills, leaving the once creative side to gather dust on the shelf.
9. Most children start out really enjoying going to school, but then subjects are taught for which they don’t understand how they will be helpful for their future. This can take the pleasure right out of an education that is enforced upon them.
10. Kids are free to play. Adults don’t allot enough time for play. As Dr. Stuart Brown illustrates in his book, “Play”, it’s integral to the balance of all – young and old.

Ten Lines from Songs That You Love

For our Idea Tribe: Day 54

It was hard to stop at ten.

1. “It’s only right that you should play the way you feel it/ but listen carefully to the sound of your loneliness like a heartbeat drives you mad/ in the stillness of remembering what you had and what you lost…” – Fleetwood Mac “Dreams”
2. I’m free of cheating your poor heart at my own damn expense/ The cost was heavy and it rent as a thunder cloud/
   A hurricane sure racked in my heart/ Now the rain is gone and I am gone/ Yes, I am moving on/ I’m free at last” – G. Love & Special Sauce “Free at Last”
3. “I wanna love I don’t wanna fight” – Fat Freddy’s Drop “This Room”
4. “Still a little bit of your taste in my mouth/ Still a little bit of you laced with my doubt/ Still a little hard to say what’s going on /Still a little bit of your ghost, your witness/ Still a little bit of your face I haven’t kissed” Damien Rice “Cannonball”
5. “Last night I told a stranger all about you/ They smiled patiently with disbelief/ I always knew you would succeed no matter what you did/ And I know you did it all in spite of me” – Morphine “In Spite of Me”
6. “So get back to work an’ sweat some more/ The sun will sink an’ we’ll get out the door/ It’s no good for man to work in cages/ Hits the town, he drinks his wages” + the lyrics for the entire song – The Clash “The Magnificent Seven”
7. “Sometimes I wonder why I spend/ The lonely nights dreaming of a song/ The melody haunts my reverie/ And I am once again with you” – Willie Nelson “Stardust”, written by Mitchell Parish
8. “And It ain’t no use in turning on your light, babe/ The light I never knowed/ And it ain’t no use in turning on your light, babe/ I’m on the dark side of the road” – Bob Dylan “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright”
9. “And every day is getting straighter/ Time’s the Revelator, the Revelator” – Gillian Welch “Time (The Revelator)
10. “One drink too many and a joke gone too far/ I see a face drive like a stolen car/ Gets harder to hide when you’re hitching a ride/ Harder to hide what you really saw’ – Beth Orton “Stolen Car”
11. “The music is the thing that always made me high/ And it’s the warmth that left the light that never told no lies/ And it’s the feeling in my heart / And the tear in my eye / And the chill in my spine / And the freedom on my mind” – G. Love & Special Sauce “The Hustle”

Ten Things You Would Do If You Were Invisible for a Day

For our Idea Tribe – Day 53

Our theme question of the day, “What Are Ten Things You Would Do If You Were Invisible for a Day?” unintentionally seemed to make many in our tribe transparent.

1. I’d watch my daughter in daycare to learn who she is independently of mama, to learn more about her imagination, who her closest peers are, to be able to listen closely to the songs and stories she whispers, what her favourite games are and how her caretakers treat her.
2. I’d stow away on a flight to somewhere exotic.
3. I’d sit in on classes, lectures and meetings that interest me, e.g. Mastermind Talks.
4. I’d go braless.
5. I’d observe the real daily routines of people I wish to emulate and mentors who are out of my reach – up close and personal.
6. I’d observe the daily routines of people who are controversial to try to empathize with who they are beneath the surface.
7. I’d snoop inside some of the houses in my neighbourhood that I love. Not to case the joints, but to see if the layouts, interior design and views are as beautiful as I imagine.
8. I’d listen in on the conversations of the hiring managers for the positions I want, so that I can get an edge in the hiring process.
9. I’d look in on some children who I worry are not in good situations. If my suspicions are confirmed, I’d take action to help them.
10. I’d write about all of the above experiences – maybe even about being braless in some bizarre, metaphorical sense.

“People who speak in metaphors should shampoo my crotch.” – Jack Nicholson