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Article Roundup

March 17, 2012

This is the first edition of the Article Roundup.  This is a place for me to cleanup my bookmark toolbar full of articles that I found interesting or beneficial but didn’t have a post of my own to put them in.  Will try to keep the list short each time.  I hope you enjoy!

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Remarkable

March 17, 2012

Dare To Be RemarkableDictionary.com defines remarkable as “worthy of notice or attention.”  Have you been remarkable today?

Sometimes it is hard to be noticed.  With so much information flowing into our minds every minute of every day from television to internet to your smart phone, there is a constant barrage of content and information coming at us.  How can you stand out?  Look within yourself.

Look inside of you and see what you can do today, tomorrow, a week from now to stand out of the crowd and be remarkable.  As Dan Miller would say, find your values, dreams, and passions.  Take those three things and stand out and be noticed.

Chris LoCurto posted the below video on his blog and I thought it would inspire you.  Go ahead, be remarkable.


Jane Dentry image from FridgeDoor.com

Filed Under: Life Coaching Tagged With: , , ,

Day 68

March 12, 2012

Today was day 68 of my three month start.  I took the last week off to relax and get rid of some of the soreness that I have gotten from doing this everyday for almost two months.  Whew!  I restarted today with Red Hot Core and was able to do it so much easier than doing day after day.  I am now going to do a Monday – Wednesday – Friday schedule and see how that goes.

I will admit after taking a week off I can tell a huge difference in my body.  My muscles are stiff, I am not nearly as flexible and I started getting some stomach pains back that I had before (these were from lack of exercise and one of my motivators to do something – they are telling me to start doing them again).  It is going to feel good to recommit and get back into the swing of things.

I only have about two weeks left in this blog series but will do periodic updates when it hits me.  I hope you have enjoyed my journey so far and here we go into the final stretch!

Filed Under: DDP Yoga Tagged With: , , , , ,

Food on the Table

March 11, 2012

Here is a new service I am going to be testing out over the next few weeks that looks like it can make your life a lot easier called Food on the Table.

You sign up for a free account (the link below has a coupon code for a lifetime premium membership for free this month), choose a store from your local area, choose what your family likes to eat, and it helps build a meal plan that includes sales from the weekly circular.

There is also an iPhone and Android app for the service allowing you to take your grocery list with you.  If you do not have a smart phone you can print your list from your account and take it with you.

This really looks like a promising service if it continues to grow and be supported.  I look forward to trying it out and seeing what sorts of recipes it puts out for my family.  We can be a group of picky eaters sometimes.

Click the link below to read more about it and get your code for free membership.  Comment below if you have good or bad things to say.  As I said I have yet to try it but wanted to get it out there before the coupon code expired.

Food on the Table Builds Meal Plans and Grocery Lists To Go on Android, iPhone, and Online.

Filed Under: Money Saving Tagged With: , , ,

Make A Decision

March 7, 2012

decisionsHave you ever needed to make a decision but felt like you were frozen?  I think we have all been in this situation at one time or another.  The thing you have to keep in mind is “I have to move forward.”  Not moving forward and standing still is when you are left behind.

Imagine crossing the road and right there in the center you see a hundred dollar bill.  Coming up the road is a string of cars and they are coming very fast.  Now, you freeze trying to decide whether you have time to pick up the money.  The lack of decision has caused you to be hit by a car and the rest of the vehicles to be in a massive pileup.

Yes, I know, this is an extreme example but you can fit it into almost anything in your life.  What chain of consequences are there if you freeze from any given decision you have to make?

Dan Miller suggests you put a time frame on making a decision.  If you need to make a decision today then set a deadline and make it.  If it can wait two weeks then mark the date on the calendar and you must have a decision by that date.  Two weeks should be plenty of time to make 99% of your decisions and I believe most should be made within a few days.

At any rate, do not let yourself freeze about a decision.  Write down what you are deciding on, write down your options, and rank them.  Choose which one has to be made or which one is best if you have several options and then keep moving forward.

Photo Credit: Scott McLeod

Filed Under: Life Coaching Tagged With: , , , ,

Learn More By Leading A Group

February 27, 2012

Group DiscussionHas there ever been something you wanted to learn but you do not find it easy to learn out of a book? Try leading/facilitating a training session or group discussion and learn along with the rest of the group!

In December of 2010 I ordered and blasted through “The Total Money Makeover” and I wanted to learn more. I found out Dave Ramsey has a class called Financial Peace University and was amped to take it.  I lucked out and was able to put together a class with a lot of help from my friend Andy which allowed my to not only participate by to facilitate.  This allowed me to learn a lot more and forced me to put more effort into it.  I also learned how to be a better facilitator next time.

I was speaking to Dallas Page a couple of weeks ago and we were talking about the benefits of TeamDDPYoga which is a group site dedicated to his workout program and he discussed the importance of having this extra support.  He said when he was teaching at the Power Plant (a former professional wrestling school) that he learned so much more and got better the more he helped other people in his group.

Next time you are wanting to learn something or you are passionate about a subject find a way you can help teach it in a group setting.  It will make you better, learn more, and hopefully make the lives of those you are teaching better.  What can be better than that?

Photo Credit: Michael Coghlan

Filed Under: People Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Day 54 – Red Hot Core

February 27, 2012

Day 54 I did Red Hot Core again.  This is the one I do most often as it is quick and can fit into my schedule easily.  It also focuses on the area I want to do the most work on.  It is not the easiest of the series to do by any means.  You will walk away sore after doing this one.

Yesterday was the first time I have missed doing DDPYoga in 53 days.  I have to admit it felt good to take a little break but it felt even better to come straight in from work and start again.  I did get a workout yesterday walking about 30 flights of steps and a couple of blocks so I won’t say I took the day off – I just did a different workout.

As for my weight, well, it seems that both of the scales we have in the house are not quite accurate so I am not sure where I am at this point.  I know where I started and am going to weigh myself on an accurate scale as soon as I have the chance.  I can say that say based on my belt that I have lost weight and I have gained muscle in my arms and legs.

I aim to write at least once a week for the next four weeks about DDPYoga and then it will be on an occasion from there.  It has been fun doing this series and we have one more month to go!

Filed Under: DDP Yoga, Fitness Tagged With: , , , , ,

Day 47 – It’s Electric

February 20, 2012

Day 47 and I still have not missed a day!

Nothing new to report.  This morning was the second time that I have done Wake Up! right after waking up.  It felt a lot better this time than last time.  Last time I tried was right after I started doing DDPYoga so it put me in a bad mood (I am not a morning person most of the time) but since I have done this for a while now and loosened up quite a bit it felt really good to do this first thing.

I have not weighed myself in over a week.  Trying to limit that as I was doing it every few days but I should be able to report something one way or another in my next post.  Until then keep pushing the limits!

Filed Under: DDP Yoga Tagged With: , , , ,

Nothing Is Impossible

February 19, 2012

 

 

Source: Michael Hyatt – Intentional Leadership

Filed Under: Motivational Tagged With: , ,

Overcomplicated

February 19, 2012

overcomplicatedOne of the worst things you can do for your customers is to make things overcomplicated for them.  Take a look at the picture to the right of the school sign in Michigan (source).  Do you think this is good “customer service” to the tax payers?

I recently had a problem with my cell carrier.  My wife’s phone had a battery problem.  Granted, the phone was four years old but all I wanted to do was pay them for a phone and sign a new contract extending my time with them.  The problem being we were not eligible for an upgrade on that line for 14 days!  When I called customer service they told me they could upgrade me to another phone but not the one she wanted to get.  That one would have to wait.  So I call one of their stores and am told we can upgrade as long as it is in the same month – GREAT!  The upgrade as coming in on the 29th, oh, wait, because it is a leap year they moved us to March 1 meaning we were not in the current month.  Hmmmm…

So, I went to Twitter and within ten minutes got a response from someone who was customer friendly and helped us upgrade the phone, pay them for the phone, pay the upgrade fee, and sign a contract.  It took three different customer service reps and five phone calls to get approved to upgrade a phone two weeks early.  I was literally asking them to allow me to hand them money and it took this many steps to get someone who could take care of it.

This is a simple issue of over complicating an issue in an organization.  The first person I spoke with sh0uld have had the authority to make a two week decision.  Do your customer service people have the tools and power to take care of your customers?  If not, why not?  If you can’t trust them then you have the wrong people in that position.

Of course their should be limits and boundaries.  I have been involved with customer service for over a decade and some of the requests from customers can be quite outlandish.  You must put barriers up somewhere but you have to give enough freedom for your reps to make decisions and exceptions when needed.

Bottom Line:  Allow those that have direct contact with your customers be able to serve your customers.  You will be rewarded many times over with happier employees and much happier and loyal customers.

Filed Under: Careers, Customer Service, Leadership Tagged With: , , , , ,
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