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30 Days

February 15, 2012

30 Days with Morgan SpurlockIt is often said it takes 21 says to form or break a habit. I am not sure how true this is but that is about right for me. If I keep doing something each day somewhere between 21-30 days it starts being routine. Many people want to start or stop habits but think it will be hard or take a lot of time. It may very well be hard if you are curbing an addiction or trying to exercise daily when you have never done it in your life but you have to start the journey.

Morgan Spurlock did his show “30 Days” where he placed himself or another willing participant in a situation for, you guessed it, 30 days.  There were 18 episodes in the original run from 2005-2008 (source: IMDB).  If memory serves, those 30 days were always an eye opener for the participant and those around them and many good things seem to come out of the days they spent together.

Imagine if you looked within yourself and decided to do one thing you always wanted to do and committed to doing it for 30 days.  Would it change your life?  Better yet, would it hurt you in any way?  I ask the hurt question because if the answer is a resounding ‘no’ that it wouldn’t hurt and you could commit the time for a 30 day span then why not try it?

This article was completely inspired by a TEDTalk I ran across a few days ago that was given in 2011 by Matt Cutts.  It is only 3 1/2 minutes and I encourage you to give it a brief watch and see if it inspires you to try something new for just 30 days.


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

Persistence

February 15, 2012

Fort Fisher AquariumYou need persistence in life.  It is a fact to winning in just about everything you do.  If you don’t keep moving forward and moving obstacles you will fail before you get to the finish line.

What brings up this topic is a place in North Carolina.  It is the aquarium at Fort Fisher and I can only assume the other aquariums in the state do this as well.  We visited back in 2006 and upon walking into the lobby you are greeted and asked if you would like to have your picture taken at no charge.  You can see the picture we had taken just under 6 years ago to the left.

This seemed innocent enough and, of course, we knew they would want to sell us a package which we did not buy as we were on a budget for the trip.  However, once we got home I received an e-mail asking if I would like to purchase the picture now.  I deleted it and kept going.  Then I got another one, and another one, and another one.  Just earlier this month I received another one offering my Valentine’s borders and gifts of the picture we took several years ago.

I in no way look at this as a bad thing.  I could always opt out of the e-mails if I decided to.  However, I get to relive the memory of this trip and this moment each time they send out the marketing e-mail.  Their persistence turns into a trip down memory lane for me and you never know, someday I may purchase a high resolution version of the picture.

Bottom line is you need to be persistent if you want something.  Do not annoy and nag but don’t be willing to settle for less than you deserve and push through the rough spots and WIN!

 

Filed Under: Customer Service, Goal Setting Tagged With: , , ,

Day 38 – Double Black Diamond

February 11, 2012

WHEW! For the first time today I tried the “Double Black Diamond” DVD which was over an hour long. Few modifications but all in all I feel I rocked it. Felt good to make it through the whole workout especially regretting it a tad after about ten minutes into it.

DDP takes great care to get you stretched out from the start and prepare for the remainder of the workout. It is more demanding than any of the other workouts in the series that I have completed. I was absolutely soaked at the end of this one. My least favorite parts – Exploding Pushups and Down Dog.

I hate the exploding pushups but they motivate me to try harder and I am getting stronger by doing them. You basically lower down really close to the ground and hold for a set interval and then explode up. I still have some upper body work to do before really getting this down.

Down Dog is not my friend. I am feeling it getting easier and one day soon we may become acquaintances but that is a little ways down the road. I think this has a lot to do with upper body work as well, especially my arm strength so I am not giving up on the dog just yet.

One of my favorite moves from this workout is the Chicken Wing. It isn’t what I would call easy but it stretches you out pretty good. You can see it demonstrated in the video below about three minutes in.

What motivated me to do this today? Well, I got the chance to talk to the man himself Diamond Dallas Page last night (thanks Bambi). We had a brief conversation on how DDPYoga has changed our lives and we are just over a month in. We talked a little about nutrition and changing the way we eat. One thing he recommended that I think you pop drinkers might want to look at is Zevia which is a soda that comes in several flavors but has no calories, no fat, no gluten, zero net carbs, and is low sodium.  It is a bit pricey which can be a turn off, however, if you are trying to eliminate soda from your diet this could be a good step to take for a week or two to wean yourself off of it.

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

Savings Snowball

February 9, 2012

snowballIf you have researched paying off debt in any form more than likely you have come across the “Debt Snowball” method of paying off debt.  Many people have talked about it but most notably of those is Dave Ramsey.

Ramsey suggests in order to pay of debts quicker and get a psychological advantage in your process you start with your smallest debt and work up to the highest balance debt until you are debt free.  I was thinking a few weeks ago, why not try this with my savings accounts?  And so I have and thusfar has worked like a charm.

I have several savings accounts which gets money automatically transferred into them on a set interval.  These accounts are my budgeted items – you could call them my electronic envelopes.  They are named for what they are to be used for such as car maintenance, clothing, birthdays, Christmas, etc.  I know how much I want in each of these to consider them “fully funded”.

I make a list of these accounts and how much each one needs in it in order to be maxed out at from the smallest one to the largest one.  Now, the money that is budgeted for is put into these accounts with the most going into the smallest one each pay day.  Once that one is fully funded I move to the next one on the list and put the budgeted amount into that account plus what was budgeted for the first account.  We continue this until all of the accounts are fully funded and then everything that was budgeted for them starts going into my emergency fund.

I find this to be a natural progression if you use the “Baby Steps” as part of your personal finance plan.  It easy to keep up with, you already understand the snowball, and it gives you another set of financial goals whose whole purpose is to keep you from getting back into the debt trap again.

Photo courtesy of Ryan Grimm.

Filed Under: Goal Setting, Money Saving, Personal Finance Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Have you started saving for Christmas?

February 8, 2012

Plaza ChristmasIt is almost that time of year again! What? It isn’t? Oh, it is just time to start saving for that time of year. That is what I wanted to discuss.

Every year I see first hand hundreds of people waiting until the last minute to purchase presents for Christmas because they do not plan throughout the year. They wait and wait and at the last minute it is like a ghost that was leftover from Halloween screamed “BOO!” and they are rushing to get gifts or get money for the holidays. Want to have a less stressful season in 10 months? Start saving now!

You don’t have to be stressed this year.  I promise you, if you will follow a few simple steps you can have the easiest holiday season you have ever had.  Everything feels different when you have the money saved, you pay with cash, and you know you won’t have a huge credit card bill come January that may very well stick around until the following Christmas.

All you have to do are a few simple steps:

  1. Write down everyone you want to buy for.
  2. Double check that list.  Are you sure you want to buy something for everyone on that list?
  3. Can you make something for some of those people (including food items) instead of buying them an expensive gift?  If so, move them to the side of the list.
  4. Write down how much you want to spend on each person beside their name.
  5. Total that number up.
  6. Divide it by how many times you will get paid between now and your last pay check before Christmas.
  7. BAM!  You just decided how much you needed to save each pay day to pay in full in cash for Christmas this year and not have the stress of running around at the last minute.

You must be realistic on what you want to spend on each person.  If you make $20,000 a year you need to spend what you can afford.  If you feel bad for this, then let the people know now that you can’t afford it and settle on a mutual amount to spend on each other based on what you can spend.  Don’t let the people who put everything on credit cards tell you how much you should spend on them.

If you want to go a little further figure out how much it will cost for the supplies to make the people at the side your list their gifts and budget for that as well.  Or, better yet, of you aren’t making them a food item figure out how many items you need to make each month to be finished for Christmas and you can save that stress at the end of the year as well.

Have A Merry February Everyone!

More Information:

What Dave Ramsey says about saving for Christmas

Photo courtesy of David DeHetre

 

Filed Under: Goal Setting, Money Saving Tagged With: , , , ,

Day 31 – Diamond Cutter

February 4, 2012

Day 31 and I am feeling alive!  It is said it takes 30 days for something to become a habit.  Well, I am at day 31 and have not missed on day of DDPYoga so far!  Some days are harder then others to make myself do it but I am getting out of the cycle slowly but surely.  I don’t want to sit on the couch all of of the time and this helps to keep me from doing that.

Today for the first time I did the “Diamond Cutter” DVD which is just under an hour.  It works all of your muscle groups and has a few moves I have not seen in the other videos.  I had more sweat dripping after this one than I have in the others.

Here is a preview of the DVD:

I am still having some trouble with down dog.  Can’t get my feet flat still yet but I can see it getting closer to the ground.  Safety Zone I can get deep into now and it is most wonderful to get to that point in the workout.  I really like Human Cannonball and am working to grabbing the bottom of my feet, however, I still have some stomach to get out of the way before I can get there 🙂 .

Anyhoo, 31 days in and I am still going strong.  My wife and I are noticing huge differences with strength, weight loss, and energy.  Let’s see what the next 31 days makes me feel like!

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

Anything Is Possible

January 29, 2012

Astronaut In Space

About The Picture: Astronaut Bruce McCandless II, mission specialist, participates in an extravehicular activity a few meters away from the cabin of the shuttle Challenger during the STS-41B mission. (April 1983)

So many of us have creative ideas but few go to the “trouble” of finishing out a project or even starting it. I ran across an article on Yahoo News (link) the other day of two high school seniors who wanted to send a balloon and camera in to space. The two of them designed and launched a weather balloon, complete with the first Lego Man in space, and tracked the balloon with GPS once it fell back to earth. They did this for under $400.00!!!!

If someone handed you $400.00 and told you to do something creative what would you do?  What if they handed you $25?  The possibilities are endless but it all comes down to what would you do?

Checkout the video of the Lego Man going in to space. I would have liked to have seen the complete decent but this is amazing what these two teenagers were able to accomplish on such a small budget:


Filed Under: Creativity Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Day 25 – Chugga Chugga Choo Choo

January 29, 2012

It has been 25 days since starting DDPYoga.  Last time I checked which was a few days ago I was down 15 pounds in three weeks!  It feels good and has improved my life in multiple areas.  I am not as tired throughout the day nor as hungry.  I have much more energy in general.  My wife has seen marked improvement in an injured wrist, back, and knees and has seen a change in her energy level.

On top of the DDPYoga I have also made food changes.  I am not one for a diet in any way.  In previous years when trying to go on a diet or cut out things I would do really well for a week or two and then crush all of my work in a day and then I would revisit the concept of a diet the next year or whenever I felt like I was not doing my best.  This time has been quite different though.  I have made alternative choices rather than completely eliminating a flavor or two.  Here are some basic changes:

  • Tea: I drink a lot of tea.  Every now and then I will have a pop of some sort but for the most part I am a tea drinker and we generally put two cups of sugar in a gallon.  I like the southern style sweet tea as you can tell.  All we did to modify this was put in a cup of sugar and a cup of Splenda.  We get 1/2 the calories and about the same taste.  Eventually we will cut out a little more sugar for the alternative but we are taking baby steps.
  • Water: I try to replace one glass of tea a day with a glass of water.
  • Popcorn:  I ate quite a bit of popcorn before doing DDPYoga but now I do it regularly at night as my snack (yes, I know it isn’t good to eat that close to bed – that is the next baby step to eliminate).  Candy and potato chips can be high in fat and calories.  However, the popcorn I eat is only about 225 calories if I eat the whole bag.  This is less than that of a candy bar.  Not only am I losing the calories but it is 94% fat free (approx. 4g of fat).
  • Fruit:  I have also switched out snacking on junk to eat mandarin and navel oranges.  These can be high in sugar but they don’t have all the other processed junk in them and run about 80 calories (source).  One can fill you up for quite a while.
  • Yogurt:  I am not a huge yogurt fan but I have found some that I really like the taste of.  I tend to stay around the ones that have 100 calories in them as I get a lot of flavor and feel full for a period of time without a lot of downside.  Most yogurt also has good bacteria in them which helps in other areas.

Those are some of the bigger changes.  I know there is still room for improvement within even those changes and I will be working on those as well.  Baby steps my friend.

A lot of friends have asked about the program and all I can give is my opinion.  However, Dallas recently added a 30 day money back guarantee on the program if you are not satisfied.  So, you now have nothing to lose.

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

Lack There Of

January 22, 2012

We all have ran into poor customer service at one point or another.  Whether it has been a clerk that didn’t say thank you to the rep on the phone that you can tell doesn’t care what you’re complaint is.  However, what surprises me most are the businesses that are quickly losing market share but continue on the downward spiral of the most basic thing they can do to keep customers in their stores.

ApathyI was recently in a national video rental chain and had a small problem.  To put in in perspective it was all of 99 cents.  When I called the clerk’s attention to it I was simply told that the wrong sticker was on the game and they took the game from me and walked off to replace the sticker.  This was innocent enough but this was the second of three problems I had with this store from three different clerks in a five day time span.

It is common knowledge that it is easier and more cost effective to keep a current customer than to try to gain a new one.  In this case, brick and mortar rental businesses are losing rapidly to online rentals, streaming, and kiosk services.  Why go to the store and pay $1.99 for one night when I can go to iTunes and pay $2.99 and not have to get into my car?  Valid question.  The reason we do it is for selection, price, and for the family to get out of the house a little bit.  Often we need to pick up one or two grocery items which are also convenient to this particular place.

Of all three issues I had in the last few days two could have been fixed with “I’m sorry.”  This would have cost the company nothing, I would have been satisfied with that response, and we all would have moved on.  Now because of the workers at this location not being trained in proper customer care I had a decision to make.  And my decision was to not go back to any of their retail stores.  I would much prefer to pay a little more at a small businesses in the area or rent online than to deal with people who are not there to care for their customers.

The bottom line in this whole thing is “I’m Sorry” would have went a long way and kept me as a weekly customer.  It would have cost the company nothing – no free rental, no refund, no cash.  I would have felt that I had received service from the clerk.

When you have a customer who has a problem what can you do to make sure they are satisfied?

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

Are You A Leader?

January 20, 2012

Are you a leader or a manager?  Does your team follow you or do you tell them what direction to go?  Check out the video below and get inspired to be a leader!

 



Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With: , , ,
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