BlueCapra

Using Technology To Solve Problems and Create Solutions

Things which matter most…

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Papercut family“…must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, nineteenth-century dramatist, poet, and polymath

I like quotes by famous people (and some by not so famous people).  I happened upon this one while reading The Personal MBA: Master The Art of Business by Josh Kaufman (A really, really great book by the way; truly a MUST read).  As I read this and many other quotes, I reflect on my own life and how I can apply this little bit of wisdom to make me a better person.  Am I focusing on the things that matter most to me?

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What are you complaining about?

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Hand holding the EarthEverywhere you go, people are complaining.  They complain that their team lost.  They complain about the weather.  They complain about the traffic.  They complain about nearly everything.  The problem is they never do anything about what they can change.

What can you change?  First, you can change your outlook and your feelings that you are a victim.  After that, it depends on the situation.  Are you upset that your team lost? Give money to the organization for better staff and equipment.  If you don’t like the heavy traffic when you head to work, leave fifteen minutes early and see if that helps.  Are you always complaining about all the starving people in the world? Go help them.  Complaining does not help anyone; the more you do it, the worse off you are and the worse off the rest of society is as well.

So the next time you are at work or with friends, think about the conversation.  Do you or your friends complain all the time? Are they complaining about something out of their control?  Why spend all that time and energy focusing on things that you can’t control when you can be focusing on changing the world.  What could you accomplish if you and your circle of influence banded together and worked on a cause, large or small.  How much better off would the world be?

Stop complaining and go do something about it…

(photo credit: Danilo Rizzuti)

Waiting for the windfall

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What is the next big thing?  When will that breakthrough moment happen?  How can we prepare?  We can’t…

Success is built one step at a time.  Some of those steps are big, some are small.  I believe what Seth Godin says in this post, that we spend too much time preparing for a moment that rarely if ever happens.  We can never prepare, but we can get started.  We can do the little things that make success.  We can satisfy one customer at a time.  We can ship the next product.  You can be remarkable one day at a time.

So, the next time you find yourself preparing for that breakthrough, consider what you can do to create your own moment. 

The importance of hobbies

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Hobbies are great. I tend to collect them.  I will often have an idea that I want to accomplish or a item I want to make that will steer me toward a new hobby or skill.  I have tried a variety of handcrafts including leatherworking, bladesmithing, woodturning, carving (wood, soap….. laser…..) and the ones I stuck with for more than a few minutes usually resulted in an end result I had been thinking about for months if not years.  So, what’s so important about a hobby?

You can’t work all the time. I know, I know…… everyone understands that they can’t work all the time but how many of you actually work all the time?  Not only that, how many of you do little else besides work, watch TV, and Facebook?  Now, I am not knocking work, TV, or Facebook, but if that is pretty much all you do, you need a life.  We all need a life filled with accomplishment (doing something, anything) rather than idle consumption (watching TV, mindlessly wandering the web, etc).  To me, that sense of accomplishment is found in either a hobby or work.

I want to work all the time. No wait, did I just say that?  What I meant to say is that I want to generate income as much of the time as I can.  I want to help people with my work.  I want to earn so much money I have trouble giving enough of it away.  But….. I want to enjoy my work.  In fact, I want to enjoy my job SO much that you not be able to tell if I am working or having fun.  I wan to wake up in the morning saying to myself “They pay me to do this?”  I want my hobby (or one of my hobbies….) to be at the center of my work.  How do I get started?

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