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theparaminds · 5 years

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It’s not as though Natalie Green knew what this year held in store or what would exist at the end of the road. Though, at every step of the way, he kept going. Embodied in both his music and his story of perseverance, is a rare example of an artistic soul that found peace where few would ever dream to look. It took months of learning and continued questioning of himself and what he wanted to be. But in the end, it resulted in a man anew.

With a new project taking shape in studio sessions that contrast his earlier life, Natalie Green is finding a voice he previously was nervous to share, speaking louder than before. The ideas, memoirs and anxieties he hopes to express have become clear. With every note, he continually finds himself as much as he does connect to those who battle the same confusions.

Natalie Green now stands with a new asset he hadn’t held prior, the ability to embark on the path he wants, not the one life throws him upon. He can stand and become the artist he visualizes, the artist he knows is essential to reveal to the world. For the first time in a while, Natalie Green is in control, with a steering wheel in hand and a road of possibility on the horizon.

Our first question as always, how’s your day going and how are you?

Things have been hectic, but good. Good busy you know? There are different kinds of busy and this one has been all positive.

On your last EP last year, it sounded like you weren’t fully at peace, do you find that you are now after a year of personal introspection?

Yeah for sure, when I was writing the EP, I was in a really terrible place physically, emotionally and mentally. It was a passion project when it came out, I didn’t have to think about it. Whereas now, I’ve got a place, I’m not just in my car anymore, I emotionally feel a lot more centered, I have my head on straight. I’ve found friends and people that I love to surround myself with. Everything’s been a thousand times better.

When you’re looking within this shift you’ve undertaken, where do you think you’ve personally grown the most, whether artistically or as an individual?

I think I’ve gotten more empathetic towards people. All people. As well, I feel more self-aware. What I realized when living in my car was that I didn’t know myself. Living in a house again with roommates made me, in a new way, learn more about myself, and where I needed to spend a lot of time mentally. As far as musically, I feel more confident, I think that’s apparent in my vocals and instrumentation, they’re far more personal in that sense.

With the new year in season, being a time of reflecting upon the past year, do you have any memories that stick out to you as positive through the difficult and turbulent times?

There’s a lot. I don’t know if there’s one specific moment, but definitely moving into the apartment. I also got to play a private show in my friend’s backyard for all my close friends. That was a big moment for me. There’s a lot of moments where I had friends reassure me, and believe in me when I wasn’t doing so myself. One of my best friends from back home came to live here a little while ago, that was really special to have him back. The whole tour with Roy, of course, was inspiring, to see him do all that and becoming closer to everyone I went on tour with will forever be in my memories.

With that tour, and even more so working on Cat Heaven, happening while you were working on your own projects, did they influence the way you approached your new work?

There are certain things I learn from other people I can implement in my own music later. There will be something I’ll figure out while I’m working with someone, be it a sound or a new style, I can kinda pull out later. A lot of it is just talking to others and learning their inspirations and how that reflects in their music. Then turning and comparing that to my own influences and seeing how I do the same. It’s all just inspiration.

To touch on that idea of inspiration, you’ve mentioned in the past how you have a wide range on influences in your life in terms on music, but in the last year, which artists have really been influencing the work you’re putting out?

There’s been a lot of really great artists I just got into this past year-ish, but a big one is Michelle Zauner, who’s the singer for Japanese Breakfast. I’m hugely inspired by her, the fact she directs her own music videos and does all her own creative output, it’s really amazing. I’ve also loved the movies of Michel Gondry and the writing of Charlie Kaufman, anything they work on is amazing and so intoxicating.

With this new album you’re ramping up to release, has there been a difference in approach to how you wrote songs and lyrics? And how does that process look like?

I mean it’s been different for almost every song, I tried to do the album the same way I did the EP, and it wasn’t working right. Every song I wrote just felt lacklustre or the same. So to change it up, I had to change my methods, like the first song I wrote, I did two guitar parts first and then I sang, then produced over. That is very different to the EP which was songs first then lyrics. There are certain songs where before I recorded, I had a guitar riff and just wrote the song in a very traditional way, just chords and singing. Maybe loops would be first at times, and then they’d be built off of. Everything has been different.

It’s interesting because it sounds like you’ve really been adding more to your skill set as an artist, would you say that if you had a tool belt of music, that you’ve been adding towards it in the last while?

Yeah, definitely. I’ve been doing that my whole life honestly. I started in bands, not knowing how to produce or anything, but I could play guitar and from then I learned the bass just to add of that. Then I learned production, and that is forever useful. Now I’m working more to be an artist and learn what that entails and requires. Every time I learn something new I really take that and hold onto it until needed.

If you could create your ideal music creation space, where would it be and how would it look like?

That’s interesting, It would really just need to be a secluded place. A place I could disappear and a place I could be as loud as I want as late as I want. No interruptions, all the equipment I needed. Some food, drinks and a bathroom, that’s all I need.

Over the year you’ve posted some concerts you went to, like Paramore in the summer. Are there other shows you saw live that really had an impact upon you and maybe changed the way you approach live shows yourself?

Well, of course, the tour with Roy, he’s been super inspiring in general and watching the man work is amazing. He has a lot of fantastic ideas and he goes through with them. I saw Daisy as well, and they’re so good live. Solange was also amazing with her stage design and her choreography. I also saw Soccer Mommy pretty recently, and it wasn’t too extravagant but it was so well done and exciting to see as a fan of the music.

When you’re on stage, even something like the backyard show you mentioned earlier, what’s the emotion you’re trying to achieve and what is the mindset that you find yourself within at that moment?

When I played that private show, I realized all my songs were pretty mellow and hard to dance or move to. All except for Beachwood didn’t translate very well. So with this new project, I want them to translate really well live, to feel energetic, to feel lively. The songs are just fun. But I keep that emotion in and make sure that I don’t lose what made the earlier work so special and important.

What’s been the overall message you’re trying to pursue this new work and what is it you’re hoping to convey?

I kinda just want to tell my story. Or a story of mine. If people learn things from that, its great, but I’m just saying what happened in my experience. What I realized is that there’s a lot of shitty things that happened to me in my life, but the truth is that things could be a lot worse, so far they’ve been pretty good for the most part. While I had those tough days, I’m still here kicking it.

I apologize if it’s a repeated question, but with the topic of your story, what’s the meaning behind the stage name you’ve taken upon yourself?

It is and it isn’t part of my story in a way. A big part of that choice was that I wanted to separate myself from my old name and work. I wanted this to be super new. The name is taken from two names of people I am very inspired by. And it also, to me, sounds like the quintessential hot girl from a high school, the girl in the coming of age movie they all go after.

If you had a message to artists out there who may find themselves in the same space as you have previously found yourself within, those who may feel as unsure, what would be your lesson to pass on?

I think it doesn’t matter if you’re as confident or as talented as you want to be, as long as you recognize what sounds good to you, just put out the song. It doesn’t matter if you think your voice was bad, just keep progressing as an artist. If you wait for that progression you’ll never put stuff out, you’ll never be happy. With whatever you have right now, just start putting something, anything, out.

Follow Natalie Green on Twitter and Instagram

Listen on Soundcloud and Spotify

All Photos by Guthrie King

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ms-marmar · 4 years

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quarantine relapse

hey y’all! i hope you’re safe and healthy. with the state of things around the world, it’s hard not to feel distress, hopelessness, anxiety, pain, and a whole lot of other negative feelings.

for one thing, quarantine has been difficult, to say the least. ive come to notice that many (myself included) have created expectations for themselves to practice certain behaviors during this pandemic in efforts to try to carry on as if things were normal, minimize the effects that this shift in environment has on us, and prevent ourselves from becoming “lazy.” ppl have set out to try to be more productive (from home), follow a schedule, dabble into new hobbies, work out from home, try new recipes and diets, etc.

unfortunately, many face even more struggles with this pandemic than just a shift from their daily routine. many of you are facing insecurities regarding your health, employment, finances, and much more. such pressures can trigger increased anxieties and lead to the unhealthy coping mechanisms (ie. self harm, restricting, binging, purging, etc) that you’ve built up over time.

i struggled (and still struggle) to commit to a routine, often feeling guilty for failing to do so. i thought about how i was lucky to be in the comfort of my financially stable household, seemingly separated from the outside world and personally unaffected by the coronavirus. i have so much privilege in this moment that i shouldn’t be feeling such despair and instability. im stuck at home, with nothing to do but sit around on my laptop to attend online classes and try to find some hobbies to pass the time. even though everything else going in the world hangs in my mind like a grey cloud of concern, the biggest worry constantly invading my mind was just about what i had to eat. im sure youve heard ppl despair over the possibility of gaining weight by staying cooped up at home, unable to go outside or to the gym. in a house full of food, many of which are “fear foods” with long shelf lives, ive been battling the temptation to mindlessly binge on snacks all day. it’s also easy to opt out for restricting. for instance, when supplies are low at the store, you decide NOT to get that last loaf of bread, thinking someone else could use it more than you. by justifying that you dont need that food, it can become a cycle of justifying that you dont need any food. there’s also that feeling of guilt that arises when you do get the food, knowing full well it’s something that’ll just get purged. there are numerous experiences y’all have gone through and are (re)facing right now as a result of our present day. the pandemic has created circumstances in which new thoughts and anxieties provide a gateway to practicing disordered eating behaviors as a source of relief.

as a result of this quarantine climate, all these thoughts and expectations, many of which have resurfaced from the shame and guilt ive already felt for years, continued to build up. my concern over weight gain turned into fear, and i fell back into the vicious cycle of binging and purging.

thing is, nothing right now is normal. the moment we’re living in is beyond control. it’s natural to feel helpless. however, we can’t let that take over our lives. the “little” things we can contribute every day to help the cause (ie. social distancing, limiting going outside, being hygienic, showing appreciation to essential workers, keeping yourself and others informed, donating to groups, etc) can go a long way. you’re not helpless if you can do something to show your support. additionally, we don’t need to punish ourselves for the changes we’re experiencing. staying at home might mean we don’t move around as often, and that’s okay. you being hungry after sitting all day? also okay! all these are natural as we adjust to these lifestyle changes.

apologies i am late with this. for some, quarantine restrictions are easing up. however, pls continue to limit your outside excursions,practice social distancing and hygiene, and wear masks. times are ambiguous and cases are still very much present (and numbers continue to rise). in addition, social justice movements have experienced a recent surge. pls be safe and support your families, friends, and communities. we all deserve to be treated equally and need to stand up to oppressive systems in whatever ways we can. take time to educate yourselves and others, while maintaining a balance in order to not overwhelm yourselves and create more stress/anxiety. i know these ideas seem contradictory, but i know each of us have different thresholds for stress. find yours and develop healthy mechanisms to cope with them. reaching out is always the best option.

takeaways n important things to keep in mind or try (some of which you may have already heard before; however, sometimes we need a reminder):

-its okay to relapse. recovery is full of ups n downs, its not linear

-u dont have to earn the right to eat. ur body is communicating to you what it needs. if you’re confused over your hunger and satiety levels, which often happens due to changes in brain chemistry, maybe this guideline is helpful. it’s from one of my lectures in an eating disorders class i took last quarter. act according to your body’s physiological responses. if you’re hungry, please eat. if you’re about to go over your fullness levels, please stop yourself and do something else to distract you. maybe call a friend to hold yourself accountable. ik everything is easier said than done, and i struggle with this myself, but every thought and effort counts:

-limit your media use. sometimes watching the news all day or watching how others seem to be doing great in quarantine can trigger anxiety and disappointment. opt for enjoyable activities, learn something new, or meditate.

-try to eat regularly. 2-3 meals a day, with some snacks between. do not ignore your hunger cues. you might then become very hungry, which increases the likelihood of binging then purging.

-you’re not alone. many articles have been written about how quarantine has made a hard blow to everyone, especially those with need insecurities and/or mental illness. i encourage you to please reach out to any trusted individual in some way if you’re experiencing any challenges. refer to the bottom of this post for some links about having ed’s during the pandemic. seek covid relief and emergency funds if you are in need (here’s an informational website with grant resources in the US link)

-having said that, seek out a support system. therapists, support groups, etc have moved online. now is the time to join them, especially if you haven’t had time in the past. talk to friends and/or family when you can. be transparent with your needs.

-feel free to reblog with or comment any resources you may find helpful for others

there are definitely some viewpoints that i’ve missed, and i apologize if through this post i haven’t made you feel a part of this struggle when it’s something you also experience. i just want to say that every experience is valid, and they vary widely. eating disorders affect ANYONE. i wrote this mainly with my own experiences and observations in mind, and i’d love for you all to share your own stories. i want you to keep fighting through. i want you to see the end of this pandemic, to be able to go outside again and experience life to its fullest. all those plans you had but were forced to cancel? you can do them when things have become okay again. didnt have plans? make some so you have something to look forward to when this is over. you have to conquer this battle by putting your health first and realizing the danger you’re putting your body in when you engage in disordered eating. there’s so much waiting for you in the future. recovery is a long, hard journey that we’re reluctant to embark on at first. but i promise that nothing will feel as beautiful and relieving than when you live free from this toxic mindset. pls stay safe everyone. my heart goes out to you and all the different struggles you’re facing. we’re in this together.

thank you if you’ve read this and made it this far.

articles about ed’s during quarantine:

1 2 3 4 5

ms-marmar xx

#ana #ana recovery #mia #mia recovery #not pro just using tags #dont promote eds just using popular tags #ed #ednos #eds #binge eating disorder #binging and purging #eating disorders #eating disoder recovery #long post

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traplordsatan420-blog · 6 years

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Life is a wave. Every day is a wave, every month is a wave, our aggregate economy & a businesses growth is graphed as a wave. It is literally inscribed in our nature to act in wave-like patterns. Seriously... Happiness acts in a wave. A nations' entire economy and how much it's worth put together is called its aggregate economy. and it acts exactly like happiness!!!! (Only we have control over our happiness where an aggregate economy is extremely unpredictable & power is scattered among the biggest turds the world knows) It makes sense because whether we like it or not we are psychologically conditioned to think money creates happiness. But anyways, the wave starts as a boom. You cant shrink when you're already at 0 & that was (hopefully) almost or over 2 decades ago for us. (I really hope theres no 14 year olds following my blog lmao) But when the wave hits a peak and starts coming down, we think of it as negative happiness. The same way that when a business starts losing sales, it looks at it as negative money. it isn't negative money though, it is just negative growth. Their buildings continue to stand, production is still running. everything you built up to the decline you are still in control of. Businesses handle negative growth by regulating production to reduce losses and finding new ways around the problem to begin growing again. I genuinely believe we can learn from their methods and use similar strategies in our journey for happiness. Back to my point, When we start feeling down, incapable, upset, trapped, like things arent going our way and life is out to get us, we need to recognize that this is normal and a part of life. We combat our struggle by expecting it for the time being and finding a way around it. expect your day not to go so well. Prepare yourself to be let down and go through it anyways. Why? Because its a wave!! You cant control the fact that things can't always go your way. you are a human being and you're going to make mistakes, and youre never going to be able to escape from feeling negative emotions. Throw that idea out the window. Recognize whatever caused the decline & Look at the big picture. One bad day, week, however long it lasts, doesnt matter. As long as you are alive and breathing, you have the potential to grow again. compared to your whole life, even 20 years of shit and misery can be overcome and if you do, you will be so thankful you did. Just focus on growing. No one can do it for you, or show you how. Nobody knows how to live your life. but even with that being said you dont have to face life entirely alone. Everyone is going through a similar struggle, relate with others. Don't judge people. Put an effort into caring about other people, even the people you dont like. You're a part of this world. Act like it. Accept the fact you are part of something bigger than yourself. I wanna stress this because happiness lies in all of us, & sometimes it can radiate to the ones around us. All of us find our own method and version of happiness instinctively. Some are better than others, but all are imperfect. Sometimes we can even do exactly what we think will make us happy and end up leaving ourselves worse off than we were. It's not an exact science. There's no real life way to measure it or be sure we know where it really comes from. But one thing is for sure. we long to be as happy as possible, and we long to see others enjoy their own. Maybe one day you'll get so happy that going into declines becomes irrelevant to you because youve been through it enough to know it will pass. You'll just naturally shrug it off and use the happiness you still hold because you've handled these things time and time again and a rough patch doesnt just doesnt feel so rough any more. Im no where near the point i could handle another bad year, but i've built enough to know i'll be okay next time i decline. Sorry if i sound like a nut case, i just really think i'm on to something valuable here. I mean yeah i'm talking fancy and ornamental & getting off topic and ranting like im spun the fuck out, but the ideas and logic of the general idea are theoretically sound. I just want everyone to see what i see because ive decided helping others is my personal happiness strategy. & what i see is amazing, i want you to see it too:)

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agilenano · 4 years

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Agilenano - News: First Came Better Beer. Now Craft Breweries Want to Be Better for the Planet

Great beer has always relied upon great water, from the extremely soft water in lager-loving Pilsen, Czech Republic, to the high-sulfate counts in IPA powerhouse Burton-on-Trent, England. Water was historically essential for transporting casks on barges and boats, and for cooling and cleaning.

Now, in the age of climate crisis, waters role in craft beer is under increased scrutiny. Small breweries might make better beer, but large breweries are traditionally far more efficient with water usage and are only getting better at pointing this out to sustainability-minded consumers. Industry giants like AB InBev, for example, issue press releases heralding water-to-beer consumption-production ratios as low as 3.2, which is less than half of what would have previously been considered good for a craft brewery.

As water usage becomes an increasingly urgent matter, small breweries around the world are working to improve their practices.

Much of the leadership on the issue has come from the Brewers Association, the U.S. trade group for craft breweries. In addition to publishing its own water usage and reduction handbook on its website, the Brewers Association has a sustainability mentor, John Stiers, who helps brewers figure out how to improve their water efficiency.

The No. 1 place to look is cleaning, Stiers says. Cleaning in general is the biggest user of water in the brewery. If I walk into a brewery and the floors are wet and theres a hose running, thats not a good sign.

One of the first steps brewers should take, Stiers says, is simply getting a benchmark for their brewerys water use.

They just need to take a years worth of water usage data, which they have anyway because they pay their bills, and compare it to how much beer they produce, Stiers says. If you dont have a speedometer on your car, how do you know how fast youre going? Once you collect your utility data, you can have incredible insight into those efficiencies.

With an idea of where they stand, brewers can try to improve that ratio. One way to start is by double-checking they are accurately following the prescribed process for their clean-in-place (CIP) sanitation systems.

A lot of brewers may have a spec to CIP for so many minutes, but theyre afraid of bacteria, Stiers says. So they say, Oh, lets just go for twice as long.

In Europe, Hamburg, Germany-based Brewtech helps breweries improve water efficiency, among other issues. Brewtechs technical director Klaus Gollhofer says that while small breweries once considered it acceptable to use between eight and 10 barrels of water for every barrel of beer, the number should be somewhere between four and seven today. His tips include employee training, equipment maintenance, and making sure that the flow of fresh water stops when equipment stops, as well as considering longer brewing schedules with fewer breaks in production. Try to brew for 24 hours over two to three days, instead of 12 to 16 hours over five days, Gollhofer says.

In addition to simply using less water to begin with, breweries are finding innovative ways to reuse wastewater. Relatively clean water from the last rinse of the CIP system is saved and used for the first flush of the next clean-in-place cycle at many breweries, including the Czech Republics Samson, a small regional producer recently purchased by AB InBev.

We have a ratio between three and four hectoliters of water to beer, says Samson brewmaster Radim Lavika. We have to save water.

In Colorado, New Belgium saves the water that initially rinses the inside of its clean, new bottles when they come in, according to Katie Wallace, New Belgiums director of social and environmental impact. The brewery later uses that water to wash the outside of its filled and capped bottles at the end of the packaging process.

That saved us a million gallons a year, Wallace says.

Another innovation at New Belgium includes using water treatment to create energy. We treat our own process water on site, meaning the cleaning water, water from the packaging line and so forth, Wallace says. With anaerobic digestion, it creates a hot gas. Its got a lot of methane in it. During peak hours we actually burn the biogas, and use that to offset our electricity.

Innovation on multiple fronts seems common in the quest to improve water efficiency. According to Jamie Ramshaw, a former brewer who supervised water usage at several large U.K. breweries and who now works for the British malt manufacturer Simpsons, reducing and reusing water sometimes has its own complications. If wastewater is reduced but the organic waste from the brewery remains the same, that more concentrated waste can wreak havoc on local water treatment plants.

I know of breweries who are out in villages, and they were just dumping their stuff, and the village water systems couldnt handle it, Ramshaw says. The less liquor or water youre putting down the drain, the more concentrated your effluent is, and high concentrations of organic material can mess with the local water treatment facilities.

As a result, small breweries like Californias Bear Republic have installed centrifuges to remove yeast and other solids, thereby sending less organic matter into local treatment plants.

Even the design of new breweries or a redesign during a renovation can contribute to better water usage. Brewtechs Klaus Gollhofer notes that designing shorter pipes between tanks can result in less water being used. Ramshaw says that many classic U.K. breweries were originally built with elements that discourage excess water use.

You can actually design breweries to be drier, Ramshaw says. The microbrewery where I started out had wooden floors. If you look at Hook Norton, its got wooden floors, until you get to the cask racking part, thats where it gets a bit dirty. You cant spray everything down if its got wooden floors, because the water will just go straight through the floor.

Changing the brewing process can also improve water usage, Ramshaw says, and mentions high-gravity brewing, a process that involves brewing at a higher initial strength and adjusting the beer after fermentation.

If I brew a beer at 4 percent alcohol, I brew it once and clean it once, Ramshaw says. But if I brew the same beer at 6 percent and then dilute it down to 4 percent, Ive made one and a half times the amount of beer, and used the same amount of water to clean it.

Although high-gravity brewing is sometimes derided by consumer groups, it can make a big difference in overall water usage. If the choice in the future lies between high-gravity beer and no beer at all, most drinkers would presumably pick the former. Also on the table: brewing with pure, potable water reclaimed from sewage, an idea that is being promoted by the Pure Water Brewing Alliance.

For Stiers, the growing popularity of craft beer makes sustainable water practices all the more important today.

Its about changing the culture. Its about getting employees engaged, Stiers says. If youve got a sector that is growing as fast as craft beer is in the U.S., you want to do it in the most responsible way possible.

The article First Came Better Beer. Now Craft Breweries Want to Be Better for the Planet appeared first on VinePair.

Agilenano - News from Agilenano from shopsnetwork (4 sites) http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Agilenano-News/~3/VDx-aDqz8lI/first-came-better-beer-now-craft-breweries-want-to-be-better-for-the-planet

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faithinhopes · 5 years

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The big black dog aka Depression

I don't think i have had soo many friends suffer with depression as i have now. And these are God believing, Jesus loving, all in christians. For years i couldnt understand why people couldn't get their s**t together and get over it........yep i know, totally immature way of thinking! But i think the way i used to think was how alot of believers think of people with 'mental health' issues.....but the pendulum has now swung the opposite direction where we help those people stay in their depression because weve been taught that theres nothing they can do about it....that this is an illness or a disease that will never go or God needs to perform a miracle and heal.

Last year the Lord revealed a revelation to me. I always questioned why some people get miraculously healed whilst some don't. I just couldn't get my head around it. Then the Lord spoke and this is the jist of it. When he created the world he created it already knowing what was guna happen in the fall, the need to send Jesus on a mission to unite mankind with their creator, even the end times. He knew it all. So in creation he has placed patterns which can restore/heal our bodies. Now we mostly think of that through the realm of medicines and docters etc. But there is more to Gods pattern of healing than medicine or the miraculous. Theres food, environment, habits, sleep.....so many factors. So a couple of months ago i wanted to get to know the black dog....how he functions and behaves because i want to be more helpful in seeing my friends through this illness. Ive read endless blogs and podcasts by caroline leaf, ive waded through scientific papers of the latest research from all over the world, ive talked to friends who suffer with depression and those who dont....and even though i know im no expert at this, i think ive come to some conclusion about it.

Depression are down days that have turned into a pattern.

For instance, say your body doesnt like gluten and you get bad reactions in your body from it.....it gives you short term pleasure and then you crave even more, it becomes a habit that effects your brain. Being addicted to something means you require it to settle a misfiring in your brain. The more gluten laden products you eat, the more you crave and this effects your brain function causing you to feel depressed because your brain is functioning off something it doesnt like.

Take your environment.....if you hate your job the negativity can effect your brain! You get tired and lethargic and have reactions to an environment which isnt having a positive effect on you.....yet day after day you form the habit of fear and anxiety over going to work.....you form a pattern.

Depression cannot be broken by dealing with depression. It has to be dealt with by breaking the pattern.

If you wake up feeling down then that's an indicator of something being off.....deal with the down day by doing the opposite, do the positive and not crave into the negative. Cry it out and talk about it to your trusted friends straight away! You can stop a pattern from forming!

If you are already in the grips of depression....sit down with a pen and paper and start being honest with yourself. You will not be able to figure out whether your depression is a clinical problem unless you clear the deck of the clutter in your brain.

Whats your diet like? Are you overweight? Do you like your job? Is your house messy? Do you have unresolved issues in your past? And the list goes on.......

Then start tackling them one by one. And get your friends in on it too! If your diet is aweful.....start researching diets that help mental health. If your overweight start changing your diet and moving more, if your house is messy start cleaning it up and decluttering, if your struggling with past things youve been through, talk to someone, even a councillor. If your lethargic in getting projects done, write a plan of how to do it and start with number 1.

If youve exhausted every avenue and still the black dog is there then you need to see your gp! But the majority of people who suffer with depression do so because of patterns.

The biggest pattern ive seen which sooo many youth fall into is the one of beauty. They get depressed because they hate the way they look. They go on instagram and see these beautiful 'edited' models and watch love island with half naked people showing off their toned bodies! If you want to feel better about your body....break the pattern. Get off instagram, dont watch love island, start watching and looking at things that edify individuallity and authenticity! What you are looking at on tv and the gram is not real.....it can become addictive because we love seeing glamour and imagining a 'better' lifestyle....but its fake! Its a false happiness. Why do you think soo many celebrities turn to drugs and alcohol! BREAK THE PATTERN.

If we take personal responsibility for how we react to our down days......btw everyone gets down days......then we have the power to stop depression forming!

Yes i know its hard. But it cant be harder than dragging the black dog around with you every day, every moment. Honestly, life can be amazing, but we have to form good patterns that help our brains to overcome lifes challenges. Our brains are soo complex and clever....if we feed it correctly, we can overcome.

Soo let me encourage you.....just try it! What have you got to lose! Remember, this starts with being brutally honest with yourself.... Now go ahead, you can do this!!!

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topicprinter · 5 years

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This is more for tech entrepreneurs here. However, the core ideas can be taken out for some other businesses. Let me know if it helps.I was answering the question “What are the strategies to convert a free user to a premium user for a SaaS product?” and the answer became an article in itself. At the same time, it’s yet another one of my core fundamentals which I think can impact someone. Below is my answer.It’s all about intent.If your intent is to make as much money as possible as fast as possible (i.e short term), the answer is not for you. You’ll do things that other guys/gurus mention such as “Provide incentive for prospects to sign up for freemium but do not provide too much value so that free version of the product is enough.” — that’s corny, dull and lacking a long-term vision.Here’s something that I’ve noticed within myself. At a point, I’ve realised I love some companies to the point where I feel like they’re my friend. They’ve done so much good to me and they’ve been “by my side” to a point where I don’t have any problem with parting with my money.There’s an emotional connection between me and them. It may sound dramatic but it’s true. When I pay them I do so happily as I support their cause.Here’s the TLDR answerHelp them grow so you can grow together.By that I mean the freemium model should offer the client the chance to grow — equality of opportunity — and if it does happen that they grow and become profitable, the SaaS starts charging based on that. In a sense, value-based pricing, or at least as much as it could get with a scalable model.In other words, open up the doors for a lot of people and then benefit mutually from the winners.Objection 1But I don’t want to have users on the freemium plan leeching my resourcesNow here’s the catch — I’d say charge the winners enough so that it’ll cover the expenses for those who didn’t get it yet (or leeches, because I know that might be going through your mind, especially if you’re a business person).Charge them enough so that you won’t get mad when you find out about that couple of users that just sucked the benefits of your benevolence and never contributed towards your company.Objection 2I can’t afford to offer the free plan to so many peopleHere’s another magnificent thing that happens when you open the doors for everyone — word of mouth is on steroids. You’re on a fast track to word-of-mouth express. It’s possible you might have heard this comparison before — arguably you can reach 1000 people. And one of these people knows 1000 people. That means you’re a person away from a million. And two people away from a billion.If your intent is to do good and give chances to everyone to prove themselves, within that network of a billion some of the engagements will include how nice it is that your SaaS is doing them good — whether they pay or not.Therefore, I’m pretty confident when I say that the ARR you’ll get to in 1–2 years, given the money you’ll be burning initially because of the free plan (it’s not the case all the time though) will be significantly bigger than the ARR you’d have by implementing the shitty tactic of“Provide incentive for prospects to sign up for freemium but do not provide too much value so that free version of the product is enough.”Give them bloody enough if you can. Because you’ll have a customer for life and some of them will become even friends. And then when they win and scale, they’ll be more than happy to pay you. And I’ll state it again: they’ll be happy to pay you amounts of value that will cover for those on a freemium plan.Why? Simple — you see it everywhere. Millionaires who grew up as orphans donate back to orphanages because without these houses, they couldn’t have won. Most of the time it’s more than just THE orphanage they grew up in. We’re humans and once we accumulate resources, if the intent is good in that person, they want to help the cause. Remember what I wrote above that in my case I wanted to contribute to the company’s cause?Objection 3I really can’t afford it because I don’t have the money right now — I’m bootstrapping it, hence no investmentsFair. Charge for what you do, don’t offer a freemium plan or do so but only as a trial. But as soon as you’re able to do what I said above, please do it.The point is this: the more you’re able to give away for free, the more it will come back to you. It won’t make any sense to you unless you’ve experienced it yourself but maybe one single reader will simply trust it by heart and she or he will be taken far.Here’s another choice of words for sceptics: the more you’re able to give to people, the more you’ll be able to ask from them (eventually). Makes sense?Some practical examplesI’ll give some examples below along with a brief description. Cloud services are more prone to do so given the fact that what they offer is more fungible and is easier to be priced in a “pay as you go” model.Dropbox — 2 GB free for anyone. Moreover, get people onboard and we’ll give you more. All for free. Help me, help you.Spotify — free music, no problem. Just ads. If you mind them (i.e. if your time is more valuable than the monthly $10), we’ve got you as well.GitHub — sure, put your beloved code and creations on our platform. Open to anyone. If you’re looking to do more than just a hobby, only then we’ll charge youFirebase — If your database downloads exceed 10 GB/mo, then you’re pretty serious and most probably you can afford to pay for a solution. If not, however, it’s fine, we’ll take the risk with you. Let’s see if your idea works, no problem if it doesn’t. We’ll swallow it.Cloudflare (which I absolutely love by the way, even though I don’t use their service) — You know what guys, we’ll sell you the domains at wholesale price, we won’t get any commission. And if your website is tiny, it’s just a small personal website or a blog that just started, it’s fine. Stay for free. Only later, when you worry about high-performance and security (which is when you’re at a later stage), we’ll start charging you.MailChimpThe bottom lineOpening up the doors for everyone can go this way. One in 10,000 make it through and have a huge impact on the world, which usually is affiliated with resource gathering.If your intent is to create a win-win environment and give equality of opportunity so that eventually the next Leonardo da Vinci will come from under your rooftop (and he won’t forget that), this is a way to solve the freemium-to-premium user conversion problem.——Originally posted here. I run an experiences design agency that helps SaaS CEOs reduce user churn.

#/r/entrepreneur #reddit

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awesomeprofitmc · 5 years

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Turn Your Blog into a Sustainable Online Business – Here’s How to Do It!

First, reality check…

What’s your dream online?

Do you want to build a flourishing business or, you’re only looking for some “make money online” opportunity?

Do you just want to build a blog or, you desire a sustainable and profitable online business?

Your answer will determine where you’ll be a few years from now!

How Do Bloggers Make Money From Blogging?

Some of the top questions I’ve heard over and over again are: how do bloggers make money from blogging? How do beginner blogs make money? What types of blogs make the most money? And, can I really make money blogging?

While there may be no problem with these questions however, a careful look will reveal that the focus of these people is nothing but the amount of money that you can make from blogging.

Of course, that’s not a bad thing. There are hundreds and thousands that are presently making 6 – 7 figures with their blogs. People like John Lee Dumas, Pat Flynn, Michelle Schroeder, Melyssa Griffin, and so many others.

But, focusing ONLY on the money will lead you on the wrong path. This is where many miss it.

For example, in a recent blogging statistics by BlogTyrant.com, it was revealed that out of 350 bloggers surveyed 69.4% reported earning zero income from their blogs and 59.3% reported ever starting a blog and abandoning it at some point.

That’s frustrating, right?

The good thing is that the most successful bloggers today don’t focus on making money blogging, they build sustainable blogging businesses.

You’re Not Just a Blogger!

I’ve written variously on this topic. Please do yourself some good by reading these posts:

1. “The Shocking Truth about Blogging – Evolve or Go Extinct!”

and,

2. “Hey Blogger, Please Quit!”

There are some powerful nuggets of wisdom that you wouldn’t want to miss!

If you’ve been online for some time now you’ll agree with me that in the last few years blogging has changed from what it used to be when “make money blogging” was still in its infancy.

Back then blogging was not different from keeping an online diary. Many didn’t think of it with the commercial intent that we do today. People simply wrote about their personal thoughts, activities and sometimes, their favorite recipes.

Also, social networks weren’t as popular as they are today. But as the World Wide Web continued to evolve and people realized that sharing on social networks like Facebook and Instagram is much easier than writing a long blog post, many transitioned sharing their personal stories to the social networks.

The result is that blogging is now more of a commercial venture than it used to be. Nearly every business now has a blog. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a one-person or a Fortune 500 business; every one now blogs!

Not only has the blogging landscape changed, the competition has also become rife. The last time I did a search I discovered that there are currently over 440 million blogs out there. Besides, since the beginning of 2014 tens of thousands of new blogs are being started every day.

Think about that and consider the fact that back in 2005 there were only about 64 million websites (with just a small portion being blogs). But then the number of blogs rose to about 173 million in 2011 and now we are talking about over 440 million blogs.

Can you just imagine what it’s like out there?

Your guess is mine!

Unfortunately, many newbie bloggers, mislead by articles and blog posts written some 5, 6, or 7 years ago (which in internet years is decades), take on the toga of “Blogger” without taking into cognizance the realities of the day. The result is that many discover too late that they’ve not only wasted their precious time but also their meager resources.

So, if you’re still relishing in being tagged a “blogger” please QUIT because you’re not just a blogger you’re an entrepreneur who blogs.

For your own good please quit blogging and build a business!

And, that’s what this guide is all about – helping you build a flourishing online business with your blog.

Understanding the Blogging Business Model

There are a number of ways you can start making money with a blog. The classic make money blogging advice goes something like this:

Set up a wordpress blog

Go on the content creation hamster (Content is KING!)

Follow and connect with others in your niche on social media

Comment on similar blogs, and

Monetize your blog traffic with paid ads and Google Adsense.

Now, this is actually a faulty blogging business model. The 6 – 7 figure income bloggers never grew their blogging businesses to that income level following this classic “make money blogging” blueprint.

To understand the blogging business model you need to understand the CORE function of a blog.

Just take a critical look around today. Why is it that every business now has a blog?

Why do you think companies like Coca-Cola, Disney, Starbucks, and American Express invest time and resources on creating blog posts?

The answer is: Marketing!

Businesses invest in blogging because a blog is principally a marketing machine. It’s important that you understand this.

So, when you hear some people ask questions like, “what types of blogs make the most money?” or, “how do beginner blogs make money?” it’s clear that they have a wrong understanding of the core function of a blog.

This is because, blogs don’t make money. Businesses do!

Whether online or offline businesses make money by gaining customers. And they do this by selling them something.

However, to sell them something, they will need to gain their attention first. And that’s the purpose of the blog – to generate leads.

So, the blogging business model is all about building a list of prospects and turning them into paying customers!

This is how to really use a blog to make money. It’s the tried and tested business system that’s based on true business principles of all ages.

Alright, let’s now step through the blogging business model.

The Blogging Business Model Step By Step

Step 1: Define Your Blog’s Purpose

It was Mark Twain who said, “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why”

For me that’s truly profound. And I’d say, “The most important day in your life as a blogger is the day you find out why you are blogging and pursue it with all your passion!”

So, do you want to build a blogging business? First, find out your WHY!

Recommended: 5 Little Known Blogging Mistakes that Could Be Frustrating Your Efforts

Step 2: Define Your Target Audience

Who’s your ideal blog reader? Who do you want to target with your content and offers?

Defining your target audience right from the start will help you avoid wasting your precious time in activities that does not add any positive returns to your business. So, with your blog’s purpose in mind decide who your idea customer will be.

Truth is, no matter the amount of traffic you drive to your blog or the number of followers and friends you acquire on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc. if you have not defined your blog’s target audience all your efforts will amount to nothing.

Never delude yourself by the huge growth in your social media following. The truth is social media is great for driving traffic to your blog but those who will help you meet your purpose are those who are interested in your offers.

This is your target market. Ignore this and you will simply waste your time chasing the wrong crowd.

I can tell you this from my personal experience. Time past, this blog was averaging 50 comments per post. The irony was that this “highly engaged community” of fellow bloggers hardly clicked on any ad – not even Google Adsense on the blog – at least as a show of support!

Pick the wrong audience and you can be sure of frustration along the way. You really don’t want that.

Step 3: Define Your Product/Service

It was Robert Kiyosaki who said that except you’re the Central Bank or the government’s designated minting company, you don’t make money because…

Money is earned!

And, I’ve said this earlier, blogs don’t make money; businesses do!

Businesses make money by solving a problem for people or by filling a need. They do this by selling product(s) or service(s) that provide a specific outcome or transformation for their customers.

And so, to make money with your blog you need to have a system of earning that money. You need a product or service that your target audience is ready to exchange for their money.

Now, there’s something called product market fit. As defined by Marc Andeerssen, who coined the term in 2007, product market fit is “being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market.”

Basically, what this means is that you need a market that’s large enough and a product that fulfills a need of that market.

From research, between 43% and 75% of businesses fail because they wrongly assume that people are interested in their product/service. And so, in defining your product/service you must avoid falling into this trap. You should research your target audience to pinpoint their pain areas and then offer products/services that will heal those pains.

Step 4: Architect Your Sales Funnel

We’ve mentioned earlier that the main purpose of a blog is for generating leads and converting those leads into paying customers.

… The system that helps you do this is the sales funnel.

The sales funnel is the “money-making machine” behind every one of the 6- to 7-figure blog businesses you see out there. It’s something that you hardly hear of among the “average” bloggers. Most of the typical make money blogging tips your read might mention list building but beyond that nothing is said about a sales funnel!

What’s a sales funnel?

A sales funnel is a series of steps designed to guide visitors toward a buying decision. The steps are composed of marketing assets that do the work of selling, like landing pages and email.

NOTE: Your sales funnel works behind the scenes to make sales for your business.

Unfortunately, most bloggers mainly focus on creating content and then chase after blog readers, comments, followers and shares on social media. This is because they are unaware of the power of the sales funnel!

A sales funnel can help you grow your business, from capturing leads to making the first sale and then turning that into repeat sales. The best part is that it can do all of these automatically, once you’ve set it up!

Your sales funnel over time will include 4 basic levels of offer. These 4 levels are:

(i) Your free offer – This is the exploratory phase and it’s where people are first introduced to your brand. The purpose is to turn “browsers” into interested leads. It’s obviously one of the most important components of the sales funnel. It separates those who are simply curious from those who are truly interested. It’s your “hand raising offer”!

(ii) The front-end offer – This is designed mainly for customer acquisition. The main purpose is to turn a lead into a customer. There’s a huge different between these two. A person who only opted into your list to get a freebie is worlds apart from the one who has bought something from you.

(iii) The Core offer – This is your main product which delivers the transformation that your business is centered around. Your core offer could be a training course, a service, consulting, etc.

(iv) High-end offer – Some more expensive offer that increases the overall customer value. Popular options include coaching, done-for-you service, etc.

Do note that a sales funnel is also a good way of achieving product/market fit because over time, your business will offer different products to your prospects when the time is right for them.

How to Create a Sales Funnel

There are countless ways you can do this. However, here’s a proven simple strategy:

(i) Offer potential customers a lead magnet

This is a free, value-based incentive that encourages people to join your email list. It could be anything from free videos, tutorials, Ebooks or special reports.

To maximize conversion, you’ll want to offer something irresistible and that instantly attracts attention.

There are a number of ways to get your free offer. You can do it yourself or get your hands on dozens of pre-made lead magnet packages. These packages come with everything you need – high-quality reports, responsive squeeze pages and even autoresponder follow-ups that will help you connect with your subscribers.

One of the places you can get pre-made lead magnet packages is….

(ii) Set up a lead-capture page

With your lead magnet ready you will need to set up a lead-capture page. The focus of this page is on capturing the lead via an opt-in form that adds the subscriber to your mailing list.

One of the best tools in the market right for making great lead capture pages is OptimizePress. With this tool you can easily create your own lead capture pages without any problem. Check it out here.

You’ll also need an autoresponder to capture and manage your mailing list. I suggest you check out GetResponse.com.

As I’ve mentioned above, the purpose of the lead magnet is to turn your blog traffic into leads. It’s important that you get this right because the more people that enter your funnel, the more money you’ll make.

It’s worth emphasizing that your sales funnel is the money making machine of your blogging business. It’s important therefore that you get it right.

You can get high quality, done for you Sales Funnels that converts at Funnels Now.

Step 5: Your Unique Brand Positioning

One of the top-most questions you must answer in order to thrive in the marketplace is “Why You?” Why would your potential customer choose you instead of the competition?

If you take the time to check out the 6 – 7 figure income business bloggers you will discover that they are doing so NOT by being “just another blog!” These top earners have built their brand over time and they have become the go-to experts in their niche.

You cannot do anything less and expect great results!

This is where you need a Unique Selling Proposition (USP).

Your USP is simply a statement of what makes you and your offers different from the competition. Its primary purpose is to influence your potential customer’s perception of your business – why they should care about you and your service/product and not the competition.

Put another way, a USP is why a customer should care about your Brand.

Your USP should clearly define the value you offer and the problem you solve. It should articulate a specific benefit that makes you stand out from the competition.

In order to define your USP you’ll need to consider carefully:

(i) Your target audience – Who is your ideal customer? Check step #2 again and be as specific as possible.

Don’t be afraid to exclude people. For example, this blog is targeted at digital entrepreneurs and entrepreneur bloggers. This is why you hardly see “make money blogging tips” and similar posts on the blog. My focus is more on entrepreneurship and building businesses!

(ii) The problem you solve – Ideally, your product/service solves a specific problem for your ideal customer. Think of the pain you’re eliminating. How is your customer better off after working with you or buying your product versus the alternatives?

(iii) Your uniqueness – This is what meaningfully sets you apart from other businesses that are similar to yours. As I’ve mentioned earlier you can differentiate yourself in thousands of ways: service, experience, technique, etc.

Focus on those things that make a tangible difference to your audience.

A great USP comes from a deep understanding of who your customers are, what they want, what they value, and what motivates them. It should also cause your prospects to crave your product or service.

You’ll likely have a different USP for each product or service you offer.

Step 6: Fuel Your Business Machine with the Right Traffic

Traffic is the life-blood of every online business. Of course, that’s nothing new. However, there are a few things you must note when it comes to driving traffic as a business and not as a “blogger”.

First, you must understand that it is not about quantity but quality! You should identify the traffic sources that are right for your purpose and concentrate most of your efforts in those areas.

From my own experience I have discovered that the most reliable way to get traffic to your business blog is to buy it. You could buy traffic from Google, Facebook or even solo mailings.

Now, if you’re concerned with paying for traffic you shouldn’t because your sales funnel allows you to spend money on traffic without going broke. Simply learn the simple tricks of setting up a sales funnel and implement one for your business and you can be sure of recouping your investment in no time at all!

If you’d rather go for free traffic sources then I’ll recommend search engine optimization (SEO). But you must understand that this is really not free as you’d be paying with your time – and time is money!

Conversely, I have also discovered that the worst traffic source for blogs is traffic from blog comments. Comment traffic has only one value for your blog: SOCIAL PROOF!

If you aim to sell advertising space on your blog, the comment section of your blog could be an advantage. But beyond this depending on traffic from comments is a very quick way to go into extinction!

So, in driving traffic to your funnel choose wisely where to concentrate your efforts!

Pitfalls to Avoid While Building Your Blog-Based Business

As you transition your blog into a full-fledged business online it is important that you note some of the common pitfalls that online entrepreneurs face all the time. Being aware of these real issues will help you greatly in your quest for success.

The following list is only a small fraction of what you should look out for. I have only included these out of the many pitfalls believing that these will greatly help you.

1. Not having a plan

A lot of average bloggers only focus on how to make money blogging and never care about making a plan. This is one reason why many of them struggle without any tangible results.

As a business you need a business plan.

Of course, you don’t need a formal twenty-something page business plan. Those big-format business plans have grown obsolete! What you need is a simple document that lays out who your customers are, what you are selling and what people are willing to pay for your product or service. In addition, work out how much cash you’ve got and how long it will last.

RECOMMENDED: The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan

2. Giving away too much and not getting back

This is the bane of many bloggers. They are used to giving and giving without asking in return. You don’t build a business only by giving.

Of course, to establish your credibility in the marketplace you’re expected to offer something for free. However, your giving should be carried out with your business objectives in mind – turning a conversion into long-term customer relationship. This is the purpose of your sales funnel.

So, don’t give away the farm. Instead give strategically – offer something useful and intangible in exchange for a customer’s contact info so you can promote more of your offers to them in due time.

3. Spreading yourself thin on social media

Social media marketing is good for marketing and building your brand. But, without the right strategy in place it could become a time waster.

While the primary purpose of social media is for connecting and socializing, as a business you’re on social media with a different motive.

It’s important therefore that you clearly define who your target audience is and then choose one or two of the main social media networks where you know your audience congregates and then make a plan of marketing to them.

4. Ignoring your customers

The customer, they say, is always right! And as you must have known by now your business exist to serve the customer. Unfortunately, our human nature usually works against us as we are mostly focused on ourselves.

Not only that, as bloggers we’ve been counseled to do what we LOVE if we want to make money blogging. The result is that we go about our blog business with the mindset of succeeding simply by doing what we KNOW and LOVE!

Unfortunately, that’s only half the truth. Success in business is NOT about what you know or love but about what the market wants. The problem your business solves for your target market should be the problem that your market counts as important enough.

But how do you know this?

By listening to your customers. They have the answers you seek. Ignoring them is detrimental to your success. That’s why the customer is always right!

RECOMMENDED: How to Finally Locate Your ‘Blog Money Topic’ and Create Your First Profitable Online Offer

5. Having wrong expectations

I’m sure you’ve seen those ads that promise success working one hour a week and in your pajamas, right? The truth is, if you build your expectations on those promises you’ll only end up with frustration.

Building a successful business, whether it’s online or offline, takes massive effort. While there are tech tools that will help you automate most of the operations never expect your success timeline to be measured in weeks or months because there’s nothing like overnight success.

So, you must ask yourself from the beginning if building your blog business will still be worth it if it takes years to get there!

6. Business model jumping and niche hopping

This is related to #5 above. A lot of newbie entrepreneurs, because of wrong expectations, are easily moved to abandon their business or change strategies because they see someone else making money in another niche or market.

Instead of focusing on what is working for others find your focus and then stick with it until you make it work. Jumping from one business to another and from niche to niche makes nonsense of your efforts. However, simple, repeatable, and consistent action steps towards your goal will eventually get you there.

Conclusion

If your intention is to make money blogging then this is the proven path you must take. The blogosphere is evolving and you need evolve with it. It doesn’t matter your experience level if you’ll carefully follow these steps you’ll have your blog business up and running in no time.

Remember, it’s not about focusing on some isolated money making methods. It’s about implementing sustainable and automated online systems that keep pulling in new leads and turning those leads into customers that make you money day in, day out.

If your blog is already up and running it’s important that you start treating it as a business by building into it this automated business system. However, if you’re still thinking of starting your blog then you’re in luck. Read this post carefully again and take action right away.

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Turn Your Blog into a Sustainable Online Business – Here’s How to Do It! was first posted on January 17, 2019 at 3:52 pm. ©2014 "The Web Income Journal!". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please Click here to contact me. from Turn Your Blog into a Sustainable Online Business – Here’s How to Do It!

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themoneybuff-blog · 5 years

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Finding Order and Meaning in Your Life Through Bullet Journaling

Five years ago I left my full-time job to enter the freelance writing world. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to best organize and manage my days so they were productive and meaningful. At some point during that first year, I discovered the Bullet Journal methodology, and while Ive picked it up and put it down a couple times since then, I recommitted to the analog process earlier this year, around the same time I chose to intentionally disconnect more from my phone. If youre looking for a new way to approach 2019, the pen-and-paper-notebook-based system is best visualized through this five-minute tutorial video found on the Bullet Journal website. But if youre curious to know even more about how to make it work for you, founder Ryder Carroll published his first book, The Bullet Journal Method now a New York Times bestseller this fall. I spoke with Carroll earlier this month and asked him, with all the available apps and technology out there, why develop an analog system? For me, its not about digital versus analog, he said. Its about figuring out what the best tools are for the job. I found that over the years putting everything into apps was not in fact making me more productive and I realized that it was a lot easier for me to clarify my thoughts and to get organized on paper first. Once his thoughts are organized on paper, he may find a digital home for that information for instance, scheduling a needed phone call into a calendar app. It was the process of disengaging from technology that allowed me to re-engage with technology a lot more effectively. For me, I think one thing technology is really wonderful at is helping us connect with the world around us. Technology provides us with unlimited ways for us to be more productive, but also its a double-edged sword because its also an unlimited amount of distractions. Our time and energy are incredibly limited, Carroll said. If were not careful, we can waste so much more time than we should being distracted but journaling can help disengage your auto-pilot. It activates us differently and we interact with it in a way that requires us to slow down, he said. I think that a lot of times we mistake convenience for efficiency. Yeah, its much faster to type, but maybe it would behoove us to slow down, especially when it comes to figuring out what it is that we will be investing our time and energy into. Part of that slowing down is choosing a writing utensil and notebook that works for you. BuJo, as its often called, doesnt require fancy or expensive products. Once youve selected your tools, then youll learn to apply a system of daily, monthly, and future logging to a practice of reflection, goal-setting, and meaning-making. And no matter how many creative and artistic Bullet Journal page examples you find online, Carroll said that the only thing that matters is the content, not the presentation. When Bullet Journal started becoming popular, he explained, a lot of the people who first adopted it were creatively gifted and their form of expression was sharing it online. He was clear to state that theres nothing inherently wrong with that. Theyre proud of their work, and many times theyre coming up with creative visual solutions to organization. Over time, though, he said, it started to feel like it was becoming a competition. The problem with that to me is that it takes the emphasis off of what it should be, which is about self-learning and figuring out what you need to become more productive. Start with the basics, which you can find on the website, or in his book, and if you want to become more creative from there, go for it. If you see my own, he said, its filled with illegible chicken scratch and its black and white. Its always about how effective of a tool it becomes, right? You can have a beautiful pretty hammer, but at the end of the day, if it doesnt help you sink the nails, it doesnt matter. And it can be a really effective tool, beyond basic logging of to-do list items. Custom lists, which Carroll calls Collections, can be used to track everything from what books youve read in a year, to what kind of vacation you want to take next (and exactly how youre going to budget for it), to various types of financial management, such as: Creating a list of things you want to purchase and/or a list of things you already own. Anytime you feel like you need to buy something that is non-essential, which is 99 percent of the things that we buy, write it down in the list and dont buy it until the end of the month. You can very quickly stem your impulse-purchasing thing, right? A big part of Bullet Journaling is to stop reacting to your thoughts and start responding. You basically just get into a habit of spending less money.Tracking your savings toward a specific goal. Maybe you want to take a vacation you can create a tracker that allows you to continuously save and then you can enjoy the act of actually updating that tracker. Its like, OK, I put another 25 bucks away for my trip to Montana. You have a visual kinesthetic way of engaging with your goals as opposed to seeing some read-out on an app, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but being able to color in that bar or check that box can be very motivating and help solidify your motivation.Tracking your expenditures. Theres just unlimited ways to track your finances. Maybe youre just tracking your expenditures every month. By writing them down, you are very aware of how youre spending your money and another thing is, chances are, you dont want to be spending as much money because then you have to write it down. Every to-do item, Carroll said, is an experience waiting to be born. So if you see it in that context, the to-do list all of sudden becomes like a time machine. It allows you to peek at the future that youre looking to build. If thats a future that you dont want, then chances are you should probably address that in the now. If that is a future you do want, then you can be a lot more intentional about the steps that youre taking toward those futures. When we start looking at what we really want and what we really need on an ongoing basis, he added, it becomes a lot more focused and relevant so you can actually pipe your resources into something that is much more meaningful. More by Kirsten Akens: https://www.thesimpledollar.com/finding-order-and-meaning-in-your-life-through-bullet-journaling/

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therealestatesparkblog · 6 years

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Stop Building Garages: How Driverless Cars Will Affect Real Estate

Driver-less cars are going to change alot, and if you havent been actively reading about this, then its most likely going to happen much faster than youre expecting. At first glance, there may not seem to be much overlap between the auto industry and the real estate industry, but the impacts and infrastructure changes from this technology will be felt by everyone. As investors, its our responsibility to understand changes as far out in advance as possible so we can adapt to progress and mitigate new risks. Just about everything in this article takes place across the next 1530+ years, which may seem useless to some. However, if youre currently buying 30-year mortgages then youve got commitments that fall well within this transition period, and these changes will affect you. Having a better understanding of the future can be massive risk-mitigation tool against getting caught off guard when changes negatively affect you. Driving Will Change Where People Want to Live Because Cars Will Commute for Us Imagine you could wake up at 6 a.m. and crawl into your car and tell it to head to work while you got back to sleep. In two hours, youre there, youre safe, fully rested, and you arrive at work on time without having to deal with traffic or the monotonous task of driving. This is not science fiction. In fact, based on todays technology, this isnt even far fetched. This is science inevitability. So how does this affect real estate? Well, think of all the people who dont want to live in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, or New York City. What if they could live an hour or two outside the city and commute to work without losing any real time out of their day? How might this affect home values in a city when people can commute there easily without having to live there and without making any sacrifice to do so? It doesnt even have to be this extreme, either. Lots of people would be willing to commute for one hour each way if they didnt have to drive. This creates a lot of space between a city hub and the places people can live without taking on the financial burden of city costs. Might home values in a city go down when the necessity to live close by is reduced? Maybe cities will create an even larger price premium for those who can afford to live there while the masses are forced to commute an hour or two each day from poorer suburbs. Cars Will Be the Next Rental Real EstateOwning a Car Will Be a Luxury Car ownership is going to be a thing of the past before you know it. Sound crazy? Its not even a secret in the auto industry. Did you know that Ford, the oldest car company in America, has announced its going to stop selling cars and just sell trucks and SUVs? How can they do this? Thats a lot of cars to give up on selling unless they dont expect to lose that many sales. Companies who host ride sharing like Uber, Waymo, and Lyft are developing fully autonomous vehicles and are building fleets to replace personal car as we speak. General Motors is building a mass-market, fully autonomous car right now that will not be sold to the public. It will be only be used as part of a ride-sharing platform and available (supposedly) in 2019. That means two of the biggest auto manufacturers are starting to just flat-out not sell their products to the public. This is a signal of really big change. Owning a car isnt really that expensive, but there is zero return on investment. Its only an expense. However, once cars can finally drive themselves 24-hours a day, all while producing income, the value of ownership will go through the roof. The most likely scenario is that Uber will sell unlimited-use passes by the month, and we will all happily give up car ownership in trade. Itll be on-demand, easy, fast, and awesome. It may sound far fetched, but people will happily give up car ownership in the not-so-distant future when the cost savings become obvious. The value of any business is based on its income production. If you think cars are expensive now, imagine how much more they might cost when its a guaranteed profitable purchase. Related:Your Car is an Expensive, Health-Sucking, Time-Wasting Machine. So, Ditch It! Those with means to own their personal cars will create a moat between social classes. These days we might see a Ferrari and say, Oooooh, that person has money! Look at their fancy car! In the future, someone driving a Camry might get similar treatment: Ooooooh, that person has money, they can afford to have a personal car!!! Lots of people in America buy their own homes, and some own an extra house as a rental. The volume of landlords is relatively small because owning a house requires capital, resources, knowledge, risk mitigation, etc. In the future, cars will be the new rental real estate; people with means will still own their cars, and a few will own an extra car. The second car will drive itself around as part of a ride-sharing platform and produce income, just like a taxi, but passive.

Remember That Extra 900 Square Feet Everyone Had to Add to Our Houses to House a Car? What Were They Called? Oh Right, Garages! Why would you need a garage if you dont own a car? What value does a garage provide? Storage, for sure: We get to put our unsightly water heater there, the Christmas decorations, and the treadmill that my wife just had to own. Is that all worth the space and cost that a garage requires? Not likely. So will garages be a premium in the future, or a nuisance? More likely itll fade from importance in middle-to-low-end housing and continue in luxury homes. This problem is already being tackled with large parking garages. It might be a bold claim to say you wont need your garage in 20 years, but the world really wont need massive multi-level parking garages. Efforts are already being made to find out how to convert these spaces into light retail, office, storage and other amenities. Its not going to be feasible to tear down all that concrete, but it will be imperative to find something useful to do with all that space. Currently we pay a premium for garages because they are a highly sought after convenience. However, when the majority of people dont own cars, will that garage command a premium? Or will it be a detriment? Whats the Land Underneath a Gas Station Worth? Some of the most valuable land you can find is sitting underneath a gas station, and for good reason. Corner lots with good road access on busy cross streets serve a lot of cars and provide tons of ancillary needs. (Where else are we supposed to buy Slim Jims?). This infrastructure has been built up over decades and billions of drivers, but at its core it really relies on one thing: the internal combustion engine. Electric cars, however, dont need gasoline (surprise!). Youll charge at your home and probably at work. So how often are we going to need a gas station then? Hard to say, but the fact is, people will use a lot less gasoline, and my assumption is they will use gas stations much less. Now, obviously, some operators will find competitive advantages to survive, but many will not. And in rural areas, we should expect this problem to be much worse. A complete halt on gasoline sales is unlikely, because there are still uses for the product: small engines, generators, non-EV-conformers, etc. Thats a pretty weak position to hold onto though. Lots of industries are long gone, but still have niche support. Walmart will still sell you a CD Walkman (I saw one recently for $30!), but you wouldnt use that example to highlight the value of compact discs. Related:7 Sharing Economy Side Hustles Real Estate Investors Can Use to Earn Extra Cash When gasoline sales do slow, what will gas station owners do? I personally think most will go away, but not before suffering increasingly diminished profits as they experience the decline. Many will sell their businesses because of this, and what will their assets be worth? No one wants to look at a declining income statement trend and then pay top dollar. What about all the stores attached or adjacent to gas stations that capitalize on the heavy traffic? Ive heard of no great solutions to these questions, but that wont stop the impending takeover of autonomous and electric cars. How Long Will All My Daydreaming Take to Come to Fruition? If you dont read often about this topic, then its likely that this transition will happen much sooner than you would guess. People hear about autonomous cars and say, Itll never happen. Well, never will begin in 2020 when both General Motors, Ford, and others start to produce mass-market autonomous cars. What happens when every cab and Uber driver across the country goes jobless in a few short years? Ride sharing platforms will replace car ownership, as I mentioned earlier, and it will start next year. GM has publicly announced plans to build cars not sold to the public. They will only be part of their ride sharing platform.next year.How will home values be affected when waves of mass unemployment start? Take everything Ive mentioned so far and apply it to truck drivers as well. In fact, they will be unemployed first, as autonomous 18-wheelers are already being used in the UK. Unfortunately, I have no good advice for how to adapt to this, but anticipation and being proactive about change should help. For the Itll never happen camp, they will not take any measures to protect themselves and it will cost them dearly. What I dont want to convey here is not to buy a house with a garage because you might not need one in 30 years. Thats silly, but maybe get used to the idea of not needing one in the future. Sleeping in our cars is what poor college kids do when they are really stretching, but in 10 years it might be a feasible temporary option instead of stretching to rent an apartment. Twenty years ago smartphones didnt exist, now I cant go three minutes without touching mine. Its important not to get too confident of what is normal, as you may get caught stuck in the past. You dont need to have an MBA to know that businesses who refuse to participate in new technology go under. The board members at Blockbuster obviously had a strict head-in-the-sand policy. Dont be like Blockbuster. Embrace and adapt to changing technology.

What do you think? Am I on to something? Where do you see the future of garages and personal vehicles? Share below! https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/stop-building-garages/

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caredogstips · 7 years

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The age of joke

The long speak: It used to be precisely a word now it is a way of life. But is it is necessary to get down the banter bus?

Its the most fucking laughable storey, isnt it? We went to watch fucking dolphins, and we ended up in fucking Syria. Last-place summertime in the Mediterranean party resort of Ayia Napa, Lewis Ellis was wielding as a guild rep. I represent, it was fucking 8am, he told an Australian website soon afterwards, and the last fucking golf-club had closed, and we remembered, We can still depart dolphin watching. Well blag our mode on to a fucking craft and croak dolphin watching.

But when the boat voyaged so far that Cyprus disappeared from panorama, Ellis explained, they started to worry. Why are we so far from tract? they questioned the crew. Were fucking miles away and weve got no fucking wifi. Something, Ellis said, had been lost in rendition; his exuberant season as a shepherd for the useds party pilgrims used to go terribly awry. The gang wasnt taking them to watch dolphins: they were going to a Russian naval basi in the towns of Tartus, on Syrias Mediterranean coast. Yeah, it is a little ridiculous.

It was , nonetheless, a fib that had legs. Hungover lads boat errand boob territory them in Syria, wahey-ed the Mirror; British holidaymakers board defendant barge in Ayia Napa and be brought to an end in war-torn SYRIA, laughed the Express. If you envisioned these headlines at the time, you may dimly remember the rest. A stubborn trawler captain, chugging doggedly onwards to Tartus, where he turfed the friends out upon territory; interrogation at the mitts of Russian intelligence officers; mutual hilarity as the Russians realised what had happened; and, after a red-hot banquet, a speedy tour of the expanse, and a good darkness sleep, spots on the next angling boat headed back to Cyprus. It was never made clear why the captain had let them on the craft in the first place, but whatever. Everyone lapped it up.

Reflecting on the whole circumstance five a few months later, Ellis, a 26 -year-old with a business position and a marketing lords, couldnt altogether wrap his head around it. I ponder I experienced 35 narratives about us, he told me. I read about myself in the Hawaiian Express, do you know what I symbolize?( Notwithstanding that there is nothing to doesnt appear to be any such newspaper, yes, I emphatically do .)

What became it really weird to see the media pile in with such unstinting passion was that the storey was total cobblers. I could not belief how unsophisticated they were, Ellis said, a top memo of hilarity still in his tone. We were just having a chortle! It was banter!

Lads: this is the age of joke. Its long been somewhat about the banter, but over the last few years, it has come to seem that its all about the banter an unabashedly bumptious posture that took up a position on the outskirts of different cultures in the early 90 s and has been larging its road towards the centre ever since. “Theres” hundreds of banter groups on Facebook, from Banter Britain( no memes insinuating child abuse/ dead children !!!) to Wanker Banter 18+( Have a laugh and keep it sick) to the Premier League Banter Page( The only ruler: keep it banter ). You can buy an I banter jugs on Amazon for 9, or an Archbishop of Banterbury T-shirt for 9.99.

There are now four sprigs of a restaurant announced Scoff& Banter. When circumstances were going badly at Chelsea FC under Jos Mourinho, it was reported the team had banned all joke in an attempt to focus their subconscious, and that word appeared in the newspapers, as if you would know exactly what it entail. Person has created a banter map of London using a keyword scour on the flatshare website SpareRoom, indicating exactly where people “re looking for a” roommate with good banter( Clapham tends to facet prominently ). When a 26 -year-old man from Leeds constituted for a selfie with a baffled aeroplane hijacker, Vice swore it the high-water rating of banter.

Lewis Ellis( left) and friends in Ayia Napa, pretending to be in Syria. Photograph: Lewis Ellis

If you are younger than about 35, you are likely to hear the expression all the time. Either you have banter( if you are funny and can take a pun) or you dont( if you arent and cannot ). The mainstream, in summary, is now drink and asleep on the sofa, and banter is delightedly drawing a penis on its forehead.

As banter has risen, it has expanded. Long a word used to describe submerged sayings of fraternal charity, it is now likewise a word allows one to excuse uninhibited exhibitions of masculine bravado. Today, it is segregated by class, seized on by brands, picked over by psychologists, and regretted by culture reviewers; it is dominant, fiercely contested and exclusively hazily understood.

And so, whether he purposes it to or not, Ellis use of the expression parent some questions. Is he shedding his pile in with the most prevalent division of the blokeish mainstream, a sanitised and gracious gaiety that elongates from lad-dad panel shows to your teammates zinger about your dreadful haircut? Or is he lining up with the misogynist impersonators of the Bullingdon club, a sprinkling of prejudiceds, and, as we shall identify, an actual murderer purveyors of a malicious and insidious masculinity that insists on its indivisible dominion and calls you a slut if you object?

Ellis isnt preoccupied by these questions, but for what its worth, he does say that he and his friends never had the slightest planned of going to Syria. We werent actually trying to clown anyone, he told me, although Im not sure thats wholly consistent with the facts of the case. We were out for a saunter, and we went across this area that gazed actually run down, we thought it was like Syria. So we apply it on the team reps[ Facebook] page that thats where we were. And everyone started liking it. And then one of the people who contacted us was from LADBible which is like the Bible, but for LADS so we pronounced, well have a mess around here. Well tell a completely ridiculous tale, see if the media believes it. Find if we can become LADBible famous.

It did, we are able to. Eventually, the truth “re coming out” , not thanks to any especially determined investigative journalism, but because Ellis cheerily admitted on Facebook that his narration of superb foolishnes was a story. Hahaha what a prank, he wrote, with some justification.

The confession simply raised another repetition of notice. Books that had picked up the legend in the first place resurfaced it with new headlines to manifest the daring of the fabrication; social media useds adduced it as evidence for their own views of young men, or the media, or both. The Russian delegation Twitter account announced it a telling illustration of how many Syria( and Russia) stories are made up by UK newspapers, which was great geopolitical banter. The courtesy entertained Ellis, but he alleges it wasnt the stage. We simply thought it was funny, he responded. People are too serious. I hinder being told to grow up, but I still want to have a good time. Ive had the jobs, Ive got the education. But when Im off production, I want to escape.

Ellis is an enthusiast and an optimist. He is, he told me late last year, hopeless to take every opportunity, simply to enunciate yes to everything I can. We were on a nighttime out in Manchester with his pals Tyson, John and Chris. In such courses of the evening, the following circumstances knew their mode into my brew: fingers; salt; vinegar; mayonnaise; a chip; saliva; a 10 greenback; and, I hazily recollect being told after the fact, at the least two shootings of vodka.

Everyones got a thought in the group, Ellis said, as we walked from one saloon to the next. One person, hes not even that ugly, we say he looks just like a Peperami. Tysons get this mole on his appearance, its like a Coco Pop, so youve got a Coco Pop on your appearance. I looked like Harry Potter when I was a kid, so they announce me Potter, thats my moniker. Every single one of us has something. So you youve gone Chinese attentions. Youre Chinese.

For the record, I didnt think this was OK, but coming after such a harmless litany, it didnt seem malicious enough to confront. Of course, tacit promotion is what shapes such offensive epithets a platitude, and so it is a matter of concern that it saw “i m feeling” mysteriously accepted, just as it had when John perforated me softly in the pellets when I arrived. There was no doubting Elliss candour: as he spoke, the sheer daft beautiful of male friendship seems to astounded him, almost to the point of physical suffering. We just take the piss out of each other, and thats how we establish our passion , he spoke. So many group converses on the phone, and you just take the piss until they cry . And its like, when youre certainly killing them, you go, Ill stop if you miss, because you know they cant say yes, so you exactly keep going. Then we arrived at the next rail, where I was made to drink something called a Zombie.

Early in the evening, before any of this had eroded my ability to take helpful notes, Ellis smashed off from talking as we moved down wall street and sidled into a window display at Next Home, where he Tracey Emined a carefully established bottom by climbing into it and reeling around. Everyone cracked up. Contribute “the worlds” a shriek, Ellis tends to think, and the world will smile back at you. Jump on a craft, and youll end up somewhere enormous; stimulate the boat up, and youll got to get faster. Its all about having fun, its all about the banter, he articulated, after hed rejoined us outside. Banter is about realise “the worlds�� a more exciting place.

If nobody can agree on what joke is, thats scarcely a new difficulty. The first habit of the word recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary comes from memo Restoration lad Thomas dUrfey, also known for his hit hymn The Fart, in a sarcastic 1677 participate called Madam Fickle. Banter him, banter him, Toby, a character called Zechiel urges, which may be the first time that someone called Toby was so instructed, but certainly wasnt the last.

The OED also notes early attempts at a description by Jonathan Swift and Samuel Johnson.( Speedy mentions a banter upon transubstantiation, in which a cork is turned into a horse, and fair enough, revolving a stopper into a mare “wouldve been” classic joke .) Both “re a bit” disgusted by the word, and neither unearths often of an origin narrative: by their chronicles, joke is so coarse that it rose, amply structured and without antecedent, out of the mouths of oafs.

As it is about to change, though, the OED is not at present amply able to handle the banter. According to Eleanor Maier, an associate editor on the dictionary, a research of earlier English texts reveals that a number of previous patterns are missing from the dictionarys definition, which is now being first drafted in 1885 including a quote from a 1657 rendition of Don Quixote.( After examining the history, Maier told him that she would be adding banter to the listing of introductions that are up for evaluate .)

dougie stew (@ DougieStew)

Welcome to London #BagelGate pic.twitter.com/ KcJoz0ycZU

February 26, 2017

In recent years, joke has barged into our lives at a impressive time. Googles Ngram Viewer, a implement that assesses( with some limitations) the frequency with which a period shall be published in a large database of written sources, finds that banter popped up approximately twice as often in 2008, the most recent year plowed, as it did in 1980.

But banter plugged away for a very long time before it became an overnight success. In the 19 th century, it often designated a kind of formal sparring. Even as the term progressed over the 20 th, it continued to seem a bit prissy. In the House of Commons in 1936, Ramsay MacDonald, the former Labour prime minister who had recalled in a brand-new sit after losing his old one, was subjected to a great deal of banter Dear old-time Granny MacDonald !, among other witticisms.In 1981, a Guardian report that chess champion Anatoly Karpov and his handlers have succeeded in protested at his challenger Viktor Korchnois constant cross-board talk ran under the unlikely headline: Chess joke banned.

Such floors do little to prepare us for what banter has become. Consider the viral video that became known as #bagelgate earlier this year. In the recording, a minor hassle broke out on the 00.54 improve from Kings Cross to Huntingdon, and then for no plainly related rationale the status of women who had a large crate of bagels decided to put one on the heads of state of the person sitting in front of her, and then another after “hes taking” it off and hurled it out of the window, and another and another, and then everyone in the carriage started chanting hes got a bagel on his head, and eventually the slightly spoddy prey who is me when I was 13 and someone filled my pencil client with Mr Kipling apple pies( squashed, exuding) because I was fatty completely lost and hollered Get the fuck out of my appearance !, and then another campaign broke out on the programme, and then the police got on to the teach, and every single person fell into not-me-guv stillnes: this is not Granny MacDonalds joke any more.

If it is hard to understand how these activities can fall under the same umbrella, it should be noted that a phenomenon may predate our choice of expression to describe it its precisely that the act of description draws it most visible, and perhaps more likely to be imitated. At some place, though, joke became the call for what British boys already regarded as their natural tone of voice. There is a very deeply embedded folk culture in the UK of public ribaldry, extreme satire, facetiousness in other words, of laddishness, speaks Tony Thorne, a linguist and cultural historian. What you might think of as banter now is rooted in that tradition.

That tradition firstly flogged itself to banters mast in the early 1990 s, and polemic soon followed. In June 1992, a Guardian storey headlined Police fire sex banter officer, about the removal of a sergeant for sexual harassment, entered an early skirmish in the modern banter battles, and its significant brand-new bed to its meaning in the wild: The move is seen as part of the Metropolitan polices desire to reassure women officers that what has previously been tolerated as banter is greater acceptable. Two year later, the cubs mags arrived.

The first edition of Loaded magazine appeared in May 1994, with a picture of Gary Oldman on the figurehead inhaling a dog-end, under a placard that showed him a super cub. What fresh crazines is this? the editors note spoken. Loaded is a new publication dedicated to life, liberty and the endeavours of fornication, booze, football and less serious matters Loaded is for “the mens” who guesses he can do anything, if merely he wasnt hungover.

If banter chagrins you, James Brown, the magazines firstly writer, is quite an easy bogeyman. As he recognise himself, he composed a claim that defined a genre. Loaded was swiftly recognised as a foundational text for a resurgent and exuberant masculinity that had been searching for public showing. While it was always overtly horny, the publication was initially more interested in a lonesome, slackjawed and self-ironising acknowledgment of -Alisters( one reversible posting had Cindy Crawford on one side and a steam train on the other) than the grot-plus-football formula that successors and imitators like Maxim, Zoo and Nuts milked to shattering. But the committee is also flirted with something murkier.

To its pundits, Loaded and its imitators aimed to sanitise any particular hooliganistic worldview with a tactical renunciation. Banter emerges as this relentless gloss of incongruity over everything, told Bethan Benwell, elderly lecturer in speech and linguistics at the University of Stirling and the author of several newspapers on mens publications. The constant explain of sexist or homophobic feelings with this winking that says you dont really mean it. Benwell drawn attention to Loadeds emblematic strapline: For men who should know better.

Brown is denying that his periodical fabricated banter. Instead, he tells, it captured a zeitgeist that the media had previously failed to acknowledge; the kinfolk culture that Tony Thorne refers to, brought forward into the open. Before Browns intervention, GQ had extended John Major and Michael Heseltine as embrace hotshots, for Gods sake. I took the advantages and the mentality of the young men that I knew, and I give them in a publication, Brown suggested. Im not responsible for the atmosphere of the later entrants to the market. We were criticised because we fancied wives , not because we maligned them.

The thing about Loaded was that the mode we wrote manifested the way we were with our mates, he went on. Theres definitely a act that exists in the male outlook: you take the piss out of the person or persons you like, and you ignore the people you dont.

Accept this as your starting point, and dissents become exhausting to prolong: what youre objecting to is an behave of affection. Of route, “its what” stimulates it insidious. Because Browns account remainders on the intention behind the publication, and Benwells on the effect it had, they are impossible to reconcile. Its a very difficult act to withstand or objection without looking like the stereotypical humourless feminist, said Benwell. But by laughing, you are complicit.

Loaded leaved this new various kinds of banter escape velocity, and it has started to colonise other worlds. On BBC2, for example, David Baddiel and Frank Skinner were staking out their own territory with Fantasy Football League, a mixture of sketches and personality chit-chat that managed to be enthusiastic and satirical at the same occasion, and reached its peak when the pair became national icons, thanks to their Euro 96 chant, Three Lions. While a long-running joke about the Nottingham Forest striker Jason Lees pineapple haircut seems flatly racist in retrospect Baddiel did an impression of him in blackface by and large, the colour was milder and more conventional than the publications were: this was the insight of colleges and universities graduate slumming it before starting on grown-up life.

Baddiel implied that laddism is likely to be dominates a range from ogling to literature, depicting a line to Nick Hornbys memoir of life as an Arsenal fan, Fever Pitch. Hornby formerly said to me that all this stuff you are familiar with, imagination football and his journal is gentlemen speak about things that they like and for a while in the mid-8 0s they werent allowed to, he said in 1995. Ive always liked football and Ive always liked naked women, and its easier to talk about that now than it was eight years ago. Those explains manifest a kind of sneer at its pundits that you could often detect in Fantasy Football League, even as its hosts protested that they were just having a laugh though Baddiel himself is denying that view. Twenty times on, he, like Brown, is at hurtings to draw a line between the approach that he and Skinner popularised, and the forms that arose afterward. I approximate me and Frank did specialise in joke, he said in an email. In a hour before it was known as bantz.

Over the next 10 times, two things happened that ushered in persons under the age of joke.( You might call it matured joke, except that its too the opposite .) First, instead of just has become a circumstance that happened, it became a situation that people talked about. Then, as it became a more tangible culture make, everyone started trying to make money out of it. The watershed instant, the forms equivalent to Dylan extending electric, was the invention of Dave.

Like most good theories, it examines simple enough in retrospect. Before Dave was Dave, it was UKTV Gold 2. The precede channels gathering share was 0.761%, and no one could tell who on globe it was supposed to be for. But we had the contents, remarks Steve North, the channels brand director in 2007 and content of a specific kind that the existing appoint did very little to communicate: Have I Got News for You, They Belief Its All Over, Top Gear. Sees said they adoration the repartee, the comedy. It reminded them of spending time with their funniest friends.

The first issue of Loaded magazine, from May 1994

The target audience was highly specific. It was men marriage or in relationships, maybe with young children , not going to the inn as much as they used to, enunciates Andy Bryant, managing director of Red Bee, relevant agencies brought in to work on the rebrand. And they missed that camaraderie.

Their purpose thus fixed, North started to run brainstorming periods at which people would shout out recommendations for the call. One of the ones we compiled was Dave, he enunciates. We felt, enormous, but we cant call it that. But then we reputed, Its a replacement friend. If the audience really pictures it as that, if they see it as genuinely providing the banter, maybe we can really pay it a name.

They employed their hunch through its paces. The market research corporation YouGov was commissioned to test Dave alongside a cluster of other refers( Matthew and Kevin were also on the shortlist ), but nothing else had the same everyman resonance. For us, Dave is a sensibility, a place, an spirit, a sense, announced North, his tone astute, virtually gnomic. Everyone has their own gumption of who Dave is, thats the important thing. Its difficult to find anyone who doesnt know someone called Dave.

Now the channel had a firebrand, it needed a motto. Lots of people claim they played a part in the identify, announces Bryant. But it was just as important to encapsulate what the channel was all about. And at some part someone, I dont was well known that, wrote it on members of the board: The dwelling of funny joke. The rebrand contributed 8m brand-new spectators in six months; Dave watched a 71% increase in its target audience of affluent young men.

Conceived by the first generation of senior professionals to have grown up with joke as an unremarkable part of their demographics culture desegregate, the canal crystallised a change, and accelerated it. In 2006, The Ricky Gervais Show, in which Gervais and Stephen Merchant relentlessly poked fun at their in-house jerk savant Karl Pilkington, became the most popular podcast of all time. In 2007, its first year of Daves rebrand, Top Gears ratings shoot from below 5m to a record high-pitched of 8m. The following year, QI moved from BBC4 to BBC2.( A tie-in volume written the same year, QI: Advanced Banter, sold more than 125,000 transcripts .)

North checked the kind of fraternal pestering that was being monetised by his canal, and the panel shows that were its lifeblood, as fundamentally benign. The key happening is that its two-way, he responded. Its about two parties riffing off each other.

But like his 20 th-century forebears, he can see that something ugly has advanced, and he wants to keep his brand well away from it. Bants, he added with dislike. That circumstance of cover for dubious behaviour we detest and hate it massively. When we propelled, it was about enjoyable, being light-hearted, maybe pushing one another without being disrespectful. When people talk about Ive had a go at that person, great banter no, thats just nasty.

By the become of the decade, as other labelling bureaux simulated the success of Dave, banter was everywhere, a folk tradition that had acquired a strange kind of respectability. The all those people who celebrated it werent precisely fellows in the inn any more: they had spending ability and organisation allies on their surface. But they were, by the same token, more visible to commentators. Invasion from an underdog can be overlooked; aggressivenes from the establishment is serious enough to become a matter of public concern.

Take Richard Keys and Andy Gray, Sky Sports brand-defining football presenters, who got themselves up to their cervixes in some highly bad joke in 2011. Keys accused dark armies, but everybody else blamed him and Gray for being misogynists. We knew this because there was footage.

The firestorm, as Keys called it, centred on claims that the two men had said and done heinously sexist acts off-air. Most memorable, at the least for its phrase-making, was the time in which Keys eagerly requested his fellow pundit Jamie Redknapp if hed smashed it it being a woman and asserted that he could often be found hanging out the back of it.

Gray became promptly. In the days before he followed, Keys burned hot with sin in a series of mea-sorta-culpas, specially focused on the strip in which he conveyed his derision at the idea that the status of women, Sian Massey-Ellis, could be an aide referee in the Premier League.

It was just banter , he suggested. Or, more exactly, just a bit of joke, as he mentioned Massey-Ellis had assured him she understood in a later telephone conversation in which, he added, much joke elapsed between us. She and I enjoyed some joke, he protested. It was lads-mag joke, he contended. It was stone-age banter, he acknowledged. We liked to have banter, he explained. Richard Keys was sorry if you were offended, but likewise, it wasnt his faulting if you didnt get onto. It was just banter, for goodness sake!

Up to their necks in some particularly bad banter Andy Gray and Richard Keys in 2011. Picture: Richard Saker/ Rex

Keys insistence that his correct was simply a failure to move with the times was nothing new: banter has always seemed to carry a longing for the past, for the purposes of an guessed age before male love was so cramped by the tedious obligations of feminist scrutiny. But while his underlying deems were painfully dated, his thought of joke was only modern: a sly expansion of the words signify, and a self-conscious contention that it provided an impregnable defence.

The Keys variation understood banter, first, as a catch-all means of disavowing responsibility if someone was hurt; and, second, as a means of reinforcing a bail between two beings by being cruel about a third. The comparison wouldnt satisfy got a couple of alphas like Keys and Gray, but both strategies accompanied it closer to a style of communicating with classically feminine associations: gossip. Deborah Cameron, the Rupert Murdoch( lol) Professor in Language and Communication at Oxford University, argues that the two modes of interaction follow basically the same organization. People gab as a trust competition, she alleged. You tell someone your unsayable private secret, and it bonds you closer together. Theyre supposed to do now reciprocate with a confidence of their own. Well, banter works in the same way now. You say something appalling, and you see if the other person dares to top your remark.

The trust game in joke was traditionally is expected to be: do you trust me when I read were friends in spite of the aim circumstances Im replying about you? But now theres two seconds version of the game: do I trust you not to tell anyone the mean thoughts Im announcing about other parties? I repute initially it was a harmless event, enunciated Cameron, whose analysis is rooted in an repository of male group conversation, predominantly entered by her students, that goes back to the 1980 s. But then it started to be used as an excuse when gentlemen were caught out fully participate in forms of it that werent so harmless.

It comes down to context and meaning, says the comedian Bridget Christie. The gentler pattern of joke is still knocking around, she suggested, but now it exists alongside something darker: I obtained The Inbetweeners youngster banter hilarious, because it was equal and unthreatening. But there is obviously a world of difference between a group of teenage boys benignly taking the piss out of each other, and a bigot being racist or misogynist and trying to pass it off as a joke.

Trace the rise of banter, and you will find that it corresponds to the rise of political correctness or, anyway, to the backlash against political correctness gone mad. That word and just joke reflect each other perfectly: one denoting a priggish culture that is deemed to have overreached, the other a laid-back culture that is deemed to have been unfairly reined in. Ironically enough, merely joke does exactly what it alleges political correctness of, seeking to close down argument by say to you that making is settled by category rather than material. Political correctness is saying that a racist prank is mainly racist, whereas banter asserts that a racist pun is mainly a pun. In the past, the men who use it rarely had to define it, or to explain themselves to anybody else. Today, in contrast, it is mentioned all the time. The biggest change isnt the banter itself, remarks Bethan Benwell. Its the explicit call of the word as a disclaimer.

By sheer repetition and by its give as an unanswerable defense, joke has altered from an abstract into a vast and calcified description of wars as well as texts: started from a lane of talking to a way of life, a form that inadvertently became a worldview. He joked you, people sometimes remark: you always used to banter with your copulates, but now it often sounds like something you do to them. Once it was directionless, inconclusive yak with wit as the engine that drove it, said the comedian Russell Kane. Now, if I errand you up, thats banter.

You might think the mortification suffers from Keys and Gray would have constituted banter less plea as a get-out, but not a bit of it. Banter, increasingly, seems like the first sanctuary of the indefensible. In 2014, Malky Mackay, who had been fired as manager of Cardiff City Football Club a year earlier, was caught having transported textbook that referred to Chinese beings devouring bird-dogs, black people being criminals, Jewish people being avaricious, and lesbian parties being snakes all of which were initially optimistically defended by the League Managers Association as letting off steam to a friend during some friendly text letter banter. The comedian Dapper Laughs, whose real identify is Daniel OReilly, established himself as jokes rat king, with his very own ITV2 display, and then completely lost after he suggested that an audience member at one of his gigs was gagging for a assault. A man was convicted of assassinate after he mashed his friend against a wall with a Jeep Cherokee after an disagreement over badger-baiting, a course of action that he added had been intended as banter. Another trounced the throat of someone he had met in a pub and described the accident as a few moments of joke after 14 or 15 pints. Both are now in prison.

By any sane quantity, joke was falling into dishonor, as often a disguise for malice as a word for the ribaldry of fellows on the lash. Still it did not go away: instead, the worst of it has mutated again, insisting its expert in public and saving its creepiest partialities for the shadows or, at the least, for the company of five, or 10, or 20 of your closest mates.

At the London School of Economics, it started with a circular. Each year at the universitys freshers fair, LSE Rugby Football Club shared a banterous primer on rugby culture. In October 2014, suggests the then-president of the student solidarity, Nona Buckley-Irvine, a student has now come to her in tears with a emulate in her hand. The brochure “was talkin about a” trollops, slags, crumpet, mingers, and the desirability of misogyny; there were legislating cites to the frights of lesbian mortification and outright lesbian gluttony. Anyone charmed by all this was invited to sign up for the team and meet the banter register, entitling them to participate in the exchange of chappish email conversation.

To anyone with a run knowledge of university laddism, it was hard to suppose a more everyday iteration. Still, after the unreconstructed chappishness of the circular has now come to sunlight, the association knew it had a problem. It questioned a collective justification admitted that we have a lot to learn about the injurious effects of joke, and promised to organise a workshop. But there are still reason to be sceptical about the magnitude of that commitment.

When Buckley-Irvine and her peers published a report on the accident, they memo a fibre of others, including an antisemitic assault on a university ski tour to Val dIsere in 2011. And there were other follies it didnt mention. According to two people who were present, one club dinner at an Indian restaurant on Brick Lane ended with a stripper having bottles thrown at her when, already intimidated, she refused to take her invests off. She obscured in the toilet, and had to be escorted out by a member of staff as the team vandalised the restaurant.

Photograph: Alamy

According to five people who were either members of the rugby society or closely associated with it, one notorious elderly member was widely thought to be responsible for the booklet.( He did not respond to requests for explain .) But when they came to defend themselves to the student uniting, members of the squad fell back on one of “the worlds largest” revered mainstays of laddism: all for one, one for all. Theyd clearly worked out a line, mentions Nona Buckley-Irvine. No private individuals was responsible. They were sorry. It was just joke. Thats what they all said.

The accountancy firm KPMG, which sponsored colleges and universities wider Athletics Union, “ve decided that” banter was not an specially helpful firebrand association, and moved funding merit 22,000. The students uniting decided to disband the golf-club for the academic year. The decision moved some commentators to disgust. It was a gross overreaction, a former unit member told me. We were the best-behaved unit when it came to actually playing rugbies but they censored that bit and they couldnt proscribe any of the rest.

Others took a less measured tint. I had old-fashioned members emailing me and calling me a tyrant, articulates Buckley-Irvine. Expecting me if I didnt understand that it was just joke. Rugby actors sung mistreat at her on nights out, she told me. They shoulder-barged her, and called her a cunt.

These kinds of interactions would tend to take place on Wednesdays, also known as boasts night, at a prohibit in Leicester Square. Sports night was the apotheosis of the rugby organizations bleak solidarity. In homage to what you might call the wingers-before-mingers code, for example, representatives from the squad who were expected to dress in dress werent allowed to speak to women before 9pm. So they would just holler abuse instead, one girl former student, who Ill call Anna, remembered. One chant, she replied, get, Nine nos and a yes is a yes. At the time, Anna thought that it was all a pun. Beings would say, Its precisely banter all the time. After everything. Absolutely everything, she spoke, sitting in a cafe in south London. If you were convening someone brand-new, saying they had good banter, that was a reasonably high congratulate. Whereas if you dont go along with that material, its seen as, you cant take the chat, you cant take the banter. And its not to be considered as having a stance against it. Its seen as not being able to keep up.

After the rugby squad was disbanded , good-for-nothing much altered in plays night social life. Many members of the club still went on the same darkness out; they are only colonised other squads. They still addressed girlfriends as Sarah 2 or Sarah 8 depending on how attractive they considered them out of 10; they are continuing had shouted speeches about their copulation lives in front of the women they had slept with but refused to acknowledge.

That culture was not confined to Wednesday nights. Anna recollects a person who took her portrait as she slept, naked, in the bunk they were sharing, and circulated it to another non-university plays crew via WhatsApp. She wasnt meant to see it on his phone.

Ask anyone well-informed where joke resides now, and theyll give the same reaction: WhatsApp groups and email yarns, the safe seats of the lad class. What youd get out of those WhatsApp threads, its a different world of drama, one former member of the football club pronounced. The details of girls people that youd read, a few amusing jibes, that was the limit for me. But where reference is moved on to, like, really, really bad trash, always about sex it was too much. Those strands are the source of everything.

If the threads were an store, they were by no means the limit. Banter, by common consent, wasnt confined to lampooning each other: it was about action. If you dressed up for a night out, one girl student remembered, “its just” kind of status quo that you could have your arse grab. It was just like, Oh, that was kind of strange, but OK, thatll happen. Like everybody else willing to speak about it, her position of that culture was perplexingly nuanced, sometimes self-contradictory. It seems spooky, she said, but that tell me anything, some of my best nighttimes were there, and like it was enjoyable. But then she enunciated: What was defined as serious just got so pushed . I envision for someone to lodge a complaint they would have to be actually hurt.

Anna recollects lots of sketchy incidents. She remembers nighttimes when her choices faded into a blur, and she wondered if she had really been in control. But at the time, I would never call it out, she remarked. And then, youre all living in vestibules together, and the next day, its like: What did you do last nighttime? Thats funny. Thats banter.

When Anna thinks about the behaviour of some of “the mens” she knew at university, she find it hard to pin down exactly what she recalls of them. Theres one in particular who sticks in her recollection. On a Wednesday night, he was a joke person, she told. He was a Wednesday animal. But the rest of the time, he was my friend.

Controversial though all this was at the time , no one seems to think that it will have expenditure the perpetrators often. Ive tried so hard to leave all that behind, said the former is part of the football crew. But those guys theyre all going on to run banks, or the two countries, or whatever. The senior rugby boy who numerous held responsible, by the way, has territory on his hoofs. Today, he has a activity at KPMG.

In 2017, every new instance of banter is immediately discerned and put through the journalistic wringer.( Immorality Joel Golby, who wrote the definitive verse on the bagel thing, has made a career from his exquisite close readings of the structure .) But when each new absolute myth rises, we dont typically have the context to shape the essential points finding: do the proponents tend towards the harmless excitement of Ellis and his copulates, or the frank hatred of the LSE rugby boys? Is their affection of irony straightforward, or a mask for something else?

As Richard Keys and Dapper Laughs and their cohorts have polluted the idea of joke, the commercial entities that endorsed its rise had now become uneasy with the label. They wanted it to go viral; they hadnt expected it to runs postal. Dave, for example, has plunged the residence of funny banter slogan. Its not about classic male mood any more, its a bit smarter, alleges UKTVs Steve North. We certainly say it less than we used to.

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from Meet the woman who built Hollywood from the ground up in ‘Feud’

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agilenano · 4 years

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Agilenano - News: First Came Better Beer. Now Craft Breweries Want to Be Better for the Planet

As water usage becomes an increasingly urgent matter, small breweries around the world are working to improve their practices.

One of the first steps brewers should take, Stiers says, is simply getting a benchmark for their brewerys water use.

A lot of brewers may have a spec to CIP for so many minutes, but theyre afraid of bacteria, Stiers says. So they say, Oh, lets just go for twice as long.

We have a ratio between three and four hectoliters of water to beer, says Samson brewmaster Radim Lavika. We have to save water.

That saved us a million gallons a year, Wallace says.

As a result, small breweries like Californias Bear Republic have installed centrifuges to remove yeast and other solids, thereby sending less organic matter into local treatment plants.

For Stiers, the growing popularity of craft beer makes sustainable water practices all the more important today.

The article First Came Better Beer. Now Craft Breweries Want to Be Better for the Planet appeared first on VinePair.

Agilenano - News from Agilenano from shopsnetwork (4 sites) https://agilenano.com/blogs/news/first-came-better-beer-now-craft-breweries-want-to-be-better-for-the-planet

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tuthillscopes-blog · 7 years

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Carl Bass on his surprising Autodesk exit and whats next

check it out @ https://tuthillscopes.com/carl-bass-on-his-surprising-autodesk-exit-and-whats-next/

Carl Bass on his surprising Autodesk exit and whats next

Carl Bass is sitting at his desk at Autodesk today, but hes no more Chief executive officer from the openly traded design software company. He walked lower the 2009 week inside a move that some connected wrongly, notesBass by having an interview Bass granted towards the outlet Pando,wherein he disparaged President Jesse Trump.

Today, we spoken with Bass about his resignation, his ongoing role like a board member with Autodesk, ifhe regrets reporting in from the administration like a public company Chief executive officer and whetherhe thinks more tech CEOs must do exactly the same.

The famously straight-shooting Bass had plenty to say of everything. Also, he shared a number of what he wishes to focus on next. Our conversation continues to be edited gently for length.

TC: You walked lower as Chief executive officer on Tuesday, and senior VPs Amar Hanspal and Andrew Anagnost happen to be installed as interim co-CEOs. But youre helping in the quest for your substitute, is the fact that correct?

CB: Yes, Tuesday was my last day, but Ill continue being employed as an worker for 3 several weeks and am ongoing around the board of company directors for some time. We began planning this not long ago, because the easiest method to do [a succession change] is perfect for the present Chief executive officer to step lower. Otherwise, the very best exterior candidates arent sure theres a real job opening. You realize, sometimes you seethe pocket veto, in which the Chief executive officer includes a change of heart and states, Hey, if you are likely to choose so and thus, I am not departing. This can be a clean break, and outdoors candidates work hard at it, and also the board takes it seriously. Weve hired an outdoors search team who definitely are speaking with internal and exterior candidates, so hopefully [well find the correct candidate] rapidly.

TC: Youve stated that you simply and Autodesks board started succession planning talks 18 several weeks ago, however, many people believe aninterview in which you belittled Jesse Trump performed a job within the timing of the resignation.

CB: There have been lots of rumors now that couldnt be more wrong. Towards the extent that you simply take exactly what a company states having a touch of suspicion [because companies is really so marketing], with regards to governance, they are real rules. You will find real penalties of law. Public companies dont take that gently.

TC: Would you regret being so public about your feelings about Trump?

CB: Not, by no means. Not just one bit. Whenever you take a look at Trump, you will find three things happening: policies character and temperament and executive or administrative functioning. I believe on two and three, almost everyone can agree that he is not qualified, because of that , I joked [to Pandos Sarah Lacy]that hes runningthe government like someone among a little businessman and dictator. I watch whats happening every single day, and Im advised of my children once they were 4 years old coupled with no understanding of anything outdoors of themselves. Hes a 70-year-old baby.

Around the policy stuff, its difficult to parse what his policy is. Were against the main one China policy now were for it. Would slowly move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem now were not. Policy appears is the area of the job that least interests him.They are complicated issues, however they dont appear to captivate him. He doesnt appear particularly curious or thoughtful about the subject. Hes interested in tweeting the latest insult that [springs tomind].

TC: Do you consider other tech executives ought to be more vocal, or perhaps is it an excessive amount of a danger?

CB: I believe anybody with a platform should speak out. Ive had a lot of people achieve out tome now peoplemuch better-known than I’m, say, Thats awesome, that which you stated. And Im like, Why dont you express it? You’ve got a bigger pulpit.

TC: Many people think Tesla and SpaceX Chief executive officer Elon Musk should step off Trumps economic advisory council. What is your opinion?

CB: Its an elaborate problem for Elon.I thinkmany of the things that hes attempting to accomplish are actually worthy goals however they intersect with regulation: autonomous vehicles, putting things wide. You cannot do this with no government, so from the very self-interested perspective, as well as in the eye of his companies, I realize. However, he’s a really public platform and Imsure he’s a viewpoint and when everyone takes the self-interested view, the planet doesnt reach hear the opinions of their leaders. And So I think its important however i certainly understand.

Ive [feel much more strongly about Facebook COO] SherylSandberg. Shehas gone from her method to develop a brand around the strength of womenand what theyre able to, and with regards to the Womens March, she wasinvisible. She appears to possess leaned out a great deal.

TC: Why have you start succession planning 18 several weeks ago? Lots of CEOs run their companies more than you’ve.

CB: Id been performing for any lengthy time. Ive been Chief executive officer for 11 many there have been 2 or 3 years after i was COO and accountable for the companys day-to-day, therefore it seems like 14 years that Ive been carrying this out.

And That I have ample other interests. Im on a number of boards [includingHP and Zendesk andstill-private startups,including Planet]. I’ve got a small portfolio of products Ive committed to. I’ve two bigworkshops where I build and invent things making stuff.

I really like the organization and that i love my job, however it hugely consumes your time and effort. Like all other executive job, its 60 hrs per week and when you allow 60, the task [demands]65. Youre never done. To complete the job well, additionally you need the years skin. You’ll need thick skin when individuals think you had been fired since you stated something about Trump. You’ll need thin skin to empathize together with your customers and employees and also the world surrounding you. And all sorts of individuals forces get tiring before long. My second kid got away from home this yearand I must take more time within the shop, traveling with startups.

TC: You had been also coping with activist investor groups Sachem Mind Capital and Eminence Capital who together collected an 11.five percent stake in the organization.

CB:Last fall, i was while making the modification, and merely then, the activists demonstrated up. I shouldn’t overemphasize it’s not like they’d a great deal to say about the organization. It was not that people used to do badly. They more thoughtwe were sandbagging concerning the future and now we ought to be speaking up which our lengthy-range projections were [too conservative]. It had been, Everyone could do two times too! Well, its easyto say in the sidelines. Easy that i can say Atlanta must have won the Super Bowl, however i didnt need to play.

Therefore we suspended succession planning. We use it hold because weneeded more stable leadership as the activists have there been and if the next Chief executive officer is definitely an exterior or internal person, it appears as an unfair burden to put in it. I’ve got a fair quantity of currency staying with you Im a lot more prepared to fight than many more. I figured, This can be a job designed for me, and that i should stay before the activists choose to leave.

So this past year these were around the board. The companys stock expires 70 or 80 % during the last 12 several weeks, the think markets convey more confidence in [Autodesks relocate 2015 to some subscription-only model], so we wereable to create a deal. I stated, Im prepared to do this again process if everyone leave the board. Now theyre moving away from the board [when the new Chief executive officer is elected], and Im escaping . asCEO.

TC: Plastic Valley startups have become more conscious of theneedto defend themselves from activist investorsand theyve more and more been granting founders special kinds of stock that provide them control of key decisions. Do you consider thats the reply to this problem?

CB: Yes. Basically would be a founder, I’d have particular stock. Because numerous things in corporate governance have given themselves to activists making use, I believe the response needs to be, a minimum of for the short term, that companies have dual-class mechanisms in position.

I believe neither extreme is nice, though. I believe activism is that this deviant, extreme type of capitalism. Its like other ideologies, wheregood ideas are come to a serious and lose their meaning. However, I do not think dual-class stock is the greatest mechanism because shareholders must have a say.

Id want to see tenured voting, where theresa premium depending on how lengthy you have the shares. I do not are conscious of any public company which has tried it yet, however i have no idea the reason why you no longer can do it. [It might follow that] one individual that has owneda million shares for just one year has less voting power than someone else that has owned millions of shares for 2 years.

TC: Before we allow you to go, whats next? Is every venture firm on Sand Hill Road attempting to lure you in to the fold?

CB: Ive been shocked by the amount of those who have plans for which I ought to do next. Its a funnymix within my inbox at this time. Ive received4,000 emails from employees, that are very touching and emotional. However, you will find each one of these people looking to get me to behave next.

I amgoing to complete an advisory role at Google X. Ive been considering [potentially] startingmy own accelerator program. Within the next couple of several weeks Ill evaluate which Im likely to do. Meanwhile, I wish to keep skiing around the weekdays.

Find out more: https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/10/carl-bass-on-his-surprising-autodesk-exit-and-whats-next/

#autodesk #carl bass

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themoneybuff-blog · 5 years

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Finding Order and Meaning in Your Life Through Bullet Journaling

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themoneybuff-blog · 6 years

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How to find your purpose in life: 12 powerful exercises to help you discover purpose and passion

Shares 298 Happy blogiversary! Twelve years ago today, I launched a humble little blog about personal finance this blog, Get Rich Slowly. It was meant as a way for me to share the things I was learning as I dug out of debt. It turned into so much more. For the next couple of weeks, Im on the road in the southeastern U.S., speaking to people about personal finance and meeting with readers. This morning, for instance, I spoke to the 76 people attending Camp FI in Spring Grove, Virginia. My topic? No surprise: The importance of having purpose in your life. As you can see, I am a PowerPoint genius

If youve spent any time reading my material, you know that I believe purpose is the foundation on which all plans financial and otherwise ought to be built. Purpose is a compass. It helps you set big goals, sure, but it also acts as a guide when times get tough. Your mother died? Your wife left? Your husband lost his job? If you know what your primary purpose is in life, these stressful events are much easier to deal with. For this presentation, I added a new twist. You see, a lot of folks who are interested in money tend to pick things like getting out of debt and becoming financially independent as their purpose or mission. But I think these are poor choices. Ive seen far too many folks make debt elimination a goal then fall right back into debt once theyve achieved it. And there are plenty of people who reach FI (or retire early) only to find they no longer know what to do. (Its like aiming to reach a certain weight instead of choosing to make lasting lifestyle changes that lead to weight reduction.) Instead, I think its important to recognize that your financial situation should be side effect of pursuing some greater purpose. Financial independence ought not be your aim; its merely a means to an end. When I speak about purpose (which is often), I tend to fall back to the George Kinder/Alan Lakein personal mission statement exercise. I feel like its one of the best available tools for helping people find focus. But its not the only tool. Today, to celebrate this sites twelfth birthday, I want to present twelve alternative exercises for discovering your purpose and passion. If youve tried one (or more) of these without success, try another. One of them is sure to be useful for you. Note: Ive done my best to credit sources for these exercises. (Many come from Barbara Shers excellent book Wishcraft, which is all about crafting the life you really want.) At the end of this article, Ill give you a list of recommended reading and tell you what I think is the single best book for discovering passion and purpose. Your One-Hundred Word Philosophy The first exercise is one I created myself. Its based on CrossFits world-class fitness in 100 words statement. Theres no time limit for this exercise, but it could take a while so be prepared. Your aim is to write out your life philosophy in exactly one hundred words no more and no less. This can take any form you want, from a statement of values to a list of instructions. Begin by writing down your core beliefs and values. It might also be helpful to think about books that have had a big impact on your life or powerful advice youve received in the past. Based on your experience and beliefs, what is your life philosophy? As an example, heres my own hundred-word philosophy, which Ive written as instructions to myself:

Some of those admonitions are my own invention. Some come from books like The Four Agreements and The Power of Now. Refuse to let fear guide your decision-making process, was advice from my girlfriend. Create your own luck is based on my friend Michelles advice to create your own certainty. Again: Target one hundred words exactly. Itll force you to spend time thinking and editing and being introspective. As you can see, I paid an artist friend to create a pretty letterpress poster of my 100-word philosophy, which Ive hung on the wall here at home. I look at it every day. Obviously, you dont have to go that far. Your Original Self This next exercise, which comes from Barbara Shers Wishcraft, sounds hokey at first. Turns out, however, that its a lot of fun to complete. Heres how it works. Set aside about half an hour for quiet contemplation. (Theres no writing involved in this exercise only thinking.) Let your mind wander back to your childhood. Remember what you used to do to have fun especially those times you especially treasured. When you were allowed to daydream or do whatever you wanted, what did you choose to do? Try to answer these questions: What sorts of things attracted and fascinated you when you were a kid?What sense smell, sight, hearing, taste, touch did you live through most? Or did you enjoy them all equally? What kinds of sensory experiences do you remember best?What did you love to do (or daydream about), no matter how silly or unimportant it might seem now? Did you have secret aspirations and fantasies that you never told anyone about? After thirty minutes of unstructured reverie, ask yourself a couple of questions. First, do you feel like theres a part of you that still loves the things you loved as a child? What do you miss most? Next, ask yourself what talents or abilities these childhood dreams and passions might point to in the present. What can you do today to reconnect with some of who you were as a kid? As I mentioned, I enjoyed this exercise. Although you dont have to, I wrote down what I liked as a kid: When I was a kid, I loved the outdoors. I loved to run and play outside. We lived in a small trailer house but were surrounded by acres and acres of land. We had freedom to romp across the fields, explore the nearby woods and orchards, and to browse the banks of the creeks. My favorite family vacations were those that involved camping. (Unfortunately, there werent many.) I loved looking at the insects and the plants. I liked digging in the dirt. I liked finding bones and rocks and shards of glass. I enjoyed playing games outside tag, dirt clod fights, whatever. I especially liked building forts. I liked going down to the big tree and hanging out under its branches. Yes, theres still a part of me that loves this sort of thing. I think thats one of the reasons Ive come to treasure the morning walks with the dog. Its an opportunity for me to explore the same stretch of ground over and over and over again. I truly enjoy watching how the woods and fields change a little every day. And thats probably one of the big reasons I enjoyed the RV trip. It forced me to connect to the world outside in a big way. What talents and abilities might this interest point to? Im not sure really. Who Do You Think You Are? This activity is short but effective. On a blank piece of paper, spend 5-10 minutes answering the question: Who do you think you are? How would you describe yourself to a total stranger? Be objective. What are most important characteristics that define your identity? There arent any right or wrong answers here, and theres only one rule: Dont overthink this. Put down the first and surest answers that come into your head, the ones that make you say, This is me. [This exercise also comes from Wishcraft.] Focus on Five Well explore the next exercise in greater depth next week when I write about goals. Youll find a version of this in nearly every book on productivity or positive psychology. This version is taken from Angela Duckworths Grit (which in turn borrowed it from billionaire Warren Buffett, who may have taken it from Alan Lakein). Heres how it works: Write down a list of your top twenty-five goals (or more). This might seem impossible at first, but give it a try. List all of the projects youre currently working on, both at home and at work. List all of the things you want to do but feel like theres no time. List at least twenty-five. More is beter.Next, review your list. Which goals are most appealing? Do some soul-searching it doesnt matter how and narrow the list to the five highest-priority objectives. Just five. Circle them (or copy them to another piece of paper).Lastly, look at the goals you didnt circle. These you avoid at all costs, writes Duckworth. Theyre what distract you; they eat away time and energy, taking your eyes from the goals that matter more. Harsh but true. If you need help prioritizing your goals it can be tough to sort through so many! rate each one on a scale of 1 to 10 based both on how interesting it is and how important it is. Then multiply those numbers together. For instance, if one of your goals has an interest rating of 9 (very interesting) and an importance rating of 3 (not that important), its score would be 27. Compare the scores. Higher is better. Duckworth says that she would add a fourth step to Buffetts exercise. Ask yourself: To what extent do these goals serve a common purpose? The more closely aligned your top five goals are, the better youll be able to focus on your passion (or purpose). When I write about goals next week, Ill ask you to do a different version of this exercise drawn from Sonja Lyubomirskys The How of Happiness. A Letter to the Future Heres another exercise thats common in self-help manuals. Youre going to contemplate and describe the personal legacy youd like to leave in this world. Think about how you want to be remembered by your grandchildren or great-grandchildren. (If youre childless like me, youll have to pretend.) In the form of a first-person letter, write a summary of your life, values, and accomplishments as youd like them known to your descendants. Pretend like youre near the end of your life and want to share the greatest hits version of your personal story for posterity. One common way to approach this is to pretend youre writing your own obituary. In The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey offers the following variation: In your minds eye, see yourself going to the funeral of a loved one. Picture yourself driving to the funeral parlor or chapel, parking the car, and getting out. As you walk inside the building, you notice the flowers, the soft organ music. You see the faces of friends and family you pass along the way. You feel the shared sorrow of losing, the joy of having known, that radiates from the hearts of the people there. As you walk down to the front of the room and look inside the casket, you suddenly come face to face with yourself. This is your funeral, three years from today. All these people have come to honor you, to express feelings of love and appreciation for your life. As you take a seat and wait for the services to begin, you look at the program in your hand. There are to be four speakers. The first is from your family, immediate and also extended children, brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents who have come from all over the country to attend. The second speaker is one of your friends, someone who can give a sense of what you were as a person. The third speaker is from your work or profession. And the fourth is from your church or some community organization where youve been involved in service. Now think deeply. What would you like each of these speakers to say about you and your life? What kind of husband, wife, father, or mother would you like their words to reflect? What kind of son or daughter or cousin? What kind of friend? What kind of working associate? What character would you like them to have seen in you? What contributions, what achievements would you want them to remember? Look carefully at the people around you. What difference would you like to have made in their lives? Make no mistake: This can be a powerful exercise. Tear-inducing, even. Thats okay. By thinking about how youd like people to remember you in the future, after youre gone, you can take steps to align your present self and actions with that ideal vision. 20 Things You Like to Do Heres another exercise from Barbara Shers Wishcraft. She says she borrowed it from Sid Simons Values Clarification. To begin, list twenty things you like to do. You must come up with twenty. Thats the only rule. Dont cop out and make a list of four things you like to do. Or twelve. List at least twenty. (You can write down more, if you like.) Now youre going to make a chart. Take a fresh piece of paper. Down the left side of the page, in the first column of the chart, copy your list of twenty things you like to do. (The order is completely unimportant.) Now, across the top of the page create 8-10 columns. Label them like this (you might have to write tiny): How long since you last did this activity? Free or costs money? Alone or with somebody? Planned or spontaneous? Job related? Physical risk? Fast-paced or slow-paced? Mind, body, or spiritual? Feel free to add other categories that occur to you. (At home or in the world? Spouse likes also? Enjoyed a decade ago? Whatever. Its your list.) Now go through your chart and fill it out for each of your interests. What patterns emerge? What do these patterns tell you about your self and life? To illustrate what this chart ought to look like, I did the exercise myself. It was enlightening. And it took me longer to complete than I expected. I could come up with sixteen things I like to do, but expanding the list to twenty was tough. Heres a screenshot of my list. (Because Im a nerd, I used a spreadsheet instead of a piece of paper.)

Kind of sad (and hilarious) to note that this list is in the order I thought of things. So, that means computer games came to mind as something that I like to do before sex did. Yikes! Looking at my list, it seems like I do a pretty good job of doing the things I like to do. Not perfect but good. Theres also a good balance of free activities vs. activities that cost money, and an even divide between social and alone time. But its clear that most of the things I like to do are spontaneous, not work-related, mental, and most of all slow. The only activity on my list thats truly adrenaline-inducing is riding my motorcycle. Who Do You Want to Be? This exercise is based on a conversation I had with my friend Tyler Tervooren. On a blank piece of paper, make a list of qualities and habits youd like to develop. Do you want to ride your bicycle every morning? Do you want to be more patient with your children? Do you want to be more helpful to your co-workers? Do you want to read the Bible every day? Do you want to drink less alcohol? It doesnt matter what order you write these in. Take as long as you need to make your list. When youve finished, reframe each item using the following format: I am the kind of man who [blank] where [blank] is the habit or quality youre trying to develop. (And obviously, if youre a woman please reframe each of these as I am the sort of woman who [blank].) For example, if you wrote down that youd like to get in the habit of waking 10,000 steps every day, you might reframe that as: I am the kind of woman who walks 10,000 steps every day. Or, better: I am the kind of woman who walks everywhere she can. If one of your aims is to talk less about yourself and pay more attention to others, you might write: I am the kind of man who listens first and talks second. Im genuinely interested in what others have to say. Now copy each of these sentences onto an index card one for each habit. Place these index cards by your bedside. Every morning when you wake up, train yourself to look at these cards first thing. Read through all of them to remind yourself of the habits and qualities youd like to develop. Finally, choose one to make your focus for that day. Keep it in mind as you go about your normal routine, and do your best to live up to the affirmation. Tyler says this habit helped him make real and lasting changes to his life. He built new habits to replace some of the tendencies that had been giving him trouble.

Who You Might Have Been Imagine you grew up with all of the resources financial, emotional, educational you could have possibly wanted or needed. Your interests were encouraged and fostered. You had help and encouragement in all that you did. You werent limited by time or money or location. In a perfect world, what do you think you would be doing now? What would you already have done? What kind of person would you be? Think big. Be as extravagant and far-fetched as youd like. Whats the one big dream you would have pursued if everything had gone your way? If you really would have wanted to become President, then say youd be President. If you would have become a movie star, say youd be a movie star. Dont hold back. Let your imagination fly free in whatever direction it desires. Dont pull any punches. Answer truthfully. Describe what this ideal life might look like. [This exercise also comes from Wishcraft.] The Ideal Schedule In David James Duncans The River Why, Gus, the main character, decides at a young age that in an ideal world he would fish 14-1/2 hours per day. Hes still in high school when he formulates the following plan: The Ideal 24-Hour Schedule sleep: 6 hoursfood consumption: 30 min. (between casts or while plunking, if possible)school: 0 hours!bath, stool, etc.: 15 min. (unavoidable)housework and miscellaneous chores: 30 min. (yards unnecessary; dust not unhealthy; utilitarian neatness easily accomplished)nonangling conversation: 0 hrs.transportation: 45 min. (live on good fishing river)gear maintenance/fly-tying/rod-building/log-keeping, etc.: 1 hr. 30 min.fishing time: 14-1/2 hrs. per day! Then, in true money boss fashion, Gus brainstorms ways he can pursue his purpose: Ways to Actualize Ideal Schedule finish school; no college!move alone to year-round stream (preferably coastal)avoid friendships, anglers not excepted (wastes time with gabbing)experiment with caffeine, nicotine, to eliminate excess sleepdo all driving, shopping, gear preparation, research, etc. after dark, saving daylight for fishing only Result (allowing for unforeseeable interruptions): 4,000 actual fishing hrs. per year!!! I love it. (And I intend to use this example in future talks, so be prepared.) Gus knows his purpose and by brainstorming his ideal schedule, hes able to figure out ways to put this dream into action. In Wishcraft, Barbara Sher suggests a similar exercise. Heres how it works. Grab paper and pen. Seclude yourself somewhere quiet. Close your eyes. Imagine your ideal day. Imagine a day that would be perfect if it represented your usual days not a vacation day. Just a regular, average day if your schedule were ideal. Spend a few minutes visualizing what such a day would look and feel like. Once your ideal schedule begins to become clear, write down what its like in the present tense and in detail from getting up in the morning to going to sleep at night. I might say, for instance: I wake up at 5:30 already in my gym clothes. I grab a piece of fruit, hop on my bike, and ride to the gym. I do an hour of Crossfit. I ride home, grab the dog, and take her for a walk. When we get back to the house at around 8:30, I spend four hours writing about money. And so on. As you write about your ideal day, think about the following: Whats the first thing you do when you wake up? What do you have for breakfast? Do you make it yourself or does somebody bring it to you? Do you take a long, hot bath? Or do you take a cold, bracing shower? What clothes do you wear? How do you spend your morning? How do you spend your afternoon? How do you spend your evenning? At each time of the day, are you indoors or outdoors? Quiet or active? With people or alone? As you envision your ideal schedule, focus on what, where, and who. What are you doing? What kind of work? What kind of play? Dont limit yourself. If youd like to sing or sail but dont know how, in this fantasy you do know how.Where are you? What kind of place, space, and situation? Are you on a farm in rural England? In a New York office building? On a sailboat in the South Pacific? In a fully-equipped workshop? Again, youre not on vacation. Youre imagining a normal day but an ideal day. Where are you?Who are you with? Who do you work with? Who do you live with? Who do you talk with? Who do you sleep with? Maybe its the same people you work and sleep with already. Maybe its somebody else. Let your imagination go. Dont put down only what you think is possible put down the kind of day youd like to live if you had absolute freedom, unlimited means, and all the powers and skills youve ever wished for. Note: Before (or after) you complete the ideal day exercise, you might find it useful to figure out how you actually spend your time right now. For that, I suggest performing a week-long time inventory. On the advice of Paula Pant, I tracked my time last summer and it was very enlightening. It helped me see where I was frittering away my minutes and hours. For more info and instructions on doing a time inventory, visit Laura Vanderkams website where you can grab free downloadable PDF forms and spreadsheets to help track your time in fifteen-minute increments. What Color Are You? This exercise from Wishcraft is for the more right-brained artistic folks. You analytic engineer types might not like it. (On the other hand, it might be good for you to actually complete it!) Heres how it works. Choose a color that represents you. It might be your favorite color or it might not. It ought to be a color that, at this moment, feels like you. The best way to do this is to have an array of colors in front of you. If you have a box of crayons, go get it. If not, heres a page with a bunch of colors. Youre now going to role-play that color. You are going to pretend you are that color. Youre going to think like that color, speak like that color, act like that color. Take a sheet of paper. Write: I am red or I am orange or I am carnation blue. Do not say I like blue because or I think blue is. For the rest of this exercise, you are that color. Now, in a few sentences to a few paragraphs, describe what qualities you have as that color not as yourself. For instance: I am dark blue. Im quiet and deep like the ocean. Or: I am yellow. Im bright and cheerful, intelligent and warm. There are no right answers to this exercise. If youre black, be black! I think Suzanne Vegas Small Blue Thing is a great example of what you might do with this activity. [embedded content] What color am I? Im orange, of course. The 14-Word Description This exercise comes from my friend Amy Jo. Several years ago, she did a photo project in which she took portraits of people she knew. Before each session, she asked the subject: What are the fourteen words that best describe you? For our purposes, I want you to brainstorm as many words as possible to describe who you are. You should come up with a minimum of fourteen, but its better to brainstorm more. Dont ask others to describe you. Your aim here is to describe yourself. How do you see yourself? If you come up with more than fourteen words to describe yourself, narrow the list to only the fourteen that fit you best. Lastly, for each word write a short sentence that describes why you chose it. For instance, if one of your words was athletic, your descriptive sentence might be, I enjoy playing sports and being outdoors. Here are the fourteen words I chose to describe myself six years ago. (Theyre all still accurate.) Adventurous I love to try new things.Creative I love to make new things.Curious I love to learn new things.Evolving Im a different man today than I was yesterday.Independent I make and act on my own decisions.Intelligent I am smart.Playful I like to joke and jest.Positive I look on the bright side.Resourceful I search for ways to get things done.Sociable I enjoy the company of others.Tenacious I pursue my goals with vigor.Unguarded I share myself freely, and I accept the word of others.Versatile I am good at many things.Zealous Im passionate about my friends and hobbies. Heres one of the portraits from our 14-words photo shoot. I look so serious!

When I gave Amy Jo my list, she made an interesting observation. When adults do this exercise, their words are always positive, she told me. But when kids do it, they describe themselves using both positive and negative words. Its as if theyre more aware of their shortcomings or at least more willing to admit them. Three Questions about Life Planning Last of all, heres the exercise I use most often. The father of the life-planning movement, George Kinder, is a certified financial planner and the author of The Seven Stages of Money Maturity. To identify and clarify your direction in life, Kinder suggests thinking about three hypothetical situations: Imagine that you have enough money to take care of your needs, now and in the future. How would you live your life? Would you change anything? What would you do with the money?Now imagine that you visit the doctor and she tells you that you have 5-10 years left to live. She says that you wont feel sick, but youll have no notice of the moment of your death. What would you do in the time you have left? Would you change your life? How?Finally, imagine your doctor shocks you with the news that you only have 24 hours left to live. If you only had a day remaining, what dreams would you leave unfulfilled? What would you wish you had finished? What would you wish you had done or been? What would you have missed? These questions which are based on the work of time-management guru Alan Lakein are powerful tools for figuring out what you want out of life. If you take the time to really ponder them and answer them honestly, they can help you clarify your personal values and set meaningful goals. Over the past five years, Ive shared this exercise with hundreds of people. Many who took it seriously have written to tell me it changed their lives. It changed my life too. Maybe itll change yours. Recommended Reading In this article, Ive done my best to credit sources. A couple of these exercises are my own the hundred-word exercise, for instance but most are not. Most are borrowed from books. But there are plenty of excellent books out there that can help you figure out what you want out of life even if they dont ask readers to fill out forms our meditate on whats important. Victor Frankls classic Mans Search for Meaning, for example, is a work that almost everyone refers to. Its a ground-breaking short book about how to find purpose even under the worst circumstances. But it doesnt contain any reader homework. Here then are a few of my favorite purpose-related books. You might like them too: To my mind, however, the best book on this subject is relatively new: Angela Duckworths Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. This was my favorite book of 2016. If I could make it required reading, I would. Its that good. Ive listend to the audio version nearly a dozen times (including yesterday during my 21-hour trip home from Florida). Grit is dense with information and ideas. Duckworth makes a convincing argument that passion and perseverance or, in Money Boss lingo, purpose and patience are the best predictors of success. If you can hone in on a single top-level purpose then doggedly pursue it, your life will be filled with meaning and happiness. Great stuff. I hope to publish a review of the book sometime soon. As I said at the start, your purpose is your compass. Its your mission. Its what gives your life direction and meaning. To support your purpose, however, youve got to set up a personal action plan built around a hierarchy of goals. Next week, Ill share some thoughts (and exercises) on how to set goals and structure life to pursue your purpose. How do you put your personal misson statement to use? Well talk about that in just a few days. In the meantime: Tell me about your purpose. What is it? Do you have a personal mission statement? Which of these exercises do you find effective? Are there others that are better? Shares 298 https://www.getrichslowly.org/finding-purpose/

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