Category: Planning

2010 in Review

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Before the year began, I sat down and created a plan for what I wanted it to look like. You can see that plan here. Looking back, I met some of the goals, while others fell to the side.

Life List goals met

First of all, I managed to cross a few items off of my Life List.

  • My wife and I went and saw the MoonBow.
  • Over the summer, I was able to purchase a motorcycle. My wife, Ms. Peeps, and I have been having a great time thus far and are already planning some big trips together.

Things that went as planned

  • I created a digital product,
  • sold some portraits,
  • completed all of my travel goals,
  • spent time with my wife,
  • read some great books,
  • finished some sketches,
  • and created emergency accounts.
  • Plus, by this time next year I will have earned my Bachelor’s degree!

Things that didn’t

  • I didn’t build a business, though I took some steps in the right direction.
  • I didn’t keep in touch with friends and family as much as I would have liked.
  • Not all of the books on my reading list were read.
  • I didn’t quite finish filling in two whole sketchbooks, much less try to get my own show.
  • After much contemplation I came to the realization that grad school just isn’t something that I want to do right now, which means that I didn’t even attempt taking the GRE.
  • Running fell by the wayside, and the pushups, situps, and squats challenges were forgotten.
  • Sodas have begun to creep back into my life, though I drink far fewer than I used to.

Good things that weren’t planned

  • I got to meet Chris Guillebeau, a favorite author and blogger. Never before did I understand people who would travel so far just to meet an author, but now I do!
  • Even though I now know I don’t want to go to graduate school right after finishing undergrad, I do have an idea of what the next step will be for me.
  • I have written and begun to focus on my short list.
  • New friends have been made.

It might not have been exactly the year I planned for, but it was still amazing. 2011? Will be even better!

How Much Does Your Dream Trip Cost?

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Do you know what it would take to complete your dream trip? Have you really planned out how you would go about it, much time you would need, and how much money it would cost?

If you haven’t, you might be surprised at how little it would really take.

My Dream Trip

I want to visit the lower 48 states, plus D.C., on the motorcycle.
(note: This is only one of my trip goals, but it’s a good place for me to start.)

This always seemed like a really big goal… until I decided to start actually researching it. I figured that I would first look at the most complicated way, so that every following discovery would be an improvement. And so, I calculated the distance from Lexington, KY, to every state’s capital. Fourty-nine individual trips.

Total mileage: 88,390
Assuming I get 40 miles per gallon, that’s 2,209.75 gallons that I’d need to buy. At $3 a gallon, my trips would cost $6,629.25! That doesn’t include any lodging, food, new tires, or anything else.

After doing a bit more research on others who have already done such a trip, I stumbled across this guy who managed to visit all of the lower 48 states in just 10 days. (Now that’s darn impressive!)

His mileage? Roughly 8,000.
Same numbers as above (40 mpg, $3 a gallon) and my trip now costs about $600. Whoah! That’s less than 1/10 of the original numbers. Even though this figure still doesn’t include food, lodging, or anything else, it is far less intimidating. Now this goal seems far more realistic and achievable.

Reaching an achievable goal

Now that I know this goal is actually within my reach, I’m far more inspired to figure out how to make it work. I don’t have to visit all of the states in a single trip. Breaking it up into different legs might raise the overall cost a bit, but each section would require less money saved ahead of time. Shorter trips would also take less time to plan and be easier to fit into a busy schedule.

With our practice backpacking, my wife and I could both comfortably camp during the trip, enabling us to keep our costs down for lodging. Even using a free stove we could make some delicious meals while on the road, so our food expenses wouldn’t be any greater than if we stayed at home.

Break down excuses

I’ve shared what I think about excuses before. In short, I’m against them. They only serve as artificial limits. My excuses for the motorcycle tour caused me to put off even researching it for some time. Once I did, however, I realized how silly most of them were. If you really want that adventure, you can find a way to overcome any excuse that you put in front of yourself. Maybe you have to embrace minimalism in order to save some money (or earn some from selling some unused possessions). Perhaps the tv needs to go so you can find the time.

My next steps

My wife and I have decided to spend our spring break next semester on a motorcycle trip. We don’t have it planned out yet, but we know that we’re going. We’ll cruise through a few states over the week, enjoying the scenery and company. One leg of the journey will be completed.

What about you?

What about your dream trip? Don’t you owe it to yourself to find your one place and start making plans to get there? Don’t let any excuses get in your way! I’d love to hear about your dream trip.

Doing Is Learning

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The unexamined life is not worth living.
~Socrates

How often do you try new things? I can be pretty bad about falling into habits and routines, so I do my best to keep testing these systems out. I try new things, make mistakes, and learn as I go.

Experiments

You’ve seen some of the things I try out. The Minimalist Experiment and the 100 Thing Challenge. I ride a motorcycle as my main transportation.

See what works

My experiments aren’t always on such a grand scale. Sometimes they’re simple tests to compare different things. I’ve been working on my glove situation now that the weather’s turned cold.

What I have:

  • leather gloves, unlined
  • leather gloves, cotton lining
  • cotton liner
  • neoprene gloves

I have been wearing the neoprene gloves, but while they keep my hands warm, they tend to have problems drying out once they get damp. Thus my fingers get cold. Not good. So I switched to the leather gloves with the cotton liner inserted, and they’re not quite as warm, but don’t seem to have the drying problems (more-so because I have two liners and can switch them out). The next step is to switch out the leather gloves for the lined ones.

If none of these work, I’ll keep on testing till I find something that does. Even then I’ll keep trying things as I find new options, because there might be a still better option.

the Unexamined Life

I’m not saying that you have to test everything out. But I’m going to, because I’m quite curious, no matter what happened to the cat. I’ve heard many times from entrepreneurs that they learned more in 2 months of running their business than they did in 2 years earning their MBA. Learning happens at a much faster pace when you’re actively testing, instead of passively reading. I can read and research to discover which glove combo works best, but after about 10 minutes, on the bike I’ll have all of the definitive proof that I need.

Are you improving your life, or just going through the motions?

Do You Want to Try the 100 Thing Challenge?

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I recently completed a personal 100 Thing Challenge. I know that some of you wish that your life had less clutter in it. Maybe I can help.

Having completed the “Sticky-Note Love” ebook, I would love to work on a 100 Thing Challenge Guide. I can take my experience, interview others who have gone through similar processes, and create a comprehensive guide about how to undertake your own challenge.

Not only would it include a step-by-step process, but I would also include worksheets to help you figure out what you need and videos filled with useful tips.

My Short List

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One of the most useful ideas that I gleaned while reading The Power of Less by Leo Babauta (which I reviewed here), was the Short List.

What’s a Short List?

Leo talks about the short list here. Basically, it’s a list of the 3-5 most important things in your life. Things that you want to spend time with, time on, learning, or improving. Once you’ve defined them, you can then proceed to build your life around the items on this list, for now. Your list can change later if you want it to (it’s your list, after all.)

My Short List

Like most everyone, I have a long list of things that I want to accomplish in my life: things to try, to do, to see, etc. I took a few days to write down all of my interests and goals, then sat down and looked for patterns. Many things come up multiple times, in different forms. Or the same interest seems to repeat itself over time. These things are what made it to my current short list. And without further ado…

In no specific order, here is my short list:

  • marriage
  • minimalism
  • money (business)
  • motorcycle
  • making things (art)

(Well, I say no specific order, but I mean after marriage. Marriage is first, the rest are listed randomly.)

After coming up with this list, I realized that these items are reflected in my life list, which just illustrates what I mentioned above. These are the interests that repeatedly appear. Marriage falls under family; money fits in both the financial and professional categories; motorcycle fits both under travel and hobbies; making things fit under hobbies, professional, and education.

Minimalism is what will enable me to focus on these other interests, which I wrote about here.

Now what?

So now that my short list is made, what is the next step? Now it’s time to focus. I feel that I’ve been fairly successful in focusing on these five areas of my life for the past few months. However, I want to do so in a more conscious way. This means dropping other interests, at least for the time being. If they don’t pertain to an item on my short list, then it’ll have to wait until a later date. It also means not accepting new demands on my time.

Focusing

I’ve already been focusing on minimalism in my life, which became apparent to me as I worked through the Minimalist Experiment and the 100 Thing Challenge. I will continue to explore this lifestyle in order to better focus on the other items on my short list.

As I’m earning my art degree, a great deal of my time is already spent on making things. Even though I have issues with school, I have another year until I will graduate. At that time, I will shift how I am focusing on making things.

I haven’t decided if I want to tie money/business together with making things or not. In some ways I think that would be ideal, and sometimes I think that they need to be separate. At this moment, the two definitely don’t coincide, though I will be experimenting to see if they work better together.

As a year-round motorcycle rider, I also already have a motorcycle focus. However, I want to expand that focus to include more traveling.

Marriage is my main focus, as it is one of the cores around which my life is built. This focus was one of my motivators to try minimalism. I had too many distractions that kept me from spending time with my wife. As I removed them, I found that our relationship improved, which only made me want to continue.

What about you?

Now you’ve seen my short list. Do you have one? I would love to see it. Post it in the comments, or link to it on your blog. What’s important to you?

Power of Less – Book Review

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I’ve already mentioned Leo and The Power of Less in my post about books that can change your life. I was reading this book while writing that post and felt that it deserves a longer review now that I have finished it and had time to reflect on it.

Short review

There’s so much information in this book about how to streamline your life, including both theory and actionable items. Use it like a workbook, mark pages, scribble in the margins, and make it yours. It can change your life for the better. Get your copy.

Long review

There’s so much goodness in the book that I’m not sure where to start. I know that I read through it in only a couple days, marking pages as I went (there are at least 30 pages marked). If it wasn’t a library book I would have marked more pages and been scribbling notes in the margin as I went along. As it was, I had to renew it so that I could keep working. I’m not done with it yet, because my life is still more complicated than it needs to be. As I progress, I will refer back to the information in this book to help guide me to the next step. (It’s well worth purchasing a copy to keep.)

Power of Less is divided into two sections: The Principles and In Practice.

The Principles

Leo begins by giving the concept of the entire book (and his success) in two simple steps:

  1. Identify the essential.
  2. Eliminate the rest.

These two steps are all that you need to know to create a simpler lifestyle for yourself. However, Leo continues on to tell his personal story of how he changed his life using these steps and explains the six principles that enabled him to do so.

  1. Set limitations.
  2. Choose the essential.
  3. Simplify.
  4. Focus.
  5. Create habits.
  6. Start small.

Each of these principles are expanded up on in their individual chapters. Not only does Leo give the reasons why each is important, but he outlines ways to implement these principles in your life.

In Practice

The great thing about the book, for me, is that Leo does such a great job of not only mentioning changes that we can make in our lives, but gives practical tips for doing so. Fortunately for all of us, these tips aren’t just aimed at productivity, but span work, life, health, and our daily lives.

  • Overwhelmed by email? Check out chapter 10.
  • Need to figure out how to be more productive each day? See what chapter 9 has to say.
  • Feeling unmotivated? Chapter 18 will help you find the kick in the pants you need.
  • Having a hard time fitting regular exercise into your schedule? Chapter 17 tells you how.

Leo does a great job of providing step-by-step instructions in each chapter that are simple enough anyone can follow them while also being broad enough that they will work for anyone’s circumstances. It doesn’t matter if you can’t see your desk or only have an extra 10 items on it; chapter 15 will help you clear your workspace in order to make it more comfortable to work at.

Simplify your life to improve it

Fight against multi-tasking and the speed at which life is coming at us. The future only holds more things that will demand our attention. Take control of your life now, so that you can live the life that you have dreamed of. Give the Power of Less a try.

Life List Roundup

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A lot of the reason that I’m undertaking the 100 Thing Challenge is because a minimalist lifestyle will help me to complete items on my Life List.

There are a number of names for a life list: bucket list, Things to do before I die, 43things, etc. No matter what you call it, the basic idea is the same. It’s a list of things that you want to do before a certain time-frame (generally your death, but some people are more specific.)

I always find it interesting to look at other peoples’ lists. Some have items that I want to add to my own list, some have things that I would never have any interest in trying. No matter what, it always provides an interesting insight into the author’s personality.

And so, I thought that I would provide a round-up of some of the life lists that I’ve read recently.

If you don’t already have a list of your own, now’s a good time to sit down and write a list of your own. The directions are simple, so don’t delay. With all of the inspiration above, you might be over-whelmed. Here are some popular life list items and 525 ideas to get you started.

Sticky-Note Love now available!

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One of my goals has been to write an ebook. I’ve mentioned this before. Even though I’ve had a number of ideas, and written a number of outlines, it has taken me this long to finally finished one, and here it is!

Sticky-Note Love

What it’s about

It’s about keeping the romance burning in your relationship. It gives you a simple way to create some daily romantic adventure. The simple system that I describe is not only easy to follow, but can greatly improve your relationship. I know because I’ve been using this exact system for over 2 years with my wife.

The Guarantee

The guarantee is simple. If you don’t love Sticky-Note Love, then you get your money back. Pure and simple.

I’ve used the Sticky-Note System in my own life. I know that it works, and that it can have profound effects on your relationship. Try it out for 30 days, if it doesn’t strengthen your relationship, let me know and I’ll send the money your way.

Half Price!

If that guarantee isn’t enough, then you can get Sticky-Note Love for half price until October 29th. At that time I will be taking it off the market for two weeks to turn it into a more complete resource; adding videos, worksheets, and more! Then it will be available again, at the full price. If you purchase it now, you will receive updated version at no extra charge.

Want to know more? Check it out.

Help Me Choose A New Theme

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I’ve been working on a new theme (look) for the website. I started with the mnmlist theme by Leo Babauta. I added search, comments, and moved the sidebar to the right. It’s a clean and minimalist theme that focuses on the content without distractions. My goal is for it to load fast so that you can get to the content (which is the important stuff) as quickly and easily as possible.

A Few Thoughts

These two themes are quite different. As I’ve been thinking about my blogging, I’ve come to realize that my goals have shifted slightly. With more activities and requirements being thrust upon my life, I have begun to focus more on simplicity, on minimalism. In order to reflect that, I thought that a simpler look might be a good thing to work toward.

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Click on picture to see larger version.