Waste Management

Everything you need to accomplish even your wildest of dreams is at your disposal.  Unfortunately, much of it ends up wasted and unused.  The more I become aware of this in my own life the more eager I am to take action.  The two resources at the top of my list in the waste management department are time and money.  A good example of this is my last TV purchase.  I went big but not too big.  The TV was on sale.  Sounds pretty good, right?  What's missing from the equation is the true cost of the TV.  This hidden cost is the amount of hours I spend each week in front of it.  This is the opportunity cost.  When I'm watching TV I'm not doing other things that could enhance the quality of my life. 

I'm working on going deeper with my relationships.  This is not easy.  I'm discovering that the time I spend in large groups really doesn't give me the opportunity to know others.  The time I spend in light-hearted conversation could be used more wisely using my time one-on-one with the people I care about.

The time you invest cleaning up your waste will create more time to do the things you want to do with your life.  The money you save by cutting out frivolous spending will give you more resources to pay for the important priorities in your life.  Make waste management a priority in your life.  Have a great day.

Challenge Your Ultimate Competition

A wise man once asked me, "Would you rather be the biggest fish in a pond filled with smaller fish or a small fish in a pond filled with much larger fish?"  Think about your answer.  Your personal growth is at stake.  I get super excited when I'm around the big fish.  They have something to teach me that can help me be a better version of myself.  Do you ever wonder who your ultimate competition is?  Read on.

In my opinion, if you're seeking to be the absolute best version of yourself that you can be, there is one big fish in the pond who can help you reach your goals.  Strive to beat this warrior and you will find yourself at the top of food chain.  That ultimate competition I'm referring to is you.  Yes, you.  All you need to do is be better today than the yesterday you.  Look at everything the yesterday you did and make an assessment. What could have been done better?  Be honest.  If you can't find any areas of improvement, you are going to stall.  You may even slip due to your own complacency.  Decide you are going to compete every day with the 'yesterday you' and you will meet your match.  Have a great day. 

Why the Baby Steps Matter

Today's story is dedicated to those who feel like it's tough to get ahead.  I know exactly how this feels.  No matter now hard you strive, you're barely moving.  Sometimes, you feel like you're going backwards when your plans fall apart.  I'm a big believer in baby steps.  Baby steps keep you focused on the goal no matter how far away that finish line may be.  The baby steps keep you in the game when you feel like quitting.

I'm giving myself a big reward for accomplishing all my major goals by the end of this year.  These 2024 goals are stacked high.  Some of them have been elusive due to circumstances beyond my control.  That's okay.  My baby steps are working even though progress is slower than I would prefer.  If you've been following my stories for a while, you may recall the 'Lucy project.'  Lucy is my reward for a lifetime of baby steps.  She is a second home on wheels.  Right now she is only a concept in my head.  I will share more once my 2024 checklist is complete.  The first time my wife and I adopt Lucy she will be bare bones.  I don't have the skill set yet to transform her but I will use the 'baby step method' to bring her to life in 2025.  Have a great day.

Pickleball Iowa County Update

Thanks to Nichole, who runs the Williamsburg Rec Center where we are hoping to build four outdoor pickleball courts, our group made a giant leap forward last night at City Hall.  The newly formed Pickleball Iowa County group, led by Jodi and Mindi, showed up in force to support Nichole during her presentation.  When the original location at the Rec Center was ruled out due to problems with the land, Nichole came up with an idea that would require sacrificing parking spaces in order to create the perfect location with ample parking, trees for shade, and a public restroom next to the proposed pickleball courts.

Jodi and Mindi updated City Hall about the progress the group has made since our last meeting.  A local donor chipped in enough money to cover the cost of setting up a 501c3 company which will be tasked with raising funds to build the courts.  Another volunteer is building a website to keep members up to date on our journey and help with fundraising which will commence once the engineering report shows the property is feasible for construction.  The group is waiting for a quote regarding the engineering report, a necessity any time there is construction on city-owned property.

Mindi has been busy in the nearby town of Marengo building interest in her community which now boasts 50 active pickleball players.  She set up lines on one of the tennis courts for the Iowa county's first outdoor experience and it's being well-received by the locals, many who are now part of Pickleball Iowa County which now has the support of 176 members.

Stay tuned as the Pickleball Iowa County story unfolds.  There is much work to be done.  Thankfully, our community is blessed with volunteers who are seeking to bring outdoor pickleball to our community soon.  Have a great day.

The Yes/No Relationship

 If you're a people pleaser, you may often-times find yourself saying yes to too many requests that actually cause harm when you're over-extended.  This is a hard lesson to learn.  I'm still learning how to say no so that I have enough time in my life to say yes to the things that really matter.

The yes/no relationship is easy to understand but difficult to implement.  My recent success saying no has opened up some doors that have been locked for eons.  The best way I can explain this idea has to do with space.  You may look at a room and say to yourself, "There's no room here for anything else."  Suppose you decide to eliminate something from that room.  One thing eliminated means there's now room for one thing added.  

Saying no to requests that are low on your priority list means creating more time for things you can say yes to.  This is not something you do once in a while if you really want to make an impact on your life.  This is something to be practiced daily in every area of your life.  Make sure you don't judge what is good and what is bad on the things you say no to.  Some things may actually be very good.  Sometimes these good things need to be on your no list because once they are eliminated you can replace them with even better solutions.   Give the yes/no relationship your daily attention and you will enhance the quality of your life.  Have a great day.

Dump Day Tomorrow

This story is part of my continuing saga in the "things I'm letting go of" category.  Tomorrow is dump day for our household.  Today is "loading up the big things I'm letting go of."  These things are so heavy that they require two or more people to move them.  Perhaps that's a reason these "things" have been around so much longer than their useful life.   Or maybe I was just too lazy to get rid of them.  It could also be that I didn't ask for help to move these things out of my life.

Releasing things is no easy task.  I'm no longer interested in easy.  I want to simplify my life.  This takes effort.  I could spend the rest of this year letting go of things and still not get this part of my life right.  So be it.  I'm going to keep pursuing this until this becomes a lifelong habit.  How about you?  What do you need to let go of?  Do you need to designate a  "dump day"?  Have a great day.

Add One Gold Nugget a Day

 I spent an entire day yesterday searching for gold nuggets.  It happened to be a day off from my day job so I had more time to do this than on work days.  It was a sort of time management experiment.  All I can say is the experiment was a great success.  It had more to do with my thought process than anything else.  I decided to place a high value on every 15 minute segment of my day.  If I was productive during the 15 minute segment, I pretended to give myself a gold nugget.  Unproductive time meant no gold nuggets.  The way I measured productivity was in relation to my priorities for the day.  I ended up with a pot of gold nuggets.

Let's say you have three priorities to accomplish today.  Make an estimate of how much time it takes for each priority.  If one priority takes two hours, divide this into 8 segments of 15 minutes each.  That means it takes 8 gold nuggets of time to finish the task.  Hopefully, you have enough 15 minute segments in your day to finish all three priorities.  

The hard part about the gold nuggets is you will find distractions get in the way.  Maybe you end your day without accomplishing any priority.  Consider a day like this as a learning day.  Surely, you can find at least one gold nugget on any day no matter how busy you are.  What if you can set a goal to increase your gold nuggets by one every day for the rest of your life and you become a master of getting your priorities done?  What would your life look like?  Keep in mind you can never go back in time to recover lost nuggets.  You also can't steal gold nuggets from your future days.  Today is your day to work on your gold nuggets.  Focus.  Have a great day.