Matthew Lang

It turns out, 31-year-old me who’s played a handful of sports in adulthood is substantially more coordinated than 17-year-old me who’d played none and was suddenly five inches taller than before.

— Clear Your Mental Cache by Thoughtbot

Is it time you re-visited those things that you think you know about yourself?

If you’re serious about growing your business, I want to challenge you to aim high. Don’t just think what you need to do to grow your business by 20% — or even double your business. As you work on your goals for next year, my challenge to you is to consider thinking big. Can you imagine growing your business by 10X?

— Getting your goals ready for the next year – go for 10x by Curtis McHale

I've been following Curtis McHale's career closely and I would love to see him making this goal. He's already got me thinking about my convservative goal to increase my income by 25% for next year.

Curtis McHale talks about his change from solo freelancer to business owner and why it's necessary.

As their leader, it’s now your job to make sure your team members do their jobs well. Coders stay up-to-date on code and technology. Designers continue to hone their skills. And you’re responsible for knowing enough about your entire organization that you can have good conversations with your clients without sounding like an idiot. This is how you earn trust and credibility.

— Evolving into a Business Owner by Curtis McHale

I'm still comfortable with my solo freelance career, but I do know that in the future that next natural step is to lead.

This one is definitely going on the playlist.

That list of things is a wish list, a someday-maybe list, but it is not a task list until you commit a time for those things getting done. Those are things you hope to do — not things you are going to do. Know how I know you are not “going” to do them? Going is an action verb. It means you are in the act of committing a forward movement. Anything staying motionless on a list is not forward movement. Putting a time on something to be done in the future, then moving towards that time, means going to do something. And you are not going to do any of those things unless you do.

— A Time for Things by Patrick Rhone

... by Curtis McHale.

... from Kurt over at Cultural Offering.

... and how to beat it.

Curtis McHale knows the benefits of working smarter, not harder.

You should too.

Some suggestions for lists to keep. I actually have some of these as sub-lists within my master list.

... with our guide, Kurt Harden.

... from Patrick Rhone.

Another one for the playlist.

... for the masses. No sense in starting a business unless it's viable. This is definitely a good place to start.

... have been proven to work. So why not use them?

Thanks Curtis.

... when you don't have a shed. Matt Gemmell offers some great advice on getting it done.

... to do all these wonderful things.

I'm going to read this at the start of every week.

... with our pilot through the ocean of life, Kurt Harden.

I grabbed my first rectangle very shortly after waking. I will likely stare into several throughout my day. For work and for pleasure and as a way to simply pass the time. Heck, my regular gas station has them built into the pumps now. My guess is that when one is distracted by the local weather or the two-for-one beef jerky special they tend to buy more gas.

— Glowing Rectangles by Patrick Rhone

Patrick Rhone is challenging himself to reduce his time spent on these wonderful glowing rectangles.

Maybe you should too?

... are you going to take at the fence?

I had an idea for an application, so I stuck it into Journalong for later. Two seconds after saving it, I had another idea for an application. Put that in too.

I find this happens quite a lot. Ideas seem to breed more ideas in a short period of time and usually the ideas have something in common. In this case the applications I thought about building were very similar but for different audiences.

Whether I will do anything with them is another matter. The next step will be to flesh them out a bit more with a mind map and see if there is potential in the idea and ask myself some questions.

• Do I want to build this thing?
• Will I benefit from building it?
• Can I monetize this idea? (I ask myself this a lot these days)

If I can answer yes to all these questions, I'll start work on it or schedule it in for later if I'm currently busy. Always having a good side project to work on is a great way to keep on learning.

If I answer no to any of these the idea gets scrapped there and then.

This little workflow has worked well for me in the past. Weeding out the good ideas from the bad ideas means I spend less time on an idea that isn't going to benefit me in some way.

Not everyone is cut out for it. It takes not only a passion for the work but plenty of sacrifice. It means there will be no paid vacations or retirement fund matching or group healthcare plan. It means years of saving and planning and struggling and scrapping. But you will know, in those tough years, if it is for you. Because those struggles will not deter you — they will fuel you. Because, that is all part of the work too.

— A Passion for Work by Patrick Rhone

Use the rule of three. Keep major decisions to three or fewer people. The more people involved the longer it takes to come to a consensus. Small teams coordinate and make decisions, while big ones quibble and form committees.

— Limit major decisions to three or fewer people to avoid wasted time by Lifehacker

I suppose the benefit also with three people is that you will always get a majority vote.

In the end if you can come up with something you can feel good about working on, that's the real winner here.
— Ideas do matter by Chris Forsythe

More time to read, write, code, watch, listen. That's the wish.

Realistically I simply need to acknowledge what's more important at this moment in time.

... with Patrick Rhone.

Wise words from Sergio Delaguera:

There’s only one New Year’s resolution: never stop trying.

Every year millions of us make promises of losing weight, eating healthily and countless other promises. They never last more than a month for most of us. Then we give up.Do something else instead. Never give up.

— There's Only One New Year's Resolution by Sergio Delaguera

Glad to see I am not the only one with this fear. Even great people like Patrick Rhone have the fear.

The last few weeks have seen me attending a number of different interviews and each time it seems my nerves get the better of me. More confidence is definitely needed for any interviews I attend in January.

... with Curtis McHale. I should do this as well if freelancing becomes my preferred alternative to a full-time job for next year.

... with Kurt Harden.

Since I got made redundant last week, I've had an opportunity to look at the path of my career and determine the right direction I want it to take for the future.While there is things I want to do and technology I want to work with, I also have existing skills that can land me a decent permanent job.So on one hand, an insecure future working with new technology and on the other hand, a secure future working with existing technology.What choice to make?

How boring? It's always the same opening line when your speaking to someone you've just met. Instead pick one of these 20 things to talk about or if you're feeling really adventurous. Lie about you're job.

What do I do? I'm a training instructor for a special branch of MI5 that is looking to replace spies with animals.*

That should make things more interesting!

For employees, the fundamental realization is that an employer who asks for more than eight hours a day or 40 hours a week is stealing something vital and precious from you. Every extra hour at work is going to cost you, big time, in some other critical area of your life. How will you make up the lost time?

— Salon Bring Back the 40 Hour Work Week by Salon

I'm a firm believer that all work should be done within a specified 8 hours during the day. No more. I've been in development teams where overtime was only used in extreme circumstances and even then there was no stigma attached to doing it because everyone else is. I'd like to think that if I ever owned a company or ran a team, I would adhere to the rule of limiting work to 40 hours a week, possibly less. However, I've never been in that position so who can say.

It would be nice to re-visit decisions I've made recently, but I need to live with the results.

... to say yes to forking a new career path.

... give them a 2 week shelf life.

... is coming fast and freelancing is on the rise as a result. Interesting.

Defense is prepared. It is what we do with what the world throws back at us.

via Cultural Offering

What's your view from your desk?

Next time you make a goal or come up with a plan, think about this. Make note of your primary source of motivation to complete the goal/plan, and then assume that it is not going to take you through to the end. Supplement with alternative sources of motivation.

— A Shotgun Approach to Motivation by Buster Benson

I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

I wish I hadn't worked so hard.

I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.

I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

I wish that I had let myself be happier.

— Five Regrets of the Dying With Tangents by Buster Benson

Wouldn't it be nice if you could live your life with no regrets? I already have a couple of regrets at the moment on this list, but I'm still young enough to turn these around.

Declare war on passivity.  Hush the inner voice that insists you’re over the hill, past your prime, unworthy of attaining those dreams.  Disbelief is now the enemy, as is the notion of settling.  Get hungry — hyena hungry.  Get fired up.  Find your backbone, and your wings.
Flap ‘em.  It’s the only way you’ll be able to fly.

— Declare War on Passivity by David Kanigan

One of the best mentors I had in business - and one whom I regrettably spent the least amount of time with - gave me three lessons about business life:

• Make some money
• Have some fun
• Leave some tracks

— Leaving Tracks by Lazarus Dodge

I've heard the quote from Steve Jobs mentioned lots of times about putting a dent in the universe, but there's something about the last bullet point in this list, that seems not as grand a task as Steve Jobs advice and therefore more achievable.