Ride Wit Me: What I’m Up To Summer 2010

In Boulder we just woke up to approx. 3″ of snow this morning, freezing temperatures and more snow to come. Even so, summer is on it’s way. It is. I know it.

Summer-Is-On-The-Way!

I typically shoot for 3-months as a sweet-spot for working on important existing projects or beginning some new endeavor at which point I’ll evaluate progress, refine objectives, and continue from there. I like to publicize projects when I’m personally excited, feel comfortable sharing and/or want to solicit other participants. In this case, all three. Here are a few of the major goals and projects I’m spending time on over the next couple of months.

Running and Charity: Miyoko and I are planning to run our first Bolder Boulder 10k this Memorial Day and are using it as a means to raise money for a charitable donation. See: “The Bouldest Mile” post and donate if you’d like to help us out!

Cycling: I’ve had a 2+ year love-hate relationship with my road bike and a desire to actually become a consistent, mile-logging cyclist. Until now I’ve put it off. Well, excuses begone!

I’ve created a 1,000 Mile Challenge on DailyBurn.com that runs from the beginning of         May to the beginning of August (Yes, it’s already underway). DailyBurn is an awesome fitness tracking site that I encourage you to use if you have trouble getting on top of your fitness goals (They even offer an iPhone app that allows you to scan food into your account for nutrition tracking). Both this site and this challenge (not the phone app) are free for anyone who wants to participate.

So, Get To It!

Language Learning: An entirely new endeavor for me – over the next three months I plan to learn Koine (Biblical) Greek. Koine Greek (the first or second language of the Roman Empire) is a dead language as far as speaking goes, so don’t count on it to get you around the Mediterranean shores this summer (Actually, Greece’s current economic woes present some interesting challenges and and opportunities [?] for American travelers, and the question, could modern-Greek soon be extinct as well? I certainly hope not!), however there are many ancient documents which a basic understanding of the ‘common-man’s’ Greek would allow you to read in their original form. Mainly, the Septuagint and the New Testament, but there are others.

[Greek Online Resources:

For New Testament studies - NTGreek.net

Greek Bible - greekbible.com

General (I won't say simple) Hellenistic Greek Grammar Lessons - greek-language.com/grammar

Books in Greek - books. phigita.net/ (Note: Need to be able to translate this page into English. Google Chrome allows this, but not sure about other browsers)]

I’m looking for one or two dedicated partners to do this with me. My goal is to read the Gospel of John (most basic structure of all the NT writings) by the end of this experiment, but obviously you can set your own.

Read either of these two articles on rapid language-learning and get back to me with a comment on this post if you’re interested:

“How to Learn Any Language in 3-Months”

“How to Learn (But Not Master) Any Language in 1-Hour”

ὁ κλέπτης οὐκ ἔρχεται εἰ μὴ ἵνα κλέψῃ καὶ θύσῃ καὶ ἀπολέσῃ: ἐγὼ ἦλθον ἵνα ζωὴν ἔχωσιν καὶπερισσὸν ἔχωσιν.

John 10:10

And what post would be complete without a couple of Summer Reading Picks?

Two knowledge-based/inspirational, and one for pleasure:

The Little Big Things: 163 Ways to Pursue EXCELLENCE by Tom Peters

All entries are short, blog-like, but packed full of application. Easy to pick up for a few minutes and get on to pursuing Excellence.

The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael Gerber

Classic. Written 15 years ago and still worth every word. If you have aspirations to start your own business, or already do, this is a must read.

Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey

An inspiring read in the vein of Walden or things by Kerouc. Makes you want to pack up and head for the Southwest. For practicals, see Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel by Rolf Potts.

Feel free to add what you’d like below. Questions and comments are always appreciated.

‘Ya sas!’

The Bouldest Mile: A 10k Run + $1,000 in Donations and A Few Fun Prizes

A happy student at the Goldstone School of HOPE Worldwide, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

This is my first grassroots promotion experiment. All at once, I have hopes of it being a huge success, and hot flashes from the very real possibility of it being a total failure. With that said, I need your help!

Every year the city of Boulder hosts the wildly exciting, massively successful Bolder Boulder 10k Run (50,000 expected participants, making it the largest timed race in the US). Miyoko and I have lived in Boulder for just over a year, and are constantly on the lookout for ways to plug ourselves into the Boulder Community. This is our ticket.

This will be our first Bolder Boulder and beyond simple completion (which is a lofty goal for each of us in it’s own right), we are turning this race into a chance to do something meaningful and an opportunity to create a cool experience for ourselves and our friends, you all, with a fun little competition to bring it all together!

What We’re Doing

As you may know, we have lead the Boulder Campus Ministry at the University of Colorado, for the 2009-2010 school year, and are strong believers in campus ministry and Christian missions in general. Therefore, we are using this race as a means to generate funds for foreign and domestic missions through our church’s annual special missions contribution (Church Goal: $167,200).

This offering goes towards a few important things: First and foremost, to supporting overseas mission work and foreign missionaries in countries such as Vietnam (underground church), Thailand, Cambodia and Laos (Total Given to Overseas: $104,000). Miyoko and I have had the privilege to visit a few of these churches and to see the work that is going on there. To say the least, it is incredible.

Take for example, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. There, our giving supports a local congregation of Christians who are involved in some truly inspiring work. They work closely with the Sihanouk Hospital, which provides top-quality, professional healthcare to the city’s poorest people, 100% free of charge. This group also works with the Goldstone School of HOPE Worldwide, which provides a free, English speaking education to the local Khmer youth. (Every year a grade level is added and the school expands its membership. I believe they are now in their 9th year of operation, and will soon be graduating their first class of students, having completed a full 12 years of English-spoken education. Many are becoming Christians who will go on to university level education and will become leaders in their communities.)

Always excited to see their faces on camera.

Secondly, our giving goes to support local campus ministry work in the state of Colorado ($63,000). This is what afforded Miyoko and me the chance to spend the past year working with and counseling college students with the gospel of peace, and will give others the chance to do so in the future. We are grateful to be a part of a church that believes in and supports college ministries, and are whole-heartedly behind this cause as well.

On May 23rd, we will give this special missions offering. Our personal goal is to raise $1,000 in cash to donate to these causes. Your generosity will directly support the leadership and oversight needed to take these types of projects to the next level. With your help, we hope to meet our goal through this race.

How You Can Help

If you care at all about Christian missions in general, or even if really only care about good things happening to needy people, on a global scale (i.e. free healthcare and education to impoverished people), then this is your chance to make an impact on those who will never be able to repay you and will never be able to thank you for it (usually the best kinds of people to help). Here’s how this works:

1.) Donate Directly. We do hope and anticipate that a large portion of our goal will come from direct donations. So please, if you have a heart for these types of things, donate right here, right now. All donations are tax deductible, totally secure through PayPal, and will go 100% to these non-profits. Donations must be received through this site by our May 23rd deadline.

2.) Spread the Word. This is where it gets fun. Simultaneously with your donations, we will be running a contest to see who can do the most promotion for our cause and help us completely destroy our goal. Using the power of social networking, this can happen in a few ways:

Become a Fan of bouldlife on Facebook. After you have done that, post a link to this post on your Facebook wall using the @bouldlife tag. Or Follow me on Twitter @ryanpflynn. Once you’ve done that, post a link to this post in your Twitter Feed and use the tag #boulderspecialmissions

The important part is providing a working link to this post (see below), and some means of tracking your promotion efforts.

Here’s where our giving comes in. For every fan gained on the bouldlife fan page or for every follower gained on Twitter, I will instantly donate $2 to my own cause. (Measuring gained fans on Facebook will be easy, but for Twitter, this is why I’m asking that you include the tag: #boulderspecialmissions so that I’m able to easily track this increase).

In order to win this contest, you’ll need to track clicks to your link with some type of link tracking service such as http://bit.ly or http://ping.fm. This will provide you with a unique link and associated data for how many clicks your link has received.

Here are a few links that you can use for posting to your social networking sites and directing people to this post.

Twitter Link: http://www.twitter.com/ryanpflynn

Direct Link to This Post: http://bouldlife.wordpress.com/2010/05/05/the-bouldest-mile

Shortened Link to this post: http://wp.me/pyHGi-dZ

Need something to say? You can post this exact phrase into your Twitter or Facebook feeds – The Bouldest Mile: 10k Run + $1,000 in Donations and A Few Fun Prizes – http://wp.me/pyHGi-dZ

Other services you may want to use to share this post include: Google Buzz, digg, Stumbleupon, del.icio.us, direct e-mails to friends and family, or your own personal blog. Full license to be as creative as you’d like!

3.) Report Results Back Here. Finally, in order to win the contest, you’ll need to report your results back here by leaving a comment on this post. The deadline for comments is Midnight (Mountain Time), on Saturday, May 22nd.

Results can be reported in the form of total click count for your unique link, via Facebook, Twitter, etc., records of e-mails sent to friends, or any other creative form of tracking results that you can think of.

What You’ll Get

As if supporting foreign missions and education in the third world wasn’t incentive enough!

We have some fun prizes for our top three promoters.

First Place Grand Prize Winner: Official Bolder Boulder Hoodie

As a thank you to our first place promoter, we’d like to send you the Official Bolder Boulder Hoodie.

Men’s Raw Edge Hoodie or Women’s Raw Edge Hoodie.

We’ll need to purchase this sometime between our May 23rd cutoff date and the actual race day on May 31st, so once we notify you as the winner, let us know your size and we’ll get your hoodie sent out ASAP.

Approximate Value: $40.00

(2) Runner Up Promoters: Official 2010 Bolder Boulder Shirts

For our two runner up promoters, we’ll hook you up with the Official 2010 Bolder Boulder Long Sleeve Race Shirt, or the ‘Sea Level Is For Sissies’ Long Sleeve Shirt. Both of these shirts are cool no matter what.

Just let me know which one you’d like and what size you think you are, and the shirt is yours.

Approximate Value Each: $20.00

To All of Our Donors: A personalize thank you card from Miyoko and myself.

Summary of Important Details

• Donate directly on this page.
• Our goal is $1,000.
• Spread the word by following @ryanpflynn on Twitter and/or bouldlife on Facebook, and post one of the above links to this page on your social networking feeds using specific tags, etc. For every unique fan or follower added, we will donate $2 to our own cause.
• Report results back here in the form of a comment on this post (Please include your name and any necessary contact info).
• Deadline for donations and reporting results is Midnight (MT) on Saturday, May 22nd.
• Prizes go out to top three promoters. (NOTE: We can only ship to US domestic addresses)
• You reap the enjoyment of doing something kind for someone else.

We sincerely hope that you will choose to participate and help us reach our goal this year, while making a difference in countless lives. It really doesn’t take much, and hopefully the combined efforts of many can amount to great work down the road!

Thanks in advance for your generous support! (Ryan & Miyoko, Boulder, CO, 2010)

Failure and Falling On Your Feet

(Photo Source: hiro008)

“Though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again.” – Proverbs

That you fail is not important. The only thing that counts is how you fail and in what you fail towards.

“If our young men miscarry in their first enterprises, they lose all heart. If the young merchant fails, men say he is ruined. If the finest genius studies at one of our colleges, and is not installed in an office within one year afterwards  in the cities or suburbs of Boston or New York, it seems to his friends and to himself that he is right in being disheartened, and in complaining the rest of his life. A sturdy lad from New Hampshire or Vermont, who in turn tries all the professions, who teams it, farms it, peddles, keeps a school, preaches, edits a newspaper, goes to Congress, buys a township, and so forth, in successive years, and always, like a cat, falls on his feet, is worth a hundred of these city dolls. He walks abreast with his days, and feels no shame in not ‘studying a profession,’ for he does not postpone his life, but lives already. He has not one chance but a hundred chances.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Take a chance today, and if you fall, stick the landing.

Three Practicals to a Simply Ambitious Life

(Photo Source: latigi)

I know, the title of this blog is “bouldlife.” Sometimes, however, a bolder, richer life is achieved only by choosing a quieter, simpler, less cluttered life. That is the focus of this post.

In the past I’ve written posts covering both ambition and simplicity, so it figures there’d come a time to double up and write one on the topic of simple ambition.

A recent scripture that’s lodged itself in my mind is this one from the Apostle Paul:

“Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.” – 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12

It is funny how ambitions change over time. A great shift takes place, and while at one time we may have glossed over such a passage, we can now find ourselves agreeing with, or perhaps desiring, such a lifestyle.

What was once so important, is no more. What I once aspired to, I do no longer.

Simplicity is an elusive ambition to have, and such a scripture may be easier said than done. Here are a three practicals to living a quieter, more fulfilling life, winning the respect of others, and becoming more self-sufficient.

Lead a Quiet Life

As Thoreau stated and exemplified, “Simplify, simplify!”

Simplicity and a quiet life, involve two basic things: Acquiring wisely, and eliminating relentlessly.

Acquire Wisely

One of my favorite books is Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. In it he outlines some keys for cultivating the discipline of simplicity. One that I particularly like is to Buy Things That Are Highly Useful. I’ve had to learn (or am learning) this lesson the hard way. Impulsive, unconscious purchases are some of the worst purchases I’ve ever made, and the ones that I loathe and regret for years to come. After making many mistakes myself, I now try to only purchase things that have what I call a high ‘life-changing potential.’

Fortunately, we live in a day and age where technology does have the ability to significantly impact the quality of our lives, and not just complicate it. Every so often I like to sit down and figure out a few items that would really change everything. Then I will consciously save for them, purchase them, in cash, and feel no guilt or regret in doing so.

A couple examples are a $300 Netbook I purchased a few months back. I wanted a Macbook Pro and would have loved to have one, but the netbook had everything I really needed, and saved me a ton of money. I have been totally satisfied with this purchase and use this computer all the time. It’s 8+ hour battery life makes it a simple take-anywhere option. Highly recommended.

Clothes are another great example and are a chance to be a either a huge snare, or a valuable, life-changing purchase. First of all, only buy clothes that you absolutely  love. If you purchase something that you sort of like and hope that it will grow on you, chances are that you won’t like it near as much once you get it home, but, unless you’re my mom, you’ll lack the self-control to return it and will keep it anyways, then you’ll want to justify your purchase, so you’ll wear it, but you will  feel insecure whenever you do because you didn’t like it that much to begin with. Whatever you do, don’t violate this rule. Only buy clothes you absolutely love and will love wearing. Also, look for clothes that are high quality (meaning they will last a long time and will have an appearance of quality), and are highly versatile (giving you the option to wear them in many different combinations).

Books also have this life-changing ability and can be a wise acquisition.

The first key to a quieter life is to acquire wisely.

Eliminate Relentlessly

Foster goes on to say, “Masses of things that are not needed complicate life… Most of could get rid of half our possessions without any serious sacrifice.”

First, as the converse to what was said above, it is sometimes important to enjoy things without owning them. This is admittedly, very difficult at times, mainly because of the status attached to ownership, but it is important to note that there are many things can be just as easily enjoyed (or enjoyed more) by never owning them yourself. Sometimes it is better to rent or borrow than to own.

Second, eliminate physical possessions whenever and wherever you can. Give things away, put them up for sale on Craigslist and donate the profits to charity, take them to a consignment store, clean house, downsize. Just eliminate at all possible turns.

An entirely different realm is the elimination of technological distractions. In a world that is constantly wired, distractions are ever increasing. Some of the main perpetrators include e-mail, Facebook updates, Twitter, RSS Feeds, smartphones, et al. Entrepreneur Magazine recently published a study/article titled “E-mail is Making You Stupid,” and they reported that e-mail is growing at a rate of 66% per year and that the average employee checks e-mail 50 times per day!

Facebook, Twitter and RSS fall into the same category as e-mail and must be severely limited. Facebook has a nice feature called ‘Hide’ that I use to hide any friends who become spammy, negative, or generally distracting or annoying. RSS feeds should be limited as well. The problem with blogging is that there is honestly so much good, free content available that it is easy to oversubscribe yourself. I like to pick  out the top bloggers within the three or four fields that are most important to me, and not much more. I tend to avoid bloggers who publish content everyday, or multiple times a day (with the exception of Seth Godin because his content is just that good). I find having this much content on such a constant flow overwhelming and much of it irrelevant. Plus I don’t like missing a day or two and having 10 or 20 unread posts. It’s the equivalent of having an inbox that I chose to populate with missed calls.

Be creative, be relentless. Elimination is essential to living a simpler, more productive life.

Focus On A Few Interesting Things and Do Them Really Well

Would you rather be a jack of all trades and master of none, or would you like to have a few interesting things that you do exceptionally well?

Nowadays, I’d choose the later 10 times out of 10.

I recently read a great article by a blogger named Cal Newport, which he titled, “Are Passions Serendipitously Discovered or Painstakingly Constructed?“

His argument is challenging because it is easy to think that in order to do satisfying, fulfilling work we must do what we’re passionate about, which I believe and agree with, but he goes even further, controversially defining passion as, “The feeling that arises from having mastered a skill that earns you recognition and rewards.”

Basically, passion is an outcome, not a prerequisite. Passion stems from mastery of some specific subject, craft or art.

I tend to agree.

It is very easy to have many different “passions,” hobbies and interests, but to obtain mastery or even above average performance in very few. For this reason, I like to sit down and spend time thinking about the few highly interesting things that I currently do that I’d like to become really, really good at. For me, right now, they are acoustic guitar, rock-climbing, writing and travel. To be added to my list are interests such as business development (minding your own business, in the most literal sense of the phrase), language learning (Koine Greek beginning this summer), fly-fishing and some type of handicraft (more on this below).

I like these areas of focus for a few reasons:

1. They are all relatively interesting.
2. They all take a significant investment of time to reach some level of mastery.
3. They can all be practiced on a lifelong scale.

Think, what are the few interesting things that you’d really like to invest your time in, that you can achieve a certain level of mastery in, and devote the lion share of your energies to them. Who knows, you just might discover your passion!

Work With Your Hands

“Where is all this ‘work with your hands’ stuff coming from,” you may ask?

Comedian Garrion Keillor wrote two funny lists in his book The Book of Guys. They went like this:

Useful Things I Can Do

Be nice.

Make a bed.

Dig a hole.

Write books.

Sing alto or bass.

Read a map.

Drive a car.

Useful Things I Can’t Do

Chop down big trees and cut them into lumber or firewood.

Handle a horse, train a dog, or tend a herd of animals.

Handle a boat without panicking the others.

Throw a fastball, curve, or slider.

Load, shoot, and clean a gun. Or bow and arrow. Or use either of them, or a spear, net snare, boomerang, or blowgun, to obtain meat.

Defend myself with my bare hands.

I must confess, Mr. Keillor is not alone.

But why is this important? Is this some kind of macho kick? What is all this talk of working with one’s hands?

One of the books I’m really looking forward to reading is called Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work by Matthew B. Crawford. Crawford is one part philosopher (PhD from the University of Chicago, fellow at the University of Virginia, smart dude) and one part motorcycle mechanic (shockoemoto.com). His book has also hit a nerve, and is a NY Times Bestseller (read an except entitled, The Case for Working With Your Hands). In it, he argues that work involving your hands, manual labor, can be more intellectually demanding” than the so-called ‘knowledge work’ so prevalent today. He goes on to point out that the manual trades, “require careful thinking and are punctuated by moments of genuine pleasure,” and hold value in doing something that is actually useful.

Build something. Fix something. Get dirty. Work with your hands.

***

These practicals are only a start. I’m sure there are many more you can think of, but this list entails ways to live a quieter, richer life, ways to mind your own business, and the value of work involving your hands. It is my hope that doing so will bring you greater rewards, respect, and fulfillment along the way.

8 Creative Influences

(Photo Source: Coso Blues)

Here is a random list of current influences in my life. These are people who make me put down what I’m doing, get out of my own mind, stop being busy for busy’s sake, rethink what I know, and be creative.

For that, thank you.

Teddy Roosevelt

I recommend reading a good biography on the life of TR. I read one a few years back and constantly remember his intense, passionate approach to life, and his desire to always be a member of the ‘fellowship of the doers.’

You can read this previous post for a crash course introduction to my favorite President of all time and one of my favorite personas in all of history.

King Solomon

The wisest man, ever.

The wealthiest man, ever.

The most successful man, ever.

The biggest ladies man, ever.

At the end of his life, he called it all a meaningless vanity.

I love the Bible, and my favorite book (by far) is the book of Ecclesiastes for the sobering realities Solomon presents and the simple, yet profound perspective he lends on what is truly important.

“Death is the desitny of every man; the living should take this to heart.” – Ecclesiastes 7:2

The Roman Centurion

This man’s faith stunned Jesus. WOW!

This is an example that I never tire of studying. It is always interesting and challenging for me to try an imitate this kind of faith.

Seth Godin

Seth is one of my favorite authors, and one of the most inspiring people to hear speak. His writing is awesome. I read his blog just about everyday and I loved his most recent book, Linchpin.

In fact, I loved it so much so that I whole-heartedly endorse it for all to read, and here’s what I’ll do: If you spend money to buy this book, but get nothing out of it, mail me your receipt and I will pay for your copy. You can keep the book.

Tim Ferriss

The 4 Hour Workweek is another book that changed my life. Not for everyone, but the right person will enjoy it. Tim’s blog is also very cool for those interested in lifestyle design.

Springsteen

OK, I told you this list was random, but as far as good music goes, no one has a catalog quite like The Boss.

Born to Run, classic. All in all, this album took 14 months (!) to record, with six months spent on the song, Born to Run, alone! One of the best rock albums of all time, hands down.

Darkness, phenomenal album. From start to finish, my favorite Springsteen album.

The River, chilling. Some songs reduce me to tears.

I love Bruce for his story telling abilities and the characters that are brought to life in his songs. So much of his music will hit me in a way that no other musician does. Also, seeing a live show with the legendary E-Street Band is epic, and will never be forgotten.

Richard Branson

A global entrepreneur. I just finished his book, Business Stripped Bare, which tells much of his personal story as well as the story of the incredible Virgin Group. Note: If you buy this book, make sure you get the American version, unless you want to read with a British accent and with most currencies listed in £’s.

Rudyard Kipling

If.

We all need to be influenced by inspiring people. Share some of your current creative influences in a comment below.

Fortune Cookie Fun

CORE World Premiere

On of the things I love about living in Boulder is that, like its proximity to many great natural rocks, it is naturally situated right at the heart of the world’s climbing scene. With this proximity come many opportunities to stay up to date and current on the latest happenings in the climbing world. One such opportunity is the highly anticipated release of Chuck Fryberger’s latest film, CORE. I’m very excited to see this film and want to share it with as many as possible.

One of the major features of the film is that it is shot in 35mm Ultra High-Def, capturing every detail!

Check out the official trailer below:

If you’d like to catch the video on tour, here are some of the bigger stops (most including Chuck Fryberger in person):

April 7 – World Premier at the Boulder Theatre, Boulder, CO, 7 PM

April 24 – Vertical World, Seattle, WA, 7 PM

April 30 – American Mountaineering Center, Golden, CO, 7 PM

May 3 – Dahl Fine Arts Center, Rapid City, SD, 7 PM (Show benefits the Black Hills Climbers Coalition)

May 5 – University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, 7 PM

May 6 – The Cowfish Bar and Grill, Lander, WY, 8 PM

Full Tour Calendar

An Old Song with an Enduring Message

In 1973 they released their first album, pronounced ‘lĕh-’nérd ‘skin-’nérd.

Their fame grew in large part due to their opening slot on The Who’s Quadrophenia tour.

They released a follow-up album in 1974.

And by the mid-seventies Lynyrd Skynyrd had reached super-stardom.

On October 20, 1977,  just days after the release of their new album, Street Survivors, and only five days into their largest tour to date, the band was leaving a show in South Carolina and headed for their next stop in Baton Rouge, Louisianna. They boarded their Conovair 240 private airplane for this short, routine flight.

They never played together again.

Towards the end of the flight, their plane ran out of fuel. The pilots attempted an emergency landing, but were unsuccessful as the plane crashed down in the forests of Mississippi. In all, six were killed and many seriously injured. Among the dead were lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist and vocalist Steve Gaines and his older sister, backup vocalist Cassie Gaines.

The band would reconstruct and re-tour after a 10 year hiatus, but would never be the same.

Through my father, I grew up on the classic rock music of  Skynyrd and others like them: Cream/Clapton, The Who, and The Eagles, to name a few. I have fond memories of this music accompanying us on baseball road trips, serving as the soundtrack for a day of fishing in the Puget Sound or blaring from a garage boom box as my dad built something or changed the car’s oil. It has remained some of my favorite music to this day for its straightforward and timeless message. Skynyrd has remained one of my favorite bands and Simple Man, one of my favorite songs.

The lyrics to this song are haunting, deeply true and more relevant today than ever.

I’m posting this video as a touching tribute to the members who’ve passed on, as a reminder of what’s important in life and as an opportunity to enjoy the talent of a great, great band.

I hope it speaks to you wherever you’re at.

Why My Goals Are Mediocre – Part 3: The Benefit of Being Mediocre

(Photo Source: koert michiels)

“Few people take objectives really seriously. They put average effort into too many things, rather than superior thought and effort into a few important things. People who achieve the most are selective as well as determined.” – Richard Koch, author of The 80/20 Principle

Here we go!

Over the last few days we’ve done a pretty thorough look at setting great goals. We’ve gone through a few things regarding goals: some personal examples and experiences, the truth about resolutions and why most goal-setting fails and how to set amazing goals.

I listed three criteria that every goal should have: being manageable, measurable and actionable.

Finally, I’d like to talk about the benefit of being mediocre and how to leverage this goal-setting tactic to your advantage this year.

What Really Matters

First, I think it important to separate what I’m calling mediocre from what most will interpret that as… Laziness.

This post, this year and life in general are not about being lazy or idle. Comfortability is not the goal. The idea here is not to set no goals, nor is it to set shamefully low goals. Instead, it is about weening ourselves off of years of goal-obsession or of the overly ambitious and ambiguous goals and resolutions that never get done, in search of one indispensable pursuit: accomplishing that which is most meaningful!

So, in the New Year ask yourself this question: What are the few things that can change all the others?

What two or three things can you follow through on exceptionally well?

What big dream have you been putting off that can most certainly happen this year? (A long over-do trip through Europe, learning a new language,  making a significant career move, it could even be a ‘vain’ purchase. If not 2010, then when?)

Which accomplishments would leave you most satisfied and inspired for the future?

Setting your sights in this way can bring about huge gains! This provides clarity on the few things which matter most and provides the opportunity for a laser-like focus in defining how to go about them.

To some this may appear less impressive than having finely detailed goals across many areas of life, but the reality is that this type of thinking cuts across all boundaries of life. Success in one area means success in others. It has the advantage of bringing the peace of mind that mere talk never can. You are not just talking about your goals, but are actually taking action on your greatest dreams.

Most people never do this.

This approach may seem lazy and mediocre to others, but who cares. It can offer tremendous motivation to yourself and this is really all that matters. Actually, contrary to popular belief, there is much to show that keeping major goals to yourself actually increases your chances of success.

So, as you are busy defining your most significant pursuits for this year, keep them to yourself for a while, allow them to take root in your heart, come up with a bulletproof plan of action, and take comfort in knowing that you are on your way to some truly life-changing achievements.

It is my sincere hope that this series helps you in an amazing year!

May this year bring lasting happiness and the satisfaction of accomplishing the few things that matter most!

Cheers,

Ryan

View the Other Posts in this Series:

• Why My Goals Are Mediocre – An Introduction
• Why My Goals Are Mediocre – Part 1: Confessions of Goal Obsessed
• Why My Goals Are Mediocre – Part 2: Why Most Goal Setting Fails

Why My Goals Are Mediocre – Part 2: Why Most Goal Setting Fails

(Photo Source: andreasnilsson1976)

“Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.”  - Oscar Wilde

The Truth

40-45 - Percentage of adults who set some type of resolution each year

1 in 5 – Those Who Follow Through

4 in 5 - Number of Smokers Who Say They’d Like to Quit

30 – Approximate Percentage Who Actually Do (For At Least One Year)

80 – Percentage of Diets that Ultimately Fail

85 - Percentage of Gym-goers Who Will Have Quit by March 1

Most resolutions are not much more than wishful thinking. From the mundane (cut back on lattes, floss, cure that brutal slice…) to the sincere (Start/Finish __________, get out of debt, take that long-awaited trip), most goals do in fact fail.

Many are not even measurable: Be more appreciative, worry less, get finances in order. They lend themselves to amnesia from the get-go.

We see that the track record is not to our favor. Failure is the norm, and if there is another thing we can be sure of it is that good intentions and more willpower usually do not equate to greater success.

Why This Will Not Be Your Best Year Ever (But How It Can Still Be Amazing)

I know, very uplifting thus far.

As I said the other day, I hate this goal.

This ideal sounds honorable, but it is vacant of any real staying power. It fails for two reasons (maybe more) it is at the same time both ambitious and ambiguous. While we set such a goal almost tongue-in-cheek, not really expecting it to happen, I wonder how many of our goals actually resemble the same pitfalls: Be in the best shape of my life, travel more than ever, be more at peace with myself.

OK, now what?

Such goals are too ambiguous and overly lofty (remember, we’re striving for mediocre here… More on this tomorrow) and fails to be manageable, measurable, or actionable. They seem noble, but are a cover-up for lazy thinking and lazy living.

They are non-goals.

How to Set Amazing Goals

I just mentioned three criteria that serve as my sieve for every major goal that I am serious about accomplishing:

• Is it Manageable?

“Shoot for the moon; even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” Not necessarily. Don’t stop dreaming, but do set goals that are realistic enough to be manageable. If you’ve never held to a consistent workout routine, then five times a week is probably not a good starting place. If you want to do more for charity this year, jumping on someone else’s bandwagon for a while might be a better approach than going at it alone. Many resolutions fail out of the gate, they never even had a chance to succeed.

“Great ideas need landing gear as well as wings.” – C.D. Jackson

• Is it Measurable

This is huge!

How will you measure your progress?

If your goal is to build a sizable emergency-fund, then you must define that. What is sizable? What is your cut-off date? (And the end of the year does not count!)

Measurement requires two things: some form of metric – pounds, dollars, days a week, hours a day, whatever – and a time-frame – “By March I want to have completed my first 12 Week High Intensity Training Series.”

(On a slight aside, research varies on the necessary length of time it takes to develop a new habit and create a sort of ‘tipping point‘ for change. Some say 21 days, or 40 days, some 8 weeks, some 12 weeks or beyond. For me there seems to be logic in the natural breakdown of four seasons, approximately 12 weeks, or 3 months each. For this reason, I find it helpful to break my major goals down into quarterly segments, and re-evaluate my progress and priorities at that point. I find that if I can do something consistently for 12 weeks, then I can expect to have good enough results to judge whether or not it’s working. If not, it’s about time to adjust course)

Whatever goals you decide to set for yourself this year, be sure that you have a way to measure yourself during that time. This will increase your rate of success like nothing else can.

• Is it Actionable

“The vision must be followed by the venture.  It is not enough to stare up the steps – we must step up the stairs.”  ~Vance Havner

What is the absolute simplest action-step that your goal can be broken down into?

If your goal is, “get published in a magazine,” then what is today’s step? Maybe it is a phone call. Maybe it is finding a good book on this topic.

Having a real plan of action forces you to stop putting things off indefinitely and to start acting now. You can think of the smallest possible step and do it today! If it is a vacation you’d like to take, then the smallest possible step may be putting it in your calendar. The next smallest step may be to invite one close friend, and so on.

This takes your vision from being a neat idea in your mind and gives it legs to start walking.

As you are setting goals and resolutions for this year, keep these three criteria in mind and you will have goals that are more inspiring and more attainable.

Tomorrow we will wrap things up by talking about the benefits of being mediocre.

View the Other Posts in this Series:

• Why My Goals Are Mediocre – An Introduction
• Why My Goals Are Mediocre – Part 1: Confessions of the Goal Obsessed
• Why My Goals Are Mediocre – Part 2: Why Most Goal Setting Fails