Robbie MacKay

I spend a lot of time just consuming new ideas: reading blogs, twitter, books, watching TED talks… theres a lot of information out there.

And yet until recently blog was sitting stagnant.

I came up with the idea to use it as an incentive:
When I feel like consuming – I’m at a loose end, the automatic response is just to read blogs for a while.
Don’t. Publish instead.

Write something.

If I’m struggling with a problem.
Procrastinating.
Write about it.

I decided I’d try this for a week. And it’s been 2 weeks now.
I’m not doing it religiously but it got me started blogging again.
I’m still reading other blogs – but only a few key ones – and only when I actually have time – not when procrastinating.

Try it out.

Leave a comment and let me know if this worked for you too.
Or just tell me what strategies you have instead.

Since I’m not going to make time to write a real review.. (I haven’t even finished reading the free excerpt I was sent)

I’ll just say this:

Linchpin = Awesome

You may now continue

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591843162/

I wrote this up quite some time ago but it seems most of it is just as relevant now.

Inspired by this lifehacker post – Tim Ferriss and Marci Alboher on Redesigning Your Career – featuring Tim Ferris and Marci Alboher talking at Google about of their books.

The main gem I took from listening to them talk is this:

You can pursue multiple careers but don’t try and pursue them all at once.

Drive and build one for a while then move onto the next one… while continuing the previous one. Keep adding incrementally.

In the past I’ve made a few attempts at to do everything at once.

It doesn’t usually work out for me.

Start with one thing – what’s most important or urgent right now

Get it moving quickly and then tweak it

(Hat tip: Ben Young (@bwagy) and Chris Guillebeau for various chats and comments about this)

I’ve heard and read a lot of tales of life changing events..

Someone loses their job and makes a massive change in their career and life.

A near death incident…

A trip to Africa that forever alters their perspective on the world and purpose in life…

While this is all very well – and these stories are often very inspirational – but they’re often not the full story (As seen in U Turn – though I never finished the book!). Really there was a slow build up of things that changed someones direction (or they always had a different direction to pursue but they’d strayed off track), the event was just an opportunity to make their life match.

But the perception that there was a ‘life changing event’ creates a false belief:
That we have to have that life changing event before we can make a major change to life.

We get stuck thinking:
If X happened to me then maybe I’d go do XYZ amazing thing.
But what if that never happens to you?
Your left with an amazing vision that you never fulfill.

Don’t wait for the crisis.

You have to live your own life, not someone elses.

That life changing experience someone had in Africa… what were they doing there in the first place? Probably chasing their dreams already.

Don’t wait… Go!

This is still a work in process for me, but I’m putting this out there anyway. That way even if I fail, someone else may succeed.

I read quite a while back in a post by Seth Godin on Chris Anderson’s book Free, that it doesn’t matter if we want Free, it’s already here anyway.

“Who cares if we want it? It is.”

The same is true of markets, capitalism, globalisation, etc. It doesn’t matter if they’re good or not, or if we want them. They’re here. We have to deal with them while they’re here (Don’t worry it probably won’t be forever).

That’s why Fairtrade is such a good idea, and micro finance too. They work with what we’ve already got, to make a positive change in the world.

Hopefully they’re the first of many good plans.

This isn’t to say that you should always just accept the status quo. But I’m not convinced you can ignore the whole of the current system. Take the bits you can work with, and refuse the bits that don’t work. Some great successes have come from those who chose to ignore the status quo, but usually only on a few key points – not everything.

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

- Mahatma Gandhi

De-cluttering things is great

It creates space for new things

De-cluttering a house, creates a nicer space to live in.. and gives space for things you actually want

Clear out old documents, photos, projects, etc… create space for new ones that you actually want now

De-clutter your head…

This is part of why I blog.

It gets the ideas out of my head,
gets them into the world,
where they can contribute to others…

But it also de-clutters my head

Creating space for new ideas, new thoughts

(See also: Seth Godin talking about why he blogs)

I’m going to run with some thoughts from reading this post by Danielle LaPorte about being busy.

Danielle mentions telling people the truth, when your late or can’t do something, not just telling them you’re busy.

You can also use this as a reminder or an alarm, for when you’re not doing things you’re proud of and excited about.

If you have to tell someone what you’re up to and you find yourself resisting – just saying “I’ve been busy”, then maybe you should re evaluate what you’re doing. Why don’t you want to share it with people? Are you just bored of it? Are you embarrassed about it? Something else?

When I say resisting here – that’s different from just being a bit too lazy, or having got into the habit of being vague. Those are well covered by the original post. I mean that when you do think to tell someone what you’ve been up to, some part of you pulls back and doesn’t want to.

You may not always find something profoud

But its worth taking a look

Do less, Impact more

That’s what I came up with when trying to squeeze my current ideas into 4 words for a recent Intersect meetup.

It is in part I was inspired by this recent post by Seth Godin.

I keep saying I’m busy and don’t have time to do things, but yet I’m spending a lot of my ‘non work’ time either doing things I feel a duty to do, instead of the things I really want to do.

So over the next few months, I’m going to endeavour to start doing less of the things I just do automatically or out of duty.

This doesn’t mean I’m just going to abandon things I’m expected to do (like fixes for old clients).
- That wouldn’t serve me or anyone else very well
But I’m going to start tieing up the loose ends: fixing problems properly, so I only do it once.

If I still have to do something I’m not excited about, I want to do it consciously not just as an automatic reaction.

Basically I’m aiming to discover how much free time I really have and then be able to dedicate that to things I’m really passionate about.

I had an insight about choices recently. I was talking with a friend about going travelling overseas and he asked – “Why travel? What’s wrong with New Zealand?” . I didn’t have an answer, I just thought “There’s nothing wrong with New Zealand – I just want to travel”, but still he’d got the impression I was trying to get out of New Zealand.

Wanting to go somewhere else really doesn’t have much to do with New Zealand and what’s wrong/right here. The question was appropriate to where I was at when it was asked but as I moved past it I discovered gift.

When faced with several alternatives, choosing one of them doesn’t mean anything about the others.

This applies to other situations too:

• Ending a relationship doesn’t mean anything was wrong, it was just no longer what you wanted.
• Moving to another country/city/house doesn’t mean anything was wrong with the current one. You are just choosing to move to something else.

This is particularly relevant for me as I’ve recently accepted a job offer. This is a change from working as a freelance web developer, and happens when I’m really beginning to enjoy my work. There are even some things I’m not too sure about with the new job, like working more normal hours again!

But it’s a new challenge I’ve chosen. Hopefully I will enjoy it, I won’t know till I’m there. But I do know that if I compare it to freelancing then I’ll always find something to dislike.

Often when we make a change in life, we are asked to justify that choice. In an effort to justify ourselves to other, we sometimes make the way things were into  ‘the wrong way’, when in fact we  just chose a new way.

I originally wrote this post on Anzac day. At the dawn service that morning I was struck by a comment about along the lines of “We do not seek to glorify war, but to honor those who fought for our freedom”. It is worth remembering this – in choosing to not go to war does not in itself dishonor those who have fought for us in the past, it simply says that we have now choosen something different.

Again, this applys to many things in life: We do not have to dishonor our parents and/or ancestors when we choose a different path from them. I think we would be wise to understand their choices and the consequences, whether we disagree or not. Then choose our futures freely.

Choose the future while honouring the present & the past.