More wise words...

...from Seth Godin:

The quickest way to get things done and make change
Not the easiest, but the quickest:
Don't demand authority.
Eagerly take responsibility.
Relentlessly give credit.

Five 10k runs in 11 days

Tonight I did my fifth 10k run in 11 days (would have been 6, but one session I did 5k and a 10k bike ride instead). The last two runs I completed without slowing down to a brisk walk - I ran the full distance - so I'm definitely making progress. It's amazing what you can do when 1) your pissed-off and running on anger / adrenalin and 2) you're staying away from home and not having your efforts constantly sabotaged.

Closing down the blog...

I've pretty much stopped using Facebook - Facebook is for losers. The amount of misinformation and idiotic nonsense that gets posted is staggering. As for Twitter, all I seem to be using that for is to rant at asshole companies like EasyJet who engage in deliberate and wilful spamming. Twitter's handy for sending a direct message to companies that piss me off, but because all my Twitter rants are public this creates a very negative public profile of me. So, I'm kind of winding up my Twitter use as well. I have found Twitter useful for evaluating public opinion on whatever the hot news story is, but I rarely find myself agreeing with the masses.

My blog isn't meant to be like Facebook and Twitter. These posts aren't meant to be narcissistic - which is why I chose not to allow commenting here. If anything, these posts are more like therapy: an outlet to write down my thoughts and get them out before they drive me nuts. Just writing these things down forces me to give deeper consideration to my thoughts. Nobody subscribes to this shit or has any way to "like" or "retweet" my posts. It's just me, trying to make some improvements to my life and f**king it up, then trying to work out what I can do to not f**k it up.

Lately, I've been considering winding up this blog too. I'm not sure why. It's just not appealing to me right now.

New month, new focus

It's a good job this challenge is a year long challenge because sometimes it seems like I'm making little or no progress. Time seems to be flying by, yet I don't seem to be accomplishing much. But, generally, I don't let this get me down, because I can convince myself that all my goals are still achievable before my self imposed deadline. I'm the kind of person, who, when I only have 24 hours before a deadline, can convince myself this the equivalent of 3 eight hour working days if I pull an all-nighter and work right through. And this sometimes works - it all depends how urgent or strict the deadline is. If there's any chance of getting an extension I'm more likely to let the deadline slip. I think the key to this challenge will be not allowing myself any extensions.

Oops - no blog for a wee while.

“For most things in life, the range between best and average is 30% or so. The best airplane flight, the best meal, they may be 30% better than your average one. What I saw with Woz was somebody who was 50 times better than the average engineer. He could have meetings in his head. The Mac team was an attempt to build a whole team like that, A players. People said that they wouldn’t get along, they’d hate working with each other. But I realized that A players like to work with A players, they just didn’t like working with C players. At Pixar, it was a whole company of A players. When I got back to Apple, that’s what I decided to try to do. You need to have a collaborative hiring process. When we hire someone, even if they’re going to be in marketing, I will have them talk to the design folks and the engineers. My role model was J. Robert Oppenheimer. I read about the type of people he sought for the atom bomb project. I wasn’t nearly as good as he was, but that’s what I aspired to do.”
-- Steve Jobs

There have been times when work has been a dream - when I've been able to learn, innovate and be creative. There's also been times when I've been a right asshole and very difficult to work with and I'm sure there's no shortage of folks out there who'll testify to that. I don't think it's any coincidence, though, that I did my best work when I've had people around me who knew more than I did or had skills I didn't have. Steve Jobs was so right: A players like working with A players. Having to work with C players is just not fun - especially when you're having to carry them too.

Sorry about not blogging much recently - I know some of you check back quite regularly (the webby-stats tell me so). April has been a weird month. I know I'm a crossroads of sorts. Ahead of me is a brand new adventure - a scary, but hopefully, more rewarding one. Behind me, I see the old adventure slowly fading away and it's hard not to be a little apprehensive - there's some degree of comfort and security in what I have been doing for the past 10 years.

Begin anywhere

Begin any time or place - just get started!

Getting in to the reboot.

Total weight loss: 0.7 kgs / 1.54 lbs

Yesterday didn't go so well. It was my birthday, I was restarting the challenge, the sun was out and I cycled to the office - so it all started well, but I ended up getting in to a heated argument with someone in the afternoon and that totally ruined the rest of my day.

Things are much better today. There's no sun this morning, but I started the day with a pint of freshly made juice and now I'm off to get a relaxing massage. My first weigh-in of the reboot confirmed my fears that I was right back where I start from last time. Unlike last time, I'm going to do a weekly weigh-in rather than a daily one - most likely on a Saturday.

It's my birthday...

... it's also my challenge reboot day. On my next birthday I'll be 50lbs lighter, running a new business and driving an Aston Martin.

Feeling like crap

This is not the start to the week I wanted - especially with my challenge rebooting on Friday. Since last Friday I've been feeling like crap. I've been full of cold and my ears are also blocked up with an ear infection. It's like my immune system just went on vacation for a few days and now I'm being ravaged by every virus going. My head feels so bunged up it's unreal. My nose won't stop running, my ears keep filling up with liquid then running, my throat is sore and I have a constant full headache. All I want to do is sleep, but I can't because the pressure in my ears is uncomfortable when I place my head on the pillow. If ever I needed a good reason to fast for a few days this is it.

Hungry for Change

The new Hungry for Change documentary is available to watch online for free until the 31st of March. I've just watched it tonight and it was pretty good - much better than I was expecting and it's just the kind of boost I needed before I reboot my challenge. Here's the trailer:

Rebooting the Challenge

Well, I'm finally at the point where I can dedicate almost all of my time to this challenge. This challenge started well - for the first week or so, but a back injury that disrupted my training, Christmas disrupting my dietary changes, and a client project that just wouldn't end all conspired to slow down my progress during these past few months and I've lost my momentum. But rather than give up, I'm rebooting this challenge - ie. restarting. This isn't something I've been planning, but something friends have advised me to do and after a bit of thought I've decided this is probably for the best. My official reboot date will be the 30th of March (my birthday) which means I'll be buying my Aston on my birthday next year. But, considering that I only have 63 days until the Revolution London, I won't be using the reboot as an excuse to spend the next two weeks eating what I shouldn't or not exercising.

Attention to detail (part 2)

So this past week has been a very busy one for me with many long nights - until 4am on a couple of occasions. But it didn't feel like "working" and the time flew by. I got to spend an entire week working on designing and constructing a form that consists of just 5 fields. Admittedly, much of Monday was spent cleaning up the data we're using for the form, but the rest of the week I spent on 3 of the form fields. That might seem like a long time - 4 days (and nights) for 3 form fields, but that's the level of detail and attention I'm putting in to this new project. When not constrained by time, budget, stupidity or corruptness that so often comes with paying development work, one can really focus on doing things the right way and producing something remarkable.