Stepping up to the challenge

Steve Jobs redefined the digital landscape. Linus Torvalds galvanized a movement which enables much of the Internet to exist. Terry Fox attempted to cross Canada on one leg. How can you rise to such a challenge?

 

Have a powerful "Why." If you read about people who have accomplished great feats, when they were not forced to do it, it always boils down to the reason. Whether it be Terry Fox, Steve Jobs, Linus Torvalds, or someone trying to stop smoking or to lose weight. All have a powerful reason to accomplish what they set out to do. Without a powerful reason, the challenge will best you.

 

Plan and prepare. If you are going to run a marathon, you can't simply show up on the finish line and hope to finish. You must prepare in advance, whether it be running longer distances than usual, changing your diet or getting the proper running gear.

 

Start. It's fine to get ready and to plan, but if you don't actually start, nothing will happen. The first step is often the most difficult. You can either start slow and pick up speed as you go along or start with a bang and ride the momentum. The latter is best because once you get a good start, it becomes harder to simply give up since you've done so much in so little time.

 

Measure. How will you know close you are to your goal? If you can't measure your progress, it is difficult to know if your are moving in the right direction. Eventually this can become disheartening and can cause you to simply give up.

 

Have a support system. The harder the task, the more you need one or more people to support you along the way. Let them know how you are progressing. That person (or those people) must be people who believe in you and will encourage you when you face the inevitable roadblocks. Stay away for people who live to criticize and put people down.

 

Celebrate. The end goal shouldn't be the only thing to celebrate along the way. There should be various milestones to celebrate. Celebrations make the entire process more enjoyable and increase the chances of success. Beating yourself over the head won't have nearly the same effect. Celebrate, have fun, and enjoy the ride.

 

Back in May, I decided that I wanted to participate in this year's National Novel Writing Month. The challenge is to complete a 50,000 word novel in one month. That's an average of almost 1,700 words per day. To put it in perspective, if you type 30 words per minute, which is not that fast, you have to type without interruption for one hour every day for the entire month. My average, so far, is about 500 words per day. Completing the novel will be quite a challenge!

 

I'll let you know how it went in December.

Kinect rock-tude

 

I don't say this often but... Microsoft rocks!

 

The kids received a Kinect for Christmas and it's amazing. I have no idea how it compares to the other consoles and frankly my dear, I don't give a damn. This thing is cool!

 

Friday nights are much more interesting when you're competing for points against your kids than when you're listening to yet another movie. Tonight, Kinect saved us from that cinematic masterpiece, Vampires Suck! Dubbed in French, no less.

 

We bought Dance Central which is an awesome game. I had tried the other dance title on the Wii and, to tell you the truth, when I played, you could mistake me for one of those vampires. On Dance Central, though, I rock! Well, except on those girlie dances. I can't quite get my feminine side to come out like it should. But those dude-songs are awesome!

 

The soundtrack is great and reminds me of my club days. You know, before I suddenly turned old and started to dance in front of my TV instead... Too bad House of Pain isn't part of the mix. It'll probably be downloadable soon, though. Hint! Hint!

 

I also tried the game that comes with the Kinect. First time I actually took time to play it and, honestly, it is purty darn decent. The one where you have to jump to make the thing go faster had blood and sweat pumping out my ears. I guess that's how it's supposed to be. And that's what makes it such a superior system compared to the Wii.

 

I remember playing the boxing game on the Wii about a year ago and feeling highly frustrated from the experience. I was playing against an "expert" and here I was, punching and jabbing and flailing my fists in wild uppercuts while she was merely flicking her wrists... and she won! After one game, i was on the floor, heaving and panting, wondering if should call 911 and she was filing her nails. I'd like to see her cheat now!

 

Too bad Electronic Arts won't come out with a FIFA title for the Kinect. Oh well, maybe in a couple more generations of the device.

 

A Day in The City

Just came back from an Easter weekend stay at my friends' in Connecticut. While we were there, we decided to take in a Broadway show. I let my wife decide on the show, since I had no real preference. She picked "In The Heights" because, she said, it had great reviews. Yeah, right! I think it was because of Corbin Bleu... At first she called him Cordon Bleu; I wonder if it wasn't a comment on his "tastiness." But I digress.

We rode the train from CT to Grand Central Station. No much to say except that I've been in planes that had more leg room that the place where we were sitting. Since we arrived at two hours before the show, we had plenty of time to walk around and take in some of the sights and the sunshine. Indeed, it was a lovely day in The City. So we grabbed a couple of slices of pie and headed to Times Square.

It had been a long time since I'd been in Manhattan and it was quite different from what I remember. Maybe it was because we went in early spring, but the streets weren't as crowded as I remember them. People were polite, they didn't seem rushed, and I found it was a generally relaxed atmosphere. Heck, if it wasn't for all the tall buildings, you coulda been in Montreal!

By the time we passed through Times Square, it was time for the show to begin so we settled down. It was a great choice. In a word, it's the intertwined stories of people living in the barrio, in Washington Heights. It chronicles the struggles and the dreams of people who have been working hard to make something of their lives, after having started from practically nothing. THe music was a great mix of salsa, reggaeton, bachata, hip hop, and so on. Not your typical Broadway musical, to say the least. There was a lot of energy emanating from the stage. The orchestra was top notch and the lighting and effects were fantastic. Highly recommended if you get a chance.

After the show, we headed to Central Park where we took the time to visit some of the locations we had seen so often in movies: the skating rink, the little bridges, and so on. We found this guy trying to make a living:

and this guy trying to look cool:

and this lovely woman making the apple tree look good:

We went to eat at a Brazilian restaurant on 46th street. Great food and their Capinhero (I think that's what it's called) was excellent. Unfortunately, the restaurant made an errot while serving our food. Though I notified the waiter about it, he did nothing to make amends... so I had to take it out on his tip. Too bad because otherwise, it was a fine dinner.

We stepped out again and headed to Times Square to see the nigh lights and to get some souvenirs for the kids. I was surprised to find that there was more action and more people in the streets than there had been in the afternoon. This, despite the fact the the temperature had dropped considerably.

We got the souvenirs and headed back to Grand Central. That's when we realized that I left the souvenir bag on the counter at the shop. We didn't feel like doing the 40-minute walk to and from the shop so we hailed a cab, instead. Then we experienced Manhattan traffic jams at 9:30PM. I think it would have been faster if we had gone on foot.

To return to Grand Central, we hailed another cab but on 44th street, instead of 42nd like we did the first time. We we got on the cab (at the corner of 44th and 8th avenue) we told the driver we wanted to go to Grand Central station. His reply? "Can you tell me how to get there?" Here we are, tourists from Montreal and we have to tell the driver how to get to Grand Central Station, one of the great landmarks of the city.

Only in New Yohk!

The bliss of raking leaves

We have a big yard with many venerable trees.. At times it is a blessing and at times it is a curse. When fall season comes around, it is a curse! I don't like raking leaves and I dread the chore every year.

When we first moved to our house, I used to invite a whole bunch of friends to come over and help my wife and I pick up the leaves. We'd take about a day, six or eight of us. Well... some of us would work, others would socialize. So for the cost of a few pizzas, and lots of fun, we filled up 60 to 75 bags of leaves every year.

But then, things began to change. Everyone got married, bought houses, and had children. All of a sudden, my yard was no longer as important. So I stopped asking them to come over to take care of the yard. Yes, if you can read between the lines, it was also to make sure I didn't have to go to their place to rake their leaves...

So these past few years, I've been doing it by myself. The routine goes like this: I wait until all the leaves fall, then I pick a weekend and in two days, I pick up all those 60-75 bags. It takeas about 14 to 16 hours.

This year, I only had one day to do the work and it had to be completed this weekend. So instead of raking the leaves, I pulled out my lawn mower and used it instead. It took me between 6 and 7 hours to do the entire yard and I filled only 33 bags.

So by now, you're probably thinking: "Ok, that's nice but what does cleaning your yard have to do with anything?" Bear with me, there is a point!

I did the same work in 50% of the time, using about 50% of the resources. And I did this simply by taking the tools I already had, but using them differently.

So how can this be applied in life and at work? What tools do you have at your disposal which could help increase your productivity? Which tools do you have at your disposal that you are not using to their full potential? I've taught Excel to many people in the past couple of years and many of the shortcuts I teach come as a big surprise to the audience members. Many have mentioned that those simple shortcuts would considerably increase their productivity.

When you increase your productivity, there are a number of benefits: you have more time at your disposal, you can get paid more, and if you do it right, it can also reduce stress.

Increasing productivity doesn't mean you have to shoot for 50% at a time. Alan Weiss, consultant extraordinaire, says that simply increasing by 1% every day is sufficient. If you do this continually, after 70 days you will have doubled your productivity. It just requires focus, persistence and determination. In other words, discipline.

Although it is a simple concept, I find it can be tough to decide which task or which aspect of my life will yield the best 1% yield. I guess it's al part of the learning process.