Wednesday, June 27, 2007
The Jangle and Fasting
I still have a template in my blog that gives me a place to enter the miles I ran, total miles, and thoughts on the run.
Routines are tough to change and it's been disorienting to shift from that disciplined schedule to focus on other areas of my life, but I'm coping with the transition. I'm excited because some key deliverables are taking place this weekend and then I can start getting out more often. It's important to know that it's not the deliverables that made this restriction, but my own mindset - because I chose to make that the obstacle, this is how it manifested in my life. I take responsibility, and that's fine.
So, in the meantime, I had to come up with a routine I can do consistently and anywhere and that doesn't take long. I went back to my old friend, "The Jangle."
I've written about the Jangle before. I even made a short document about it. It comes up often enough that it makes sense to invest in a good digital camcorder and just record a clip of it.
The jangle is a simple set of exercises, almost like control drills, that takes only about 10 - 20 minutes per day but is designed to get the blood flowing, joints limber, and burn a few calories. I do mine first thing in the morning on an empty stomach but some people do it in the evening as well.
I won't get into details (yes, I'll post an article and/or some pictures later on) but basically there is some jogging in place, some shaking of the arms, squats, twists, and more. Nothing that involves lying on the ground like push-ups, however.
Because my team is up to speed I was able to get back to the schedule I enjoy most: letting my body wake me instead of the alarm. My wife was also more willing to work with that schedule and joined me for a few "jangle" sessions. We'll do one more tomorrow and then I'm off to New Jersey on business.
This week has been a very connected week for me. I realized that I was feeding my mind with a lot of nothing so I mentioned making some MP3 CDs for the car. I now have about 16 hours of personal development and connecting with mentors like Jeffery Combs and Fredric Lehrman has been amazing. I then received an e-mail by an entrepreneur who builds multi-million dollar spec homes on Florida's east coast named Frank McKinney (author of Make It Big) and received some great information from this man who went from digging sand traps to building and selling these amazing spec homes.
In his discussion he used a term that I thought was fantastic. If I heard him correctly, he mentioned that many people are trapped in a JOB (living just over broke?) and aren't really doing what they dream. However, while many people feel the solution is to "work for yourself" (hey, been there and done that, still do) there are about 10% who are really satisfied working with others. In other words, you are always part of a vision, but the question is, who's? Most of the time in a job you are working for someone else's vision ... they leverage you to create their own abundance. However, there are times when there is a complete "click" where you find someone with a similar vision and are able to create a balance ... he referred to this as an intrapreneur ... and I had an "ah-hah!" moment. It's been difficult to describe to people my position with the technology companay because it's not like a job, I have incredible ownership and interest in the company but it's not *my* company ... and the work intrapreneur seems to tag it precisely!
That wasn't the only insight, however. See, many people feel this talk of success and abundance is all about money. It's not. As Frank pointed out on the call, living abundantly might have nothing to do with wealth. For example, I believe the Peace Pilgrim had an abundant lifestyle despite having no income nor earnings. There are many people who are at a position where they are happy and making a difference.
But the other insight is what you can do WITH abundance. For example, Frank McKinney doesn't just build homes for the rich and famous ... he also provides homes for people who can't afford it and would be homeless or living in rotten conditions. In fact, he has several projects (books, seminars, etc) outside of real estate that he donates 100% of (if I heard correctly) to charity. Talk about making a difference rather than just complaining about it next to the water cooler!
So this led to someone sending a question about how being "busy" ties into my belief as a Christian. I found that to be interesting. I hadn't thought of having a full schedule as pertaining to my belief at all, but then I realized something.
Forget the boxes and boundaries and rules we try to fit belief and faith in. Some people practice religion but have no faith or belief. So drop the denomination or the semantics and let's just talk about operating from a perspective: love, forgiveness, compassion.
Make no mistake ... it was not by accident that the chapter I wrote for Life's Missing Instruction Manual happened to be on forgiveness. I used to be an angry person ... I'd shout, scream, and stew over how unfair the world was. As I wrote in the book ... once I began to forgive others, I could forgive the universe and eventually myself. Life is so different.
See, I can take on a full schedule and not get caught up in activity but focus on results. I enjoy what I am doing and I now that I have the power to sign up for the lessons I want from life. I don't have to settle. And this isn't some unique situation reserved for me, everyone has that option. If you're unhappy with the situation, change it.
My faith says I am still receiving lessons. I am growing and connecting with people. I know I have a purpose here, I believe everyone does, and if I follow my heart's compass, I know by the way I get an excited feeling in the pit of my stomach when someone writes to share how their life has changed that this is the direction to go. So every day is a gift and a blessing. If you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life.
I've added a few new items to the site. First, I noticed that my article The Practical Way to Lose Fat had dozens of votes, yet wasn't appearing in the top 10 voting list despite being the most viewed article. I checked into the algorithm and it was simply ranking by vote, then number of votes. That means one perfect vote of 5 would rank higher than 9 votes of 5 and 1 vote of 4! So I changed to a Bayesian algorithm that basically weights the votes to be more fair ... it gives items with more votes a higher precedence, but doesn't reward them simple for having more votes or for a single item having one good vote.
Yes, this is me being a geek. The math is quite exciting so for the "Bayesian regret" if you're interested in more.
I finally published an article on something I'm often asked about and comment on: fasting. That was published as Fast Forward.
I also added another gadget. This one is a Protein Requirements Calculator. It's a Google gadget so you can add it to your Google page and syndicae it on your website if you like.
Speaking of syndication, my health and wellness business is supported exclusively through my writing, sales of my book, and advertisements on the web site. I was looking into the gadgets and very encouraged about the results.
This is an example about manifestation. I was playing with gadgets and suddenly a thought came ... well, where did it come from? The typical way of speaking this would be, "out of nowhere" or "out of the blue." What is the blue? Let's call a spade a spade. I tapped into infinite intelligence and as part of that union was inspired (in spirit) to create a health and wellness gadget. It would not only provide a tool but also connect me with others who I feel can be positively affected by the messages in my writing. So, I told several people this was going to be my next "organic" growth phase (I grew my last website through organic search, so this was a new approach for me) ... I stayed up late one night, wrote the gadgets, and published them.
Here is a visual of what happened then (this is April 2nd - June 26th, 2007):
This wasn't purchasing advertisements and running banners. It was daily, positive, focused thought on the website. The gadgets, the focus, and the intention to grow is what is causing this community to evolve and come together. But here is what is the most exciting to me: Google just added a feature. It will now show how many people look at your gadgets, and how many people use them. Why am I so excited?
Because of this: my body fat gadget produces the most traffic. As of this writing, it has about 5,000 active users and was examined over 145,000 times.
I appreciate and value every one of the 5,000 who use this tool. My Weight Loss Question of the Day has about 1,000 users. Then, out of curiosity, I scrolled to another gadget. This one? A daily horoscope. How many users? Almost a million!
Why am I so excited that someone else's gadget has 1,000 more users than mine? Because THAT is the potential to connect and reach new people. I'm confident if one million people find it important to receive a quote based on where the earth happened to be and how someone interpreted a random group of lights in the sky on the day they were born, then a few more than 1,000 can get excited about improving their health on a daily basis. So I've got some tasks ahead of me ... here's 999,000 more people to reach!
Of course, I was able to find perspective another way. I was on an ad network and after running their code found that I received about 200 unique users per day to a certain part of my site (the total number is higher, but this was a very targeted section). Reaching 200 people is VERY rewarding. It is a miracle of the Internet because it would be difficult for me to personally go out and share information with that many people every day. Then, you know what I did next ... I browsed over to a website that was just about fun. It catered to a certain cartoon craze. These aren't educational cartoons or complex brain teasers, just mindless fun. It's O.K. to have fun, but I thought, how many people visit that site? Wow. 22,000,000 per day. 22,000,000! Now THAT'S an impressive number! And just imagine if you could reach each person and just share one little tip, story, or piece of advice that would transform their life in a positive way ... wouldn't that be exciting?
So it looks like I have to revise the 999,000 figure ... there's about 21,999,800 to get in front of.
Of course, I can't do it on my own. It happens through word of mouth, search engines, gadgets, and more. Why am I sharing this? For many reasons. Business ties into our personal lives so these insights can help you relate to my journey. Because many people reading this are professionals and ask me how I grow my own business. Right now, I plan on reaching those 21,999,800 the best way I can ... by staying honest, following my dreams, living what I believe, and sharing, one article and blog post at a time.
Thank YOU for not just being a statistic, but taking the time to read this and connect in ways that we can create positive change together.
Warmly,
Jeremy Likness
Routines are tough to change and it's been disorienting to shift from that disciplined schedule to focus on other areas of my life, but I'm coping with the transition. I'm excited because some key deliverables are taking place this weekend and then I can start getting out more often. It's important to know that it's not the deliverables that made this restriction, but my own mindset - because I chose to make that the obstacle, this is how it manifested in my life. I take responsibility, and that's fine.
So, in the meantime, I had to come up with a routine I can do consistently and anywhere and that doesn't take long. I went back to my old friend, "The Jangle."
I've written about the Jangle before. I even made a short document about it. It comes up often enough that it makes sense to invest in a good digital camcorder and just record a clip of it.
The jangle is a simple set of exercises, almost like control drills, that takes only about 10 - 20 minutes per day but is designed to get the blood flowing, joints limber, and burn a few calories. I do mine first thing in the morning on an empty stomach but some people do it in the evening as well.
I won't get into details (yes, I'll post an article and/or some pictures later on) but basically there is some jogging in place, some shaking of the arms, squats, twists, and more. Nothing that involves lying on the ground like push-ups, however.
Because my team is up to speed I was able to get back to the schedule I enjoy most: letting my body wake me instead of the alarm. My wife was also more willing to work with that schedule and joined me for a few "jangle" sessions. We'll do one more tomorrow and then I'm off to New Jersey on business.
This week has been a very connected week for me. I realized that I was feeding my mind with a lot of nothing so I mentioned making some MP3 CDs for the car. I now have about 16 hours of personal development and connecting with mentors like Jeffery Combs and Fredric Lehrman has been amazing. I then received an e-mail by an entrepreneur who builds multi-million dollar spec homes on Florida's east coast named Frank McKinney (author of Make It Big) and received some great information from this man who went from digging sand traps to building and selling these amazing spec homes.
In his discussion he used a term that I thought was fantastic. If I heard him correctly, he mentioned that many people are trapped in a JOB (living just over broke?) and aren't really doing what they dream. However, while many people feel the solution is to "work for yourself" (hey, been there and done that, still do) there are about 10% who are really satisfied working with others. In other words, you are always part of a vision, but the question is, who's? Most of the time in a job you are working for someone else's vision ... they leverage you to create their own abundance. However, there are times when there is a complete "click" where you find someone with a similar vision and are able to create a balance ... he referred to this as an intrapreneur ... and I had an "ah-hah!" moment. It's been difficult to describe to people my position with the technology companay because it's not like a job, I have incredible ownership and interest in the company but it's not *my* company ... and the work intrapreneur seems to tag it precisely!
That wasn't the only insight, however. See, many people feel this talk of success and abundance is all about money. It's not. As Frank pointed out on the call, living abundantly might have nothing to do with wealth. For example, I believe the Peace Pilgrim had an abundant lifestyle despite having no income nor earnings. There are many people who are at a position where they are happy and making a difference.
But the other insight is what you can do WITH abundance. For example, Frank McKinney doesn't just build homes for the rich and famous ... he also provides homes for people who can't afford it and would be homeless or living in rotten conditions. In fact, he has several projects (books, seminars, etc) outside of real estate that he donates 100% of (if I heard correctly) to charity. Talk about making a difference rather than just complaining about it next to the water cooler!
So this led to someone sending a question about how being "busy" ties into my belief as a Christian. I found that to be interesting. I hadn't thought of having a full schedule as pertaining to my belief at all, but then I realized something.
Forget the boxes and boundaries and rules we try to fit belief and faith in. Some people practice religion but have no faith or belief. So drop the denomination or the semantics and let's just talk about operating from a perspective: love, forgiveness, compassion.
Make no mistake ... it was not by accident that the chapter I wrote for Life's Missing Instruction Manual happened to be on forgiveness. I used to be an angry person ... I'd shout, scream, and stew over how unfair the world was. As I wrote in the book ... once I began to forgive others, I could forgive the universe and eventually myself. Life is so different.
See, I can take on a full schedule and not get caught up in activity but focus on results. I enjoy what I am doing and I now that I have the power to sign up for the lessons I want from life. I don't have to settle. And this isn't some unique situation reserved for me, everyone has that option. If you're unhappy with the situation, change it.
My faith says I am still receiving lessons. I am growing and connecting with people. I know I have a purpose here, I believe everyone does, and if I follow my heart's compass, I know by the way I get an excited feeling in the pit of my stomach when someone writes to share how their life has changed that this is the direction to go. So every day is a gift and a blessing. If you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life.
I've added a few new items to the site. First, I noticed that my article The Practical Way to Lose Fat had dozens of votes, yet wasn't appearing in the top 10 voting list despite being the most viewed article. I checked into the algorithm and it was simply ranking by vote, then number of votes. That means one perfect vote of 5 would rank higher than 9 votes of 5 and 1 vote of 4! So I changed to a Bayesian algorithm that basically weights the votes to be more fair ... it gives items with more votes a higher precedence, but doesn't reward them simple for having more votes or for a single item having one good vote.
Yes, this is me being a geek. The math is quite exciting so for the "Bayesian regret" if you're interested in more.
I finally published an article on something I'm often asked about and comment on: fasting. That was published as Fast Forward.
I also added another gadget. This one is a Protein Requirements Calculator. It's a Google gadget so you can add it to your Google page and syndicae it on your website if you like.
Speaking of syndication, my health and wellness business is supported exclusively through my writing, sales of my book, and advertisements on the web site. I was looking into the gadgets and very encouraged about the results.
This is an example about manifestation. I was playing with gadgets and suddenly a thought came ... well, where did it come from? The typical way of speaking this would be, "out of nowhere" or "out of the blue." What is the blue? Let's call a spade a spade. I tapped into infinite intelligence and as part of that union was inspired (in spirit) to create a health and wellness gadget. It would not only provide a tool but also connect me with others who I feel can be positively affected by the messages in my writing. So, I told several people this was going to be my next "organic" growth phase (I grew my last website through organic search, so this was a new approach for me) ... I stayed up late one night, wrote the gadgets, and published them.
Here is a visual of what happened then (this is April 2nd - June 26th, 2007):
This wasn't purchasing advertisements and running banners. It was daily, positive, focused thought on the website. The gadgets, the focus, and the intention to grow is what is causing this community to evolve and come together. But here is what is the most exciting to me: Google just added a feature. It will now show how many people look at your gadgets, and how many people use them. Why am I so excited?
Because of this: my body fat gadget produces the most traffic. As of this writing, it has about 5,000 active users and was examined over 145,000 times.
I appreciate and value every one of the 5,000 who use this tool. My Weight Loss Question of the Day has about 1,000 users. Then, out of curiosity, I scrolled to another gadget. This one? A daily horoscope. How many users? Almost a million!
Why am I so excited that someone else's gadget has 1,000 more users than mine? Because THAT is the potential to connect and reach new people. I'm confident if one million people find it important to receive a quote based on where the earth happened to be and how someone interpreted a random group of lights in the sky on the day they were born, then a few more than 1,000 can get excited about improving their health on a daily basis. So I've got some tasks ahead of me ... here's 999,000 more people to reach!
Of course, I was able to find perspective another way. I was on an ad network and after running their code found that I received about 200 unique users per day to a certain part of my site (the total number is higher, but this was a very targeted section). Reaching 200 people is VERY rewarding. It is a miracle of the Internet because it would be difficult for me to personally go out and share information with that many people every day. Then, you know what I did next ... I browsed over to a website that was just about fun. It catered to a certain cartoon craze. These aren't educational cartoons or complex brain teasers, just mindless fun. It's O.K. to have fun, but I thought, how many people visit that site? Wow. 22,000,000 per day. 22,000,000! Now THAT'S an impressive number! And just imagine if you could reach each person and just share one little tip, story, or piece of advice that would transform their life in a positive way ... wouldn't that be exciting?
So it looks like I have to revise the 999,000 figure ... there's about 21,999,800 to get in front of.
Of course, I can't do it on my own. It happens through word of mouth, search engines, gadgets, and more. Why am I sharing this? For many reasons. Business ties into our personal lives so these insights can help you relate to my journey. Because many people reading this are professionals and ask me how I grow my own business. Right now, I plan on reaching those 21,999,800 the best way I can ... by staying honest, following my dreams, living what I believe, and sharing, one article and blog post at a time.
Thank YOU for not just being a statistic, but taking the time to read this and connect in ways that we can create positive change together.
Warmly,
Jeremy Likness
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