Urgency Culture

Something big happened to be in the last three months. I slowed down my life significantly and realized that it needed a re-allignment, an oil change and perhaps even a few performance upgrades. Sure, the engine is still a high-performance beast and it offers one of the most comfortable rides you can ask for- but it needs to be tuned up.

The only way to really take stock of one's life is to take a break from the urgency culture that surrounds you and really slow things down. Take time to get some excercise, read an inspiring book and just relax.

Often we take time for ourselves. Its popular to go to a warm climate in the winter and take some time in the summer to relax. The problem is that we're not taking that time (nor any other time) to actually reflect back on what we're doing.

Are we happy at work? Are we engaged? Are we being leaders? How are we contributing to society?

This type of reflection can really put things into perspective. I'm starting to realize that its really fun to go fast but its really important to go slow.

Slow things down, enjoy the view, question the obvious and inspire others to do the same.

Change Fright

The greatest challenge in my day to day life is how to get the most value out of my conventional life. The world is loaded with great opportunities for those of us who have pursued the lifestyle and dreams of Western society. We're well educated, are saving for retirement the moment we hit the work force and are incredibly marketable in work forces around the world.

We effectively have the tools and the opportunities so where is the disconnect? What is stopping us from pursuing these opportunities?

Primarily, I think its fear of change- its change fright.

The easiest path is always the 'no' path and this is true for all of life's choices. Why can't someone completely change careers at any age? Universities don't have an age limit on students- you can go back at any point. Your family and friends most likely live where you do but its easy to connect with them from abroad. Why not take a year and go live in a different country?

The answer is simple- we are not uncomfortable right now. But are we maximizing our life value? Could we be making better life experiences for ourselves and our friends/family?

Its impossible to know.

As a result, we say no to change. We are scared to make excellent mistakes.

I think everyone needs to start evaluating what excellent mistakes they can make. Inevitably, this means change. Embrace it.

Juggling 2.0

I am still pondering Ian Sander's Juggle Life Manifesto . There's alot of great work there.

One of the most important things I remind myself when I'm having difficulty being innovative and motivated at work is something that could be added to the list as the 15th piece:

15. There is always an alternative. You can always change the status quo in your life.

This is something that is perhaps in a few of Ian Sander's points but it really deserves its own point.

We often don't realize or bother to remind ourselves that we control our own lives. We can change jobs in a very short period of time, we can return to school and change careers all together, we can start our own company or we can sell everything we own and move to another country and find work.

Once you realize you're not tied to your life as it is today- you've made a fundamental change to the way you make decisions. Suddenly you can work the way you want to work, you can provide meaninful feedback to your superiors and your colleagues and you can begin to make great mistakes (in the words of Johnny Bunko creator Dan Pink).

Too often we don't take risks in our workplace. We don't float 'dangerous' ideas because we're worried that our superiors will only accept the status quo. Afterall, the easiest thing we can do when facing a challenge/problem is to do nothing. Just let the problem exist.....ignore it.

The hardest thing to do? Take a risk and try to address the challenge in an innovative way. It may rattle the cage of your boss a bit, it may even be a bad mistake but it might also be a ground breaking idea that leaves a legacy.

Juggling Life

I really enjoy Ian Sanders' manifesto (source: http://changethis.com/55.01.JuggleLife) about juggling life. I might read it a little differently than Ian intended though: I interpret it as how to redefine your life, not how to juggle our conventional lives.

The 14 points below are direct exerpts from his manifesto. They aren't a surprise to read......yet they are completely unconventional. He's explaining that we must challenge conventional consumption as part of juggling our lives.

I believe we do need to redefine our personal currency. When I read Ian's work, it listed as a who's who of idea shifting actions.

What if I were to change my personal currency to only accomplish the following two things:

(1) Make life better for people of the future
(2) Make life experiences better for myself, my family and my friends

Think about the things that do not fall into those categories: plasma televions, vehicle, abundance of furniture and living space, etc.

All of those things provide me some satisfaction but they don't exclusively fit those categories for my personal currency. They only somewhat do.......why would I waste my hard earned resources on them?

Things that don't meet the explicit needs of those two categories are short term thrills. They'll be disposable within months in most cases.

On the other hand, consider things that do fit into those two categories: buying experiences- taking a friend to an unexpected event (local collegiate sports game, young persons theatre), helping future generations- volunteering, donating to a good cause, helping young people find meaningful work, consuming less than everyone else, finding new ways to share great ideas.

I think its time to start taking some of Ian's manifesto to heart. Read it and tell me what it means to you........but to me, it means that its time to rethink my personal currency. In order to do so, I'll need to do alot of the other things listed below.


1 Forget Specialism, discover the value of being across more than one discipline. Sticking to just one thing limits your potential, Place no limits on what you do and become more fulfilled.
2 Be passionate about all you do. Let your passions and desires inform and shape your work life.
3 Be adept at gear-shifting, from segueing from the huge to the tiny, from work to play.
4 Make time for play. Being a successful juggler is about working hard but also mixing up
work and play, and using playtime as your inspiration and stimulation.
5 Be a chameleon, flexible and adaptable. Re-think all you do, be happy to change the rules
again and again. Don’t stay entrenched in rigid ideas of how things should be done.
6 The best plan is a non-plan. Success in the knowledge economy is about making it up
as you go along. Be The Accidental Executive or The Accidental Entrepreneur.
7 Use your instinct (every time); in making decisions, in deciding what to do, and what not to do.
8 Re-define personal success not by a salary package alone but by more important currency, such as: did you get to see your kid’s sports day, do you work with a decent bunch of people, did you take enough holiday this year?
9 Go beyond a job title and carve out a unique You-role. Take control, do it your way, be authentic.
10 Develop a personal brand to unite and communicate your strengths.
11 Work hard, but work smart. Whilst success relies on you working hard, it’s also doing what you love; and when you do what you love, it doesn’t feel so much like work.
12 Have lots of self-belief and self-confidence. You must have a positive outlook,be an optimist.
13 Be a pioneer, with no fear of the unknown. Be happy to learn new stuff and embrace new ideas.
14 Have purpose in all you do. Focus on making a difference and leaving a legacy.

Consumption Priorities

Our lives are becoming increasingly more cluttered. The information revolution has allowed us to share information like we have never done before. As a result, our day to day lives keep speeding up to make room for more things. We sort through dozens of emails a day, keep on top of a number of topics that interest us personally (via websites, newspapers, word of mouth). What a mess we find ourselves in some days.

We prioritize our day to day activities in order to keep on top of these things. We choose how much information to take in and how many trips around the community we take. These things are all easy things to control. If you're feeling tired, you'll simply stay home. If you're intrigued by a thought then you might spend two hours surfing the internet to learn more.

Prioritizing consumption is much more difficult. We live in a world where the underlying message is to consume as much as you possibly can before you die. You need to own everything. In turn, society is a better place for all because others are able to be employed and then they too can consume products that better their life.

Take a look around your house at all of the things you own. There's probably a vehicle (or many), generations of electronics from continuous upgrades, a number of appliances and other things that you use very little. So why do we own those things?

The reality is that we don't need most of those things to be just as productive and happy in our day to day lives. Last year, for example, we sold one of our vehicles and I have been taking the bus to work every day instead of driving. One year later I'm realizing that we may not even need the one vehicle that we still own. Why not rely more on public transportation?

The information age has made the world smaller. We don't need to drive anywhere anymore. If we choose to then there are great options for us to use. We can car share, rent a car, bicycle or take public transportation.

This is only one example. You can almost infinitely challenge yourself to prioritize your consumption and therefore simplify or focus your life alot more. The more consumable clutter we remove from our lives, the more distraction we remove which means more time to spend on whatever it is that you truly love.

How I learned I was a maven.

The realization hit me while listening to an audio book very recently: Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point.



Gladwell describes mavens as individuals who are obsessively watching the market and market forces in an effort to help other people be better consumers or make better decisions. Not only do they know information about a subject/product but they care enough to share the information with people to improve their decision making ability. They're passionate about what they do which is, fundamentally, to inform others.



The market is used in my interpretation as to mean the market for any product: ideas, consumable products, processes etc. all have markets. They all have trends, with products rising and falling at any given point.

To listen to oneself being described in an audio book without any notice beforehand is an inspirational experience. It let me understand my actions in the day to day world.

The following example is an exerpt of my daily life:



Once a week my wife and I go grocery shopping. Driving down our local main street, there are atleast three different grocery stores.....all of which are located within 2 blocks of another.


What makes us pull into our choice grocer?



In our case, we have a discount grocer and two more expensive grocers. The discount grocer, relatively speaking, is a bit of a dive. The vegetables aren't as fresh, the selection is poor but things are cheaper. They provide a bad shopping experience but lure us with cheaper prices.



About 50% of the time we land up at this grocer. It is not because of the cheaper prices though- it was because I am typically driving (therefore I am the ultimate decision maker for this micro-problem facing us as we drive down the street) and I secretly want one of these pre-made yogurt/fresh fruit/granola parfaits they sell there. I can sneak one into the cart and I save it for my glorious breakfast the next day. Why do I know this is the sole reason?


I know this is the reason because last night we went to this grocer and I instantly bee-lined towards the parfaits. To my astonishment, the store had raised the price $0.50. This was my breaking point- I felt betrayed by my grocer. I refused to purchase the parfait at that price and now I'm thinking of avoiding the grocer all together.

I know the price points of all three grocers and I know what other services they offer. I have nearly perfect information in making my grocery shopping decision. As a result, I trusted this grocer about 50% of the time. I trusted them because the information I had on them suggested it was my ideal shopping destination. They breached the trust by secretly raising the price of my favorite product. They didn't advertise the increase in price like they do their sale items. They simply tried to sneak it under my nose.

Now, I am not interested in going to that grocer anymore. The only reason for this is that my 'tipping point' (the parfait) is no longer a viable item for me to purchase. I feel the price is unreasonable and above market levels. As a result, I'll move on to the new 'best grocer' on the street.

This is a very simple example of what this maven's every day life is like. I consume information in a passionate way. I live for sharing the information with others to ensure that others make the best market actions they can. Its only fair that everyone has as much information as possible.

The intention of my blog is to provide myself with another tool to share what information you need to make better market actions yourself....thus avoiding conventional consumption.

Rules of the Game

This is the beginning of a new game for me. As with any game, I have chosen to play the game because of a friend who told me how great the game was. Word of mouth is the greatest marketing tool of the 21st Century, after all.

As with any game, there are rules. In this case, I dictate the rules- this is the exciting part. This is where I'm sold on this new game.

These are my rules:

1. This blog will not be over-thought. It will be simple and natural.
2. Boring ideas will not be posted- unless they are someone else's.
3. I will not try to sell you on a product. I will share ideas that will improve the way you interact with products.
4. I am here to challenge conventional consumption and the processes behind it.
5. These are not your rules. You can comment and ask questions that break every rule I have- except #2.