In piecing together these ethereal concepts I have been called to read a few other books recommended by the writer on his website, Ishmael.org. The first book I found is Radical Simplicity by Dan Price. It is the story of how the author lives his life in as simple a way as he can while still interacting with the modern world. He is not a full hermit, completely sheltered away from the outside world in a Grizzly Adams  style cabin. In fact, he produces a monthly magazine that he puts out to thousands of people, has a copier, propane heaters and even a telephone and electrical service. The simplicity shows up more in what he doesn’t have.

• He doesn’t have tons of space in which to collect a bunch of unused and under-appreciated stuff.
• He doesn’t have tons of clothes competing for show time.
• He doesn’t have a typical, oversized house which consumes a ton of energy and resources.
• He doesn’t have a mortgage.
• He doesn’t have a commute.
• He doesn’t have a full dining room with twelve intricately detailed place settings.

I could go on, of course, but you see the picture. He has simplified his life so that the outside pressures of the world do not have an impact on him, unless he chooses to allow them in. For instance, he spent many years traveling the world with a contract for a writing gig. While he did that though, he took his tent wherever he went. He avoided hotels at all costs. He maintained his simplicity wherever he went.

Why did Dan Price do this? He did this so that he could experience freedom. Freedom is a very powerful thing, yet so many people think that it only comes after working hard and long for many years to get to a financial position where your money opens the doors of freedom. Dan Price has shown that that is not necessary. He shows how he gained freedom by simplifying his life, by taking away all the pressures that society has artificially placed on our lives.

While I don’t believe that everyone would agree with Dan Price’s version of freedom or the path he took, I do believe that everyone can gain something by going through a process of simplification. A few years ago, we simplified our lives greatly by selling off about 80% of our belongings. It was very liberating for me during that time. I felt a huge relief. I had never been one who likes trinkets and “stuff” so it felt good to eliminate much of the “stuff” we had accumulated over the years. It was tough for Amelia at first, but she is a veteran nowadays.

Dan Price’s book has gotten me thinking of new ways to simplify again. For nearly three years, we have had a bunch of our remaining “stuff” packed away in boxes. Outta sight. Outta mind. Outta there?

Granted, somethings we are keeping because they will be useful later and too costly to replace. Like Tupperware for food storage when we live in our own place again. Especially in Costa Rica where we will have to keep the bugs at bay. But there are other things that we could get rid of here and replace when we get to our destination. Under this category would be things like cups, plates and cutlery. This type of thing is very cheap in almost every location in the world. There is another category that is hardest to figure out. We have a bunch of artwork that we have collected over the years. I have heard horror stories about art taken to the tropics and it gets destroyed by the humidity. I couldn’t forgive myself for letting that happen. And if I took them to Costa Rica, would they really look good in that setting.

So, while I love to be surrounded by artwork, it may be more realistic to replace what we currently have with something more suited to the locale. Besides, the kids are constantly creating artwork for us with their extremely creative minds.

We do have a prize piece that we got specifically because we had the perfect spot for it in our house in Ottawa. I can’t be certain that we would be able to find a place for it in Costa Rica. That piece is a pewter and lucite sculpture my world renowned marine artisit Wyland called Dolphin Tribe. If you or someone you know is interested in purchasing this piece, let me know.

Recently, I found the website Hulu.com. It allows you to watch full length, recent and older movies and TV episodes online. In particular, I was looking for episodes of Welcome Back, Kotter. I love that show. After watching a couple of episodes, I started looking at the movies that they have available. Most of them were movies I had never heard of or would never watch. There were very few big time movies at all. However, I went through the list looking for anything interesting or nostalgic. What I found was something much more valuable than I could have expected.

The movie I found was Kicking It. The story is about the thousands of players from around the globe that are training hard to compete at the Homeless World Cup. This was not something that I had ever heard of before, and I am definitely glad that I came across it. I would recommend everyone watch this movie.

The synopsis of the movie, as taken from the Hulu website, is this:

In the summer of 2006, thousands of players around the globe were training hard to compete in the World Cup…The Homeless World Cup. It began in 2001 as a wild idea to give homeless people a chance to change their lives through an international street soccer competition. Five years later, the annual Homeless World Cup has become an internationally recognized sports competition. 500 homeless players from 48 nations play from such disparate parts of the world as war torn Afghanistan, the slums of Kenya, and the drug rehab clinics of Dublin, Ireland, and the streets of Charlotte, North Carolina. What they discover is that anything is possible. Win or lose, it’s the journey of a lifetime.

This is the best example that I have seen of how having dreams, and doing whatever you can to act on them, can give you things that you never thought possible. Actively persuing your dreams means that opportunities will come your way. Your activity keeps you receptive and open when those opportunities comes around.

In the first point, it is not necessary to avoid failure to gain success. In fact, it is difficult to succeed at all unless you give yourself the chance to fail first. So comes the phrase “fail forward fast”. This means that instead of worrying about failure at whatever it is you are doing, take action and get started. If you fail, learn from the mistakes and apply that new knowledge towards your goals. Correct and continue.

The second point is that you must focus your attention on the success you are working to achieve. As Earl Nightingale mentions in the video The Strangest Secret, your mind does not know the difference between failure or success and it will return to you whatever you place in it. So while it is important to accept your failures and learn from them, it is even more important that you do not dwell on the failure itself but focus on your upcoming success. By focusing on failure, you will only gain more failure.

Some things I do to keep focused on my goals is to write them down where I can see them. I create vision boards with pictures of the life I want. I create videos that incorporate multimedia to spark my memory and imagination.

Some examples:

I have two pieces of paper taped to my laptop. One that lists my top 5 passions (to figure this out read The Passion Test
). The other is a lists of actions I need to do each day that are consistent each day and support the achievement of my goals as shown on my list of passions.

Another is that I have placed an image on my computer’s desktop that shows what I want and every time I start my computer, shut it down, or change programs, I see that image. Currently, the image I have is the home that I designed as our future home is Costa Rica.

I also created a video around the idea of living in Costa Rica. It has images from the house and the surroundings as well as sounds that I would hear if I was actually there.

Finally, one very important thing that I do that helps me focus on success is to day dream. Some people thing day dreaming is wasteful. I have to disagree. Day dreaming often triggers new ideas or reminds me of things I need to do. Most importantly, it helps me focus on something I want. For those that think day dreaming is wasteful, I would suggest that they have not defined their dreams clearly enough to make day dreaming pleasant. I would point them towards The Passion Test: The Effortless Path to Discovering Your Life Purpose to correct that situation.

As simple as this video is, it goes a long way to help people see that failure is not the problem when it comes to having trouble reaching success. The problem comes when people let those failures stop them. When they stop getting up after getting knocked down. As you let your failures become the excuses that weigh you down, your dreams start to fade.

None of the people in this video let the “experts” determine their success. None of them agreed that they would never succeed. They knew what they wanted and they did what needed to be done to get their. It may have hurt at the time, but they continued on.

And it’s not like any of these people had instant success. Looking into their histories, you will probably find that they were some of the hardest working individuals in their fields before they achieved greatness. In fact, the supposed failures that they had experienced in the past could have been the reason that they had to work so hard to succeed. Maybe they did have a fault that COULD have prevented them from succeeding, but they didn’t let that stop them.

Personally, I have no aspirations to be as good at a sport as Michael Jordan, as funny as Lucille Ball, as inventive as Thomas Edison, or as original as Walt Disney, etc. What I do know is I have dreams that I want to make come true and I have ideas of how I am going to do that. I also know that…

• whenever I play a sport, I put everything I have into it.
• I am not afraid to bring out the humour.
• I have ideas that will make a difference in other people’s lives.
• my creativity has a power of its own.
• etc.

What I am saying is that I am not afraid to put myself out there on a limb to achieve something I want.

Everything you can dream can be achieved, it is just a matter of finding your path. The road may be rough and windy. Look at the journey as a blessing, not as a penance. Take from your journey lessons that will help you on the road ahead.

Stop letting failure stop you. Learn from failure and let it drive you to success.

I was on Facebook this morning and I noticed a YouTube video about a 13 year old boy named Andrew Johnston who sang on Britain’s Got Talent. I have included the video here and I wanted to point out something that is said in the video. It is when Simon Cowell asks young Andrew if his friends support his singing (paraphrased):

Simon: Do you friends support your singing?

Andrew: Well, I get bullied a lot at school.

Simon: Why do they bully you?

Andrew: My mates say they don’t like that kind of music.

Simon: And how do you deal with it?

Andrew: I just carry on singing.

Sometimes, it takes a child for us to see how our fears stop us. What is it that you enjoy doing? What do your friends think of it? Are you going to carry on or are you going to let them tell you what they think and leave your dreams behind?

It’s your choice, not theirs.

Many people find themselves stuck in front of the TV for many hours a week. Statistics about television usage are depressing and that is one of the reasons that I stay away from the TV during the week as much as I can. The news drives me crazy. Good sitcoms are rare. Dramas are often over done. My opinion is that TV is a black hole and it sucks the life and creativity out of you. All the said, where did I find myself this morning? Yes, that’s right.

So what do you do when you are like this? What puts you into a mental state where you just need to shut down? For me, the biggest cause is…well, ME! I start thinking about what I am doing and what I am working to achieve and I sometimes start to think that it won’t happen. I have trouble sleeping. I get grumpy. I stop enjoying life. When this happens…I get scared! I get scared of the unknown. I am doing things that I have never done before. I get scared of failure! What happens if I don’t pull it off? I get scared of what other people with think of me! I want to inspire people, not disappoint them.

It’s when I get scared that I change my mindset. There have been many times in my life where I was faced with the unknown, possible failure or with the prospect of letting someone down and I simply laughed it off. Chalk it up to part naivety, part stubbornness, part ego and part vision.

It’s this vision that I have set before me that allows me to pull out of my lethargy and move forward. To do the things that I need to do to get things done. It is this vision that get me excited again. Without a vision, how would I get encouraged? How would I get motivated?

It’s this vision, that makes me take action when I don’t even know what to do. When I pulled myself away from the TV, I didn’t know what I was going to write today. I just started writing. My actions led to my excitement. Action is what inspired me.

If you want to get excited about your life, figure out your vision and take action.

I rarely get out for lunch. Working from home means I get to eat with the kids everyday. But yesterday, I had the opportunity to go out for lunch with my good friend Dave H. About two weeks earlier, I was out for lunch (the last time) with some friends and family and I bumped into an old friend from university, Rob Z. I guess because I don’t go to lunch very often, as I was driving into the parking lot yesterday, it reminded me of Rob Z. And I thought to myself, “Wouldn’t it be funny if I saw Rob Z. here today.”

Now consider that this was a different restaurant, at the opposite end of the city and outside a neighbourhood that either of us lives in. Anyway, I went in and it was packed and people were standing everywhere waiting for a seat. Dave H. hadn’t arrived yet, so I booked a table and waited near the door. Not 10 minutes later, who should walk in. That’s right, Rob Z. It was totally amazing. What are the odds that something like that could happen? Very remote I imagine.

The way I see it is that I totally disconnected from the outcome. I put out to the universe what I wanted and didn’t consider how or why it would happen. I just let the universe take over. This has happened many times to me over the years. For example, two of my favourites were when I invented the digital photoframe and the virtual reality test center. That’s right. You probably didn’t know that I invented these products, did you?

I’ll be honest with you. I don’t think the people who brought them into reality knew I had invented them either. When I say “invented”, what I really mean is that I thought about these ideas long before they ever appeared on the market. I’m sure the same thing has happened to you, hasn’t it? Maybe you invented what became the Bowflex, or disc brakes for bicycles, or maybe you were the genius behind the Hunky Bill Perogi Maker (mmm perogies, Thanks).

You see,whatever the idea, we didn’t pursued the ideas. We may have been the ones who initiated the thought into the universe, but because we weren’t taking action with it, the universe made it happen for someone else.

The same goes for so many things we want. Most of the time that we set our dreams and goals, we really don’t know how we will achieve them. The best we can do is define what it means to achieve them and what it will look like once we are there, and then do something…ANYTHING…towards making it happen. What we cannot know are all the exact steps that will occur along the way. That is where the universe steps in to help.

I point back to the post I wrote about constanting tweaking your dreams. Because we don’t know what will happen between here and there, we need to be open to the infinite possibilities that can fill the void. So avoid being focused on every detail about how you will achieve your goal and put all your attention on actually achieving it. That is what you are shooting for. That is what makes the journey so enjoyable. You just don’t know what to expect. So have fun.

So Rob Z. and Dave H…we’ll be in touch shortly. I’d bet on it.

As we have seen through all of the posts about S.M.A.R.T. goals, having goals is very important if you want to improve your life. However, if you never make a decision about when those goals will be achieved, your mind will never work to help you find the solutions and the actions you need to progress.

By putting a completion date on all of your goals, you will be able to prioritize those goals. Also, because you have broken your goals down into smaller tasks, you need to put a timeframe to each of those tasks. This will create a set of milestones or markers that tell you where you will be on your path to achievement by certain dates. These dates help you focus your attention.

Just think about when you studied for an exam in school. If they never told you when the exam was going to be you may be motivated to study more evenly over time, but it would become frustrating  because you wouldn’t know how much to study or when. This is especially true if you have many other important activities going on. By putting a date on the exam, you can schedule your study time and prioritize it amongst the rest of your life.

While this might give you an insight as to why people cram for exams the night before, cramming is not what I am suggesting you do for your life goals. For some people and for some tasks that works fine to get the job done, but it doesn’t lead to retention or a strong understanding (ask me why I know this), or in terms of life goals, a strong appreciation for the smaller achievements you are making.

If you are having a tendency to cram in those tasks before the time you set for yourself, there are too things to consider. First, did you break down the goals into fine enough detail? Following the exam analogy, did you break your studying up into smaller sections, such as reading specific chapters, working out specific sample problems, etc. Secondly, did you give yourself a realistic amount of time to complete the task? Review your assumptions and make adjustments as needed, but never lose sight of your goals.

By making your goals Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic and Time-Specific, you will be able to more easily adjust and continue when you face obstacles along the way.

I would love to hear about your goals and what you have done to make them more achievable for you. Everyone loves a success story.

You can review the rest of the steps so far by following any of the links below.

SPECIFIC

MEASUREABLE

ACTIONABLE

REALISTIC

TIME SPECIFIC – That’s this one.

As an example, my wife and I have a dream of living in Costa Rica. Part of the process has been designing our future Costa Rican home for about 18 months. The first time I did this, we didn’t even have property to build on. I had everything on a flat, square plot. It was great and it incorporated all of the details I always thought I wanted. Then we went to look at lots and found out that the lots were more interesting than we had ever considered. That is, anything BUT flat and square.

I didn’t just drop the idea of living in Costa Rica. In fact, this new information made the prospect even more exciting. With respect to the house, there were so many new ideas that I could incorporate. In fact, every bit of new information changes what I can or want to do with the house. In fact, I have over 20 different designs that I have played with, dealing with about 5 different concepts.

You can see the latest design on my Flickr page. The house design has changed, but the main idea of living in Costa Rica has always stayed strong. With every new design, I get more and more excited. In fact, this is a great way to visualize the end result of achieving my dream.

So don’t let changes allow you to abandon your dreams. Just look at them closer and see how you can improve them.

When someone tells you that you are not being realistic, isn’t it usually that that person simply isn’t willing to put in the work that is needed to make it happen? Often, when we tell people about our dreams, they are scared of the idea and also scared that we might failed. Everyone close to us wants us to succeed and they are afraid that a failure to achieve our goals would really hurt us.

That being said, you need to know if you are scared to achieve your goals. Are you willing to do what it takes to achieve your goals? Many times, we state a goal, but do not know what it would really take to achieve it. Sometimes, it could be very easy to achieve and other times it might be difficult. The difference isn’t in the difficulty, however. The difference is in whether you know from the start what you will need to do. That is why it is important to be Specific, Measurable, and Actionable, because these steps will help you realize the depth of work required.

By understanding what is required to achieve your goals, you will be able to determine what is reasonable, or realistic, for you. What is realistic to one person may not be for someone else. Therefore, you have to answer that questions for yourself. If you really cannot answer that question, there are probably two things you need to work on. One, you need to do a better job of breaking down your goals so that the steps are in fact reasonable. If all the steps are realistic, then the overall goal must be as well.

The second thing you need to do is learn more about what it is you are looking to achieve. Maybe you need to ask for input from someone who has done what you want to do. If you don’t already have these things as steps in achieving your goal, maybe you should add them in.

Sometimes you can do all of this and still have your head in the clouds. Sometimes those other people are right. Doesn’t that sound horrible? It can be a devastating realization that what you want truly isn’t realistic by anyone’s terms.

Many times, people write down their goals and if they just thought about them, they might see how absurd they are. For example, if you are completely broke and today you decided to write down a goal of having a million dollars in the bank, that would be great. However, if you said you wanted to achieve it by tomorrow, that would be UNrealistic. Sorry, but there is no way around it. Overnight success stories usually omit the months or years of work it took to get to the point where an “overnight” success was even possible.

So just remember, a realistic goal has to be realistic to you. If you are having trouble seeing how it can be realistic, work at breaking it down some more and making each of those chunks realistic. Start with one small step.

You can review the rest of the steps so far by following any of the links below.

SPECIFIC

MEASUREABLE

ACTIONABLE

REALISTIC – that’s this post.

TIME SENSITIVE – hold on, we’re getting there.