TCOBaG - kNow ThiNkIng AllOwEd

TCOBaG: When all you have is a hammer . . .

everything looks like a nail.

A friend of mine when asked a question about solving a certain content management system problem came back with a very detailed, quite concise way that the problem might be solved using a customized script snip to reach a solution.

I’d not want to bore you too much with the technical details, but his follow-up to the question his response sparked started with this statement: “When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”

The question of course was “Doesn’t that seem like overkill?”

What does that have to do with marketing? Success? Getting what you want?

Well, as always, I’m so glad you asked . . .

First, my friend is a programmer, and pretty serious about it. What he does, he does like you and I breathe. Kind of like the folks who still hand code html in a text reader, like Textpad, or Notepad.

How many times have you asked a question, especially a solution based question, and their response revolved around what they knew best?

Of course, it happens all of the time.

What this means for us, is that if we’re looking for a programming solution for our problems, ask a programmer, sales copy solution, ask a writer.

If you ask a programmer about fixing a problem with visitors hitting your order page but not following through I can guarantee you that his (or her solution is going to be something script based.

If you like surprises, then ask the sales copy guy how to solve your Linux server issues.

If not, and you’re really looking for a way to handle the nail, ask the guy with the hammer.

I’m hooked on this ‘time’ thing. “I don’t have enough” “there’s not enough time” . . . But it all boils down to moments. Period.

What we do with our lives, we get caught up in thinking over the long term, when actually we’re living in the short term.

What defines your life? 20 years of research? 38 years of dedicated marriage? 10 years as an undergrad in college? (was that just me?

None of those things, define your life, or at least they shouldn’t.

What defines your life is this moment, this time, right now . . .

what you are doing, what you choose to do, how you choose to act in the little moments of life, those are the things that define you.

A moment of joy, a moment of kindness, a moment of passion, or two moments if you’re lucky, a moment of being awestruck by seeing the fantastic, for me Rodan on display in Italy.

That’s what you should know, what you should think about in trying to live your life to it’s fullest. Living in, making the most of, and making a lot of ‘moments.’

In a way our society has now decided to reward some for their ‘lifetime achievements’ and that confuses us. Oscars, grammies, presidential awards, but even those are what?

A collection of moments.

Add one moment a day, and don’t call me in the morning.

Not usually a problem for me, but I get this from my writing students on a regular basis, and friends aspiring to be writers or to write more . . .

What do I write about? I have no idea!

You know that great, “write what you know” crutch, fallback, senseless patter, right?

First, you gotta decide ‘what you know.”

Little brainstorming session.

5 minutes should do it . . .

Paper, pencil, (I like to do this on paper, gives it a physical feel but you can use your computer as long as the solitaire game is at least minimized and you don’t have the sound up for new messages arriving

Start at the top:
Just start listing all of the topics you’ve ever studied in school.
Magazines you read regularly
Kinds of articles, topics
Books,
Hobbies
Sports you like to play or watch
Games
Software you use
Forums you visit
Newsletters (ezines)

Don’t stop writing for 5 minutes, write “I can’t think” or “I have no idea” when you er, ‘have no idea’ but keep the pencil or the typing fingers moving for 5 minutes.

Now, look at your list.

Anything jump out at you?

No?

Want to try again for 5 more minutes?

Thought not

Look over the list. Grab the first 7 that seem to stick out.

Narrow that down to the top 3 and list them in order of your knowledge, interest, and desire to write about them.

Done?

Good.

Now you know what to write about.

Not painful at all, eh?

Just look at what you can do . . .

People ask me all the time, what kind of site, what kinds of things, can I do on the internet?

This question never ceases to amaze me, nor does the incredible number of possibilities.

There are so many ideas that you can use to build your site around.

And Yes, there are a ton of sites already out there.

What you need to do is find a way to make your site, like you No, no, not boring, balding, and belly-widening, that’s like me, I mean

UNIQUE!

Here’s a great example of taking offline ideas and implementing them into online ideas.

It’s also a great way to spend some time, so don’t read the rest of this if you’re in a big hurry to get things done

Here’s a site that uses digital photos to make jigsaw puzzles, online, and you can do them right there.

This link will take you to a puzzle I had made from a photo my wife and I took on a recent trip to Korea. It’s a picture of the most famous temple in South Korea, the oldest still operating one as well if I recall correctly.

The name of the temple is Bulguksa (”sa” here means “temple” so it’s a bit redundant to say Bulguksa temple, but I see this a lot on maps and brochures. I’ll save that rant and explanation for another time. Lucky you, hehheh). It’s located in Kyungju, the ancient capitol city of Korea.

It’s a well-made site, it’s light and fast, and it shows you just how you can utilize offline interests for your online endeavors.

http://justjigsawpuzzles.com/jigsaw_Bulguk_Temple_Korea_SR003.html

How do I stay on course?

While this is a big, broad topic, there are a few simple things that we can learn, and if applied, will help us in most areas of staying on course, or remaining focused.

First off we need to remember the ‘why’ factor in our goal. If we aren’t strong enough in the reasons we desire reaching a goal, it’s just not likely to happen, especially if that goal is a challenging one, and I do hope my readers are not choosing those simple, light-weight non-challenging goals, eh?

Okay, if we have a strong why, and we have our goal with a deadline, then we need only do a couple of things to keep on track and stay focused.

One, get someone to remind you. Simple, right? Two things this will do. One is that telling someone else about your goal makes you 70% more likely to follow through in order to remain consistent (that’s a whole other article, but it is coming. Promise.) You can also use software to remind you.

The second benefit of this is that you will be reminded about your goal, you will revisit the goal, and you will either stay focused on working towards your goal and attain it, or you will avoid the friend and drop the goal.

Two, ask yourself every day at the beginning of the day what you will do to further your journey on the path to your goal. Sometimes you don’t even need to answer the question at that time, but be open to it, be serious with the question, and if you don’t answer, tell yourself, “Self, give me the answer to this question later today when you’ve had time to mull it over.” This works very well to free you from stressing about it, and you will more often than not suddenly find you’ve been ‘inspired’ with a thought about your project or goal. Try it.

It really is that simple.

Here are a couple of easy tips to help you with this:

Put two notes on the corner of your computer screen, or work area, right in front of you. On one write the Question? Am I still working towards my goal? On the other write: Why do I want this goal?

Put them where you will see them, read them, and answer both questions honestly. It’s best to do this at least a couple of times a day. When you glance at the notes, answer the questions.

Every 3 or 4 days changed the notes, their position, simply reverse them, but do something to keep you from becoming complacent about seeing them, getting too comfortable and failing to notice and respond to them.

That’s it. You will see results from this technique almost immediately. Just remember to change them up occasionally and this method will continue to be useful tool for keeping you on track and focused on your goals.

Want to know when the time is right to take action? When is it time to stop asking questions?

Sometimes I get a little bent, I admit it. I ask questions, of others, of myself, the Supreme Being. I also remind myself to ask another question.

“Why am I asking?”

The answer to this question is the real key.

So many people are looking for someone else to point them in the right direction, to validate their plans, their ideas, either negative or positive, while they sit.

They sit!

Then they can say, “well, I asked, and this is what so-and-so said, or thought, or was thinking, or hypothesized would happen, could happen, should happen, but I’ve never really tried it.”

Or even if they *did* try it, who cares?

You are you. Your situation is different from those around you. What you bring to the table is your uniqueness, but you try to give that up by following the herd.

Ask yourself, “Why am I asking?”

And answer truthfully.

You may already have the answer. In that case, you should stop reading now, and get to *doing*.

Analysis should be used the most as applied to results.

If you are asking so that someone else can tell you your idea stinks, or rocks, even, you are asking the wrong questions, and for the wrong reasons.

Doing brings the results you seek.

Asking may only bring you an invalid validation.

Are you still here?

Let’s move out!

Okay, I’ve dawdled and bumbled and stumbled around and have finally decided to take some of my own advice here.

I’ve had TCOBaG set up on pMachine Pro for a while, but never really used it, never really could keep posting to it when my other sites (several, many of them using WP) were much easier and handier to update.

So, today, I grabbed the content I’d posted, and ripped everything down from my old server, moved the DNS to a my regular server and installed WP (6.1?)

Of course there’s no easy way to just import my posts from pMachine to WP, so I’m doing it manually. Not that many (sadly, but gladly too :-)) but it’s taken a large chunk of my day.

Anyway, I’m going to be posting the older articles mostly all at once and then getting into a routine of posting here.

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/PowerMeUp and subscribe to the feed here to keep up to date.

Be well, live well, die last,

Allen