Archive for April, 2007

I’ve been reading Tim Ferriss’s new book, The 4 Hour Workweek, and have been intrigued by his concept of escaping your job and becoming a world traveler. Tim relates many amazing adventures all over the world, from Argentina to Berlin, and many unique places in between. The cool thing is the price. Many of his escapes cost less than staying home and you live like a king, with luxurious surroundings and gourmet food.

While I would like to escape for 6 months or a year, my current reality is a long weekend once a month. Taking Tim’s lead, I ask the question… what exciting places can we go over a three day weekend that will allow us to escape reality and enjoy beautiful surroundings and amazing food?

To make a three day weekend work, our destination needs to be reasonably close to home. We don’t want to spend it driving for hours on end. Over the past few years my wife and I have had some amazing adventures within a few hours of our house. We live in the Southern California area, so there is a lot to see and do, but I think these ideas will work for many locations.

Here are two exciting escapes we have taken that didn’t cost a fortune, provide wonderful surroundings and have amazing food.

Number One: The Great Taco Adventure. This is a lot of fun. Grab a local magazine or find a citywalk website that lists the best cuisine in a nearby city, such as the best burgers, steaks, tacos, etc. Find three different restaurants that sound interesting and plan a day trip to each one.

My wife, daughter, and I did this a few years back. We called it the Great Taco Adventure as we headed off to experience the best Taco’s in Southern California. We had read reviews that readers of Sunset Magazine had written in and we picked three restaurants within two hours of home.

Our adventure started with Yucatan cuisine in Mentone, California on the first day. We had incredible Lamb Tacos at a little place called Casa Maya. The decor was straight out of South America and the hospitality was great.

Day two had us in Downtown Riverside with authentic street tacos. Riverside is a great town to explore and the food in this restaurant was very tasty. The restaurant looked like a large box, but the service and hospitality was anything but ordinary.

Day three took us to a sidewalk surf shack in Point Loma, outside of San Diego. The owner of this small restaurant wore a one-off Hawaiian shirt and had a personality to match. His cook named Maria made some of the best tacos and enchiladas I have ever tasted. This place just oozed personality and just sitting and watching the locals was worth the drive.

Three days and three interesting adventures. We met people from different cultures, ate amazing food, and sat in some of the most varied surroundings imaginable… all within two hours of home.

Number Two: Bed & Breakfast Wonderland. Imagine an 1890’s Victorian home, with each room inhabited by a different character from Alice in Wonderland. You walk through the door to find the smell of blueberry scones baking in the oven and a carafe of wine on the veranda. You are soon talking with people from all over the country. There is a professor from a college in New York, a real estate developer from Las Vegas, and honeymooner’s from San Francisco.

After an afternoon of small talk you take a short walk down State street to find a little restaurant named Downeys. You already have reservations and spend the evening enjoying grilled duck, exotic vegetables, and a fresh raspberry-white chocolate Mille Feuille.

As you walk back to your room, the eclectic nightlife of Santa Barbara draws you in. The soft sounds of smooth jazz are soon replaced with the strong beat of a Caribbean quartet. As you walk further you notice the flowering Jacaranda trees in bloom and the sun dropping over an incredible skyline.

This is the first of three wonderful days in this coastal paradise. You spend time at the pier and white sand beach and finish up your trio of days at a small bistro named Louie’s. You accommodation’s at the Cheshire Cat B&B and all the dining and afternoon amenities were less than $450. What felt like an exotic foreign destination was less than three hours from home.

As you can see, you don’t have to travel around the world to find adventure. Sometimes it’s right in your own backyard. Why not pull out a local map, find a theme, and start an adventure. Take a Friday or Monday off, escape the 9-5 and get lost in a nearby wonderland. You’ll be glad you did!

Technorati Tags: Travel, Santa Barbara, Tacos

Do you find that some goals are easier to reach than others? Are tedious, boring goals hard for you to finish? Is there a relationship with the level of excitement of a goal and the probability of completion?

I think there is!

I’ve been listening to a new Audio book by Tim Ferriss, entitled The Four Hour Workweek. This is a surprising book and covers an incredible array of topics. Tim’s premise is to do what he calls “DEAL” (Delegation, Elimination, Automation, and Liberation), and has mastered the art of making his business run as automatically and effortlessly as possible, to the point where he spends only 4 hours a week running it.

Tim Ferriss lives a life almost anyone would envy: he is constantly traveling around the world, has learned 6 foreign languages fluently, competed in a world tango dance competition, has been a National Chinese Kickboxing Champion in China, is a guest-lecturer in High-Tech Entrepreneurship at Princeton, and has been an actor on a hit television series in Hong Kong. The interesting thing is… Tim is only 29.

In reading Tim’s experiences in his book, one section really stood out. Tim sets goals based on their excitement level. He says that most people base their life’s goals on Happiness. To Tim, happiness can be had in a pill, but excitement is what really drives people to accomplish a goal.

I think there is an excitement quotient in goal setting

• To be the best you can be at a task
• To do something no one else ever has
• To do something in record time

Excitement is the motivation that can keep us going when things get tough.

Consider this example… which goal would you be more excited about?

1. To lose 25 pounds with a very restrictive and boring diet
2. Create a lean, muscular body while eating foods you love.

The second one is much more compelling to me. I would last on the first goal about a week at the most and then go back to my old eating habits. But the second goal is one that has a much higher excitement quotient. The thought of having a great looking lean body will keep me exercising and eating right much longer than a boring program any day. That is why the Body for Life program and others like it have been so successful.

Think about your goals… are they exciting enough?

Or are you boring yourself to failure?

Something to think about…

Technorati Tags: Goal Setting, Goals, Tim Ferriss

Over the past week we have taken a journey to the City of Success (Post 1, 2, & 3). As you read along you may have noticed a theme similar to the Wizard of Oz. We started in a land where the tools, paychecks, and ideas were small. While similar to the Land of the Munchkins in the Oz story, in this land everyone is normal size but the tools and the ideas are tiny.

Have you ever found yourself in a place like this?

I know I have and it can be a very frustrating place. Ask yourself some questions.

• In your job, do you work real hard for a small paycheck?
• Are your co-workers interested in advancement or just getting by?
• Is there a ladder to success or are you stuck in a rut?
• Do your co-workers put you down when you work hard or put in extra time?

I have been in jobs like this in the past. The walls of this tiny city can be pretty intimidating and you may feel there is no way out. Your co-workers may be one of the biggest hindrances to leaving. After all - you do have some fun on the job at times and you do get a paycheck. You wouldn’t want to leave your friends behind… would you? But then you look at your paycheck on payday and realize it doesn’t go very far.

How can you leave?

There is a road out, but you will face many obstacles along the way. The people in your town will not want you to leave and you may have trouble even finding a path out. Once you commit to the path things may come at you fast and furiously. In our story you had the negative voices from a forest of trees. In real life these voices may come from family and loved ones. Your co-workers may chime in with statements like…

• You don’t have any skills…
• Remember the last time you tried something new…
• You’ve got bills to pay…
• What are you thinking…

When these voices come, the world can be a pretty dark place. The more negative the words, the darker the forest gets, until many people turn around and go back to their safe surroundings. Sometimes the only way to overcome these voices is to run… and run fast.

If you are successful overcoming the negativity you’ll surely find the flying monkeys coming your way quickly. These insidious creatures will land on your shoulder and start talking in your ear. Fear and temptation are their game and their voices come on loud and strong… They whisper….

• You’ll lose everything…
• They’ll take your car…
• Your spouse will leave you…
• The new job will be worse than the one you have…

After the monkey of fear is done, the monkey of temptation may chime in…

• Come drinking with us…
• Take the day off and let’s go surfing…
• Quit your job and get unemployment…
• Try these pills, they’ll make you feel better…

Some of these monkeys can really stop you in your tracks. Realize that no matter what you do these monkeys may land on your shoulder from time to time. There are really only two options… you can brush them off and move forward or let them sit there and crawl onto your back. Once you get a monkey on your back, moving forward is really tough and it is much harder to reach them to knock them off. Sometimes the only way to get them off your back is having someone else knock them off.

The best way to keep monkeys from landing is to keep moving forward. If you have a destination in mind and you are moving along the path, the monkeys will find it much harder to land. Brush those monkeys off and get going.

As you get further along your path, sooner or later you’ll come to a bridge that you are unable to cross. Someone or some thing will stand in your way to advancement. Maybe it’s the college degree bridge or possibly the certificate bridge that stands in your way. If this is your first time at the bridge it may be experience that holds you back.

To get across you’ll need the proper credentials. In many cases there will be no substitute for the degree or certificate. If you want to cross that bridge you’ll need to put in the time and effort to get the piece of paper that allows you access. You’ll have to ask yourself if what lies on the other side of the bridge is worth the time and effort it takes to cross it.

Once you have crossed a few bridges on your journey you may find one with a gate keeper that holds you back. This person may take the form of a boss, a manager, or a hiring agent. They may ask you tough questions that you don’t have the answers to. They may hold a personal grudge or possibly be jealous of your advancement. How do you cross a bridge like this?

While there is no one answer to this, developing your personal interviewing skills can be a big help. Knowing how to answer tough interview questions and present yourself in a professional manner are keys to crossing this bridge. In some instances you may need to find another bridge altogether.

After you have crossed the bridges and your city of success is coming in to view, it’s time to finish up the loose ends and finish the journey. This is where the field of procrastination poppies can stop you cold in your tracks. These insidious flowers can delay or even prevent you from reaching your destination. Whether it’s missing a phone call or forgetting to send off an application, the little things in life can really hinder your progress. The best way to get through this field is focus. Don’t look off to one side or the other, but keep your focus straight ahead and on the prize.

As you can see from the story above, the journey to success is filled with obstacles. Sometimes the smallest thing can stop you in your tracks. Taking this journey alone can be very daunting and getting to the end can be almost impossible. What you really need on this journey are some friends and mentors to help you along the way. In the Oz story and in real life we all need some help along the path.

Here are four mentors that you can take along with you that may help you overcome the toughest obstacles. You can get them in written form in a book and carry them along in your backpack, or grab the audio versions and listen to them along the way on your iPod.

1. Encouragement: When you are starting out on your journey it’s easy to get discouraged. The best book I’ve found to give you the encouragement to keep going is the classic by Dale Carnegie, entitled How To Win Friends & Influence People. This book will give you a positive outlook on life and give you the tools to work with everyone along the way.

2. Overcoming Fear: Fear comes in many different forms, but the fear of failure can really stop your forward progress. In his book, Failing Forward, John Maxwell will help you get past your inevitable failures and turn them into learning experiences.

3. Negotiation: When you come to a bridge that you just can’t get across, Keith Ferrazzi may be able to help. His book, Never Eat Alone, has many tools for negotiation and building important business relationships. His powerful tips can help you with that next job interview or performance review.

4. Staying Focused: The road to success requires focus. You really need to stay on the path. David Allen can help with his excellent book, Getting Things Done. His simple but profound concepts can help you straighten your path and get to your destination much sooner.

Taking your mentors along on the journey is as easy as a download into your iPod or other portable audio device. You can move ahead on your success journey even while sitting in traffic.

Enjoy the journey!

Continued from previous posts 1 & 2

As you enter the city your eyes open with amazement. You have never seen anything like this. The walkways are automatic and they quickly take you wherever you want to go. The businesses are all unique with familiar names over the doors. Some are swarming with a mass audience, others have a specialized following.

The downtown area is concentrated with people going to and fro. The walkways are alive with conversation and the exchange of ideas. As you near the heart of downtown the hum of excitement gets louder and a bright glow emerges from the corner buildings. As you turn the corner and step onto the Main conveyor the colorful scene almost blinds you.

The conveyor you are on is wide and crowded. You look off to the side and see a huge glass building with the name Lifehacker on it. Inside are people working with all sorts of amazing devices. You enter the store and see strange but amazing furniture surrounding by lighted screens with colorful cryptographics.

Over to the side is a man dressed as a grease-monkey handing out scripts, while a woman named Gina is touting a new communication device called Gmail on the center stage. A live band is playing and most of the patrons have some kind of handheld device with a little screen on it. The beat is fast and everything is colorful and imaginative.

You head back out the door with a collection of ideas like never before. Back on the main conveyor you past a large theater with a large marquee out front. In bright lights the sign proclaims “The Merlin Show.” The line to enter is almost around the building and the list of guests on the front window is long and impressive. The theater itself is imaginative and looks like it is built out of huge manilla folders. Very impressive.

As you near the town center you come upon a building that is completely straight and organized. Huge letters GTD are emblazoned at the top and a man named David is speaking to rows of followers. He is asking the crowd one simple question… “What’s Your Next Action?” Roars go up from the assembled masses.

You continue down the main conveyor and a building with many numbers on it comes into view. As you get closer you see it is a huge bookstore. Titles like Leadership 101, 25 Ways to Win With People, and The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader adorn the front display window. A man named Maxwell is signing first editions on the sidewalk.

As you come to the end of town, the large conveyor stops and you get back on a smaller one that says resort area ahead. Palm trees adorn the sidewalk and a beautiful community of small homes are set in a resort like fashion. As you enter the housing area you notice a sign that says Ho’ohana Community. To the left on an outdoor stage is a woman reading from a book to an assembled crowd. As the speaker named Rosa finishes up her passage she says Aloha to the crowd. You make a note of the outdoor learning experience and vow to come back in the future.

By this time you are getting hungry and thirsty and you look for a place stop. As the conveyor passes the end of the resort a large coffee shop named Strauss Cafe comes into view. As you draw closer you see a huge crowd inside playing games, singing songs, and enjoying food and beverages. A woman named Liz is going from table to table introducing herself and taking orders. Over in the corner is a donkey named Basil and an amazing collection of written works. This is truly an eclectic place.

Once you’ve enjoyed some lunch you continue to the edge of town. The buildings slowly disappear and you can see grasslands and mountains in the distance. The narrow conveyor brings you to a bridge to nowhere. You imagine to yourself what could be built in this wilderness of open space. The City of Success is a great place… now it’s time to build a place of your own.

Technorati Tags: Success, Inspiration

This is a continuation of a previous post…

The forest floor rolls out before you. You continue along the golden path and the trees get larger and the road ahead gets darker and gloomier. You stop to make an assessment of where you are and then you hear it. The trees are moaning and complaining. It’s subtle at first but you soon notice the voices are very gloomy and disconcerting.

The trees are complaining about all sorts of things and the voices vary. There are male and female voices but they all share one trait - everything they say is negative. There are complaints about birds on one breath and about the hot sun on the other. The next tree is complaining about termites while the next is upset about the endless wind.

As you walk along you find yourself drawn into the conversations. You start to slow down and the conversations drag you down. You suddenly find yourself very depressed and wanting to get all the trees to just shut up. The negativity gets worse the farther you go. Your mind goes through some scenarios and you start feeling sorry for yourself. Thoughts of Poor Me start to roll through your head and you feel like turning back.

Suddenly you do something very unexpected. You put your hands over your ears and just start running forward along the path. You run as fast as you can and soon the trees thin out and you come to a clearing. Whew… you say to yourself and you notice that the sun is out and it appears to be a beautiful day.

The golden path heads out across a meadow and then heads up into some strange looking hills. As you walk through the meadow, you notice a few trees along the path with what looks like large birds in them. As you walk closer, one of these creatures takes flight and suddenly lands on your shoulder. You strain your neck and see that it is a hideous looking flying monkey.

Fear grips you, and the beast starts talking into your ear. “Go no further,” it says in a sinister voice. You start to shake in fear, and turn your head not to look at it. As your head turns to the other shoulder, you notice another monkey landing, this one with a large bag. Suddenly he reaches into his bag and brings out some berries for you to eat. “Eat these, and you’ll become one of us,” he says in a calming voice.

He keeps up the mantra… “eat these… eat these and you’ll be able to fly.” You don’t want any of this but the fear and temptation are compelling. You look back to the first monkey and his hideous features and large claws cause a deep fear to come over you… it’s words, “go no further or you’ll die,” cause you to stop in your tracks.

A thought of being able to fly comes into your mind. If you could fly you could see where you are going… you could see the road ahead… but then you look at the hideous faces and the broken and bandaged wings. Suddenly it all makes sense… you would be able to fly but you would be trapped in these trees, unable to escape.

You make up your mind and do something incredible. You gather up your courage and brush away the monkeys. Surprisingly… they brush off easily and then you start to run again. Past the trees with more monkeys. You look back and see them taking flight and you run even faster. Soon the path leads up into the hills and a brisk wind keeps the monkeys from following.

You huff and puff your way up the path and you soon find your way deep into the hills. The path twists and turns and finally comes to a small clearing. Here before you is a huge chasm with a bridge across it. There is a gate across the bridge and a woman guard comes out. She is dressed all in black and she has a depressing look on her face. She looks deep into your eyes and says, “You must answer three questions to cross.”

You take a step back and survey the scene. The woman is staring into a glow coming from the rock outcropping. It’s like she can see your life story before her.

She becomes serious… “to pass, answer me this question. What is 4856 multiplied by 3678?”

Your mind flashes back to your elementary math class. You always have had trouble with math and without pencil and paper this seems impossible.

Then you remember that easy trick you learned from the book Arithmetricks and suddenly you have the answer you are looking for. You blurt out 17893470 and the woman’s eyes lower and a slight scowl appears on her face. She looks deeper into the glow as if looking for something much harder.

She looks up from the glow and stares intently at you… “Spell soliterraneous.” Wow! you think to yourself, you can hardly pronounce this word but some tricks you learned from the book Spelling 101help immensely. You roll the word over and over in your mind and then spell it perfectly, letter for letter.

The woman scowls and says, “The gate will only open if you can replay this list of names within 30 seconds.” Then she lists off 15 different names. Suddenly a picture forms in your mind and you find the memory techniques you learned in the Memory book come back to you. A detailed list is now like a movie playing in your mind. You repeat each name perfectly and suddenly the gate opens. The woman scowls and shrieks in anger.

You cross the bridge and continue climbing into the hills. You can see a bright glow coming from the hill tops. As you reach the peak the most incredible sight comes to your eyes. In the distance you see a wonderful city that seems to look like diamonds. The glow is bright and you suddenly realize the trip has well been worth the effort. You have never seen anything so beautiful.

The path rolls out before you as you descend the hills through a valley of flowers. You are now in a hurry and want to get to the city as soon as possible. As you enter the flower fields you notice flowers of all colors calling out to you. You see the city in the distance and keep going but something catches your eyes. The orange flowers to the right are almost on fire. You stop, and reach out and grab one. as you put it to your nose to draw in the fragrance… you start to feel sleepy.

Suddenly you find you can’t move and you soon crumple into sleepy heap. You are so tired you can’t go forward. You close your eyes and sleep for hours. As you awake you look at your watch and realize you have been asleep for over a day. You remember something about a beautiful flower and get up. It soon dawns on you that you are in the middle of a field of procrastination poppies. To get through this you must have a single vision straight ahead. You can’t look to the right or left or these insidious flowers will draw you in.

With a single focused vision you start to run towards the city. The glow gets brighter as you approach and as you come to the last little hill outside the city, you stop to marvel in the view. You can see the spires of the larger buildings and the bluish tint of the glow from all of the smaller buildings. There is a hustle and bustle and a hushed roar of excitement in the air.

You notice the path widening into many lanes as you walk along and soon you come to the main archway of the city. You take one more step and the ground beneath you starts to move. You are instantly on the move and you are wisked quickly into the glow of this amazing metropolis. The buildings all seem vaguely familiar. The names of the shops and the other businesses all have names you recognize.

You wonder to yourself… is this all a dream or have you really arrived? Is this the City of Success that you’ve dreamed about all your life? You come up to a sign post and you step off the moving roadway. Here is what you have been waiting for. The sign that explains it all. You look up and marvel at what it says. It is… continued…

Technorati Tags: Success, Goal Setting

I’d like to invite you to take a journey with me today. Step into my whirlwind… whoosh! When the wind stops  you suddenly find yourself standing in a new home. You walk out the front door to find a new skyline and different people. There is commotion in the street; a crowd has gathered and everyone celebrates your arrival. A giant party ensues with dancing, singing, and joy. For hours you party on. You meet a lot of new faces and learn a lot of new names. This is a great place.

You end the day with a smile on your face and return to your home with a feeling of happiness. This new town is wonderful. And you think to yourself… I could live here forever. The next day you walk out the door, but now things are different. The partying is over… it’s back to work for everybody.

Then you notice something very strange. Even though the people of this new world come in all shapes and sizes, the tools of their trades are all very small. The ditch diggers have really tiny shovels. The bakers have little tiny spoons and the barbers have itsy bitsy scissors.  Everyone is working very hard, much harder than they need to. You walk along in amazement, and suddenly someone puts a tiny little shovel in your hand.

“Come dig with us,” is the cry, and you find yourself trying to dig a big hole with a very small shovel. The work is hard… incredibly hard. You get frustrated after just a few minutes, and you ask your co-workers why they are using such small tools. The little man next to you answers, “We’ve always done it this way,” and continues digging. You shrug - well, that’s a good reason … I guess.

You work through the day, getting more and more frustrated by the minute. The sun bakes your neck and there is grumbling among the workers. Everyone is complaining about the small paychecks. Sure enough when the whistle blows at the end of the day, the foreman hands you a tiny check for only a few dollars.

“This is insane,” you think to yourself, and walk slowly back to your house. As you walk past a restaurant you notice the prices on the window are high. When you look inside you can see why. The plates are normal size, but the frying pan and the utensils are all very small. It would cost you most of your daily wage just to get a meal.

That night you do a lot of soul searching and decide you need find someplace better. You determine that you will leave this town in the morning. As the sun rises you pack a bag and head out the door, joining other people who are going to work. You ask them how to leave. “There is only one way out, but you can’t leave!”

As you come to the edge of town you see a large forest with a golden path leading into it. This must be it, you think to yourself. As you start to head down the path, many of the town’s people come running. “Don’t go down that road… there are giant talking trees, flying monkeys and a very wicked woman in that forest… you’ll surely die!” “No one ever comes back,” someone says sadly.

You suddenly wonder… should you go? After all… this is a safe place. Fear starts to envelope you, but you look back and realize you couldn’t continue to use such small tools. This whole place has such small things… small tools, small paychecks… but above all… small ideas.

You take the first step, and then another. The noise of the crowd behind you gets louder and louder… “Don’t Go… Stop!” But you keep going and the path suddenly gets very narrow and very dark. As you round the first bend, you suddenly hear a rumble and then you see it… right there in front of you is a…

Continued tomorrow…