Back wearing the 45 like Jordan & leaving no risks on the table

Can't believe its been a year since I posted last...Hoping my next post comes a little sooner before then lol.

Its been an interesting year to say the least, including plenty of hi's and low's. I've learned a lot and that's a plus, but I definitely feel like I left a lot of 'risks' on the table. Some might see that as a positive, but in my shoes at this juncture in my life, I don't want to let that happen again.

I've come to realize that a lot my ideas/realizations, great or not, have just been those and nothing more. Meaning the execution on these revelations has been very poor to say the least. I'm tired of that. I don't want to spend the next 20 years of my life, wishing I would have actually applied all of the revelations I've had over that span. So I'm not.

After living in the great state of Oregon for the last 25 years, I am officially taking my talents, or lack thereof, to Southern California and San Diego this fall. I'm excited, nervous, and anxious, but the one thing I know I wont be? Regretful.

See you soon SD...

-CJ

Act with Intention

It's been way too long since my last post and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't lightweight embarrassed writing this now, knowing damn well 2 months ago I set a goal to post weekly. I apologize for that. Hopefully the 3-4 people (maybe generous haha) that actually read this blog will understand and know that I let myself down at the same time.

I wanted to keep it short today and post a great TED talk that I watched the other day and really got the wheels in my mind turning about the future. Being a 20-something myself, its almost overwhelming to imagine all the possibilities and options life presents us with if we use our resources and act with intention. In my opinion the possibilities are endless, only by definition and genetic limitations. However, that has still got to leave us with at least a million possibilities, right? And that may be a conservative figure. Regardless, i'd much rather be overwhelmed by my options rather than underwhelmed.

To sum the video up, Meg stresses that we spend our 20's working towards something, acting with some intention and not just mindlessly drifting along and putting things off because of this illusion of how much time we have in the grand scheme of life. The choices we make now shape our future. We need to get rid of this notion that we can waste our time during our 20's and finally get serious once we turn 30's. I think she really hit it on the head when talking about the flight of an airplane and how such a slight change of course, upon takeoff can be the difference of landing in Hawaii or Alaska.

Let's forget age for a minute and live with some urgency to force ourselves into acting with intention in our everyday lives.

 “To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time.”

-Leonard Bernstein                                  

-Colin           

The little things that matter

First I’d like to apologize for how long it’s been since my last post. If anything I could tell you that I’ve been on the road for the past 2 weeks, busy with work and beginning to gear up for some serious CPA studying, but that shouldn’t matter, those aren’t good excuses and I will own that. 

From now on though, I will stick to at least one post per week, hopefully more, but I think one post is achievable for now. 

Lately though I’ve been noticing how much the small things in life can make a difference in someone’s day. 

I try to make it a point to say “Thank you, ____” whenever I interact with someone wearing a name tag, like at the grocery store or gym, etc… You would be surprised at how much positive reaction that can receive. 

Business wise I think there are many ways of adding a personal touch, one big one would be hand written thank you notes, but there are other ways that could be used more frequently. 

For example if you are trying to connect to someone on LinkedIn, don’t just use the pre-populated text within the greeting, but add a personal note instead. Give people something interesting to read or let them know that you took the time to write a nice message. 

It’s the little things like that, that takes so little effort on your part but can make such a large difference for someone else on the other end.

-Colin