Patrick Rhone's Blog, page 6

Situational Awareness

"Pay attention to detail!"

I was in the Navy for a period of my young adult life. It was not as long as I had hoped. A medical issue just a few weeks into boot camp led to an early general discharge. But, boot camp is designed so that lessons that take years in the civilian world are packed into every single day there. I learned so much then that remains with me and makes me a better human today.

One of the ideas that pops up in almost every lesson in military training is that extreme attention to detail matters. That in every situation, focused and unbroken awareness matters. That, in the worst cases, it is the difference between life and death. And so this level of attention to detail is stressed at every turn.

On the way to RTC San Diego, several of the new recruits I was traveling with and I ran into a couple of young soldiers at our layover in Denver. Nervously asking them about what Boot Camp would be like — how hard it would be or any tricks to make it easier — they responded "Just pay attention to detail. If you don’t you will be in a world of hurt." As soon as we arrived on base, and the yelling began, "Pay attention to detail!" was a refrain so constant it could have been a rock anthem chorus being blasted in our ears. And, in those coming days, when punishment would come, it would usually come only when the details were ignored or missed. And as our hands bled and burned from the few dozen push-ups on freshly gravelled blacktop amidst the Southern California heat our ignorance had brought upon us, the number of repetitions due was increased if each and every man failed to execute the punishment with attention to detail and precision.

Because, when it is the hardest to maintain focus — a fire fight, when you are scared and lost, when death is almost certain — is when it is most important to pay attention to every detail and execute extreme awareness in the situation. The safe path away from the battle, the weakness in the enemy defense, the ally you could signal for help, if it’s there at all it is there in the details.

The lesson that remains with me is that this is true of any situation in everyday life. That if an answer exists at all, if not obvious, it is only found by paying attention to the details. If you get into a bind, that will show you the way out. In tough spots, the answer is being mindful and aware of all of the available options. By having situational awareness in every direction you will find the your way out of the darkest certainties.

The Power of When

“No such thing as spare time

No such thing as free time

No such thing as down time

All you got is life time”

— Henry Rollins, Shine

The Power of When is now available. What is it? Read on…

Realistically, when you take away the time for sleep, the time for eating, the time you want to spend with the people that matter, travel time, and the minutia that makes it all run, most people have about six hours of useable work day.

Six hours.

Looked at another way, that’s only about 25% of every day. All the meetings, all projects, all the deadlines, all the tasks, and everything else you need to do to keep the money ball rolling must fit in there somewhere. And, the only way to do so is to ask one simple question of all of these things.

When?

My friend Garrick van Buren and I have been thinking about and discussing this subject off and on for years now. In the process, we have been able to distill this idea into a simple set of tools to dramatically improve your productivity, eliminate your procrastination, and achieve your most important goals. We have turned this conversation into a ninety minute audio program that is available for purchase.

Here’s a 2 minute sample of what to expect:

Want to unlock your productivity and gain more free time? Want to banish To Do Lists forever and be confident you’re not missing anything? Want to achieve your most important goals while maintaining inbox zero? Want to know the one question that unlocks all of this?

You need The Power of When

P.S. Want to get a sense of some of the ideas discussed? Check out my post, A Time For Things and Better Things.

How To Use Your Shoulders

the wonderful thing

about offering

a shoulder to cry on

is that you have another

dry and ready

to accept more crying

and once the other

is accepting more tears

you can continue

to console the suffering

while the first one

is drying

On Kicking Ass

There are times in our life when we simply kick ass.

It’s OK to kick a little ass sometimes. In fact, I argue that it is imperative to kick a whole lot of ass when the demands of life call for one to do so.

Like the revolution, the kicking ass will not be televised. You don’t have to prove that you have kicked ass. The fact that you kick ass will be obvious to everyone who knows you. You can go about your life, kicking ass along the way, and know deep inside yourself how much you kick ass.

That said, it is also OK to be proud of it. When one kicks ass of any amount, it is OK to declare that you have done so. Let the world know of your ass kickery.

In either case, make sure to take time to reflect on your ass kicking. Especially if the asses kicked are in amounts higher than the average. Enumerate and take pride on the number of asses kicked.

Personally, I see little need to take the names of the asses kicked. That will only slow one down. One cannot both kick ass and take names at the same time. One must kick ass, pause to take the name, then move on to the next ass kicking.

Unless one needs to keep detailed records of each ass kicked for tax or expense purposes. If so, then by all means, take names as well. Just be intentional about the trade off you are making by doing so.

Regardless, the reason I write this straight forward message is simple — we need everyone to kick more ass. The world has changed. There are increasingly less instances of both ass kicking and those that are ass kickers than there has been in the past. Ass kickers were once admired and plentiful. Ass kickers were desired. They are less so now. In fact, some believe they are actively discouraged. There are even those that claim our institutions of learning are turning ass kickers into ass kissers. So, those that kick ass are desperately needed in these hard times and the harder times to come. Those that do kick ass need to make themselves known as far and wide as possible in order to inspire others to kick ass. As an ass kicker it is your duty now, for the future.

Now, go forth and kick some ass.

I’m a writer. Writing is how I make this world better, friendlier, stronger place. If these words improved your day, please let me know by contributing here.

Random Notes and Thoughts #4

Here are some of the things that have passed through my head and have been captured, recorded, and, now, let go of.

My daughter says "It doesn’t care" in place of "It doesn’t matter". I love it. I think this should become a "thing". I’m going to try it out for a while just to see if people catch it.

I’ve come up with something I’m calling "The Universal Sandwich Theory". Follow along with me here: A sandwich made with bad ingredients and poorly made bread will be a horrible sandwich. A sandwich made with good ingredients but poorly made bread will be a bad sandwich. A sandwich made with great ingredients but poorly made bread will be a mediocre sandwich. Conversely, a sandwich made with bad ingredients and great bread will be a mediocre sandwich. A sandwich made with good ingredients and great bread will be a great sandwich. A sandwich made with great ingredients and great bread will be a fantastic sandwich. Bread is the most important ingredient of any sandwich. When making a sandwich, focus on getting the best bread you can. It makes whatever is happening in the middle better. (This also applies to way more than sandwiches.)

It’s getting really hard for me to believe that any of this is an accident.

I’ve been thinking a lot about turning age 50 in about 2.5 years — which is strange for me. I’m not one who has ever concerned myself too much with age or with "milestone" birthdays. In fact, in so many ways I don’t think of getting older with the passage of time, I think of getting better. But, for some reason, this milestone has especially been on my mind. Not in any alarming way. More in a "what I want to make sure I accomplish by age 50" sort of way. I want to make sure I have a plan for where I want to be and what I want age 50 to look and feel like.

I really enjoyed the Lord of The Ring movies as I was a big fan of the trilogy as a young teen. But, I was an even bigger fan of The Hobbit, which I had read first. There was something about Bilbo that really connected with me. So, when it was announced that a movie version was to be made I was excited to see what Director Peter Jackson would do with it. But, it was quickly followed by disappointment when word came out what he actually planned to do with it. Namely, stretch it out, somehow, into a trilogy and not at all staying true to the plot line and central story of the book. Therefore, I have yet to see a single one of these films. I already know I will be saddened and angry. Therefore, it makes me so happy that someone has taken it upon themselves to try to right this great wrong. A re-edited four hour single movie version available via torrent. I’m still waiting for it to complete but I’m excited once again. My faith in Humans and Hobbits alike is restored.

A short poem titled, About more than a coffee shop:

We live in a world where we pay

Three dollars for happiness

We could easily have

For thirty cents at home

But here, happiness is made for us

Delivered with a smile that pretends to care

At home, we are responsible

At home, we have to make our own

The way one arranges a living space tells me a whole lot about what is important to the people that live in it.

The fact that I’ve been pretty quiet on many social internet fronts as of late is both situational and intentional. Situational because I’ve been especially busy with client work and trying to fit writing into the spaces in-between and that leaves me little time for tweeting and sharing. Intentional because I’ve been trying to be better about simply sitting back and listening. Sometimes it feels like I’m just adding noise, even when I feel what I’m saying has value. I’m unsure it has a value greater than the noise it creates. So, for now, I’m trying to simply listen.

Your free will donation of any amount helps to support a full-time independent writer. Thanks for reading!

Asking Is The Hardest Job

This past weekend, we spent some time at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (which we refer to as "The MIA" around these parts). We were there for a private art tour for Beatrix’s book club (yes, my almost seven year old belongs to her own book club with several school friends). It was organized by an acquaintance of one of Beatrix’s friend’s parents who also works at the MIA. The tour was based loosely on the book they had just completed reading, Charlotte’s Web. It was a lot of fun for kids and parents alike. Every time we visit the MIA, which ends up being a few times a year, we are reminded just how much we love it and express a desire to make our visits there more frequent.

As our group was gathering, putting away coats, and making general small talk before the tour began, the tour leader mentioned that membership to the MIA was now free. Entry to the museum has always been free (or an optional donation). But the membership, which gave you a fair amount of added benefits, had been a fair price for as long as I remember. He also mentioned that one still gets the same benefits formerly offered at the old entry level membership fee.

I asked him how they were able to do this. As in, how were they able to give something away free that I felt had more than fair value before. He explained that, in part, they had been seeing membership decline steadily for years while at the same time attendance was increasing. That there were several sponsors and foundations that awarded money based on membership levels. Therefore, by increasing membership they would get more money from these large organizations that would hopefully make up the loss. It made sense on one level but on another it really bugged me.

You see, a few years ago we received a family membership to the MIA as a gift. It was a great gift. We would have gone far more often as members that year but, for whatever reason, we had a frustrating and almost comical time actually trying to get the gift membership activated. In fact, it took seven months and multiple calls to several people to finally get our family membership activated. And, when we finally did get it activated, they set the membership expiration date to one year from the date of the gift. In other words, they did not offer at all to grant us the time it took to actually get the membership activated. At that point, we knew it would take even more calls and hassles to get that made right, so we didn’t bother.

But, the thing is, we would make perfect MIA members. Not only do Bethany and I love the MIA, Beatrix loves art museums and loves the MIA especially. We really believe in taking advantage of the wealth of arts experiences the metro area has to offer. We support many other arts organizations with our time, talents, and money. We are active members of other museums in town. In other words, we are exactly the sort of people who would have been paying members and likely for life…

If they had only asked why we weren’t any longer.

I wonder what would have happened, if instead of reducing the price to free, they simply called people who were members at one time and no longer were a simple question — why?. Not some pushy sales call or some temp worker with no power to right any wrongs. Just a simple call from someone who cared to listen and was empowered to "make it right" wherever possible.

We would have told them how much we love the museum, how we really wished we were members still, but that we had such a bad experience with getting the gift membership straightened out and not getting the full year out of it that it left a bad taste in our mouth.

If, then, the MIA representative would have offered something fair — like the ability to purchase a year long membership with the seven months we lost added on for free — we would have jumped at the chance and our faith and generous support of the museum would have been restored.

I wonder how many others like us there are. How many are no longer members because of some bad experience in the past. Perhaps the problem in their declining membership numbers is not because times are tight and people are cutting back. Perhaps it is because the there was a serious problem in the membership process that was never discovered and resolved. Perhaps a phone call and some good will would have turned the tide.

Asking for money is hard work. Asking for money takes courage and a belief that there is real value in what you are selling and the price you put on it is a fair one. It takes believing that there are those to whom this will be obvious and that they are your ideal first customers and that there are many just like them out there just waiting for you to ask. That, people who were once your customers and no longer are likely so for a reason and they are just waiting for you to care enough to ask why. Asking means facing the fear of failure.

Many businesses frame their first dollar bill. It is, in part, pride. A visible symbol that the business is now officially open. That someone cared enough to believe in what they had to sell. But, that framed dollar represents something deeper: That one can frame that one because they believe so strongly in what they are selling. They wont have to break open that frame to get the only dollar they will ever make. They have the courage to believe that another dollar will come along.

Making the price free is easy. It avoids the hard work. You don’t have to face rejection or get past your fear. You don’t have to do the hard work of figuring out and communicating what your value proposition is. And, even still, it assumes that you can’t convince your customers of that value and that your best marketing asset and opportunity for growth is not the people paying for and enjoying your product. Or, in so many cases — even now in the case of the MIA — it proposes that the customers are actually the product you are selling.

Instead, we happily and immediately signed up for the free membership as soon as we got home. We will certainly use it. But we would have anyway and we would have let them know if they had bothered to ask.

I’m a writer. Writing is how I make this world a better, friendlier, stronger place. If these words improved your day, please let me know by contributing here.

Tinkers by Paul Harding — A Brief (non) Review

This is not a review of Tinkers by Paul Harding. The reason this is not a review is because I did not finish the book.

Here’s the thing: I’m supposed to like this book. In fact, there’s nothing to not like about it. The prose is beautiful, rich, and dense. The story, about a man on his deathbed surrounded by family and drifting in and out of consciousness and time, is compelling. And, one needs to give some appreciation to the fact that this is his first novel as it is better than most writers tenth novels. It even won the Pulitzer Prize. In other words, people far smarter than me like this book. They love this book.

Here’s another thing: You will likely enjoy this book as millions of others have. Not to mention as much as those who gave it the one of the highest prizes in literature clearly did. You will likely read this post, read the book, and think I’ve lost all sense and good taste. For all I know, you might be right.

Yet, I could not get through it. I tried three times. The funny thing is that the reasons I should have liked this book are the very reasons I could not push through it. I found the prose to be too rich and the story too deep. I found that it suffers from an affliction of many first novels in that it is weighed down by too much description — beautifully described, but too much all the same. It was like a well made flour-less chocolate cake — delicious first slice but a few bites more than that and you quickly become too full and too ill to eat more.

This is one of those rare times I understand "book guilt". Most of the time, I have no problem putting a book I’m not enjoying down and moving on to another. Life is too short and there are too many great books to waste a single moment more on one you are not enjoying. But, I felt very conflicted about walking away from this one.

Because no one warns you about the ones that might be too good. Or, the ones you just might not be ready to read — those you may need more wisdom or more patience to truly enjoy. Or the ones that you know are technically great, that everyone else says are great, but for whatever reason are just not for you.

Even though it is much more difficult to admit and do, the same rules apply for these too. Books are meant to be read and enjoyed. If one is not doing it for you for any reason, put it down and move on to another guilt free. Even is it is "good".

Intentions for 2015

I’m decided I’m not going to do some lengthy after action report (AAR for the military nerds) about my successes and failures of last years list of intentions. Let’s just suffice to say that I feel I was about 50/50 on those. I’m trying not to beat myself up about the ones I did not succeed at. I’m going to move forward.

Here are the few things I plan on achieving in the coming year.

Compete the first draft of my next book. This book will be different than anything I’ve ever done before, will require a lot of research, and I got a grant to help with funding it. Therefore, only committing to a “shitty first draft” is far more ambitious than it sounds.

Monthly date nights with my wife, Bethany. We have been doing this for the past couple of years and it has been very successful and rewarding. It allows us time to connect and remember why it is we got married in the first place. This is also one of the several shared resolutions/intentions — it is on each of our lists. As stated before, resolutions don’t happen in a vacuum.

Hike. Hike with Family. Hike with Friends. I enjoy hiking. I always have. I did so very actively when I was a teen but don’t do as much now. I’d like to change that. Every time I do get the opportunity to go hiking I’m reminded of how much love it. And, my daughter Beatrix really enjoys it too and we have a blast hiking together whenever we get the chance. Beatrix is naturally a very good hiker. I have taken her on some fairly technical and rough trails and she blows through them like a breeze. I’d like to foster that talent. I’d like to be more intentional about planning and creating those opportunities. This also aligns nicely with Bethany’s desire to enjoy Minnesota more. It has a lot of great trails and nature to offer.

To use more of what we already have on hand. This is another shared resolution that resonated with both Bethany and I. We have so much on hand that is half used or unused. We resolve to change that by using it or…

To get rid of the things we don’t use. Not just by throwing away or charity donation. This is also about considering those around us that could benefit from these items more than we can. To see that things we used once but no longer do see a new life being re-used by someone else. We are active on several neighborhood Buy/Sell/Trade boards to help with this. And, our Little Free Library fits into this in the book department.

Organizing, framing, and hanging our art. Another shared resolution. We have so much art and so many pictures in so many piles. They deserve better. As my wife said simply, “It’s not doing any good sitting in a pile. Print photos and frame them.”

Finish Winter Street House. I don’t discuss it publicly too much but we have a house that we bought for a song that needed a fair bit of rehab and it has taken me far too long to do. We bit off more than we could chew as quickly as we hoped here. But, it is now way too long and it needs to be done. I have a rough vision of all that remains to achieve that goal. I just need to block out the time to do it.

Drink more water — especially in winter. It’s just so darn dry here in the wintertime. And I often don’t discover how dehydrated I am until it is too late. I’m going to try to get in the routine of drinking water to help with this. A “glass at wake up, glass before bed” sort of routine.

So, there we have it. Here’s wishing us all success with whatever we endeavor to do in the coming year.

Books I Read In 2014

While I am no Bethany Gladhill (my wife, who read 64 books this year) or Austin Kleon, I’m proud that I read almost the same number as I have in years past. Especially as I expect next year to be quite different as I will be reading a lot more for book research than I ever have before. In fact, I have Eric Forner’s six hundred page tome on Reconstruction on deck next.

Without further ado, here is a list of the books I read this past year with short reviews:

The Authentic Swing: Notes from the Writing of a First Novel by Steven Pressfield — About golf and writing and the parallels between the two. Good, easy, book on writing from one of my faves. Some good behind the scenes on the making of the movie, The Legend Of Baggar Vance.

The Martian by Andy Weir — Fantastic and fun novel about an astronaut that gets stranded on Mars and his fight to stay alive and, hopefully, get home. Especially fun for space and science nerds.

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Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered by Austin Kleon — Another wonderful manifesto from one of my favorite creative folks. Solid advice that had me nodding my head in agreement on every page. It was a mistake to go through this the first time without a highlighter and pen in hand. Going to go back through and mark it up. So much good.

Peace Is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh — A nice series of essays on finding and living everyday mindfulness by the honored Buddhist Teacher and Peace Activist. Deeply affecting and read at just the right time for me. This is now one of the books I will recommend when people ask me what to read to find out more about Buddhism.

Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore: A Novel by Robin Sloan: — I had put this off for a while but then my wife read it and said, “You would love this”. Anytime my wife says that, a book moves to the top of my list. And I did love it. It’s a fun and engaging read about books, cults (both religious and business), mysteries, encryption, and immortality. Only took me a couple of days. Picked it up and spent every free moment reading it until the end.

Choose Yourself by James Altucher — Fantastic. I reviewed this in longer detail here before. This is a must-read survival book for the new economy. As someone who has “chosen himself” already, I’m often asked by those interested in doing so for books, resources, and my own writings on the subject that I recommend. I can confidently say that this book will now be at the top of that list.

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed — Wonderful memoir. Evocative prose. The reasons this book was so popular was not lost on me while reading it. The Minnesota connections resonated with me. Also, gave me a strong sense of wanderlust. It was all I could do to keep from grabbing my ruck and heading out into the woods.

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green — Simply beautiful book about a young woman with terminal cancer. A journey of love, loss, anger, pain, and what it means to be human and dare to dream despite it all. It is a really effortless read that still manages to carry a tremendous amount of emotional weight.

Lexicon by Max Barry — A thrilling and action packed novel about the power of words and the power of love. Could not put this down.

The Sketchnote Workbook by Mike Rohde — A wonderful “next step” followup to his first book. This time, he focuses on the actual practice of Skechnoting and the myriad of situations in which it can be employed. If you care about enhancing the quality and versatility of your note taking, you need this in your library.

Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan — Smart and well researched investigation into the Life of Jesus of Nazareth by one of the foremost religious scholars of our time. By setting up the times, places, and conditions Jesus lived in — long before, during, and long after his death — Aslan creates a narrative that is vivid and persuasive. I wish he would have spent more time laying out exactly how in a crowd of people claiming the title and role of messiah, it was a dirt poor day laborer from a town of less than a hundred families that is now known and worshiped the world over. Perhaps that is worth another book entirely. Worth a read no matter your faith.

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith(J.K. Rowling — The second novel about the adventures of Private Detective Cormoran Strike. As good as the first (better, likely) and a whole lot if fun. I can’t say too much dare I give anything away but, in this one, Cormoran is out to solve a bizarre murder in the London literary world. Highly recommended. Especially, though not required, if you have read the first book.

Babel 17 by Samuel Delany — You know a book will be a big win for me when the hero protagonist is a poet and the McGuffin is the power and complexity of language. This is a well written, taught, and compelling sci-fi thriller. Lots of fun to read.

The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore — Same name, same age, same neighborhood, similar family circumstances, but what makes one Wes Moore a Rohdes Scholar and the other a prison lifer. That is the not so easily answered premise at the heart of this book. A fascinating true tale that will give some food for thought to the problems facing so many Black youths today.

Indian Summer by Aaron Mahnke — A good New England thriller that follows the lives of seven childhood friends after one of them is killed in an accident. Steeped in the feeling of a coming northeastern fall and Native American lore.

Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It by Kamal Ravikant — Powerful insight packed into just a few pages. Read it in about an hour. It was an hour well spent.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman — Beautiful and sweet tale of a boy named Bod who, after a tragic event, grows up in a graveyard and his relationships with the various residents who have taken him under their care. The theme of growing up feeling between two worlds resonated deeply with me. As always with Neil, prepare for some of the most magical yet completely down to earth writing you have read in a while.

Drawn Blades (A Fallen Blade Novel) by Kelly McCullough — The fifth book in the series finds Aral tied up with his old girlfriend, his old Master, his new Apprentice, and a few Gods that just refuse to stay good and dead. Yet another fun read. I really enjoy these.

3 a.m. (Henry Bins Book 1) by Nick Pirog — A fun little whodunnit about a guy who, due to a rare narcoleptic condition, is only awake for one hour starting at 3am every day. A quick read that, as of this writing, is free on the Kindle.

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway — The brilliance of Hemingway lies in his ability to take a simple premise and, from that, create a narrative that is at once epic and sweeping yet personal and tightly told. In this case, it is one of Robert Jordan, an American in the International Brigades attached to an antifascist guerrilla unit in the mountains of Spain during the Spanish Civil War. His job is to blow up a bridge but, he finds in the three days he spends with this unit, he builds more bridges than he destroys. There is a reason this is widely considered a masterpiece and the best of Hemingway’s work.

Evil Plans: Having Fun on the Road to World Domination by Hugh MacLeod — I’ve been a fan of MacLeod’s work for a while but had never read this one. He’s always good for a kick in the pants of life when needed.

The Financial Lives of the Poets: A Novel by Jess Walter — This book was a lot of fun to read. Wonderfully written, witty, and downright LOL funny in parts. It’s the story of Matt Prior, an out-of-work journalist at the dawn of the recession on the verge of losing it all — his wife, his home, his father, his kid’s school. One night, while out to the 7/11 for milk, he runs into a couple of young stoners and begins to hatch a plan to reclaim it all. This was a fun way to end the year.

Too many

Too many bullets

into too many bodies

placed in too many coffins

buried in too many cemeteries

for too little reason

none of which matter

to the dead or the living

who grieve them

for no reason

would be acceptable

enough to explain

to a mother

to have lost a child

to a brother

who has lost the same

to a community

that has lost hope

that any bullets

will be spent

to protect

the too little

they have too long

fought to call their own

instead of being used

to take too much away

to take away too much dignity

to take away too much justice

to take away too many freedoms

those same over which

too many wars were fought

too many soldiers sent

too many bullets

into too many bodies

in too many coffins

shipped back to

too many countries

for too many reasons

to protect

the too little

they have too long

fought to call their own

to protect dignity

to protect justice

to protect freedoms

they claim are guaranteed

in a country with

not enough stars

and too few stripes

to represent us all

Per request, here is me reading this poem.

http://patrickrhone.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Too-many.mp3