Do Something Great
The other night I told our son, “I’m bothered, but not bored.”
I’m bothered by the work load I put on myself. Career, home, church, gym, home, family, retirement.
I’m not bored by any of it though.
Why?
Because I love it. None of it feels like work. So, being bored is the last thing on my mind.
Except for one small detail, and I must confess, “I’m bored with being bothered!”
Why? Because becoming hysterically funny (in addition to being uncommonly insightful and off the hook fast), would only lead to fame and fortune. While this would appear, to most people, to be a good thing, it’s actually a catch-22.
Jimmy Buffett, in one of his clever songs, sings, “I don’t want the fame that brings confusion. Where people recognize you on a plane“.
Tiger Woods responded this way when I asked him last year, “Do you ever get tired of being famous”? - “Since day one”, he answered, matter-of-factly.
But the other day, a seed was planted fertilized when a Google Alert for “Mid Life” led me to this funny blog by Tia – Clever Girl Gone Blog.
Just Sunday, at a meeting, I mentioned that my blog posts (1,300–ish in six months) aren’t particularly funny, even though in real life, I am. Inspiring? Fairly. Funny? Not so much. I’ll work on it as time permits. Ok?
Meanwhile, just wanted to say thanks for following. Carpe diem.
jeff noel and Search Engines. SEO. Search engine optimization. Google. Yahoo, Bing. Safari. Firefox. Internet Explorer. Mozilla. There are a ton of search engines out there.
Mostly, I use Google. Why? Google is the most recognized, and Google dominates search engine traffic.
Meeting with a fellow writer yesterday, he was using Yahoo. He told me that jungle jeff and Lane 8 we’re number one on the Yahoo search engine. I didn’t believe him until he did the jungle jeff and lane 8 Yahoo searches.
Amazing. Even more amazing, or maybe more interesting, was that on Yahoo, jeffnoel.org ranked higher than jeffnoel.com. Not sure how that is possible. And at this point in the journey, there are bigger challenges to worry about.
Do you have a decent prioritization matrix to handle cool distractions? I do, but it only works about half the time. :)
Life Is Good if you can do one push up per day. Do that for a week. Then, the next week, do two push ups per day.
Continue to add one push up per day, for every week since you started.
Oh wait, I can already read your mind, “This is stupid”.
If I fail at anything, it’s almost always because I don’t stick with it.
Over a decade ago, I vowed to accept the challenge contained in this post. I thought, “How hard could it be. Seriously”?
Sticking with it has created a life-changing path for me. If you have any motivation in you, may I challenge you to read this – Hello World
Carpe diem, jeff noel :)
PS. I did this for two years – 104 pushups in one day. Now I do 40, two or three times per week.
Professional Speaker.
That’s what I do. I talk and people listen.
How scary is that?
Pretty scary. Everyone staring at you, expecting you to be smart and funny.
Because I’m hard-wired for excellence, I’m always looking for ways to become smarter and funnier.
You know, to become a better Professional Speaker.
I’ve taken to writing. Seriously.
Overachiever? Maybe.
Living with regret? Doubtful.
If you’re goal isn’t impossible, you’re not reaching high enough.
Audacious. Yep! Carpe diem, jeff noel 
“Life’s a beach”.
Ever heard that one?
I think it’s a spin-off of, “Life’s a bitch, and then you die”.
I look at those two phrases and am reminded that we have a choice. We always have a choice.
Over our attitude. Maybe nothing else, but certainly our attitude.
And no one ever said choosing was easy. It can be extremely difficult. But we do get to choose.
And I believe I must choose the positive attitude versus the negative attitude.
If this bores you or seems too elementary, go look in the mirror and ask yourself, “Am I a mountain of positivity or a molehill”?
What? You do have a mirror, right?
I just looked. Looks like I’m an antagonist this morning.
I chose it on purpose. Carpe diem, jeff noel :)
What would you choose?
Jimmy Buffett or Bob Marley?
It was a pretty easy choice. Bob Marley.
I’ve been listening to Jimmy Buffett since Sunday afternoon.
The writing has been coming pretty easy. The hard part is, I have so many ideas. So much inspiration.
Isn’t that one of the keys to life, or anything for that matter, inspiration?
Well, right now, I’m inspired to finish this post.
Carpe diem, jeff noel :)
Writer’s Retreat. It’s the perfect get-a-way from the daily grind – not that I’m complaining. Please, life is hard and most people, I think, know this.
In fact, I’m actually grateful for the grind. But that’s another story.
Back to this short story.
I’m on a week-long writer’s retreat. Of all places, Sanibel Island.
Of the many things I’ve learned as a writer, one critical success factor is the occasional trip away from your normal, daily surroundings. Sanibel Island is the polar opposite of my normal life.
I have learned a ton and written a ton.
The retreat leader told everyone yesterday that you should write in a style outside your comfort zone.
Of course, I asked, “Why”?
He replied, “You’re a runner right. A sprinter, if I remember correctly”.
Yes, that’s right”, I said.
He made an excellent point, “Well, as a sprinter, do you run distances much longer than a sprint”?
I got his point.
You have to “stretch yourself outside your comfort zone” and vary your training to be a great sprinter.
Same for writing. It’s one of the big take-aways for me, and we are only on the third day.
Make it a great day. I have to get back to the session. More later.
Carpe diem, jeff noel :)
Mind, body, spirit, money, and hq...
You see four of them below. The fifth is the "box" the holds the other four...
America's unheralded work life balance expert. jeff noel, is a Servant, Husband, Dad, Boomer, speaker, author, runner. He believes work is only work if you'd rather be doing something else. Allergic to most pollens and mediocrity, he can't wait for the alarm clock to go off every morning.