Category: post

I’ve been a bit busy and all over the place lately. Thought I would do a quick post to share few things I have been up to lately:

• Since my own long lived podcast came to an end, I have been missing having a place in that medium. Therefore, I’m always happy when someone asks me to be a guest on theirs. So, when Levi Weinhagen approached me to be a guest on his Pratfalls of Parenting podcast I jumped at the chance. I had hoped to talk a lot more about parenting but, instead, we discussed many of my thoughts about the intersections of humanity and technology and finding a balance there. It still turned out really well.

• Mike Dariano asked me to contribute to his Three Things To Read, Watch, and Use series at 27goodthings.com. I’m still trying to figure out how 9 adds up to 27. I’m bad at math. It doesn’t matter. You should still check out what I had to recommend anyway. It was a lot of fun to do.

• Oh, I also have started a new project about my obsession with analog writing tools (pens, paper, typewriters, etc.). As I was describing it to a friend, I said, “Think MinimalMac… But with pencils and paper…. Except the opposite of minimal. ” It’s called — The Cramped

The hardest part? Signing up. — GORUCK Challenge Event Overview

I’m signed up for another GORUCK Challenge event this year — June 20th in Minneapolis. This will be my second. My friend Rodney was interested in doing his first and, for motivation, I said I would be happy to be a part of his team. He was nice enough to let me use his buddy pass to get in for free. Last week, we went on a good training ruck together. I’m looking forward to doing it again. It will be fun. That is, if anyone can call this brand of self-punishment fun.
Now that I have one under my belt, have shadowed several others, and have gotten others to commit to the crazy, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about that quote above. If you see the videos, read the after action reports of past participants, or even have done a GORUCK event yourself, you know that the statement above is true. Once you commit and show up, to finish a Challenge is easy.
Easy? Sure. I mean, it will likely be one of the the hardest physical tests you will ever put yourself through. Your inner-individual will be broken down to the point where it can be rebuilt to be part of your team. You will wonder every minute or two why the heck you ever signed up in the first place. That is, until you are so exhausted that your thinking just turns off and the strength to feel any emotion is lost (this happens about an hour in). And, when the sun comes up after a long night and you think it is almost over, you know that hope is simply a tool to make it sting more when you realize you’re only about half-way to whatever you think “over” means.
But, when you do finish, it will be one of the best feelings you can imagine. You got to push yourself beyond every physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual limit you thought you had. You are now a new version of you. A better version. One that just did that. Something that most people would never in a million years sign up and pay for. But you did. And, once you did, the rest was easy because all you had to do to finish was one simple thing.
So, the next time someone asks me about why I’m crazy enough to do another one of these, I’ll tell them what I know now. Signing up is the hardest part, finishing is easy — just don’t fucking quit.
P.S. The real take-away is that this same philosophy applies to finishing anything one starts.

The following was written for my latest book, This Could Help. This should give you a sense of the sorts of things that are in the book. Also, this particular idea was a revelation and a huge success for me so, I hope it can help many others as well. Enjoy!

I have always had mixed success with keeping a journal. I could probably build a small shelter with all of the half finished notebooks that contain those fits and starts. It is also the case that I have tried many software solutions as well. Part of the problem, certainly, is that I have not been able to form the proper habit of, each day, writing the significant things down. But, counterintuitively, I have found that another big part of the problem is the amount of guilt I feel when I try for a few weeks and then fail. That guilt keeps me from giving it another go. I tell myself that, if I try again, I’m only going to fail so why bother trying at all.

Not to jinx it (knocks on wood furiously), but I have now managed to keep not only one, but TWO journals going simultaneously and without missing a day since December 16th, 2013. That is longer than I have kept any one journal continuously and daily in my whole life! (Does little happy touch down dance).

So, what made the difference for me? Well, a combination of things as I think back on it.

• I did it intentionally for long enough that eventually it became involuntary. In other words, habits take a while to forge but, once you forge them, then it becomes involuntary in the way that blinking and breathing are involuntary. It’s just that thing you do semiconsciously just the same as the many other things you do semiconsciously.

• I built the routine on top of other routines. Like I said, I keep two journals. The first one I use as sort of a daily log — tasks I completed, meetings I’ve had, things I’ve done, etc. So, for instance, I already had a routine when I completed a task — I marked it done on my task list. “Great.”, I thought, ”A good place to install a new routine”. So, I made a new step when I completed a task — I marked it done AND I wrote it down in my log. When I had that simple routine down I installed others one by one. When I have a meeting or appointment, I mark it down in the log before starting my car to drive away. I write down ideas right away before I lose them, etc. In other words, I broke down the big routine into a series of smaller routines which I then added bit by bit until I had a completely new routine.

• I realized that any routine, even unrelated, was appropriate to build on. For instance, my second journal is a Levenger 5 Year Journal. It gives you a few lines for each day over five years. I use this for recording my feelings at the end of my day. This was not a task or a meeting so I had to find another routine to build on. After a short thought session I found it — brushing my teeth. See, I brush my teeth every night before going to bed. Therefore, I built the new routine on that. Now, I write in my journal and then brush my teeth. Thus, writing in the journal became a subroutine of my existing pre-bed routine.

• I used tools that were a pleasure to use but also perfect for the purpose of the routine I wanted to install. I’ve mentioned it before but, for my Daily Log journal I use a Hobonichi Techo. Not only is it a beauty and joy to use, the perfect size for my small handwriting writing, but since it is designed as a planner it becomes an automatic “Seinfeld Calendar”. Don’t miss a day and break the chain! And, if for some very unusual reason I miss a day, I go back the next day and put something on that page — anything — to keep the routine going. In the log, there are some whirlwind days in the past few months I just did not take the time to log anything. So, the next day, I made sure to go back to the previous one and write down as much as I can remember.

• Per the above, I allow anything to “count”. There are, at least, 5 entires as I flipped back through the ones in my 5 Year Journal that are a single word. There is one that is just a doodle. Guess what? Yep, that counts. That is how I felt that day. I didn’t feel like writing more than that and the fact that I didn’t communicates that feeling too. There are no rules. Rules stifle routines. The only rule is to put something on that page.

But, as the title of this post suggests, this is about more than my (finally) keeping a daily journal (Two. Did I mention TWO???). I now know that many of these techniques would work with any routine/habit I wish to form. And, now that I have added these new routines to existing routines, I’m going to see what other routines I can add on top of these and what other existing routines are available for me to build on. For instance, my pre-bed routine would be the perfect place to add another subroutine — perhaps, ten minutes of meditation before I write in my journal and brush my teeth.

See what I mean?

The fact is, we all have existing routines. We all have a set of steps we do every morning, just before bed, or otherwise in our day. These are all opportunities to build in another step and form a new habit. So, if there is something you’ve wanted to do regularly for a long time but have yet to achieve it, this could help.

Another fun collection of things I’ve come across in my Internet travels…

• If you are a Field Notes fan, or even just a fan of the stories behind products (as I am), you are going to love these “behind the scenes” videos of every Field Notes seasonal release.

• A great post from Seth Godin regarding the things you should steal instead of inventing. More often than not, there’s no sense in inventing something that someone else has already done pretty well.

• Sara Benincasa reminds all artists that even if you have a day job, you are still a “real” artist. A must read for any artist — day job or not.

• That said, a “real” artist makes art. As my dear friend Randy Murray reminds us, “Make writing your default. It’s what you do. That’s when you’ll know that you’re a writer and how you’ll know—you’re a writer because writing is what you do.”

• I’ve recently had a renewed love and obsession with literary journals. The Fog Horn is an iOS based one that looks great.

• Petrolicious has quickly become one of those sites I check in on several times a week. In fact, what it really is is a love affair with the classic automobile that we readers have the pleasure of voyeuristically watching. It is beautifully designed all around but I’m really deep in it for [the videos]. The videos are great stories about cars and the people that love them. All are well produced, shot, and edited. I’m always up for seeing stories about people passionate about, well, anything. But especially craftsmanship and preservation.

• Nick Wynja reminds us that our tasks list should be about something greater than that tasks themselves. As he puts it, “The Work is important but what are you working towards? What’s the point of your work?”. I agree so much with this.

• I’m currently reading Choose Yourself by James Altucher and it’s fantastic so far. I’ll have a longer review forthcoming (actually, a whole series of related books and tools like it). But, don’t wait. Get and read this now. Seriously.

OK, That’s all for now. Happy trails.

Joshua Ginter shared his wonderful review of my Dash/Plus system with me earlier today. It’s great and you should check it out. He even covers the Dash/Plus app a bit too.

Yet, he ultimately decides it won’t work for the way he takes notes. Mainly because of a couple of things my original system doesn’t address. He states:

Much of the jargon scribbled across my books are semi-coherent thoughts which merely record my thinking at that point in time. They don’t necessarily need action or fit within a simple or defined list system.

And that’s true. The system as I first conceived it did not take such things into consideration. That was even a hole that affected me for a while. So, over a year ago, I added a couple of new metadata items to cover exactly that for me.

• Idea — I change the dash into a lightbulb.
• Diary/Thought — I change the dash into an asterisks.

I’ve been doing this for a long while and just never bothered to share this tweak with the rest of the world. The reason: It never really occurred to me that it might be useful to others. Crazy, I know.

The thing is that the Dash/Plus system is such a natural part of the way I work that I forget that other people use it as well. It is like breathing or blinking. Consciously, I know I do it and that others do it as well but I’m not really aware I’m doing it until I stop to think about the fact I am.

Here’s the other thing: I kind of expect that someone will take the basics of the Dash/Plus system and extend and change it in ways that work for them. Please do. I welcome it. Even better if you write about it and let me know what you’ve done so I can share it with others. I’m sorry I failed to do so myself until now.

I blew on you
And it gave you lift
And you rose
I had sent you flying
And you floated
And twisted
And rocked
Back and forth
Soon to be caught up
In another breeze
A current
A channel
From somewhere
Elsewhere
Perhaps from the winter
Turning violently into spring
Or a butterfly
The flapping of its distant wings
No matter now
For what I once held
Delicately in my hand
Is now beyond
My outstretched grasp
And I watch
As you gently leave
My breath had lifted you up
Let you go
And set you free.

There are two essential questions that drive every human being:

Is this all I am?

Is this all there is?

The most feared answer to both of those questions — the one we refuse to accept:

Yes.

The answer we want to believe and that drives us to push harder, dig deeper, keep searching, and achieve things once believed impossible. The answer that has led to every discovery and breakthrough. The one that is at the center of every faith. The one that makes us human:

No.

As I traversed the vast valley of information this past week, here are the destinations I found worthy of sending you this collection of postcards from:

• Like my friend Andy at Woodclinched (which is a great pencil and paper related blog, by the way), I too am wondering if the Barton Fig notebook is worth the hype. This notebook’s life — like so many products these days — began as a highly successful Kickstarter project. They are now available for sale to the public. So, I have ordered one to see. Perhaps I’ll do a brief review here once it comes.

• Of course, I’m sure it can’t out do the holy grail of paper notebooks, The Tomoe River Paper Journal

• I just received a cover for my Hobonichi Techo journal made by One Star Leather Goods and I am blown away by it’s fit, quality, and attention to detail. The products they make are just spectacular. All hand cut and stitched. Because of this, they are currently on hold in taking new orders so that they can catch up with demand. A good problem to have and a sure sign that it is worth waiting for. I’m absolutely smitten with mine.

• Now that I have revealed just how deep my paper problem runs, it should come as no surprise that I’m absolutely smitten with the idea of Harlequin Creature. It’s a zine where every copy is individually hand-typed by volunteers. The remainder of this will now be hand typed as the fingers of the other hand hover over the Buy Now button…

• Joshua Ginter has a nice review of the Hellbrand Field Notes Cover I mentioned in an interview as part of Chris Gonzoles Artifacts series. If you are looking for a nice cover to carry your Field Notes style notebook in, this is the one you want…

• In case you have not noticed I’m a sucker for leather covers of all sorts. I’m probably carrying half a cow on me at any given moment.

• Here is a lovely essay on keeping a journal and being OK with recording your life offline. I love this: “All you need is sentence, a word, a thought, and suddenly you remember who you actually were.”

• I’m a bit more obsessed with paper related stuff than normal as of late. OK, fine, here is one non-paper related link…

• My little girl only recently became obsessed with Superheroes. We actually just watched The Incredibles today. I have not seen it since it’s theatrical release. So, learning these cool background facts about the Pixar hit comes at a very opportune time. So cool!

Go out and make it a great day.

winter runners
those most
hearty and steadfast
of souls
whose swift feet
and never quenched
thirst for the
race against oneself
drags them out onto
the frozen avenue
whose mansions
of once and present grander
provide a muted backdrop
for their brightly
colored clothing and
neon hued shoes to
shine proudly
as each stride
pounds the snow
into the pavement

i imagine
it seems a message
sent by morse code

minnesota will not keep me in
stop
repeat
minnesota will not keep me in
full stop

Here’s a project that my wife and I are officially launching today. It’s called Tweet Small Change. What is it?

Tweet Small Change is a project to bestow $140.00 micro-grants given to compelling arts projects that are pitched via tweet.

In other words, we invite artists and creators to submit an idea via tweet for what they would do with $140.00. Submissions are open for 48 hours once announced. The best are chosen — up to 10 per round (i.e. each round is funded at $1400.00). All we ask is that creators share their funded projects on social networks with the hashtag #tweetsmallchange.

That’s it. No strings. No crazy submission process. Just $140.00 to make great art. And, we hope, make the world that much better, stronger, and beautiful.

The idea for this came from my wife, Bethany, who is an Arts and Non-Profit Business Consultant and has long and deep connections to the arts community. After coming home from one of the many receptions her work requires her to attend, she came home absolutely buzzing about this idea she came up with there. We talked all night and though the next day about it. And, we decided that, if we wanted to make a real difference, we had better put our money where our mouths were.

So, this first round we are funding completely ourselves. We will judge and choose the submissions and write the checks to those we pick. If this is a success, we might do it again in the future and/or invite others to help fund a round and pick some projects.

For now, we hope that people simply check it out and consider pitching their $140.00 ideas. On social media we are at:

• Twitter (hashtag: #tweetsmallchange)
• Facebook
• App.net
• Instagram

Also, we hope you spread the word. Please share it with your friends, followers, etc. Especially if you are an artist/creator or work within that community. Because, we really do believe small changes can have big results.