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More Changes ;)

Posted on November 20, 2011 by Carlin Comm

Ok, if you’re reading this, cool, you found the Old Blog…

The New blog is near by, just click this link to go to carlincomm.com/_blog/ and you’ll be all set.

Of course, being the lazy sort that I am, I’m going to leave this old blog here, too, rather than mucking around with moving all the content over.

Confused yet??

Don’t worry, its mostly painless!

Oh, and I almost forgot, if you were subscribed, and got automatic notifications when I wrote a new post, you’ll want to do that again too. I still use FeedBurner, which is a Google product. What you’ll want to do is look for the RSS feed icon on the side bar, or enter your email address. Otherwise you’ll never know…

Later!

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Why not all comments get approved…

Posted on October 26, 2011 by Carlin Comm

SO, I realize I’ve not posted anything here in FOREVER.

Sorry!

I’ve not forgotten, I’ll be writing some stuff sooner or later!

But this just felt like something I had to share.

This is an actual comment that was posted to one of my blogs. I didn’t make this up. As all modern blog platforms, when someone leaves a comment, they can leave their name, their email address, and a link back to their own website. The idea here, is it rewards a good member of your community, because if someone else likes their comment, they may decide to go check out the person’s website, and possibly read their other gems of wisdom.

Which brings us to this comment, which will not be approved.

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Now, for the sake of saving you from clicking something unnecessarily, this comment was left on my Mars blog, on a post titled “Constellation Space Suit”, which was supposed to have a video clip, but that clip is now dead. So there is no clip. There is also a couple paragraphs I wrote, describing something in the clip, which is no longer there. So, this fine person, wrote the whole comment about my post, which is now essentially taking up dead space on my blog. I mean, dude, why not actually read a few posts, and make a comment about something that is actually relevant? I’m still trying to figure out why some of these random posts get commented on, while other ones do not? Anyway… Yeah, add that guy to the spam filter!

Next???

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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged back linking, comments, links, seo, spam | 2 Comments

HOW RETIREES KEEP OCCUPIED

Posted on June 25, 2011 by Carlin Comm

(This was an email I was forwarded. Thought it was funny, enjoy!)

After I retired, my wife insisted that I accompany her on her trips to
Target.. Unfortunately, like most men, I found shopping boring and preferred
to get in and get out.

Equally unfortunate, my wife is like most women – she loves to browse.
Yesterday my dear wife received the following letter from the local
Target…

Dear Mrs. Samuel,
Over the past six months, your husband has caused quite a commotion in
our store. We cannot tolerate this behavior and have been forced to ban both
of you from the store. Our complaints against your husband, Mr. Samuel, are
listed below and are documented by our video surveillance cameras.

1. June 15: Took 24 boxes of condoms and randomly put them in other
people’s carts when they weren’t looking.

2. July 2: Set all the alarm clocks in Housewares to go off at
5-minute intervals.

3. July 7: He made a trail of tomato juice on the floor leading to the
women’s restroom.

4. July 19: Walked up to an employee and told her in an official
voice, ‘Code 3 in Housewares. Get on it right away’.. This caused the
employee to leave her assigned station and receive a reprimand from her
Supervisor that in turn resulted with a union grievance, causing management
to lose time and costing the company money.

5. August 4: Went to the Service Desk and tried to put a bag of M&Ms
on layby.

6. August 14: Moved a ‘CAUTION – WET FLOOR’ sign to a carpeted area.

7. August 15: Set up a tent in the camping department and told the
children shoppers he’d invite them in if they would bring pillows and
blankets from the bedding department to which twenty children obliged.

8. August 23: When a clerk asked if they could help him he began
crying and screamed, ‘Why can’t you people just leave me alone?’
EMTs were called..

9. September 4: Looked right into the security camera and used it as a
mirror while he picked his nose.

10. September 10: While handling guns in the hunting department, he
asked the clerk where the antidepressants were.

11. October 3: Darted around the store suspiciously while loudly
humming the ‘Mission Impossible’ theme.

12 October 6: In the auto department, he practiced his ‘Madonna look’
by using different sizes of funnels.

13. October 18: Hid in a clothing rack and when people browsed
through, yelled ‘PICK ME! PICK ME!’

14. October 21: When an announcement came over the loud speaker, he
assumed a foetal position and screamed ‘OH NO! IT’S THOSE VOICES AGAIN!’

And last, but not least:

15.. October 23: Went into a fitting room, shut the door, waited
awhile, then yelled very loudly, ‘Hey! There’s no toilet paper in here.’ One
of the clerks passed out.

If you don’t send this to 12 of your dearest friends, your property
taxes will go up, your stocks will go down, and your middle will spread.
(How’s that for a curse?!?)
What? It’s already come true? Then send it anyway–you’ve got nothin’
to lose!

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Posted in Jokes, Uncategorized | Tagged joke, pranks, retirement, target | Comments Off

Did you lose a cat?

Posted on March 23, 2011 by Carlin Comm

Did You Lose A Cat?

This was in my email today, from my brother Kevin. You’ll have to check out his blog for more good stuff like this!

Taken, or bring’n back?

Good Day from the DufferKev den.

Can’t get enough? Check out my Blog, for Bachelor tips, Bleary eyed golf trips, Fuzzy golf course critters, on the ground below, and, well, more about me then you’ll need to know!

http://dufferkev.blogspot.com/ updated weekly,(or whenever the spirit moves me!)

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Posted in Jokes, Uncategorized | Tagged cat, funny, joke, Kevin, picture, racoon | Comments Off

Bark Less, Wag More!

Posted on March 14, 2011 by Carlin Comm

So, somehow our farm has become the place for animals that no one else wants. Well, I guess someone paid for the Llama, but I don’t think it was very much, right?

Like a while ago, “the farm” adopted a female Lab, which had like 11 pups. I say it like that, because lets face it, when a big dog like that enters the scene, it doesn’t matter who’s it really is, it kind of becomes everyone pet, or in this case, problem.

The Lab, or as we’ve been known to call it “That Damn Brown Dog” was abandoned near a work site. Some of the other farm dogs got here more or less the same way. People are nice, dogs look rough, we have a farm. Farms need dogs, right?

Well, anyway, the pups all have homes now, and rumor has it there is a new home for the momma Lab too. None too soon, really. It loves chasing cats. We have lots of cats, so no problem there, really, but we’re kind of hoping it doesn’t start eating Mom’s Poms, which are about cat size right? Poms get expensive.

So, its a Lab, with a messed up background. Labs are pretty protective of their own homes, fiercely loyal and loving dogs. Now she has a home to protect, the problem is she doesn’t quite realize that she lives in the other trailer, on the other side of the yard, and she’s not supposed to be barking at us over here! Or the other dogs, or the cats, or the horses, or the Llama.

Today, after my walk in the hayfield, I was filling coal pails, and Spotty, another rescued, formerly abused dog comes over to say Hi. So I put down the shovel and petted her for a while. Spotty is extremely head shy, even reaching to pet her and she’ll duck or just lay right down.

Miss Lab comes charging over, barking, hair up on the back… sigh.

So I keep petting Spotty, I’m kneeling down on one knee, and I put my hand out for the Lab. A couple things here that I’ve learned. I’m down on the dogs level, nearly eye to eye, so I am not as intimidating. I’m putting my hand out, palm down, kind of relaxed, not trying to grab her, just letting her come up to me and sniff.

She half circles me a few times, barking, hair still up, I keep an eye on her but leave my hand out there, and pet Spotty. Didn’t take long at all and the lab was right up to me, sniffing my hand.

Now might be a good time to mention I was… on edge. Not quite scared, but ready. And the shovel wasn’t very far away, just in case right?

Two quotes come to mind, the first one I just happened to read in an email this morning:

“Trust that still, small voice that says, This might work and I’ll try it.”
– Diane Mariechild

and the second one you’ve probably heard before:

“Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.”
Theodore Roosevelt

But what if we could put down the stick too? Its hard to look friendly when you are holding a stick, right?

Deep down, I was scared of the dog, the dog was scared of me. This was a no win situation.

When you are scared, or angry, or in pain, your brain is closed to the possibilities. All you can really think of is escape or relief, fight or flight. Instinct. The “reptilian brain” takes over. It can happen so fast your “concsious” or “higher” brain doesn’t even get a chance to think. Kill or be killed. Hold on to what you have. Avoid risk at all cost.

So what if you could just turn that off, switch your emotion to something more positive? Not go into instinct. Take a risk. Put your hand out, and just see what happens. This might work. Breathe. Put down the stick.

I think Dogs are very intuitive. They read body language. People think they can smell fear. Unless you just crapped your pants, I don’t think so. But maybe!

It wasn’t more than a few minutes and she let her guard down, started nuzzling me, I was petting her, and then she put her nose right to my nose. After that, I was one of the pack There’s something kind of unreal about going nose to nose with a big dog. Trust.

Soon, I had to get inside to start working. Kind of hated to leave, ya know?

Well, it all got me thinking about stuff when I sat down to write.

The first thing that came to mind:

“The secret with women is patience, a snow hand, scratch them behind the ears, and rub their butts. If they bite or the hair stands up too much, just slow down. Pretty soon they’ll be licking your face”

Hey, it works with dogs, you’re on your own beyond that! I was going to lead with that, but didn’t want to lose all my readers in the first paragraph! Figure by now you’ve invested some time in reading this, you might stick around to get the lessons!

Then I really started thinking, and came up with what I think is some good stuff.

The Internet Marketing crowd talks about Social Proof. Instead of me telling you how great I am, and how amazing my new widget is, I have a few good testimonials, of real people who tell you, in their words, how great I am. In my example today, the dog Spotty seemed to think I was ok. Spotty let me pet her, she wagged her tail, she even made happy dog sounds, and she was completely relaxed. Heck, she lays down at my feet. The Lab knows Spotty. They chase cats together. They eat from the same bowl. So any “Know, Like, and Trust” that Spotty has for me is… Transferred! Its Brilliant!

How about Credibility, Edification, and Introductions? If I walked up to a strange dog, all by myself, I’d stand pretty good chance of getting bitten, mauled, and dragged off for a tasty snack! Hey, I eat good food and get some exercise, I hope I’d be tasty! But because Spotty knows me, she can introduce me to all the new players in the trailerhood. The lab went from barking fiercely, to wagging tail, to sniffing, licking, and following me around in about 4 minutes. All thanks to Spotty. Spotty gets a doggy treat for that.

How about Risk and Reward? I’ve had a hostile non relationship with the Lab since she first got here. Prior to that, I liked labs, have had good experience. Was tempted to take one of her pups when they were getting given away. Finally, I decided it was up to me to try to be nice, and just put my paw out there, and let her sniff me. That’s always a risk, you could get bitten. Labs got big mouths, it might even hurt right? But its always easier being friends!

Meet people on their level. This is a big one I think. If you look at people from a dogs point of view, we tower over them. We go around all winter wearing hats and gloves and thick jackets. That makes us look weird, it masks our scents, it makes us very untrustworthy I think, from the dogs point of view. So get into a position where you’re approachable. Maybe take off your mask, and be real. Just be real.

People are scared, so they bark or bite. I think I’ll leave this one short, you can fill it in yourself.

You gotta be willing to make the first move. Put your paw out there and shake.

Sometimes you just need to be patient, let them adjust to you. A lot of people have been through hell in the last few years. Maybe they’ll snap at you, because its easier than taking a few minutes to be kind. Do it anyway.

Sometimes you just get a feeling, that its going to be ok. If you go in with an open mind, a smile, and maybe a few doggy treats in your pockets, who knows how many friends you can make?

I heard the Martina McBride song – “Anyway” on Facebook a couple days ago. Made me think… “You might get bit. Put your hand out there anyway.”

Bark Less, Wag More!

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Posted in Books and Writing, Farm Life | Tagged carlin, dogs, farm, lab, martina mcbride, Social Media, Success | 4 Comments

Is www.justroses.com – by any other name – still as sweet?

Posted on March 13, 2011 by Carlin Comm

Is www.justroses.com , by any other name, still as sweet?

If you’re considering a website for your business, choosing the right name has to be near the top of the list of things to be thinking about!

There are only a few ways for customers to get to your website:

Direct Traffic, typing it in, like www.justroses.com
Searching on Google, by typing in something like “roses”
Clicking on a link, on a directory website, or in an article, etc.

They may also see your website name on your company car, on your business card, or even on the sign on your store. All of these would require them to remember it, and then type it into their web browser program, and hopefully with no mistakes!

“Direct Traffic” is like when you call someone, and you already know their phone number. If you dial the number, your friends phone rings. There is no real middle person, no “directory assistance”.

The second way for a customer to find your website is by searching on a site like Google. The search engine, which is like directory assistance, will look through its records, and show websites it thinks are close to what you’re looking for. You then look at the list of results, and click on a link to see if it gets you where you want to go. If not, you go back to the list and try again. Its not an exact science, but its getting better.

The third option, clicking on a link, means you have to find ways to put your link on places that people will find. This is a lot like putting your business card on a bulletin board. It can work pretty well, too. There are websites that are set up as “business directories” that want you to list your company on. They can be anything from the phone companies yellow pages, on down to a local directory. For example, I have created RyleyBiz.ca, TofieldBiz.ca, and CamroseBiz.ca and I encourage you to sign up there for a free listing.

You may also find a business that is similar to your own, but not a direct competitor. If you trade links with them, it ends up helping both of your customers, and you also may get some business from it as well. Lets say a person is planning a wedding. They find a photographer they like, and on the photographers website is a list of other businesses who also serve wedding customers. There may be a catoring company, a DJ, a florist, etc. Trading links means simply that if I have a link on my website for you, I expect you to put one up for me as well. Only seems fair right?

With all that said, what should you be thinking about when you chose your website’s “domain name”? The Domain Name is the actual name of your website, its the address its at, like interwebz.ca or carlincomm.com

Ok, ready for some theory? Now keep in mind, things change pretty quickly on the internet, so what was a great idea now may not always be perfect next year. And there are as many opinions as there are people!

First we need to know some information about your company:

Do you have an established company name / brand already
Do you provide a product or service
Are you strictly a local business
Are you a specialist or a generalist

1. Do you have an established company name / brand already?
Has your company been around long enough so that when people think of your product or service, they think of your company’s name? When you think of peanut butter, do you think of Jiffy? That kind of thing. Or are you just one of the places that sells gardening supplies. Your company name may or may not be a good choice for a website domain name.

Here’s a good example, from my own experience, of how NOT to do things! Hopefully you can learn from my pain!

I’d been doing wedding photography for a few years, when I moved to Seattle. I was thinking it would be nice to get either out of wedding photography entirely, or at least do some other kinds of photography. I had also been doing wedding video, and was thinking I’d stop doing the video, and just offer photography.

So after playing with some names, I came up with www.Seattle-Hotshotz.com as my new website address. There were some problems with that, however. I didn’t realize there was a girls basket ball team called Hotshots, and also a few coffee shops called Hot Shots Java. And it didn’t really sound like Weddings were my primary business.

Also, thinking the “Z” at the end would be cool, I probably lost a few people who tried to type it with a “S” at the end.

And even having Seattle in the name kind of worked against me, because the people in Tacoma didn’t want to contact me, because they thought I was too far away.

So, should you use just your company name as the website name? It depends on if enough customers know you by that name. Or, will you have people searching for “Tofield tractor repair” instead?

I recently helped a local business set up a website, and after some discussion, we choose the city he most wanted to market too, and the service he provided, as the name of the website. That way, even people who had never heard of him, who typed in the name of the city and the service he provided, his website shows up on the top of the first page of Google. Its too soon to tell if he’ll get a lot of business from that, but people spend a lot of time and money trying to get on Google, and he was there in the first week!

2. Do you provide a product, or a service?
Are people more likely to know your company name well enough to look for it directly, or will they be looking for a plumber? If you had a choice between being www.ronsmith.com (who might be a plumber) and www.edmonton-cheap-plumber.com, which do you think would be a better choice? I haven’t tested either, but I’ll bet more people would go to Google looking for a “cheap plumber in Edmonton”, since they don’t know who Ron is.

Are you starting to see how that works?

3. Are you strictly a local business?
Do you want to be known as the first choice service provider in your community? Put that community name in your website! Like the Edmonton Plumber above. One of my websites for my wedding business was www.ncwvideo.com. That was when I lived in Wenatchee, where a lot of people knew of the area as “North Central Washington”, there was a bank called NCW Bank, etc. So it wasn’t a horrible name, but I suspect Wenatchee Wedding Video would have done better! Wish I’d known better then!

And there’s no sense accidently attracting the traffic and attention from visitors who are so far away they’ll never buy from you. If you tune up cars in Edmonton, you don’t need Toronto customers! On the other hand, if you are selling Olympic Hoodies, you don’t mind the whole world as your market!

4. Are you a specialist or a generalist?
Something else worth considering would be if you are a specialist in your field. Are people looking for contractor, construction, or bathroom renovations? Dentist or family dentist?

Ok, once you’ve pondered some of these choices, you have an idea what to start looking for.

You can go to a website like GoDaddy.com, and type in a website domain name, to see if its been registered already. If your favorite name is already taken, you have some choices. You could change the name a bit. In fact, they will probably give you a list of potential names that are available.

If you’ve done your homework, you probably have a list of words that work with your business. So it could be Edmonton-Plumber.com, Plumber-in-Edmonton.com, Plumbing-Edmonton.com, NoLeakingPipes.com… Or any of the above without the hyphen “-”. Or you could try it with an underscore “_”. Just can’t use a space between words. Thats a rule.

Some more thoughts – Shorter names are easier for people to type. Less letters make it easier to fit it on the back of your van! Be aware of words that people may mispell.

You can even register several names and variations, if they are all available, and have them all point to the same website. Its the same idea as call forwarding. You call one number, and if no one is there, the phone transfers you to another number. Websites can do the same thing. So if you really want to be JoeThePlumber.com, register that, and also register EdmontonCheapPlumber.com too. Best of both worlds, and it only costs you around $25 a year per name, so not a huge deal. End of the year, you may see that no one likes JoeThePlumber, so maybe you don’t renew that name.

That should give you plenty to think about for now!

Any questions? Leave me a comment below, or use the Contact Me page!

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Posted in Computer Stuff | Tagged articles, Business, domain, godaddy, internet, Web, website | Comments Off

The Internet and your Local Business

Posted on March 12, 2011 by Carlin Comm

As a local business owner, it easy to feel threatened by the Internet. What if all your customers start shopping on line, you might think?

A few years ago I was at a meeting with other local business owners, just before a wedding expo.

The florist was complaining about an article in the paper, talking about how to buy things like rose petals on the Internet.

After listening for a few minutes, I asked how many of these business owners had a website. Out of about 20 people, I was the only one online.

The Internet can be a great equalizer for the local business! Your customers are online. Will they find you?

Lets say you’re a local dentist, for example. People that used to reach for the Yellow Pages are now looking on Google. And if they find your website, you’d have their undivided attention. You could tell them, through your own words, all about your clinic or office, what to expect, your specialties, maybe some testimonials from other satisfied visitors.

An insurance agent could provide quotes online or by email, automatically, 24 hours a day. People who don’t have time to come into your office may send you a message late at night, you reply to it the next day, and you just made a new friend, and a sale.

Think it’s too good to be true?

I used to be a wedding photographer in Seattle. People would visit my website, view all my samples online, read my prices and packages. Then they’d email me to see if I was available for their wedding date, and maybe ask a couple questions. An hour later, the deposit was in my account. Next I would send them a list of information, and they would send it back when they had time. I’d send a list of tips and tricks to help them planning their wedding. Sometimes that worked so well, they forwarded it to their friends who were also planning a wedding. The friends would book with me too! Finally, when I’d go to the rehearsal, I’d have to ask, “Who is the Bride?”

We’d never met face to face.

Here’s a quick break down of what is involved getting your business on the Internet:

A Domain Name

A Website

Website Hosting

You need a “Domain Name”, which is simply your website address. In my case, interwebz.ca is my domain name. You register that once, and pay by the year, typically less than $25. You can think of it like your license plates for your car.

A website could be just as simple as a brochure or flyer, or it could be your whole catalog. You’ll probably want to hire someone to help you set it up in the first place, but odds are you can handle doing updates yourself. Depending on options, it may cost as little as a few hundred dollars, up to thousands. It doesn’t have to be complicated though, honest!

And you’ll need “hosting”, which is simply the “parking spot” for your website. Somewhere on the Internet is a place where websites live. Mine happens to be in Texas, powered by a windmill. Hey, you can’t make that kind of thing up! Here’s the good news, hosting is not expensive; figure less than $25 a month. Actually closer to $10 to $15 a month, depending on who you talk to.

So, to recap what we’ve covered so far, access to a world wide market, for a few hundred dollars set up, and less than $25 a month.

Ready for some more details?

A website can be used to inform your customer, or to actually sell your product. Its good to know what you want it to do before you get started!

At its simplest, a website could be a single page, that tells people who you are, what you can offer them, and how they can contact you.

Or it could be a complete destination, including your entire catalog of products, with a way for them to order with a credit card and have the items shipped to them. Obviously one size does not fit all, and the more complicated it is, the more help you’ll likely need, and the more it will cost.

I recently helped a local home renovation person build his website. We put up some pictures of his work, we explained what to expect before, during and after the project, and we included some pictures of hand written testimonials from recent customers. Of course, he would still have to go to the customer’s home, make measurements, and discus what they had in mind before they made a decision, but the website gave them some time to “window shop” on their own.

Another project I’m currently working on is for a manufacturer of saddles. The saddles will be available through retail stores, but the website can answer most of the questions a prospective buyer would have, so when they go to the store, they know which saddle they want. The website can even help build the brand and bring in new customers. A well designed website can help the business, by answering most of the questions a customer might have. Think of it as your most knowledgeable sales person, available 24 hours a day.

Once you have your shiny new website, what about updates?

If you don’t change your product line often, and if your office is in the same place as it was 20 years ago, odds are your website won’t need many changes! But you may want to run specials for the holidays, or you are now certified to repair a new product line, or you have a new partner and you want to tell the world.

It used to be you’d have to call the web guy who made your website, and ask him to make some changes. He would charge you a fee for doing it, and it might take a while.

If your web guy is good, he has attracted a lot of new clients since he did your website. Now he is busy, and may not have time to make the changes for you. The other possibility is your web guy was not very good, and has gone out of business! You can’t even find him!

Don’t despair!

On a modern website, the “content” is separated from the “back end”. Content is all the articles, pictures, and all the things you actually see.

The “back end” includes all the “nuts and bolts” that make the website work. When the website is set up correctly, you never have to deal with the code. You simply type in your message, as simply as writing a letter or an email.

Stay Tuned for more!

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Posted in Computer Stuff | Tagged articles, Business, computers, internet, Web | Comments Off

Resilience, Rebuilding, and Recon!

Posted on March 11, 2011 by Carlin Comm

This didn’t start off on purpose, I was just thinking of what I should write about, and today’s post title just came out. So I wrote it down on a note pad, laughed about it, then went about what I was doing. Then a bit later, I read a post on the ideaschema blog called Refresh, Renew, Redesign, Relaunch… wow, what’s up with all the posts starting with R lately?

Resilience, a word I have been thinking about lately. I was thinking about it today on my little walk in the hayfield. As I was stumbling over the snow drifts, I was noticing I felt a bit stronger. Had a bit easier time bouncing back when I fell down.

A couple weeks ago, in the Revisions, Remorse, and Restarts post I talked about resilience a bit. I remember then I wasn’t feeling it as much.

So then, what changed? I think “Hope” makes a difference. I was kind of down. Things weren’t looking so good. My attitude sucked.

This week, I’ve been getting a bit more exercise, my body is juiced with endorphins, got a bit of sunshine, and life is good. I talked about how resilience is what gives you a bit of bounce back when things hit you. …”cope with stress and adversity”. Hmmm ok, so if you have a better system for coping with stress and adversity, that helps you be more resilient. Or if you change your attitude, and decide that some things just don’t matter as much. And give your self permission to take a step back, and regroup, that helps too!

“Feel Good” leads to “less stress” which helps you to “cope with adversity” and that helps you “bounce back”. I think I’ll stop there before I start talking in circles again. This was more clear in my head, but it might end up a much shorter post than normal. Maybe that’s a good thing?

Rebuilding

So, if you’ve been watching my posts here, I’m coming up with a new plan. And just thinking about a plan is making me feel a lot better. Which in turn “fuels my resilience pump” as Bob Proctor once said.

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.
Henry David Thoreau

Advances confidently in the direction of his dreams. That’s a powerful sentence, really. “Advances” means motion, you have to be moving! “Confidently”, with a purpose, with strength, with style. Not meekly. This is yours, go take it! “In the direction of your dreams”. This part is interesting to me. In the direction, not exactly a straight line, because success isn’t always a perfect process. Sometimes you step in a hole, get bumped off course, life happens. But keep moving “in the direction” and every day you’re a bit closer. And “Dreams”, yeah, you gotta have dreams. Not just a vague idea of something that someday you’d like to do. You can’t just want “better”, or “shinier”. You don’t dream about better. You dream about doing something specific. In your dreams, you have emotions. That’s why you wake up feeling different. In your dream, You Were THERE, in the moment. It was Real. Your brain can’t tell the difference!

Recon

From a military viewpoint, the “recon” teams are the ones out in front of the action, finding a better path. So, in my context, “Recon” is my planning stage. By thinking of stuff now, it should make the actual execution of the plan a lot easier. Better yet, its about having a team, a coach, and a map.

Dreams work here too. You can see things in your mind, before they are real. In fact, everything started off in someones mind before it was real. Think about that! Everything you see around you, was a thought in someones mind once. So you see it in your mind, then you put some emotions behind it. Not just once, but often, through out the day. Sharpen the image, play with it. Ohhh yeah, Play with it, make it fun. Emotions, remember? How would it look? What does it FEEL like?

In the last month, I’ve looked around, up, down, ahead, behind. And Inside. If its not right inside, nothing is right. And when you’re asking questions, stop to feel what it feels like, inside. Intuition, guts. You know inside, you just have to hear it.

Some things work. Some things do not work. The questions in my head have been deafening. So the first thing I had to really do is learn to ask better questions!

What works?

What doesn’t work?

What is worth fixing?

What is best off walking away from, or burying so someone else doesn’t get stuck with it?

Who can help me?

Who can I help / serve? Ohhhh good question!

See how that works?

Feeling useful is another “feel good thing”. I’m a word guy, and that’s the best I could come up with, go figure!

But yeah, if you spend too much time thinking, and not enough time out doing something useful, for yourself, or for someone else, it gets ya bad feeling. Downward spiral.

I’m not so sure I had a real point today, so sorry if you were looking for one! Maybe just the process I’m going through, you can get something from that, too. And remember the Letter R

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Posted in Motivation | Tagged 2011, Article, blog, carlin, Motivation, quotes, resilience | 2 Comments

More Training for the Cancer Ride

Posted on March 11, 2011 by Carlin Comm

“Say hello to my little friend”

In this case, its a 8 foot long fence post. Not exactly heavy, but it does change my balance a bit, and forces me to move differently. On the walk back in, I moved it to in front of my body, just to work my arms a bit.

And if I should be attacked by vampires, or coyotes, I’ll be ready!

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Posted in Cancer Ride | Tagged cancer, carlin, charity, farm, Motivation, Social Media, Twitter, video, winter | 2 Comments

The Plan – Vision Board Time… Finally!

Posted on March 10, 2011 by Carlin Comm

This has been a weird year for me.

I usually try to have a plan when the year starts. In fact, when I started up Interwebz.ca, a little computer shop in town, I kind of thought I had a plan. Well, really, it was a plan, I just didn’t like where it was going, so I pulled the plug on that a couple weeks ago.

I had some fuzzy ideas, and a few real goals, but not a working plan.

All the “gurus” will tell you you need a target, a goal, something to work toward. I didn’t have one. I was drifting, lost, kind of just treading water. Waiting. Not a good way to be. But at the same time, I had a growing list of what I didn’t want, and I really didn’t want to get “trapped” into too many commitments, locally, if something worthwhile came up.

There were jobs I didn’t bid on. Some projects I’m kind of pushing back.

“Without a dream, the people perish”

Or maybe its Without a Vision… Same diff right?

Part of my problem was I was getting down. Winter Blues. Just a vague ickiness.

So I needed to get a jump start on stuff. Exercise is always good to get things rolling. Endorphines are awesome! So I started training in earnest for the Cancer Ride, which is in June. Lets see, March, April, May, June… not much more than 100 days from now. I’ll be riding about 100 KM per day for 2 days. I better get on with it!

But enough of that, what about the Vision Board, the Plan?

What is a Vision Board anyway?

Well, if you saw The Secret, John Assaraf does a really nice job of exlaining a vision board, and how effective they can be. Mike Dooley, also in The Secret, tells us “Thoughts are Things”.

It goes something like this: What you think about, and especially when you mix emotions into it, tends to happen. Good emotions or bad emotions, but for now lets think about good things right?

So on the vision board, you put up pictures of things you want to happen. Then you spend some time during the day imagining those things, and what they will mean to you. Not just the “having of things” mind you, but what it will make you into, getting there.

For example, just having a million dollars doesn’t really change you for the better. You’re just a jerk with money, right? But if you become the kind of person who can help people, and in the process, you earn that million dollars, then you can feel like you are worthy of the money. Plus you can always give it away right? Can’t give it away if you don’t have it!

So the trick, then, is to find things that you get really excited about. Enthusiasm is key. You need something worth getting out of bed for right? What’s your hot buttons?

Here are some of mine as of March, 2011.

I know, kind of small, so I’ll put the individual pictures up too:

Motorcycle Camping is FUN! I’ve done it before, and its awesome!

Wouldn’t the motorhome look better surrounded by Sand and Sun, instead of Snow??

Love the car, but its not happy in snow!

Maybe more important than the pictures, are the quotes that are up there. Starting top left:

If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being,
you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life”.
Abraham Maslow

What comes first, the compass or the clock?

Before one can truly manage time (the clock),
it is important to know where you are going,
what your priorities and goals are,
in what direction you are headed (the compass).

Where you are headed is more important than how fast you are going.

Rather than always focusing on what’s urgent,
learn to focus on what’s really important.
–Author Unknown

“Don’t ask what the world needs.
Ask what makes you come alive,
and go do it. Because what the world needs
is people who have come alive.”
Dr. Howard Thurman

“Sometimes you’ve got to let everything go –
purge yourself. If you are unhappy with anything . . .
whatever is bringing you down, get rid of it.
Because you’ll find that when you’re free,
your true creativity, your true self comes out.”
Tina Turner

“Every memorable act in the history of the world
is a triumph of enthusiasm.
Nothing great was ever achieved
without it because it gives
any challenge or any occupation,
no mater how frightening or difficult,
a new meaning.
Without enthusiasm
you are doomed to a life of mediocrity
but with it you can accomplish miracles.”
Og Mandino

The Power of Focus is Mission Critical to your Success
by Roy Furr
(sorry, not going to type this whole thing, but here are the bullets)

Have a Big Reason Why
Make sure your goal is Big, Specific, and broken down into actionable steps
Find a source of greater accountability than yourself
Get up an hour earlier every day
Reward yourself for the little things

Something else that I’m keeping in mind when I look at this, which I will add, is that its important to first be thankful for what we already have. See, I already have the motorhome and the Porsche, so when I look at the board and see them, I appreciate what it took to get them, and I’m very happy about that. Both the motorhome and the Porsche I paid cash for, from jobs I did in 2010.

So first, Be Thankful for what you already have.

Next, Choose what to do next. Ok, you’re thankful, and you’ve acknowledged what you’ve already accomplished. Using that as a starting point, what is next? For me, I’m looking at a new lifestyle. I’ve never been good at sitting still. I’ve never owned property, never been in a house or apartment for more than 2 or 3 years. Heck, I’m usually not in the same State or Province for more than a few years at a time. So, my plan for 2011 is to build a truly portable lifestyle. I’ll be setting up the motorhome to both live in, and work in.

My Plan is evolving around what I can do with computers, without buying a lot of new gear. I like writing. Doing websites has potential. I have a good background in video. So moving forward from here, I’m looking at what I can do with what I have. And not be tied to one location. Kind of like that Internet Lifestyle they all talk about!

And Finally, The Tools, Resources, and Guides to get there. A vision board can be like a road map. You take where you are, where you want to go, and then plan the best route.

Tools – For me, its the Computers, Cameras, Software, and Skills I already have. I know the stuff I need already. Sure, there are always new things to learn, but its not like I have to start over here!

Resources – I already have the motorhome. I can live in it, travel in it, and work from it.

Guides – This I need to work on. I have never really been a good team player. Not so much that I didn’t like the team idea, I just didn’t have anyone available who was doing what I wanted to do! Now with the internet, that isn’t the case. There are plenty of people who are doing similar things. Its just a matter of asking them. And I don’t need one guide for all areas, either.

Now its just a matter of building toward my plan. Anything that doesn’t fit the plan, gets pushed to the curb. Simple right?

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Posted in Motivation | Tagged 2011, board, Motivation, plan, vision | Comments Off

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Resilience, Rebuilding, and Recon!

The Plan – Vision Board Time… Finally!

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