A Decade by the Numbers

In 2012 I finally hit the 40 year mark. As the date quickly approaches, I find myself more and more reflective of the last 10 years.

• Worked for 2 Fortune 500 companies and one 3 month stint at a ma & pa manufacturing co;
• Lived in 3 states;
• Lived in 5 different homes;
• 10 different positions at work;
• 8 different bosses;
• 500+ employees;
• 1 significant and costly relationship;
• 2 campaigns for elective office;
• 1 near fatal car accident.

These are the things that stick out in my mental decade replay. I find it quite telling that most are work-related. It's amazing how many significant life changes can occur in 10 years. Makes me very excited for the next 10 and now I know why I'm so exhausted...

Beezag

There's this great new site, www.beezag.com. It is an exclusive invite only site that I first stumbled upon while feeding my secret addiction to pop culture magazines. I jumped at the chance to join something 'exclusive' and 'invite-only'. I'm glad I did as the site pre-loads video (commercials) for you to watch based on your responses to survey questions. And, after each video, there is usually a bonus in the form a great coupon which you can print on the spot or email to yourself.

I've never been a coupon person per se, but the site is more powerful in that certain brands have been planted deep into my subconscious and the coupon certainly makes me think about using it. One of the best features, that I've failed to mention thus far, is that you get paid for each video you view! While you won't become a millionaire overnight, it's certainly a novel way to spend time online that actually yields something tangible versus wasted hours in cyberspace. Even better, you can cash out the money or donate it to charity!

I think this idea is cutting edge in many ways and I'd much rather watch commercials that are relevant to me on-demand versus being forced to watch during live tv, fast forward on my DVR or be forced to view until the video I want to watch on Youtube is done.

Since I'm such a fan of the site I've been given my own VIP PINs to dole out. If you'd like one, contact me and I'd be glad to set you up!

The 10 Human Regrets

I often find myself thinking too much and someone once told me that being my friend was like having one long never-ending conversation. I'm not sure that was a compliment, but I chose to take it that way. The conversation usually stems from my introspective self that loves to get down to what makes 'us' tick. I'm fascinated by the psychology of life. This fascination is what makes me an avid fan of reading. Today I started a new book titled 'The Leader Who Had No Title' by Robin Sharma. Below is a passage I came across that I knew I had to share.

The 10 Human Regrets

1. You reach your last day with the brilliant song that your life was meant to sing still silent within you.

2. You reach your last day without ever having experienced the natural power that inhabits you to do great work and achieve great things.

3. You reach your last day realizing that you never inspired anyone else by the example that you set.

4. You reach your last day full of pain at the realization that you never took any bold risks and so you never received any bright rewards.

5. You reach your last day understanding that you missed the opportunity to catch a glimpse of mastery because you bought into the lie that you had to be resigned to mediocrity.

6. You reach your last day and feel heartbroken that you never learned the skill of transforming adversity into victory and lead into gold.

7. You reach your last day regretting that you forgot that work is about being radically helpful to others rather than being helpful only to yourself.

8. You reach your last day with the awareness that you ended up living the life that society trained you to want versus leading the life you truly wanted to have.

9. You reach your last day and awaken to the fact that you never realized your absolute best nor touched the special genius that you were built to become.

10. You reach your last day and discover you could have been a leader and left this world so much better than you found it. But you refused to accept that mission because you were just too scared. And so you failed. And wasted a life.

I find it interesting that most of us would typically answer 'no' to the question, 'do you have any regrets?'. However, I would assert that all of us would regret not achieving any one of the aforementioned. In fact, I know they are what drive me on a daily basis and most people. I also think if you frame the regret issue in this context, it forces one to think about life in the grand scheme/big picture sense, not just from an interaction sense. Pretty interesting stuff, no? I'd love to hear comments/reactions. What fear did you face today? I'll discuss the one I faced today soon.

Matt

iPAD

I just purchased the iPad! I am ready to be taken over by all things Apple. I can barely put the device down. I can't quite figure out how to blog from it directly as I cannot make the keyboard appear after I pull up my blog site. So, if anyone can help, I'm all eyes :)

After calling countless locations for the past few days, I finally acquiesced and went to the actual birthplace of the device. Within 20 minutes I was walking back to the car, more like scurrying back, to head home and hook up the device. I should mention that I made a quick stop by Best Buy to purchase a steam cleaner. Last night, I was lounging on the coach trying to relax when I heard the loudest bang I'd ever heard. I literally thought something exploded. Turns out, I wasn't too off base. I got up to investigate and discovered that the mega size laundry detergent I had purchased last weekend decided to blow up! You'd think that detergent was self-cleaning given it's purpose but not the case. Blue liquid detergent was everywhere - all over my table and all over the floor. It looked like a village of smurfs had melted.

After purchasing the steam cleaner, I ran home to hook up the new toy and haven't been able to put it down since. I'll continue my weekend discovering what it can and can't do while I await the rise of the smurfs. I haven't yet figured out if the iPad can steam clean, but I'm hopeful.