We started with a recipe for Peanut Butter Cookies, but changed it a couple of ways. First we have sess brown sugar in ours simply because the brown sugar we had was too hard. Second, instead of peanut butter chips, we used milk chocolate chips.

In the end, I am very happy with the results, the chocolate chips really help make it great.

Here is basically the end recipe we used:

Ingredients

1 cup Amish Friendship Bread Starter
1 cup butter, soft
1 cup shortening
2 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 eggs
2 teaspoons baking soda
5 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup of milk chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350° F (176° C).
2. Cream butter, shortening, peanut butter, eggs and sugars.
3. Stir in rest of ingredients.
4. Drop tablespoon size dough onto ungreased baking sheet.
5. Sprinkle sugar on top of each cookie.
6. Bake 13-15 minutes.

Tonight was one of those times with the initial topic of “What does it take to have a better society?”. Your thoughts?

Picture a day

take at least one picture each day
Variant: post a picture a day

Read 5 hours per week

Spend an average of 1 hour each weekday, this should cause you to knock out a number of books, no matter if they are audiobooks, physical, or electronic

Cook Something New Each Week

Find some recipe that looks interesting to you. Cook it.
Bonus idea: take pix, post about it

Try a New Hobby & share it

Start something new for you, record your progress & share what you have learned online.
Start with whatever network you already have (Google +, Facebook, a simple website) and improve your sharing over time.

Interview Someone Each Week

Share what you learned from that person with both the masses & send it to someone specific that you believe will gain from meeting this person.

Change Your Life?

Each of these ideas take very little additional work to be accomplished, but the fact is that you have to be intentional & consistent to achieve them. There is also options for you to expand and do more, but a key is to start.

What will you do different in 2012, anything from this list?

Today I managed to do something I’ve not been able to do in a while.

I sat down & listened to some great audio, taking notes & sharing some thoughts.

This time it was based around the top downloaded episodes of StartingCube in November. This time last year I was planning on doing a podcast that was based on sharing great media that I found. Thoughts, quotations, clips, audio, video, and even text. It’s one thing to seek out keys to success, life, and achieving your dreams, but a more important step is sharing the greatness with others.

All people, at some level, want to impact or shape the world in a way that they desire. Finding, sharing and promoting stuff that I believe should be is part of how I do just that.

November was in interesting month for StartingCube Downloads. There were two driving forces:
- Stay At Home CEO
- Searches

With Stay At Home CEO, a project just starting & focused on helping Stay At Home Dads & Stay At Home Moms build businesses, I started it much the same way as StartingCube – an idea & a date. On the designated date I released stuff to the world. It’s interesting that Cube 61 was one of the top downloaded since that is one of the ideas presented there.

I wrote a lot in that post & just listening to those five episodes really helped with how life is going right now. I really should re-listen to episodes on a more regular basis.

With there being over 62 episodes, you could listen to one episode per day and not repeat an episode in over 2 months.

Another thing is I plan on start releasing new episodes in January 2012. There should be a post on my mindset involving that soon.

Reflect

The first step is to look back on the past year, or longer, and see where you have come from. What all has happened?

Having twin one year olds this Thanksgiving, I can say that the year went by fast. We both have much to be thankful for, especially the growth in our babies and each other — both as individuals, as a couple, and family.

Thank

This part is simple, but important – be thankful & speak to people what you are thankful for. As a general practice I am trying to be encouraging more in the day to day, but there are still some specific people who have had an impact that I try to go out of my way to thank.

Dream

This moves from the past & present side to the future. Dreaming what the next year or longer should be. Currently I am thinking about a model based on relationships for viewing your world, so:
- Yourself – physical, mental, spiritual, capabilities
- Family – the special relationships around you
- Business – if you are an employee – you are a business hiring out your services to your employer. If you own or desire to one one, then you have a slightly different relationship
- Society – other people who are not in your business, or family.

So, what are the dreams for those four big areas? What about the subparts? Can you paint a picture that you are aiming for?

Plan

The practical steps you intend to take to make your dreams reality. Before you fully make plans you need to make goals. Goals are important because they are the measuring stick of how well your plans do, but doing the important work to write out the steps you are going to take to make the dream a reality is also vital.

My family is in the middle. We talked about reflecting and thanks recently. This week my wife and I will talk about our dreams for the next year – thinking in those four big fields. If you can have one dream for each & work on just four things over the course of a year – it will be amazing, as long as you take the steps of really making a good goal and then a plan.

I enjoyed the time I was in the St Louis Arch and a client called asking about a change to a website. I told him I would get to it when I could & after getting off the call I realized I could from my phone. In moments, from the top of the St Louis Arch I had the site adjusted & an email off to him.

Now that I am a Stay At Home Dad, the ability to work where I am is even more important, but to do so you have to go through some steps.

This post on Stay At Home CEO titled Location Independence goes into three parts: Plans, Tools, Ability

They are not complex steps, but vital if you want to have more freedom and liberty in your life.

I went and looked up a couple of pancake mix & decided less eggs, no oil & more water.

When we discovered a lack of eggs, I just went mix & water. Roughly as much wet ingredients as the directions said went in as water.

The results were great.

I mixed the batter, my wife cooked them & said that the key was a low heat and good amount of time.

It first started over a year ago when I realized that with twins & a wife who would be out of the house for 24+ hours at a time in a great job … I really needed to reduce my commitments. Then a few months ago, especially when work started back for my wife, I realized I needed to reduce my commitments.

About two weeks ago I saw a post about how to do an eBook in 30 days. I decided to do it, but screwed up the plan it outlined. I have this tendency to want to mess with systems, that is a major reason I don’t plan on purchasing a franchise ever. At first I brainstormed some ideas, and thought about some things people had mentioned before, but before day 1 I just started sitting down at about 10pm each evening with a blank sheet of paper (or a google doc, in a way where all I see is the page I am typing on) and I wrote.

Most nights I would clock in right at 1,000 words, some a little shy, a few around 1,500.

A few days into it an outline came to mind. So I started having a topic each night. It was a combination of my recent events, my history, and my desires. Sorta a present, past, and future.

It was good.

I was going to bed about the same time, I was getting things onto the page. I had some routine. Granted, my mornings are mostly routine:

7ish – wake up & start prepping stuff for babies
7:40 – babies wake up, diapers in their room, then bottle time in one of the two areas of our house with toys
8ish – breakfast
after that is play until they crash for a morning nap

But, the thing with that is there is no way I would train myself to wake up earlier just to do stuff like writing, reading, study, etc … I do better at that at night, so my new night routine is nice.

Moving Forward

On November 1st, after writing 10,000 words, over a little more than 10 days, I hit on a topic I labeled Moving Forward. It was the shortest, a little more than 250 words, but it put into some clear statements of both where I want to end up & things I need to focus on today – how can I:

• finding small companies & developing relationships with owners
• help improve profit per unit, either though higher revenue or lower costs
• increase the market, or client base of companies/products
• gain more equity in both public & private companies

What was rolling around in my head when the next morning I see in my RSS Reader a post titled Want To Be A VC? Start A Company.

Well, crap, how does that element of starting a company fit in with taking care of twins & those other things I was thinking I needed to be focusing on now in my productive & investing time?

Today, November 3rd, I had a lunch with a friend & mentor. I shared all that has been going on – more, but most of what is above – and he suggested a Stay-At-Home-Dad site/company.

And idea hit me later in the day that I typed up & sent to my wife. Once she gives me feedback I will decided to either kill it or share it with some more friends & advisers.

The Next Phase

I’m not sure what is next but I know I am getting closer to a better mix of taking care of babies, taking care of wife, taking care of me, and doing something to impact the world around me outside my house.

I know my natural tendency is to run hard at the world, with whatever I have raised high ready to break through walls, defeat enemies, or traverse wide distances. I am trying to be a good sailor where I do the little things to be ready for the wind. To take care of the boat. To prepare my skills, and to have the ship stocked – so that when the wind comes, I will be ready to race as far and as fast as I and my ship can go.

The wind is starting to pick up.
I have been doing good things, I know I can be better, but good has happened.

Bring on the wind & if the wind does not come, I will keep sharpening all that I can, especially since it had been so long & so much-needed work.

Sleep really good last night. I think getting some routine of writing starting at 10pm every night has helped. Over 5,000 words now. Three topics seem to be emerging:

• How I view the world & business
• infertility – dealing with that
• the path I’ve traveled & what I’ve learned

Still not sure if it’ll become a public thing or not.

Before the twins were born I reduced the number of projects & clients we helped. Recently the focus has been to start with zero projects and only add the most important.

I also listened to Dave Ramsey’s EntreLeadership, nearly finished now.
Lastly, I continued a trend of taking from roughly 10pm – 11pm to just write some. It might turn into a eBook, or it might end up just being something for me & select others. I intended to follow this guide to an eBook in 30 days, but messed up & sorta just started writing. At this point I have 4,749 words written according to google docs. If I had followed the guide I should be at 3,000+.

[See post to listen to audio]
[download MP3 - 2:15]

[See post to listen to audio]

[mp3 - 13:22]

First learned of him while I was in high school & got to know him enough in 2004 that he would recognised me in a crowed in 2005, though not today. I hope his new book, EntraLeadership, is a huge success. Today he is on his book tour, in our home area, broadcasting from outside his office & celebrating being a New York Times Bestseller. At the party is free food, music, book signings, giveaways. The type of thing I enjoy, but things have changed & I could not bring myself to go.

My mother is a wise woman, growing up she focused on training each of her children how each should go by having custom rules based on the tendencies of that child. My natural tendency is to do more & more, thus the rule was that I could not have more then 3 activities (soccer, scouts, band, church, etc) at one time. At least one of my siblings had a minimum, for that child would not do any outside activities. Our parents also had veto power over activities & sometimes forced a particular activity on us.

This helped me learn about myself, or at least helped in the process.

Nearly 11 months ago my world changed.

I once interviewed Andrew Peterson, as a part of Artist Insider. He is a musician who learned enough about business to have his own company. This is something that most artist are not interested in all, so I was fascinated with what would cause him to do so when so many others would not.

The answer Andrew gave was the birth of his children. I did not understand this until recently. For Andrew it was motivation to learn about business, for me it is focusing my resources, especially my time. Looking back, this was a lesson my mother was attempting to teach me for years. It took the birth of my first two children & more to really get me back to it.

In the Last Few Months

This has been building. I would often think back on episodes of StartingCube, from How to Succeed to How To Change, What to do Next & Overcoming Adversity, and many more. I thought about Good To Great & the hegehog concept.

Then two key posts of my own:

• Paint The Picture
• production, investing, consumption & relaxation – A way to look at Life

The first is a process of setting priorities, the second – how I currently think of life in terms of producing & investing, consumption, and relaxation, all things we all need.

The big thing, the big reason why I decided not to head to Financial Peace Plaza today is that it does not fit with the main focus I have right now. I need more production & investing. I need more focused consumption.

Long term I will continue to help people solving public problems with private solutions.

I need to learn more about building businesses, meet more people, and improve my abilities and results as an investor. Today, was a step in self discipline of saying no to a good thing to spend time working towards something great.

If you want more, listen to the mp3, or check out the links. Cube25 [How to Succeed] & Paint The Picture are two great places to start.

The cookie gave me a good thought:

With StartingCube, one of the things I think about every so often is how podcast websites, or band websites, or other art like painters, photographers, etc can share their work. It’s all about presenting the data in a way that fills the audience, and moves them closer to being a fan, subscriber, etc.

In the past, I’ve looked at blog style, reverse blog style, artwork, reverse artwork, random number of artwork.

Today, it’s a list.

Since the podcast has a unique, and hopefully interesting, title for each episode (along with an image), sometimes it’s best to just share a list of titles with someone.

Now I have a page template that will allow this, but just a list or index of show names seemed blah … especially when the time is taken to create some unique image for each episode, so when I was getting ready to make it live I decided to take the time to throw in some images.

The images are ever X number of items added, where the author/webmaster/whoever can turn them on or off & set how many posts should be added in between. This was important for spacing and the page template working in different settings.

I would love feedback on the Cube List pages.

Now that I think about it I could also have it where some experts are shown (and some not) or other neat things, but that is enough for tonight. I need to work on an actual StartingCube episode.

For number of weeks Lays Hot & Spicy chips have been missing from store shelves; today I found them again.

In the comments, I tried to thank for the thoughts & encourage her down the path she is on, and one thing came to me:

production, investing, consumption & relaxation

That might be a great way to look at life.

production

This is the act of trying to cause something to happen in the short term. You walk out on a stage of a body building contest, you release a post/article/book/podcast to the world, you go to work, you build a desk, you cut the grass.

A life without visible results can cause your heart to be sick … you need some production & results of production in your life.

investing

This is like production in you are attempting to cause something to happen, but the time frame is longer. The easy way is looking at investing in your retirement account, but it can also be putting time into training for your body building competition, learning a new skill, or reading a non-fiction book. Anytime the cause and effect relationship is delayed and unsure it’s more about investing then production.

consumption

Stop eating & you die.
Stop trading with others – produce everything you have, hold and consume & you become poorer. We must take into ourselves both physical goods, but also services of others, including friends and family.

In relationships there are times you are producing – providing for others, or investing – helping with the goal of a long term change, but there must also be consumption – gaining joy, laughter, entertainment or other desirable goods, services or emotions that you consume.

relaxation

Our body needs to recharge.

It’s good to be around stimulus, but it’s also important to unplug from time to time. As a parent of twin babies, I can say – without relaxation, sleep, or rest, it’s hard to do any of the three other areas.

At the same time, it’s hard to relax if you have not consumed the right stuff, produced, or invested for your dreams.

What about Giving?

Well, what about it? I am huge on giving, but understand that from my perspective giving a gift is either production or investing, depending on what the gift is and what the recipient of the gift is. I get something out of giving. I give because I want to, because a desire inside me is to either cause, prevent or stop something from happening.

Giving is good, giving is important, but for me giving is a part of life, not a category or way of looking at life.

Your thoughts?

The other day I was outside and noticed the moon & clouds. It looked cool. I went inside, grabbed my camera & spent a good bit of time attempting to capture the view I had.

Those pix are not what I was shooting for.

The next day I went and found a couple of youtube videos that explained a process. That night I went and attempted to duplicate the results.

Much improved, but I thought back on the image I had used for Starting Cube 25 – How to Succeed.

Looking at the pix from that night, I think I just got lucky.
A few days later, I was at a Krav Maga Seminar and first tried to just mess with the settings to get good shots in this dark room, with big windows (a strange combination).

Then I did something similar. I started looking at the values when I would almost take a pix in action mode, aperture mode, and a few others. Based on the values it said, I went into Manual mode, set the settings to around the same & played.

I’m pretty happy with the end result.

Matt Cutts: Try something new for 30 days

For the last hour or two I have watched tv, but keep thinking about this video.

What do I want to try for 30 days?

What do I want to do?

And it just hit me … just in time, about to be day 2.

I’ve been wanting to figure out WordPress Post Formats & find better ways of using them then the crap I see.

The other day I did some searches for advanced Post Formats techniques … nothing. All searches I did, in multiple routs, ended up with either “how to enable” or pretty much the exact same way of doing it.

This month: July 2011 : I am going to spend time every day working with them, learning them, and figuring out some cool ways to use them, so that the end result is that JonathanNation.com will do everything I would normally do on twitter, facebook, or other social media sites.

I’ll still use social media sites simply because I believe in reaching people where they are, but the hub, my personal hub, will be here.

From there, we shall see what happens. Some of the updates will be here, some on AllyNation. All in all, at the end of July I’ll know more & should have a much improved website.

Many of them have been featured in an episode of StartingCube.

At this point I know I have gone through these books:

• Tribes by Seth Godin [Cube 22 & Cube 50]
• QBQ! The Question Behind the Question by John G. Miller [Cube 11]
• Stop Acting Rich : And Start Living Like a Real Millionaire by Thomas J Stanley
• The Fifth Discipline by Peter M. Senge [Cube 31]
• Rework by Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson & Mike Chamberlain [Cube 36]
• Drive by Daniel H. Pink  [Cube 37]
• The Dream Giver by Bruce Wilkinson, David Kopp, Heather Kopp (chance this was in 2010, not 100% sure)
• Linchpin by Seth Godin [Cube 45]
• Do The Work by Steven Pressfield

Parts of & intend to finish

• The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn
• The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb & David Chandler [Cube 35]
• Thou Shall Prosper by Rabbi Daniel Lapin [Cube 17 & Cube 34]
• Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin
• The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich Hayek

Then there are a few additional that I know I have gone thought part of, but I don’t think I have really gone through it, but I have been through them before & plan on going through them again:

• Good To Great by Jim Collins [Cube 4]
• Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough & Michael Braungart [Cube 9]

Roughly in all about 11 books so far this year (counting up the partials).
Much better than last year. Having the pressure of finding and releasing 2 episodes of StartingCube has helped with the motivation of getting through and into new books.

I really like sailing.

This morning I was inspired to draw a little sailboat with two people in it. The first time I sailed a lazer there were either two or three young boys in the boat. Looking at lazer now I cannot imagine having more then one person most of the time.

Over the years I have used examples from sailing for all kinds of things, including reaching a destination & how one should travel through life.

I did add the blue background afterward.

This morning I was inspired to do some drawing.
Nearing the end of my first image I drew a tree.

It looked good.

Thus I decided to draw another image that was just a tree. It was ok, so I played with it a little in a graphics editor and put the border on. Finally I decided to go ahead and see what it would be like with a blue sky.

I’m pretty happy with the result.

Now I have added the original too, and plan on doing more with the process of most of the work in sharpie, then changing major white background areas (I have to draw on white paper) to whatever it needs to be.

For a month or two beforehand I had struggled with a name, wanting to so something that would fit ANSP.com, but in the end decided I could use ANSP.com for something else.

For years I had gathered quotations, clips, and stories to use in communicating with others, but now was a time to share them.

The general ideas were:

• keep it short
• one topic or idea per episode

Thus StartingCube was born. The domain was secured, a short episode talking about “Just get started” was recorded & released, and an idea for the second episode was clear. Cube2 – the Billionaire to the Millionaire was also about the journey of developing Starting Cube. The message was a little about the mindset I was taking with StartingCube.

Day by day, week by week, a little at a time, StartingCube has improved & standard practices have evolved.

Now the hardest parts of making an episode is deciding upon:

• cube to use
• title for episode
• what image to pair with it

Lots of time can go into those three elements, everything else is pretty standard.

Today is the 4 month mark for StartingCube, with 35 episodes released & people in over 220 cities around the world reached.

In all the 35 episodes, one episode has come to be the best explanation of why a person should listen to StartingCube:

Cube 25 – How to Succeed
[See post to listen to audio]
[mp3 - 7:47]

In listening to it, there is no wonder why it was the top downloaded episode, by a large margin, in April and has nearly passed all other episodes, even those with a 3 month head start.

Looking Forward

I am debating what path to take StartingCube.

Some of the questions include:

• put more time into that brand, or keep the same
• try to monetize it directly or not
• find other people to be involved or not
• work on the website or keep with my original plan (there is one specific programing project I’ve been thinking about)
• start doing more “non cube” but related content or not
• push for others to do “thoughts on cube ##” type of content or not

Your thoughts?

As I read the list, my thoughts were two fold:
- I indirectly learned most of that while in a government school system, but that is not what they were intending
- The Boy Scouts of America: Boy Scout Troop & Order of the Arrow programs seem to be more intentional at developing those skills in individuals

for instance:
(some of Seth’s points that I learned in BSA programs)

• How to focus intently on a problem until it’s solved.
• The benefit of postponing short-term satisfaction in exchange for long-term success.
• The power of being able to lead groups of peers without receiving clear delegated authority.
• How to persuasively present ideas in multiple forms, especially in writing and before a group.
• Project management. Self-management and the management of ideas, projects and people.
• An insatiable desire (and the ability) to learn more. Forever.
• Most of all, the self-reliance that comes from understanding that relentless hard work can be applied to solve problems worth solving.

The reason that these elements are so well taught in the BSA programs is that they are designed to set the youth (and really adults) in a safe situation, but outside their comfort zone.

They provide a framework, or sandbox & some systems of safety.

Then lots of freedom.

One thing that could improve the different BSA programs, and similar organizations, is to reminded the adult supervision, and maybe leaders too, of those indirect lessons that are learned through the course of unscripted events & what can seem like chaos.

As to Seth’s other points:

• How to read critically.
• An understanding of the extraordinary power of the scientific method, in just about any situation or endeavor.
• Personal finance. Understanding the truth about money and debt and leverage.

They can be learned in the BSA, and other, settings. That was just not exactly my experience. A difference is some teacher needs to be involved and guide the student to these elements. It’s harder for someone to learn to critically read, or to use the scientific method out of chaos.

Past High School

The skills listed are important for big wins in a person’s life, but many don’t learn the skills or develop the taste while in High School.

If you are past your High School years, there is hope.

The biggest thing you have to do is be intentional in your education & gathering of experience. The biggest suggestion I have is to find a mentor, someone to learn from, and a group to be involved with. The mentor may or may not be involved with the group. There might also be advantages to being involved with two rather different groups (one with the mentor, one without).

For some the key will be action. For others it will be learning from others, in person or through media (books, websites, podcasts, etc). Whatever is natural for you, try to add the opposite to your life.

My phone vibrates with a new text:

NWS has issued a Tornado Warning for Rutherford, Coffee,  and Bedford County until 12:15 PM

I focus on the tv with the weather map and a minute or two later they show on the map the general area that they think a tornado hits.

A little while later official warning system kicks in, with a message that I had received at least 5 minutes prior.

I am very glad that I took the few minutes to set up a way to get push notifications (text in this case) when there are notifications. Waiting for the old school tv show interuption could take too long and sitting glued to the tv is a waist of time & energy.

The technological tools we have avaliable today are great.

I like listening to the live shows at GSPN.tv/live & knew as I was listening to Business Tech Weekly 71 that eventually an episode of StartingCube would use part of it. I like and respect Andy Traub more and more as I get to know him.

Before you go on, make sure you have listened to the Starting Cube episode:

StartingCube 24 – How to Produce

[See post to listen to audio]
[mp3 - 6:57] One-Click Subscriptions to StartingCube: Zune : iTunes : RSS

My Response:

[See post to listen to audio]
[download MP3 - 15:04]

You have to ask:

• People cannot buy if you have nothing to sell.
• People cannot download if you have nothing to download
• People will not say yes to your request if you do not ask.

During my college years, I made a habit of talking to people who did not know me. Individuals like VPs, Deans, Department Chairs. A few years later I was totally out of practice.

One summer my wife and I were traveling around the country & ended up in Columbus Ohio one day. I had a day to myself. Nervously I arranged to meet a guy I knew online in person to walk around Ohio State University. Afterwards I was driving & spotted the Columbus Crew Soccer Stadium.

In an act of bravery, for me at least, I asked to be able to walk around & take pictures.
Here are some that resulted:

Going & asking people for help, or to do stuff you want, or for them to purchase, pay, or vote for what you want is both scary and vital to achieving your goals.

Don’t aim for perfection.

I know StartingCube was not perfect when it started … I talked about it in episode 1 – seed to tree and episode 2 – the billionaire to the millionaire.

The knowledge of great audio was something I knew about before producing Artist Insider in 2006, but just acting was what was needed.

Greatness can be sustained; perfection cannot

Do the best work you can & work to improve as you Help People.

The reason I support businesses as the best way to solve public problems is they are the most effective.

I am not talking about fraud, theft, or oppression – but equitable trades, where both parties end up with something they desire more then what they trade for it.

Recap:

I have to ask
I have to produce
I cannot aim for perfection, but greatness
I have to do my best & keep improving what “my best” is

That is why I am going on the Best Website for You plan. Have worked StartingCube the way it is, and why Ally Nation is in such rough shape. The first thing I have to do is figure out what I will produce on a regular basis, then figure out the best way to present it online.

PodCamp Nashville 2011 was a great experience.

A common theme: Be authentic.

I went and did just as I was planning. Went to a couple sessions the entire time, talked with people, and jumped from session to session.

One of the things I realized during it was I needed to just turn on the mic & record more often, as a primary method of content creation. With this post, I did just what I talked about in the Last Week; This Week post on 2011-03-28

Here is the audio:

[See post to listen to audio]
[download MP3 - 22:37]

And some more notes:

Full Time Mom – Stephanie Ravenscraft:
- “I’m not raising children, I am raising adults.”
- My kids think in terms of building a brand, integrity & consistency.

We Did – a panel on start-ups and success
- “Some of the best connections I have made was due to just meeting with people, even though you have no idea where it might lead.”

I’m going to look more into Nashville Entrepreneur Center – http://entrepreneurcenter.com/ – specifically the classes they have.

Meet a number of people including:

Bill Graff of Farm And Ranch Country
Mike Arnold of Concert Blast
Ted Chapin of Entertainment Cooperative
David Foster of The Gathering Nashville

- gaining twitter followers -

Around the time of #pnc11, my twitter followers increased by between 20 and 40. The theory I have is that it’s because I was putting out real content, and not just re-tweeting the schedule & other info people who wanted it would get from the @pnc account.

:: For Presenters ::

Notes for Presenters were taken, but I’m going to save them for now. Two were shared in the audio.

image used in banner found on flickr by Dave Delaney

This day I was at a house, with some time & my camera. I was raining, at some points hard and other times slight.

Walking around different points I was able to play with capturing water falling, splashing, and generally moving.

It was a fun time, with some cool shots.

:Update:

Here are more shots from that day:

This was a great day, where I went to a park, did a couple mile walk, listened to some great audio & took a bunch of pictures.

At one point, I walked into a field that had a fence in the middle of it. A thought ran through my head that I was sure I could get a some good shots of this fence.

As I approach it, I take shots. When I get to it, I spend some time playing with my camera. Manually adjusting the focal points, and other techniques.

Here is a slideshow of the rest:

I am currently reading three separate books, all audiobooks; part of my Reading Intentions 2011 plan.

• The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
• Thou Shall Prosper
• Stop Acting Rich And Start Living Like a Real Millionaire

A couple times a thought so strong came to me that I had to tweet, or post on facebook.

If you automatically think of wealth/money as evil, you will either do evil or be poor.

Not directly related to any one book, Thou Shall Prosper addresses a very similar topics but this also came to be due to the discourse and media coverage recently, including Wisconsin, Tennessee, and a few other locations. Wealth Envy is very powerful and a strong issue, but another one is the silly idea that to have wealth you must have done something “wrong”.

Granted, one could do something illegal (fraud or theft) or oppressive to acquire some money, even in great sums, but that discredits the way almost all wealth is generated in the USA, if not the world.

When you work, when you provide value and in trade receive something you value; you have not done anything evil, you have done good. Now, there are only two fundamental steps to amassing wealth:
1. earn money
2. don’t spend all of it

Ideally once you have the money, you invest – or allow someone to use the money at a price – the money, thus doing more good. You have enabled other people to pursue their goals.

At the same time, if you believe wealth or money is evil … you will have to either reject it, or embrace evil.

I want to thank my parents (and theirs) for emphasizing travel, camps & life experiences and provided me with much of each while growing up.

This was more directly caused by Stop Acting Rich And Start Living Like a Real Millionaire.

Within the first chapter, Thomas Stanley talked about what the millionaires he has surveyed over the years said they spent their money on, especially in regard to their children. The book really breaks the millionaires into two ends of a continuum, basically how glamorous they seem.

The children of millionaires who become millionaires had a common element in their childhood:

an emphasis on travel & life experiences;  not stuff

Thinking back on my childhood, we were not a glamorous family at all. I have four siblings, all younger then I, and for most of my life the income was my father’s government engineer salary, a little above the median family income. In addition to that, we did not live extravagantly. As far as I know my family always budgeted & used an envelope system to keep tabs on spending.

One thing that was pretty constant, either due to my parents or my Grandmother, is that we traveled. Not to far off exotic places, but around the Southeast USA.

I’m pretty sure I’ve been to most of the Tennessee State Parks. I have seen lots of old log cabins, so much so I can say — they pretty much all look the same inside.

Growing up, I also went to a Sailing Camp, Boy Scout Camp, Vacation Bible Schools, lots of National Parks, and major cities. The times I went to the National Order of the Arrow Conference (NOAC) for a week at a major college university was great. Family camping trips to a different state each spring break for years allowed us to see sites, learn about cultures, and meet new people.

It had a major impact on who I am. Not I am very grateful and thankful.

At the time there were points of wealth envy, not understanding why I did not have the cool stuff, but at this point … a point where no matter what it is, given enough time I could buy most items, I have other priorities.

I hope I do as good a job with my children.

Now off to plan the next adventure.

This was a wonderful day, where I had a couple mile walk in a park near a small airport.

At one point I was in the standard landing path and probably should have waited a little while longer for more birds to fly overhead, but it was great.

The little neighborhood we live in has several children who were all excited the first time we had a sunny day and could go out walking with our girls.

This is the first real painting that I remember ever doing. As a part of a small group of people interested in arts, we decided to sit around and paint one day.

This was the image that I could not get out of my head. I love sailing, and post on sailing related stuff many times.

I can see issues in it, both in the techniques I used and the proportions of some stuff, but here are things I am happy with:

• the development of colors – lots of parts are due to a mixture of the colors
• the sail – might seem funny, but in reality of the parts of boat/person, it is the most like what I wanted
• the wind & water – I think I got that correct, the waves are pointing at the sail & you can see the boat cutting through the water
• the angle of the boat – the slight hiking out of the boat works for me

Going into this night, my wife encouraged me to go more abstract. I am glad I did not try to be more detailed, especially since we put a time limit and I could not paint, wait a few days, then go paint more over it.

During the night I also learned more about painting and some ideas of how I could do a better job next time.

On this day I took this dog out for a walk. It was a nice day, but the pictures actually make it look more dark and gloomy then I remember.

Picked this shot because it was the best one of the dog … it was also the first shot of a few I took as we walked. It’s interesting how the first shot I take tends to be the best.

Most weeks tends to be different then we envision them, when you add twin newborns into the mix it’s hard to dream at all.

Much of my last few months has been adjusting to the twins being a part of my life. I went from easily having 16 hours a day to work on whatever I see best, to 2 … and now a little longer, but mostly in short spurts. Leaning to focus, priorities, put first things first, and stop doing a bunch of stuff has helped.

This series of post, and other records like my calendar, also seems to help for two reasons:
1. let me see I am making progress – I can visually see accomplishments
2. when I need help focusing, I have a list of priorities to go back to.

Recent Lessons & Thoughts

Focus on most important & non-routine – last week was the first time I did something like this for public consumption. In reading it a few times a day I realized I included too much that was “normal” like the personal health/development of me sections. Nothing bad with what was written, but it can be said every week. Plan to focus more on special elements form here on out.

Sleep When the Babies Sleep – I think this wise saying is more true at 4 months then 1 month, for the babies did not sleep very long, but did sleep a lot at 1 month. Now they are sleeping in longer stretches over night, but there are still times when they awake in the night. If I stay up too late, like I did last night, I was ill equipped to take care of them. A balance point must be found, but I need to do a better job of being prepared.

Less info in specific areas – I like learning. Long ago I realized that I could not learn all that I wanted to, and needed to focus in. I stopped playing Fantasy Football cold turkey because of the time I would devote to learning about what was going on. Looking at my stats in my RSS Reader, I averaged 171.933 posts read every day for the past 30 days. At the same time I have 400 posts waiting for me to read right now, I cut that down form 800 a day or two ago. I am sure I can cut out a feed or two.

Last Week

Starting Cube

- release 2 shows ( Answer Includes: Genius, Inspiration & Perspiration & Price Right For You )

[See post to listen to audio]
- made progress so that production is easier & at higher quality
- more comments, and higher number of people listening & commenting

Ally Nation

- some words & plans were done on the eBook

Jonathan Nation . Com

- post a pix in [Best Shot] series

Family

- paid property taxes – loved going in and not having a huge line

Other

Managed to work out, go to two events with other people, talk to clients & perspective clients, write a good bit, and prep for the traveling I know I have fast approaching. WordPress 3.1 also came out & some time was spent learning & updating some sites.

This Week

Starting Cube

- Produce 3 to 4 episodes
- Release 2 episodes
- update a little more on the facebook page

Ally Nation

- Release an article, probably on social media networks (what you should be on)
- work on helping a few clients with their websites
- learn more about WordPress 3.1
- keep writing on the ebook

Me & Family

- get ready for some traveling I have

The big thing really is that Helen is working more the next two weeks & I have some travel soon, so prepping for that and taking care of the girls is the top priorities.

Send in Feedback

I have not shot a lot of pictures at night & when I do am rarely happy with the result.

This was an exception.

On this night I took our dog out to do his business … and the clouds & the moon was just calling to me. After I the dog was done, I went back out armed with the shoot & share camcorder and my camera.

Of all the shots I took this one was the best.

I like seeing the star, in addition to the clouds, moon and tree.

It is good on a regular basis to look at what happened in the past, pull out new lessons, and plan the next period of time.

I’m going to attempt to do that for myself here.

Last Week

I did a better job producing last week. One thing that helped was simply the babies sleeping longer & generally demanding less time.

Ally Nation – produced & released a new guide on deleting a facebook page
Started eBook #1 – a guide for people on a tight budget to the best website they can for as little as they can, both short term & long term

StartingCube – two episodes released:
- dealing with the unexpected that changes your plans
- a look at someone who has achieved his goals & broke many of the conventional rules
More importantly, worked on doing a better job in my production, giving myself more time for all the rolls I am currently doing.

Reading Intentions – managed to finish up Cradle To Cradle, QBQ! The Question Behind The Question, and listen to a little of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions & Thou Shall Prosper

Accounting – Managed to progress on family & business accounting. We had slacked off a large bit after the babies were born.

JonathanNation.com was updated with two posts within the last 7 days.

Managed to make two meetings that were both social and business. Social in the since that I enjoy spending time with the people, business in that I was able to coach, teach, or advise people there (or after the events).

Physical Health – managed to work out a couple times & start getting back into eating. Both are important for my goals of dropping alittle weight before March. Step 1 is making sure I eat at least 3 meals a day, it’s been hard with the wacky sleep schedule & baby care, but that is getting better now that I am focusing on being more intentional.

This Week

This week looks to be a big week. It’s the first week where my wife goes back to work at a Hospital. It’s been a long time due to work restrictions before the babies.

Looking at my calendar I see a few evening meetings that will be great, some coaching calls with clients, and a dentist appointment.

beyond that my focus goes something like this:

:: Big Projects ::

Starting Cube
- continue to break the production process into proper stages & get more in each of the ques.
- release 2 shows
- work on getting more interaction between people who listen to the show

Ally Nation
- continue to coach current clients & meet with perspective clients
- work on the eBook
- post at least one thing online (a guide, article, or promotion of someone doing great)

Jonathan Nation . Com
- Release this article
- post more ( sometime )

Family
- finish up “restart budget” & do March Budget
- finish updating Will & other documents
- pay property taxes

Development of Me
- Work out a couple times (minimum & beyond lugging around one or two baby weights)
- get through normal podcasts & at least make progress in an audiobook

:: Things that I could see, or hope to see, this week ::

WordPress 3.1 – when this releases, I will have a lot of work, but I have been waiting for this for too long.

Photography Options – I am going to try to do a better job of taking some pictures

The overall focus this week is taking little steps, both towards the goals I have and in the distance I can travel with each step.

Send in Feedback

This was an interesting day from a photography perspective.

It started out at a wedding in a small church with bad lighting. I managed to use my big lens & did get a couple good shots. The funny thing is that I forgot to get a shot of all the groomsmen. I played with the manual settings through this service.

After the wedding was the reception.

I forgot to turn my camera back to an auto mode, or adjust the settings, so I took several shots in the bright outside that were totally white.

Then got a couple shots of the car, couple & crowd. It was good, but in the end, instead of picking something else, I just went with this smile.

I did throw some additional pix in a facebook album, but I am not sure how public I want it, so you can see it for a little while.

This was at an amateur play by some youth on January 30th 2011.

The babies and the dog get along together well. Some of the best days are when everyone sleeps.

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