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This is an excerpt from Seth Godin’s post, Is Effort a Myth?. I’m thinking about this a lot – that parts I already do and the parts I don’t.

With that forewarning, here’s a bootstrapper’s/marketer’s/entrepreneur’s/fast-rising executive’s effort diet. Go through the list and decide whether or not it’s worth it. Or make up your own diet. Effort is a choice, at least make it on purpose:

1. Delete 120 minutes a day of ‘spare time’ from your life. This can include TV, reading the newspaper, commuting, wasting time in social networks and meetings. Up to you.

2. Spend the 120 minutes doing this instead:

• Exercise for thirty minutes.
• Read relevant non-fiction (trade magazines, journals, business books, blogs, etc.)
• Send three thank you notes.
• Learn new digital techniques (spreadsheet macros, Firefox shortcuts, productivity tools, graphic design, html coding)
• Volunteer.
• Blog for five minutes about something you learned.
• Give a speech once a month about something you don’t currently know a lot about.

3. Spend at least one weekend day doing absolutely nothing but being with people you love.

4. Only spend money, for one year, on things you absolutely need to get by. Save the rest, relentlessly.

If you somehow pulled this off, then six months from now, you would be the fittest, best rested, most intelligent, best funded and motivated person in your office or your field. You would know how to do things other people don’t, you’d have a wider network and you’d be more focused.

This is great advice, but I’m less interested in the “six months from now” part and way more interested in the “effort” list. Those are things I enjoy and want to do more of. I want to spend that weekend day, blog, read, exercise, etc. If nothing else changed but I got to do more of those things, I think I would be happier.

What good can come from capping bandwidth for legitimate use? As the Internet provides new reasons for consumers to be online, Comcast will benefit from increased demand. Streaming HD video, for instance, might be the reason my mom tries broadband again.

I’ve had a lot of problems with Comcast, starting with being told that I don’t have an account with them every time I call them. I wish I could vote with my wallet here, but my options are Comcast or nothing: and Comcast needed a lot of persuasion in order to even service my neighborhood. Oh, and new companies that want to provide broadband to my area are being fought by Comcast’s lawyers and lobbyists who claim it will unfairly undercut their business.

c|net has coverage.

I talk a lot. My conversations with certain people (other talkers) tend to spin off into six hour summit meetings where we try to solve the problems of the world. Or, at least, our little slice of the world.

Lately, I’ve forced myself to listen more – not only to others but also to my own words. I pay attention to my tone, my word choice, and the general approach I have when I talk. In doing so, I’ve also begun to pick up on others doing the same thing. I guess it works both ways – you pick up on a habit or phrase and suddenly you catch yourself doing the same.

Some observations…

I give speeches

I tend to launch into a mini-speech, carefully making eye contact and presenting points. This happens all the time. It almost certainly comes off as “he likes to hear himself talk.”

I am a story teller

I try to weave a tale out everything, and I do a pretty darn good job at it. I use inflection, timing, even  suspense. The problem is when the story is about something mundane – there’s no conflict, no development, not even a moral to draw out. This has the effect of leaving the listener hanging, like I told a joke and the punch line didn’t make any sense. Among my friends, such mediocrity rarely goes unnoticed.

I think out loud

A lot of what I say is practically stream of consciousness as I formulate opinions and come to conclusions. I don’t always think through my position before I open my mouth. But as I develop in my career and relationships, I have to be more careful – what I say will be taken a lot more seriously, so thinking out loud can come back to hurt me.

I try to solve problems

I have to admit, this is one of my worst listening faults. When a friend (or my wife) is complaining, I immediately jump to a solution. I offer advice, unsolicited. Not only do people rarely take the advice (not that it’s bad), they sometimes get mad at me for offering it. I realized two things. First, sometimes people just need to vent. They don’t want advice, they just need a friend to sympathize. Second, instantly offering a solution says “your problem is stupid and this is what you should do, duh.” People have a right to their feelings, so reactions like this are insulting.

I disagree with everyone about everything

This is an amazing trait that I share with John Nunemaker. I like arguing and have no problem voicing my opinions. But sometimes my opinion isn’t really that strong – or I actually agree with someone – and I catch myself arguing for the sake of arguing. I’ll call it “playing the devil’s advocate” or worse – I’ll pretend I actually believe it. I’ve gotten much better at not doing this.

What gets measured gets improved

By observing these habits and flaws, I find it easier to adjust. I ask myself “is this something I need to say, or is this something other people need to hear?” I force myself to take a few seconds to decide whether I really believe what I’m about to say or if I’m just reacting in opposition to someone else’s opinion. And for the love of God, I make sure my story has a direction before I launch into it.

I have always enjoyed thinking out loud, and I realized that you can’t think out loud so easily as dean because your thoughts are taken much more seriously than you intended them to be. It was one of my first shocks as dean…that people really listened to what you had to say. Mark Roche, College of Arts and Letters, University of Notre Dame

Courtesy of PhilanTopic:

The most important things a leader can bring to a changing organization are passion, conviction, and confidence in others. Too often executives announce a plan, launch a task force, and then simply hope that people find the answers — instead of offering a dream, stretching their horizons, and encouraging people to do the same. That is why we say, ‘Leaders go first.’

Rosabeth Moss Kanter

I caught the Hesburgh Library elevator this afternoon, and just as the doors opened Father Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C. joined us. For ten floors, I got to listen to him chat to others in the elevator about various subjects, including an undergraduate who is majoring in PLS - Program of Liberal Studies.

Father Ted’s comment:

“That’s the best program we have. You can’t study the writings of fifty of the most intelligent people in history and not learn something good.”

2008 is the year of…

…being proactive. Most of the work emergencies I face are simply a lack of planning and preparation. In 2007, one of our developers had to work crazy hours to put together a series of pages for Holy Week, right before Easter. Why did this take us by surprise? As I’ve grown fond of saying, Easter has been scheduled for 2,000 years! …positivity. I think a lot of my stress (and probably blood pressure) is related to my own negativity. I’m cynical and pessimistic about everything. I argue for the sake of arguing. But since returning to the office in 2008, I’ve worked hard to keep a positive outlook. When I catch myself starting to argue, I ask myself if I really disagree. If I have reason to disagree, I pause to gather the reasons why and make a more effective case for my position.
…trying new things. Over the Christmas break, I got hooked on Anthony Bourdain’s show “No Reservations.” One of the best parts of this show is the brutal fearlessness with which he goes into a new food experience. He strays from the popular path, into the dark alleys and remote villages of the places he visits. This has awakened in me a hunger for new things. I’m not quitting my job and traveling the world to eat sheep testicles, but I will stretch my usual life experiences into new ones. I’m starting small (trying new restaurants, ordering new dishes at the places I always go).
…philanthropy. I am blessed to have had the opportunities and experiences that I’ve had so far in life. Having spent quite a bit of time volunteering for Camp Fire USA, I am planning to give more of my time and money to charities. But I want to be more thoughtful in how I give, considering the impact and returns on these contributions. More than that, I want to be an example to my friends and family in hopes that they will do the same. As driven as we all are by our careers and hobbies, it is easy to forget our own humble beginnings and the great things that we can accomplish by giving back.

I always said that I hated New Year’s resolutions because they are arbitrary in nature. Why are you more likely to keep a resolution if you set it at the New Year, as opposed to say, March 3rd? What flipped a switch in me wasn’t the New Year–it was the long vacation at the end of the old year. I had nearly two weeks to reflect and consider my personal weaknesses, strengths, goals, and dreams. And this is where my resolutions come from–not the long-standing desire to lose weight or quit drinking at work, but one that will improve the quality of life for me and the people around me.

I’m shutting the doors of my company, Birch Lake Studios. I’ve decided, after months of struggling with the idea, to say no to new business. I’m working on a final client project, slated to launch early in 2008. I still have a couple of clients hosting with me, while I provide a minor bit of support and maintenance. I’ve been calling this a hibernation, going dormant, or a sabbatical. But I think the truth is that my heart isn’t in this type of business anymore and my interests are elsewhere. My co-workers at Notre Dame have heard me go on about this for quite some time now. They also know that my entrepreneurial spirit hasn’t died; it just needs fewer distractions. I’m not officially dissolving the corporation; one day BLS may be reborn as another venture.

As I look back at my stats for 2008 and my neglect of this site, I am saddened that my most popular article (more popular than my homepage since its posting) is the one about tax deductions for pro-bono work. Seriously, why aren’t there better resources for small business owners? As you can tell from the lack of posts here, the blog took a major hit as I got busy. I’d like to pick things up again, but with more focus on my work with Camp Fire USA, where I was elected to the board of directors. I am leading two new committees focused on marketing and fundraising. I am excited about these challenges and should have good writing material.