Accomplishments require action with intent

Date: 2010.01.04 | Category: Life | Response: Comments

I took a roughly two-week vacation this holiday season. It was my first real vacation since starting my job back in May, and the first time that I ran out of reasons to push off reflecting on how my life has changed since leaving college and, perhaps more significantly, leaving AIESEC.

While I have a number of reasons to be happy with my year, my self-evaluation was mixed, largely because of one reason: I found myself falling back into an old, familiar trap. I’ve been fighting it for much of my life and only started overcoming regularly in the last few years; it is a problem I share with a large swath of the world. It is, quite simply, that I am far too likely to take things as they come.

The pitfalls of going with the flow

The value of being able to adjust to whatever comes your way is critical and should not be underestimated. Many of the best experiences I had while traveling came about as a result of letting things happen spontaneously—from getting treated to an intense Russian sauna experience in Ust-Kamenogorsk to a bizarre trip from Munich to Barcelona via Barcellona, Italy (don’t ask).

However, the same attitude that works well for day-to-day decisions can be disastrous for major life decisions. In these cases, going with the flow is the equivalent of taking the path of least resistance: the path that does not challenge you to develop yourself, or, worse, can lead you thoroughly astray. It can happen in any facet of life: the job you get, the college you go to, the hobbies you take up. And while for most people with a middle class upbringing this path leads to the inescapable gloom of mediocrity, for many people across the world the “path of least resistance” leads to poverty, drug addiction and crime.

Acting with intent

If going with the flow can become the antithesis of personal growth, acting with intent is the catalyst that makes it happen. When a person acts with intent, they are aligning their actions towards a specific purpose.

Actions with intent are generally goal-driven, but even more than that, they are deliberate: the critical element is in making a conscious decision—“I have decided to do this, for the following reasons.” This type of action is the outcome of a process that—despite its simplicity—I have always found hard to put into practice.

Changing my approach

Driven by the desire to make improvements, I’ve spent much of the holiday reading about various frameworks for goal setting and methods for productivity improvements. To my chagrin I found that none of these felt quite right to me: I could not see myself following through on any of the more intense ones, and the more basic ones struck me as things I wouldn’t think about often enough.

Instead, and partially inspired by a post by a good friend of mine, Justin Hsu, I’ve concluded that the way to keep myself accountable is to boil my goals down into a single question: Am I acting with intent?

This isn’t a “theme” for the year; it’s much too vague and too broad for that. Rather, it is an ongoing sanity test for me, as I make decisions and choose to do (or not do) certain things throughout the year.

I’m still working through applying the aforementioned process to setting my own goals, and I’ll share it as I do. But the entire way, I’ll be asking myself that same question.

Scriptacular restlessness

Date: 2009.12.20 | Category: Technology | Response: Comments

If you haven’t been here for a while, you might be surprised by two things: one, that the site looks different again, and two, that I didn’t bother preserving all the comments that my posts had accumulated over the past few years.

This is not because I don’t love you, but rather because my insistence on using odd random scripts like Chyrp meant that I had to transfer my blog posts into this (WordPress-powered) system manually. That was sufficiently little fun in and of itself that moving comments did not seem worthwhile. My apologies.

Now that this site is running WordPress, though, I can do nice things like using Windows Live Writer to update, and take advantage of the vast ecosystem that surrounds the most popular blog engine. And ultimately the goal of that is to enable me to blog more often—something I’ve committed to for 2010.

Till then, please let me know if anything doesn’t look right.

Make a wish

Date: 2009.06.19 | Category: Life | Response: Comments

If you have no wish, how can it possibly come true?

—Seth Godin, Ruby Slippers

Bing, Opera Style

Date: 2009.06.06 | Category: Technology | Response: Comments

If you haven’t heard of Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing, you should try it out. It actually works surprisingly well. Unfortunately, the Opera browser does not currently include Bing in its search box, so you have to add it manually. Here’s how:

1. Go to the Bing home page at bing.com. Look at the pretty picture and read the fun captions. Then right click on the search box and select “Create search.”
2. In the Create Search box, you can leave the “Keyword” field blank, or assign it a letter or two to quickly perform a Bing search from the address bar.
3. Click on “Details.” Tick the two check boxes that appear: “Use as default search engine” and “Use as speed dial search engine.”
4. Click “OK”

And you’re set!

Opera bookmarklet for tr.im

Date: 2009.05.01 | Category: Technology | Response: Comments

I signed up for the pretty cool URL-shortening service tr.im today, mostly because of the statistics it enables users to view about each link. (Yes, there are issues with using URL shorteners, but if you have to use them, you may as well use a good one.) To make using it more convenient, I wanted to add a button to my browser to automatically shorten a URL.

They had a convenient bookmarklet that worked in Opera, my web browser of choice, but when I added it, I realized all custom buttons get the same default icon in Opera, the “new bookmark” icon. I was already using that for my delicious bookmarklet, and I didn’t want two stars I’d get confused between in my menu bar. So I whipped up a custom button using Opera’s “Fit to width” image. The screenshot shows how it looks. If you’re using Opera and want to add it, just drag this link to a menu bar:

tr.im URL

Little things

Date: 2009.03.23 | Category: Life | Response: Comments

Today I found out that an email I forwarded after giving it about 30 seconds of thought was one of the reasons that contributed to a friend applying for a year-long super cool leadership position in AIESEC Southern Cone.

Yet another reminder of the power of tiny actions that ripple out and have surprising effects. I don’t for one second take full, or even majority, credit for her decision. I just know that I’m proud to have played a role, however small.

It makes me think: what can each of us do with just 5-10 minutes a day that can truly make a difference? If we could always change someone’s life with a few minutes of thought and a few minutes of action, what would we choose to do? And how do we make our few minutes count for as much as possible?

The Itinerary

Date: 2009.01.26 | Category: Travel | Response: Comments

Some of you might know that I am currently doing some traveling. I’ll try to keep up with my blog and post throughout this time, but I can’t make any promises. In the meantime, here’s my tentative itinerary, not including any possible side trips while I am in Moldova.

• January 21 – February 2: Almaty, Kazakhstan
• February 3 – March 24: Balti, Moldova
• March 25 – March 29: Pärnu, Estonia
• March 30 – April 7: Traveling around the Baltic countries
• April 7 – May 5: Atlanta
• May 5 – May 11: Road trip across the U.S.
• May 12 on: Seattle, WA

If you find yourself in or near any of these places while I am there, I’d love to meet you!

I am an AIESECer

Date: 2009.01.06 | Category: Life | Response: Comments

Zip codes (in honor of graduation)

Date: 2008.12.13 | Category: Life | Response: Comments

A few weeks ago I came across a fun little tool to map out zip codes around the nation, and, being bored, decided to go through and pick out some zip codes I thought were interesting. In honor of my graduation today, and in place of deep, insightful reflection on such vague questions like “how I feel,” I decided to post that whole list here, along with some fun facts at the end.

Sequential

• 12345 – Schenectady, NY
• 23456 – Virginia Beach, VA
• 45678 – Scottown, OH
• 43210 – Columbus, OH
• 76543 – Killeen, TX

Same

• 22222 – Arlington, VA
• 44444 – Newton Falls, OH
• 55555 – Young America, MN (Actually, Young America has Zip codes 55550-55559.)

Two alternating numbers (non-exhaustive)

• 01010 – Brimfield, MA (Those crazy puritans and their crazy city names…)
• 02020 – Brant Rock, MA
• 04040 – Harrison, ME
• 05050 – Mc Indoe Falls, VT
• 06060 – North Granby, CT
• 07070 – Rutherford, NJ
• 08080 – Sewell, NJ
• 10101 – New York, NY
• 12121 – Melrose, NY
• 13131 – Parish, NY
• 14141 – Springville, NY
• 16161 – Wheatland, PA
• 19191 – Philadelphia, PA
• 21212 – Baltimore, MD
• 23232 – Richmond, VA
• 25252 – Le Roy, WV
• 28282 – Charlotte, NC
• 29292 – Columbia, SC
• 30303 – Atlanta, GA
• 31313 – Hinesville, GA
• 32323 – Lanark Village, FL
• 37373 – Sale Creek, TN
• 40404 – Berea, KY (Home of the File Not Found error!)
• 43434 – Harbor View, OH
• 45454 – Dayton, OH
• 53535 – Edmund, WI
• 54545 – Manitosh Waters, WI
• 56565 – Nashua, MN
• 60606 – Chicago, IL
• 62626 – Carlinville, IL
• 63636 – Des Arc, MO
• 64646 – Humphreys, MO
• 65656 – Galena, MO
• 70707 – Gonzales, LA
• 72727 – Elkins, AR
• 73737 – Fairview, OK
• 74747 – Kemp, OK
• 75757 – Bullard, TX
• 78787 – Austin, TX
• 80808 – Calhan, CO
• 94949 – Novato, CA
• 95959 – Nevada City, CA

Random Facts

• Many of the zip codes in Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. are 3333x, where x is 0, 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9.
• All the zip codes starting with 666 are in Kansas, for the most part in the Topeka area.
• 69169 – Wallace, NE.
• Beamont, TX is the luckiest city in the nation (?): It holds all zip codes starting with 777.
• No one has 31337.

Love drives student choices in products, organizations

Date: 2008.12.11 | Category: Columns | Response: Comments

My next-to-last column for the Technique.

Those of you who have read Kevin Roberts’s book, Lovemarks: The Future Beyond Brands are already familiar with the concept of “loyalty beyond reason.” To many of us “geeks” that probably sounds ridiculous: Why would we as people want to have such an emotion towards something as impersonal as a company or a brand, one that makes us act in an illogical way?

I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing, however. While ultimately a company’s motivation in building these relationships is to get you to buy their products or services, I don’t view marketing as an inherent evil. Much of the time I want to be marketed to: Knowing about new products that might be of interest to me adds value to my life, and if someone wants to get that information to me more effectively, I’m more than happy to let them.

After all, the process of creating a Lovemark includes creating superior products and providing customer service that goes above and beyond. When a person has this sort of bond with a company, that usually means they had a particularly fantastic experience. If a company is willing to do that for me, I’m willing to give them my loyalty.

In the column, I ask the question of what it would take to make a student organization a lovemark for people who are not its members, and what that would even mean. Alas, as always, I don’t have an answer.

In the meantime, though, there are some companies that are lovemarks of mine: Amazon, Opera, Seagate. These are companies I am loyal to, whom I would buy from and whose products I buy or use. But even more importantly, these are companies I would recommend to my friends and acquaintances without reservation. In exchange for their good treatment of me, I award them not only my business but that of the people I can influence. So, dear readers, what are your lovemarks?