Preparing For “Battle”: 16 Days To Go
After having a minor panic attack when I reached the 30-day countdown to my 2.5-month trip around Asia, I am now down to 16 days. And I feel like a soldier getting ready for war…the kind that happens in one’s mind. Think anticipation vs. anxiety.
10 LAME EXCUSES THAT KEEP US FROM PUTTING IDEAS INTO ACTION
It’s one thing to be creative enough to come up with a lot of potentially awesome seeds for sowing, but another to be persevering and fearless enough not to make the above excuses in order to see them through.
Many times we come up with the above excuses for our inaction, when really, it’s just us masking our fear of things we aren’t even sure will materialize (anxiety), and our procrastination (laziness).
In preparation for my GK CSI Night talk, I outlined these ten popular excuses I hear, and admittedly, say to myself sometimes many times. Unfortunately, I talked too much, so I didn’t have enough time to share this that night.
If you’d like to find out how Punchdrunk Panda or I personally overcame some of these excuses, send me a tweet / message / e-mail, and I’d be glad to share my not-so-swabe stories with you. :)
In the meantime, what’s your favorite excuse?
Brain labandera,
Jen
Stop Dreaming, Start Preparing
Recently, @thysz tweeted:
“You can be a wanna-be or an about-to-be.” - John Varvatos
And being the non-fashionista that I am, I had to Google John Varvatos.
But anyway, regardless of the industry one is in, the above quote applies. So many times, we get so caught up in our daily lives, and our escapist dreams, that we fail to do any action.
And I guess that’s sort of what happened since I started this blog.
I started it with a mission in mind, but it got sidetracked when I encountered some unexpected setbacks that sort of forced me to backtrack, and I really haven’t taken proactive measures make sure I get back on track. Until now.
I was clear with my intention to attempt to “chronicle my steps towards a sustainable nomadic lifestyle by 2013 via increasing mobile small business management and development”, but somehow, I lost sight of the goals I set before, and I haven’t been dedicating the weekly/daily amount of time I initially hoped to give to certain efforts toward attaining those goals.
So yeah, this is a public reminder to myself of my plans, and to redraft them as necessary. And finally list down the strategies I wound up never posting.
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In the meantime, you might want to check out the Nomad Manager shop. :P
2012 A.D.
Finally, a blog post.
I had a lot of plans for my Christmas break, productive things like writing blog posts, editing videos for Nomad Manager and Punchdrunk Panda blogs, dabbling/experimenting with instrumental track-making, painting, reading, and those other things that have some sort of tangible output with which to gauge the “productivity” of time spent during the holidays. I didn’t even manage the customary blog post of looking back at the year that has passed and planning for the year to come.
Instead, I spent most of the holidays with my family and Karlo’s family and friends, a worthy exchange in my opinion. I think I get so engrossed in the work I do throughout the year that it becomes rare that I get to really sit down and spend time with family. We had a funner Christmas get-together as a family, and I had a very different New Year’s Eve experience with Karlo (bonfiring in Baguio, oh yeah). Monopoly Deal also played a HUGE role in bonding moments with my own family, Karlo’s friends and family. As in I felt I spent more time playing Monopoly Deal versus sleeping during the break. Ho ho. But yeah, it’s all good.
Now, it’s back to work, and I look forward to the what 2012 has in store for me, no matter what it brings. I’ll be posting a Nomad Manager Progress Report soon I hope. :)
Hurrah!
Tea and crumpets,
Jen
UPDATE: NM Progress Report #3 posted!
Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us (by theRSAorg)
:) *happy sigh*
- Autonomy - the desire to be self-directed
- Mastery - the urge to get better at stuff
- Purpose - the want to make the world a better place
These are indeed what drive me as an individual, and as a part of Punchdrunk Panda. :D
I hope my team is driven by the same.
Cheers, Dan Pink!
How I Actually Spent My Long Weekend
WARNING: This is a highly personal, self-indulgent entry, much like my entry here. So if the mundanities of my life do not interest you, then do not read on.
Last Sunday, I detailed exactly how I intended to spend the rest of the long weekend here, in hopes that announcing it to the world would make my resolve to accomplish the detailed tasks firmer than they actually were in my tired, lazy, easily distracted psyche.
If you were hoping that I somehow accomplished more to vicariously make your weekend productive, then sorry. No dice. But if you were hoping that I didn’t achieve what I had initially set out to do so you wouldn’t feel bad about not accomplishing much, or that you might feel better about the little that you did accomplish, then you’re in luck. :P
I don’t feel my list was that ambitious, but it took me longer than I thought to accomplish some, and I didn’t anticipate activities with family and friends. Nonetheless, I did get some stuff accomplished, though not as much as I had hoped.
NM Redesign
I spent a good amount of time thinking, researching, trying and reviewing logo/icon ideas for this blog. I was fixated on the idea of a vintage red suitcase, as made evident by discovered blog posts which I blogged or reblogged here and here.
Anyway, for the lack of a better icon idea/execution, I resorted to a simple, but drastically different color change, and change the font with which I presented my blog name.
Also decided to use red type for the MAD and NAG part of the blog name just because I noticed that my old thumbnail read that when cropped square and I thought it was funny. You may interpret it in whatever way suits your fancy.
My blog is now decidedly cleaner, sleeker and more modern looking, but I still feel it’s lacking, but I don’t really know how else I want to change it quite yet.
‘Til then, I feel this is a vast improvement. :P
Other Stuff
Apart from that, I was also able to measure laptops against 2 out of 5 sleeve prototypes (mainly because our sample-maker wasn’t able to turnover all samples last time, and today was spent on activities with family and friends).
I half-painted 1 painting out of the 2 I had intended to finish (it took me way longer than I thought it would, as is usually the case. :P)
Played some rusty badminton + family time, and visited an inaanak (goddaughter) since it’s her birthday today.
I guess I also really relaxed a lot too. As I was looking forward to this weekend for that as well.
Ngaragan times nalang pre-Global Pinoy Bazaar and pre-Singapore! HO HO
Pizzaoutszz!!
How I Plan To Spend The Rest of My Long Weekend
This is meant to be a self-indulgent entry, and contains nothing (I imagine) of depth or meaning to other people, but more of, as I say in my blog description, “…just hoping that the public declaration of my plans and steps will keep me motivated and focused on my goals.”
So yeah.
You were warned.
Read on for my weekend to-do list.
What I have achieved this weekend so far:
1) Surprised Karlo (FRI)
2) Proposed new PdP business card design (SAT)
3) Proposed collab packaging sticker design (SAT)
And what I had intended but have yet to do are:
[For Me]
1) Redo NM logo/layout (SUN/MON)
2) Color and ink 2 pending paintings (MON)
3) Blog about the ff: (MON)
• 10 A Alabama
• Artist webisode shoot
• PFW ? (debatable)
• Painting ? (debatable)
• Redesign of NM
• Acquiring my Kindle
** I feel I left something out, but oh well. This is plenty.
[For PdP]
1) Measure laptops against current laptop sleeve prototype (SUN/MON)
2) Create long term project updates/monitoring file for the team (TUES)
3) Think up merchandising needs for GPB (TUES)
I set out to accomplish a lot this weekend, specially with my backlog and my upcoming trip to Singapore to watch The National. So yeah. I definitely still have to get a lot of shite done.
Noooooo….50% of the long weekend is already overrr!!!
Take Control of Your Life: On Managing Your Time & Energy
Helpful, and relatively easy-to-apply tips on staying focused and motivated. :)
