10 Simple Tips For An Efficient Week-End Get-Away

Taking a week-end get-away? Here are the simplest tips to prepare for it.

1. Pack lightly: You don't have to pack your entire wardrobe or library of books or large computer screen--just the bare minimum. Take a single pair of jeans you can wear all week-end. A couple of shirts, maybe a sweater, a change of undergarments per day. Some toiletries. Voila--vacation time!

2. Eat before you leave: Nothing worse than getting on the road and the kids are hungry. Eat before you leave, and take a few snacks in the car with you to munch on. 

3. The logic of #2 applies to...well...#2: Use the bathroom before you leave. If you have kids, make sure they've all gone too--especially the little ones who can slip through legs and make it out to the car or van before anyone else. 

4. No stopping: Whoever said It's all about the journey is lying. You want to get to your destination in as little as time as possible--maybe even break your previous record. So with full bellies and empty bladders, simply state to your occupants your main objective and punctuate it with this fundamental rule: No stopping until we get there.

5. Drive safely: You may not like speed limits but you've got your contingency "No stopping" rule. It's important to drive as if you have all the time in the world: you'll get to your destination safer and less bedraggled than you would swerving in and out of cars like a maniac. 

6. If you have to stop, stop once: So there are always exceptions to a rule, and a kid screaming in the back that he has to go pee means abandoning rule #4 and stopping somewhere. The best place to pull over is a) the closest one, and b) the place where you can take car of the most needs at once: you or your partner need a coffee? The kids need another snack? You need some napkins to wipe up spills in the back? A place like Tim Hortons will meet those needs and more.

7. Don't stop at the first gas pump you see: It's a habit: get gas in town. But how many times are you driving down a two-lane highway off the 401 and see gas 5 to 10 cents cheaper? If you don't really need gas before you leave, best to wait until you get a little farther out and take advantage of the gas saving.

8. Pack warm stuff: Even if you plan to stay at a hotel resort for the weekend, it's always good to pack your big boots and gloves and hat during the winter months, in the event you have to pull over on the side of the road, or need a boost. 

9. Pack your survival kit: Make sure you've got jumper cables, extra windshield wiper fluid, and a multi-tool--for starters. You can have more gear on-hand, but those are the basics.

10. Audiobooks: Whether you have children or you're traveling with your partner, audiobooks are a great way to pass the time and learn something as well. It's easy to put the in-car TV on, but audiobooks for your kids are a much better way to stimulate the brain. 

Need A Big Idea Or Solution? 8 Ways To Think Like An Artist, Innovator, Or Designer

You've got a deadline--you're blocked. Nothing. 

What do you do? How do you get the new insight or idea you need to get the results demanded by your manager or boss? 

Getting past blocks is one of the most difficult things you can do. Often we are slaves to our own thinking. There's a fancy term for this: habituation. I call it autopilot. It's the state you're in when you operate from the same assumptions, ways of seeing, and beliefs you've always operated from. And it's those times when an answer or something crazy-new is right under your nose, but you can't see it. It's not unlike the famous violinist who draws thousands of fans for his concerts, but when he busked at a New York City subway station, no one even noticed him. 

Famous violinist Joshua Bell ignored by thousands

Artists and inventors and innovators of various sorts are able to deal with blocks better than most people. Is it because they're smarter, or 'more creative'? No. It's that the nature of their work demands they work through blocks all the time, from which they've developed their own habituation, only it's habituation toward the right solution. Here are some tips:

1. Come up with 5 new ideas daily: An adoring fan once approached the famous author Ernest Hemingway, and asked him how he wrote such amazing books. "Easy," he replied. "Easy?" queried the fan. "Yes, easy," continued Hemingway, "I get up in the morning and I write and write and write. The next day I get up in the morning, and I write and write... See--easy." When you push yourself to come up with new ideas daily, you learn by doing. When the time comes for that deadline, you can either come up with a new idea, or take one you've already created, dust it off, give it a paint-job, and voila! 

2. Read books--not just a book: Reading has taken a bad rap from generations of grizzly teachers who have taught reading in only one style: one book at a time. That method is simply one among several. Another method is reading multiple books at a time, and allowing for the ideas to push and pull on themselves. If you want to come up with new ideas, you've got to read a lot--simply put. Start with the NY Times best-seller list and go from there. Look up book lists on the internet and copy them down. 

3. Keep a notebook: You've got to keep generating new ideas, and you won't be able to if you don't have a place to write them down. Also, your ideas form a repository or bank that you can withdraw from when necessary. 

4. Synectics: An intimidating term, but it's basically making the familiar strange and the strange familiar. If you need to create some kind of business solution, go study icebergs--or hamburgers--and project what you've learned onto your problem: "How is what I'm creating like an iceberg?" or vice versa. The key here is stimulating your brain to think outside its routines. If you want real success in this, get a bunch of people together, and have them each research something random that can be applied to what you're trying to create. Ask the question, How is what we're designing like the Amazon rainforest? 

5. Make your problem your solution: If you're stuck on a problem, maybe your stuck-ness is your solution in disguise. For instance, this blog post was written because I couldn't think about what to write. So I asked myself how I can generate new ideas, and voila! Your problem, phrased in a different question, may be the very thing you need to create. 

6. Free up headspace: Go for a walk; put on headphones and Bach fugues; go wandering around bookshops and street front stores--anything to get out of your problem and free up headspace. Bring your notebook and get ready to write down your ideas. They will come at the most inopportune times. Indeed, ideas tend to come when we've stepped away from our problem. Artists, inventors, scientists, and innovators really get this, which is why they may maintain strange near-bohemian schedules. 

7. Go to bed early or stay up late: If you're in a major funk and are a morning person, stay up really late over a few days; or, if you're a night person, get up really early. In both cases, you'll want to use that extra time for jotting down ideas and working on your problem. The shift in sleep pattern will pull you into a new way of thinking. And the next day, when you're wandering around work in near zombie state, you'll be in a perfect frame of mind for thinking outside of conventions and getting the ideas you need. 

8. Do something childish: Julia Cameron, famous for her book on creativity, talks about taking yourself on dates--that's right, dates. What do you do on those dates? Fun stuff that will spur new ideas: digging through a record store, wandering through an old bookstore, eating at your favourite restaurant or trying a new one; going to an art store and buying paints and brushes when you have no idea how to paint--that sort of thing. It's appealing to the child within. 

There are myriad ways to gain new ideas. The key is to a) work at generating them all the time, and b) break out of your old ways of doing things. One suggestion I read once was eating your egg differently several mornings in a row--just to break you out of your habituation. Who knows, it just might get you cracking...

7 Simple Tips For Being a Lifelong Learner In The 21st Century

We are living in an information age. Some maintain that information is doubling every 18 months, others every 12 months. In a previous post, we looked at the importance of enhancing skills and even gaining new knowledge under the brooding reality of robots taking 5 million jobs over the next 4 years. 

How do you educate yourself? How do you enhance your skills and, minimally, stay on top of the surge of information? 

Here are a few tips:

1. Attitude: Educating yourself is an attitude, a desire, a way of being. Its important to stay curious; to want to learn. As Socrates said, "A wise man admits he knows nothing."

2. Read: Are you a reader? If not, you will need to be. Reading enhances your brain activity in a much different way than watching televisual imagery--even audiobooks are better for the brain than movies. Reading will challenge your ideas and way of seeing the world. One book that is a must is "How to Read a Book," by Mortimer Adler and Charles VanDoren: it starts with the basics of reading and takes you through skill after skill until you are at the level of academic reading.

3. Good books: Now that you are reading, you need to figure out what to read. Classical educators will urge you to read the classics, books like Homer's Odyssey and Dante's Divine Comedy as a beginning. "How to Read a Book" will give you a list of the Western Canon: those books considered necessary reading for a solid education in western culture. But there are other lists too that take a simple Google search: "Best books on business," "Best books on design," "Best books on economics," "Best technology books in 2015"--get the picture? Once you have those lists, start to build your library. Do you like ebooks--check out a resource like Open Culture for hundreds of free e- and audiobooks.

4. Online Courses: There is a lot of information on hacking your education, from websites to courses, to websites like LifeHacker. An amazing resource is iTunes University from which you can take all kinds of university courses from top schools like Yale, Harvard, and Stanford. Download them to your mobile device, plug in your earbuds, and you can be learning 24/7. 

5. Notebook: This is a real art, and yet it's simple: buy a notebook, carry it around with you and jot down thoughts, quotes from books, notes from online courses, and overall observations. This is one of the most basic and powerful things you can do to educate yourself. There are people, like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Buckminster Fuller, who were made famous simply for their notebook accumulated over decades. In fact, if you observe the practices of many famous people throughout history, they have carried and worked in notebooks. Now some might claim that putting your notes on your mobile phone is good enough--I disagree. Working in pen and pencil and paper is a kinesthetic  practice whose results in thinking and learning are different and arguably outweigh those of simply tapping your phone screen.

6. Dialogue: We learn when we are unhoused, when we're challenged by others' opinions. Joining a reading group, or starting one yourself, is a great way to enter into conversation with others. And when you have a conversation around a good book, or set of books, there's a richness to the conversation that enhances learning. You'll notice as well that good companies study good books among their employees and leadership.

7. You're never too old: Learning is something we're always doing, and always have been doing since we first entered the world as babies. You're never too old to pick up reading books you studied decades ago in college. You're never too old to pick up a new skill. You're never too old to buy a sketchbook and start drawing out and documenting your daily experiences. You're never too old to join a book club or study group or lecture series at your local university. One of my mentors at Stanford was highly acclaimed as a translator in Greek, and yet, even as a senior professor, was taking intro-level Greek to keep his basic skills polished.

According to Stephen Hawking And The World Economic Forum, Science And Technology Could Destroy Us

Science and technology are hot topics in the news lately: we have the leaders at Davos holding sessions on strategies to mitigate the risk of killer robots; and a hop, skip, and jump away from Switzerland, at the BBC Reith Lecture, we have Stephen Hawking claiming that, "The human race faces one its most dangerous centuries yet as progress in science and technology becomes an ever greater threat to our existence," as reported in the Guardian. For Hawking, we will not be able to colonize Mars for the next 100 years--presumably the amount of time it will take for the technology to catch up to human need--and hence we must be very careful during this time. 

But what does careful mean? And what about the robots? Will killer robots preempt the technological leap necessary to occupy Mars? According to the World Economic Forum, such robots are coming--soon. According to Stewart Russell, a computer science professor from Berkeley, technology from drones and self-driving cars could make killer robots a reality within the next several years. 

If that's the case, and we won't be able to leave planet earth for another century, where does that leave us? 

For many of us, conceptualizing such a robot is difficult, given the memes we were raised on in movies and t.v.--the endearing R2-D2 and C-3PO from Star Wars, just two examples. But killer robots are something completely other--think about a weapon with the power and devastation of a nuclear missile. And many countries, in the name of national defense, are manufacturing them, according to CNN Money. 

The only hope thus far, getting back to Hawking's characteristic dystopian vision for humanity's reliance on science and technology, is for world leaders to hash out some kind of international agreement that would highly restrict their manufacturing and use--but that seems to be like shaking up a bee hive and waiting to see what happens next.

Need Help In The Productivity Dept? These 9 Tips Will Boost Your Results

Whether preparing a white paper, crunching numbers, or doing your taxes, productivity is a necessity. And now with robots poised to steal millions of jobs over the next four years, it's important that you continue to amp up your productivity skills. Here are a few tips to brush up your productivity:

1. Delegate tasks: With the surge of technology, we humans are driven to do more with less: less time, less resources, less mental bandwidth. You can't do everything yourself. Being able to delegate tasks to others around you, or pull together collaborative teams, is critical to staying productive.

2. Opt out of meetings: How many times have you sat in a meeting that chews up 3 hours of your day and yet pertains very little to your role or the projects you have on your plate? Employers are just as interested in your productivity as you are. If there's an opportunity to opt out of a meeting, take it.

3. Avoid impromptu meetings: Every office has those people who like to carouse around and stop by cubicles and offices for a chat; and before you know it, you're down a rabbit hole of detail about your the finger sandwiches served at your colleague's rotary club gathering. Here's a tip I learned from the book The 4-Hour Work Week: headphones. Put your headphones in your ear, and attach them to your phone. When Mr. Meet n' Greet comes by, motion to your ears and gesture that you're on a call. Problem solved.

4. Schedule email check: This is another tip from the 4-Hour Work Week: check your email at certain times of day, not ad hoc--unless of course you're expecting something urgent. Our phones give us the illusion of urgency with their flashing screens and jarring ring tones--but how much of your texts and emails are actually urgent? 10%? By scheduling email checks, you can focus on getting things done, while remaining confident that you won't miss anything. A way to set it up is have an automatic reply stating you're working toward a deadline and will be checking your email at 1pm that afternoon, at which point you'll get back to the individual. Sounds crazy? Might be the right reason to try it out.

5. Find a happy place: If you have mobility and able to work at a cafe or library, it's good to get out of the office when needing to focus on a project or deadline. Often offices can be full of distractions and obligatory meetings and chats. Getting out to a cafe or library can give you a sense of freedom and escape--just enough to focus your energy. If you are working on something that requires a difficult solution, it's good to get out somewhere outside convention. I knew one guy who created solutions while wandering the aisles of Walmart. 

6. Get offline--if you can: Social media is a huge time-waster. It's that little escape you are compelled to take just a few minutes for, then easily find yourself burning an hour scrolling through last week's posts. If you don't need to work online, don't--you'll be less distracted by incoming emails and social media notifications, and thus less tempted to free surf.

7. Make lists: This is a good way to keep projects top of mind. Some people like to use Google Task that syncs up with other apps, while others prefer simple pen and notebook. If you have larger tasks, break them up into sub-tasks--and bang off the smaller ones before you do the larger ones. 

8. Keep a notebook: This relates to #6. Keeping a notebook is important for jotting down new ideas, reminders, to-do lists, etc. I know many believe technology has rendered such things obsolete, but how many times have you lost notes from your phone or accidentally deleted them? 

9. Reward yourself: This is an important thing to do for boosting your confidence and sense of accomplishment. If you've pushed yourself hard to get a project completed, or you've had a number of things to bang off in a short period of time, give yourself a reward: could be a latte at your favourite cafe, or taking yourself out for lunch. Whatever it is, rewards are a good thing.

Rise of Robots To Eliminate 5 Million Jobs By Only 2020--Are You Prepared?

The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos Switzerland is a who's who of world political leaders, Fortune 500 CEOs, media, academics, and even rock and movie stars. As such, it is one of the most important events of the year in which the future of our world is literally designed, and during which a general consensus of global strategies are determined that are then moved through other high-level meetings and think tanks over the rest of the year. 

One of the issues on the table for this year's Annual Meeting is the future of work--jobs particularly. According to a recent article in Bloomberg, by the year 2020, robots will eliminate 5 million jobs--that's 5 million jobs! This means we will continue to see rampant disruption across sectors and industries in the near future. 

How do you prepare for such a thing? That's the issue at hand--preparation. 

In an article, entitled The Future of Jobs, top executives of the World Economic Forum claim that we are approaching a "Fourth Industrial Revolution," as a result of the rise of genetics, nanotechnology, robotics, 3D printing, and biotechnology that will create vast disruptions across sectors and industries; a revolution "more comprehensive and all encompassing than anything we have ever seen," according to the document. These changes, if left unchecked, could result in mass unemployment, talent shortages, and growing inequality. 

Here are a few ways you can prepare yourself for this coming 4th Industrial Revolution:

1. Get educated: The world is changing rapidly. The days of having one job for 30+ is over. You are going to have to educate yourself broadly about the social, economic, and technological trends impacting our world; and then you will have to try to get a picture of the future and how those trends will change your job or render it obsolete. If you are a business owner, you are under even greater pressure to do so: you could be working on a 5-year plan now that could crater in six months.

2. Up-skill: If you begin to see your job growing in redundancy, it's time to think about switching careers, and getting another degree or certificate. University may be a place to go, but a good college offering practical degrees in technology or engineering may be best. It all depends on your interests and how they translate into the work world. If you're seeing the writing on the wall and thinking of starting a business, refer back to #1--it may be a good time to strike out on your own.

3. Stay nimble: This may sound ambiguous, but you've got to be quick on your feet and able to meet growing needs as they arise. One day you could be installing technology systems, the next you're designing and selling your own. You have to be able to switch directions and try out new things when you see the end of the line.

4. Collaborate: This is one area that remains important through all this change and complexity. If you have a skill, think about how it can be applied across sectors for better solutions. If you're a business owner, think about how these changes in technology open the door for collaboration in ways you never would have thought. You can't go it alone anymore--the world is too complex. Finding partners in areas you never would have looked before can lead to much-needed opportunity.

5. Think next-gen: If you have children, you have to realize that what they are learning today will be obsolete by the time they graduate from high school. Indeed, they are being educated for jobs that do not exist today. Think about where and how your child is being educated. What they'll need is an education that teaches them how to think, pursue wisdom, and know themselves, rather than focusing on a particular job when they graduate. 

Don't Waste Another Minute Of Dream-Killing--Read This And Start Attaining Your Goals Today

Many of us have goals--things we want to accomplish in our lives. However, attaining those goals is often much more difficult than we originally thought. Often goals get kiboshed before we even begin working toward them. 

Here are some tips that can help you accomplish your goals:

1. Attainable: If you want to climb Mt. Everest, but have absolutely no mountain climbing experience, chances are the goal is unattainable--for now. It doesn't mean it's definitively unattainable, but it will take a lot of time and dedication to smaller goals to lead to that big one. That's the key: set yourself goals you can attain--the momentum will carry you to larger ones.

2. Work backward: Don't start with today, begin with tomorrow. What do you ultimately want to achieve? Typically it's something large. The key will be to determine what that goal is, and then work backward and list all the sub-goals that will get you to the big one; then just follow the trail of smaller goals to the big one--call it the Milestone.

3. Write it down: People who write down their goals typically achieve them. There's an amazing thing that happens when we put goals to actual paper, and then carry it around with us. Be even more audacious: write down the date of when you will accomplish it. 

4. Re-read: When you have that big goal written down--including the date on which you'll accomplish it--read the goal everyday. This will keep the goal at the top of your mind, and help you focus your energy around it. 

5. Ask for help: There are two kinds of people: those who help others attain their goals, and those who see you as a threat and won't move a muscle in helping you. Focus on the first group, and don't give a second thought to the dream-killers. Look into your social network and find those who can help you. Keep your request for help simple; and be sure you thank them when they provide you with ways to move closer to your goal.

6. Biographies: You'll need inspiration. Reading about the lives of others who have accomplished extraordinary things will not only give you the inspiration jolt you need, but will also give you insights into how you will accomplish your goal. This is where you get into the habits of success: by reading about those who succeeded you can mimic those characteristics and ways of working that contributed to accomplishing their goals. 

7. Don't give up: Failure will happen--it's part of life. And in fact, failing at our goals can lead to valuable insights for eventually attaining them. When you fail, don't give up--get up and keep on going. Those who succeed have stories of failure--it's part of the jungle of life. Those who accomplish their goals don't take failure personally, and certainly don't quit. Perseverance is in all of us--but it often takes digging deep into your self to find it.

8. Be thankful: When you accomplish your goal, be thankful for where you are, and don't forget to thank those who helped you. We don't attain success in life without others helping us along. And let your accomplishment teach you a lesson about 'paying it forward': when someone comes to you to help them attain their goals, you can offer your time and assistance being thankful for those who helped you along.

9. Make another goal: The writer Stephen Pressfield recalled a time when he finished his first novel. He took it to a veteran writer to share his excitement. The writer asked him, "So what are you going to do now?" Pressfield was confused--what should he do? The writer-friend replied, "Go write another novel--today." When we attain our goal, we need to make other ones. Always have something to work toward--it'll get you up in the morning. Humans have a tendency to digress in health and joy when they stop working toward things. 

10. Enjoy the journey: It's not the end, but the process in getting there that's of greatest value; it's the place of learning about yourself, mustering up courage, building community, and feeling your pulse. Take time to look up and enjoy the view from half-way up the summit. As the great Goethe once said, "Haste not--rest not." 

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8 Critical Tips For Low-Risk Snow Shovelling

You wake up, look out the window, and see your driveway covered in snow--best to clear it before you get ready for work; and best to have breakfast and a stiff coffee to get your motor going. You gobble down a hearty egg, bacon, and toast breakfast, quaff down your coffee, and are on the driveway within minutes. The snow is thick and heavy. 

You've only got 10 minutes to get it done, but the double-car driveway now seems more like a curse than the blessing it was when you bought the house. Within minutes your heart's beating fast, sweat's soaking your hat, and you're starting to feel a bit dizzy. "No worries," you tell yourself, "just a bit out of shape..." You've gotta be in the shower within the next five minutes--your legs feel heavy in your boots.

This is a typical scenario--and it's a possibly deadly one, especially if you have a heart condition. Shovelling snow for half an hour is equivalent to a half-hour of lifting weights. And within such a period of time, it's not unusual to be lifting 2000 pounds of snow! As well, the cold raises your blood pressure and increases your heart rate on its own, thus raising the risk factor for heart attack. 

With this in mind, here are some tips for snow shovelling:

1. Avoid if you've had a heart attack or stroke: If you have been diagnosed with heart disease, it's probably best to let someone else shovel the snow for you--unless you have a snow blower, which, nevertheless, should be done with caution and attention to staying warm.

2. Rest after a meal: Heading out the door to shovel after you've had a meal is not advisable, for your body is digesting the food, and adding more pressure to it could put strain on your heart.

3. Stretch: Take a few minutes before you get shovelling to stretch and warm up your body--just like you would at the gym. Those who know how to work out never just hop on a machine or set of weights without proper warm up--same goes for shovelling. 

4. Give yourself a break: When you're working out, it's common to take a break between sets, and longer drink-breaks between exercises--same applies to snow shovelling. Bring a water bottle out there, and every 10 minutes or so, have a drink and take a breather.

5. Stop if you feel dizzy: Being dizzy, light-headed, and just plain weird while shovelling snow is not a good sign. If you're feeling this way, go inside and finish the job later. If the job is too overwhelming, it's probably best to call a friend, family member, or neighbour to do it for you--there are also snow clearing services that charge a flat rate for the job. Better to pay in cash than with your life.

6. Use a smaller shovel: The Big Bertha is great for driving golf balls, but its equivalent in a snow shovel can quickly pack on the weight and subsequent strain on your heart. Use a smaller shovel to keep the load lighter.

7. Dress in layers: Hypothermia is common when out shovelling snow. Working up a sweat and tearing your parka off, stripping down to a t-shirt, will only get you in trouble. Best to take a layer off at a time while keeping your body warm. Also, avoid drinking alcohol before or during shovelling, for it will make your body seem warmer than it is. 

8. Be a snow angel: In Calgary, there's a campaign that runs every winter encouraging people to clear their neighbour's sidewalks and even driveways--it's called being a "snow angel," and it's something I've always admired. There are most likely people on your street who are elderly, under medical care, have back or hip problems, or are just out of town who could thus use some help with their sidewalks and even driveways. When you're out there, be a snow angel and clear other's sidewalks for them. You'll do something good, and help others out--you'll feel great. 

7 Critical Things To Have In Your Vehicle Safety Kit

What's in your trunk? Are you prepared for a road-side emergency, should it happen to you? With temperatures hitting consistent sub-zero, and snow sweeping over the Great Lakes, highway and city-driving poses plenty of risk. You are going to need to be prepared for anything. Here are the basics of what you need:

1. Food and Water: Say you've got to dig your car out of the shoulder of the road, or you're stuck for a while waiting for a tow: you'll need energy. You'll need to pack energy bars to give you the boost you need to get a job done, or recover from one. As well, you'll need to keep some water with you in bottles that won't crack in the cold. These are basics.

2. Tools: You or a passenger has suffered injury, or you're trapped in the car, or you need to dig yourself out of a jam, you'll need the following tools: 1) First Aid Kit, 2) seat belt cutters, 3) shovel, 4) multi-tool, e.g. Leatherman Wingman, 5) kitty litter (to add traction to tires to get out of a jam), 6) Candle, 7) wind-up flashlight, 8) battery-powered radio.

3. Jumper cables: This is critical. Click here to learn how to use them.

4. Whistle: You might think it trivial to have--until you're rendered hoarse from calling for help.

5. Road map: Your phone is out of battery and you don't know how to get around a detour. Technology has its limits--having a road map will be a reliable way to get out of a jam.

6. Antifreeze and/or Windshield Wiper Fluid: There are very few things worse than needing to clear your windshield while bombing down the highway and your wiper fluid tank is empty--and you don't have any extra bottles in the vehicle. It's important to have extra windshield wiper fluid in your vehicle. 

7. Warning Light and Flares: The second might seem excessive, but you never know until you're in the thick of a catastrophe to know how to use it. Warning lights will keep you in view while stuck on the side of the road. 

Got Too Much Stuff? These Simple Decluttering Tips Will Set You Free

If you're like many homes post-holiday season, you're probably noticing a lot more stuff inundating your house's crawl spaces, closets, rooms, garages, and hallways. A significant part of western living is the freedom to buy more. Run out of room, just buy more storage... 

There is a movement toward decluttering that holds out a glimmer of hope for our button-popping homes. It's likely that if you were to walk through your home with an eye for what you actually use and what you've merely stored for a later time, you'd realize you could probably get rid of, in one way or another, at least 50% of your stuff. 

Intrigued? Here are some tips:

1. Go in spurts: You've seen that show hoarders, in which the declutter brigade rushes through the house and dumps boxes and garbage bag out top-floor windows into awaiting empty steel bins? Well, that's probably not the way you want to go. In fact, it's easy to burn yourself out trying to get it all done in a day. Best to go slowly in spurts. Spend five minutes a day sorting through stuff and throwing what you don't need away.

2. Compartmentalize "throw away": You don't need to throw your stuff in the garbage--unless it's literal junk. There are many charities and non-profits out there that benefit from selling people's old stuff. Ever been to ValueVillage or Salvation Army? These are great places to take clothes you don't wear, dishes you no longer use, old thriller novels you won't read again, etc. The other compartment is 'Returns', i.e., taking stuff back to those you've borrowed it from. 

3. Fill a garbage bag: Here's a quick tip from becomingminimalist.com: Take a garbage bag and see how quickly you can fill it. Again, this may be a garbage bag full of stuff for Goodwill, or for the curb. Either way, you'll feel good.

4. The Oprah closet trick: Did you know the 80/20 rule applies to the clothes you wear? Apparently, people typically wear 20% of their clothes 80% of the time. To figure this out for yourself, hang all your clothes in reverse direction--back to front. When you've worn something and return it to your hanger, do so front to back. Do this for six months and see how many articles of clothing you've actually worn, and ask yourself if you really need the rest of them. If not, grab a garbage bag and fill it!

5. Give away and item per day: Many of us in North America have so much--compared to global standards of living, we are rich beyond measure. In many spiritual teachings, there's a correlation between owning many things and suffering. However, there's a sociological fact that acts of generosity and kindness actually lead to higher levels of well-being. Imagine that! It's the generosity paradox: typically we think we are happiest when we take stuff and unhappy when we give things away; but it's actually the other way around. Try it: give away an item per day and see how you feel. 

There are myriad more ways to declutter your home. In our society of high levels of consumption, it's good to revaluate how we live and consume stuff. Taking time to declutter our homes may actually bring more happiness, in addition to more usable square-footage.

6 Basic Ways To Prepare For A Major Disaster

We are living in a very intense time in human history. Whether threats from other countries or environmental disasters or economic meltdowns, it's important that we are aware of the risks and even more aware of how to prepare ourselves for such catastrophes. Today, North Korea claims it had successfully tested a hydrogen nuclear bomb (H-bomb). Whether it actually did or not should give us pause. This post is not meant to be alarmist or propagandistic, but simply to provide information toward a risk-management approach to any disaster scenario. 

Here are some basic ways to prepare for a nuclear attack (or most other disasters):

1. Get educated: A nuclear attack is a very complex phenomenon; and time taken during fall-out to learn about what to do will take valuable time away from your escape plan, and may even pose tremendous risk to your life. Take time now to learn about nuclear attacks, their different types, and what to do in the midst of them. 

2. Build your learning resources: A nuclear attack would wipe out the internet and your computers. If you rely on ebooks for your library, you're hooped. It's important you begin to build a small library of books and manuals that will not be destroyed in a blast. Survival manuals, herb identifier handbook, medical books such as Where There is No Doctor, Do-it-yourself books on back-to-basic subjects, road atlases and maps, etc. 

3. Have supplies: Your best bet during an attack might be to stay in your home--but that entails you have enough food and water stored to sustain you and your family for at least 48 hours. Choose items high in carbohydrates such as rice, wheat, beans, honey, oats, pasta, powdered milk, and dried fruits and vegetables. Build your supply slowly: each time you go to the grocery store, pick up a few extra items for storage, and keep them all in a cool dry place. 

4. Water: You'll need plenty of water stored, at least 4 litres per person per day. As with your food supplies, you can begin stocking up on water each time you go to the grocery store. If you don't have one already, something like a Big Berkey water system can be had for under $500, which will purify water from remote lakes, streams, stagnant ponds, and water from other countries. 

5. Stay informed: If you don't listen or watch the news, or stay on top of Twitter and other social networks, it's time you do. You'll be able to see the signs and plan your escape ahead of time. One key question to ask is, 'If this even is happening, what will need to happen to push it over the edge to a full-scale catastrophe? And how close are we to this happening? How many days/months do we have left? What will be the tipping point that will shift this event into that which is life-threatening?' 

6. Stock medical supplies: If you're on medication, you'll need to have enough to last you a month or so in the event there is no access to pharmacies or other providers. You'll also need a basic first-aid kit, and some books on addressing various wounds and ailments. 

There are endless other details I could add here--these are simply the basics. If you haven't already, it's important to begin your own research and formulate your own plans. You can start with some accessible survival handbooks, found on Amazon and elsewhere, which will give you all the information you'll need to build upon. 

The issue is that we are living in rapidly changing and complex times, which means things in our world can change in a heartbeat. We need to be ready for those changes in ways that ensure, to the greatest degree possible, that our loved ones and we will be safe. 

Whether a country is wielding the bomb to end all bombs or not, to live in this century is to be prepared--for anything. These initial predatory steps will help you respond to most disasters. 

5 Ways You'll Survive The Seemingly Endless Winter

It's January. It's winter. It's cold. 

And it ain't getting any warmer--for a while. 

How do you survive? Well, for those who have grown up in the great white north, you've had years to prepare and learn and adapt--but even seasoned veterans of winter need the odd refresher....

1. Get warm: It's easy to crank up the heat in your house, but it'll cost you more money--not to mention if you have cracks in your windows, or your windows are just plain old and lousy, a lot of that heat will escape. The easiest thing is to keep yourself warm by bundling up: double socks, extra blanket or duvet in your bed, even a night cap. My go-to is my trusty alma mater hoodie.

2. Stay active: It's easy to avoid winter altogether, and hole yourself up in your house or apartment, but that'll do at least two unhealthy things: 1) you'll grow sedentary, which may lead to packing on more weight, and 2) you won't get enough vitamin D from the sunlight, which plays an important role in mood regulation. These two conditions lead to winter depression, or seasonal mood disorder--not pretty. How do you combat that? Simple: a walk or two per day, preferably in the afternoon when the sun is at its peak. This will help you work off extra food you might be eating, while giving you one source of Vitamin D.

3. Take your vitamins: Many people suffer during the winter season from a lack of Vitamin D. And there are some who take double doses of the stuff to ward off any potential of deficiency. This is one of the most important vitamin supplements you can take during the winter months. You can also supplement fish oils to get your vitamin A, which, along with vitamin D, is a good mood booster.

4. Hydrate: The summer is a no-brainer for hydration: you sweat like crazy and you drink. However, it's just as important to stay hydrated in the winter months, especially since low humidity can lead to dry, chapped skin and irritated nose and throat. 

5. Mindset: This is vital. It's easy to get down when it's dark in the morning and dark in the early evening, and you're getting less sunlight while holed up in your home watching re-runs of the Mindy Project--depressing! This is where mindset plays a huge part in keeping your head level. You have to focus your thoughts and efforts on things you like to do--staying good and productive. Find a hobby, and get with a community of people all doing it. Try to find the good in your day, the brightness in the overcast sky. Avoid alcohol if you can--it's a serious depressant--and opt for beverages that'll hydrate and stimulate, such as Kombucha. Avoid depressing movies or music, and choose instead entertainment that's inspirational. Read good books like Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning or Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist, or The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. This is critical: filling your mind, your thinking, with good things, inspirational things, things that will get you through the dead of winter, and bring bits of spring into your life each day. That's the power of mindset!

What Do Michael Jordan, Oprah Winfrey, and Jerry Seinfeld All Have In Common? The Answer Could Change Your Life

Well, it's New Years Day--do you make resolutions? Many do; few keep them. The key to it all is simple perspective: you're not making a list for the year itself, but rather reminding yourself of the things you'll work on over the year as part of an ongoing process of self-improvement. Will you fail? Of course. The real question is will you keep trying. You see, that's the whole key to failure that professionals understand and amateurs don't: failure is a vital part of success. 

Think about all the entrepreneurs who are successful today, but still have battle scars from the businesses they lost--people like Steve Jobs and Henry Ford.

Consider the countless manuscripts that came hot off the typewriter of a famous author that were rejected before the big one landed--like Hunter S. Thompson and Stephen King whose .

Keep in mind the myriad actors and actresses who were told they would never get a part only to years later walk the red carpet--like Sidney Poitier and Harrison Ford and Denzel Washington. 

Reflect on all the rags to riches stories in the music and entertainment industry--those who had to fight and struggle day in and out to get a break--like Oprah Winfrey who was fired from her job as a news reporter because she was "unfit for TV," and J.K. Rowling who was on welfare, penniless, and trying to raise a child before reaching remarkable literary fame and success.

Remember all the stories you read only this year about those who made it through unspeakable odds to accomplish what they thought was unattainable, or to surmount what was seemingly insurmountable.

Go back through history and read about the innumerable politicians, history makers, inventors, athletes, olympians, artists, writers, architects, actors--all the tries and failures and re-tries: Winston Churchill, Vincent Van Gogh, Michael Jordan, The Beatles, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison, Frank Lloyd Wright, and on and on...

Try, fail, fail again...

So if you're sitting there (or standing) reading this, and you've made a list of resolutions or things you want to attain this year, and you're feeling trepidatious and foolish for thinking you even stand a chance of making that accomplishment, remember this: you will fail; you will have set backs; you will fall short; your attempt won't be perfect; your success may take trying beyond your ability to try again. But it's ok. If you believe in your

You will fail--the real question is, will you try again?