Joel-Mark-Witt.com

Friends and I had coffee yesterday with blogger Steve Pavlina. He is an interesting guy with some amazing perspectives on personal development and radical life experimentation. For example he turned me onto the idea of lucid dreaming.

You can read this article by Steve to get an idea of what I’m talking about.

I’ve had some lucid dreams in the past but nothing very specific or intention focused.

Last night when I went to sleep I set the intention in my mind to have a lucid dream and early this morning as I was coming in and out of sleep I experienced a short one. Very exciting. I didn’t have much detail or control over the dream but I did get some glimpse into what I need to do next to make lucid dreaming more of a reality for me.

Lucid dreaming is a world where I can play around with reality a bit and experiment with various outcomes that I want. Excited to keep working on this.

Have you had experience with lucid dreaming?

Up until a few months ago all four of my grandparents were alive.

My grandfather on my dad’s side passed away at 90 after about six months of health decline. (My paternal grandmother passed away a few months later).

Up until a year ago my grandfather was physically nimble and strong. I attribute this to a positive outlook on life and a disciplined work ethic. He never “worked out” a day in his life. But he was from the generation where you worked hard with your hands and did things yourself.

He owned a 12 acre property in Pennsylvania that he and my grandmother maintained themselves and with the help of their adult children and us grandkids in later years.

There was snow to plow, grass to cut, fences to repair and other maintenance tasks to complete. I am convinced that all this work kept my grandparents in shape and healthy into his 80s.

My grandfather was awesome and able to give of himself to all of us grandkids. I believe he was able to do this because he kept his mind and body sharp through hard work.

My goal is to physically spend my life in a way now that will set me up to be a strong and disciplined dad and granddad for my family.

*Photo by coldpants

The biggest problem with time management is we feel we have more of it than we really do.

I find myself cramming appointments back to back during the day, taking loads of books to read on a three day trip and leaving my weekends unplanned guessing that everything will work itself out in real time.

BIG MISTAKE.

I’m not suggesting that every minute of the day needs to be scheduled, but it is important to stay focused with time.

Time is the ultimate communism. We all get the same amount and we have to spend it all together.

There are two big factors that I’m learning about time and time management. First of all – before I even go down this road – time really can’t be managed. It can only be spent. But I digress.

Let’s look at what I’m calling F(2).

Focus

Deadlines help me focus. Focus is key, because it allows us to actually get things accomplised. I am learning to despise multi-tasking. I get pissed when people interupt my workflow.

Flow

Focus comes from an emotional state called “Flow.” I have this book on my shelf by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi called Finding Flow. It’s one of the many books I’ve dabbled through a bit here and there.

The basic premise is this. Each of us have certain activities that we do in life that we lose complete track of time and are absorbed with. Usually this comes from a high emotional state that these activities make us feel.

[Every time I hear of friends who spend days playing video games I think of this principle.]

Here are my thoughts on the subject (and it might be in the book too and haven’t gotten that far yet). Spend time programming your mind to EMOTIONALLY enjoy activities that you know will bring the desired outcome in your life.

How do we program our minds?

By manipulation. We need to talk ourselves into emotional states that can render results.

“It can’t be done!” you might say.

Hogwash. Every successful actor in Hollywood knows how to do this. They have made a career out of tricking their minds into adopting an emotional state that they have willed themselves to have.

It’s not a matter of possibility – but rather a matter of willingness.

The problem is – most of us are too afraid of letting ourselves go to an emotional state that will create flow. And this is the reason we labor through our day and get nothing done that takes us toward our goals.

In my mind it all comes down to the emotions. They dictate what we will do, have and be in life.

Thoughts?

*Photo by Yogendra174

You may have noticed I haven’t been around these parts for a while…

I kind of went AWOL…

I swear there’s good reason for that.

In addition to raising two little boys, working regular desk hours, taking on several new social media and online marketing clients, writing two books and working toward a second Masters degree (long story that I’ll tell you sometime), I’m also building an online social media resource and training company over at Folk Media.

Needless to say, you can feel the time being sucked from your lifeless exhausted body just by reading the above paragraph (actually it’s one very long sentence).

Long story (or sentence/paragraph) short -

I’m busy.

So what? Everyone’s busy.

I know. That’s why I’m here now to let you know I’m back. This site is my professional presence online and I need to continue caring for it. Busy is no excuse for blog death. Busy is no excuse period.

But I need your help. I’m always interested to hear practical actionable ideas for managing time, attention and resources. Leave your best advice in the comments. No BS though – I don’t have time to sing Kumbaya.

And be sure to connect via Twitter and Google Buzz.
PS – I also tweaked the design of the site a little bit. Like it – yes or no?

Steeler Football

It is no secret that I am a huge Pittsburgh Steeler’s fan. I was born in Pittsburgh and spent the first 26 year of my life in and around Western Pennsylvania. I think I was holding a terrible towel when I was one.

But this season, 2009, the Steelers haven’t been doing so well. We are the defending Superbowl champions and with our current record (6-7) it looks like we won’t even make the playoffs this year.

The team is hounded by injuries and seems to be missing something more than players. Football is a very complicated sport. There are many blitzes, zone coverages, strategies and systems that I do not understand. But there is something I do understand…

Tackling.

I’ve watched several games this year where defensive players missed tackles. I think that this is why the Steelers are losing. If they tackle well they won’t give up big plays that lead to other teams scoring points. Of course, the offense still has to play well too.

But tackling is a fundamental aspect of football. It is the basic action that a defender does to stop the advancement of the ball by the opposing team. And recently, many teams have figured out how to tackle quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger.

How Good Is Your Tackling?

I think that success in life or business also comes from good tackling. Knowing how to bring down the projects or challenges that are keeping you from success.

How good are you at tackling the big issues in your life? Do you spend the time taking care of the things you need to take care of to make success probable. For example I’m in the midst of a 2009 year end review and planning for 2010. I read a quote recently by author Donald Miller “meaningful lives don’t just happen by accident.”

In other words, you have to tackle the big stuff and create the life you want.

So what areas are you going to tackle this year? Where are you going to focus your life or business? How are you going to master the fundamentals and practice tackling?

This site, Joel-Mark-Witt.com, is where I ask questions while standing at the intersection of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, social media, podcasting, marketing, PR, storytelling, life and leadership…. and what the heck this all means for my business and yours. If you like what you see – please subscribe for free. To join the discussion or to comment in real time follow me on Twitter.

Joel Mark Witt

*Photo By Pixteca MX

I often wonder about our current “enlightened state.”

In the modern world we assume that we have the best viewpoint. We feel that new is better and everything that came before is inferior.

What if we are wrong? What if we are gaining in data but are losing our intelligence?

You may argue that we have advances in medicine, science, technology and transportation. We have gained in these areas. But have we improved the moral and social aspects of our lives?

In the United States we ended slavery -helped the world beat back dictators during two world wars – and have aided in spreading freedom to people everywhere.

But there is something about our human condition that leads us back to evil. No matter how many good causes are started each year. No matter how much we are enlightened – it seems that humans as a race are bent on evil. It is in our blood. It seems to be our birthright.

So this brings me back to my original question in this post. How do we know that we are more enlightened now?

What gives us permission to say “we now know what is best for the world.” After all, people in the nineteenth century would have felt they had the answers. In hindsight we view these people as uneducated and ignorant.

Will history see us the same way 100 years from now? Will we look unenlightened then?

We are so sure that we now have the best viewpoint of the world and we use our modernity as our apology. But what if we are the ignorant ones and those who came before actually know a more about life than we are willing to admit?

As we continue to live in the “state of now” with instant Twitter messages and multimedia texts, we have less use for information of the past. It seems stale and old to us.

And when I say the past I mean yesterday. It’s as if we are viewing all information as valuable as a daily newspaper. It’s value wanes as time moves on.

Just some thoughts for today. What do you think?

This site, Joel-Mark-Witt.com, is where I ask questions while standing at the intersection of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, social media, podcasting, marketing, PR, storytelling, life and leadership…. and what the heck this all means for my business and yours. If you like what you see – please subscribe for free. To join the discussion or to comment in real time follow me on Twitter.

Joel Mark Witt

*Photo by oddsock

In this video I ask the simple question….

What would you rather give up for one year – electricity or plumbing?

Leave a comment below and let me know.

This site, Joel-Mark-Witt.com, is where I ask questions while standing at the intersection of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, social media, podcasting, marketing, PR, storytelling, life and leadership…. and what the heck this all means for my business and yours. If you like what you see – please subscribe for free. To join the discussion or to comment in real time follow me on Twitter.

Joel Mark Witt

You’ve heard the saying, “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a person healthy, wealthy and wise.”

But it’s not the actual sleeping early and rising early that makes you wealthy and healthy. The true secret is what you are doing in order to get to bed early and rise early. To do this you must practice…

Discipline.

I’ve been reading the Dan Kennedy book “No BS Time Management.” In the book he talks about how no one likes the idea of living a disciplined life. But he points out that being disciplined is the surest way to success.

What are your sticking points when it comes to discipline? Are there areas that you excel at and others areas in which you struggle?

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This site, Joel-Mark-Witt.com, is where I ask questions while standing at the intersection of social media, podcasting, online video, marketing, PR, storytelling, life and leadership…. and what the heck this all means for my business and yours. If you like what you see – please subscribe for free. To join the discussion or to comment in real time follow me on Twitter.

Joel Mark Witt

I’ve been reading Dan Kennedy’s book No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs. He points out that people who are late to meetings, events and other aspects of life are untrustworthy. Could he be right? Does he really have the secret to success?

Check out Dan Kennedy’s book here.

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This site, Joel-Mark-Witt.com, is where I ask questions while standing at the intersection of social media, podcasting, online video, marketing, PR, storytelling, life and leadership…. and what the heck this all means for my business and yours. If you like what you see – please subscribe to it for free. To join the discussion or to comment in real time follow me on Twitter.

Joel Mark Witt

A few years ago I was asked by a large publishing company if I had any projects ready to go as a new author. I didn’t have an answer. I won’t make that mistake again.

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This site, Joel-Mark-Witt.com, is where I ask questions while standing at the intersection of social media, podcasting, online video, marketing, PR, storytelling, life and leadership…. and what the heck this all means for my business and yours. If you like what you see – please subscribe to it for free. To join the discussion or to comment in real time follow me on Twitter.

Joel Mark Witt