Mind the Beginner

I’ve been blogging for almost a year now and last week I tweeted a question, asking how people got their blog to grow. You can read stories all over the net of people having a hugely successful blog within a year. I’m defining success as a lot of comments on each blogpost and hundreds/thousands of subscribers. Although this blog isn’t exactly what you call unsuccessful, things could be so much better. And that’s where I really could use your help.

Guest posting and engaging with other bloggers is key. That and being useful to your readers  -  Corbett Barr

The quote here is what I got back on my question via twitter. Guest posting and engaging with other bloggers isn’t to hard. My plans for that are simple: Guestposting on any blog that will have me. Small blogs and big blogs, none will be left  out as long as they fit in the same niche. To get in touch with more readers I’m going to dive deep into the blogosphere and comment on at least three blogs every single day. Of course those comments need to add value, a simple “First! hahaha”  or “What a great post, please visit my blog” won’t cut it. The most effective is looking for new blogs out there you didn’t comment on before, it’s getting your name out there. Frequently posting meaningful comments on the same blog will get you noticed by the writer and readers and so that’s also a good idea to get out there.

What is usefulness?

Usefulness is useless if nobody knows that you’re there

But I’m left with a single problem: I have no idea if my blogposts are useful to you. Am I writing things that matter and help? Or is it all a load of **** that nobody really finds interesting to read and/or is just dime a dozen content? How would you describe usefulness when it comes to blog content.

A long while back I laid out the plan on growing my blog  A blogpost filled with 16 building blocks to a succesful blog was what resulted. Back then the goal was 500 pageviews a day or 300 subscribers. I haven’t reached either – yet-, but the blog is still growing slowly every month and it’s only a matter of time until those goals are reached. There is no doubt in my mind about that. If there is one thing that I’ve learned from the successful bloggers out there is that things very rarely happen overnight. You’ll have to really commit and it can take years to build a really useful blog which is successful. Being useful by writing good content, answering questions and providing help is one side of the coin, it’s useless if you don’t reach anybody with it so you’ll have to market your blog as well. Usefulness is useless if nobody knows that you’re there.

I’d like to ask you two questions:

1. Is this blog useful to you?
2. What would make this blog more useful to you?

Blogging is very different from writing a book, you can actively engage with others and address issues that come up. It’s a great way of communicating and I want to make your experience on this blog better. Help me help you and we’ll both profit from it.

Thanks for the support my friend, I hope to hear from you

The most common type of mind is the closed mind. Or so it seems…

“I’d better spend the money before it’s gone”

This weekend I had a small social get-together with the in-laws and their social circle. My girlfriend was celebrating her birthday and I can tell you, she has an open mind, which seems to be a rare thing these days in real life. On the net you can talk to loads of people who don’t react funny when you talk about personal development, lifestyle design and even minimalist living. Those are topics I would hesitate to discuss in real life, but you would think that keeping track of finances at least would be a good idea and people could see the sense of it. Especially those who seem to suffer from chronic financial struggle and debt.

Well, forget that idea

The topic quickly changed to the habit of smoking and how some people there really should quit. Of course the money-going-up-in-smoke issue was discussed at length. I wondered how much people could spend on such a thing and if they had a clue. Quite obviously the wrong question because some of the in-laws there know I keep track of every cent myself.

And then came the jaw-dropping moment:

Laughter about me tracking my spendings followed. The smokers concluded that if they didn’t spend it on tobacco they would surely spend it on something else, without ever knowing where the money went! They seemed to share a way of thinking that goes a bit like this: “I’d better spend the money before it’s gone”

I repeat: jaw-dropping moment.

As the evening progressed it didn’t get any better. Listening as a skill was in short supply. Everybody was talking about themselves and trying to best the others with an even unlikelier story. Mixed in were the occasional rants about self-pity, being victims of society and of course complaining about money -and the lack of-. You’d think that people discussing their problems would like to know how they could tackle such issues of life and perhaps make a change.

Another huge mistake

And then came the revelation as I heard a Heavenly choir sing to me: People like to be the victim, to shove all responsibility under the carpet and talk about how unfair the world is. It’s a safe place to be because it’s known and as most would agree: the unknown is very scary. It seems to be a taboo to talk about doing something you didn’t do before but should have done a long time ago. At least, talking to find solutions and asking others for their opinions, solving problems in life and developing oneself. How wrong I was. These people didn’t want solutions or a kick in the right direction, they wanted pity.

Taking responsibility for life and owning all your actions is terrifying apparently. This can not be done with a closed mind for the answers to problems and changing of habits are products of the open mind, ready for new things and uncertain adventures. Thinking outside of the boxed thoughts seems to me essential for change to occur and responsibility to be taken.

I don’t understand closed minds like these. Why wouldn’t people want to change the negative things in life and strive for better things? Why stay in the same place if there are ways to get out? Then again. I could be terribly wrong here and should be put back in my place. Who am I to act like I’m superior!

Closed minds are all around and more often than not clash with each other in a struggle for right of speaking. Not listening to one another and complaining about the unfairness of the world is what surely follows. Or so it seems…

What do you think?

Like so many students I have a student loan, it’s not pretty but it’s there. It’s a statistically sound assumption to say that you have some form of debt too. Especially if you live in the USA. Although I don’t know my exact amount of debt to the cent that is a figure that keeps haunting me. But you know, there are two types of people with debt:

1. Those who are fully aware of their financial situation
2. Those who have a vague idea at best

Either you know you have a debt, how big it is, and what it’s doing from week to week or you have no insight in your financial situation. The reason I don’t know my exact debt is because I’m not to good with numbers. A click of the mouse will bring me to GNUcash. A totally free accounting program (Linux, Windows and OS X) that lets me keep track of every single cent I spend, earn and is otherwise added or subtracted from my assets and liabilities.In big red numbers is my student loan, down to the last cent. GNUcash lets you keep track of everything, in as many categories as you deem necessary. Form big ones like that student loan down to small ones like cash you find in the street. (Do you leave free money on the ground? I sure don’t!)

Keep track

As mentioned in “Your money or your life” it’s vital to “keep track of every cent that comes in to or goes out of you life”. It’s so important that on one page alone it’s printed three times, in bold. (Page 67 if you want to see) and I couldn’t agree more. The benefits are clear:

• You’ll never wonder at your balance again, and have no idea where it all went
• You’ll know exactly how much came in this month and how much was spent
• These two combined let you see if you live below your means
• You learn where your vices are if you have them.

Setting up GNUcash takes a little bit of time and the learning curve is a bit steep in the beginning but it’s a really easy program after the initial setup. No fancy layout, it’s minimal and does only what it’s supposed to do. You can generate graphs for just about anything but the most useful one is income vs expenses. Three collumns per period show you how much came in, how much went out and the difference. If the difference is chronically negative you’re having a serious problem. if it’s always positive, you’re living below your means. This is where you want to be for it’s no more than common sense to spend less than you earn right? The amount you don’t spend you can save for a rainy day or pay off that debt. If you manage to live below your means habitually your debt will decrease and in time you will no longer be haunted by that negative figure. Knowing your ghost makes it all the less scary.

If you have no clear idea on your financial status: Start keeping track as of today!
(Yes, every single cent)

I promise you, although it’s hard at first you will get better at it and soon it will become a habit, a very healthy one.

Some more reading:

The Four Noble Truths about Money

Winning the Lottery by being Frugal

The Defective Consumer says: Eat your vegetables

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If you’re not interested in effective writing or have mastered the skill of writing skip this blogpost. If you’re like me and always on the lookout for tips to make things more effective, this one if for you!

Block quotes are one of the three attention-grabbers when scanning an article to see if it’s worth reading. Read the blogpost to discover the other two.

Yesterday I dug up and old syllabus from my previous education as therapist. It was about effective writing and there were some nice pointers in there I really want to share with you. Over the years there have been a lot of blogposts and entire blogs on writing effectively. But as of yet there is one rule in my syllabus that I haven’t found out there yet. It might be, it might not be, at least now it’s here on this blog.

The rule of seven:

• No more than 7 sentences to a paragraph
• No more than 7 paragraphs to a chapter
• No more than 7 chapters to a text

With a margin of 2 on all these.

The word count

Simple isn’t it? But there is more of course. The maximum length of a sentence that  people can comprehend is related to education. It’s bit harsh but people who didn’t finish high school can’t handle sentences the way academics can. If you want to write a text that’s readable for everyone sentences should be no longer than 10 words. High School drop-outs can take 14 words and 24 words is a suitable length for academics. It’s not set in stone but it’s a good guideline to keep in mind when writing. Who is your audience? It’s quite easy to overestimate your readers.

Combining these two rules we get between 1250 and 7290 words to a text for everybody, and 3000 to 17496 words for academics. Somewhere in the order of 7000 words seems the ideal length for the typical eBook and 980 for a blogpost. All these are rough estimates of course but using these you can expect that an eBook over 17500 words long will surely be a bit on the long side.

Improving readability can be done by including underlines, bold, and italics but especially underlines are not a particular good idea in blogposts. After all, links in blogposts are almost always underlined and you could send the wrong signal. A text full of underlined words at first glance would seem like a text full of links. It could get even worse if you underline a word and make it blue as well. Now surely your first impression is that it’s a link. Did you try and click it?

Subheadings

are another way of grabbing attention and dividing a text to improve readability. It draws the attention and effective subheadings will almost lure the reader deeper into the text. The title of the article is the first thing people see and so that too should grab attention while covering the essence of the article. Not to long and definitely to the point, it should leave the reader with the feeling of “I need to read this”. These aren’t all the tools you have to write effectively. Blogreaders are a special breed of readers, they want the information in quick, scannable bits and are always in a hurry. As a blogger you can help your readers with that and provide highly scannable content.

One of the easiest things to scan is the:

• The list
• it’s short
• easy to scan
• and provides structure
• see what I mean?

Chances are you already scanned the list before actually reading the blogpost. Together with the subheadings these are two of the three most scannable features in any blogpost. The last one you’ve probably already scanned as well before deciding to read this post. It’s the block quote at the beginning of this blogpost. These three text-based eye catchers are what grabs you at a first glance. (Four if we count the title of the blogpost.) That leaves us with one non-text eye catcher that is absolutely crucial. A picture is worth a thousand words and doesn’t increase the word count! A bad picture or no picture at all will seem dull and uninspiring. The right picture makes or breaks a blogpost.

The closing line to a blogpost is where you make your statement. Use all the tools you have, make your blogpost scannable, make a clear statement, and don’t forget to write both a good opening and closing  line, they really matters.

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards – Soren Kierkegaard

In my previous post the Truth had a central role. In this blogpost again the Truth is an important thing. The Truth after all is what is right now, this very instant. And as soon as you think about it you’re thinking about the past. You can’t even pin the word “now” to actual now before it becomes past. Trivial though it seems this means that you can’t capture the moment. All you can do is accept it and live in it without trying to fight it.

So many people out there are constantly looking towards the future or the past to identify the perfect moment to do something. Mostly that moment was in the past and if you’re lucky you might find a moment in the future that’s perfect for what you want. The problem with that moment in the past of course is that you can’t relive that moment although you might understand the lessons and take that with you into the future. The problem with the future is that it’s distracting from the now.

Living forward is all there is. One moment after the next, following each other at instant speed. Trying to understand is dealing with the past, trying to look into the future is distracting from what is happening. We continuously hunt down the precious moments in our lives, but we’re always late or early.

Living without dealing with past or future robs us of all meaning it seems. I recall a fellow student of Cheng Hsin a few years ago who described trying to be perfectly in the now, the more he tried the less he was actually doing because almost all tasks were either dealing with something from the past or preparing for the future. Eventually he decided to give up in being perfectly now because it was boring and unproductive. He took things so far that he wouldn’t even brew a cup of coffee because brewing was preparing for the future event of drinking the coffee. This lasted for only a few hours before the decision to give in and act “normal” again. Possibly it’s the caffeine addiction that pushed him over the edge.

Preparing for now is impossible, preparing for the past senseless, preparing for the future a shot in the dark. That shot in the dark is your best guess out of the three options and is a very good idea indeed. Study the past and understand, prepare for the future and brew that cup of coffee, just don’t forget about this moment.   …to late… it already passed.

A bit more reading on the subject:

-Time-place dissonance and the quick fix

-The prison of the mental world

A blind man left his village and followed the winding path through the forest. He was on his way to see his friend in the neighboring hamlet. After his arrival, the two friends spent many happy hours together. At last, it was time for the blind man to return to his village.

“Here,” his friend said, “it is already nightfall. Take this lantern with you.”

“Lantern? What good is a lantern to a blind man?” he asked.

“It is to avoid accidents. It will help other travelers on the narrow path see you coming.”

With this thought in mind, the blind man took the lantern; thanked his friend, and went on his way. While plodding along the meandering path, he enjoyed the cool, fragrant mist which enveloped both him and the sound of chirping crickets. However, imagine his surprise when nearly home, he suddenly collided with a huge man.

“Fool! Why don’t you watch where you’re going?” the big man shouted.

“Why didn’t you see my lantern?” asked the blind man.

“Lantern? Oh, yes, . . . Well, the candle is out!”

An interesting story, but you might wonder what the significance of it all is. Well, see the lantern as the Truth, it enlightens everything around it. All is good until the lantern gets handed down the line for the ones recieving it can’t see the lantern for what it really is. Claiming to carry the truth but it’s no longer enlightening. Is it the same latern anymore, having lost it’s function?

Exactly this is what happens all around us, we get something handed down but don’t know what it really is. We just assume it’s right (a burning lantern) and blindly we follow it, never seeing that the lantern in fact is no longer enlightening us. What’s more we tell others that it’s the lantern of Truth and hand it down to them, further and further it goes, but what is actually passed on?

Assuming that what we are being told is the truth is all around us. If we didn’t assume things teachers would have a very hard time trying to teach. All we can do is assume they are right. But should we always take it for the truth? Who says the ones teaching us know the Truth? Sometimes it’s better to experience for yourself. Nobody can teach you the taste of coffee, the pain of hitting a wall or the loss of subscribers because of a sales pitch. Some things you’ll just have to experience for yourself in order to know what is and what isn’t true.

Question what others claim to be true and experience for yourself, it truly is the best way to learn and it makes a far greater impact. The best lessens in life are learned this way.

A few hours ago an e-mail entered my inbox. Sent by Problogger, a blogger you might now as Darren Rowse, one of the biggest bloggers out there and one of the happy few who makes a six figure income by blogging.

A long time ago when I started this blog Darren was offering a cycle of the 31 Days to Building a Better Clog challenge. I eagerly jumped on the project and the following 31 days was total pandemonium. Thousands of bloggers took part in the challenge to make their blog a better blog in just 31 days. Every day a new assignment would come online and we’d all implement what Darren was suggesting and follow things up with discussing about the assignments on the forum. THousands of bloggers doing so at the same time, hundreds of bloggers looking at each others blogs.

In 31 days my blog got a really good start in it’s digital life and the lessons learned are still being applied to this day. Now you must be wondering, what does that mail have to do with things and why am I trying to sell you something?

The truth is, yes this is an attempt to sell and the link I’m offering here is an affiliate link. << Click

Now I might have already lost you right there, I sure hope not because I have a very good reason to do this. By following the link you will be taken to the product page, but what it doesn’t tell you as far as I can tell is the temporary (7 days) bonuses that are on offer.

• A report by the name of 9 Things to Do to Get Your Blog On Track for the New Year – it is a 9 day extension of the 31 Day workbook and contains 9 extra tasks, particularly designed for the new year. This means you have 40 days of exercises to get you going.

• A 55 minute podcast with Leo Babauta from ZenHabits.net – this podcast is rich with tips on how Leo has launched his blogs and leveraged them to sell successful e-books and a best selling book.

• A 45 minute podcast interview with Neil Patel from Quicksprout.com – another practical podcast with Neil on how to drive traffic to blogs as well as tips on personal branding, SEO and more.

Now If you are still with me after all that you might be wondering why I’m doing this, why am I lowering myself to this shameless promotion. It’s a simple truth: blogging is an enrichment of your life, at the very least you become skilled in putting your thoughts to words and sharing your thoughts with others. By themselves writing skills are already very useful. Interaction is very likely to follow and you’ll get in touch with people who share your way of thinking or are really interested in what you have to say.

The main item itself is a workbook filled with tasks to get your blog up to speed. If you’re a first time blogger or thinking about writing a blog but don’t know where to begin this is just about the best resource around. You can work through the workbook in your own time and have it all in a nice bundle.

To sum things up: No, this blog is not permanently lowering the standards. I just feel that if you plan on blogging, have a beginning blog or have a writers urge then this really is a good place to start.I really do endorse this product, the 31 Days to Building a Better Blog is the single most significant thing that helped me start this blog and give it the flying start.

Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.

Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring.

The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. “It is overfull. No more will go in!”

“Like this cup,” Nan-in said, “you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”

Have you ever heard of value rigidity or conceptual rigidity? You encounter them either in yourself or in others every day of your life. It’s where your opinions and perspectives preclude you from seeing things in a new light or appreciate something new. Incapable of letting go of your cherished view of the world or some part of it you reject anything that does not fit in according to how you look upon things. Like the professor, your cup is full and you’re not inclined in the least to empty it so something new can fit in. Preconceptions rule your view, you’re stuck.

Does this sound like you? It might not, maybe it reminds you of somebody you know. Value rigidity and conceptual rigidity are the products of a closed mind. Keeping an open mind helps prevent or perhaps overcome these issues. That is, if you’re bothered by them at least. It might be that the closed mind has become a refuge, a safe haven where you feel (or that person you know feels) comfortable and getting out of that safety into an uncertain world would be terrifying.

In Pirsig’s “Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance” The story is presented of the old South Indian monkey trap as an illustration of value rigidity. The trap consists of a coconut or small box with a hole that is bog enough for the monkey’s open flexible hand to fit through, but to small for his clenched fist. The trap is baited with whatever food it is the monkey would find appealing and the trap is fastened to a tree or stake. Of course the monkey has no problems with getting his furry little hand into the hole and grab the food, but getting that clenched fist out, well, let’s just say we now have a very confused and frustrated monkey with his hand stuck in a hole. The obvious solution to the Homo Sapiens monkeybrain would be to let go of the food for the moment and find another way. Evolution wasn’t to kind on our little furry friend though and he just can’t wrap is head around it. The food in his hand is to important to let go, no matter the cost. Enter our South Indian friend, exit monkey and enter monkey stew…

Now this story might seem silly but it’s something that happens in a daily basis. Have you ever attended a class where beforehand you “knew” that it would be boring? Perhaps even an entire course that has you feeling depressed beforehand just because what you’ve been told by students who have already taken that course. In a few weeks the new semester will begin at my university and we (my fellow students and me) have already started to size up the courses, trying to figure out what to expect. Combine this with my rigid idea that I’m allergic to math and things get ugly. Especially when it turned out that there are not one, but two courses labeled “math” that I will be taking. Panic is slowly flowing into my thoughts as the semester closes in for the kill. But still I can’t let go of the old idea that math is evil. For over ten years now, my math-cup has been full. Letting go of what you think you know will allow you to experience what’s really going on. How do you know something is no good if you haven’t experienced it first hand without preconceptions?

The first step in dealing with rigidity is awareness. I hope you saw that one coming a mile away as it’s the first step in solving just about any problem out there. You can’t solve a problem if you don’t know it’s there, obviously. To expand solutions to these issues, you have to expand conceptual boundaries. Sometimes the expansion of conceptual boundaries requires reducing value rigidity. Narrow-mindedness might stop you from seeing the solution because it’s outside of your current views. You know value rigidity or conceptual rigidity is present when you hear something or read something that sets off a mental alarm and you feel your mind racing, picking up arms and getting ready to brawl. Now you actually have a choice right at that moment – if you are aware of your mind getting ready – either you let your mind run wild, or you let yourself relax and examine what it is that set off the alarm. Examine it without prejudging.

No expectations, no preconceptions, no rigidity. The open mind is supple and alert, ready for anything because anything can happen. The closed mind is rigid, tense and brittle refusing to acknowledge things that can happen that are outside the box.

Before you read this take a look around…

Did you have a quick look around the room, your desk area and perhaps even your desktop? Is it cluttered? Are there things there that you haven’t used in 2009? Things collecting dust that somehow just keep put but have no actual use?

Seriously, is there anything there you just spotted that you didn’t use for a whole year? The obvious question to ask as soon as you spot something like that is “Why is it still here?”

At least, that’s what the minimalist would ask himself. Always striving to make things less cluttered and as an added bonus easier to keep clean and tidy. I did that very thing this weekend and it resulted in the removal of two bookcases from my room, books included. That’s 2/3 of my shelf space and of course a drastic reduction of things to dust.

To keep things from looking to empty I rearranged what was left and added a two-seat sofa. Although I live in a single room at least now I have proper seating which means that the bed (which was also my sofa) can now be used exclusively for what it’s meant. The TV is no longer easily visible when sitting at my desk and it’s impossible to watch from the bed.

What happened here is something that might seem very insignificant but actually is nothing of the sort. We humans tend to combine just about anything we do and most of the time it’s not very productive at all or at least we aren’t mindful of what we are doing:

• Eating and watching TV
• Trying to fall asleep and watching TV
• Studying behind a PC…. with Internet (social media etc.)
• Studying with the TV on
• Working and playing

Now all of those save one are things you actually don’t want to be doing to often. Very soon you’ll have the habit of eating while watching TV and don’t notice you’re emptying a whole bag of crisps. It’s just suddenly empty. I’m sure you’ve had that happen at least once. The same goes for trying to fall asleep with the TV on. Your retina keeps getting bombarded with light. A great way not to get restful asleep. Sure, most people claim they can’t sleep without the TV to “help them”. But that’s because they have a different problem: The bed is not the exclusive domain of sleep.

The Pavlovian Bed

Humans are creatures of habit and as such we associate things with one another. We get Pavlovian reactions to things. When I was young my parents didn’t allow me to have a TV in my bedroom. A very wise choice when I think back, of course at the time I couldn’t disagree more. You see, my bedroom was used for but a few things and my bed for only one. So as soon as I went to bed my body knew it was supposed to go t sleep and so triggered all the necessary responses. My eyes closed and I was asleep within 20 minutes or less. Reading wasn’t part of the sleeping ritual, or rather it was but not while having my body in a horizontal or half-seated position. Bed = sleep and nothing else.

In later years I got that TV I wanted, now I could watch TV from the comforts of my bed. How wonderful. My body disagreed of course because now it got it’s signals mixed up. Was the bed for sleeping or for watching TV? Or should it do both things at the same time, and not doing a very mindful job of either. The bed was no longer the exclusive domain of sleep.

Distractionless Internet

The same goes for your workspace, your desktop, your sofa. Is a sofa meant to be used for a quick nap? Why not use the bed for that one, at least you won’t fall asleep during the movie because sleep isn’t triggered by the sofa. Homework/studying and your RSS reader or Internet browser? Though far more subtle preferably these two shouldn’t mix either, unless you need the Internet to study. And be honest here (talking to myself) do you really need social media, IRC, music and the TV on to study? Nope, most of the time all you need is your textbook, a piece of paper to make notes, previous notes and in some cases a computer to write something. (or in my case, write code). There are but few reasons to keep connected to the Internet while studying and all of them have an inherent danger of distraction. Wikipedia for instance is a great resource to help clarify things, but it’s all to easy to become distracted and before you know it you’ll be reading about the history of bonsai trees. IRC is a great way to keep in touch with fellow students and ask questions when you are stuck. If you can use it exclusively for that purpose, brilliant. If you get sucked in to idle chatter and random uselessness, better examine what it is you had planned and if what you are doing is part of that plan.

It’s hard to keep things separated, to have a clear idea about what something is for. Is your bed the place to sleep? If your desk the place to work and your sofa the place to watch TV? Or is eating at your desk, sleeping on the sofa and watching TV from the bed the way things go.

Books and Dust Bunnies

So what do the bookcases I mentioned have to do with it? Well, the bookcases were not only holding books, there was other stuff in there too. And everything in there hadn’t been used for at least the whole of 2009 and I had the dust bunnies to prove it. Getting rid of the bookcases made room for proper seating and relocation of the TV. Now watching TV is a major time suck mind you. So what better way to notice that than to make it impossible to watch from anywhere but the designated seating.

Concluding I’d like you to have another look around for two things:

1. Are there things there that you didn’t use in 2009, if so ask yourself why they are still there.
2. Do you have designated (preferably exclusive) area’s for your most important your activities?

I challenge you: For this month, use your bed only for sleeping – if you’re not sleeping, don’t be in bed – and please do tell me about your experiences.

A lot of blogs I follow seem to be doing an end-of-the-year review. I myself have been thinking about this a while now and see no reason not to do one. When this year started I didn’t own a blog, I wasn’t active on social media and had never earned a single dollar through online sales (not counting ebay, but that’s not business).

Three small things but I started in all three and combined they made a huge difference. It began with reading the four hour workweek. As I have the habit of writing down the date on which I bought a book inside it’s cover I an tell you that I bought it on October 28th 2008. I read it the following days and reread sections over the following months. The first thoughts about lifestyle design were born and I started reading blogs. A few months later I decided to start blogging over at mindthebeginner.wordpress.com (March 13th 2008). You might recall the adres, it’s where I build this blog to it’s first 100 subscribers. I was doubtful about starting a blog for a long time, thinking I had nothing to write that people would actually want to read. I was wrong and Taking part in probloggers 31 days to building a better blog challenge helped me get into the ways of blogging.

Blogging is not the only thing I started as said, I also got into Project Mojave thanks to my friend Carl. Although I didn’t stay there it did open my eyes to the possibilities of inernet and that things really aren’t that hard if only you believe in yourself and your own capabilities. With so many people online there are bound to be people who want hear what you have to say.

Right now I’m still not completely happy with my blog though. The look isn’t to good and reader interaction isn’t what I’d like it to be. So there we have a goal for the next year. But there are many more goals for the new year. 2010 Will be a themed year for me: freedom. Freedom in many ways, and of course something this vague needs measurable goals so let me give you an outline of what I’m going to do this year:

The Goals

Most significant of all I’m setting the goal of a monthly income of at least $500 a month through online ventures to be reached by the end of 2010. Combined with this the total spendings for 2010 will not be more than the total income. I could try and do that on a monthly basis but I pay my tuition in one go and that will most certainly be more than my monthly income. Freedom of finance.

My second area of goal setting is this blog. I want to reach the 300 subscribers mark by the end of the year and give you at least 100 blogposts over the next year, spread evenly. (So no overload of blogposts in December just to reach this goal.). Also I want to redo the layout and provide you with a better blogreading experience. I might just start using “headway” but I’m still on the fence about that one. A blog to write about freedom, minimalism and zen-inspired life.

In the computer area I have three goals. First off, touch-typing in qwerty. I type a lot of course. Not only in blogging but I’m almost always behind my computer and touch-typing will improve my speed greatly. My education is training me among other things to be a programmer and it’s silly to have to keep watching the keys and be slow just because I use six fingers and cant’ find the [, \ , ; and ] without looking. Secondly I’m going to set up my desktop to be a Linux-only computer. Not because I’m anti-windows (actually I think Win 7 is very good) but because I want to challenge myself and I can see only advantages of knowing how to work with more than one OS. Lastly I want a laptop, so I can properly blog and work/study wherever I am. Something highly portable but capable, like a thinkpad T500. Of course this will run on Linux. The sidenote here is that I’m not going to pay for this laptop with anything else but the income I plan to make through online ventures. Freedom to work/study/play where I want.

In the category of brain-development and useless skills I have another nice set of goals. I want to be able to solve a Rubik’s cube in 60 seconds or less. (Of which I will be posting a video on this blog as soon as I reach that goal.) I know it’s completely useless but It’s something I’ve wanted to be able to do for a long time now and it keeps bugging me.
I want to be able to juggle three balls, yes it’s completely useless, or so you might think. But its a great way of training the brain and developing hand-eye coordination. Together with the cube it’s something from my childhood I never learned and watched others do. Who said every goal needs to be useful.
Speedreading, you’ve probably heard of it, is something I’ve also wanted to be able to do. Although I can reach roughly 600 wpm (words per minute) right now I want to raise this to over 1000 wpm both in Dutch and English. Thicker books will not hold me captive for countless hours anymore. Information is freedom and more information is more freedom.

The minimalism goals are next. A long long time ago I blogged about the 100 items challenge and I must confess that I’m still not there. Why would I want to do this? I want less clutter, more space and a serene living space. I will have to get rid of dozens of books, and all those things that represent cash value but are a total pain to get sold for a descent price. It’s to cluttered right now and have more things ties you down and limits freedom.

Last but certainly not least we have body and mind developments. Five points here, but three are things I’m already doing and need to keep up. (Okay, it’s more of a want but feels like a need)
I want to keep meditating daily for 20 minutes using the methods of zazen. Combined with this it’s always a good idea to take up physical activities so I’m going to run, continuously for an hour somewhere between two and three times a week. I’ve been running for a while now but it’s hardly consistent. The last physical thing I want to keep doing is continue training t’ai chi. Following a weekly class every Thursday evening and I will stay at that for as long as I can, which is probably until I finish university.
As mentioned there are five points, so two are new ones. The first is a huge things if you know anything about personal development and productivity. And of course…. it’s something I’m not doing right now so here it is: I want to become an early riser. Getting up at 6.30 Monday through Friday consistently. Seeing as I live about 15 minutes by bike from Uni and we never start before 8.45 am that leaves me with enough time to write blogposts and perhaps even go for morning runs and/or meditate in the morning as well. We’ll have to see how that goes.
The last goal on this extensive list is something I’m absolutely not sure about if I will be able to do but I want to take up Aikido. Again this is a weekly course but the timing is horrid. Mid-day somewhere and that might interfere with my roster. I just hope it’s possible.

There you have it, my 2010 shortlist:

“Freedom”

• Financial

*Monthly “internet income” of $500
*Live below means

• Blogging

*300 subscribers to this blog
*100+ blogposts in 2010
*New layout

• Computer-related

*Touch typing in qwerty
*Having Linux as only OS
*A laptop (Payed for with internet income)

• Brain development

*Solve Rubik’s cube in 60 seconds or less (and post a video of it here)
*Juggling with three balls
*Speedreading 1000 words a minute in Dutch and English

• Minimalistic living

*Complete the 100 items challenge

• Body development

*Continue meditating daily for 20 minutes (zazen)
*Continue training in T’ai Chi
*Run more consistently (2-3 times a week, one hour at a time)
*Become an early riser (6.30 am Mon – Fri)
*Take up Aikido if possible

An almost insane list to complete and I forgot one essential thing: Do all this AND get proper grades! In the new layout this list will get it’s own dedicated page so you can keep track of the developments. I’ll also be making a so called bucket list (Things to do before you kick the ..) and that too will get it’s own dedicated page. I’m sure this list will develop a bit over the year, but nothing will come off, if anything, things will be added.

With that being said all that is left is to say Thank You! for making 2009 an awesome year where I learned loads of things and finally found my path in life. I couldn’t have done it without you. Enjoy these last days and I hope to see you in 2010

Greets,

Christiaan