The QLog

The Last Lecture

"We can not change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand." - Randy Pausch

Former Disney Imagineer and Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch is an inspiring man at age 47. He is also dying from pancreatic cancer but you would not know from his enthusiasm for life. On September 18, 2007 he gave his 'last lecture' to a packed audience at McConomy Auditorium. Also, more recently, his new book The Last Lecture, was published and I do recommend it. However, I suggest that watching the original lecture should be mandetory for just about every adult at any age!

As someone who strives to enable the goals of others, I promise that if you choose to spend the full 76 minutes viewing this very enjoyable lecture, you will be well rewarded. It will help focus your thinking on what should be most important for your life: striving to acheive your dreams!

10 in 10 for 2008

I would like to challenge everyone who reads the Qlog to do another 10 in 10. This exercise will jump-start your goals for 2008. If you would like more details, please read my original post on the 10 in 10 concept.

The plan it to start today or tomorrow and then complete all 10 of your projects over the next 10 weeks. The end-date would be Saturday, March 22nd.

The basic instructions are:

• Review your goals for 2008.
• Plan 10 short sub projects that would help you kick-start some of your goals. Make sure they can be completed within the time frame of 70 days.

Below is my personal 10 in 10 for 2008. Although they are listed in no particular order, they are each have a deadline of 03/22/08.

1) Attend a silent 2-Day retreat (based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius)
2) Partake in a high tea
3) Fast every Tuesday after 3:00 PM (no dinner or evening snack)
4) Join ToastMasters in January and attend all meetings.
5) Purchase one new business suit
6) Donate, sell, trade, or toss 101 possessions
7) Journal daily
8) Begin howtostudyblog.com and rainbowdietblog.com
9) Lose 10 pounds
10) Read 10 new books

I'll report my progress on this page within the comment sections as I complete each.

Diet Day and 14 More Years!

If weight loss or fitness is a goal for 2008, then these two items might interest you.

1. National Diet Day is the Second Tuesday of January (today). No, this is not a day to pick a fad diet. Instead, it is recommended that you choose a long-term plan and adopt healthy lifestyle habits that includes a smart diet that you can sustain for many years.

2. The PLoS Medicine, a peer-reviewed open access journal, published a new study today that concluded that four very basic and easy behaviors could add as many as 14 years to one's lifespan. The evidence came from the EPIC-Norfolk Prospective Population Study which had a large data set of 20,244 men and women.

The four longevity lifestyle behaviors are:

• not smoking
• being physically active
• moderate alcohol intake
• eating at least five vegetable servings a day

If you are looking for some lifestyle habits to improve your life, these are obviously a good four to adopt today.

Here is the download citation for the full article:

Combined Impact of Health Behaviours and Mortality in Men and Women: The EPIC-Norfolk Prospective Population Study Khaw KT, Wareham N, Bingham S, Welch A, Luben R, et al. PLoS Medicine Vol. 5, No. 1, e12 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050012

Here is the link to the PLoS editorial on the article:

From Theory to Practice: Translating Research into Health Outcomes The PLoS Medicine Editors PLoS Medicine Vol. 5, No. 1, e15 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050015

T.A.R.G.E.T. Goals Part 2

Check your current 2008 goals for each of these T.A.R.G.E.T characteristics:
   
Tangible: You can touch, see, hear, taste, or smell things that are tangible. They are concrete and this makes observations possible. The main benefit of having a tangible goal is that it is easily measured at any time, so progress can be tracked.

Achievable: Choose annual goals that are reasonable for your skill level and can be completed within 365 days. If you think you can, you can! However, if the goal just seems impossible, then the goal should be broken into smaller chunks over a few years or you'll need to become an expert within this domain to achieve it.

Reviewable: If you have tangible goals, this normally is easily done, as long as you have a process to measure progress. Regular inspection is necessary to determine if course corrections are needed. I highly suggest that you build a monthly review schedule into the goal plan itself.
 
Grand: Goals should be big enough to challenge as well as inspire. Human lifespans are short: 120 years, maximum, and most do not make it past 80. If you are going to spend time, talent, and treasure pursuing something, make sure it is an excellent goal, an objective that you consider grand. Focusing one's effort and energy on worthy goals is fun too.

Explicit: Goals need to be clear, exact, and specific. Clarity is key. For example, the goal "I want to earn more money this year" is extremely vague. Technically, if you were paid the exact same annual salary as last year and then I gave you an extra dollar on December 31st, you would have more money and accomplished your objective. Be explicit about what you want, how much, and how often. Detail both qualities and quantities and use the right adverbs and adjectives to describe your vision.

Time-Bound: Procrastination is common; therefore, goals need definite and predetermined deadlines. Ideally, these need should be set at the very beginning of the process. Also, one should be smart and assume that some delays will be encountered over the next 12 months. Do your best to add extra time or a cushion to insure completion by year end. You may grant yourself extensions if absolutely necessary, but try to do this very sparingly and only when conditions beyond your control forced a re-adjustment on the end date.

Health, Wealth, and Stealth Goals

The most common resolutions each year involve health, wealth, and stealth. Resolutions are rarely measurable, time-bound, or planned, so it is no surprise that these rarely succeed. Instead, set some goals within these domains for 2008.

Heath Goals: Weight-loss goals are the most common via more exercise or a specific diet. I do encourage you to optimize your wellness; however, expand your scale and scope and focus on overall fitness. Multiple studies have demonstrated that short-term or temporary diets almost universally fail over time as these behaviors (such as severely reducing calories or only eating a single type of food) are not sustainable over time. Instead, choose new lifestyle habits that can be done for the next 20-years as daily exercise or consuming twice as many fruits and vegetables than you do now. Losing 15 pounds this year can be part of this plan; however, increasing your healthspan and lifespan will have a more significant impact.

Wealth Goals: The majority of these center around reducing debts, earning more money, and finding superior investments. I suggest picking one major wealth goal for the year from starting your own enterprise to getting a promotion. If you really can not think of a single wealth goal, consider becoming a million by December 31, 2013, and create a game plan of how that could be possible.

Stealth Goals: As children, we feel free to share are highest dreams, such as becoming President or flying the Space Shuttle. Stealth goals are often hidden as strangers, friends, and family might not understand the vision and regard it as mere fantasy or delusion as these are often grand and bold ideas that would force the individual to stretch further than they ever had before. If you have a stealth goal, kudos! First, work out a rough plan on how it could be achieved. Second, begin focusing one hour a day every single day.

New Year's Resolutions, Part 2

I advocate Goals, Not Resolutions for the beginning of 2008. However, I do afford exceptions for a few special resolutions.

When a reporter asked Mahatma Gandhi what his message was the world, he simply replied "My life is my message." He also committed himself to the following resolutions:

"I will be truthful.
I will suffer no injustice.
I will be free from fear.
I will not use force.
I will be of good will to all."

These are noble and worthy life principles to re-affirm each new year. I do recommend embracing this set of resolutions.

Thanksgiving, Part 2

"Gratitude is the secret to life." - Albert Schweitzer

Researchers within the new field of Positive Psychology have investigated the attitude of gratitude and have scientifically concluded that it can increase personal happiness, overall well-being, satisfaction with life, and physical health. If you would like to learn more about this without having to review all the original scientific papers, I have good news: two recent popular books explore a selection of the studies, including the experimental evidence that suggests gratefulness can increase happiness by 25%.

The first volume is Thanks!: How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier by Professor Robert Emmons (UC-Davis) who is a leader within this area of psychology. Emmons clearly explains the science without watering it down and I can certainly recommend this book. The second book is entitled Thank You Power: Making the Science of Gratitude Work for You by journalist Deborah Norville. Although it contains fewer examples, it does review the high points, and would serve as a launching pad to the topic for the casual reader.

Bottom Line: Thanksgiving should be a daily event!

Thanksgiving, Part 1

Today is Thanksgiving Day in the USA. Yes, traditionally, we enjoy a feast of turkey and pumpkin pie, but more important, this holiday represents the one day of the year in modern America which is centered around family and loved ones for the vast majority of the population, regardless of faith, creed, or race.

I encourage you to be thankful in three ways:

1) Think It: Embrace the attitude of gratitude.
2) Say It: Tell as many people as you can how thankful you are that they are part of your life.
3) Do It: Actions always speak louder than words. Show someone you truly care. Also, do not forget those who are less fortunate than yourself: the hungry and the lonely in our society. This is a good day to reflect on your blessing and consider donating time, talent, and treasure to a local charity.

The Great Pumpkin!

Until recently, I only considered the Pumpkin in three limited contexts:

• Scary Jack-O-Lanterns
• Salty Pumpkin Seeds
• Delicious Pie

I thought as Pumpkin as a subpar food and mostly a relic of an earlier age. I thought the inclusion of the Pumpkin into the American autumn holidays of Halloween and Thanksgiving was merely due to tradition.

This year, I've have a new appreciation of Pumpkins and have a whole new viewpoint. Instead, I understand that they are an excellent food, a superfood! In fact, they are the GREAT Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! Here is why I love this fruit (yes, Pumpkin is a fruit):

1) Pumpkin flesh has a high fiber content.
2) It is also very low calorie!   
3) Pumkin has significant amounts of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Calcium, Potassium and Iron.
4) Pumpkin possesses dense phytonutrients that prevent cancer and promote longevitiy, especially alpha-carotene and beta-carotene. A serving of Pumpkin has more alpha-carotene than any other common food source.
5) The canned version is a year-round product and has the same health benefits and is very easy to prepare.

Plus, the seeds are a good source of omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acids and contain cucurbitacins that are anti-cancer phytonutrients too.

So, I have added Pumpkin to my regular diet this fall, and plan to keep it a staple year round. 

Blog Action Day Post: Carrying Capacity

Our world would already be past what ecologists call the carrying capacity for the human species IF everyone had the same ecological footprint as the average American. This means that if all six billion (plus) people on the planet currently had same standard of living as a US Citizen, our world would literally have no wild spaces whatsoever, as every inch of land would need to be converted to produce food, energy, and resources for humanity.

For example, the United States uses almost 30% of the world’s entire paper supply each year. At 300 million, it contains less than 5% of the world’s population. Clearly, that is out of balance. If everyone on the planet consumed as many paper products (from printer paper to toilet paper) we would truly have a crisis due to amount of lumber that would be required. The same is true for oil, meat, and other resources.

Technology might fix some of this. Economists are correct: more efficient processes and resource substitutes are definitely part of the answer. Yet, as natural scientists point out, there are real-world limits as well that can not easily be tweaked. There is only so much wild space left on the planet to preserve the millions of non-domesticated species. Of course, it could converted to farmland to feed humanity, and will be, if push comes to shove! The Real Question: is that the best use of that land or our intellect? Likewise, there are only so many more tons of mineral resources still ‘virgin’ within the ground. Someday, we'll pass a moment (and perhaps we already have for some resources) where there is less coal, oil, gold, or titanium underground than already being used on the planet surface. Afterward, the remaining amount will continue to shrink (and grow ever more expensive on the free market). Eventually, firms will begin to mine garbage heaps as these will contain high concentrations of needed materials that are idle. Although this might be considered reductio ad absurdum, our planet has only so many carbon atoms on the planet, etc. Resources are truly finite on planet Earth.

I wish I had a simple solution. I do not. Mass poverty within Africa, South America, and Asia has been the main force preventing ecological disaster for the past 30 years as half the planet has survived with only the bare essentials; however, this is not an ethical or viable long-term solution. China and India, each with a billion (plus) citizen, have finally embraced capitalism, resulting in millions of more people joining a new middle class each year. More and more people wanting bigger slices from a finite resource pie.   

People do not like to give up current standards of living; yet, some logical compromises will be needed before the end of the 21st century. A better way to live is needed. Peace, prosperity, and sustainability are all part of the equation. Until a balance is found which allows the vast majority of people on the planet to have a pleasant lifestyle without exceeding the planet's carrying capacity, their will remain continuous political instability and the very real risk that that global ecosystems could be greatly diminished for future generations (meaning, an even a smaller carrying capacity).