Wow.

I can always tell when school is back in because there’s an explosion of activity on one of my articles:

The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living.

You’ve probably heard those words before. They’re from Socrates, at his trial for corrupting the youth by encouraging them to think critically about the government and society.

Freakin’ radical.

Anyway, when school starts up, I get a huge bump in traffic on the Relax Focus Succeed web site. Or at least on that page. I don’t know if it is actually of any use for college or high school students who are trying to understand the reading, but it does quite well in the search engines.

If you search for “The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living” you’ll find it. It shows up better on Google than Windows Live, but that’s okay since everyone uses Google.

A few teachers have also linked to this article from their blogs or web sites. So that’s fun.

I guess the lessons are: 1) Nothing ever “dies” on the Internet. and 2) Put your thoughts out there for other people. Somebody will find value in them.

I encourage you to consider blogging. The social side of the Internet consists of all of us contributing a little perspective that’s different fromt he rest of us. Examining our lives as a society.

Socrates would love it.

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The Italian government is considering installing a clock in the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

The reason?

What good is it if you have the inclination, but you don’t have the time?

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There’s an old movie most people have never heard of called The Big Combo.

In this movie, “Mr. Brown” is a big hoodlum. His motto is “First is first and second is nothing.”

Mr. Brown expresses that motto again and again and again. Until the time he’s shot dead.

Sometimes, our culture beats into us that the only place that matters is First. And, truth be told, a disproportion of the rewards go to the top 1%, 3%, and 5%.

But how you get there matters a lot, too. Look at the Olympics. On one hand you have the Chinese, who are openly cheating in Gymnastics. Every medal they win will be tarnished. Every award will have an asterisk.*

On the other hand, you have thousands of athletes who have working to get to the Olympics for at least four years, don’t cheat, and do deserve to win. Almost all medalists will have true gold, silver, and bronze medals. They will be real winners and deserve the reward they receive.

There Are Three Primary Elements of Success

What is success? In the big picture, success consists of determining what you want to do and then getting that done.

The first primary element of success is to have goals. Of course.

Specific, written, definable, measurable goals that you share with other people so they can hold you accountable.

The second primary element of success is the process of working to achieve your goals. What’s the process? It’s everything you do that’s remotely related to working on your goal. It’s how you live your life. It’s how you interact with others. It’s who you are as a human being in pursuit of what you want.

The third primary element of success is achieving your goal. This is the “finish line” if you will. This is when you reach $100,000 in salary, or $1 million in sales, or $10 million in sales. Whatever the goal.

The most important thing about the first element, setting goals, is that you have to do it. More than 90% of the people you meet have never consciously set goals, written them down, figured out how to measure them, and shared them with others. That means you get to be in the top ten percent by simply setting goals!

It’s true.

The most important part of the third element, reaching your goal, is that it becomes far less important once you get there.

For most big goals (e.g., reaching a big money amount or raising a child safely to adulthood), you can see the goal line approaching. $1 Million looks a lot easier from $900,000 than it does from $100,000. Age 18 looks a lot easier when your kid is 16 years old than when she’s 16 months old.

As your approach your goal, there comes a time when you know you can do it. As a result, your mind and heart begin thinking about the next level.

And the second element of success — that’s the most important thing in your life.

The second element of success is how you live your life every single day. It involves your integrity, your discipline, your willingness to help others, your honestly.

It is who you are every day.

And if your goal will take ten or twenty years to accomplish, then the second element is who you are over the decades.

When you look back on what it took to achieve your goals, how many asterisks will there be? Who will you have to deceive, cheat, and abuse?

I absolutely believe that you don’t have to do any of those things to get ahead.

After all, you have the rest of your life. Take your time and do it the right way.

Your goals are intimately intertwined with who you are and who you will become. Respect that. Don’t take shortcuts and don’t treat other people poorly.

There’s an old saying:

Remember the people you meet on your way up the ladder of success.
You’ll meet the same people on your way down.

So, first might be first, but second isn’t nothing. How you get to be first matters a lot. And if you come in second with your soul intact, that’s important, too.

- – - – -
* Cheater!

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A farmer called his pig Ball Point.

Well, it wasn’t its real name, just a pen name.

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There’s a good book called Delivered from Distraction: Getting the Most Out of Life with Attention Deficit Disorder by Edward M. Hallowell, John J. Ratey.

The book deals with a wide variety of subjects and not just ADD. Among other things, the authors make some recommendations for basic principles of what you might call “Brain Management.” In other words, here are some tips for maintaining a well-oiled and well-working brain:

• Take 30 second breaks from work or any activity that keeps your brain “on”
• Get enough sleep
• Rest your brain as you feel overloaded – just 30 seconds
• Eat the right food
   - not too much carbs
   - not too much caffeine
   - not too much alcohol
   - whole foods
   - balanced diet
   - proteins with breakfast
   - omega 3 fatty acids
• Exercise 3x week
• Pray or meditate – even for 3-5 minutes
• Have positive human contact. That is, do fun things with interesting people. Don’t stay in your room, isolated from the world.
• Keep a Journal

These are interesting pieces of advice for everyone with a brain. In a very real sense, they apply to everyone, everywhere.

The authors contend that we don’t give our brains a chance to turn off. We don’t give it natural breaks.

Interestingly, there is research to show that, for most of us, the brain naturally takes a break between activities. We finish a task and the brainwaves settle down into a pattern of inactivity. In other words, our brain shifts into neutral for a few seconds before we go on to the next task.

But that doesn’t always happen, and it doesn’t happen for everyone.

The really great news is that you can simply do this for yourself. In other words, you can simply take a 30- to 60-second break and get a huge boost in productivity.

Your brain can never really be “off” at any time. But there are many parts to the brain. Your autonomic systems keep your heart beating and your lungs working. Don’t touch that part.

Other operations, such as conscious and unconscious “work” are another story. We can consciously choose to stop thinking about one thing and begin thinking about another thing. So taking a break with our conscious mind is very easy. It can be as simple as staring at picture, or closing our eyes for a few seconds.

At the same time, the unconscious mind continues working away. Giving it a break takes a little more effort — but not much. A 3-5 minute break in which we pray, meditate, or just do a breathing exercise, can be extremely refreshing.

I’ve had people argue that they don’t have time to exercise, relax, or spend 30 minutes a day in quiet time. Okay. I don’t agree with that.

But when I tell you that a series of 30-second breaks every hour will give you a major boost in brain power, isn’t that worth checking out?

Try it. What have you got to gain?

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Sign in a pharmacy window:

 We dispense with care.

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After lo these many days . . . the Monkey stirs.

I am proud to announce that Promotion Monkey memberships will be available September 1st, 2008.

This is not a technology-focused adventure.

If you promote anything on the Internet, then you should give the Promotion Monkey a whirl.

Please check it out at PromotionMonkey.com

Thank You.

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So the kid asks

“How do you get down off an elephant?”

and the Dad says

“You don’t get down off an elephant

 . . .

You get down off a goose.”

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Fact One: The State of California sucks out loud. As a place to do business . . . it rates lower than PSS from Microsoft.

So the Gubinator says . . . we have a budget crisis.

Our budget crises make the national debt look small.  :-(

So all state workers will be paid minimum wage, effective immediately.

- – - – -

My wife works for the State of CA.

- – - – -

Fast forward.

Karl and the wife go to Vegas for the weekend.

We come home and talk to our 16 year old daughter about what we saw.

“You need to go to college.”

Here are three reasons:

1) Dude in M&Ms outfit on the street in 110 degree weather.

2) Dude in Coca Cola polar bear outfit in 110 degree weather.

3) Woman in bikini walking around on the asphalt with a 3 foot headress, drawing attention to rental cars.

Daughter says . . . I bet they’re paid very well.

I say, no. You need to go to college. Every one of these people are earning Minimum Wage.

And the daughter says . . .

“So is Mom.”

. . .

You can’t argue with that.

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