I really don’t like to hate.  But there is one thing in particular that I just hate that I love.  It is: Diet Coke. 

I admit, I love Diet Coke. I love the brand.  I love sipping it in the afternoon (especially around the 3 o’clock hour); often I even love it with breakfast.  I love the Olympics for which they are a sponsor.  I love the sound of the can opening.  I love the feel of the plastic 20 ounce bottles. I love the red color in the logo.  I love it over ice.  I could go on and on… 

On the other hand, what I hate about Diet Coke is knowing that the ingredients aren’t particularly healthful, though the industry claims they aren’t particularly dangerous either.  I hate the claims that Diet Coke can potentially even cause weight gain; that its ingredients affect calcium absorption;  and that the articfical sweeteners can have adverse affects in our bodies, though the American Diabetes Association and American Heart Association don’t seem to have any problems with the product.  I hate that it is addictive.  I hate that it’s an expensive vending machine habit.  I hate that I still love it anyway. 

At the same time, I have been successful in some self-imposed spans of abstinence, from which I have often relapsed, too.  Currently I’m off it again, trying to stay away from sources of caffeine to sleep better. 

But then again, considering the movie, “Thank You for Smoking”, I can’t say that I would fight to have the product banned either.  That movie nicely supports the message that we all have a choice.  That we can’t blame an industry for making profits by offering a product that we can perfectly well choose not to consume. 

I could probably write a whole book about the pros and cons of Diet Coke.  (If you’d be interested in reading it, just let me know since I’d love to write it.)  But for now, I’ll close with the following thought which was sparked by these two articles I just came across: 

• “Plain Old Soda Gets a New Pop in a Down Economy” – Time
• “Coca-Cola CFO: Industry must fight soda taxes”  – The Boston Globe

Consider this fact:  Carbonated beverage sales in the latest 12 months ending May 2010 totalled $18.7 billion.  That’s almost as much as BP is putting into its uncapped oil cleanup escrow fund. 

That’s a lot of money that we as consumers (collectively) spend in a year for a little bit of enjoyment.

So….what do you hate that you love?

The latest “rule” about the “new economy” and the “new job market” (or, rather, on how to take advantage of the economic downturn by becoming an entrepreneur) seems to be: “get ahead by breaking the rules”. 

I’ve always found that advice to be a bit suspect or a bit too “convenient”, overshadowing the role that luck and selective memories often play. 

Of course, that’s not to suggest that we don’t benefit from the “learning opportunity” of missteps, whether due to breaking the rules or not.  However, when it comes to rules, sometimes the “learning” is that some rules aren’t meant to be broken in a willy-nilly way.

Now, you probably don’t really need my advice on this.  There are lots of books on this topic, for example:  “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell;  “Ignore Everybody” by Hugh MacLeod;  “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There” by Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter.  I’m not shooting down any of these authors or their books.  I actually have all three of those books on my book shelf.

Actually, I probably don’t even need to write a whole blog post about this, especially since I could pretty much consolidate my main point into 140 characters as I did on Twitter here:

Yet, if I were to elaborate a bit, I’d suggest that maybe there should be some rules, or at least guidelines, on what to know about rules before breaking them. If such rules on “how to break the rules” were to exist, here’s what I think they might include:

1. Know what rules exist, both explicitly and implicitly, in your realm of operation before trying to change things. Don’t assume rules do or don’t exist as you imagine them.
2. Know why certain rules exist.  “It’s always been done that way” shouldn’t always be blindly accepted, but may not be without merit either.  Investigate.
3. Know who created the rules, when, and for what intended purpose.
4. Know if the right rules were created and if they are meeting their intended purpose.
5. Know when to push the boundaries and when to respect them.  Don’t naively mess with strong forces like Mother Nature.
6. Know when “the times” have outgrown previously necessary/useful rules.  Rules seem to have pseudo- unwritten expiration dates.  Know when they are fresh and need to be respected.  Know when their time is about up or overdue.
7. Know if rules are being appropriately applied.  When the context, situation, and players change, do the rules need to change, too?
8. Know if existing rules are being respected and consistently enforced.  If not, find out why before taking action on it.
9. Know if old rules need to be tweaked, tossed, or replaced by new rules.  Chaos and anarchy isn’t always the best and only counter rule.
10. Know if the rules are hindering, hampering, or hurting more than they are helping.  Are they hampering creativity, productivity, efficiency, and flexibility?  Creativity, innovation, or uniqueness are key differentiators.

In general, whether we like them or not, rules do serve a purpose. They maintain order.  At the same time, rules aren’t always perfect; some are good, others are not so good (and there exists a full range of possibilities in between). 

For example, consider basic road traffic rules.  They basically work (e.g., what side of the road to drive on; what signs and symbols represent; etc.) 

Other rules are more subjective (e.g., company cultures, dress codes, ethics), but are still necessary to create guidelines of behavior, fairness, and civility.

There is also that much quoted phrase that goes something like this:  “It’s better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.”  But as I began this post, I’ll reiterate the point about our selective memories; let me know if that blanket statement about “asking for forgiveness” has never bit anyone in the behind before either.

What do you think?  How easy is it to succeed at “breaking the rules”?

In this fast-changing world of ours, decisiveness is clearly the name of the game.

In the book “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell, we learn that those with expertise in a particular subject matter can be quite accurate in their quick instinctual gut reactions to certain claims or situations.

And, conversely, those without expertise in a particular area of focus generally don’t fair so well with this kind of quick decision-making.  Hence, the phrase “rushing to judgment” doesn’t have such a positive connotation.

“Decisiveness is a characteristic of high-performing men and women. Almost any decision is better than no decision at all.” ~Brian Tracy

So, what do we make of this common advice that:  “making any decision is better than making no decision?” We could all probably readily agree that it is true that inaction, like procrastination, has let many high-potential projects go uncompleted or forever remain un-started.  But should that really be the only criteria we are considering here?

“Test fast, fail fast, adjust fast.” ~Tom Peters

Either way, in the end, whatever decisions we make are ours alone.  We are our own best judge when it comes to knowing whether or not a quick decision is in our best interest or not.

For example, salesmen often want us to make quick decisions so that we don’t talk ourselves out of doing what they want.  Yet, jumping on a sale isn’t always a bad thing, especially if you’ve been shopping around.  But, we all know, too, how compulsive/impulsive buying can quickly get us into trouble, too.

When someone rushes us to decide something, they want us to avoid coming up with and considering “what ifs”.  When they suggest we are over-thinking something, they probably fear we will change our mind about something away from what they desire or expect.

On the other hand, it is also true that waiting till we are ready to make “the best decision” will put us at risk of over-thinking things, since a “best decision” doesn’t even really exist (unless we’re talking about multiple choice tests). 

So many situations can really have multiple acceptable outcomes.  In such cases, we’re easily better off not worrying about “the best decision” but instead focusing on making a good decision rather than a bad decision, or a better decision over a worse decision.  And, hoping that luck is on your side can’t hurt either.

“I’ve found that luck is quite predictable. If you want more luck, take more chances. Be more active. Show up more often.” ~Brian Tracy

Either way, you can’t be over-thinking something that you haven’t given any or much thought to yet.  Thinking something through shouldn’t always be considered a bad thing.

The next time someone tries to rush you into making a quick decision by suggesting that you are over-thinking things, maybe consider being less afraid of over-thinking things and more afraid of under-thinking things.

It’s my pleasure to introduce you to Greg Hayes from Live Fit Blog. In today’s guest post, Greg shares some great advice on the key ingredient needed to get healthy – advice that can easily be applied to making changes in all areas of our lives.

Note: Greg is one of the great people I’ve met through fellow blogger, Josh Hanagarne of World’s Strongest Librarian.  Josh is really building up a great network of like-minded readers (with an intriguing range of interests) via the openness of his blog, his guest blogging and commenting.

After reading this post, be sure to visit Live Fit Blog and World’s Strongest Librarian at any time for more (or just to say “hello”). We always enjoy reading any and all comments you’d like to share.

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Why Change? – A Guest Post by Greg Hayes

Most of us can probably agree that we should be paying more attention to our health.  Turn on the news at any given time of day, and you’re apt to hear someone debating this subject.  Inevitably, the discussion turns to obesity and its contribution to rising healthcare costs.

Seven years ago, I could have been their poster child.  By any metric, I was obese.  Not that I saw myself that way.

I’ve had several people ask me how I lost weight and got in shape.  To be honest, I think the more correct question should be “Why?”  A moment stands out clearly in my mind.  At 30-years old, I was visiting family when my Mother, a nurse, decided I looked “bad,” and she wanted to check my blood pressure.  It was high.

Very high.

I distinctly recall lying on the floor, with my feet propped on their sofa, thinking how ridiculous the situation was.  And more importantly, that if I continued down this path, I may not live to play with my grandchildren.  That was the day I decided to change.

Weight management and exercise are personal lifestyle decisions.  These are the choices we make every time we sit down at the dinner table, go to the snack machine, grab a soda, or skip a workout.  No one can force us to change those habits.  The currently proposed government schemes, taxes, and employer sponsored gym memberships can’t make us live a healthier lifestyle, either.  That decision must come from within.  It’s a conscious choice to avoid the largess of our society, and food is only one small part of that equation.

How to make that choice?

You’ll know you’re ready to change when you’ve found a reason that is more important than the indulgence of poor health.  Mine was my children.  For someone else, it may be different.  But if you’re really looking for the willpower, sit down with a pen and paper and list out all the things of value to you.  Write them down.  Consider them for a few days.  Think about how your current habits may conflict with those values.  This is where your motivation to change comes from.

There are a million ways to get fit and lose weight, and they’ll all work.  The hard part is finding the reason to change.

A friend who’s overweight recently asked me why he should change.  After all, there’s a pill to control his blood pressure and another for his diabetes.  Ditto for cholesterol.  And he’s right.  But those things will eventually take a toll on your body.  And, the earlier in life you begin taking them, the greater the price they may exact.  We joked back and forth a bit, but he’s not ready to change yet.  He knows it.  I know it.

But I sure hope that day comes.

About the author:  Greg Hayes writes Live Fit Blog, a blog with advice about living a balanced lifestyle, fitness, what it means to be a father, friend, husband, and much more.

For me, one of the best things about the internet is meeting people that you probably wouldn’t have otherwise met.  One such person, who I’d like to introduce you to, is Josh Hanagarne (pictured below), writer of the blog: World’s Strongest Librarian.  

I first “discovered” Josh via a guest post he had written for Problogger.  I’ve since come to love his writing style. He is a great storyteller.  He’s funny and smart and not afraid to share his personal side, too.  He has an equally intriguing set of readers that regularly leave thoughtful comments on his posts (which he freely replies to, as well). 

I’m proud to share the following guest post that I asked Josh to write as part of the Guest Post Ultra-Marathon he has embarked on.  Let me/us know how you like it.

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Two Questions To Ask Yourself Before Making A Difficult Decision  – A Guest Post by Josh Hanagarne

By the time a person with an average respiration rate is fifteen years old, they’ve typically taken upwards of 150,000,000 breaths.  Of course, when you’re panicked, you breathe more than usual—like when you’re faced with questions, problems, and dilemmas that don’t have easy answers.

But before you start sucking wind and saying, “Oh man oh man oh man what do I do?” there are two questions you can ask yourself that will guide you—provided you can actually answer these questions. 

Question One: Do I Live By A Code?

It doesn’t always work for me, buy I always try to act, think, and weigh my decisions against this code:

Don’t make anyone’s day worse.

Of course, this isn’t always possible, but this code has served me very well throughout the most recent years of my life.  As long as it doesn’t require me to compromise professional integrity or put other people in danger, it’s as good as anything else I’ve found for solving problems. 

It helps most people I’ve known to have something systematic to weigh their decisions against.  It may mean religion, the laws of the land, their mother’s wisdom, or Newton’s laws of thermodynamics—whatever works as a safety net and compass. 

Personally, it’s my loathing for rudeness and cruelty this little mantra I use.  Life is hard enough without becoming the dark spot in someone else’s day. 

Question Two: What Are My Goals?  

If you are always working towards several goals, you will have a useful tool when faced with a dilemma. 

When you have to make a difficult choice, which direction is most likely to derail your goals?  Whether spiritual, financial, emotional, educational, mental, or other—if you have goals, ask yourself honestly which choice is going to be the biggest setback to them.

This one-size-fits-all approach will often fly out the window in the heat of the moment.  And it certainly isn’t to say that people can’t be happy and productive and reason their way through difficult decisions without codes or goals. 

But I’ve yet to meet the happy person who would turn down greater happiness.  Or the successful person who would turn down more success. 

For me, answering these two simple questions has made some really sticky situations a lot less intimidating and agonizing. 

If you know where you’re going, the inevitable forks in the road are easier to navigate.

Josh Hanagarne
Get Stronger, Get Smarter, Live Better…Every Day

About the Author: Josh Hanagarne is the twitchy force behind World’s Strongest Librarian, a blog with advice about living with Tourette’s Syndrome, book recommendations, buying pants when you’re 6’8”, old-time strongman training, kettlebells, and much more. Please subscribe to Josh’s RSS Updates to stay in touch.

Recently another couple of people I know unexpectedly lost their jobs and joined the ranks of the temporarily unemployed, not by choice, nor due to poor performance, but quite simply due to their company’s decision to re-organize its structure and strategy.

True, it really isn’t anything new that companies reorganize or merge or go out of business.  It really does happen all the time. Unfortunately, we just happen to be in a time when a lot of this is happening to a lot of people at the same time, thus making it that much more noticeable to everyone.

Losing a job (that you may or may not have loved) no longer seems to be something that only happens to other people.  The possibility of this happening to any one of us, or to someone we know, just seems to be that much more of a real possibility than ever before.

This makes me think of a favorite Mary Engelbreit artwork quote of mine:  
“Life is 10% what happens to you and
90% what you do with what happens to you.”

Yet, even to those not directly experiencing a job loss, seeing others go through this has an effect.  You may feel like you want to do something to help, but you may not know what to offer, or you may be too worried about your own situation to even really be much help to anyone else anyway.

Either way, I’ve found it invaluable to look at our current economic and political environment as a time to re-evaluate — a mid-life crisis of sorts, regardless of whether it is truly mid-life for me or not.

Another favorite Mary Engelbreit artwork quote to consider is:
“I don’t really care if my glass is ½ full or ½ empty –
I’m just happy to have a glass.”

For me, it’s become a good time to ask:  Do I want more of the same or do I want to take things in a completely different direction?  Is status quo going to cut it for me in the long run?  And, of course, the ultimate follow-up question is then figuring out a realistic and achievable route to then pursue.

To those currently employed, my best advice to you is to: keep yourself marketable, and always have a plan for the unexpected.

For those currently seeking new income opportunities, consider the following resources for ideas and inspiration:

• For top career news (including freelance, entrepreneurial, full- or part-time employment, etc) check out: career.alltop.com. (Note: Find your favorite blogs there & create your own customized My Alltop page.)
• In addition to the traditional job search engines of: CareerBuilder.com, Yahoo! HotJobs.com, and Monster.com, also try the job aggregation site: Indeed.com.
• For good books about non-traditional career paths, consider:
  • Career Renegade by Jonathan Fields, @jonathanfields
  • Fired to Hired by Tory Johnson, @toryjohnson
  • Escape from Cubicle Nation by Pamela Slim, @pamslim
  • Escape from Corporate America by Pamela Skillings
• Career planning goes hand-in-hand with good financial planning, my favorites for great free financial advice include: Liz Weston @lizweston (of MSN.com) and Suze Orman (of CNBC) @suzeormanshow. (Remember: As Suze Orman says, “Plan for the worst, but hope for the best.”)

I hope that you find this information helpful for yourself, and/or for sharing with those you care about. 

If you know of additional sources of reliable career or financial advice, please add them in a comment below.  Thanks in advance!

The current financial crisis has certainly made many people re-think their way of doing things. I would expect that those hardest hit by a sudden, severe, and unexpected shock would most likely be the first to change their ways.  But, for how long?

The degree and amount of change will certainly depend on how hard hit such individuals and their loved ones have been by this financial crisis, as well as their ability to recover from it, what and how much has been lost, and what is still at risk of being lost.

And, what about those of us that are still in pretty good financial shape and are not being forced to change due to circumstance, will we still change some of our habits based on a reawakened awareness to the realities of risk and uncertainty?

How many people are now re-assessing, or no longer putting off, serious planning for: retirement; long-term health care; emergency funds for unexpected expenses, including car repairs or necessary home repairs (e.g., plumbing; electricity; heating) or major appliance replacements; etc.?

To what degree will we see a re-emergence of the suburban survivalist and the do-it-yourself industry? For how long will we pay for more things with cash and less with credit? What changes will we see in sales pitches, incentives, rewards, penalties, bonuses, interest rates (on savings, on debt, on loans.), role models, and the behaviors of our neighbors or friends?

Have some of us become more grateful for what we do have and what we haven’t lost or put at risk?

How many of us will instead choose anger and resentment towards those that have recklessly or negligently put the system and taxpayer money at risk?
And, how many others of us will make no changes at all, believing that these kinds of things only happen to other people and that the environment around them hasn’t significantly changed much at all?

In the end, it’s important to know how our behaviors will change collectively, but regardless of what everyone else is doing, it is most important for us to look out for and do what’s best for ourselves.

That’s why I most align myself with the following Denis Waitley quote:

Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised.”

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Do we really need to hire someone to regularly clean our homes or take care of our lawns, have a personal assistant or personal shopper, pay frequent visits to a chiropractor, get pedicures and manicures, or massages, or attend expensive seminars, multiple times per year?

Once we are used to the convenience (and benefits) of these kinds of service-sector amenities, and we see our neighbors and co-workers indulging in them, they are hard to give up. Plus, these things are important for the health of our service-sector economy, too, right?

What if we can learn to be happy with or without spending money? Maybe knowing that we could easily give up those kinds of things, if necessary, would be a good skill to acquire? As Suze Orman has suggested, what if we only spend money on things that we can truly afford to and not spend money when are only able to afford things on a paycheck-to-paycheck basis?

After watching Cruise Inc. Big Money On the High Seas, where we hear how cruise ship profits are earned from on-board spending (in particular, drinking and gambling) and are not from cabin fares (which include free food and shows), I thought of an interesting experiment to test….

Could you go on a cruise at the heavily discounted rate of $35 per night, with a simple inside cabin with no views, and not spend any additional money, AND still have a great time?

I would assume that most people probably can’t.  Then, try adding this additional twist to the experiment:

How much do you think you could charge people for a frugal cruise course that teaches them how to have fun without spending money?

How dependent are you on the service-sector for your happiness?

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These days it seems almost impossible to avoid reading, seeing, or hearing news reports about the current economic crisis. 

I, personally, am not one of the people that can honestly adopt the mantra of: “I refuse to participate in this recession.”

Instead, I try to listen, understand, consider, and learn.  I’ve even been considering whether or not I need to re-consider some of my existing beliefs. The jury is still out on that. 

Most recently I’ve been thinking about some of the different ”personality types” that I’ve encountered regarding money, three of which include the following:

Person #1:  He’s such a good salesman, he could sell ice cubes to an Eskimo.

Person #2:  She’s so insecure, she’s not even comfortable asking for a dollar even when she really needs one.

Person #3:  That other person is so lazy, they just sit there living off of handouts from others.

This raises the following questions for me:

“What is the likelihood that each of the above people were raised to believe, or took on their belief, about money at an early age (i.e., and stopped considering other ways of being)?”

“What is the chance that each of the above people can’t understand how the other can honestly believe that their chosen/adopted view about obtaining money is the best and only way to be?”

“How much respect do you think each of the above people has for the other?”

“Is the sense of entitlement that comes from the allegedly “greedy” really all that different from the sense of entitlement that comes from an alleged “slacker” who is dependent on others?”

And, in conclusion:  “Where and when did we lose the sense of creating “value” and the fair exchange of real value for real worth?”

Feel free to weigh in with your thoughts.  As always, I’m interested in all points of view.

It’s the first day of a new year, a time when there is much talk about making New Year’s Resolutions.  There are many people with advice on:  how to do it right;  on whether or not any of the resolutions we do make will even last very long;  or whether it even matters any more to make resolutions at all.

What made it easier for me this year was that I had already spent the past month or so, with pen and paper, figuring out what I wanted to do differently for the upcoming “unprecedented” economic environment that we’ve been told awaits us. 

Yes, I agree, for me and maybe for many of us, this will be a year of going back to basics.

So, I was surprised to find that even though I had clearly set up actionable goals, and I felt that I was all set to face the new year, when it came to write my first blog post of the year, I was still at a loss for where to start. 

How can that be?  I had goals that I could easily summarize into three simple words.  Words that Chris Brogan explains should be words that can ”get you started…(and) still be relevant when you’re almost at the big goal”.   (My three goal words are:  Shed. Convey. Strengthen. )

What I was torn between was whether I should write about what other bloggers were recommending (and doing themselves) or if I should write about something totally different, i.e., generally the common themes were writing the typical “2008 Year In Review Post” and/or the “2009 Resolutions Post”.

At first this made me think of the often quoted:  

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
                                   Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken

I decided to let the thought settle for a bit.

It turns out it was quite pleasantly serendipitous for the following Tweet to cross my path on Twitter:

stevepavlina If you don’t seem to be following a well-marked trail, it probably means you’re seeing some pretty cool stuff. The scratches will heal. 1 minute ago from web

This enhanced the metaphor for me as I began sketching out two possible paths “diverged in a wood”.   After getting a bit creative, I realized that there probably weren’t  just two paths diverged in the woods.  There are paths all over.  Choosing one path doesn’t mean you’ll only get to one outcome.

Reinforcing that thought in my mind was this YouTube video that was recently blogged about by Stuart Tan that shows how not to get “hoodwinked into the outcome“, essentially another way to remind us to ”Enjoy the Journey”.

My 2009 Wishes for you:   Be sure To “Enjoy Your Journey Always”!!!

Photo Credit, respres