Home Office Design Blog

Well 2008 has arrived and another year begins. It’s meant to be a time for making resolutions and making the most of the year that is ahead of us.

Stop and ask yourself what achievements you have from 2007. Were these the ones you set out to achieve? If not then what stopped you from achieving your goals and dreams?

Today was my time for looking back on my year and what I’d achieved, or not for that matter. My personal fitness goals fell short but I did get back into martial arts (Jiu Jitsu to be specific - great for the body and soul) but my financial goals were nailed right on the head in the last 90 days of 2007. I’m very proud of that.

I had to stop patting myself on the back and remind myself of something - Why did I get into this business? What was my original dream? Sure it was financial success but it was also to help out those less fortunate than me. But more importantly to be able to assist members of my family when they needed help and could rely on me. I’m a middle child by the way and this is typical behaviour of a middle child

There’s a lot to be gotten from giving. I took in a stray dog during Christmas (I refuse to call it THE Holidays - what a pile of overly PC crap!) until I found his owner, I actively gave money to charities and homeless/poor people during the Christmas period also. The dog was safe and I got several great smiles from people I gave some cash to.

But why is this just a once a year thing? Why am I not actively giving all year round? I don’t need to donate thousands of dollars to be giving. Many charities only ask for a few dollars here and there - $5 a month etc. So for $50 a month I could potentially donate to 10 charities. For $100 I could donate to 20! $100 doesn’t buy much anymore. I truly believe I’ll receive more in positive energy from donating that $100 than just spending it on myself.

So I’m realigning some of my goals for 2008. Yes financial and personal success still figure at the top of the list. The bigger goal is to help others in as many ways as I can. Why? Because that’s why I setup this business in the first place. The money is simply the means to achieve the goal. The goal was always more important and I lost sight of that this year for a while.

Happy New Year 2008. I hope it makes all your dreams come true. If possible try to make somebody elses dream come true also - you’ll feel great for it.

We all have things we can teach to other people. It could be music, maths, marketing or maybe even spirituality. In any lesson or knowledge we give to others there is something to be learned about ourselves and how we deliver that learning or knowledge.

The next time you have to teach something remember that by living actively living the lesson you’re delivering that you can grow within yourself as part of that.

Just a quick thought….

There are times when we can’t always work from the comfort of our home office - not ideal but it’s a fact of life for many of us. There’s a ton of choices for how we’re going to handle this working away from. You can just work from a cybercafe if all you have to worry about is just basically checking your e-mail. I use a service called Spamarrest for filtering my e-mail for spam and it allows me to monitor up to 5 mailboxes from one single account - this is ideal for me as I have several websites that I run and it just saves a lot of time and headaches.

For those who demand a little bit more power and facilities then a Palm or PocketPC would be ideal. These are great if you need some basic word-processing, presentation or spreadsheet functionality and are also great for calendaring your working day, week, month or year. Many of the new, high-end smartphones (50% cellphone and 50% PDA) now have many of these features included so it might be working checking with your cellphone provider to see what the latest models look like.

Now we come to the last step - the laptop. If you want to bring your computer “with you” then a full blown laptop is the only way to go. At the moment I own two - an IBM T60 and an old IBM T20. Why IBM? They’re as tough as old boots and do exactly what I need them to - although the T20 is more of an ornament now to be honest but it comes in handy around the house lol I just happen to like IBM laptops. Period.

Modern laptops are fast, sleep and powerful creatures which can easily take advantage of cables or wireless networks and handle all but the most crippling of applications (and yes even a few games…when you’re unwinding *ahem*). If you’re just travelling for a few days then a PDA/Blackberry/Smartphone should be enough. If you are, however, going to be travelling a lot of expect that you might be well then invest in a laptop and just save yourself all the stresses and hassles that you’ll have otherwise.

Just when I was getting back into the swing of things here I get knocked down by a stomach bug that has me doubled over for days. The same night the stomach bug lifted I got the worst flu I’ve had in years - all I could do was the bare minimum of work and then collapse into bed.

Was that it?

No no. Not at all. 24 hours after the flu lifted the stomach bug returned with a vengeance for 24 hours.

That’s the end of my sick stories now though. No more - I’ve 2 - 3 weeks behind on my work because of this madness.

Now that the illness is over I can finally get back to posting here more regularly. Good to be back!

It’s occured to me lately that this blog has become more of a motivational piece than in relation to running a home office. I do try to mix in content about office related issues and ideas as often as possible but I think anyone working home from has had the same thoughts and ideas I’ve shared here from time to time? I’ll be looking at adding more office related content to the blog soon in any case.

I came across this video last night. It’s the last lecture of a 47 year old lecturer named Randy Pausch. It’s just under two hours long but I recommend that you watch every minute of it.
The Last Lecture

After watching the video I’ve been doing some thinking. How alive am I? How much am I truly living my life and how much am I just being carried along by lifes currents? The Last Lecture video really opened my eyes up to that. How many dreams have I put to one side for the sake of having a career or doing the “right thing”?

This was highlighted more when I read a local newspaper and saw an ad where the local animal society were looking for a home for an abandoned pup. I’d love to give that pup a home but right now I don’t have the space. A long held dream of mine has been to open an animal sanctuary for dogs and other animals like that pup to give them a good home and maybe even turn it into a petting zoo of sorts. A kind of self-funding animal sanctuary. It made me sad to realize that was another dream that I’d put on hold for everyone elses reasons.

I think it’s so very important to focus on more than simply existing.

I think it’s so very important to realize our dreams as often as possible.

I think it’s so very important that when our time comes to leave our physical bodies and move on that we can look back at our lives with a sense of joy and not regret.

Be alive today. Find a dream and follow it. Randy Pausch is living proof that we all need to at least try.

Here’s something to think about:

“If something in your life doesn’t resonate with you then why is it in your life?”

For those of you reading this blog you’ll know that I’m a fan of The Secret and the Law of Attraction in general. This has been something I’ve gradually gotten to know and understand over time. It’s the kind of thing that reveals itself slowly until you really change your mindset entirely.

One major part of the process which has become glaringly apparent in my life in the last 3 months or so is this:

If there’s something or somebody in my life that doesn’t do me any good or make me feel good then why am I allowing this to be part of my life? Why would any sane human allow bad things to exist in their life - especially when it’s within our control to remove these negative energies from our lives 90%+ of the time. Instead we just allow these negative influences to run our lives.

Think about that for a moment. Do you hate your job? What are you doing about it?

Do you have friends who just turn up when they need something but are never there for you in return? What are you doing about it?

Do you allow a partner (romantic or otherwise) to treat you like garbage just because you’re afraid to be alone? If so what are you going to do about it?

In the last 60 days I’ve really examined my life and seen how some people only exist around me for what I can provide them with. Either financially or emotionally or in some cases both. I’ve cut off ties with some of these people and allowed the others to fade away. Initially I was finding myself frustrated that I was arguing or disagreeing with people more. Then I realized that I’m not actually disagreeing with people more…. Nope. I’m simply disagreeing with some of them for the first time and they don’t like it. No loss in that case. True friends can argue and fall out and get over it and remain friends.

So in the last 60 days I’ve found myself freeing myself of memberships, friends and relationships that serve no purpose except to tie up my time. This has given me more time to focus on what I need and want to do for myself and those that truly matter and resonate in my life.

One particular area in business that I’ve tidied up is unsubscribing from dozens of newsletter lists and several membership sites. I’d almost forgotten about some of them. Now if I get anything in my inbox that’s even a little bit “hypey” then it’s game over for that guy and I unsubscribe with a smile on my face. I’ve freed up dozens of hours per week just getting rid of this crap. I’ve also saved myself a good chunk of change each month by cancelling those memberships too. It’s a nice feeling

So maybe it’s time to look at your life and those people in it. Do they benefit you in any way? Do they add joy to your life or do they simply make you sad?

If it doesn’t resonate with you then it has no place in your life.