Chris Crouch's Blog

Kindle Update #1

For those who did not read the December 12th blog, a Kindle is the new wireless reading device that Amazon is promoting.

After several weeks of Kindle-ownership, my enthusiasm for the Kindle continues to grow. If you are a serious reader, you might want to take a look at this device. When I was waiting for my Kindle to arrive, I told many people that this device would never replace paper-based books; however, I am not so sure of that now. Maybe I should revise my statement and tell people that it will be a long time before such reading devices replace paper-based books. I can now easily imagine the possibility that the Kindle (and future versions of the device) might totally replace paper-based books for me.

At this point, I have already become very fond of turning pages with a slight movement of my thumb, looking up words with two slight movements of my thumb and ordering books (at a significantly lower cost) with a few thumb strokes. Maybe it is just the novelty of the situation...but I already prefer to read things on my Kindle. People know I love to read, so they give me books for Christmas, my birthday and sometimes for no reason at all other than they want me to read the book. It is still my favorite gift...to give and receive. However, I now have several traditional paper-based books in a holding pattern...circling waiting to land and be read. The good news...I am still finding time to read some of these books. I read them when Robin has swiped my Kindle. Twice lately I have gone to get my Kindle to read for a while and found that she has beat me to it. It seems to be growing on her too.

Any frustration related to using my Kindle is mostly due to "pilot error" ...mainly the fact that it is too easy to turn pages electronically. Sometimes when I accidentally turn a page and lose my place, I think I am backing up to find my place and I am actually going forward. I have already developed some habits to deal with this problem and I'm sure future design features will minimize or eliminate the problem. 

So far...still no buyer's remorse whatsoever. I am a very happy Kindle owner at this point.   

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.

Your Call to Adventure

In movies, the main character usually experiences some sort of Call to Adventure. Here's a common moviemaking pattern you might often encounter before you finish your popcorn:

• You learn something about the main character's Normal or Ordinary world. This phase of the movie gives you an idea of what things are like before the main character experiences his or her Call to Adventure. It is not unusual for the ordinary world to be...well...ordinary. Perhaps this world is even boring, unchallenging, unrewarding and unfulfilling. However uninspiring this world may be, it is the world the main character knows best...their comfort-zone world.
• The main character is somehow presented with a problem to solve, a challenge to overcome or opportunity to pursue. In other words, the main character is "called to a new adventure" in life.
• Sometimes the main character temporarily refuses to answer the new call to adventure. After all, most people are quite hesitant to disrupt their comfort-zone world...even if it is boring, unchallenging, unrewarding and unfulfilling. I'll address the implications of the Refusal of the Call in the next blog.
• Eventually, the main character accepts the Call to Adventure and the movie (and adventure) is kicked off.

What has all this got to do with you as we wrap up 2007 and get ready for the adventure we will call 2008? As they say..."Art imitates life!" 

How many people do you know who are pursuing their true calling in life? Just for fun, make a list of the ten people you know best and try to guess how many of them are using most of their time and energy to pursue their true calling in life. And by the way...go ahead and put one more person on the list...yourself. How are you doing with this Call to Adventure stuff? Here's a simple test to see if you are headed in the right direction: For the most part...does your life's work energize you or drain you? Here are some points to ponder if you decide to think about your Call to Adventure:

• It appears that everybody has a specific Call to Adventure (something specific that you are supposed to accomplish with your time, talent and energy during your time on Earth). If you haven't discovered your true calling yet...keep trying!
• The adventure doesn't always get kicked off in dramatic fashion (like in the movies). Your Herald (the person, event or force that announces your adventure) might be a passage in a book, a comment by a friend, an attraction to something, a feeling of ongoing restlessness, any person, event or force that generates an adventure-kicking-off epiphany, etc.
• Some Calls to Adventure have an expiration date. Activities that formerly energized you are now routine and boring. Often an early life Call to Adventure is simply a stepping stone to a higher calling later on in life.
• Some people, perhaps most, cannot detect their Call to Adventure because they are simply too busy or too caught up in monkey traps such as maintaining a certain lifestyle, waiting out certain benefit vesting periods, parental or spousal expectations, not letting go of an earlier life choice that no longer makes sense, etc.
• Some people think they have to totally abandon their current life path to pursue a new adventure. This is true in some cases (if you are way off your true path in life)...but not true in most cases. Odds are you have already made many career decisions based on some level of interest in the activities you are currently pursuing and only need to make some adjustment to your life path. For example, most of my past career moves (some of which looked like mistakes in the past) seemed to prepare me in some way for my current life adventure.
• It is never too late to discover your true path in life. If you are still alive, your work on Earth is not finished.

When I was young, I only heard about preachers being "called" to their vocation...the ministry. I now believe that all our lives are a form of ministry and we are all "called" to a specific adventure that awaits us. Think about it! Happy New Year! Have a great 2008!   

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.

My Kindle Is Here!

A few weeks ago, Robin (my spouse) came into my office and said, "Do you think we should consider taking a look at this Kindle, the new wireless reading device that Amazon is promoting?" I had just finished reading an article about the Kindle in Newsweek and references to the Kindle seemed omnipresent in my life. The buzz on this new gadget reminded me of the early iPod days and a milder, somewhat saner version of the iPhone pre-release frenzy. This gadget looked very interesting! I didn't immediately respond to Robin's question. I thought about it for a few seconds and responded by turning to my computer and ordering a Kindle. After placing my order, I turned back to her and said...yes! Shortly afterwards (which I understand is not currently the case), the Kindle...my Kindle...showed up on my doorstep. I have now had my Kindle for over a week and read a few books on it. Here are my initial thoughts and impressions:

• This thing is very cool! It is sort of the iPod for people who love to read. In the doctor's waiting room the other day people noticed that I was reading a book on my Kindle. It easily trumped all the other electronic gadgets in the room and drew a curious crowd. Thumbs quit thumb-stroking, people with blue-flashing earphones stopped pacing around and talking to the air, laptops were closed...and suddenly there arose such a clatter, that even some of the old fashion geezer-like readers temporarily closed their paper-based books and magazines and sprang from their seats to see what was the matter! I'll give it a +1 for coolness.
• It is easy to see the text, even in outside light. There is something (I can't really define it) about the font that is very appealing to the eye. The best word I can think of to describe it is "pleasant." You can increase the font size if you feel so moved. I haven't found it necessary to do so yet. Another +1.
• If a book has pictures, they are not always easy to see. They are okay...but not as clear as the pictures in paper-based books. I'll give it a -1 on picture quality.
• I find it more comfortable to read with my Kindle. If you consider the physics of reading (motion required turning pages and such), it is easier to maintain your relaxed position in a chair and turn the pages with your thumbs. A definite +1 for lazy readers.
• The process of ordering a book is downright fun. I used to hang out at a bar in Keystone Colorado that kept a large metal urn in the middle of the bar. People would stand around and throw quarters at the urn. You "won" this little coin-tossing game when you successfully tossed the coin in the urn. That's all you won...the satisfaction of being good at tossing money in an urn. The bartenders, of course, won whether you hit or missed the urn...since they kept all the quarters regardless of where they landed. Even though we all knew the game was financially dumb...we enjoyed playing it. Ordering a book from Amazon "just to see how it works" is a bit like tossing quarters at the urn...but at least you get a book in return for your investment. I'll eventually read all of the books I have ordered. Fun factor...+1.
• Books are much cheaper. When Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson was originally released, I started to buy it (at $32.00). When Amazon offered the hardback version of the book for $19.20, I started to buy it again. When I got my Kindle, I ordered it for $9.99! Because of my Kindle, procrastination is my new ally. I am saving money hand over fist! That is...if you don't count the almost $400 I paid for the Kindle!! Forty-four more transactions like that Einsteinian-deal and I will break even on this electronic money-absorption device! We'd better count that as zero points...it's a wash.       
• The highlighting feature is very nice. When you highlight something, it also sends the highlighted text to a separate area on the Kindle and makes it very easy to review your highlighted passages. +1 for highlighting.
• The "look up a word" feature is one of my favorite features. Even without the wireless connected, you can easily look up words you do not understand. With the wireless feature activated, you can roam around Wikipedia and look up things. +1
• Battery life...so far so good! I read one of the books I sucked into my Kindle through the airways in one evening and the battery indicator did not budge from "full." +1 for battery life.
• Accidentally turning pages is a problem with the Kindle. It is so easy to turn the pages on a Kindle that it also makes it easy to accidentally turn pages. Since the power switch is on the back, it is especially easy to do this when you are turning the power on and off. -1 for this minor frustration.

That's enough Kindle-stuff for now. I'll keep you up to date on my Kindle experience (pros and cons) as things unfold. I don't really care about the plusses and minuses. The truth is...my Natural Child wanted to buy this toy...I mean educational resource. If you are a serious reader and have four hundred unencumbered bucks to spare...it is a great buy. I have no buyer's remorse so far. If you are not a serious reader...you would probably get more value out of doing something else with your four hundred bucks...perhaps visiting Keystone Colorado and tossing quarters in an urn. In any case, it is probably worth visiting Amazon's website, scrolling down a bit (skip the short video) and watching the six-minute video to get up to speed on what the Kindle is all about. You will probably be hearing a lot about it in the near future.   

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.

Something to Do at Family Gatherings

I'll bet many of you have heard the story about the holiday gathering and the woman who cut off both ends of the ham before cooking it. When her daughter asked her why she cut off the ends of the ham, she replied, "I don't know. Your grandmother taught me to do that. She's in the living room. Go ask her." When asked the same question, the grandmother said, "I don't know. Your great-grandmother taught me to do that. She's in the den. Go ask her." When asked the same question, the great-grandmother said, "Because I had a small cooking pan...the whole ham wouldn't fit in the pan!"

Cutting off the ends of a ham without really thinking about why you are doing it is an example of a behavioral tape. When we perform certain functions, encounter certain situations or recognize certain patterns, we sometimes respond with automatic or pre-programmed behavior that is driven by a behavioral tape. Sometimes these tapes serve us well...and sometimes they do not. For example, most of us have a tape that makes us automatically "look both ways before we cross the street." This tape served us well as a child and continues to serve us well as adults. The "cut off the ends of the ham" tape illustrates how things we learned from our family members can strongly infuence our behavior and easily be passed from generation to generation...even when the tape no longer makes sense! 

Being mysteriously influenced to cut off the ends of a ham is a relatively harmless tape. Such tapes probably won't cause many serious problems in your life. However, some tapes related to how marriages work, how to raise children, how to handle money, how to interact with people and how to respond to the inevitable ups and downs of a normal life probably shouldn't be passed on to the next generation. It might be time to consider re-writing some of the behavioral tapes that are not serving you well and stop them during your lifetime. One way to start this process is by conducting a little informal research on your personal inventory of behavioral tapes. What better time and place to do that than at holiday gatherings?

Don't get me wrong. I am not suggesting that you approach this task by grilling your relatives and trying to probe deep into their inner psyches in an all-out effort to release your inner demons. Lighten up and just engage them in some interesting conversations about "how things were" when you were growing up. Since it is likely that your parents simply passed on many of the tapes they learned from their parents, you will probably get better results by asking indirect questions. For example, rather than asking your parents about their attitude toward money when you were young (which is the point in time that you probably formed many of your attitudes about money)...ask them about their parent's attitude toward money...or ask them what their parents taught them about politics, religion, dealing with authority figures, scarcity, abundance, trusting others, assertiveness, sympathy, compassion, risk-taking, etc. If your parents are no longer living...ask relatives to tell you about your parents. And remember, you may have duplicated your parents tapes...or you may have reversed their tapes and decided, "When I grow up I will never be like them!" For example, if you saw people take advantage of your mom or dad because they were kind and gentle, you may have decided to be more assertive and forceful as an adult. Again, keep it light. You don't want anyone feeling as if they are being psychoanalyzed during holiday gatherings. If you uncover something heavy...go slam down a cup of egg nog and make a mental note to follow up on the issue later.

Here's an example of a behavior tape that I had to re-write to improve my marriage. As a child, I was taught (primarily through actions and not words) that women always cooked the ham, turkey or anything else during the holiday season. My new "holiday cooking tape" (and "everyday cooking tape" for that matter) calls for men to also participate in the preparation of meals. Therefore, if my future great-grandson tells the "cut off the ends of the ham" story...he might have to finish the story by saying, "Your great-grandfather is in the kitchen...go ask him."   

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.

The Perilous Plight of the Peppered Moths

It's good to be smart and adaptable. If not, you have to take what life gives you...and if you are a peppered moth, that may mean becoming a light (or dark) snack for a hungry bird. Here's the highly summarized story of the perilous plight of the peppered moth. The facts:

• Some peppered moths are predominantly light colored.
• Some peppered moths are predominantly dark colored.
• Some trees (where peppered moths hang out) are predominantly light colored.
• Some trees (where peppered moths hang out) are predominantly dark colored.
• Birds think peppered moths are tasty and like to eat them.
• Birds are most likely to eat the peppered moths they can easily see.

So what's a peppered moth to do...or more importantly...where should a weary peppered moth land and hang out for a few minutes of rest? You can mentally run through the possibilities and finish the story. Here's a link to an article and a photo of a couple of peppered moths (look closely...unlike a dumb, hungry bird) and you can better understand the benefits of matching your characteristics with your environment and the perils of not doing so. So what can we learn from the peppered moths that can help us improve our chances of career survival and success? Let's use the facts above related to the plight of the peppered moth as a template and apply them to humans. Here's just one example of how the story might unfold:

• Some people are predominantly extroverted and spontaneous.
• Some people are predominantly introverted and methodical.
• Some careers call for people to be predominantly extroverted and spontaneous (for example, some people-oriented careers where you must constantly interact with others and operate in a highly unstructured environment).
• Some careers call for people to be predominantly introverted and methodical (for example, some task-oriented careers where you must work alone in a highly structured environment).
• Bosses like downsizing and especially like to get rid of people who do not seem to fit their job.

Once again, I think you can finish the story. Now let's draw a few conclusions:

• Moths are not smart enough to know they should adapt to their environment. They don't really understand the implications of landing on a dark versus light tree.
• Some people are like moths...they land a job that calls for them to be extroverted when they are introverted or spontaneous when they are methodical...or vice versa...or they mismatch some other predominant personality trait.
• Other people understand the implications of trait mismatches and take the time to fully explore and understand their predominant personality traits and then...they wisely select an environment and career path (or make changes to their current career path) that will most likely allow them to take advantage of their strengths and minimize their struggles. For example...some people have their personality assessed and pay close attention to it when they are making major career decisions.

In other words, know thyself...and as Willie S. said, "To thine own self be true."

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.

Sometimes It Is a Good Idea to Flip-Flop

I read an article titled "The Dog Handler" in the October 29, 2007 edition of Time Magazine. The article was about the new White House press secretary Dana Perino. Apparently she trained her Hungarian hunting dog, Henry, to retrieve a flip-flop whenever he hears the name John Kerry. Now...I am neither supporting nor defending Kerry; however, I do want to support occasional flip-flopping in certain situations.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could always get things right the first time. Unfortunately, that's not the way life always works. Okay...I'll admit it. I don't always get things right at first. I bought a Corvair, an 8-track player, a Betamax recorder, an IBM PC Jr., and I always seem to buy Apple computers and iPods just a few days before they announce a "new and improved" (and often cheaper) model. At one time in my life, I even decided that it was a good idea to be a CPA...and I did it! As it turns out, it is a great idea...for some people...but it was a dumb idea for me. I didn't like being a CPA. So, I decided to be a teacher (to be more specific, I am a self-designated, renegade teacher operating outside the formal or factory school system). Here's one of the problems with being a teacher...sometimes people actually listen to what you say...or read what you write...AND THEN REMEMBER IT, FORRRR.....EEVER!!! As Martha Stewart used to say, "That's a good thing!" As Martha now knows oh so well, it's only a good thing for people to remember what you said in the past if you got it right.

Maybe this has happened to you. You make a statement in the presence of someone who took the time to listen to you in the past. The NIGYSOB listener quickly jumps in and says, "Wait a minute! That's not what you said before! You're flip-flopping aren't you?" A friend of mine, Kate Harper, relayed a story to me a few years ago that I think offers a near-perfect response to such NIGYSOB-ers. If someone accuses you of flip-flopping, you can always say, "When I get new information...I change my mind. What do you do!" I got new information on Corvairs, Betamaxes, 8-tracks and IBM PC Jrs. I don't still own them because at one time I thought it was a good idea to own them.

So, flip-flopping is another of life's dualistic concepts. Sometimes it is okay and sometimes it is not. If you are constantly doing it just to try and suck up to voters, it's probaby going to get you in trouble. However, if you have encounted new information and genuinely believe it is appropriate to upgrade your beliefs...why not flip-flop!   

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.

Something to Do on a Rainy Day

Are you looking for something to do on a rainy day? Why not explore some ideas to help you get more focused, organized and productive? There are almost thirty articles (mostly short articles) in the Library on one of my websites on general topics related to productivity. Browse through them and maybe you can find a few topics that are interesting and relevant to you.

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.

Flatland: The Movie

We often hear people talk about "thinking out of the box." How would you like to help a group of people not only "think out of the box"...how would you like to help them "think out of the dimension?" If so, consider showing them a video titled Flatland: The Movie (not to be confused with Flatland the Film...which may also be good, but I have not seen it yet and am not recommending it at this time). This 34-minute video is based on Edwin Abbott's book Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions written in the late 1800s. First of all, if a book was written in the late 1800s and it is still currently in stock in most bookstores...there must be some pretty good stuff in the book. Watch the short trailer on the website if you want a sample of the ideas presented in the video. Here are just a few thoughts Flatland:The Movie triggered for me:

• The power of truth and profound knowledge.
• The limiting power of false beliefs.
• The joys (and normal frustrations) of helping lift others to a higher level of understanding.
• That the real role of a teacher is to encourage and nurture curiosity.
• That a master teacher should disrupt the current beliefs of their students or no new learning will take place.
• That many of life's so-call certainties are illusions.
• That many people operate in a false economy...valuing things that are of no real value and ignoring things of real value.
• Don't let your advanced knowledge shut down the possiblility of further learning.
• The value of coming up with novel ways to help people understand abstract concepts.
• Chance really does favor the prepared mind.
• A little imagination can change your world.
• Different people look at the same information and see opportunities or threats.

It is difficult to ignore the potential religious and political implications of the video, but this is neither a religious or political blog...so I will wimp out and stay away from those topics in this forum.

This video only touches on the zero through fourth dimensions. Well...actually the fourth dimension is only mentioned a few times (and we are warned by the all-knowing character Spherius that the idea of a fourth dimension is "utterly inconceivable"). Quantum physicists, especially the String Theory and M-Theory crowd, are speculating that at least 10 or more dimensions exist in the world we inhabit. Maybe someday we will all meet in the forbidden zone Area 33H (it's in the movie) and have a multi-dimensional experience together. Or who knows... maybe we are already together in some other dimension!      

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.

Overloading and the Plimsoll Line

There's this thing about fluids and buoyancy that anyone responsible for a vessel traveling through water needs to understand. Archimedes discovered long ago that a body immersed in a fluid is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the displaced fluid. Apply this principle to the world of boating and shipping, convert it to plain-speak and the consequences of overloading are clear. Ships and boats sink when they weigh more than the water they displace.

In 1873 an Englishman named Samuel Plimsoll published a book titled Our Seamen that documented the fact that nearly 1,000 sailors a year drowned in ship sinkings near or around the British shores. You see...that was about the time Lloyd's of London began insuring ships. Therefore, shipowners had strong incentives to overload their ships. If the ships made it to their destination, the higher loads were more profitable. If the overloaded ships sank...the owners collected on their insurance policies. Eventually overloading got so bad that people began to refer to ships that carried immigrants to North America as coffin ships. Plimsoll's solution to this problem was simple. Determine the maximum load a ship could handle and make sure the vessel never exceeded that load. He proposed that a mark or line be painted on the side of all ships to indicate the limit to which the vessel could be legally loaded. If the weight and bouyancy of the ship caused it to dip below the line, referred to as the Plimsoll Mark or Plimsoll Line, the ship could not set sail. The Plimsoll Line worked then and it still works today. Simply drawing a line reduced a tremendous amount of suffering and anquish...and saved thousands of lives in the process. Many of you exist today because of Samuel Plimsoll's idea and the fact that it helped your ancestors survive their voyage to America.

I tell you this story because so many people seem to complain about being overloaded these days. Okay, let's do some substitutions. Take this story and substitute the word 'me or I' for the word 'vessel' and the practice of personal overloading for practice of ship overloading...and then rethink the story. Then think...WWSD (What Would Samuel Do)? I'll bet Samuel would try and come up with an incredibly simple way to prevent oveloading. Would he paint a line on your waist, your chest or your neck? Naah...that wouldn't work. Painting lines doesn't sould like a good solution in this situation. But what did Sam have to do to determine where to paint the line? That's the real issue. He had to determine the proper load for the vessel. So, how can you determine the proper load for your vessel (body)? There are probably many ways to do that...however, here's one very simple way (I am going to simplify things by suggesting this technique without discussing the theory behind the strategy for now. Maybe the underlying theory will become the topic of a future blog entry):

• Start your next week by loading no more than one highly important task, preferably the most important task you can think of, in a single workday. Work on the task sometime during the first 48 minutes of your day or the first 48 minutes after lunch (therefore, if you are working on a huge project, you will need to break the project into a task that can be completed in 48 minutes or less). Stay totally focused on the selected task...the whole task...and nothing but the task for the entire 48 minutes. No emails, no phone calls, no interruptions, no breaks, nothing but total laser-like focus! Do whatever you want for the rest of the day...including working like a crazy person and overloading yourself.
• On day two increase the load, select two tasks and two 48-minute periods and do the same thing.
• On day three increase the load again, select three tasks and three 48-minute periods and do the same thing.
• Keep this up until you start to feel overloaded. Then subtract one or two tasks and consider that number of tasks your Plimsoll Line.

You can do the math. In an eight-hour workday there are ten 48-minute segments of time. I suspect three to five tasks and segments is the opitmal level for most of you. For example, if you draw your Plimsoll Line at five...that gives you half of the day to work in a sane and reasonable manner...and you still have half a day to work like a crazy person if you insist on doing so. Remember, in the end...you can't trick Mother Nature, gravity, mathmetics (unelss you divide by zero) and buoyancy! If you start to get that sinking feeling...stop what you are doing and try to determine your personal Plimsoll Line. 

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.