I’ve always been a simple kind of guy.  I never really liked things that are too fancy, too complicated or too complex.  When I buy a new gadget I don’t go for the fancy ones that can do everything, I just go for the ones that satisfy my basic needs.  I found in the past that buying a gadget with 20 extra features I don’t need often makes the gadget more complicated to use.  From a marketing prespective features sell.  The more features you add the more money you can ask for.  However I’ve found that from my own experience simplicity is king.  Simplicity is efficient, fast, and straight to the point.

Today I’m having an “off day”.  For one it’s a Monday which might have to do with it.  But in general I notice that every week I have at least one or two off days.  Off days are those days when you don’t feel like getting out of bed, don’t feel like getting any work done, don’t feel like working out etc.  The only thing you might feel like doing is watching TV or movies but even that gets boring

Learning to manage an off day is important because if you don’t you could easily get stuck in a squence of lazy days.  Basically on an off day one just needs to go about their day as you normally would.  They wont feel like it, everything will feel like a drag but they need to do it anyways.  They just gotta push through it whether they feel like it or not.  When is your off day?

This is a great technique that I learned about from other bloggers.  Basically you use google blog search to find blogs that cover simillar topics to the ones you write about on your blog.  Pick a post they wrote and write your opinion on it, be honest, and if you don’t agree with their views state that in your post.  In your post make sure you link to their post, and also ping it (or do a trackback) if you can.  That way they will see your post and probably write about it on their blog linking to your post.  Their readers will be checking out your blog and will often become regular readers of your posts.

Starting a company can be a challenge.  In fact most startup companies fail or go bankrupt within the first year or two.  I’ve always been fascinated with startups.  In fact at one point I even had a blog where I focused specifically on web startups.  Since then I’ve gotten interested in how to start a successful business in general.  Through all of my research, experience, and talks with successful startup creators, I came down to the same conclusion.

The secret to startup success is hard work.  I know it’s obvious yet it’s easier said than done.  Web startups are a good example.  Many entrepreneurs who start a successful web startup often work 16 hour days for the first year or two.  Of course when their startup takes off it easily turns into the next google, youtube, or facebook and is worth millions if not billions.  At that point if the entrepreneur wants to retire for the rest of their life and live on an island somewhere they can afford it.  Of course many do take time off but they ofter go on to starting their next company.  Why?  Because vacationing is only fun for a month, two or six after that it gets boring.

So how can you work hard on growing your business?  Remember you wont have to work hard for the rest of your life, but you need to work hard to get your startup company off the ground.

Often when one wants to lose weight they focus on how to eat right and exercise more. While both are necessary to lose weight, they are the outer game of weight loss. There is a whole other aspect which is the inner game of weight loss. This aspect is often neglected and I believe it’s the reason most people never lose weight and keep it off.

If you take the average overweight person and magically make the extra 20-30 pounds he’s carrying disappear guess what will happen? Over the next year or two he will most probably gain back all that weight. How come? Because he still has bad eating habits and inconsistent exercising habits. So how do you replace bad habits with healthy ones? This is where inner game comes in.

The inner game has to do with building discipline. A practical example is exercising when you don’t feel like it. Understand that you wont always feel like going to the gym, so when you don’t feel like it just do it anyways push through it. The same with healthy eating. Often you wont feel like eating healthy foods yet you must do it anyways. After practicing exercising and eating healthy it will become habitual and will feel natural.