Nothing happens over night, but things will happen today, and tomorrow, and the day after that.  It’s time for less macro-thought and more micro-focus, so that we can live up to those high hopes.

I’ve done so much brainstorming and dreaming over the last few weeks that I don’t even know where to begin.  I’m not ready to list my resolutions, but it doesn’t matter.

What matters is that I know exactly what I’m going to do today and what one bigger project I want to tackle this week.  I need laser focus for today, and I need to save the rest of the big picture for the end of this week.  So the 2-3 things I’m going to do, I’d also suggest for you:

1. Write down what you want to do today—make the list incredibly short
2. Focus on that and don’t check your email, Twitter, Facebook or voicemail, or make a phone call during the first few hours of the day
3. Tonight, write the list for tomorrow…and repeat

I sound like a broken record stressing these points, but if you do this you’ll find success in 2009.  You don’t need to seek the meaning of life, but if you know the meaning of today you’ll be off to a damn good start.

I’ll leave you with this quote from one of my favorite novelists, Haruki Murakami, in his recently published memoir, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running:

Without [focus] you can’t accomplish anything of value, while, if you can focus effectively, you’ll be able to compensate for an erratic talent or even a shortage of it.  I generally concentrate on work for three or four hours every morning.  I sit at my desk and focus totally on what I’m writing.  I don’t see anything else, I don’t think about anything else….

You’ll naturally learn both concentration and focus when you sit down every day at your desk and train yourself to focus on one point….And gradually you’ll expand the limits of what you’re able to do.  Almost imperceptibly you’ll make the bar rise.  This involves the same process as jogging every day to strengthen your muscles and develop a runner’s physique.  Add a stimulus and keep it up.  And repeat.  Patience is a must in this process, but I guarantee the results will come.

Start a routine today that involves focus, and you’ll build the endurance necessary to achieve those bigger goals one day at a time.  Welcome to a new year.

For me, the last few years were full of planting and building.  Now, I have to ensure the work was not for naught; my theme for 2009 is impact.

Past and Present

The real accomplishment of the last couple years has been aligning the activities I love with a business motivation for doing them—i.e., finding a way to really do what I love.  To some extent I’ve had that for a while, but I feel Technotheory, AwayFind, and most of the painful steps toward building a platform are now comfortably mature.

It was a fun but risky process that cost a lot of time and money (more than a year’s worth of both).  However, now I feel that my efforts in writing, speaking, and traveling can reap greater rewards.  I just have to be wise about what I do with those efforts.

With all my decisions, big and small, I’ll ask myself the following question: what will help me to achieve the most impact?

A Deeper Look at Past and Present Impact

I mentioned that my activities and my passions needed re-aligning, and that I wanted to make more impact.  Here’s the story of how I arrived at this conclusion, and what I mean by it.

I’ve always believed in my work at SET Consulting, but a couple things have changed in the last few years:

• The correlation between most profitable and most enjoyable ended.  I realized that small and large businesses demanded similar support, but the latter had much bigger, more profitable projects.  Sometimes this meant I could be making a big impact on a large company, but more often than not I would find myself restricted in some way from doing exactly what I felt was best for the client, due to some form of red tape.  I was making money, but wheels were spinning and the results of my efforts were no longer as immediately tangible.  It’s useful to be able to say I have lots of household names as clients, but it’s not always the most rewarding work.
• As a by-product, my client work had become more specific and less high-level.  More management and less hands-on.  Once again, to make a buck you need hours, and it’s easier to spend 40 hours on a proposal generator or a PowerPoint design than it is to give 40 hours of technology advice.  Fortunately I wasn’t doing those 40 hours of work, but I was managing them.  Though I truly believe in the way we’ve been able to help people to accomplish more with their technology, suddenly I was wrestling with what it meant to have a “good business model”: my work was starting to feel like a job.  Even if I could free up more time for myself, was that really my dream?

My dream and the core of my business was always very simple: to help people to get value out of their technology without finding it as a necessary and time consuming evil.  But how could I play an active role in this, and how I could I reach many more (and different) people?  (It’s not just what you’re doing, but who you’re doing it for.)

There were two ways: I could grow my business to serve more clients, or I could build a product that could reach more (and different) people.  With the 37signals’ story and The Four Hour Workweek ideas fresh in mind, the choice was obvious.

Fast forward through re-launching the blog, building and launching AwayFind, and growing a reputation outside of Maryland and DC.  Now I had a platform.

Making an impact is essentially taking advantage of this platform to reach more people.  It’s not about popularity, it’s about changing people’s relationship with technology.

What I can do to reach more people and to affect this relationship is what I’m taking about as my theme for 2009.

What I Can Do.

There’s a great deal I can do in 2008, and I have a series of goals written down.  If you’d like to hear exactly what they are, let me know, and I’ll email them to you or perhaps write a follow-up post.  I just don’t want to look like a jerk by getting into specifics like “speaking at Office 2.0” and other tangible goals that might make me look like a jerk because I’m aiming high.

What Can You Do?

I walk a fine line on this blog by sharing so much of my own experiences; it can be easy to skip past where I hope you will take these ideas.

I hope that you will come up with a resolution for yourself, perhaps with 3 specific words like Chris Brogan suggested, or perhaps with one theme as I have done above.  Over the course of the year, you’ll want to ask yourself, “Is this furthering X?”

In addition, it would be helpful to list out a few concrete goals to help back up the theme.  But keep it simple so that you have a chance at actually succeeding.

And, if there’s anything you can do right now that will ensure your commitment, get it out of the way (for instance, I’ve already bought several plane tickets to visit some of the people who I think will help me to achieve the greatest impact).  Here are some other commitment hacks.

Further Inspiration

I would love to hear some of your insight, resolutions, or suggestions for 2009.  Thank you to many of you for sharing your lessons learned in my 2008 lessons learned blog post.  I also recommend reading Tim Ferriss’ (his are very specific), Chris Brogan’s, Colleen Wainright’s, and…  Please do share yours below!

Flickr Photo Credit: Hussain Quantum

I’m going to explore what expectations were met and what themes reoccurred.  Thank you again for your time.

Results from 2007’s Resolutions

First, I want to start with the specifics (if you’re looking more for what I’ve learned, feel free to skip to the next heading).  I began this year with several concrete goals, and I succeeded with many:

• Almost all the books I’ve read have been ones I really enjoyed, a stark contrast from 2007.  In particular, I’ve read a great deal of Murakami and Fitzgerald…and outside of the election, I’ve ignored most of the not-very-pleasant world/local  news
• I wanted a trip abroad, and I’ve been out of this country for more than 2 months this year (and of town more than 3), visiting Iceland, Thailand, Spain, Hong Kong, and France
• I did speak at a national conference (TechCocktail) and will be speaking at SXSW in March

In some of my goals I didn’t exactly succeed:

• It took longer to launch AwayFind than I expected, which means that we do not have the 5,000 users I hoped for.  But we have a lot of users and I recognize the necessary tactics to grow my user-base in 2009
• My hopes for having someone handle sales/proposals for SET is no longer a goal—I want the company to remain small and to continue to focus on referrals
• I have entertained at my house many times but not 6 big gatherings.  At a certain point it related to financial reasons, but at other times it was my state of mind.  I need to figure out what sort of entertaining I want to do in 2009
• I did not blog 3 times per week, but did post 95 times here (and many more if you consider other sites), which I consider respectable…especially since my goal shifted to once per week as the year wore on.  About halfway through the year I stopped writing for social media and focused just on writing what I wanted to.  That slowed my growth in readership, but I’m still happy knowing that my words do not go unread (the audience here has quadrupled in size).  I also was published twice at Lifehacker, linked by them once, and have written for Dumb Little Man

The one goal where I do not feel I succeeded was perhaps the most important, and probably the reason I still blog.  That goal was “to find a sense of completion on a daily basis.”  I will continue to concoct systems that make this easier for me, and I’ll continue to seek out balance.  But daily completion (or to the extent to which I’d be satisfied) remains elusive.

What I’ve Learned About Myself in 2008

Ha!  Like I could fit that in a few paragraphs.  But I will break it out into a few ideas, all of which were poignant and in some ways new to this year.  I plan to touch on how to apply some of these lessons in my next post, which will be my ambitions for 2009.  But in the mean time, here’s some of what I’ve realized:

• You are the company you keep.  I wrote 5 or 6 articles about this, but this bears repeating: if you want to grow, you need to surround yourself with people who are in that position or are growing toward it.  You will be like your friends, for better or worse.  There’s nothing better than investing in these relationships, but be careful to choose them wisely. People like Clay Collins, Stever Robbins, Lokesh Dhakar, and Tim Koelkebeck are just a few of the people who have inspired me and with whom I’ve been lucky enough to get to know this year.
• Travel, like people, can change who you are.  I never studied abroad in college, so I’ve been kind-of catching up this year.  But as much as I enjoy learning about other cities, I particularly enjoy immersing myself in a new way of life.  Not just meeting people there, but living that way, if at all possible.  I have spent nearly a month in Barcelona this year, and I’ve fallen in love with the culture.  The Catalan approach to work and relationships are different than those in the US.  I’m not saying I agree with all of it, but it’s changed me, slowed me, awoken me.  Much as the company I keep changes me, the location that hosts the company and the greater context can also play an important role
• Moving on or giving up are sometimes the first steps.  Even though I’ve put my heart and soul into something, that doesn’t mean I have to continue with it.  Just like not all debt is bad debt, walking away may be the first step forward in a long time.  So I’ve learned to give up, go home, and be especially careful about the necessary evils I hold on to
• Nothing happens quickly, but everything happens someday.  There are two very important lessons here: however long you expect to spend on a major endeavor (that’s unlike one you’ve completed in the past), it’s always going to take more (sometimes 10x more time and money).  You may be unaware that AwayFind was the smallest of the projects I wanted to take on, rather than the product idea that I’m most passionate about.  But the wisest decision I’ve made was to create AwayFind first, since it’s been a rather long and involved endeavor for as supposedly simple as it was.  The consequences of beginner mistakes on the other project would have come at a far higher toll.  The same thing goes with changing my behavior for specific goals.  In all cases, it’s possible to grow and achieve, but serious growth and serious achievement cannot take place linearly or in a short while, at least not for me.
• Even when not tied to a goal or a life mission, some things shape you and should be embraced.  While it’s not always possible to stimulate the senses: eating well, visiting art, experiencing live music, whatever… there are some things that really affect my mood and ability to produce, even without an obvious reason.  For instance, the week of my product launch I had sushi every day, because I feel healthy and energized when I eat good sushi, and I wanted to perform my best that week.  Similarly, dancing or photography are sometimes just the right medicine.  I’m also considering moving to the city, for similar reasons.  These things may cost extra money or defy common sense for what I should be focusing on, but I guess it’s just part of taking care of oneself

So How Do I Feel About 2008?

For most of 2008, I learned a bit about myself while accomplishing some ambitions.  I haven’t found all the answers and there’s a lot of hard work ahead, but even with our current economic forecast, I’m comfortable being idealistic.  I’ll let you know in my next post what I’m hoping for, but I’ll give you a hint: I hope that 2009 is about impact on others (since I think that a lot of ‘08 was mostly valuable for me).

And how about you—is there a lesson learned from 2008 you’d be kind of enough to share?  Feel free to link to your own reflections or resolutions.

The following is a combined “why photography?” and a brief guide to what I’ve found helpful both for equipment (my camera, bag, etc) and education.

Disclaimer: I’m no photographer, and am amateur by amateur standards.  But I’ve taken thousands of photos over the years and just recently invested in a more serious camera.  I’m once again in love with what can be captured…

Why Photography.

As you can tell from this blog, I have a tendency toward the practical, and continually struggle to focus while recalibrating my priorities.  Objectively it’s easy to aim for ‘get married sooner than later’ and ‘make money’ but there’s a lot missing from those aims; most conspicuously: life.  So as I sit on a train to Girona writing this post, it would be a serious pity to not stop for a few minutes and recognize the beauty of the Spanish countryside.

You probably want me to cut to the chase of the camera reviews.  Maybe all this ‘why’ stuff is common sense to people who are naturally visual and have always stopped to smell the roses.  But neither apply to me.  Asking myself to look at things from different angles, to apply order to an inordinate amount of sensory data, and to stare a moment too long adds a lot to my days, with or without a camera.

What I Recently Purchased

With no intention to start a religious Canon vs. Nikon war, I’ll tell what I’ve purchased and why I’m so happy with the results.  I did my fair share of research, which primarily consisted of talking to photographer friends.  Could I have saved money or gone the Canon route?  Sure.

The Camera: Nikon D90

Most DSLRs will accomplish what you need.  The D90 has a few things I love:

• 3200 ISO with low noise – holy shnikeys!  Yes, I’m shooting pictures at 3200!  Remember back in the day when you used to buy Kodak film in 100, 200, or 400 speed?  You may remember that higher ISOs meant it was easier to shoot in low light settings?  Well on DSLRs you can usually get up to 1600, which is pretty amazing, but it often lessens the quality of your photos.  On the D90 you can shoot up to 3200 ISO and I’ve found little to no noise.  Here’s an album from a recent party where I shot at 3200 ISO (with a 50mm f/1.4 lens).  You will not find exactly this capability on a less expensive camera, but there are other ways to shoot in low light
• Huge LCD with Live Preview – it has a really big screen on the back, and the ability to shoot with the viewfinder or the LCD.  (Plus it has a protective cover for the screen so when it gets too scratched you can replace the cover inexpensively).  You will NOT find big LCDs or live preview on older cameras
• Lots of frickin’ buttons – buttons on cameras are like keyboard shortcuts.  If you’re trying to get the right shot you don’t want to go through menus and waste your time.  In playing with different cameras, I found it faster to adjust ISO, white balance, and bracketing on the Nikon interface
• All kinds of sensor and megapixel things – I’m not experienced enough to tell the difference with all these details about the picture quality.  But Nikon has a lot of frickin focal points and a big sensor.  Practically speaking what this means is that my auto focus works really well and I can crop photos since they’re very big to begin with (especially since I shoot a great deal of photos with a without a zoom lens)
• Movie mode – it’s coming soon on other DSLRs, but the Nikon D90 is the first to actually let you shoot HD quality videos.  It’s not earth-shattering quality (esp. the sound), but it’s quite handy and there are no DSLR competitors for the price-point yet

The Lenses: Zoom and low-light

I followed my friends’ advice and avoided a kit lens.  Two things that are important to me are not usually part of the de facto kit lens: shooting wide and shooting in low light situations.  A kit lens will usually get you more zoom, but 4-5x zoom is enough for me for now.  Big zoom/telephoto lens will come later…  Anyhow this is what I bought:

• Nikon 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G AF-S DX ED VR Nikkor Wide Angle Telephoto Zoom Lens - This fairly wide lens (smaller mm = wider but less zoom, basically speaking) also has a decent zoom.  In talking with many others I learned a great deal about both build and lens quality—this is high in both categories, especially for the price.  This is my general walking around lens, especially outdoors, with a tripod, or in generally good lighting conditions
• Nikon 50mm f/1.4D AF Nikkor Lens - This lens is specifically for low light and artistic shots.  Since it’s 50mm it feels like a bit of a zoom, but I’ll save the debate on this for another day.  The point is it’s a very bright lens that will let you shoot many pictures indoors without a flash.  If you’re new to the photography world, let’s just say that being able to avoid a flash is often helpful.  Additionally when you use it at 1.4, it has very little focal depth, which means everything will be blurred except for the object in focus.  It’s kind of artsy but also very useful to bring more attention to your photo’s subject

Little Accessories

• Memory cards are fortunately cheap - Just make sure you buy the right class (i.e., fast ones).  I bought two 16gb cards—which should be enough to cover you for plenty of shooting (if you don’t have a memory card reader, for $3 more you can get one—and I hate connecting my camera with a USB cable, but there are plenty of arguments on both sides of this coin)
• Joby Gorillapod SLR Tripod – this thing comes in handy all the time.  It’s light and small enough to carry in my backpack, but convenient enough so I can use for shots like the one at the top of this blog post, where I need the camera to stay steady
• A wireless remote  If you want to stage anything, just get a remote and get over it.  Additionally if you want to have the shutter open for longer than, say, 1/30 of a second it’s much easier to have a remote than waste time doing things over and over with the delay button
• Microfiber Cleaning Cloth - This little guy comes in handy, just be careful when you’re touching your lens!  Look around and you’ll find cheaper non-brand name ones

Transportation

A bit of context: I’ve been traveling in Barcelona, where you don’t exactly want people to know that you’re carrying over a thousand dollars of camera (or other) equipment.  So my goal was to match practical with inconspicuous.  Thus I opted to stick with my existing backpack (that safely holds a laptop but has additional room) and buy equipment that would protect my camera inside another bag.

• Lowepro Lens Case.  Kind of straightforward, and it does the job well.  At a museum or when you don’t have a backpack, this comfortably and securely attaches to a belt, too
• Nikon D90 semi-soft case.  Though this can be used as a sole camera case, I mostly just use it to protect my camera inside my other bag.

Education: Helpful, Optional, and Required

If you’re getting started with photography or want to brush up on either the skills or the current cameras, here are a few places to check:

Websites I Recently Used for Research

Some incredibly helpful discussions on Nikons – this helped explain to me a lot of the subtleties of cameras, in particular the different Nikon models.  I believe they have discussions for Canon and other cameras here as well

Digital Photography School – Darren Rowse’s site covers every topic you can think of related to both photography and cameras

Books I Recommend

The Digital Photography Book – there’s a reason this is the number 1 book on photography.  Everyone should read it—it’s fast and very specific advice will immediately boost your skills.  You can read it in a few hours and you’ll be quite thankful for that time

Black & White Photography: A Basic Manual – it’s been about 8 years since I read this, but it was essentially my introduction to everything about photography.  No, it’s not about digital cameras, but it goes into great depth on the basics.  There may be better books that explain the basic concepts using a DSLR instead.  If you have one to suggest, please do so in the comments!

How to Look at Everything – I read this as I was just getting into photography in college, and it inspired me to do just that.  Note: the reviews aren’t so hot on this, but I’m being honest on what affected me when I was 20

Using Flickr For Inspiration and Guidance

Some of the best inspiration and guidance you can get is on Flickr:

• Search for photos on specific topics or locations.  Pay close attention to the angles and context the photographers chose
• While searching look closely at the camera settings, when available.  You can try those settings on your own camera to achieve similar effects
• Become part of various Flickr communities so that people can share ideas with you and help you to improve your shooting.  Of course, you’ll have to give a little of your time for this to work, as well

“But I Don’t Care for Photography!”

Well, then I’m amazed you’ve made it this far!  I feel that there’s value in activities outside of what we’re often focused on, and I personally love when those activities can change my frame of reference.  You don’t need to pick up a camera, a musical instrument, or go travel to Africa…but as the holidays approach, hopefully we can all take in a little more.

I know this verged off topic a little here, but I welcome your thoughts on the article, my advice, or any of your recent experiences with perspective.

Happy Chanukah, Christmas, New Year’s and beyond!

Perhaps you should strongly consider just how ‘necessary’ the ‘evil’ is.

I’m sitting in an apartment in Barcelona (view from my terrace above), where I’ll be for the rest of the month.  The last two days have been a whirlwind of Spanish, dancing, and discovery.  I already feel totally immersed, enough to recognize how important and different this world is.  (perhaps more on that in another post)

Then tonight I’ve once again gotten caught up on the web.  This past week I’ve been at the Le Web conference, where I got to spend serious time with really frickin’ smart folks.  It made me realize that if I want AwayFind to succeed I have about 6 million things I need to do.  And I want to do them.

So these are examples of priorities.  I have others, as well as many responsibilities, some of which I enjoy and some that are necessary evils.  As we get older, that seems to become our realities.  And yet.

Which of these financial, practical, and always-been-there responsibilities are weighing me down too much?  What would happen if I just changed?  4,034 miles away, things back in the States feel unreal.  The truth is, reality is what you make of it.  And I doubt I could screw up that bad.

How about you—what do you want to do next year?  It’s almost 2009.  When you start plotting out your ambitions, what’s holding you back?  Do you really need that extra job or new device?  What can you do so that your day is free from necessary evils but instead is aligned with things you’re passionate about?

If a necessary evil is against who you want to be, is it really necessary?  I think many of my assumptions about what needs to continue as-it-always-was were unfounded.  How about yours?

The following are the slides (and now video!) from his presentation and some of my general thoughts around it.

First of all, the slides are here:

Update! Here’s the video, too:

 
John Buckman, founder of of Magnatune, presented at Le Web about how to get started with a business, and some of the highlights for me were:

• Never act on an idea for a business idea that you just thought up.  Write the idea down and let it resonate for a few weeks or months.  Keep writing down other potential business ideas.  If the original idea still appeals to you and stands out amongst the rest, it might be worthwhile
• Present your business idea to a friend while they’re drinking in a busy bar.  If your friend doesn’t put their drink down and get really interested in your idea, your idea likely sucks
• Do some marketing/PR brainstorming and write some copy before product development.  If you can’t come up with really interesting and compelling language to describe the product now, you’re not going to be able to spread the word about it, and it’s probably not an interesting enough idea
• Focus on freelancers, not staff writers when seeking press coverage. Staff writers are often given stories by their editors, but freelancers often have to look out for their stories.  If possible, find a freelancer who’s personally interested, too

If you haven’t seen or met John, look out for him…he’s one of those people that really gets it.  And his many successes prove it.

Anything you’d like to add to these points and his slides?

And I want to reiterate the point.

Have you ever gotten a call from someone asking you an important question, and while they’re explaining the problem to you, before you even get a word in, they solve it themselves?  If you had missed that phone call, it’s safe to say that without your involvement that person would have been just fine.

That kind of thing happens all the time when you’re available all the time.  It’s always more difficult and expensive to be on the bleeding edge, to stay current with the news, to solve problems before any of the dust has settled.

Seth Godin’s article today discusses this much more cogently, and one of his examples is email:

You can check your email twice a day pretty easily. Once every fifteen minutes has a disruption cost. Pinging it with your pocketphone every sixty seconds is an extremely expensive lifestyle/productivity choice.

I’d recommend you read his quick article and then think seriously what you decide to stay current with, and whether it would save you time, money, or energy if you waited a little longer for that information (or gadget, or software, etc).

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, but it’s not really my holiday.  And it’s not yours; well, unless you bring others in…

I got one of those cheesy forwarded cards in my email today—you know, the ones you used to get a lot back in ‘99 or whatever:

When you click the turkey you get an animated sequence that arranges food from the turkey dinner until you end up with a turkey (no you really don’t need to watch it).

Silly?  Yes.  Impersonal?  Perhaps.  A waste of time?  Well, I don’t know.

Our emails are curt and businesslike.  Our friendships are scheduled and one-dimensional.  We both observe and expect certain behaviors in most of our interactions.  But sometimes we have to step outside of these roles.

Well, thank you, Lynn, for sending me this silly turkey card.  Because it was better than no thank you at all.  It’s not my style, but I think we all need to let people know that they’re in our thoughts.  And this is at least one step closer.

My style is sending a quick text message, calling, writing a few-line email, dropping an IM, sending a direct message on Twitter…but whatever it is, it’s a somewhat personal, warm message.  And, of course, for your loved ones, showing that in whatever way you can—in person, over the phone, or in a hand-written card.

Does it seem like I’ve gotten off track?  Perhaps, but here’s a little exercise you might want to try: pick 5 people in your speed dial list and send them a text message with either (depending on when you’re reading this):

• “Hi X, just wanted to let you know I’m thinking of you today.  Thanks for being awesome.  Hope to see you soon :-).  Happy Thanksgiving!”
• “Hi X, I missed you on Thanksgiving, but thanks for being awesome.  Hope you had a great holiday, and hope to see you soon :-)”

Or you could do that over email.  Or the phone.  But just do it.  It’ll make you feel so good and it’ll make them feel even better.

And to you, my kind reader, I really appreciate your time and loyalty, and for helping me to get from the things I was doing to more of the things I truly believe in.  I’ve never felt like I was in a better place, and your support has been a big part of that.

Thank you, and Happy Thanksgiving.

Flickr Photo Credit: ShashiBellamkonda

The rest: an immediately practical, very readable, and quite beautiful 26-page guide that may not be available in 48 hours…

As I was working with beta testers of AwayFind, it became apparent to me that removing email interruptions and emptying our inboxes was not a technology problem.  It was one of education.  If you haven’t fully digested Getting Things Done or other time & email management systems, then it might be a challenge to really put AwayFind into practice.

Thus I wrote a guide to complement AwayFind’s technology…but the truth is that there are few mentions of AwayFind.  It’s an accessible summary of mine and many smarter people’s recommendations around email.  If you like what I write about here, this is the juiciest stuff, with pretty diagrams, too :-).

The catch?  It won’t be free after tomorrow (it may come back again, but not sure in what form…).  It’s downloadable as part of the Basic AwayFind setup process (the last step).  So if you want it, now’s your chance—just sign up for AwayFind here.

Along with getting the guide for free, the 30% discounts for being an early-adopter also end tomorrow.  So if you were considering the Professional version of AwayFind, now’s a good time to try it—after all, you won’t get charged for 30-days and can cancel anytime, so there’s nothing to lose.

I’m sorry for making what’s quite clearly a pitch here…but I feel like I’d be doing a disservice to you if I didn’t share this guide.  I’ve never been so proud of something I’ve written…and I want you to have a chance to benefit from it.  However, I don’t feel comfortable leaving it up for free indefinitely since I’ve put so much work into it.

Thanks for reading and I hope the guide helps.  You can grab it on the fifth step of the wizard here.

In the next post I promise to rant about something completely unrelated :-)!

I’m not talking about getting lost in a social network, blah.  I mean succumbing to an idea or path, and just enjoying the drift…

You don’t want to know how much I’ve worked, in the last two weeks especially, to get AwayFind out the door.  It’s launched and, lo and behold, I look around and all of a sudden I like the world I live in.  I just had some pecan pie (my favorite!) and pumpkin beer.  It was a toast to the last couple weeks.

I try not to be political here, but holy shnikeys, I like reading the news now.  I live in a town full of depressing news, and I’m surrounded by people complaining about crappy government jobs.  And then all of a sudden, wow.  The Washington Post has randomly started showing up at my house again with covers full of stuff happening.  Good stuff.  I read it over some nice breakfast, too; I love Aidells sausage.

I went out to the local Vietnamese place for lunch, had some fantastic pho, and saw the gas at $1.95/gallon.  What is this, 2001?  Remember when gas was $1.07?  I was in Memphis that summer when I took this picture.  Gosh, 2001…that was a different time.  I was swing and ballroom dancing every night of the week.  College.

This weekend I was reading BusinessWeek, where they had a roundup of the best business schools.  It got me excited about IE’s 13 month program in Madrid.  (no, no time soon!)

I’ve been looking at flights to Barcelona on Kayak, and it looks like I could get away for $1000 (plane + room w/internet) for over two weeks.  I reached out to my buddy Josep (with the unfortunate domain name ; ), and it may even happen.

At some level, the truth is that I have a lot of work to do right now, both with AwayFind and SET Consulting.  It’s a little daunting how many projects we’ve got going simultaneously.  But I’ve never had more on my plate to look forward to.  Somehow or another it all just comes together.

This post didn’t lead you anywhere, and yet it led many places.  Why don’t you try that?  There’s a time when a tangent shouldn’t just be a guilty click on a website, which doesn’t really get you too far…but instead should be a full-bodied, deeper wandering.  Who knows where that’ll lead.

‘Tis the season to wander.  Heck, Qui & Ryan got engaged yesterday.  So many reasons to smile.  How are you going to let go of your focus for a little while…and enjoy the autumn?

Flickr photo credits: sigmaration & me!