Several months ago I received a greeting “card” via email from one of my daughters. Her comment was that the card contained the most “common sense” advice for anyone who reads it.
I have kept that “card” and sent it to many of my friends – virtually all of them thank me for it – so today I am sharing its contents with my blog readers.
The card begins – An Angel Says ” Never borrow from the future. If you worry about what may happen tomorrow and it doesn’t happen you have worried in vain. Even if it DOES happen you have to worry twice.”
The card continues with 36 spiritual growth pieces of advice which make good sense.
1. Pray.
2. Go to bed on time.
3. Get up on time so you can start your day unrushed.
4. Say NO to projects that won’t fit into your time schedule, or that will compromise your mental health.
5. Delegate tasks to capable others.
6. Simplify and unclutter your life.
7. Less is more. (Although one is often not enough, two are often too many).
8. Allow extra time to do things and get to places.
9. Pace Yourself. Spread out big changes and difficult projects over time; don’t lump the hard things all together.
10. Take one day at a time.
11. Separate worries from concerns. If a situation is a concern, find out what God would do and let go of the anxiety . . . and if you can’t do anything about it – forget it.
12. Live within your budget; don’t use credit for ordinary purchases.
13. Have backups; an extra car key in your wallet or purse; an extra house key buried in the backyard, extra stamps, etc.
14. KMS (Keep Mouth Shut). This simple piece of advice can prevent an enormous amount of trouble.
15. Do something for the “kid in you” every day.
16. Carry a bible with you to read while waiting.
17. Get enough rest.
18. Eat Right.
19. Get organized so everything has its place.
20. Listen to a tape while driving that can help improve your quality of life.
21. Write down thoughts and inspirations.
22. Every day, find time to be alone.
23. Having Problems ? Talk to God on the spot. Try to nip problems in the bud. Don’t wait for bedtime to pray.
24. Make friends with Godly people.
25. Keep a folder of favorite scriptures on hand.
26. Remember that the shortest bridge between despair and hope is often a “thank you Jesus”.
27. Laugh.
28. Laugh some more.
29. Take your work seriously, but yourself not at all.
30. Develop a forgiving attitude (most people are doing the best they can).
31. Be kind to unkind people (they probably need it the most).
32. Sit on your ego.
33. Talk less, listen more.
34. Slow down.
35. Remind yourself that you are not the general manager of the universe.
36. Every night before bed, think of one thing that you are grateful for that you’ve never been grateful for before.
God Has A Way Of Turning Things Around For You !
Do I Really Need A Blog ?
Hello World – That’s where I started “blogging” (very loose term when applied to me) at least a month or longer ago. You don’t even begin to know how humiliating it is to attempt to create a blog which is aesthetically pleasing, has great content, all the plugins are compatible and the widgets are all properly “hacked” into place – and fail miserably – why – because I have FORTY plus years experience in virtually all aspects of the computer industry.
Every waking hour I spend in this blog reminds me of Bill Murray in “Groundhog Day” – in the last 168 hours (close to 80 hours in this blog) I have spent most of my time trying to understand why my Gravatar (2 of them as required by wordpress – an admin can’t be a user – must have separate credentials) don’t appear as a user or as the administrator – I have temporarily given up on that one; 3 days on Onlywire – don’t know if it was coincidence or not – all my Onlywire problems went away when an upgrade was released and the Quick Start Guide documentation changed. I just spent a few hours carefully choosing and editing my categories and am waiting with baited breath to see if they appear when I publish my blogpost (they didn’t when I did a preview).
All the “killer keywords”, tags, permalinks, sidebar widgets and my opt-in box haven’t been touched – again – for another week.
On the bright side, I have gotten a lot of exercise in the last week; every time I sense that anger is about to win out over my frustrations and anguish when the 37th “fix” doesn’t work, I turn off the computer and go for a walk. It calms me down, especially when I think about (in a few years) slurping tropical drinks on my 40 foot catamaran in the US Virgin Islands.
So why am I telling the world about my problems ? Because my right brain keeps on creating ideas of how I can avoid this problem - stop blogging ! I have my friend Mark Hoverson to thank – his words to me were “Bob – you don’t need a blog – I don’t have a blog and look where I have elevated myself to in online marketing.”
As a very mature adult, I have seen computer systems documentation deteriorate to FAQ’s and “do it yourself” support. Gone are the days when a Software Program User’s Guide contained every single keystroke a user had to enter and why.
- gone are the days when published software had “programming conventions and standards”; now we have “spaghetti code” and “hacking” software(we used to call it debugging and patching the flawed code) is the rule, not the exception in the marketplace.
Whenever I think I have it tough, I think about the poor baby boomer or senior who needs income to live a decent life in these troubled economic times; and I have decided to do something about it.
Starting tomorrow I will design documentation which starts at how to turn the computer on… through basic and masters levels so that “life experienced” individuals can understand how to make internet marketing work for them without the agony of WordPress and Comdex.
I encourage any and all readers to leave comments !