Keep yourself alive

Law #2: Expect New Contacts

2010-12-27T17:33:00.000+10:00

This is Dr John Demartini's second Law of Networking:

Expect to create and start new friendships and relationships. If you go out to a place where people are that you do not know, expect to make new friends, and your focus will create that to happen. Expectancy is like a magnet. It draws people to you, and they're compelled to become a part of your conversation. Expectancy creates a dynamic of power in you that people can feel, and when you're networking, you must have that power on!

What you expect to happen at networking functions usually does. Expect to meet at least 5 new people at a function and expect to create great relationships out of the mix. Expect people to be attracted to you. Expect people to be curious. Expect people to want to become a client. Expect people to want to do business with you. Don't be surprised when they are and do.

What a fear it was and still is for me to meet new people. What if they don't like me? What will they think of me? I think that are the typical thoughts of an average person before and during a networking event. Get over it! When they don't like you, you don't want them as your client anyway.
Easy to say, I know. Meeting five new people per event is still a challenge for me. Especially when people cling to you half of the time. ;)
I like the way Demartini puts it: To expect something. That's gives the whole thing another spin. It is important to have a goal of meeting five new people, but expecting it? It does change my attitude for the event.
So, what are your networking goals or expectations for 2011?

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You can't Believe in bHIP until You Believe in Yourself – Terry LaCore

Law #1: Be Where People Are

2010-11-30T11:00:00.000+10:00

This is Dr John Demartini's first law of successful networking

Since hermits often fail in business, get out amongst the crowds and start engaging in conversations. Few people will be coming to your house begging to get into your business. Maximize your exposure and make sure you have plenty of "face time" with people and do it often. Be where people are. That is where the golden pay cheques are in business.

This "law" also is my number one challenge but I can't go away from it anymore. Too many people now me already ;) As I am doing actively some networking here in Brisbane for a couple of months now, people start to remember me. Just last Friday, when I saw Dr John Demartini the first time live here in Brisbane, I met many people I knew from other events. But I also made new connections. Still, I am not confident yet with my elevator pitch, but I am getting there.

Meeting people doesn't mean have a lot of facebook friends. As John Demartini mentioned, it is about "face time". Have eye contact with people and see how they react to your questions and just listen. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. So, how much do you care?

It doesn't have to be about business at all? Find out their background. You will find plenty of different stories especially here in Australia. Find out why they attended this particular event and how they found out about it.

Yes, there is some kind of aggressive networking as well, and I am not particular a fan of this. "Hey, how are you? What are you doing?" and 10 sec later they ask for your business card and run off to the next person. What kind of impression should this give to me? Do you think I want to deal with this person's business? I don't think so, at least not straight away. Maybe I could teach him some lessons, hehe ...

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You can't Believe in bHIP until You Believe in Yourself – Terry LaCore

Compassion - it's a pity that your life sucks

2010-11-20T12:41:00.000+10:00

Again ... Christmas time is coming up. Time for sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others. Really?

Human beings should help and support each other through sharing knowledge, motivation and inspiration. Where is the power of pity and feeling sorry? What does this do to the human? It confirms and manifest the situation the person is in. Don't waste your time with feeling sorry for someone. Acknowledge the person and the situation they are in, but don't leave them like this. Give them the strength and courage they need to move on in their lifes.

They also say Xmas is Jesus' birthday. You can believe it or not, it doesn't really matter. But I don't believe that Jesus pitied everyone who is in a bad situation. He was a man of inspiration and motivation. He shared his believe so people could move ahead again.

It is about mindset. Compassion has for me a bitter aftertaste. It doesn't provide solutions. People suffering are looking for solutions. Maybe you don't have the solution, but at least don't be part of their problem by pitying them.

You want to be a problem solver? Start educating yourself in personal development.

People Skills
Networking
NLP
Become an expert in your area of interest
Become a leader
Share your knowledge
Be honest
Join a team that creates future problem solvers :o)

Team Fitness Global Driven by Hearts, Powered by Desire and Ruled by Integrity

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You can't Believe in bHIP until You Believe in Yourself – Terry LaCore

Life is trial and error

2010-11-17T10:54:00.000+10:00

... and when things work out, your business growth ... great :o) .. people call it luck or that it happened by accident. But luck is when preparation meets opportunity.

Preparation
Preparation means you know what you are doing. You are prepared for the event that your business hits momentum. You have educated yourself in the area of interest. You suddenly make a lot of money, you know what to do. But more important, you know what not to do. Just imagine you meet your dream client and you know exactly what to say to get his attention and interest in your service. That's preparation. Read books, go to seminars, develop your people skills. It is not easy, otherwise everyone would be successful.
I see it similar in health. Prepare your body for rough times. There will be days and even weeks, where you won't eat healthy and you run from one meeting to another. A healthy body can handle this. Go and get your exercise and eat healthy ... and life is fun :o)

Opportunity
Have an open mind. Keep talking to people and listen to what they have to say. Opportunities are everywhere. Go to meetup groups in your area, preferable of your interest. But again, who knows who you will meet when you just go to a meeting you don't know the topic about. That can be fun. You will meet people again. Yes, the first impression is the most important one. I have learnt so much from people over time, and I didn't like them at the first place. You just never know. They can turn into raving fans of yours and refer people to your business. This happens over and over again. This is where honesty and trust comes in. There is no point to badmouth people or businesses. It is your reputation suffering from it.

So, when someone comes to you and tells you, ah, you are just lucky with your business .. tell him this

LUCK - Laboring under correct knowledge

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You can't Believe in bHIP until You Believe in Yourself – Terry LaCore

If you can solve a problem, someone will hire you

2010-11-07T09:55:00.000+10:00

How self-education and the pursuit of passion beat formal education
I don't want this article to be one of the trendy critics about our obsolete education system. However, maybe it will be one at the end.

Fortunately every human is unique with his/her own passion for something. They might tell us, that we represent one nation or one school. But everyone should not forget, that there is still you. You, with your own favourite meal, your own favourite TV show and your own problems. What would happen if we could learn what we love to do? Would the world be a better place?

You might hear people saying, that you need specific classifications or degrees to climb the ladder? There are several options I think:

When you love what you do, the classifications or degrees are not real hurdles. You will do everything you can to reach your goal and you love doing it. But keep in mind, degrees and classifications have been set up, to have a nationwide/world wide standard in the system. You might consider thinking outside the box as well. What is given you at school or university is not the world we actually live in!
You have an idea and passion and you could spent hours on this, go for it. It might be absurd at the beginning and people might belittle you for this .... but always remember, every ground-breaking invention in the last 200 years was belittled at the beginning. Play the game in the system's ethically and legally borders. To fulfil your dream and become successful (whatever it means for you) you don't have to follow every rule (i.e. to get a job)

As the title says, if you can solve a problem, someone will hire you. Most people don't care how you do it. Make yourself known as this specific problem solver and people will knock on your door. If you love what you do, people will feel and see it. Your passion creates a bright sparkling aura around you and people love to be around you. They will start listen to you and follow your advise, because they know they can trust you.

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You can't Believe in bHIP until You Believe in Yourself – Terry LaCore

Give people the courage to learn what they love

2010-10-26T08:01:00.000+10:00

Recently I read a short article about James Marcus Bach and his book Buccaneer - Scholar. Firstly this resulted in that I added 2 more books in my ToRead-folder: James' book and the book of his father Richard Bach Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

One sentence caught my attention in the article:

He left school because his teachers wanted him to learn subjects that bored him, while they wouldn't reward him for learning more about the subjects he loved.

How many human lives have been misguided through the school system, setup at least decades ago? A handful of people decided about what you need to know or better, what you have to know to fit into their system. Students get "locked" away for 10-12years to be trained to be a good employee. The ones with smart parents get to see the world outside of the comfort box. These parents (friends or even mentors) show kids what is possible if they want to succeed in life. They train them with the right mind set.
I put myself on this journey a couple of years ago. I acknowledge that common sense is not that common and an open mind can change your life. My personal challenges are:

comparison with other people
self-confidence
being teachable
discipline to follow a system
and possibly much more

I would suggest to start with personal development as early as possible. Kids are born with an open mind. They believe everything you tell them. Just imagine you teach them the right things and the right mind set. Unfortunately, we limit and misguide them as soon as they are born. They can feel anger and they hear partners arguing. And that becomes a situation that is normal to them.
Changing the mindset later in life, as it happens to me right now, it cost you time and a lots of up and downs. It is worth it, but I wished I heard about personal development earlier.

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You can't Believe in bHIP until You Believe in Yourself – Terry LaCore

What keeps you going?

2010-10-02T19:40:00.001+10:00

Up and down .... very up .... very down

This describes very much my motivation level for the last months. What is it that shoots my mood up to the sky and what are things that bring me down.

Ups:

Goal Setting
New opportunities
great conversations
having great people around me
praise
acknowledgement
a good book/article/blog post
a good workout
unfortunately ice cream doesn't work for me *sniff*

Downs:

Comparison with other people (who are already where I want to be)
objections (when I take them as rejections)
tiredness
critique

Can you be always up? Maybe, but I am sure most people have some down time.What matters then is, that you find the way out of it as soon as possible. Find a trigger reminding you to change your mind set. Nothing will happen when you keep whinging and getting more depressed. And this will be reflected in your environment, be it friends, parents or partner and children. And you even will find something negative on the most beautiful sunrise in the morning.

My mood can change very quickly. One word or a comments is sometimes enough, and I am on my way down. Maybe I take things too personal most of the time. I find this very annoying. At the end it is up to me to change this. No one else is to blame for this. I think one good recipe is to acknowledge the down time and noticing what happened. Then immediately focus on the things that cheer you up, be it your vision board, one chapter in your favourite book and call a friend (the positive thinking one!)

What are things that keep you going? How do you stay away from the dark zone? ;o)

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You can't Believe in bHIP until You Believe in Yourself – Terry LaCore

Don't do a thing just for the sake of it

2010-09-16T21:40:00.000+10:00

How many times have you wondered in the middle of something ... why am I doing this? What's the point? Who cares if these leaves are on the grass?

I need to remind myself why I am writing this blog. Sometimes it feels like I do it just because I put in my agenda for Thursday nights. But it is not only this blog ... there are many other areas where I need to refocus. One was or is my PhD studies. And I guess it is the same for thousands of people out there, wondering why they are doing this particular job. Getting up every morning, taking the packed train at 8 to arrive in the office at 9. You do it because you was told to do so. You remember as a kid, when everyone asks you ... what do you want to become when you grow up?

You can easily argue ... you do it because of the money. Wouldn't it be much better to earn money with the things you love to do, because you do them with passion and a purpose. You don't do them because they are in your agenda.

I am fortunate enough to decide when I want to get up in the morning. Because I don't have someone telling me, when I have to be in the office. However, I still get up at 5am. Why? Because I have goal in life. I structure my day as I want it to be. It is still not perfect. I have things on my list where I am not clear of where they will lead me and why I have actually set them up. That's where a monthly or even weekly review comes in. Review your projects, find out if they are leading you to your goal if you keep them going as they are. If yes, great. If not ... rewrite the project or event think about abandoning it.

Again, I try not to do things just for the sake of them. Give any action at least a bit of meaning. Why am I doing this?

one step closer to financial freedom
one step closer to my dream car
one step closer to finish my studies
one step closer to earn money with this blog
one step closer to reach my goal weight
one step closer to be one with myself
one step closer to .... (put in your own goal)

Run your day ... so you can run your life.

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You can't Believe in bHIP until You Believe in Yourself – Terry LaCore

How to get things done you hate

2010-09-05T16:20:00.000+10:00

You could ask why are such things on your list anyway. In my case, because 4 years ago I was very excited about this project and started it. (Un)fortunately I am a person who finishes things before starting something new. But this is a topic for another time. To close this project now I have some tasks I have to finish. This brings me to tip 1:

It will be over soon :)
Step by step
Don't look at the whole workload at once, that won't cheer you up. Look at one task at the time, get a pen and paper and start writing. Go away from you existing work, that is just annoying and distracting.
Celebrate after every small step finished
Get some snacks, dance in the room, listen to your favourite song or smash your sand sack next to you.
Have the goal in mind and smile.
In my case the graduation day is highlighted in my agenda and I am damn so looking forward to it. Everyone knows about this data, now I have to be accountable for this and actually get it done (at least the things that are under my control).
Believe in yourself
How many new ideas and inspiration do you think will come up in your mind when you permanently put yourself down? Not many, right? I have no idea who invented negative thoughts, but I suggest to just ignore them. Agreed, it is not easy and family and friends are sometimes not the most helpful people. However, one day they will learn and accept :)

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You can't Believe in bHIP until You Believe in Yourself – Terry LaCore

No way I will do public speaking

2010-08-27T14:27:00.001+10:00

... until now.
Public speaking is one skill everyone should learn and improve. I believe that is part of the personal development (the stuff you do after you have left school).
So, how come? It is not only that speaking is a challenge for me as English is not my first language, so why even public speaking now? Because I want to reach my goals and to do this I have to:

spread ideas
express my knowledge
increase my volume of English vocabulary
focus on the audience/clients and not on me
change my attitude

But where does the common fear of public speaking comes from? It even has been shown that people's public speaking anxiety is stronger than fear of death. Very interesting. And it is all about fear of rejection.

Babies cry for and adults die for it = Recognition and Acceptance.

I am very close to get my thesis accepted (currently working on the response to the examiners). Therefore I need to find a new market where I can provide my services. And to make my name known to the outside world, I have to tell them. And at the beginning this can only be through actual talking.
As mentioned in a previous post, networking events are the perfect location for this. I am loving it and I am learning something new everytime.
Last week I have joined a small public speaking training group in Chermside. Rado, the organizer gave a good overview about how to dress and how to warm up your voice. The guest speaker was Patricia Gibson. She gave a very interesting overview about what is involved in public speaking. Before you dig into the world of public speaking, answer the following questions for yourself:

Why is it important for you to know how to be more confident and clear in your speaking?
Why do you think you are not speaking as confidently and clearly as you would like? What is holding you back?
What will open up for you in your career or life when you are speaking as confidently and clearly as you would like?
What will yo have to learn to speak as confidently and clearly as you imagine.

Patricia also gave some practical public speaking tips in regards of body language, voice and skills. The fear of public speaking starts in your mind and is shown in your feelings, your behaviour and sadly in your results and this influences again your thoughts. You have to start in your mind.

Capacity of communication is equals to success

Patricia will give a public speaking training in September here in Brisbane. Check out her website: www.TricGibson.com . What's in it for me? All the public speaking tips are good, but mean nothing until you have put them into action. That's why more networking will be on my agenda for the next weeks and month. Also, giving workshops about an area of interest is becoming more and more reality now. I have found a business partner, so we will do it together.... watch the space :)

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You can't Believe in bHIP until You Believe in Yourself – Terry LaCore

Networking - there are rules!

2010-08-20T20:12:00.000+10:00

Since I left Uni, I am focusing on meeting other people. This is quite out of my comfort zone, as this means I have to talk to other people about topics I am not familiar with.
I have joined several networking groups and met definitely interesting people. But I also had the opportunity to the the Do's and Don't's at networking events. First I want to thank Jennie Gorman, she is definitely one of the trendsetter here in Brisbane when it comes to professional networking skills. I just met her once or twice, but she is the One!

Do's:

Be present
Be interested
Smile
Be professional/Be prepared
Follow Up and Refer

Don't's:

Give business card without being asked
Think it is all about you and your business
Look around when someone is talking to you

This list is just a rough guideline. That are the things I came across in the last couple of weeks. And I surely need to work on myself. Also, every networking event is different, I guess by intention. Some are breakfasts or lunches .. and some are just a come together. Personally I find it difficult to have a meal and network at the same time. On the other side I can understand that is for most people the best time to interrupt their daily work flow.

How to find the networking events? One of the best resources is meetup.com ... just in here Brisbane we have over 200 meetup groups. Surprisingly for me, facebook became a very good resource for events. And yes, you will meet and greet the same persons, but most likely there will always be someone new.

Have fun networking!

Join the revolution

You can't Believe in bHIP until You Believe in Yourself – Terry LaCore

Chemical Free Kids

2010-08-13T19:53:00.002+10:00

Yesterday I was lucky enough to have been invited to a very interesting presentation by Dr Sarah Lantz. Dr Edward Kachab .. and herself published a book to provide the information for parents interested in the health of their kids. (see Chemical free kids)

During the presentation it became clear that we are confronted with the following facts:

People don't want to get out of their comfort zone
People believe what their parents taught them
People want to avoid pain and gain pleasure (Marketing strategy)
People are lazy (I guess that's what we learn in physics as any particle is permanently trying to be in the lowest state of energy)
People seem to be not interested in what they do to their bodies regarding food, cosmetics, cleaning products etc. ... is it really so hard to look up in the internet and read some information?
People love the immediate effect and they don't see the longterm effect of chemicals in their body, mostly accumulated over time
Australia is too far behind to ban toxic chemicals, when they are banned in all other western countries. Why?

We need to create more awareness of

misleading labelling
what is actually labelled
tricks used when labelled
the real toxicity of chemicals (in understandable terms)
food sold in supermarket doesn't mean it is good for you

And how do we create this awareness?

Teach the women and you teach a whole family!
Teach toxicity at Universities and High Schools

After the presentation I got the opportunity to have a chat with Sarah. We discovered plenty of common things.

The interest and challenges with raw food adventure.
Why do people don't think like we do :o) (my favourite one!)
The natural "love" of writing a PhD thesis

Will definitely have a closer look at Sarah's blog and her book.

Join the revolution

You can't Believe in bHIP until You Believe in Yourself – Terry LaCore

Did you see some motivation?

2010-08-05T21:22:00.000+10:00

To get things done most people need motivation. But where can you find motivation? It quickly comes to the question, why am I doing this? What's the point?

Next challenge is to stay motivated. What drives us?

Most likely there is no answer for all of us. Everyone is driven differently, luckily. And you really need to find it yourself, no one can do this for you. Most of the people wait until motivation is given to them and then they wonder why they can't stick to it ... because it is not their own personal purpose or reason to get moving.

Find the reason why you are here. Why have you been given the chance to live here on earth? And don't accept the answer to your first why ... keep digging. You will be surprised.

why I stopped using Lite'n'Easy

2010-03-28T12:40:00.000+10:00

For a couple of months I was on the 1500kcal program from Lite'n'Easy and loved it. However, the dinners started to pile up in my freezer, which is not a big one. Instead I was eating more fruits and salads for the end of the day. Personally the big meal of the day was always lunch time, so I was struggling to eat the warm meals for dinner. This is not any critics on the dinners themselves ... I even laud for them, as for frozen meals they are pretty good and tasty. I am German, I know what I am talking about ;o)

Maybe I felt like a change again (oh yes, again) trying something else, what not everyone does. I got a bit inspired by Steve Pavlina who turned to raw food last year, I think. Thus, I increased my raw vegan food level over the last couple of weeks to a degree that I can say now, I am 80% raw. Yes, no cooked meal and most of the products are organic. I highly value organic food for several reasons anyway.

For my birthday I invested into myself and ordered a blender to dig into the smoothies world. Don't mix it up with the smoothies you get from some juicing franchises, my smoothies don't contain any yogurt and ice cream (animal products). It is a steep learning curve, but I am loving it. I ordered the blender from Raw-Pleasure here in Australia. Jenny and her team are wonderful people. In my big parcel I also received a book about green smoothies. This book inspired me even further to go even more green than raw food can be. It is a bit of a challenge to get kale here in Australia, but will find some one day.

Any differences? Oh yes, I lost 7 kilos this year already. I can't really go more further down, otherwise I won't be myself anymore. I have a pretty good night sleep and I normally don't need an afternoon nap, except when the seminars at Uni are really boring. ;o) I am still experimenting and some green smoothies are quite a challenge, but then I add some Agave syrup and all is good.

P.S. Getting my thesis done .. the last days now

Online publishing economics - another idea for Web 3.0

2010-01-04T22:38:00.000+10:00

Everyone can become an entrepreneur and earn money on the net. Web 3.0 can make this possible. My latest sneak into web 3.0 lead me to Klatscher. The idea of 'online publishing economics' from Johannes Bhakdi.

Johannes and his team believe that everyone can become an entrepreneur. The current situation with web 2.0 is that everyone is participating on creating content, but 99% of that people make $1 and less from it. Two of the most famous blogger that have made it are Leo Babauta with his Zen Habits blog and Steve Pavlina with his deep insights into almost everything.

The Klatscher platform could provide optimal conditions to actually make a living out of your own creativity.

Klatcher allows you to publish online and reach millions of people instantly by automatically connecting you and your content to the entire social web. It offers you everything you need to look good, get traffic and earn money within less than 5 minutes. - Johannes Bhakdi

Klatscher is just not one of these other networks. I think it has much more potential and is definitely one step towards Web 3.0, however you define it.

I am sure I haven't discovered all features of Klatscher yet, but this will come.

There is one hesitation for me: to do the actual writing. It is not (is it?) that I am writing up my thesis right now, that I have some kind of allergy against writing. There must be a barrier between my mind and the paper, it just doesn't want to go out (yet).

As Johannes mentioned in his presentation, if you are providing quality information, you should benefit from it. And all material on Klatscher is available for a small affordable price and everyone is happy. The idea might not be new, but Klatscher found another approach to make it happen.

Web 3.0 - how it might work

2009-12-30T22:55:00.000+10:00

If two different people each perform an Internet search with the same keywords using the same service, they receive different results determined by their individual profiles.

How come? This feature is one of plenty other ideas behind Web 3.0. The browser will turn into your personal assistant. It knows what you like and what you dislike and based on that it will do the searches, individual to any person.

All the predictions made about how Web 3.0 could become the next generation of the 'www'. I guess the predictions were made since Tim O'Reilly introduced the term 'Web 2.0' in 2004. The following terms appear all in relation to Web 3.0:

Web3D - the virtual world, SecondLife - like, Avatar
Semantic Network
Artificial Intelligence
Software Agent
new internet infrastructure
distributed computing
web as the main media delivery system
advanced collaboration tools

Every single feature is worth a single blog entry (so come back soon!). However, most of the articles I've found today were created at least 2 years ago, though 2007. There were many attempts to set up an appropriate Wikipedia article about Web 3.0 .. but to date .. none available. (web 3.0 wikipedia link)

Air cooling system in the Data Centre [Credit: The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute]

We see distributed computing already happening in the so called 'cloud computing' area, ranging from Google Docs to DropBox. I am quite an advocate of cloud computing, as I don't like carrying around plenty of binders. But distributed computing is so much more. It allows the web to become a giant brain capable of analyzing data and extrapolating new ideas.

For enterprises, Web 3.0 will be the change from a website to a webservice. The interaction between customer and business will be much more intense. The customer service will be much more systematized and automatized, but at the same time the business can focus more on the customer and provide more service and support.

Fasten Your Seatbells .. FAST ... it is Warp Drive

2009-12-20T10:42:00.000+10:00

Warp drive is a FTL (faster-than-light) propulsion system used in many science fiction works. Fiction? No way, there is real science done with it. The physicist Jia Liu at New York University just proposed his idea for a spacecraft powered by dark matter in August this year. Spaceships as they are right now can't go very far, because they need fuel to actually come back, and this is quite limited in a spaceship's tank. Liu gives an example of an engine that uses the products of a dark matter annihilation.

The acceleration is proportional to the velocity, which makes the velocity increase exponentially with time in non-relativistic region. - Liu et al.

In a central black hole in the galactic center the density of dark matter can be that big enough to speed up a spaceship close to the speed of light.

Traveling the universe on the back of black holes (Image:George Marks/Kauko Helavuo/Stone/Getty)

If dark matter can move starships that would also be a great opportunity to finally have another source of alternative energy. Louis Crane published his ideas how to use an artificial black hole as a power source. Applying quantum gravity effects and things are not impossible anymore.

Very exciting times ahead. Just think about that dark matter is obviously abundant throughout the universe.

"A dark matter rocket would pick up its fuel en route," says Liu.

Again, nothing is impossible. We can reach the stars, because we have the physics to do it.

How to become more social?

2009-12-18T15:21:00.000+10:00

In the view of Karl Marx human beings are intrinsically, necessarily and by definition social beings who - beyond being "gregarious creatures" - cannot survive and meet their needs other than through social co-operation and association. (taken from wikipedia)

Interesting. Would Mark Zuckerberg (founder of facebook) agree do that statement? I don't know.

Personally I am not a person who is looking for the crowd of people. I am happy on my own or maybe up to 4-5 people. But that's it. Communication happens on several levels and with the internet the opportunities grow almost monthly. Face to face talk is not my strength and I am working on it. However, I don't hesitate to post or tweet my current status to thousands of people or to publish my profile. Does that mean now I am getting more social?

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

Phrases containing the word 'social' are becoming buzz phrases.
Let's take social entrepreneur. My understanding of it is not more business talk. It is more giving back to community.

A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change. - wikipedia

So, what does social marketing means then? It is also known as social media marketing which then makes already more sense.

... a term that describes use of social networks, online communities, blogs, wikis or any other online collaborative media for marketing, sales, public relations and customer service. - wikipedia

Let's be a social entrepreneur and do more social media marketing. When we can make a social change by using facebook, twitter and blog ... nothing can stop us. Look at the number. Just use it wisely and in a smart way.

I achieved my goal for 2009 ... I am not antisocial anymore ... I have almost 2000 friends in facebook :o)

Meeting like minded people - Fusioneon

2009-12-09T20:21:00.002+10:00

Photo courtesy by Markus Brosch

What a day again! Half of the day I spent at Uni to work on my introduction chapter for the thesis. It is not the most fun, but it has to be done. I already got very helpful feedback .. actually all 26 pages have at least one comment or mark on them ;) Thanks Andrea! So I think I am on a pretty good trip right now. I see the light at the end of the tunnel and hope it is not only a train :D

It was also a day where I had to remind myself that it is not worth it to compare yourself with others. I tend to do this quite often and it is not really helpful if you want to achieve something and you actually want to enjoy the journey and the result. We are all on our own journey in life and you can't compare apples with pears ... completely different history.

I spent lunch time with a group of women. I am not that social, but I am getting there. Thanks to Cat Matson, who organised that, there is now a group of around 15 business women having an awesome time. The fusion event is a lot of fun and good food. I am always impressed about all the different business ideas coming up. The passion that some people have is amazing. When they talk about their business their eyes are sparkling. They love what they do! That is so important for me as well. This is also one goal for me ... to be excited to get up every morning and do the whole day what you love. That sounds like paradise to me.

So yes, I met really interesting people and I am looking forward to create really good working relationships. It is all quite a steep learning curve for me ... but I am enjoy it.

MITs for Sunday done

2009-12-06T21:32:00.000+10:00

Very efficient Sunday. I actually spend almost 4 hours on my thesis chapter. After I've learned that I 'germanize' the English, I started to doubt about my english skills. Anyway, no time to start some self-doubts. Things have to be done, espacially when you don't like them. Step by step. I reached the state that I will print this chapter tomorrow and do some offline reading. Maybe I'll find a victim who can proofread it for me.

The rest of the day I spent with some daily stuff I do, but also did some work on a website. Although I thought I am not such a design guru, I spend most of the time with Gimp ... amazing tool. (open source version of Photoshop) I guess Photoshop has similar features and power, but currently I am much quicker on Gimp, especially with a Mac ;o)

Working with websites you can't ignore css - cascading style sheets. I don't think I work with them in the most efficient way, but so far not too bad. I love the Add-on in Firefox, called Firebug (surprise, surprise). It allows you to see immediately the changes when you tweek on your css file. Yes, on live websites as well. That includes a big learning curve ... loving it.

The website I am working on is not online yet, so no link, sorry. However, exciting projects ahead and they won't have to do all with websites.

Why am I on a 1500cal diet?

2009-09-21T17:49:00.000+10:00

You can call it whatever you want ... I am in the progress to eat healthy the way I have chosen. Currently I am following the 1500cal plan from Lite'n'Easy. This sounds really not a lot, but I was surprised. When you really "spread" your input through the whole day, let's say you eat something every 2 hours, you are not starving. And you don't feel stuffed either, which I think is an awful feeling as well.

Another thing I have noticed already after 2 weeks, I am not tired anymore in the early afternoon. Before that, I was deadly tired and I didn't get anything done between 1 and 3pm. And it is not easy to find something to lay down in an office, hehe.

What this diet also allows me to do is having some kind of gratification once or twice a month. The pictures below show what I mean. I can eat that without feeling guilty afterward. Yes, I felt stuffed and it just reminded me that I don't need so much food. But I loved it.

I really enjoyed this desert in the Belgium Beer Cafe after a full pot of mussels.

And no, I haven't lost weight yet, but I am sure over time it will come. The next weeks I will be away from home and can't really follow the plan, but then I will be back on it again.

One thing I might change with the plan of Lite'n'Easy is that I swap lunch with dinner. I still have my believe that you should eat the smallest meal in the evening, and with Lite'n'Easy you get the main meal for dinner. When I can, I will swap, depending if I am home or not.

In general I am very happy with Lite'n'Easy. The delivery and the meal are just convenient for me as a person too busy (and lazy) to cook.

P.S. I am not an affiliate of Lite'n'Easy, so I don't get paid to publish this here. All this is my own personal opinion.

research in real

2009-09-17T16:40:00.000+10:00

Being a research PhD student could be lot of fun. But research has a quite boring part as well. (I am not talking about the whole administration stuff here) Doing the research itself is lot of fun and I like the time puzzling around with some application and writing my own scripts, Perl, PHP , SQL etc.

But then there are these seminars you have to go to, although they are not in your field of interest. Yes, I do respect other researchers and I let them do what they like to do ... but why do I have to listen to it? I do respect the Beatles, but I don't have to listen to them.Yes, they could introduce new techniques you haven't thought about, but if it is really out of your field it won't be really relevant.

Photo courtesy by Markus Brosch

I am somehow permanently in such a situation, as I ended up in a group full of labrats, oops I mean cell biology scientists. And here I am, sitting 24/7 in front of a computer in my world of applications, code and visualisation.
Just imagine, having a group meeting with these guys ... plenty of fancy pictures on the wall, live imaging of cells, fluorescent tagged proteins ... is amazing stuff. I am loving it. Then my presentation ... charts, tables and numbers and everyone starts to yawn. Not that I didn't yawn at their presentation ;o) They are coming out with their ideas and how to improve the assays etc. It is not helping my work. But how can u get around it?

chose the right research group straight at the beginning
make clear with your supervisor what info you need and which seminars you really have to go to
don't change the environment too often (I did move offices several times, with no real benefit at the end)
have a goal and stick to it
finish your PhD thesis as soon as possible
avoid any procrastination ... it is just getting more painful

I am in the final stage of my PhD, so I won't change things anymore. But I learned a lot, no doubt about it. Maybe more about me instead of biology ;o)

So let's get this paper published and then we start the final part, a quick analysis.

Why are we so obsessed about food?

2009-09-15T20:54:00.000+10:00

In a previous blog I have written about my attempt to be on 1500 cal daily. However, we know that an average human being should consume up to 2200 cal. This is plenty of energy to have a quite active day, including brain work.

Although I am a scientist, or maybe because I am a scientist, I don't see obesity as a disease. Unfortunately with the help of the media we start to call it like this. But why should it be? Isn't it logical that obese people just consume more energy than they actually need, for whatever reason I don't understand. Why are we so obsessed about food? Is it all about pleasure, addiction or are we just bored?

Just last week I saw a quite obese women with her similar obese daughter. They couldn't sit next to each other, as it would have been quite squeezy. (Yes, I support airlines charging obese people for two seats!) What is this woman doing to her daughter? Taking care of your own child doesn't mean making a child sick for the rest of its life. I don't want to go over all the cost obese people cost us in terms of environmental and health issues. I just don't understand how people can be so irresponsible. When you have a child, you have some duties. And I am sure it doesn't include to poison your own child.

I might sound a bit harsh. But as a human being you have a purpose here on earth. We are so lucky to be alive. The chance to live is smaller than winning in a lottery. The human body has much more to offer than we are actually aware of. Skills we knew thousands of years ago, but got lost because humankind got greedy over time. I just hope 2012 will bring a change and will open the eyes for all of us. Being a bit more grateful for what we have and not taking food for granted.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

Just eat healthy and less! We don't need meat every day. Look at gorillas ... quite muscular species .. and vegetarian!

Abstract Thinking

2009-09-14T18:15:00.002+10:00

One of the most wonderful skills a human can have is abstract thinking. I think it is a skill you can learn, however, some technical interest can be very helpful.

Having an idea and your brain starts immediately to break down the whole process into small pieces and steps. That can be scary and if you are lucky you will see that you can save a lot of time when you don’t go that way. For me it is cooking. All the steps necessary to get a nice eatable meal on the table, spoil the whole fun and therefore I prefer other sources to get food.

In business, we can have plenty of ideas about how to use email marketing, which emails to send out in which order and to who. I already see the flow of action set up, leading to a flow chart. This process would already include the setting for the Double Optin, the details about the OptOut feature, tags we will apply to customers, and which link we will make trackable. As you can see I don’t really care about the content. One part I have delegated.

One very useful language to express abstract thinking is UML, Unified Modeling Language. It can be very powerful. It helps me to trace every possible occurring case in a software application, let it be a website or just the email marketing followup sequences. Maybe you can even claim it to be the protocol of this application. It helps to understand the what if case.

I also like to see abstract thinking in the world of object oriented programming. This is almost seeing the world through different glasses. You work with classes, instances and getter and setter functions. At least that’s what I have done during my time with Java.

I am not saying that it makes the world easier, but I think it gives you a different (sometimes better) view of the world around you and it put actions and objects in a different relation to eachother. My bike is just another instance of the object bike, nothing more or less. What we human do with it doesn’t matter to world of objects.

I am definitely not the guru in abstract thinking. Just sometimes I discover myself dreaming in an abstract way .. or is it just my way? ;o)

It is all relative.

Your personal project management

2009-09-11T16:27:00.003+10:00

The topic "Project Management" is mostly covered for companies and small teams. But what about managing your private project. How do you manage the projects/actions that were assigned and delegated to you. You are in charge of actions set up and you will be responsible for the results.

Studies often point to interpersonal and behavioral problems as root causes of project failure. The art of project management is all about getting work done through other people.

Personally I am following the strategy of GTD - Get Things Done. It might be a bit modified so it suits my circumstances. Everything is set up on paper. I would prefer to have my ToDo list on my computer, but I am switching too often between computers right now. The list of projects can be quite long, depending how detailed you are. I think having a project called "Do website" makes no sense, because this can be a never ending story. I am still struggling with this part ... but I am going there.

Then I have a list of things I want to do one day. Maybe I am bored one day, which I don't believe will happen ;o) Another list is about actions I have delegated and I am waiting for the feedback. I also have some kind of inbox where I put all my ideas, thoughts and other things that come to my mind. It is not a physical inbox. Mostly it contains notes of a meeting.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

My whole agenda is only A5 and I want to keep it like this. It is a bit more handy that carrying around a A4 binder. It also trains me to keep my notes short but still detailed.

Weekly I review all projects and all the other sections in my agenda. Just to keep things clean. It allows me to remove unwanted actions, plan the coming days and make me aware of the status of every single project. If no action was taken for a little I might consider to put the whole project on hold or even cancel it as it might not be important.

Currently I am not really well on track with that. Just bought a new binder as the old one starts to fall apart. As soon as things become routine I get bored of them ... looks like I need a new strategy soon.

Australian BusinessWomen Network ... Join Us

2009-09-09T06:15:00.006+10:00

For more than a year now I am member of the Australian BusinessWomen Network. Just today we will have another webinar about Online Business Boosters. I like the webinar series ... awesome topics. Sometime you know stuff already, but then there is also information that are new to me. Every event can be also visited by non members.

I would love to be more involved and participate in more programs they are offering, but as mentioned before I have to manage my time properly. As soon as I will have finished my PhD I will get a bit more active.

I like the idea of the checking out their Mentoring Program HerMentor. My final goal is to actually mentor others in my area of expertise. A mentor can give your business and yourself a big boost. It can have an tremendous impact, and this is what I would like to experience. Hope they will provide a mentor who can "fight" with me ;o)

Suzi Dafnis, the founder of ABN, is also the "maker" of the inspirational website herBusiness. All the resources a women needs to run a successful business.

In every bigger city ABN runs some MeetUps .. so far Brisbane is a bit behind. But hopefully we get this up and running asap. I am already in contact with some other members. Although, I am the skill to be quite anti-social, meeting up with like-minded people is very important to me.

You can look up the ABN website for business resources and free article about any area of interest regarding your business. Social marketing is big for ABN as well, you can find us on facebook, LinkedIn and twitter.

What I can say ... all information is out there, you just have to know where it is. ABN is a wonderful tool for your business to stay focused, motivated and have the right people around you.

How to manage time

2009-09-07T20:47:00.003+10:00

We have learned that time is meant to be the fourth dimension. However, it doesn’t seem to behave like the first three dimension. We can move forward and backward, left and right, up and down to discover space. But what about time? It seems to let us go only in one direction, no chance to go back to the past. Is that true? We can remember the past, but we can’t foresee the future. We can’t be 100% sure where we will be the next day.

That’s one reason why we don’t have subjects like space management. But there is a subject like time management. Space is unlimited (my believe, it doesn’t need to be true), but time is limited. Everyone has 24 hours 365 days in every year of his/her life, which is limited. There is an end. I believe that it should be taught at school, how to invest your time and not to spend it. It is well described in the book 'Wink' from Roger Hamilton. You can invest your money and get back more. The same is valid for time. Invest your time wisely and you will win time at the end. You will gain time for the things you love to spend time with, might it be family, hobby or traveling ... anything you wish.

Time flies ... (Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch)

Back to the management of time. Are you spending your time or investing it? In a job you are exchanging your time for money .. so you spend time. You even lose time which you could spend with your family. As a business owner and entrepreneur, I have to chose wisely where I will spend or invest my time. I prefer to invest my time into my business. Smartly done, this will end up in systems that work for themselves and make money ... like any business should do.

Another way to invest time is exercising and eating healthy. You might gain some time to live longer. These years you can spend with traveling, grandchildren and great grandchildren. You don’t want to miss that!

I am currently sitting in the train going from my partner’s place to my place as I do it every week. Could be a quite time wasting exercise. Instead, I am writing my blogs, review emails or listen to educational audio books from Anthony Robbins or Dr John Demartini. I am learning and therefore investing my time. That’s the advantage of using a train instead of a car.

The time I spend on my bike every day going to Uni I see as a time waster. These are 40min I spend on the street without doing anything valuable. Yes, you can say I am doing some exercise ... but I am riding my bike for more than 20 years now .. and I actual don’t like it. Time waster. (Yes, I could make it more fun.)

But even I have times where can’t stand getting more input. Then I can do some exercise like running or gym or ... yes, I lost a bit the social part in me. I am getting used to watching movies at least once a week, but that is already challenging. Not really my thing. Might need to re-discover my hobbies ... I just love to spend my time in a smart way :o)

Customer Relationship Management

2009-09-05T10:17:00.003+10:00

It was this year that I have started to look into the area of Marketing. If you told me this 5 years ago, I would have said “No way”. Yeah, things change ;o) The main challenge I see is to automatize the whole procedure. I am not a copywriter, therefore I am delegating this part. Someone else can find the words for me.

When you look in different areas longer and in more details, you mostly find out that there is a lot to learn if you want to become an expert in this area. A bit frustrating for people like me, who are interested in too many things.

The most exciting thing I found out so far is email marketing. Auto-responder and follow-up email sequences are so power full tools. You write these emails once and they can go to thousands of people in your target market. There are plenty of web services who offer this kind of automatization. BigResponse, iVertical or aweber ... all well known and respected tools. The prices are reasonable, taking into account that once the email sequences are set up it all runs by itself.

But then we came along InfusionSoft. It is a monster tool and I mean it. At first it looks quite overwhelming, but as soon as you set up one feature, you want to use all of them. You can run a normal business with it. It is a complete customer relationship management including shopping cart, email client, sales management and affiliate program and so on. For our friends of Outlook, you can integrate InfusionSoft here as well.
The main reason, why I like InfusionSoft is the simple feature of tagging. As simple as it sounds, none of the other email marketing tools provide this feature. And tagging, just labeling things, is so powerful. You want to send an email to everyone who is in Australia, older than 18 and interested in red wine. When you have this information on your customers, you can filter them according their tags and you go ... It reminds me of the settings for an Ad in facebook, similar process.

I have written about customer service before, so I think InfusionSoft is one of the companies that “walk the talk”. I know there is other information in the net as well, but I speak here just for me. The information material is just awesome: nice brochures, manuals, webinars and help desk. Just recently I used Twitter to contact them ... got my DM in 2 minutes. We had a couple of telephone conferences in which we could ask questions and with go2meeting we could share a screen, so we could see things live. It was a one-on-one conversation. Very helpful.

For who is InfusionSoft? Although this tool looks professional and huge, I can recommend it to small businesses. Just for the reason, you will grow. They even guarantee it. If you are in business to make profit and keep a good relationship with your customers, InfusionSoft is the tool to use.

However, Infusion Soft didn’t start perfect and keeps growing and learning as well. I have read in some forums the critics on their API. There is not much I can say, as I haven’t used it yet. And yes, obviously the customer service seems to be not perfect either. I had only good experiences so far. And yes, you can’t use InfusionSoft in Safari, what a pain ;o) The world is turning to Mac anyway, so no real reason to worry about, hehe.

As I said, if you are serious about your business, I recommend you InfusionSoft. The investment in money and time is absolutely worth it.

How much are 1500kcal?

2009-09-04T05:03:00.003+10:00

It is one of my goals to reduce my weight by around 8-10kg. I wouldn't call myself obese, but there are bits and pieces I would love to disappear. I am approaching different strategies, of course the combination of all would be ideal.

exercise: I am following a strict plan to exercise every second day for at least an hour. That can be in the gym or I go for a run. Looks like the I tend to build up muscles quite easily, so I prefer running to gym and have reduced the gym to once a week. It is not my goal to look like a female Arnold Schwarzenegger. I also think I would love the running if I would some some improvement one day ... but still after month and years ... I am still getting out of breath easily. I am applying now different strategies, like long and easy run OR alternating the speed. Will see how I go.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

nutrition: As a German, I have my issues with some food here in Australia. I did put myself on a 1500kcal diet right now. According to the standards, this is a medium level ... but I am starving during the day. I am following the plan of a company who provides the food as well. So far ... my compliment ... very nice food. Much, much better then most suppliers on the UQ campus ;o) However, I believe the amount of breakfast (with a late morning) snack is not enough. For dinner they provide the main meal. Ok, change of attitude ... I love the dinners. I think it is ok, when you have dinner before 6pm. I am an early morning person ... so I have my breakfast at 5am ... then a snack between 8-9am ... and I start to starve for lunch around 11. I might increase my input to 1800kcal next week and we will see how I go. I haven't lost any kilo yet.
is there anything else I can do? ...

Did you blog today?

2009-09-01T19:59:00.002+10:00

Writing a blog can be soooo difficult. I have a list of things I would like to write about. And yes, I would like to write with at least a bit of quality, so people might like it and come back. To reach this I have several choices:

Keep writing until it gets easier and better. OR
Write content in advance and leave it at least overnight, re-read and improve and publish the next day.
...

You are right when you think ... she must use choice 1 right now ;o) Yes, because I made a commitment to write every second day. And no content is prepared and nothing is in my head right now. But I am committed.

Seriously, if I want to become a good writer I need to follow at least some kind of strategy. I know that I am not the Creator type ... but I still would like to spread my knowledge. At least the knowledge I cannot monetize yet ;o)

From time to time I have a look at the WriteToDone blog from Leo Babauta and Mary Jaksch. Some small tips worth putting into practise. Another hint that strategy is needed. So, what's the plan?

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

List all the topics I would like to write about. That can be a list of 3 things or a list of 50 things. I tend to list a lot of things as I call myself "multi-interested". Normally blogger say you should blog only about one topic. I just don't want to maintain several blogs ... so I will give it a try with one blog.
Stick to your writing schedule of twice or three times a week. The longer your blogs the less frequent you write. I find it hard to follow regularly other blogs. I have up to 15 blogs I am following rss-ed in my Mail application. But I am definitely not up-to-date.
Plan the month ahead in your calendar. Put down the topic with maybe already some notes. That sounds like a good idea, at least to me. I might give it a try.
Try to provide at least one image per blog ... humans remember pictures more than words.
I have read several times that you should comment on other blogs to put your word out there, but also to get some kind of interaction. I don't think it is worth to comment on old blogs ... let me know when I am wrong.
Create the title of blog when you have finished. You will be surprised how the content can change when you are in your flow ;o)

Ok, let's make it happen. I will sit down and schedule my topics for September.

Some nerdy stuff ...

2009-08-30T20:36:00.008+10:00

As part of my business (one of them ;o) ) I am setting up and maintain websites. I think a basic website is easy to set up and doesn't require anything special. But for business purpose I think that is not enough. If you want to talk to customers through the website and persuade them that your products and service is all what they need and want right now ... you need a pretty good website and the right content.

However, I did some work with CSS (cascading style sheets) yesterday and also discovered some fancy Firefox plugins.

1. The idea was to have a fancy background image. The issue is of course all the different kind of browsers and screen sizes. It is ok for the image to get stretched and shrinked to the screen. And as always Google is your best friend. Drupal is already full of containers but I needed another one, just straight after the body tag in the html file. But just before I put in the img tag with the background image and a class defined in the css file.

The body was refined in the css file as followed:

font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
overflow: hidden;

The img tag class has the following styles:

width: 100%;
height: 100%;
position: absolute;
top: 0;
left: 0;
z-index: 5000;

And the addition div I have added just after the body tag is styled this way:

z-index: 6000;
height: 100%;
width: 100%;
position: absolute;
top: 0;
left: 0;
overflow: auto;

2. YSlow is a fancy tool from the Yahoo developer guys for developer guys. It is a Firefox add-on and easy to get up and running. It gives you good tips why a website can be soo slow. But I have no idea if that is actually SEO friendly.

3. I am using Firebug already for a little why. Awesome how you can play with the html and css code and you see the changes straight.

4. Too lazy to google? Get CodeBurner and you have html and css references straight available.

5. And finally, some of my mates will be happy to hear that I finally made it to install NetBeans. I hope it is a useful tool. We had already a pretty good start this morning. It did some nice formatting of a crapy html code ;o)

My research seminar report

2009-08-28T14:40:00.003+10:00

On Thursdays we have our Division seminar at the institute. Doing my research in computation biology most talk I am attending to are bioinformatics talks. Yesterday's talk was entitled "Improving Wool through pharmaceutics". I am personally no fan of pharmaceutics neither any kind of drugs. But I was curious what this guy was up to.
I didn't know that Australia is the biggest wool producer in the world hosting more thann 100 million sheep. Wow, this country has soo much space for a reason ;o) To be honest, I haven't seen one sheep yet, but I have only seen parts of Queensland and mainly cities.
However, why improving the wool quality? Like in every business money is the key driver. The better the quality, the more cash you can ask for. The most important features of wool are fleece weight, staple length fibre diameter and color. These feature you can measure. And you can only change things you can measure ... Lords and Mechanics, here we come ;)

So, how can you improve the quality? If I undersood right, Metyrapone is the pharmaceutic that is given to lambs. This obviously improves the wool quality for at least 2years. According to wikipedia:

Metyrapone (Metopirone) is a drug used in the diagnosis of adrenal insufficiency and occasionally in the treatment of Cushing's syndrome (hypercortisolism).

What has this to do with the wool of a poor baby sheep? Yeah ... this is what they are trying to find out at our institute. Which gene is affected? And what is inhibited or enhanced when you give this drug.

For me that is a very unusal topic but still interesting.

Customer Service ...

2009-08-26T05:32:00.005+10:00

... is a hot and widely discussed topic. It can make the difference for a business to fail or succeed, especially SMEs. I am not the person who likes to give phone calls neither having a face-to-face conversation with a sales person. It is just not my thing. I am getting more "inspired" in emails and filling out webforms.

I recently contacted a magazine I really like and asked them about a previous issue. No reply, not via webform neither by direct email. I was disappointed and most customers would obviously give up at this point. But lucky for the, I really wanted this magazine. So I stepped out of my comfort zone and gave a phone call including another 20min being on hold. That's how badly I wanted it. Obviously my patience was worth it. I got everything I wanted.

Was that bad service or just bad luck that my information didn't go through? I always try to see things from different perspectives. You don't know the person nor the system set up on the other side (if they have a system). Unfortunately, the business would have lost the sale/opportunity anyway.

Photo courtesy by Markus Brosch

There are companies out there, that are well known and highly awarded for the best customer service ever. Did I mention I have a Mac ;o) So, good customer service is most likely a win-win situation, isn't it? Unfortunately, in some regions we don't get the choice between different suppliers. This issue occurs especially in telecommunication. Then we have to live with the service they provide, like >60 min on hold? This doesn't look like a win-win situation, not to me.

I am convinced that this will change and such companies will need to improve their customer service. Technology improves rapidly and when you are ready for it, the world is open for you. And that brings in so many opportunities to chose from. Companies need to be more flexible, if they are clever enough and listen to the market.

Internet Marketing ... and what?

2009-08-24T15:25:00.005+10:00

What is this internet marketing? Why is it soo different to offline marketing OR is it actually different?

I am sure everyone has seen at least one of these loong sales copies for some specific product on the internet? They include at least 3 different testimonials videos. They use 10 different fonts and in all available font sizes. And not to forget all these different colors. Is that really so appealing to people?

According to some internet marketers, yes. They obviously make 6 or 7 seven figures cashflow a year by just producing one page after the other. Affiliate is the big word.

I have to admit, I went to one of such a seminar. I guess the presenter told us the truth, but does it work for everyone? He presented the way he set up the pages, how he chose the product and how he market the page.

Yes, the webpages are simple, nothing fancy. And it is all legal what he does ... so what?

I guess the hardest part is to find what people are actually looking for? What does the market want? It is not that you can go out there with your products and expect that people will buy. You have to come up with something that solves their problem, that makes their life easier.

Keep searching ...

Project review

2009-08-23T09:36:00.004+10:00

When I go through my twitter messages and facebook statuses ... it really looks like I am quite busy. And yes, I am doing a lot of stuff. Maybe because I get too easily bored in something. Ok, let's get some structure in it.

1. PhD ... actual the main reason why I am ended up here in Australia. I am in the final year of my studies in Computational Biology. It is an amazing area to work in. However, maybe I am in the wrong research group or just the wrong University. I did publish two publications in my first 2 years ... then my motivation dropped. Where was the fun? I don't get a long easily with people around me and I started to question scientists and science in general. Did you know that 99% of all written PhD theses are never read again? Doing a PhD is the complete opposite of team work ... and what did we learn about team work ... different minds coming together and working on one goal together.
Anyway, I will finish hopefully in the next couple of weeks. I might need a break of this for a while. Maybe then I will find a way back, as I still love the subject of Biology.

2. Health/Nutrition/Fitness ... according to the BMI I am close to be overweight. However, I think I look alright. The scale tells me something else, so I decided to drop 8 kilos. The plan is to avoid any drugs to have a quite "organic" body. I am good at this. Beside that the problem with my thyroid will be always there. Maybe I can get my mind to repair it again by itself. It is all about what you believe. The majority of food/fuel I put in my should be organic. I can't handle meat and fruits from supermarkets. I have some kind of allergy against preservatives, which might be actually good ... I can do some testing , hehe. Fitness-like, I think I still haven't found what I really enjoy. The gym can be good sometimes, but I build up too easily. Maybe I give it another try. I did Kung-Fu some years ago and I loved it. But then they did more team games, and that is not my thing. With the personal trainer of my partner, we did some boxing lessons. And that was some fun, and it gets all the frustration out of you ;o) To start it at Uni, might not be worth it ... will see. Currently I just do some running. At least every second day with the plan to increase the time and distance.

3. Business ... I am registered soletrader here in Australia for 2 years now. I am doing contract work for other companies right now, but plans are bigger than that. I want to provide service B2C and B2B. The website is in progress and the list of ideas is full and keeps growing. I know very interesting people and I am sure I can make it.

All this keeps me busy. Recording it here, will make me more committed to it. Today's plan is update two websites and getting a new one up and running. I also will learn more about our CMS and about Internet Marketing. About all this I will write here in this blog.

Have a lovely weekend!

Getting the shoes ready .... off for a run

2009-08-20T15:48:00.004+10:00

Just this I started my exercise program again. Why again? … Looks like I have lost a bit of commitment the last 2 weeks. I did nothing. Anyway. I did my first 25min this Tuesday, with no pain, so I can keep going.

But what keeps me going? I have the inner urge to move, especially when I am in front of the computer 24/7. I love my business and the work that is involved in it. But the human body needs a balance. I am not really attracted to the gym anymore. I still have some sessions to go.

The advantage with running is that I can let my mind wander. It is not really recommended to dream during the gm session ;o) During the run, I can re-build my goal and vision. Why I am I doing this? What do I love on the project I am involved in? Where do I want to go, and what are the next steop to do, to bring me closer. Lot of runners have their iPods plugged in, but I am not attracted to use this way of entertainment. But maybe I will listen to some motivation speeches from John Demartini or Roger Hamilton. Ah yes, I should listen to “Wink” again.

Hopefully I get this back as a habit again. Yes, I get too easily distracted. This blog will help me stick to it. I need to be accountable in business and it starts with simple things like exercising.

Just getting ready here for a late afternoon run. Will do the usual 25 min round here at the campus. Maybe I will apply some kind of variation. I am thinking about to alternate between slow and fast speeds. Let me see how I feel, my nutrition today was not really reasonable.

Have a wonderful day!

Josefine, the Mechanic

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

2009-08-17T10:25:00.004+10:00

Yes, I made the big move to see a movie last Saturday. I am open minded, so I obeyed and we went to G.I. Joe. Maybe I should mention we had yummy chocolate before, just have a quick look at the below image and you know what I mean.

Back to the movie. My overall opinion: it is a good movie. The highlights for me are the pictures and the design - awesome quality. When Duke and Ripcord follow the car in their fancy suits, that's reminded me of "Transformers". Might be the same technique behind it, but somehow cooool.

The story itself is a bit flat ... almost fairytale like. Still, the US has now a "new" president, kind of open end ... what now? Nothing against an happy end, but was it necessary that Duke and Ana get together at the end again? Almost too girly ...

One thing that made me really angry is the violence in the movie. Don't get me wrong, it is ok for adults. However, before the movie, I saw families coming into the cinema with kids, not older than 10 and even younger. HELLO? It was quite heavy violence in the movie. This is a movie based on a cartoon that's sole purpose was to sell a set of toys to 5-12 year old boys. The movie turned out to be strong sequences of action violence and mayhem throughout. What kind of parents are this? You don't let a kid watching something like this, at least I wouldn't do it.

The age limit in Germany is set to 16 y.o. where here in Australia it is 12. Big difference for me. But ... these kids I have seen were much younger. I am soo angry about this ... but what can you do?

Overall good movie! (I don't know the cartoon!)

Office phobia?

2009-08-14T10:37:00.003+10:00

When do you know you just do too much?

Just this morning I felt sick when I was riding my bike. It’s not that I ate something odd, but already two days earlier I didn’t feel well in the office (maybe office phobia). Yes, I am under some kind of pressure. I put it on myself. There a plenty of projects I am involved in and I am setting up my own business, but I love it. My goals are big and I am getting closer every day. But what is the price I am paying for it?

1. I really prefer the presence of a computer near me than a crowd of human. Yes, that makes me quite anti-social, and …?
2. I don’t get gratification as often I sometimes would like to (I think that is common to all PhD graduates, ;o) ) I put in more time and money then I get out of it so far. But that’s part of the journey. This is also the reason why people prefer to be employed and fear the fact to be self-employed of having their own business. It can and will take years until you see some profit coming in. The vision and goals keep me moving.
3. This might be the highest price I am paying … health and lack of fitness. I find eating healthy quite time consuming. The preparation and especially the shopping are such time wasters. I don’t know why I should shop for 4 hours to have a meal for 10min. I’ve found an interesting e-book called “The Lazy Raw Foodist’s Guide” from Laura Bruno. This might be a good source of information. I haven’t read it yet.

4. The lack of fitness is only half the truth. I was committed to sport for maybe a couple of months. Just didn’t do anything the last 2 weeks. I still know how to run and I might be back in the gym next week. Not might be … yes I will be back :o) … I still have the goal to finish at least a half-marathon. So, let’s do it. One hour run in the morning should be doable.

Maybe as usual it is just a question of being organised. I am following GTD quite strictly and see some progress there. Maybe I just forgot to include some free time for me ...

Any other tips and suggestions are more than welcome.

Make the Most of Your Membership

2009-08-12T11:08:00.004+10:00

Just right now I am a participating the Australian Business WomanNetwork (ABN) webinar with the above title. As I am a member of this network I am following ABN's whole webinar series. The topics are pretty good, not deep knowledge, but a good reminder of things you better look at in your business.

So, how do you make the most of any membership anyway? When I look at my password list, I am a member of plenty of groups, networks and circles. More online than offline, but that's fine with me ;o) I don't think just "collecting" online friends is not very useful. It should be about communication. However, I don't mean heavy posting of your opinion/status or whatever, it is about smart communication. Just yesterday I followed a webinar with Paul Dunn from B1G1. Paul just made it again. He is not only the WOW wizard he is also a media Wizard. Amazing in how many way he tries to contact people and presents the idea of B1G1. It was a mixture of live chat and live presentation. Very well done!

Communication should be always 80% Listening and 20% talking. Exchange ideas, ask questions, give tips and hints for free ... there are many ways to communicate. This can be one way of making the most of a membership.

Some points to be aware of are:

It is important that you know what features the network/groups offers, but also use them. For example, blog your opinions or about things the group could be interested in and ask for comments. Such things allow you to reach plenty of people without spamming than.
It is also important that you follow the rules in a group. It is about respect other members.
If you are group or network is kind of a paid subscription, use it badly. Join every event (if appropriate), ask questions, get help. That what it is made for.
Put up a picture of yourself ... I personally don't contact people that are using the default image. You still want to see who you are dealing with.

As mentioned I am part of several networks. Feel free to join me in :

ABN just launched a forum section ... another way to communicate. It will grow you and your business.

Simplicity

2009-08-10T08:59:00.003+10:00

A simple lifestyle means for a lot of people being poor. I disagree with that. I am actually trying to simplify my life, so I can focus more on the things I love to do. What do I mean?

The main question is, What do you value more - money or time?. I go for time, because time it limited, money is not. There are endless opportunities out there to make, find or work for money. But that is not the case for time. Everyone has 24 hours for 7 days in a week the whole year, no more and no less. Therefore I am trying to reduce anything that just wastes my time, so I can better invest my time in other projects. How do I do that?

The one and only time killer for me is shopping, especially food shopping. Everyone who knows me a bit better, knows how much I suffer after the second row in a supermarket. There is no fun for me in it. So, I go shopping online. Most supermarkets here in Australia offer online shopping and delivery. As I am a bit allergic to preservatives, I have chosen www.myfruit.com.au ... they do delivery here in south-east QLD. I save plenty of time. I don't need to carry all the heavy fruits and veggies (not that I am buying chocolate or meat, *blush*). As I don't own a car yet and I am on the road mostly with my bicycle, I would have needed to go shopping several times a week. That's why I have chosen the online version.

Not only a time saver, but also a space saver are online documents, for almost anything. I love when my bank sends me an email about the latest statement (especially when lots of number in the right column). That will be downloaded and backed up on my time-machine. All good, no hassle with paper and binders. Of course you have to be organized. That makes things so much easier. Leo from ZenHabits is the best example. In his blog, he describes how to be as simple as possible. I would reckon you have a look.

To be simple means you have to be organized. Everything needs its place, no exception. I am not saying I am perfect in that. I can make it for some days, but then I discover myself being lazy. That means, refocus, thinking of the time it can save me and back to simple.

What are my other goals to be simple? Having a cleaner, would make my life a lot easier. First I would save some time, second I would love to be at my place and third no need to be bothered, because you know the cleaner will come this week. The other issue I have is transport. I spend a lot of time in trains and busses. Some kind of "beam me up Scotty" would be just awesome. Maybe a scooter would make me a bit more flexible. Although I reduced the "stuff" I have at my place, there are still some boxes that could go. Still looking what I could ebay or maybe just give to charity.

Organised as I am, now I will do the next step on my to-do list for today, setting up a resource page on www.informpros.com.

Private Label Rights article about self-development

2009-08-07T21:31:00.004+10:00

This is one of my first project of my recent founded business with Mark D Nicholls. I am very excited about the company and everything we want to set up. So, let's rock it.

Private label rights is a concept similar to reselling, but the merchant is permitted to modify the product to fit his or her needs. Typical PLR products are articles, reports, eBooks, and autoresponders. This kind of content is used for the purpose of allowing multiple buyers to invest in the content with free rein to alter and use it by claiming authorship of it. It is typically used in online affiliate marketing systems. -Wikipedia - Private Label Rights (PLR)

I think that is an awesome opportunity to share content, to modify it to your needs and to drive traffic to your website. With excellent self-help private label rights articles the content is already optimized to bring visitors to your website and provide them with valuable information. You can use them as they are or you can tweak them to provide a unique perspective. You can also combine them to create totally new products. The choice is yours.

Just recently I actually properly listened to the song from Michael Jackson (RIP) "Man in the Mirror". I wasn't never really aware of the lyrics, but I loved it.

I'm Starting With The Man In The Mirror; I'm Asking Him To Change His Ways; And No Message Could Have Been Any Clearer; If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place; Take A Look At Yourself, And Then Make A Change

Isn't that what self-development is? There are still plenty of issues I have even with myself. I judged people from the first impression .. and how wrong was I and still am! I even have the impression that this is not fair. The first impression is most likely to be wrong.

People call me being a capitalist. That sounds quite negative, but I see it differently. I am setting up my own business, because I have issues working for someone else. That is fair enough. Also, I have decided for myself to be wealthy, so I have to do something about it. And I am convinced, having a "normal" job won't be really helpful, so I've chosen another way. Because one of my driving quotes is:

Only when you are wealthy, you can share wealth. And only when you are happy, you can share happiness.

You set the levels yourself. I love to help people. I even would say I am too nice, almost sacrificing myself. But this way, I am limited in giving. If I want to give, I need sth to give.

With this project I want to reach all the personal development coaches. If you have a website and/or a running newsletter and you are looking for inspiring content, check out this page. This website will help you with:
- How to keep the website and the newsletter interesting?
- How to make people coming back to my website (loyality)?

You can write content yourself, but are we permanently inspired to do so? If you are serious in having a proper relationship with your customer, you might consider this website.
While you can use your PLR health articles to promote your website in new and interesting ways month in and month out, there are some limitations to your private label content from this membership page.

The great thing about having a membership is that you can take the PLR articles and content packs and bend them, shape them, and mold them to your needs. Each month, without fail, you'll have all the content you need to keep your website looking fresh, to make new and interesting offers, and to really drive traffic like never before.

Take the initiative today to generate a constant flow of traffic to your website that will bring in targeted prospects and profitable sales.

I wish you all the best

Current Affairs ....

2008-11-07T13:44:00.003+10:00

Looking back this week regarding the PhD ... not much done actually. It was not a good idea somehow to cancel the lab meeting on Thursday morning. I was not "forced" to present some results. It was a great opportunity again to procrastinate on this project. Yes, I did the protein networks for the mouse, but as I had created quite a system for this it was easily done. By the way, my supervisor hasn't said anything to the results yet *sniff*. So, what are the next steps then?

The gene expression data from Kate focusing on Macrophages looks quite interesting. I am concerned about the value of this approach as mouse PPI data, especially for the endocytosis process, are not enough of quantity so far. But I would like to give it a try, to get some analysis data for my thesis. That means I have to do some mapping again. So, let's find a way to find the connection between the GEO project GSE10246 (I like this number) and Entrez GeneIDs.

Also it would be good to get the third chapter of my thesis going. Not much context so far. Ok, to be honest nothing so far ... still just the mindmap. If there wouldn't be all these other much more interesting projects in my ToDo list. The possible outcome of all the other projects excites me more than this PhD. What is the goal again? Hello ... where are you? Is it just because of the title? Who cares about this network thingy I am doing? ... Ok, I assume that's always like this with research. Just keep going now.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

As I have told a couple of blogs ago, I am back with ThinkingRock. There are some pro and conts, like for any tool and toy. The Pros are that I have things every time with me on my USB stick. So far, wherever I am, there is a computer ... so all good. Of course, I am still carrying my notebook with me. First of all to make notes and second to track my expenses. I might need another strategy for this one. Another thing I like with TR is, it creates all recurrent tasks by itself. That's THE advantage to offline tools – automatisation.

What I am struggling with is the Context feature. I am still not sure for what it is useful. Ok, I actually haven't read David Allen's book “Get things Done”, but Stephane tried to explain it already several times. But no nice way came to my mind. It is a bit annoying as it splits the sorting function. I definitely will have to rethink this feature and make it useful for me.

Before TR I had the strategy to work on a specific project on a specific day. As I couldn't already manage this before jumping onto TR, now it might be even more trickier. As soon as I get an email regarding one specific topic, I can't wait until the day for this project arrives and process it then. What do you think? And also how much details would you put into TR regarding actions and projects. As I want to empty my mind immediately, I would put things down as detailed as possible. Otherwise I keep thinking about it or even forget it and I would lose information.

Yes, in summary I am still in the testing phase, but looking forward to get the projects moving.

2008-11-04T17:26:00.002+10:00

Each day now the fight about the PhD. No enthusiasm left. But what can I do? It would be quite stupid to stop now. Now that I am using ThinkingRock, I write down every idea I have and do it step by step. That are really baby steps. Rohan, my supervisor, also mentioned 2 weeks ago, I should start writing my third chapter of the thesis. What I have done so far is a MindMap, better than nothing, right?

No one said it will be easy. I don't make it myself even easy with all the other projects I am running next to it. So, what can I do to make it happen?

- I have to keep meeting Rohan on a regular basis.
- I have to ask the right questions.
- Get the notes down on paper and straight into TR.
- Brainstorm the third chapter. Actually start writing it. It will never be perfect anyway.
- Try to concentrate for 20min ... remove any distraction (email, twitter, etc.)
- Just do it.

Regarding the concentration, it could be still the issue coming from my thyroid. The lower dosage of hormone supplements is apparently not enough to have the energy level as an average normal person. But I need this energy to focus and concentrate.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

Yes, interest and the right persons around me would make it easier as well. I see it right now as a time waster. My interest is somewhere else, same for goals and applied strategies. I see the PhD as a job I have to get done. Then I can follow my dream fulltime, hehe.

Change in the organisation ...

2008-11-03T11:49:00.003+10:00

So, yesterday I have decided to change my personal project management. I am stepping back from the offline agenda to Thinking Rock (TR). It is a software I have used a year ago, but never really made to get into it. I will give it another go, as they give it significant changes and I am ready to use it fully, for business and PhD.

During the last couple of weeks I still made my notes for the PhD completely out of my range. Now I will and can force myself to make the notes (thoughts) directly in TR. This way I will see them every day. I have to admit I am not daily at Uni, but why should I. I can work from everywhere, as long as I have internet connection.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

Just yesterday was such a day, where nothing went as planned. And if you knew me, you would know how grumpy I can become. So, I just stepped back from the things I had on my list and re-structured everything. In such situation I just do things which are out of any logic. This way I came back to TR again. I know that Apple offers more flexible toys, but I don't have the capacity yet. Don't worry, I am on my way to play with such toys soon *evil*.

This morning the daily activities keep me busy and I should do my PhD stuff. I love to do them, as they give me quite some value and I see more opportunities coming up. But I will have to be more strict on it. 10min for every "Gadget" has to be enough. The network will grow, slowly but strongly.

2008-10-31T15:58:00.003+10:00

That was easy to say for my supervisor, to get some gene expression data from another group and then we visualize them in Cytoscape. Sounds easy and is easy, but ... my protein-protein network I have worked on so far is a human one. The gene expression data of interest are done in mouse, hehe.

Ok, I've decided to get the homologues between the two organisms from Homologene and just create the same network just for mouse. We have to be precise with this one. Although mouse and human have 80% of their genome in common ... I still prefer to get things right here. All this means I will have to do a lot of mapping again. Will see, if there are enough PPI data for mouse out there, otherwise we really have to assume high similarity between human and mouse. Will see what APID will spit out ;o)

I am also happy that I have finally fixed the XML issue we had on our download page of LOCATE. The XML schema is still not perfect, but at least there shouldn't be any issue anymore in the XML for mouse and human. I really took the time to go through the schema and tried to understand it. I think I got it. At least I understood so much, that I could fix something.

So, you can see I did some work for my PhD. Nice way to report it *whew*.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

As I am running several projects at the same time, I will hopefully get a quiet minute over the weekend to get things structured. I cannot jump from one project to the other. It is not good for the project itself, neither for me. Yesterday I got a bit knock down with plenty of headache. Drinking of 1.5L of water was not enough. I had to take some painkillers. And people who know me, know how much I hate that. Anyway, feeling better today with a clear mind after an evening without screen in front of me.

MyJuicer has reached another level, after we have put the sales letter online. We really have to get the keywords right. There is no point to get visitors from the US as we only supply Australia. BoutiqueWineries needs a bit of a kick as well. I think we all have to learn from outsourcing some projects. As soon as they overlap, it delays the progress. And we want to have the new website online as soon as possible. Fingers crossed. My project to find a new hosting service for InformationProfessionals is a bit struggling. This paper work is quite painful. Let's get this structured with nice procedures ... and all will be good.

the change of habit challenge ... trial 2

2008-10-29T18:41:00.004+10:00

And it didn't became a habit ... I did write for some weeks almost every second day about thoughts, plans, up and downs and all this usual stuff. Two weeks ago I procrastinated, day after day and now here I am. I didn't miss it and I didn't feel any urge to write. Do I have nothing to say? Maybe ...

I cannot say that something unusual happened during the last weeks. There is still the pressure for the thesis and still the driving force to be active in BoutiqueWineries, MyJuicer and InformationProfessionals. Maybe I could blame Twitter? ... Nice try, right?

So, yeah, I don't really have a reason for not writing, but do I have a reason to write? YES, because there is still the dream to write a book one day. And for this adventure I have to learn to write. I will take this opportunity to re-start, re-focus and re-think the strategy. I need topics. What could I tell the reader about? What do they want to read? What value could I give them? About one value I am pretty sure already, and that are Markus' pictures. He uploaded plenty of new pics ... this resource is secure for the next coming weeks. So, let's make a plan.
Yep, I came up with some points. (And hopefully a lot of points are missing!) Most of them developed during the last couple of months. As you can see Passion and Purpose are the ones I still have to figure out. Stephane made me start thinking of them. I was not really aware of these two before or I didn't really pay attention. I can see now that passion and purpose are determined for every human being. We just have to figure it out what it is. What also opened my eyes is being part of XL. I still enjoy having the right people around me.

I can see lots of ideas are coming up for some blog entries. Let's rock it!

How to handle routine in your life ...

2008-10-13T19:08:00.001+10:00

As soon some activity becomes routine in a human life it can be automatized. The question is, do you want it be automatized and out of your mind?

You pay weekly/monthly your rent? You could set it up with your bank that the money is transferred automatically on a regular basis.
You are traveling very often? Create a list with a spreadsheet, with all things on it you need everytime you travel. Such things could be your laptop, toothbrush or your favourite business shirt. So you just need to print the list before packing and tick off the item you put into your trolley. Quickly done and nothing has been forgotten.
Accounting or bookkeeping are such activities which come up regularly and are not the most exciting tasks, at least for most of us. However, there are people out there who love to do it. The option here is to outsource these things. A virtual assistant might has already set up a nice system and is just waiting for you to get it done. Think about it.

I am not a big fan of routine tasks, but we can't avoid all of them. However, for some people it might be could to follow a daily/weekly routine. That is there way to get things done. That might be even the majority of people.

Photo Courtesy of Markus Brosch

Also, if you want to be more aware of things in life, it might be better to set up some routine procedures. Especially when it comes to regular payments. Getting out of debt is a great goal and achievable, when you keep track of your incoming and outgoing money. I love handling my bank accounts online. But at least once a month I sit down and follow things up. This way I am aware of any transaction happened. I also have set up my own balance sheet ala Robert Kiyosaki in his CashFlowGame. This way, I learn on what I have to focus more ... income!

Yes, you give some control away when you outsource things and automatize procedures. At the end it is up to you if you can trust the virtual world and save some time.

How many baskets do you have ?

2008-10-09T06:08:00.005+10:00

The current financial crisis changed a lot of people's life. Yesterday rich ... today one in the 90% of the population that own 10% of the money. One way to avoid such a incident is to have your eggs in several baskets. If you invest only into the stockmarket your future depends on the stockmarket ... quite risky. So, why not creating several different streams of income ... coming from completely different areas. It could be network marketing, stockmarket, investment in properties, having several businesses or even passive income (copyright on books and songs etc.).

Steve Pavlina just wrote an interesting blog about the current Financial Meltdown happening worldwide.The last paragraph in the blog is as followed

Are you worried about the current financial and political climate? If you’re worried, then turn and face those fears. Accept responsibility for what’s happening. Is there some part of you that wants to get something for nothing? Do you value money ahead of personal relationships? Is greed more important to you than service? What will you need to change in order to live more consciously? What must you learn to let go of? Are you living your life as part of the solution, or are you part of the problem? You choose.

Most of the blogs from Steve are an eye-opener for me and I am enjoying his writing. I am also keen to get his recent book.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

Where on one side the PhD is my main focus right now (it should be at least), I am involved in projects to create other baskets. It is quite time consuming, but that's the way I have chosen. Just today we have started to outsource some work for MyJuicer. The outsourced projects for Boutique Wineries provided us with nice results and we are looking forward to get the new website layout done by the end of the month. Also InformPros will get something done this month ... so things are moving. It is hard not to get the reward immediately. But it is all made to reward me for the future ... so let's keep going.

How to tell your PhD supervisor about the dark side ...

2008-10-07T11:29:00.003+10:00

Tuesday - it was time for a meeting with my principal supervisor. We had several items to go through. It was a good re-focus and goal setting session.

The collaboration with the German research group will be treated first as helping each other. If there will be a publication at the end ... we will see. It will be now a big exchange of data and ID mapping. You might be already aware of my issue with the latter one. I just need to establish my own little knowledge base with all mappings possible and I am ready to go. I will contact the group in Germany still today. Fingers crossed it will be a fruitful team work.

Rohan also came up with that I might start thinking about what I will do after my PhD. Here it comes ... how do I tell my PhD supervisor, that I want to switch sides. I want to start my own businesses and become an entrepreneur. I am already in the process of doing it. Now the matter of conscience: Should I tell him the truth? I really hate lying. But how much will the truth affect the work with him during the last couple of months? Will he still support me as he did in the last 2.5 years. He is an awesome supervisor, getting just the best out of me. I am afraid to hurt him by telling the truth. He can be grumpy and he is Australian. Do you know what that means? ;o) 80% of all living things on this continent is toxic ... I don't want to end up like Steve Irwin. Please let me know if you have any idea how to go around this issue. I think I have to face it one day. The sooner ... the better? I don't think so. I will just have to chose the right words.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

The nerd in me

This morning I did some work on our Boutique Wineries database. I loved it. Tracking down the code where a specific issues had occurred. I went through three different cold fusion files, that were involved in this process. But the actual issue was in a stored Procedure. I've found it and I am very happy. Yes, it was a bit time consuming, but sometimes I love tinkering with something. I was happy that I still understand the system behind Boutique Wineries. I wish I had more time to do such things. The bigger projects will be outsourced and I just do the stuff I love to do. Conclusion ... finish the PhD successfully and the world is yours :o)

Happy birthday Jeremiah and happy birthday DDR

Interview with Ricardo Semler

2008-10-06T06:44:00.002+10:00

Ricardo Semler is the CEO and majority owner of Semco SA, a Brazilian company best known for its radical form of industrial democracy and corporate re-engineering. Under his ownership, revenue has grown from $4 million US in 1982 to $212 million in 2003 and his innovative business management policies have attracted widespread interest around the world. TIME featured him among its Global 100 young leaders profile series published in 1994 while the World Economic Forum also nominated him.

The Wall Street Journal America Economia, the Wall Street Journal's Latin American magazine, named him Latin American businessman of the year in 1990 and he was named Brazilian businessman of the year in 1990 and 1992. Virando a Própria Mesa ("Turning Your Own Table"), his first book, became the bestselling non-fiction book in the history of Brazil. He has since written two books in English on the transformation of Semco and workplace re-engineering: Maverick, an English version of "Turning Your Own Table" published in 1993 and an international bestseller, and The Seven Day Weekend in 2003.

A rocking weekend ... to get things done

2008-10-05T20:14:00.003+10:00

8:15pm on Sunday night and Stéphane and me are sitting in front of your babies, oops I mean computers *blush*. I like the weekends. Then we sit together and exchange our ideas and thoughts. We share troubles and happiness. During the last couple of months we have developed our own language. English is already a quite simplified language, at least regarding to French and German. But we've discovered an even more simply way. I think as long we understand each other all is good ;o)

We are trying to simplify as much as possible. Where I am in the process of de-cluttering my room, Stéphane just found another Mac-Application to have a more simplier online ToDo list. The advantage is the synchronisation with the iPhone. There is a lot of stuff out there and some are pretty good. I am unfortunately working on to many computers right now. I did start with ThinkingRock, but never really got used to it. I might will check the latest version, just to have an Australian product on my Laptop :o) But I can see there is a huge playground waiting for me.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

I also tested my cooking skills today again. I've prepared our muesli for the next 2 weeks and I did bean stew for Stéphane. Will get part of it to the freezer, so food for the next days is secured. I do have fun with cooking. I just don't like it when I have to do it for myself.

So, still want to do some work for BoutiqueWineries and then I want to check out another business opportunity.

2008-10-02T14:06:00.005+10:00

Passive income stream and network marketing

What the issue with network marketing? I have the feeling being an Independent Distributor is more a kept secret than a real business. On the other side, in the US (especially Utah) everyone does it and it is widely accepted. Every MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) company has a different strategy, but the main business idea is quite similar.

As an Independent Distributor you have your own business ... wow. That rocks! You can decide when you work on/in your business. No boss telling you when you can have your lunch ... awesome! You earn according the effort you put into the business (at least at the beginning). Later your downline will work for you. Sounds unfair? The downline wouldn't be there if you haven't done the work before. So, fair enough. In a real job the income stops when you stop ... think about it ;o)

As an Independent Business Owner you have in most countries tax advantages. People are so scared of tax or they just use it the wrong way. I haven't done much research in this topic yet, but the more I become a business woman, I might have to.

MLM companies exist for a wide range of products. Yes, you can see the Mama of all MLM companies and you can see all the new Web2.0 based MLMs. We will see which one will adapt quicker to the demand in the market. If you don't adapt your products, you will just miss it.

Why has the MLM strategy such a bad reputation? Or do I just listen to the wrong people? Where are the people open enough to accept this huge opportunity?

French Monopoly

Just today I read a Blog from Tim Ferris (yes the guy with the 4-hours-week). It reminded me of last weekend, where Stephane and I played Monopoly. The last time I have played this game it was in the early 90s. Anyway, the bigger challenge was ... it is in french :o) Yes, and I still don't speak french. The blog was a good reminder that I have my french-learning software somewhere here, possibly quite dusty already. Stephane and I communicate in english. Let's say Australian english, right buddy? :D But sometime I would prefer to speak just another language again, for fun. And maybe just to feel different again. ... Back to the Monoploy game. I thought I had no chance. Stephane could have told me anything, I would have done it. Did I have another choice? But I won! Yes, I've won a french Monopoly. I will now go to Paris and buy a property on the Champs- Élysées.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

PhD update

I am still having my fingers crossed regarding the collaboration with the German research group. Meeting with my boss is next Tuesday. This gives me more time to play with the different applications. I might have found another one .. VistaClara. It has this nice bar graphs for each node to display different gene/protein expression levels. Also it looks like that the mapping feature from UniProt is working again. Would be great to go around this issue ... pretty annoying. Anyway, I am a bit more up regarding my PhD ... let's keep it this way.

Visit me also in Facebook.

4-days report

2008-09-30T17:01:00.004+10:00

hhuuhhuu, yes, I did a bit of procrastination ... but I am back. Last week was just a bit too heavy. Just not enough sleep. All the motivational seminars and books are great, inclusive all the blogs I am following now, like ZTD, Steve Pavlina, Tim Ferris and so on ... and I agree ... set your goals and go for it ... and I am sure, when I have reached a certain level, I will have my 4 hours - week as well ;o)

The last weekend was one of theeesseee weekends, where I didn't know what I want. Especially regarding the PhD. I definitely have to step back from the computer, otherwise my mind is just blocked. During the last two days I did some research for tools and their usefulness. That is the biggest challenge. What the point of having a great application for network visualization made for Windows if all Biologists are using Mac (yes, I really mean Mac). So, my current plan is as followed. I would like to create a procedure (aka system) to establish the endosomal protein network:

Cytoscape - The visualization tool (I think); I am not into creating new plugins, there are enough out there, you just have to apply and adapt them to your own problem
FireGoose from Gaggle; it is a very interesting approach and definitely worth to explore; How to convince biologist about a RMI tool ;o)
PIPE - the latest clue from Paul Shannon; Have to emphasize the usefulness of it
DomainGraph (Cytoscape plugin); felt almost scooped after I saw the domain architecture; hope I can build up on it with them!
Cytoprophet (guess ... another plugin for Cytoscape ;o) ); not sure about this; draws a bit too many lines between the nodes, hehe
APID2NET - awesome plugin, great annotations and expansion for network
MCODE - getting the (maybe) interesting modules out of the network (or removing the proteins of the boring signaling pathways)

If I could bring all of them together somehow that would be great. Input and output values are of course quite different, but as I have told you already, that is pretty normal in Computational Biology. So, during the next days I will review these applications, test and validate them. And then fingers crossed I will be a step closer to my PhD. No other tools to check out, enough is enough.

Markus is finally back from his holidays. As usual he forgot to write me a postcard *sniff* But anyway, more pictures for me to present on my Blog. He did a good job again. Did we expect something else ;o)

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

To actually get things done, I have set up a new procedure. I have a couple of projects running right now and it is quite challenging to keep up with all of them. So, I set up different levels of priority to them. My daily projects will be PhD and BoutiqueWineries (now being soooo close to be a stakeholder). The other projects as MyJuicer, Information Professionals and NetworkMarkting will be split over the week. Will see how it goes over the next few days, as networking still takes its time. Shall I reduce this a bit? Now, that I am soo well known, hehe.

The Power of Web2.0 ... will see if I can use it somehow ... all in progress

@Stephane ... BKBH ... You can make it happen :o)

Declutter your life

2008-09-25T07:15:00.003+10:00

Whew ... I think I did clean up 5 or 6 boxes already. And actually my room looks more empty now ... more simple. That is good progress. I still remember and still hear the words from Daddy "We might need this one day". Oh no, when I need something I will get it somehow. Just storing everything, because I might need it someday ... not with me (anymore). I want to be flexible. Having things stuffed in every corner and wardrobe around me ... scary. It is like, things are following you everywhere. Yes, some things are emotional and some kind of souvenir. But I want to move ahead. I have dreams and goals. Getting stuck in the past is not much of help then. I am not saying, forget about your past. I am convinced the good things happenend in your childhood or whenever will be always with you ... in your heart. That is the best place to store things anyway.

Also decluttering my life will make it easier to move. Settling down somewhere is not really my thing (right now). So, having not much to move, makes me more flexible. Ok, let's move to Singapore for 6 months. That is what is driving me. I find this so exciting.

So, I will keep decluttering on a daily basis. Ebay will be one helper and there are charities as well. Let's do it .. :o)

Photos Courtesy by Markus Brosch

I actually had planned to report more about my progress with my PhD. There is not much motivation left, that could drive me. Yes, I still hope, that I can finish it in April next year. Sometimes I feel I am just playing with some data, checking out several tools and no one cares. That's science. These biologist really dream of the perfect tool for their own specific interest. The biggest problem is really the inability to use unique identifiers for genes and proteins. Mappings are likely to be incomplete as every consortium uses different rules. Also the just wrong use of common biological terminology is a big obstacle. These things slow heavily down the progress to visualize and automatize biology in general, let it be System Biology or Computational Biology. Call it as you like. We cannot only blame biologists, also mathematicians and statistician coming up with great algorithms and analysis to prove/dis-prove biological pathways assume things which can break down any system easily. Any bottom-up or top-down approach has its dis/advantages ... and this must be clear to everyone ... sorry, I start to philosophize ... also scientists have to be open minded to any other approach, especially if it doesn't make (the logical) sense at first. Anyway ... what I wanted to show is, how I am struggling with the thinking that is going on in Science. And I am not happy with that.

Habit 1: 30-days trial of collection ...

2008-09-23T06:14:00.003+10:00

Ok, there we go. First round done. By coincidence during my de-cluttering process last night, I found a lot of spare paper. Also Stephane gave me a lot of notebooks. Looks like someone is waiting for me having great ideas ... yeah, why not. Let's put them down.

I see it as a sign to keep going. Writing things down on paper should not be a challenge anymore. I have paper always with me and a pencil anyway.

It was a good start to test these 30-days trial of changing a habit. I have learned to monitor myself and watch how I am doing one specific thing. Changing more habits might be doable, but more tricky. This depends how focused you are. In the next days I will have a look at the second habit from ZTD ... Process. But more about this in my next upcoming blogs.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

So, it is getting to the end of September and I haven't done my Tax Return yet. It will be the second time for me. And trendy as Australia is, they offer an online version. I think it works pretty good. So, will see in the next couple of days how it goes. This time I will do it as a business. The time being an employee is over ;o)

Habit 1: collecting in train & car ... (28 & 29)

2008-09-21T07:36:00.003+10:00

... or how do you make notes when you are just riding your bike? Every day I take my bike and do the 25min ride to Uni. Beside that I should pay attention to the traffic, my mind is wandering around catching thoughts here and there. So, how can I keep ideas stuck in my head to put them down on paper as soon as I arrive at Uni? Maybe I should create a mnemonic trick.

When I am in the train going down to Gold Coast, I have of course my agenda/notebook with me. And anything that I read in a magazine goes straight in there. I think driving a car might be the same challenge as riding a bike, except that you can have a notebook on the co-driver seat. And if you are lucky and you are not in a "green wave", you find time to put words down. "Green wave" is a German saying for the settings of traffic lights that you don't need to stop. The traffic lights are synchronized with each other so the main flow of traffic just keeps moving. German Engineering, hihi!

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

So, I am getting close to the end of this 30-days trial change of habit. I have to conclude, that it was not a major change. But I am definitely more aware of the process to keep the mind empty and that's what I will go on doing. Every week will come with more exciting challenges.

Habit 1: still collecting ... (day 26 & 27)

2008-09-19T07:59:00.006+10:00

The last two days were full of ideas. Yes, I made notes immediately, except when I was in bed already. I know, I should have written them down. I promise to improve this. Still plenty of things going on in my head. But this is just the proof, the more often you empty your mind and put things down on paper, the more ideas will suddenly pop up. It is like the buddhist saying When the student is ready, the teacher will come. Only when your mind is free and open, ideas just flood your mind. And you better keep up with writing them down. ;o)

I am looking forward to the next habit from ZTD to process all these ideas. Maybe I should actually have the ideas and thoughts on paper for a while, before I jump on them. But I am sure I will report about this during the next up-coming 30-days trial for habit 2.

As promised some picture from our Leadership seminar at the Sunshine Coast. Please excuse the red eyes. Maybe someone could fix that for me (Maaarrkuuuuuusss!!) ;o)

@Sunshine Coast just before the "Sand castle - competition"

Stephane and I with Annie and Alex Jesaulenko. (Did I mention that Alex is a Football Legend here? He is listed in the Hall of Fame!)

On the way home at the beach of Mooloolaba

Habit 1: Collecting tools ... (24 & 25)

2008-09-17T06:53:00.004+10:00

In all blogs regarding Habit 1 I only mentioned the analogue tools, paper and index cards. However, there is also the digital way to collect your ideas and tools. This could be your PDA, iPhone or any other kind of mobile. I agree with Leo here when he says that the analogue works much better and it is so much faster. It sounds somehow old fashioned but think about the time if you value it ;o)

I spent yesterday almost the whole at my desk at home working on several projects. In such case thoughts and ideas go straight into my agenda. During my one-hour PhD work I saw emails coming in regarding Boutique Wineries. I have to admit my attention span is not the best one. I can hardly work and focus on one project for a whole hour. So, I keep checking emails. But ... I don't switch projects like this, I just make a note in my agenda and try to refocus again. It works, but definitely needs more training.

Also during a small Skype session with my business partner Jodie in Kuwait, I make notes, when I feel this task will take me longer than 2 min. (famous GTD rule!)Today I will have one meeting with Anthony away from my desk, so we will see how I put things down. I also have to make some notes beforehand of the meeting to make sure that I really talk about everything I have planned to do. Also another PowerUp event tonight. Looking forward to meet all these like-minded people again. This meeting will touch another way of collect notes, as I won't have a desk and I will have my agenda with me. But also I will have my notebook with me ... ahhh ... too much choice, hehe.

Habit 1: Collecting during a seminar ... (days 20 to 23)

2008-09-15T18:48:00.001+10:00

I have to apologize for my late blog, but I was away over the weekend for a business leadership seminar. Stephane and I spent the weekend at the Hyatt Regency in Coolum. Amazing place. It was worth to go. Although there was the leadership training during the day, we had fun, good food and met amazing people.

The dinner on Friday night gave me already sweaty hands. We did sit at the same table as the CEO of the company Aaron Garrity and his wife. Annie Jesaulenko and her husband Alex joined us as well. And you know what? They are people like you and me ;o)

Yes, we even made some pictures and I will upload them asap I get them from Stephane's camera. I really did enjoy the weekend, although it was quite tiring. And Stephane made it again, he won with his team the team building competition. I still can say that my team did second out of six. The competition was in "Creating sand castles" at the beach. It was fun. I am motivated again and I am now even more sure that we can make it big in this business.

I've mentioned that we had seminars as well. And most seminars are done with a PowerPoint presentation. The challenge here is, how do you make notes from a slide? Do you listen and write or do you read and write? Does the presenter just tell you what is presented on the slide? So, we had several presentations with different presentators, so we had to adapt quickly. I tend to write down words or phrases I like and think are important. Most of the material presented is available as some kind of hard copy anyway, but it was pretty good input. Especially when you hear, they care about their business and business partners.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

Ok, back home and have to re-focus on my PhD. Got a bit of drawback today, as I have noticed that I cannot save changes to some files in the APID software. Not funny. I will have to do more testing on this, before I actually start with any analysis. I also have to keep in mind to systemize things, in all areas.

Habit 1: Collecting during a meeting ... (day 18 & 19)

2008-09-11T09:07:00.000+10:00

Being a PhD student, I have weekly meetings with my supervisor. Most of the meetings are great and make me refocus on to my project and finally to finish it. I am struggling to make notes during such meetings. There is no one who takes minutes. Being polite I am listening to my boss and look into his face. Making notes would interrupt all this. Who can write and listen at the same time. Maybe it is harder for me, because English is not my first language.

I am afraid these kind of meetings should be more interactive. When I put down some notes, they are either too short or my handwriting is crap. Finding the right keywords is a tricky thing. Not sure how to approach this issue. Someone out there with useful suggestions?

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

What I have noticed is, that during the meetings with BoutiqueWineries, I could write down notes. Is that my old thinking, a habit to change? What I mean is, having a supervisor for my PhD and being a business partner make me behaving differently. I am still looking up and shut my mouth during the meetings with my supervisor. It is mostly not a real discussion, where on the other side during business meeting I give my opinion about specific issues or I come up with new ideas.

Maybe I should start to see my PhD as a another business, and the meetings as business meetings *think* Why not? That would fit more to the style of my agenda ;o) Hey, let's try this and keep making notes ... get it out of your head and down to paper ... it works for my business, so why not for my PhD

Habit 1: Collecting ... (day 16 & 17)

2008-09-09T22:10:00.002+10:00

Let's go back to the main idea of this habit and this is to Collect. Reviewing the last two weeks ... I am pretty much collecting all my ideas and thought. So, yes, I am doing well. I am just not doing it as Leo suggested it in his ZTD-ebook. I have my A5 agenda with different categories and one of them is called ideas. Most of the thoughts that come up are related to the project I am working on, so things go mostly straight on to the today todo list. Maybe not the best solution, I agree, but this way I will see it during my next review and then I can re-sort it. Other ideas, not related to my work at this moment go directly to the Ideas chapter. The whole agenda is reviewed weekly. This way I can make sure not to lose any information. I can re-think it, make it more clearer and detailed and then I decide whether I keep it for later or it fits into my current projects.

Photo courtesy by Markus Brosch

Yes, I still will and have to improve my collecting habit. I even have to change the categories I am collecting all this stuff. I started to use the Archive option in Gmail and did some successful searches already. I will definitely keep going on this one.

For my work for Information Professional I will (have to) use Outlook *ouch*. I am such a dummy in this one, hehe. It will be an interesting experience. But this will also another incoming stream of information, virtual and real paper. So, I will have to be aware of how it comes in and where I will put it. As I am "acting" at at least three different places, I have to be careful where I put what. Lot of monitoring to do ... I will go through it somehow. It is being aware of every moment ... why I am doing what when ... does it bring me where I want to be ...

Habit 1: Everywhere ... (days 12 to 15 )

2008-09-07T20:21:00.004+10:00

... just not into the notebook. It really looks like, that I spend 24/7 on my desk. Thoughts and ideas go most of the time straight into my agenda. Am I without any imagination as soon as I leave my desk? Maybe ... will monitor this.

Also, I might have to focus on blogging regularly, the latest entry is now already 4 days old. Stop whinging ... re-focus on your goal. Yes, the last days were quite busy. But somehow I like it. Although I have to force myself keep asking, is it what I am doing right now helping me to move ahead. So, what keeps me so busy?

First of all, BoutiqueWineries is expecting a new team member. I had a great first meeting with Anthony last Wednesday. I like his motivation. He is full of ideas. I hope I can learn from him a lot, especially when it comes to selling. He is quite experienced in this area ... so another level has come into my journey. Looking forward to hear about his Wealth Dynamics profile. My opinion is he is a Dealmaker. But we will see.

Also, I did some progress in my work for Information Professionals. I learned something in the area of DNS, like domain forwarding etc. Stuff I have never heard before, but there is always a first time. I am more keen now to learn about CMS (content management systems). In the next weeks I will dive into Drupal, one of the leading CMS softwares (open source of course!)

And then my PhD project. After the weekly meeting with my supervisor, I got some little ideas where I could build from my protein networks. The whole project is more testing, analyzing and re-writing the project ;o) Might be a common issue for the final year projects, hehe.

Regarding the notebook, I will put some index cards into my pocket. Might have to check if all my skirts have a pocket ;o) I am now in the second half of this 30-days-habit-change-trial. I keep going and we will see at the end.

Habit 1: where is it ..... (day 9, 10 and 11)

2008-09-03T10:16:00.001+10:00

... the notebook. It just doesn't want to stick with me. ;o) Not sure, but I have the feeling it is time to change the size. A6 is still too big. And I am clashing with my agenda most of the time. That means, I can put my thoughts straight into it. I need a better procedure. When and where does the agenda go with me and when the notebook? It is not yet in my mind to take it with me as it is for the purse or my sunglasses. I just did 30% of the whole 30-days trial. Ok, let's keep focussed then and refine the procedure:

Agenda with the option to put thoughts, ideas straight into the right place:

@ home
@ office

Notebook

@ train
any time I am out
anytime I am away from my desk(s)

Maybe this is still not detailed enough, but I will see how I go. At least it is written down somewhere now ;o) So, do I switch to index cards now? *thinking* I think a couple of days more with the A6 papers and then I decide.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

Next to this habit-changing-project I am quite busy with all what I am doing. Information Professionals will get a new home soon. BoutiqueWineries is thinking to get fresh wind as well, so fingers crossed the meeting with Anthony will run smoothly. And my PhD needs another kick. I want to finish it. Here as well I have to learn to write things down, the plan is not clear which is not really good at the final stage of a PhD. I keep things posted!

Habit 1: Get it out of your head ... (day 7 & 8)

2008-08-31T23:53:00.003+10:00

... and onto paper, so you don't forget it. This is especially important during meetings. I am not saying write down everything that is said. When things come up you have to do, write them down, don't wait for the minutes after the meeting. And if it is only a phone number or an email address ... write it down.

I used my A6 notebook during the last meeting we had at BoutiqueWineries. Maybe it is a bit small for a meeting. I prefer to put down some issues quite detailed ... I have learned from previous experience. I was always thinking, yes, I will remember this. And then you do completely different things and the actual task got lost. It is not about being oblivious, it is more about getting your mind free of stuff. I can remember things pretty good, especially numbers .. but I have seen the advantage of an empty mind as well. I feel like I am getting more open for new things. I am not blocked as I am used to be.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

Of course I am still falling back to my old habit (and pride) trying to remember things for "later". Sometimes I pay for it and sometimes not. I can say after one week, I will keep my notebook and I will progress in changing the habit, to keep the mind clear.

Habit 1: Things will never get lost again ... (day 5 & 6)

2008-08-29T09:15:00.003+10:00

We're going to try to have a place for everything coming into our lives, and get into the habit of writing things down immediately, instead of relying on our brains to keep track of it all. Leo - ZTD

A6 ... *thinking* ... I tend to believe it is still too large. I don't have these big pockets on my trousers, although these things are quite trendy right now. But it might be a more male thing anyway. I have cut more spare paper down to the size of A6 and just put a paper clip on top of them to keep them together. Yes, I use it ... but not heavily right now. All the PhD notes have to go into the Lab-book ... rules are rules. It is all about IP - Intellectual property.

One issue I want to focus on these days is to write thoughts down immediately. Especially when I am supposed to work on something else. I tend to do several things at the same time, because things just pop up in my head and a new tab in the browser is opened easily. So, I force myself to write it down and do it afterwards when I have time set up for this project or I have some free time.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

So I will keep dealing with the A6 size paper notebook for another week, then I will decide if I go smaller, like index cards. I am concerned about the size issue when it comes to make notes during a meeting. Of course it depends on the meeting, but I would like to learn to keep it simple. So, today we have our weekly BoutiqueWineries meeting again. Also, I might have a short meeting with Stephane about things coming up in the next weeks. I will give it a try, otherwise I will never know how simple my life can be.

Habit 1: The collection habit is simple ... (day 3 & 4)

2008-08-27T15:13:00.002+10:00

I really like the idea to put things down on paper, so my mind get free and open for new stuff. I noticed that I need my small collection of DIN A6 paper always with me. Some people sing under the shower and the others think, like me ... ;o) Ok, I don't really see that as a problem, just as a small challenge, as usual.

Yes, I had already introduced a self-created notepad in the size of DIN A6 a couple of months ago. That was and is my way to use spare paper. Just cut used A5 and A4 paper down to A6 and clip it together. I will test this the next days how it is to have this size but especially to have it always with me.

So, this will be then one version of an inbox. Fair enough ... but I still have other inboxes, like the normal email one and the paper inbox at home (for cheques etc. :o) ). In general I can say that I handle these three inboxes already quite good, at least that I don't have more inboxes that need to be checked daily.

However, especially the email inbox needs some improvement. I have a gmail account, so everything is forwarded to this account. I haven't started yet to use the option to archive the emails. Yes, you can use the search option to find older information. But ... Out of sight, out of mind.. I keep emails in the inbox, because I want to be remembered to do it (maybe one day). Looks like I have to be more strict and do things as soon as they arrive in my inbox (which is actually habit 2).

Let's focus here on the collection stations. Is there something else, than these three inboxes? Mmmmh, I still have my email account in the office for PhD related stuff. But fingers crossed this will be over soon, won't it Dr J ? ;o) Ah yeah, Leo mentioned it in the ebook, but not sure if I shall see Facebook and ecademy (my main social online network tools) as an inbox as well. Yes and No I would say. I actually receive the messages on my gmail account as well. But then I have set up specific days, when I update these networks. So, for me not really inboxes.

Ok, keep collection all these things the universe has prepared for us, keep dreaming big!

Habit 1 : ubiquitous capture ... (day 1 & 2)

2008-08-25T11:44:00.001+10:00

Ok, let's straight go into it. What is ZTD-habit 1 all about? The first habit worth to have is called Collect. Keep your mind free of thoughts and try not to remember things. As soon an idea pops up in your mind write it down. Don't bother to evaluate it, whether it is worth to make a note. Of course it is. Otherwise you wouldn't have thought about it. You and only you are responsible for your thoughts, so monitor them, write them down and at the right time you will sit down and have a look through it. Then you decide if it is worth to further investigate this idea and or you just delete it.

However, the habit is actually more about having the right tool all the time with you to actually write the idea down. As we are talking about to simplify our life, a simple notebook should be enough and I absolutely agree with that. Index cards or a small notebook size DIN A6 or A7 are just fine. It fits easily in your pocket. You are into something, a chat with a friend or you are just walking around and ... there it is, the idea of the day. What do you do .... put it down and go ahead ;o)

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

Anyway, how have I been doing the last two days? The tool I am using to write things down is actually my agenda with the size of DIN A5. I know, that is not the size I was recommending. I might change to another tools later. I just wanted to give it a try. The most convenient thing is, I have my agenda always with me. In the office at Uni, I have spare paper where I put down my ideas, especially when I am just doing something else. I might have to change that, as spare paper is and always will be spare paper. It should not be used as a idea-collecting tool. I need one small tool, where I can collect ideas and thoughts, and really only one. Having several 'inboxes' makes things just more confusing and time wasting. So, let's see, I get something smaller next week. My agenda is not the right choice, as this includes the actual to do lists, so ... not good for putting down your ideas. Ok, more in two days ... take care and keep collecting ... it's fun :o)

The Ultimate Simple Productivity System

2008-08-23T11:36:00.007+10:00

I am off for a new challenge, which will keep me writing this blog. I will report here how I am doing with this new adventure. Actually there are several challenges to come. So, what is it about.

A couple of months ago I discovered the very successful blog ZenHabits from Leo Babaula. I love the way he is approaching this project, how he writes and especially about what he is writing - Simplify your life.

Leo did publish an ebook as well, ZenToDone in November 2007, extremely successfully.

"This book was written for those who want to get their lives organized and actually execute the things on their to-do list" - Leo

To achieve this I will have to change some habits. And I will do one at the time. The ebook lists 10 habits that can simplify your life. To adapt to a habit you have to stick to it for at least 30 days monitoring yourself. Here the 10 habits Leo describes in his book:

Collect

Process

Plan

Simple Trusted System

Organize

Review

Simplify

Routine

Find your passion

Possibly not all of these ten habits will work for me. But if I don't try, I will never know. So, let's do it then.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

Reporting on this blog every second day will help me to commit to it and monitor myself. Sometimes I wonder why I am so stubborn and go through such processes (similar why I have started my PhD). I still see it as a good quality of mine. I want to learn what is best for me, so I have to keep trying and testing new things. I have big goals because I am dreaming big ... and I want freedom so badly.

2008-08-21T13:19:00.004+10:00

Another cloudy day here in Brisbane. At least it was not freezing this morning. But still, I had troubles again to get out of bed. I thought the morning was my most efficient time for me. Right now it doesn't look like it at all. The alarm is set to 4:30am so I could get at least 6hours of sleep. It is 6am already when I finally make it then. I feel like wasting my time like this. Why do I need so much sleep? I don't do a lot that would cost me extra energy. At least I don't feel like it. Is this related to my thyroid? That would explain why I am getting distracted so easily. I am lucky when I work on something for 10min in row without doing anything else.

It took me 15min to start this Blog. I just sit here and stare at the screen without any idea popping up. But I want to write, because I want to be committed to it. I want to learn how to write. So, I just keep going, no matter what ...

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

Yes, I have several things running at the same time. It is hard for me, to give these tasks different priorities. I feel like everything is important.

I have to grow my wealth network, so I have to update ecademy and facebook regularly.

I want to learn how to write, so I keep going with my regularly blogging.

I want to be motivated and inspired, so I keep reading Blogs of interest.

I want to learn more about entrepreneurship, real estate and passive income, so I keep going to seminars.

I want to keep working on my projects and getting the real experience, such as in www.BoutiqueWineries.com.au and www.InformPros.com

and so on ...

oops, completely forgot about my PhD in this list. I might have given it a lower priority unconsciously already. And this should be of highest priority actually. So, what now? Shall I quit some of these things or delaying it? There should be a way to do all these things, that is not so much ...

I am convinced, I can be more efficient, just have to find the right rhythm. Fingers crossed the thyroid issue doesn't hinder me on this journey.

Teamwork ...

2008-08-18T15:48:00.004+10:00

And again I am sitting here in this office in the cutting-edge research institute alone with my project. I have to sit down and come up with the ideas, what will be my next steps. When I have troubles with something, I have to find the way out of it. Because at the end of this PhD you sign a paper, that this work was done by only your brain.

Just yesterday I read in Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing ….” It is all about teamwork. When you want to have a successful bussiness, you better focus first on the right team around you, might it be laywers, attourneys or investors. You just can’t do everything by yourself. And do you really want people working for you, who are not interested in the success of the business, who don’t understand the mission of your business? That’s, why I say, go for the right team.

As Robert said, it is shocking what we actually get trained at school. Getting help from someone else means you have been cheating and you are out of the “game”. What a wrong approach is that?

I have to say, it was not easy for me to learn to work in a team, to accept other opinions and to actually get critisized. But everytime, our result of a teamwork project was amazing. No one could have done this by him/herself.

Photo courtesy by Markus Brosch

Coming back to my PhD project. What is my next step? I am stuck here again. The administrators for LINUX OS are a big joke here. The worst thing is, I don’t have admin rights on my machine. And does anyone out there ever seen a working HelpDesk, hehe? I will go back to my papers here and I will create my own virtual team around me, who will help me through my last months of this PhD.

ToDo list …

2008-08-14T09:33:00.001+10:00

There are a lot of books, blogs and articles out there helping the humankind to manage its day. It is good to read a couple of them and then find your own way, what suits you most. Everyday is different, every project is different and especially every human being is different.

The biggest challenge is the time management. How do you know in advance how long a task will take you? Ok, when your ToDo list contains only tasks you do daily anyway, you might have already achieved some experience. But I am mostly dealing with tasks that are new to me. Testing an application can be done in 30min or 30 hours. It always depends on how many variables are influenced and need to be checked. Or how many different cases in a case study are influenced by this application. I am sure there exist similar projects where you don’t have any clue about the time management.

Photo courtesy by Markus Brosch

So, there is big difference if you have 10 item listed on your ToDo list and you have finished them in 2 hours or you have 2 item listed and still after 4 hours you are dealing with the first one. The questions you can ask in such a situation are:

Can I break this task into smaller subtasks? - This will help you see progress more easily and you will allow yourself to take the needed breaks to reload.

What are the most important tasks (MITs) I have to do today? - You shouldn’t have more than 3 MITs on your daily list. If you have finished these 3 ones, you can celebrate, only low level stuff is left! *dance*

Are there any tasks I can delegate? - Outsourcing is a big trend right now, and I do it as well. I am managing some programmers for BoutiqueWineries. There are Pros and Conts ... the questions is, how much you value your time :o)

Of course this list is not complete. So, feel free to come up with your own questions to improve your ToDo list and therefore your daily progress to reach your goals. There won't be the perfect solution, but it is definitely worth it to think about it and then action on it ...

Stay committed and have a beautiful day!

I made it ...

2008-08-12T16:24:00.003+10:00

Yes, I went through all 20 points about motivation given by Leo from ZenHabits. I posted every second day ... big commitment. Now I have reached the next level, which is coming up with my own ideas. The challenge is, that the ideas won't pop up every second day ... so what to do? Writing when the idea comes up, just making a note to not to forget? I think I will do some testing.

Also I might have to figure out what my blog is or will be about? What do I want to tell the readers? What are 5 keywords to describe my blog? Yes, I want to improve my writing and I am doing well so far. There is always improvement.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

Will my blog be about my journey, like a diary? Maybe somehow, but also I would like to put down my thoughts on things, things that keep me moving. I have my goals, but to go there will change. I keep reading books, I might want to discuss some issues said in these books.

We will see where this blog will lead us to. Enjoy your day

Find pleasure again ....

2008-08-10T17:38:00.002+10:00

Today is one of such days where I have to review my own blog, because I am out of motivation and I lost the pleasure in doing one of my projects. So, why did I start it? It was new and exciting. It feels like it became a boring day-to-day job now, so I have to reconsider, why am I doing it. I even might have to change some procedures or step out for a couple of days.

There has to be fun, pleasure, joy in it, every day ... where is the satisfaction after I have finished another step? Maybe things are just not going the right way right now. Is it again my inability to be happy about small achievements?

Ok, I will step back a little bit and refocus to get the big picture right. I will do it on paper or on the whiteboard, maybe even a mind map. There is no way I give up ...

"Never, never, never, never give up. - Winston Churchill"

Be aware of your urges to quit, and overcome them ...

2008-08-08T07:42:00.003+10:00

If your will is strong and you are patient enough, the urge to quit won't appear. But that is a lot to ask for. Is your will strong enough:

Supported by big dreams and goals?

daily visualization what the outcome will feel and look like?

the right people around you?

Monitoring all the up and downs?

Reading about your dreams and goals?

Never skipping two days in row?

Are you patient enough:

Setting up mini goals?

Rewarding yourself for every little step?

squashing negative thoughts?

staying accountable?

Getting excited again?

Getting help during low points?

Photo courtesy by Markus Brosch

It is all coming together now. The urges to quit appear now and then. For me it happens often as I am not the most patient person, but then I find quickly my goals, have a quick read, talk to the right(!) person ... and I am back on track. You can plan for such "attacks". Have the visualized goals every where in your flat, agenda or office. Keep squashing the negative thoughts ... turn them into something positive. Always remember why you are doing specific tasks, why do you put so much effort into this project ... create your own strategy to refocus.

You will be so proud of yourself, when you finish big projects or you finally reached your goal. Let it be one of your mini goals. But this pride will be full of happiness, honesty, brightness and wealth with a big smile in your face. You will have got so much value that you start leveraging it, spreading the happiness, brightness and wealth ... it comes all by itself, when you are open and ready for it. :o)

Cape diem!

Use visualization ....

2008-08-06T07:21:00.004+10:00

Have you seen the latest Mini ... *sniff* ... wouldn't it be good to have one like this? I know exactly that I want to have one. This car will be part of the outcome of all the effort I am making now. I love driving cars, and it will be great to have my own one again. And I will buy it without making any debt.

These first lines are part of my vision board. There are plenty other things I am dreaming of in quite detail. Doing this daily keeps you going, because nothing is impossible. I am convinced that I will pay one day my parents a flight to wherever I am in the world, is it to Fiji or Singapore. I will call them, tell them I got the tickets and that I would love to spend a nice time with them. I know I will do that.

Photo courtesy by Markus Brosch

Having created several streams of income will give me the freedom to be everywhere I want to be at anytime. And of course my vision board includes the latest laptop and other IT toys, because my current laptop is already 6 years old (don't ask me how I did that, hehe). My vision board is big, because I dream big, because I want to live big. Stephane used yesterday these words from the documentation "What the Bleep do we know?"

How deep do you want to go down the rabbit hole?

And my answer was, very deep. I am just at the beginning ...

Never skip two days in row ....

2008-08-04T07:45:00.003+10:00

We are not perfect, but we can be committed to our goals and dreams. Skipping one session, a day or whatever it is ... that is ok. But you better don't skip the next one.

I started blogging 3 years ago, but actually skipped almost one complete year. Now I am highly committed to writing every second day and so far, I am doing pretty good. Because I have a goal to improve my writing. I want to see, if I can express myself in words. One of my big goals is to write a book. Not sure about what, I just don't want to struggle with my writing when the big idea suddenly pops up in my head. So, I train myself this way. During the low days my blogs will be smaller, sure ... I am not perfect. But getting used to writing, getting things out of my head may actually help going through such days.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

Today I want to have the first draft of the final 6-months-plan written down. I did some procrastination on it, but not today. If I skip one more day ... I will be stressed again. So, I have to switch my brain to PhD mode and just do it ... baby steps, as usual ;o)

Get a coach or take a class ...

2008-08-02T11:09:00.003+10:00

I think that is the most expensive way to get motivated in an area you like. And Leo is right by saying '... at least you show up and take action ...'. It worked for me. I spent a bit more than AUD1000 to spend three days at an amazing seminar from Roger Hamilton last March. It was most inspiring and motivating. I wrote already about the different wealth profiles he is using to find your flow and to find your passion. And this seminar went deeper into it and yes, I can say it was one of the critical moments.

Photo courtesy by Markus Brosch

For example, at this seminar I met a Creator and we kept in contact. And now I started some IT consulting for him and his company. More to learn, more people to meet and I am so excited about it.

Getting a coach can be seen in different ways. Everyone who has read a book from Anthony Robbins can say, yes, he is my coach and use his books as a guideline. Seeing it this way, I have several coaches, as Robert and Kim Kiyosaki, Anthony Robbins, Leo from ZenHabits and many more. But I have coaches in "real" as well. People I can see and meet regularly and I can bother them with my questions. First of all Stephane. Since we know each other, he is showing me the world, my surrounding, from a quite different perspective as I got it taught in school or from my parents. There is nothing wrong and right. I have just learned to see it from more angles and this gives me more opportunities and more understanding. I am really grateful for this lesson and to all these lesson to come ;o) BKBH

Having met Jodie and Jeremiah, gave me the unbelievable opportunity to have a coach in a pack of two. Sharing the same goal in a business, seeing it growing with some up and downs, working in a team ... it is a great foundation to learn and I appreciate to know the two and to keep working with them. And of course, never forget the fun part of it ...

If the student is ready to learn, the teacher will turn up.

Have all a magical weekend!

Go for mini-goals ...

2008-07-31T11:13:00.002+10:00

Breaking down big projects into smaller steps is almost essential. I even would break them down to a daily to do list. I am so happy to see all the tasks ticked in my agenda .. then I know I am a step closer to my goal. Personally I am still struggling with a weekly of monthly goal, as I am really working from day to day. But I do review projects weekly, so I don't lose control. I would adapt my daily agenda to it.

Doing it on a daily basis, my agenda can be stuffed with things to do. I train myself to be so committed and disciplined, that I really go through the list and do the task and then I tick it off. Yes, I won't make the whole list for a whole day sometimes. How do you know how long it takes for some tasks? The answer for me is practise, just do it and you will see. I know I can spend 30min to write an email, because it is not my "speciality". But at least I did it.

My mini-goals for today are quite a lot of networking. This would include some "work" in ecademy and facebook. But this was done already this morning. And it is rescheduled in a couple of days, so I really don't procrastinate it. Another goal for today is, sending 3 birthday card, which means finding the right words for the right person. And I almost forgot how to write in german. For my PhD project I would like to start the analysis today, running the IntAct data for human interaction and filtering just the proteins out which I have in my list. Unfortunately, we have today our 2-hours labmeeting. For this I had to prepare a small presentation and this took me already more than 60min. This would be one example for failed time-management. Anyway ... it is all about failing forward ;o)

I wish you all an amazing day and make Magic :o)

Happiness ...

2008-07-29T09:55:00.004+10:00

I just have written about it in my last Blog and completely failed in practising it. Yesterday I had to give a so called Monday Midday Meeting-talk, where the whole Institute comes together and listens to two speaker, presenting their work. But what can you talk about in 20 min, especially when you have a 3-years project. Anyway, it was my turn yesterday and YES, I was nervous. It was supposed to be my final PhD talk, so fingers crossed I will go without any talk until next April 8-)

So, having finished this talk with some technical issues, that were not my fault ;o) , I expected to be absolutely relieved for the rest of the day. But nothing. Really, I was almost down. I didn't see the achievement I had just completed. I didn't acknowledge any nice comments from colleagues. It didn't cheer me up. Instead, I looked straight ahead again, what is awaiting for me in the 6 months. What next obstacles I will have to manage. Why am I doing this?

Photo courtesy by Markus Brosch

Why can I not be just happy and celebrate a little bit? And just today I read in the ZenHabits blog from Leo the following words:

Happiness shouldn’t be something that happens to us in the future, maybe someday, if things go well. Happiness should be here and now, who we are now, with the people we’re with now, doing the things we’re doing now. And if we’re not with people who make us happy, and doing things that make us happy … then we should take action to make that happen.

I really have to learn to be happy anytime, and celebrate every little step that I make in the right direction.

Reward yourself often ...

2008-07-27T16:58:00.002+10:00

"Yes, done" ... sometimes this is reward enough for me to keep going. But there are moments, where I think "and now?" Then I have just forgotten, that I have just done a little step forward to my goal. So, rewarding is very important. As I have mentioned in my last blog, a week full of Xs can be so satisfying ... I swear. I would never cheat on myself.

Yeah, a simple chocolate bar is a reward for me as well, so long I don't take reducing weight too serious. I think it is still not urgent, is it? So, tomorrow I give my talk in front of the whole IMB institute, maybe around 150 people. So, what will be the reward? I don't know yet to be honest. Stéphane is not here, so I might just be happy for myself and say "Yes, done!" with a big smirk in my face.

YES, I am f... nervous, that's why this blog is so short. But I will make it! See you on Tuesday, one step closer to my goal ;o)

Chart your progress ...

2008-07-25T21:21:00.003+10:00

This is something I must have inherited from my mum, tables, statistics, spreadsheets and so on. Sometimes as a kid, I only did the housework, because I wanted to see the X marked in the calendar. It was even more satisfying to see a full row of Xs than the achieved sum of pocket-money at the end of the week. It just kept me driving.

And still today … I have re-discovered the power of charts, spreadsheets and calendars. Putting things down, keeps your mind free. One really important feature. But having a goal, like in the worst case doing a PhD *smirk*, and you have a plan written down, it is more motivating than knowing, it will be over in 3 years. But you have to chart your progress. I failed at first in doing that. I didn’t see the results I have reached in between. I just saw the work ahead, not the work I have done so far.

I don’t say it is easy. I also started a lot of things and tried to monitor and chart the progress, but after a couple of days or weeks, I didn’t see any inspiration in it anymore. Mostly, because I was just too impatient I didn’t get the results straight after the first week. But being a lord-like person, I still love looking at tables and charts. They tell me sometimes more than a fancy picture.

So, where do I use charts right now?

· Balance Sheet ... I started to monitor my monthly income and expensive in the style of Robert Kiyosaki, but I got bored, because it was every month the same ... will go back to it soon, as the income is growing
· Google Analytics ... paradise for Lords and Mechanics
· SpeadReading ... words per minute rate
· and so on ...

Thoughts ...

2008-07-23T05:05:00.000+10:00

During the last 2 days, I had meetings with several people about completely different things. But next to the actual topic we talked about I got something out of them, that makes me think now.

I spoke with an eMarketing Director about the use and improvement of SEO of a specific website. Maybe I was blended by the name of the position this person is holding and I should definitely remove this prejudice, but I am struggling now. Using a content management system, learning about a specific industry area and looking for the right keywords ... I don't really see the challenge.

Another meeting was about my presentation I have to give next week. My supervisor didn't like one specific part of my talk and I just didn't get it what he wants to see there. I felt like explaining nodes and edges being proteins and their interactions was too primitive. But obviously not. Networks and their utility in Molecular Biology ... for me .. it just jumps straight into my head. It is so clear for me. Why am I hesitating so much to go back to the basics? I am working in a research institute ... I mean cutting-edge research ... top research ... and I still have to explain the basics? My supervisor says, the audience is too broad. Still? Most of the talks and presentation I am listening to, I get the main idea and I understand them. Either is it developmental biology or stem cell research in kidney ... I get the main point. Do I really have such a broad background?

Then later the day I had a meeting with a CEO of a IT company and we chatted about moving website and how I would monitor it etc. And then he said something, which touched me deeply ... he said something like this: You have high expectations from yourself, so you expect the same from people you are dealing with. That's where you get disappointed in others so easily. I heard similar comment from someone else before, and I am surprised about this. Because we are going right now during a similar process. We set our goals and dreams ... and do action ... we want to be different

Yes, I challenge myself, because I get bored too easily, so I think that is a normal reaction. And yes, I am struggling with people around me. We don't have similar thinking anymore, and I don't want to go "back" to this thinking. I prefer to be out of the box. I think this underlines I really have to find people who are supporting me, who I can still learn from, people who challenge me, people who are out of the box ... I know where to find them ...

Get help ...

2008-07-21T05:21:00.002+10:00

It is hard to accomplish something alone, but this is how I feel about doing a PhD. Everyone is praising teamwork and it is proven that several minds work better in a team and that you can go much further than working alone on a project ... but no, doing a PhD is about you. You have to sit down and do it. You can not delegate the work, because what appears in the Thesis at the end must have been done by you alone. And right now this thinking is so much the opposite what I have learned during the last couple of months with XL and the big entrepreneur world.

However, to come back to more positive thinking, there are people I can ask to inspire me again, to help me with ideas and I can sit down with them for a brainstorm session. And I am very grateful for this.

For all my other goals and dreams there is plenty of help out there. You just have to see it, it is sometimes not really obvious. But with an open mind it all comes to you. For example to improve my reading, I apply special techniques as suggested in several books and I keep track on the words-per-minute rate. Like other people are counting calories intake daily, I count the words I can read per minute. And I keep reading about it to stay motivated.

If someone comes with the excuse I don't know how ... I don't believe him/her anymore. If other people have done it already, you will find either a blog, an e-book, a book or something else about this topic, online or in real ... just ask the right question (in Google) ;o)

Just get through the low points ...

2008-07-19T19:06:00.003+10:00

Motivation is like the tide, it comes and goes. So, one good thing to do is Work during the "high tide". It feels soo miserable, when you can feel it going away. What do you do then?
I am not in the state anymore, that I want to throw away everything I have done so far. I am well aware of that the motivation is coming back. You just have to go through it. Either you find someone to talk to. Or just go back to the books and CD, who brought you where you are now.

View from my balcony

There are not many people I actually can talk to. Or I might have to say it this way, there are not so many people who can actually motivate me again. Especially during low points you better avoid doomsayer. If I cannot reach someone, I just go to bed and prefer to be alone.

I have to say, it is still not easy to be motivated for the final months of my PhD. But the goal is set and I can see the end already, I just have to go through it. It would be much easier with a bit of motivation ... will see ... I keep searching. Might have to create mini goals ... *thinking*

Build on your successes ...

2008-07-17T16:38:00.002+10:00

yes, every little success needs to be celebrated. I tend to play my successes down, although it might be a big achievement, like finishing my engineer degree back in Germany. I've never really celebrated it, because the situation I felt like in was starting new again. And now I am on my way to get a PhD ... and still there are days where I am not proud of it what I have done. Why is that? Because I am comparing myself with others. I see them going on holidays, I see them doing stuff I would like to do and I still can't afford it OR I have bigger dreams and I don't allow myself to rest until I achieve. A gratification in between, would put be some steps back again ... it doesn't matter in what. I am building a base now on which I can build on when I have finished my PhD. Is it my network full of people, is it my work as an entrepreneur, or is it just putting some money aside instead of spending it right now. My time will come.

It is a hard way, with lots of up and downs ... and celebrating every little step I have done, keeps me motivated. How I celebrate? Sometime a glas of wine or sometimes just trying to have a day off. (Sorry, I still don't see the fun in going shopping, hehe).

So, what kind of successes did I achieve so far? I am a known inofficial member of XL. People recognize me on events. Sounds weird, but I think that is a good sign ;o) People contact me and want to work with me. Boutique Wineries is growing. You don't see it in the everyday work, more when you look back, what we have achieved during the last year. I am on a good way to finish my PhD. The periods that I feel up and motivated are longer now. Yes, there are still down periods, but changing habits is a long process :P Further on I realize that people in my team are growing and achieving something as well and that the support for each other is immense.

I celebrate everyday I have done my MITs and I ticked a lot of my todo-lists. I celebrate I get organized. I celebrate after every meeting (because I am always soooo nervous before them). I celebrate every single baby step I do towards my goals ... as Leo says in his blog

After a couple of months, your tiny steps will add up to a lot of progress and a lot of success ...

Thanks for taking the time and reading it.
Have a wonderful day! :o)

Read inspiring stories ...

2008-07-15T08:25:00.005+10:00

To get the motivation back, I mentioned Reading about your goal in a previous blog. But this time it is about inspiring stories. Stories from people who walked the talk, people who are where I want to be.

The Kiyosakis are a living example for me. Nothing is impossible. It is not about trying to copy what they have done, it is more about learning and getting an idea. In their books, Kim and Robert describe ways of investing and seeing the world in a way I was scared of before. I grew up in a system where everyone speaks about security. The "other side" cost too much money and is too risky. RIGHT ... of course, when you don't learn about it and don't play the games by the rules it is risky.

Photo courtesy by Markus Brosch

Just sit down and educate yourself. Nobody taught me about money, at least not to see it this way. The majority of people speaks about how to save money, but I want to know how to make money. If I want something, I try to figure out how to get it. I work more hours, I improve my business, I extend my business, I start another business ... and so on. I want to grow, not shrink.

Oops, I drifted off a little bit from my initial topic, sry *blush* ... a proof, that inspiring stories work hehe

Have a wonderful day and make magic!

Find like-minded friends ...

2008-07-13T11:54:00.002+10:00

I think it was in April or May last year ... I just contacted a cashflow club here in Brisbane. It was one of the critical moments in my life I will never regret. I met like-minded people who actually think similar to me or, what happened to me, they open your mind even more and you grow ...

I was looking forward to meet them again and again every fortnight to play cashflow 101 and meet new people. I was learning soo much and now we are even business partners. I am soo happy that I did this first step last year.

THANK YOU JODIE and JEREMIAH

But you have to keep doing it. Meeting other people, you will be surprised ... there are actually people out there having similar goals and passions. Of course there will be people as well who come and go, but the ones you are stuck with ... you can move mountains when you are in your flow.

I can see it in my PhD ... I am not in rapport with any of these people at the institute ... I hardly know what to talk about with them. I've found like-minded people somewhere else and my network is growing.

Stephane and I keep pushing each other to do this networking part and we encourage each other to succeed in our goals. I want to thank you, Stephane, as well deep from my heart ... thanks for kicking my ass ... and re-focus my goal again and again. BKBH²

Read about it ...

2008-07-10T15:56:00.003+10:00

That's how everything started ... I read one book, then another. During the last year I have probably read so many books .... I don't know. But every single book counts. It is not about reading any kind of book ... I mean books that made me think. About me and my life. I have started to re-think, what are my goals, why am I here and so on. And I definitely keep reading, because I am just in the middle of my journey which hopefully will never end. But I am sooo happy that I have started it.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

Leo from Zenhabits said to read everyday on your goal. It sounds quite stressy, but he is right. There are just too many things out there that can distract you, bring you down and out of focus. Keep reading of things that motivate you, so it becomes a habit. It is not about being talented in something, it is more about to have it as a habit ....

And when you are feeling down, just one chapter in any Kiyoaski book or a Stephen Coney - chapter. That brings me back and I get things done again and am organized. I can recommend WINK from Roger Hamilton. It is a book you better read again and again anyway, because every single time, you come out with something new that you haven't noticed before.

Have a quick look at my Visual bookshelf on facebook, I put some books there that I have read and that I still want to read ... it changed my life ... Keep reading :o)

Get excited again!

2008-07-08T10:18:00.002+10:00

It is unfortunately too easy to lose excitement after a while ... especially when you don't see results immediately. When you are an impatient person as I am then you know what I mean ;o) Can you get back being excited again? I have to put in some effort to get back on track. But I am happy to say, it became a habit. Seeing the goal, knowing that I have learned soo much already ... getting some self-confidence ... it helps a lot.

Here comes in as well the point, why have I been excited before? Being different? Doing something significant for me, but especially for someone else? What happened? Did I give, before I received something? Did I meet the right people having clarity and vision? Getting an idea to be in flow, that makes me excited. I am still a beginner in being a FLOW-ER, but I think I can smell it from time to time. People who know Roger Hamilton know what I am talking about ;o)

Yes, I can get excited again ... because I know what made me excited and I can refocus on it. That gives me the energy and power I need to be a MECHANIC, hehe ...

Have a lovely day

Think about the benefits ...

2008-07-06T11:33:00.000+10:00

Doing this little first step ... oh yeah, this can be soooo hard. Either it is starting to prepare a presentation or just getting out of bed early. I know that I will feel good after I have done the first step ... but just doing it ... ahhhhh. But I have learned during the last couple of months to focus on the outcome. It is still not a habit, but it will be. The day is soooo much better when you get up early or you have done something that costs you quite a bit of effort. It will definitely energize you.

February 2008 after 8 hours of coding with a STAR, no wonder I have red eyes :D

Just yesterday I read another chapter in Anthony Robbins first book (I think) Unlimited Power. The name of the chapter is Anchoring yourself to Success. And it is just so true. To brace oneself or as we say in german " ... den inneren Schweinehund ueberwinden ;o)" ... just do the first little step. For me the anchor is making a fist and saying to myself (or sometimes loud) yes, c'mon, you can do it.

I did some networking yesterday and updated my ecademy profile. I am a little bit proud of it that I finally did it. It is amazing what kind of snowball reaction you start immediately. Yes, most of the emails you get are automatized, but it is a good way to get in contact with other people, which is still not easy for me ;o) And one of the messages I received contained the following poem which I would like to share with you (I got the permission ;o) ) Enjoy your day and think positive ...

The Dream
A man lay on his bed at the end of his life waiting to die.
His dream came to pay his last respects and bid farewell to the man who had never used it.
As it entered the room the man looked down in shame.
"Why did you not realise me ?" the dream asked.
"Because I was afraid," the man said.
"Afraid of what," said the dream.
"I was afraid I would fail."
"But haven't you failed by not attempting to use me?".
"Yes I did, but I always thought there would be tomorrow."
"You Fool!" said the dream" Did it never occur to you that there was only ever today? the moment that you are in right now?
Do you think that now that death is here that you can put it off until tomorrow?".
"No". said the man, a tear gently rolling down his cheek.
The dream was softer now, because it knew that there were two types of pain, the pain of discipline and the pain of regret, and while discipline weighs ounces , regret weighs pounds.
Then the dream leant forward to gently wipe away the tear and said, " You need only have taken the first step and I would have taken one to meet you, for the only thing that ever separated us was the belief in your mind that you couldn't have me".
Then they said goodbye and they both died.
Mark Baker

Squash negative thoughts and replace them with positive ones

2008-07-04T20:04:00.002+10:00

... this week was challenging and I am not even sure whether I've passed the test. I hope my supervisors don't read the blog, but I did nothing this week, because I am completely out of focus and questioning everything. I have to prepare a presentation, but you know ... when you are not committed anymore to the work you have done, what do you want to present. I would love to present the stuff I am proud of ... but all this is gone with the wind somehow. I don't want to questioning the whole PhD, but if I don't move on now, someone else will start questioning it and the same for the funding. I don't have another choice.

If you could see my thoughts, you probably would have given up on me already. One good thing is, I am aware of the negative self-talk, but currently I don't have the energy to replace it. Leo suggests in his blog, just to swap the words to positive ones ... and I know that works. Sometimes I feel the mind is ready to move on, but the body just doesn't react, like not going out of bed or I am just not starting it.

Yes, I am challenging my body with my thyriod story as well. Maybe it is just the wrong timing, as some of the symptoms are depression, lose of concentration and gaining weight. Yes, I am tempted to go back and take the supplements again. After 3 month I cannot report any positive affect ... I have the feeling that I cannot do my work properly .... :o(

Stay accountable ....

2008-07-02T19:29:00.003+10:00

oh yes, how many times did I start something and then .... uuuhhhh ... it was gone with the wind. I mean, most of my things I have started are still in my mind and not forgotten. There is for example my cross-stitching project. It is big, I mean really big and more than 100 different colors, so you can maybe imagine what kind of effort it is (or maybe not, hehe). I know I will finish it, the question is just when. After I have finished this project with the big lion, I have promised Bene, my good old buddy (hahahah) a cross stitch with a pig ... and yes, I will do it. Let me just finish the PhD, develop some businesses (or call it passive income) and I will come back to my stitching mood.

Actually, maybe it is good to do it, just to have a day off. Just to do something completely different and not to brain storm all the time. There is a little chance not to feel bad about it. I brought all tools with me to Australia, just haven't touched it yet. What do you think? That is a good idea. One afternoon in the next weekends I will do some stitching .. yeahhh!

Mmmm, now that I have it written down here, I have to commit to it ... as Leon told in his blog. I will definitely keep you up2date with the stitching and with my PhD. Next time more about the PhD thingy ....

Have a good one :o)

Just start ....

2008-06-30T17:31:00.002+10:00

My goal is currently to blog every second day. It is quite a challenge. It is not that I have nothing to say, is just, how do I put this in words. Then I could stare at the screen for minutes and just look dumb ;o). But as Leo says:

Once you start, it is never hard as you thought it would be

It takes a while until it will change into a habit, possibly more than a month. I just have to stick to it.

Another goal is my PhD. (I know, several goals at the same time is not really the right strategy, but I need something else next to it!!!) Switching the brain again and again, between business and scientific brain. You start to question everything. What am I doing here and especially why am I doing it? But now I have less than a year left ... I will make it somehow, although it won't be fun. And to use Leo's words again: Just start! .... instead of thinking about how hard it is, and how long it will take, tell yourself that you just have to start.

Have a wonderful week :o)

Hold yourself back

2008-06-28T19:49:00.002+10:00

Yes, that is one of Leo's tips ... hold back. During the last months, after seminars or I read books, I got sooooo excited. I bought magazines, I subscribed to newsletters ... just to keep get more and more information. I wanted to know everything at once ... and then ... mostly I crashed somehow ... because I didn't get the immediate result. Is it stock market, property investment or something else. Now I am aware of, that these are big goals and for this you have to be patient, which is one of the skills I am trying to develop ... *smirk*

Photo courtesy by Markus Brosch

To reach this goal, you better use the excitement of the beginning to structure your learning about it, or whatever you want to accomplish. If you want to lose wait, of course your plan will look quite differently. And plan carefully ... I like to use the term "babysteps" ... that's how all starts. You won't see much progress at the beginning and it can be quite frustrating.

I write this kind of blogs also to remind myself how I should do things ... words like this just help me to "come back" on track

If you can get yourself excited again, and keep going, you'll get there eventually. But if you give up, you won't. It's your choice - accomplish the goal, or quit. (Leo Babauta)

Motivation

2008-06-26T14:29:00.006+10:00

For a couple of weeks already I am following the blog from Leo "Zen Habits". I think I have written about it already. Just today, it's one of these days, I came across the blog about motivation. I am sure you all experience good and bad days regarding motivation. Then such blogs are just great to get you back on track. Leo spoke this time about the 20 ways to sustain motivation when you're struggling. I intend to follow up some of the steps and report about them what they mean in my life. Especially when your life is just going through an extensive time and you don't feel the excitement anymore. The excitement you had just before you started something, just when the idea pops up in your head.

Photo courtesy of Markus Brosch

Motivation does work, is it caused by reading, watching or just listening to the right people. In the previous blog I spoke about that movies touch me. Motivation is one of these effects. Of course it is a positive one ... but isn't that a problem as well, to get excited too easily in something. And after it happened several times and you see that it always weaken after a couple of days or already after a couple of hours, what's the point then? Is that not disappointing? Might be one reason why I avoid movies, because I could get excited about something and then I just don't care about it anymore, maybe because of time constraints or other limiting resources. (I know, nothing is limited except time ... ).

Maybe I haven't found my real interests yet, or I am just not patient enough ... talk to you soon, fingers crossed with a bit more motivation ;o) and excitement

Relaxation

2008-06-24T15:28:00.004+10:00

Do you know what that is? I had a look at wikipedia:

... a process or state with the aim of recreation through leisure activities or idling and the opposite of stress or tension ....

That is scary ... how do you do that? As soon as I have an idle time I feel bad. Ok, let's go through it one by one ...

Leisure activities ... *thinking hard* .. yes, I could update my stamps collection and my cross stitching project needs some progress as well. Or, I would like to do scuba diving again. I still think it was an amazing experience last year. What else could be leisure activities? Is learning a leisure activity? I would like to learn more about System Biology or Real Estate. I would like to read down all the books I have listed on my "want to read" list. Is doing personal development a valid leisure activity? I feel a bit overwhelmed with this question ... because I still believe doing what you love to do is not real stress. Correct me when I am wrong. Or did I just forget what it means to relax?

Photo courtesy of Markus Brosch

The term Idling just scares me. Idling means nothing to do ... how can that happen? It's like watching TV or should I say it's like watching a movie? Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh .... just imagine you sit on a couch and you just stare at a screen and something entertains you ... I don't understand this. Ok, there is a possibility that it can actually educate you and you learn something ... but c'mon .. most of this is just fiction ... so what for?

Stephane told me it is important so you actually stop thinking for at least 90min. That is a valid excuse for me ... but unfortunately movies have mostly if not always an effect on me, good or bad. Movies touch me, they can break my heart, make me cry, make me even think, they put tension into my body ... and that is not relaxation .... and what now?

How can I relax? What is relaxation? .... Help me to relax!!!!

2008-06-22T19:06:00.002+10:00

The beginning of wisdom is a definition of terms - Socrates

Do you know what your life of your dreams is? Ask yourself this questions everday, and I bet you always end up everyday with something else. Because your mood is different everyday. But the big picture should be the same. And so it is ... keep your goal, focus on it. It is just the journey to it, will change from everyday. And that is the hardest part, at least for me. Distraction is everywhere ... that's why it is sooo important to learn how to re-focus. Old habits can be strong and put you back into your old beliefs. But for me, there is not my goal, not my life of my dreams. To reach my dreams ... I have to get out of the comfort zone, everyday. And people around you don't make it easy for you and suddenly you can feel alone. Then it is time to give yourself 5 min. What do I want? What is the next step to reach my goal, my personal goal ... This blog is for me a tool to get re-focused, to remind me to review my daily to-do list. Does it contain still the right tasks, so I reach my goal? Do I procrastinate things I should do? .... Keep on track! :o)

2008-06-20T07:57:00.003+10:00

If you should put even a little on a little and should do this often, soon this would become big - Hesiod

Quite nerdy again: Yesterday I finally figured out how to do regular Expression in Cold Fusion. It is still not perfect, but a beginning. I just wanted to remove all the spaces from a text, to put all together in one line. I think in perl it would look like this: s/\s\s+/ /g ... in coldfusion I am using the POSIX standard: REReplace("test word","[[:space:]][[:space:]]+"," ","ALL") I find it quite interesting, there is soo much to learn about this ... it can be useful one day. I just improved a data feed file for clixGalore. Taking out some text from SQL into a normal text file will still display the tab, newline and carriage return, but I needed the whole text in one line. I still saw some issues at the end, but not as many as before. Will have to play with it a bit longer ... ;o)

With Boutique Wineries we make little progress. We have to realize that we deal with small family owned businesses. In some of them there are only 2 people working in this business. The ability (or the will) to use the internet for business purpose is not as distinct as we might expect. So, my question is now, can we train them? Would you bother doing a kind of training for a business, that brings you one sale in a whole year? ... Let's keep an eye on it. I still believe in Boutique Wineries.

Stephane and I have other projects in mind. The problem is more to maintain and improve the current projects. That's where the Mechanic is there for. So, will have to review these currently ongoing projects and come up with ideas about automatization and systemizing. We will rock it! :o)

Have an incredible day!

Youth Without Borders

2008-06-18T12:50:00.004+10:00

Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think - Benjamin Disraeli

Yes, yesterday I joined finally Youth Without Borders as an associate member. The two meetings I had so far with Yassmin the president were quite interesting and full of value. I think we can exchange a lot and get on some pretty nice projects. I try get XL involved somehow, either in writing articles in the XL magazine, or I get the connection to StepUp foundation. And I would like to look into the availability of software for our first project, which are the mobile libraries in Indonesia. If I could find some free easy maintainable software for libraries, that would be great. Will see. Just trying to automatize as much as possible *blush*

Boutique Wineries is moving forward in little Baby steps. I learn a lot about Internet Marketing and all the tools which are out there. I really cannot complain about boredom. Currently I am working on the datafeed for clixGalore and Spring, our programmer in China, received a small task as well. I discovered that the java script on one page doesn't work, weird discovery, but should be easy to fix. And we want to add recaptcha on this registration page as well.

Recaptcha is a nice projects, that stands for

Stop Spam - Read Books

Sometimes hard to read, but is all for the good, hehe!

Take care! :o) BKBH

Critical moment

2008-06-16T07:53:00.003+10:00

Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better - Emile Coue

There are and will be always times when you have to rethink all your plans. Things can happen. People change their minds, even people you are closed to.

This can come like a shock. But you know, there are no problems, there are only solutions out there. And if you re-focus on your goal and remember your dreams ... you will make it. There are lot of ways to reach your goals.

It can be painful, when a friend decides to follow another way. You made plans together, started small businesses together ... but he cannot or don't want to go this way anymore. You won't change his mind. Let him/her go ... life is about you. Of course you still can be friends, you are just following another path.