Tag: a new challenge

Collective Challenge Day 5

Posted on by Carl Weber

At this point, we have this first week in the bag.  Only a few more days left in Week 1 of our collective challenge.  Enough about me, I would like to hear from you.  How are things going?  How does your world feel?  Are you feeling better?  Worse?  Stir crazy?

Did you find a way to be generous?  Was there a creative way that you inspired hope to someone else?

Are you starting to dream big?  What is that thing you would really like to do?  This one can be hard.  Our lives periodically seem to adjust into autopilot and just cruise along maintaining what we already have.  What did you want to be when you were growing up? Was there something you wanted to do?  Someplace you wanted to go?

Keep up the challenge, you can do it!  Don’t be afraid to share your progress, it may just encourage the rest of us.

Collective Challenge Day 4

Posted on by Carl Weber

We are half way to our first whole week in our collective challenge for 2012.  Do I know how the stock market did yesterday?  Nope.  Have I heard the latest poll about who knows what? Again, no.  Have I endured the latest reason why I am not doing that thing that I should be doing or how the world is ending or how the globalization of mechanized currency exchange has led to the most significant depressing under-unemployment for demographics less than my current state?  NO!

This is what I do know.  I went to work yesterday after being away on vacation and connected with co-workers and realized I missed their faces.  I had a productive day at work and earned my pay.  I came home and ate dinner with my amazing wife and kids (the meatloaf was awesome).  After dinner I played war (the card game) with my youngest daughter and she totally crushed me.

The evening ended with tucking the kids into bed and reading them a story.  My world may be a little smaller, a little less informed, a little less global.   But my world is beginning to feel more connected and more important.

Thank you again for being part of this journey together.  Maybe we really can change the world.

Collective Challenge Day 2

Posted on by Carl Weber

A few books I am reading

This morning I realized that I had to change my routine in order to adhere to our collective challenge.  Typically I wake up, get coffee, and go online to review various news sites.  I found myself a little stuck on what to actually do instead.  I decided to check out a few blogs instead, drink that coffee, then go read a few books.

In case you are looking for a few suggestions of what to do instead of the news, I am offering a few suggestions.

http://wordpress.com/#!/topics/  This is the topic section of WordPress and you can find some great blogs by clicking on the topic.

http://talinorfali.wordpress.com/  A writer from Canada who somehow found my blog. Her tagline says it all.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/  Seth Godin’s blog.  Some great stuff in here.

As for the books, I have a habit of reading more than one book at a time.  In the current queue are Tribes, by Seth Godin, Magnificent Mind at Any Age, by Dr. Daniel Amen, and IMC – The Next Generation by Don and Heidi Schultz.  The first two are for pleasure, the last is for a class I am taking.

I hope this helps, I had to take down the news sites from my Chrome home page, but I am feeling better already.  One thing I realized was the more I read about crime in my own community, the more my opinion of where I live became negative.

Thanks for participating.  I am looking forward to how this 30 days plays out.  You can do it, and 2012 will be great!

A New Year, a New Challenge

Posted on by Carl Weber

Wow, another year has passed.  Another year is before us.  How strange is it that we as a species track time the way we do.  The last time I checked, the squirrel in my yard may have a concept of seasonal changes, but there was no day-timer sticking out of his back pocket.  I cannot remember a time when a giraffe was wearing a wrist watch.  Do they even have wrists?

Tracking time gives us an interesting opportunity.  The calendar resets each year and as the prior year fades away, we can challenge ourselves to achieve something, do something, or be something different.

Beyond goal setting or finding your sentence, how about a different challenge?  A challenge we can all try together and see what we can collectively do to make this world a better place.

The 2012 Collective Challenge

1.  Try not to watch, listen to, or read the news for the next 30 days.  The news cycle is interesting.  In order to entice us to keep reading, it portrays events in catastrophic and negative terms (the world, economy, life, society, or whatever is horrible, on the brink of disaster, the worst in a generation…) and tends to criticize everyone and everything along the way.  Being happy and having a positive outlook on life for the upcoming year becomes hard if you constantly hear how bad things are out there.

2.  Randomly help someone who is outside of your circle in a generous way. Why not surprise someone in this world with an act of kindness or generosity that helps restore their view of the world as well.  Outside of your circle means either a stranger or someone who you don’t regularly connect with.  It is easy to help someone close to you, because they may help you back, but helping strangers is much more selfless.  A few ideas: You could pay for someone’s gas at the pump, pay for some groceries, or send 40 bucks to a random address.

3.  Dream Big.  What is that thing, that idea, that amazing thing that is brewing inside you?  Write that sucker down!  Leave the fear back in 2011, it doesn’t belong in this new year.   “The only thing we have to fear…is fear itself” may help you, but I have a better one.

“The only thing to fear is snakes.  If it is not a snake ignore it!”

If you want to participate, let me know.  Leave a comment, and encourage everyone here to try this.  Post comments as the month progresses.  Let us know about how you feel without the negativity of the news cycle, the creative way you helped someone else, and the progress towards your dream for this year.

Thanks for being part of this community, and together we can change the world.