Life Lesson

There Is No Stopping Naievety

Garth Beyer

1.  How much money in U.S. currency do you need a year to support yourself and anyone you currently support in a modest lifestyle?

2. Describe in some detail what type of project or projects you would pursue if you didn’t have to work or make other compromises to have money.

3. Discuss how this is different from your current circumstances.

 

I have recently read an article that the magic income number to have a relative and consistent happy lifestyle is annually $75,000. The article stated that even those who made $50,000 to $65,000 still felt financial stress and bound to always make careful decisions when it came to money. This idea of making about three-quarters of a hundred grand a year is what I would consider modest living. I currently make about $20,000 a year and find that this lifestyle works. I have a relatively nice apartment on the lake, I can get a couple of cups of coffee each week, and a short vacation each year. This lifestyle, though it may seem normal and modest, is not. The beauty of being human in this world is that we can make anything work and we can make anything look like it works well. People can be happy with $10,000 a year and people can be just as happy – that is, no happier or no less happy – than someone who is making $45,000 a year. For me though, with high expectations for the quality of life; for me, who believes that the current standards of living are far below what the standards should be, I believe that an annual income of $75,000 would be the right amount to support a modest lifestyle.

“He’s got some high expectations,” you might be saying. Yes. Yes I do and I often get a good chuckle or two when I tell people about my bucket list. This is also when I come in conflict with the prompt. There are no projects that I’m not pursuing solely because I have to work or I make other compromises or because of money. I don’t so much believe that the greatness of a bucket list is having checked off items, rather that you made it one hell of a ride to checking them off. See, my bucket list isn’t something I’m waiting until I’m 70 years old to take seriously. (Be ready to be surprised) Nor is it a list of some five to ten items. It’s a list of 200+. This list ranges from speaking at the White House, to pepper tasting in Chile, to fire walking, to experiencing zero gravity, to learning calligraphy, to owning Le Corbusier’s (famous architect) chair. To say I am crazy about goals would be an understatement. I read them over nearly every week or two and try my hardest to cross at least one item off the list each week.

It would be wrong for me to not include a certain five word quote to help you better understand my mindset. This quote sums up why, though I may not be in the perfect situation to do everything that I want to do at this single moment, I am working as hard as I possibly can toward it. Every moment of mine is put to use, exploited, taken advantage of; every moment is put towards pushing me forward, doing what I love, getting to where I want to go, and enjoying the journey of checking items off my bucket list. It really comes down to this, “I’m naïve, but I’m not stupid.” Think about it.

 

Stay Positive & Life Really Is What You Make It

Garth E. Beyer

Doing What Matters And Doing What Doesn’t (so much)

Garth Beyer

The problem a lot of people run into when they are finally having a full-time schedule of productivity is that they are so busy doing things that really matter, that they feel unable to make time for the things that still matter, but matter less.

This is one of the biggest fallout’s for people who feel on a roll. Just because you reach a new level of success and productivity, doesn’t mean that you can say goodbye to previous engagements and expectations.

Take the hierarchy of needs for example … you can work your way up, but being on the third level doesn’t mean that you stop building the first and second.What does this mean to you?

It means that yes, you still have to do the grunt work. Every so often you have to pick up the broom and sweep yourself, you have to make those phone calls and send the emails just to keep up the contact with people who still matter, you have to provide input for others instead of receiving the input, you have to find yourself grunting now and then.

 

My suggestion: They say Sunday’s are for rest. I say that one day a week of grunt work is all that you will ever need to do. Get in the habit of it now so that it never stops you from reaching the heights you work so hard for.

 

Stay Positive & Steve Jobs Used To Grunt Everyday (no wonder he was so successful)

Garth E. Beyer

It also does well to note that the more you find yourself grunting (doing the grunt work), the greater understanding you have of how success and progression works. Obvious, but easily forgettable.

Waiting For Your Hero

Garth Beyer

Whenever you watch a Superhero film, or nearly any film for that matter, you are always waiting for the hero’s success or failure, survival or death. This hero’s journey that keeps the audience waiting for one event to take place after another is called the monomyth.

To the hero though, they never feel like they are waiting, they are always involved in the rising action that leads to the point the audience is waiting for. While you are waiting, the hero is not. If the hero were to wait with you, nothing would ever happen.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say we are all Superheros. We all have a special superpower if we think hard enough about what we are truly great at, whether it’s a natural talent or not. If we are Superhero’s, then why do we do so much of the waiting ourselves?

It needs to be realized that you are not your own audience. It’s not your responsibility to do the waiting. It’s your responsibility to create the rising action, to give the audience something worth waiting around for, someone to root for, something to be excited about.

Let’s not be confused about who the Superhero and who the audience is in our lives.

 

Stay Positive & With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

(You know this post would have been incomplete without ^ )

Garth E. Beyer

My Friend Makes The 80/20 Rule Look Weak

Garth Beyer

Hard work, and a lot of it, is what it takes to reach any worthy goal.

Smart work is when you put the hard work into the 20 percent of actions that produce 80 percent of results.

The best work is when you can balance everything.

 

I have a friend that nearly invalidates all of these concepts. For the sake of explanation and relativity, I’m going to use weight lifting as an example, but you can exchange it with any line of work.

I’ve been lifting weights for over a year: building muscle, toning it, shaping my body the way I want it. I put in the hard work by lifting until I’m sore, I put in the smart work by following a program, and I put in the best work by making sure that my body is balanced. I was once skinny and scrawny and now I am more filled in and toned. Yet, I have a long way to go until I reach the muscle ratio I want. (Don’t worry, I’m not looking to become freakishly beefy, just extremely fit. To put it in perspective, I plan to do the Iron Man in a few years.)

Now, I have a friend. This friend was in the same situation as me, skinny and scrawny, if not even more skinny and scrawny than I started out being. About three weeks ago he began working out and is catching up to me – fast. No, he won’t be caught up to me in a week or even two, but I can guarantee it won’t take him over a year to get as far as I am now. (Remember, I’ve been going at it for over a year to get where I am!).

My friend, Brett, defies the 80/20 rule, he seems to – before taking any action – figure out how to do 5% of the work that creates 95% of the results. My friend makes the 80/20 rule look weak. He does the hardest work, the genius work, and doesn’t care about balance, he cares about progress. There’s nothing wrong with that right?

Brett has always been this way, not just with lifting weights but with everything else that sparks his interest. What he has taught me – and hopefully, through this post, can teach you – is that there are always ways that you can shorten your invested time and simultaneously strengthen the results. The 80/20 rule is a great place to start, but not the place to stay.

 

Stay Positive & Try The 5/95 Rule, Also Known As Hohler’s Law (as opposed to Pareto’s law of 80/20)

Garth E. Beyer

You Really Don’t Want To Do What You Love

Garth Beyer

I’m getting a couple of articles published on Under30CEO. Meanwhile I am beginning to write for the Clarion (school newspaper). Also, I attended the PRSSA kick off event tonight and will be going to the Madison chapter of Society of Professional Journalists next week. This is the life of a person going into PR. I want to schedule the meetings with those who lead these organizations and others, I want to be a critical part to the clubs and organizations progress, and I want to connect with everyone I can so that I can learn everything they know.

Secretly though, I don’t want to. I was nervous about submitting the articles to Under30CEO, it took me over a week to convince myself to email the chief-in-editor for the Clarion about a position, I thought I missed the PRSSA event and simply shrugged with a tad of self-dissapointment, and I’m still telling myself that I’m going to the SPJ meeting to connect with people; I don’t need to be connected with someone before I go. To be straightforward, part of me didn’t want to do any of the things that I love doing!

We all want to do what we love, our passion, what makes us most happy to be doing. Yet, even those things make us put on our brakes, question our reasoning, evaluate the risk, let nervousness prevent us from action, and remain passive while the lizard brain takes control. Doing what you love is hard work and though you may want to do it, you will always also not want to do it.

My motto is that you’ll never get anywhere if you don’t do at least one thing a day that you don’t want to do.

Remember, you may not love what you do – and that’s okay, it’s not the point – the point is to love having done what you did more than anything in the world. Eventually, you’ll grow to love doing the things you both do and don’t want to do. It’s about creating habit. Keep doing what you don’t want to do and you’ll end up loving every minute of it.

 

Stay Positive & Commit To Never Skip A Day

Garth E. Beyer

Personally, at the end of the day I will be happy no matter what as long as I did something I didn’t want to do because I know I’ll have made progress whether it appears right away or not.

A Remarkable Video To Watch

Garth Beyer

I was fortunate enough to find this clip in my schools digital library. I suggest checking yours or seeing if you can find a free version.

But if not, it’s worth paying for. Truly is.

Heck, it’s so important that you watch it, I just found a free version for you!

I never thought I’d say that I would watch a documentary twice, but I would with this one. Let me know your thoughts and let’s chat about it ( thegarthbox@gmail.com )

And come on … it has Seth Godin in it!

Stay Positive & Watch And Learn

Garth E. Beyer

Ignore and Notice

Garth Beyer

Ignore… those who tell you it can’t be done

Ignore… those who only tried once

Ignore… those who beat around the bush

Ignore… those who prevent you from finishing

Ignore… those who complain about how long it will take

Ignore… those who give up before they try

Ignore… those who are miserable

Notice… those who inspire you

Notice… those who admire the small accomplishments you make

Notice… those who go after it relentlessly

Notice… those who have been rejected 50 times because they kept trying

Notice… those who watch your progress

Notice… those who are forward

Notice… those  who do what they say they will

 

Stay Positive & What Ones Did I Miss?

Garth E. Beyer