Long-Term Legacy and Short-Term Impact of a Writer

Garth Beyer

 My quick addition of Ch. 8 of “The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way” by Jeffrey Gitomer.

You are a fantastic writer. Well, maybe not. BUT I know you are a lot better than when you began writing. When I started writing, I was awful. My first story was about how my brother gave me a nickel for Christmas. There was not even a point to the story; I made it seem that the nickel was all I wanted to receive for the holidays. I was six years old and I definitely wanted more than a nickel. I fight myself to not burn the essay every time I take it out. Why don’t I set it to flames? Because you can always find something new to learn or notice when you review an earlier piece of writing. Although I do not burn it, I do “RIP” it.

A Gravestone Story

Gitomer touches on the necessity to use strong examples to get your reader shaking their heads in agreement. I have a bunch of stories and examples to share about particular life lessons, but when I type them; while the story may be strong to me, it would not be to someone else. You not only need to put on the audience members shoes when using an example of a personal story, but you have to wear their shirt, pants, and even the underwear with their name sewn into it. Understand your readers.

On the top of my essay about the Christmas gift of a nickel, I wrote “R.I.P.” When you are writing, you need to ask yourself a few questions.

1. Recognize – Are you winning over your readers? Make sure that you have them shaking their heads in agreement with your side.

2. Impact – Is every sentence pushing a lesson or feeling into the reader? Check again to see if you are persuading them to act, or simply telling them to do something because you said so.

3. Point – You may have heard that “math is everything, the rest is just fluff.” In the case of writing, “significance” is everything, and information is just the fluff. As you review your writing, are you learning more statistics than understanding the real message?

You Would Have Thought I Wrote In Red – I Didn’t

At first glance you would think that my essay was simply a white page of paper with red marker all over it. With further investigation, you will find actual words inside the red. When I edited my essay, I highlighted in pen everything that I knew was not leaving an impact. The less red, the more loved it will be by your readers.

NOTE: While in sociology class and studying on the topic of “education”, I read an article that was persuading schools to BAN the use of red pens in elementary schools. The author declared that using red pen to correct papers left too much of a negative impact on younger students. The sociologist concluded that the color of red is too harsh, powerful, oppressive, and negative. See for yourself by googling “the significance of the color red”. You do not have to click on a link, it will state right under the link how it relates to violence and warfare. While red can also signify “love”, it is less of an impact and does not support the imaginations of younger people as much as violence does.

I stated that editing in red was troublesome for the youth, but not for you, not for people who honestly want to be writers. The negative impact is all the more reason to grade yourself with red, because you need to be rough with yourself. No one else is there to watch over your shoulder, otherwise they would be writing for you. Let the red ink sink into your writing abilities.

4.5 Extra Steps to Writing Better

1. We all know that a persuasive piece of writing is to compel the reader to act! What we continuously fail to do is define what we want our readers to act on before we write. We figure on that if we write the article, we will just add the call to action at the end and it’s a done deal. NOPE.

2. I often read that the best way to market is to write, act, read, invest, spend, as if you were the prospect of the product. The same goes with writing a persuasive article, you must consistently remind yourself that you are not only the writer, but you are the reader as well. Would you share your paper or throw it away? Forward it in an email to a friend, or skip over it?
3. During Dale Suslicks last un-workshop, one gentleman stated how difficult it was to write. He believed it was so much easier to speak because it flowed better than writing. I began to tell him how I have the same problem, but it depends on who your audience is. Do you want them to read it as if you were speaking directly to them? Then check yourself by reading your own written work aloud for a conclusion. Similarly, you can read your work out loud to see how “speaky” it sounds to make improvements. Remember, keep that red pen near!

4. I am coming to find more and more that when an idea pops in your mind, it does not like to stay. Write it out. Do not just take a note, or think you will remember it. You won’t. But I also added that you should not write on a small note because when you go back to it, the feelings behind the idea are not as powerful and you will have a much harder time to write out a full article of complete thoughts. By writing less to begin with, you limit yourself when you go back to it. That does not mean you need to write pages upon pages about an idea, but enough so that YOU get just as inspired as your readers when you read.

4. 5 On the other hand, it is fortunate for you to keep notes of small ideas that may not have manifested immediately in your mind. You can use these when you are coming near a deadline, want to free-write, or when an opportunity arises for you to test some of the ideas.

Empower Yourself

Launch yourself into learning everything you need to know to get what you want, when you want it. Read up on blogs and articles of successful people in your area of interest daily. I hope that whether you have read “The Little Green Book to Getting Your Way” or not, that you have understood more of how to create a long-term legacy and a short-term impact with your writing and life. Gitomer says, “Writing leads to wealth.” Where is yours leading you?

 

Stay Positive and Write On

Garth E. Beyer

Poetry Night 001

Poetry Night 001

Garth Beyer

Hey there, welcome to the first edition of Poetry Night. I am an ardent writer of poetry and I have written no less than a 70 poem manuscript. Every week I will choose one night that I will be posting a poem that I have written or someone else has written that I feel must be shared. I hope you truly enjoy it. If you do not care for a particular poem, do not flee. I am a writer of vast variety and I can guarantee that the next Poetry Night will present a new genre of poem. As always, I truly urge you to give feedback: positive, constructive, and critical.

Back in Rockford, Illinois, I emailed the President of the local newspaper. I wrote to him that I wished to write for them in whatever position they could offer me so that I could build experience and my résumé. He forwarded my message to the Executive Editor and she emailed me what I had originally written to the President. The paragraph was exactly as I had written it, except…

On nearly every line, the font was red in one spot or another. At a glance, all you would see is red. Below my clearly edited paragraph was written a short and critical message. The Executive Editor began to say that if I were going to get the blogging position that I would have to improve my grammar, syntax, punctuation, and a list of other writing skills. I retained part her email and I would like to share it with you,

“I know getting edited by a stranger is tough to swallow, but if you were to blog for us, you’d need to improve your precision. Remember all those English teachers who were so focused on all that “stuff”? Well, we editors are even more Draconian about it.

Think you’re up for this? I hope so” – Linda (Executive Editor)”

It may not seem like a harsh message now, but at 15 years old, I was crushed. Since then, I recall her message when people give me negative criticism. It happens. People get yelled at. People express their opinions in *different* ways. So do not worry about putting things lightly, unless you want it to show your true character. I appreciate ALL feedback. In addition, I am interested in all of your poetry. Email me your favorite, best, or worst writing. I might just want to share it instead of my own next Poetry Night: TheGarthBox@Gmail.com

The Writing Ghost

The ghosts’ long sleeves, held hands tilting the sun.

We watched our own hands full of thick shakes, disappear.

They stare back, They wanted our gaze.

We spoke to the blind, to a world where a

String locks haunted paths that

Link a dark world in the next ghost.

Only the blind course our insane, voices in their arms,

An old crouched spirit knotted silent screams.

A warm bark pressed my chest – an apparatus.

Alone, in a way sane people are not a part of the world.

Scratched membranes need to stand,

Separate from a blank today.

That! sorts those who do not discover

themselves, their world in a way legalizing critical passion.

Everybody is stoned, pathetic, so strange,

We have joined a multitude of tears.

Elusive but those show us our differences

Between; people part of the world and those not.

Observe moments. truly keeping random peoples blueprints.

–          Everett

Stay Positive and Poetic

Garth E. Beyer

An Accord With Greatness

An Accord With Greatness

Garth Beyer

Today we focus on positive perspectives and cultural knowledge. What do you get when you combine the two? If you thought of the Tao Te Ching (Dao De Jing), then you are correct. This incredible piece of literature has two to twenty lessons per Chapter and 81 chapters in all. Since there is so much knowledge to discover, I do not want to overwhelm you. Let’s read the second and third stanza of Chapter 63 and discuss how it can affect your life, business, and relationships.

Tao Te Ching, Chapter 63, by Lao Tzu

Second Stanza:

The difficult problems in life
Always start off being simple.
Great affairs always start off being small.
Therefore the sage never deals with the great
And is able to actualize his greatness.

Third Stanza:

Now light words generate little belief,
Much ease turns into much difficulty.
Therefore the sage treats things as though they were difficult,
And hence, never has difficulty.”

–   Translated by Charles Mueller, 2004

Can you visualize the power behind Lao Tzu’s words? In life we often take problems and set them aside, saying that we will deal with them later. We are all examples of this mistake. Before we know it, the problem has grown to a size we could never have fathomed. It then begins to come out of hiding and crush us. Can you think of a way or two that would prevent this from happening? Does being honest and strong come to mind? Be honest to yourself and others and muster up the strength to overcome the obstacle early on. By doing so, your reward is time and supplementary strength to strive for life success. For example, you have a couple of tasks to carry out for work. You have to write-up an introduction to the meeting you have tomorrow and file a summary to your boss of an interview you established. In regards to the second stanza, it would be in your best interest to follow through with these tasks early in your day. If you decide to contradict Lao Tzu’s philosophy, you will find yourself full of stress and pressure to complete the task before the following morning. Not only that, but your boss called you up hoping that you had a rough draft of the report done yet so that he could get prepared for the meeting as well. That was a lost opportunity for progress and greatness for you. To have the power to activate greatness, you must continuously distinguish the small tasks, duties, and callings of each day.

You may be feeling that this is irrelevant to your life. That you plan your day and you knock out all the simple tasks and to-do’s early on so that you can focus on your greatness the rest of the day. Whether this is you, or not, you might be interested more in what stanza three offers to enlighten you with. So I begin by asking you this? When you execute the small tasks, do you accomplish them? REALLY accomplish them? Or do you put forth just the right amount of effort to cross it off your list and move on? You will be more fortunate to discover greater success if you truly delve deep into the meaning that stanza three carries. Why don’t we extend the previous example to encompass the lessons from stanza three as well?  As Lao Tzu’s suggests, by taking the time and maximum energy to write an introduction for your meeting tomorrow and file a summary to your boss of the interview you partook in the previous day, you are paving your path to even further success than you deemed imaginable. Having put forth so much effort into such small tasks, your boss allowed you to run the meeting the following morning, allowing you to get on a first name basis of the CEO of your company. Not only that, but now your boss wants you to do a full-scale interview with other clients and he is going to your completed work to the Wall Street Journal. Does this inspire you and help you see the importance of putting forth your greatest effort even with the smallest of tasks? How can this relate to your career?

But wait, your success does not end there. I said at the beginning of this blog post that you can affect all areas of your life by following Lao Tzu’s factual philosophy. By executing the advice of dealing with small obligations, and dealing with them with all your effort — you show others that you are ready for the opportunity to excel in your business. In doing so, you become more prosperous. After becoming more prosperous by being an honorable hard-working person, you have more time and energy to devote to balancing your personal and family life. By using all of your will and effort to get tasks done, both small and large, you become wiser and stronger, you are able to do more of what you love, and have more time, energy, and money than ever before. The effort of positivity, honesty, encouragement, and success in daily tasks, is what you will receive in return from your accomplishments.

Stay Positive and be Sage-like

Garth E. Beyer

An Apple A Day, Will Make Success Stay!

Garth Beyer

Every store, every online market, every shop; is a business. And every business has a goal. Already, every goal for a business is the same; they want to succeed. Now as consumers we run over the speed bump too quickly of what the meaning of success is to the owner and how they strive to achieve it. We want what we want when we want it, right?

Wrong. In a world where someone can create a business in less than a month, we find ourselves pushed and forced to make impulse purchases, unacknowledged buys and cheaply made items from one way advertising messages. On top of all that, there is the lack of honest help and service from employees or even the owner.

Just because a customer leaves happy does not mean the business interaction was a success. They might catch an advertisement on TV of the same product being sold cheaper at a closer store, or the item might have broken already, or they come to find that they aren’t even using it. But business owners tend to live in ignorant bliss with this fact.

But not all.

Every now and then, we, as customers, come across a really great store. When was the last time you walked into a store and were actually greeted by the owner of it? What a difference it is to be greeted by the owner then by a paid greeter at Wal-Mart! The first thing you catch is the passion of the owner. Isn’t a passion how every business gets created? Yet through the expansion or the lack of business, customers quickly no longer see the passion, but only see a large red sign that says “SALE”. Let me make a comparison here, there are businesses who will post a sale on a specific item, because they need some extra money or it just needs to be sold. Then there are businesses that charge you the full price but offer you a discount when you go to ring it up because it is your first time there, or the business noticed YOUR passion for what you are buying. Let me tell you, getting items scanned is not a business relationship. And in the long run, a 10% discount beats a “SALE” anyway.

So when was the last time you went to a store where the owner was there and could answer any question about any product? Rare, isn’t it? It is time for everyone to reevaluate the meaning of success. A business ran with passion, overflowing with knowledge and the willingness to share it with their customers, and striving to establish a connection through the business relationship is TRUE SUCCESS!

Credit for this idea of a blog post goes to Apple Wellness (Located in Fitchburg, WI 608-663-2640). I would like to thank Tim O’Brien, owner and manager of Apple Wellness for taking the time to make sure his customers are knowledgeable before their purchases and promoting better health for people through fitness and nutrition. Thanks!

Stay Positive and Have An Apple

Garth E. Beyer

 

Tribes: We Need YOU to Lead Us

Garth Beyer

Tribes, by Seth Godin. Bestselling author of Purple Cow and The Dip.

Here are some short snippets of his book that I wanted to share. Enjoy.

1. “We’re embracing a factory instead of a tribe. The irony is that all of this fear used to be useful. Fear of change is built into most organisms, because change is the first sign of risk. Fear of change in a huge factory is appropriate when efficiency is the order of the day. Today, though, the fear that used to protect us at work is now our enemy; it’s now the thing standing in the way.”

– Even knowing this, I still have fear throughout my work day. I fear bumping into other employees in an awkward moment, I fear discussing the idea of receiving a raise, I fear being turned down and frowned upon when I ask for more duties since I am getting my one task done too quickly. We are nothing without fear, but only if we use the fear. Imagining what you would do if you did not fear the result is the best first step. The next step is breaking it down so you do not overwhelm yourself. You are in control, find a way to use your fear. And let’s face it head on; you may lose out, you may get pushed back, you may get fired, but there will ALWAYS be another spot to be filled! Always. And the next spot you fill, might just be the perfect one. Remember, challenging fears involves other people, and other people have fears too. Persistence and Patience.

2. “‘How was your day?’ is a question that matters a lot more than it seems. It turns out that the people who like their jobs the most are also the ones who are doing the best work, making the greatest impact, and changing the most. Changing the way they see the world, sure, but also changing the world. By challenging the status quo, a cadre of heretics is discovering that one person, just one, can make a huge difference”

– This is why I want to open a College of Passions. (Will be explained in a later blog post)

3. “‘Good Enough’ stopped being good enough a long time ago. So why not be great?”

4. Life’s too short to fight the forces of change. Life’s too short to hate what you do all day. Life’s way too short to make mediocre stuff. And almost everything that’s standard is now viewed as mediocre.”

5. “What people are afraid of isn’t failure. It’s blame. Criticism. We choose not to be remarkable because we’re worried about criticism. We hesitate to create innovative movies, launch new human resource initiatives, design a menu that makes dinners take notice, or give an audacious sermon because we’re worried, deep down, that someone will hate it and call us on it”.

– I only have one thing I want to say; Just because you think no one else is acting does not mean you shouldn’t. The absolute best way to become a leader is to be the first to TRY SOMETHING. Because when it’s a success, you begin leading. You bring out the best in others and this is something our globe needs. People to toss away their fear and start acting on their ideas and passions. Be the ignition!

6. “A fundamentalist is a person who considers whether a fact is acceptable to his religion before he explores it. As opposed to a curious person who explores first then considers whether or not he wants to accept the ramifications. A curious person embraces the tension between his religion and something new, wrestles with it and through it, then decides whether to embrace the new idea or reject it. Curious is the key word. It has nothing to do with income, nothing to do with education, and certainly nothing to do with organized religion. It has to do with a desire to understand, a desire to try, a desire to push whatever envelope is interesting. Leaders are curious because they can’t wait to find out what the group is going to do next. The changes in the tribe are what are interesting, and curiosity drives them.”

– “If you don’t try, you fail.” is part of the tattoo I have on my back.. And it stands true for every “curious” person in the world. Can you recall a time that you tried something because you didn’t want to be the only one not trying it? (I don’t recommend falling your friends if they jump off a cliff) But, now all you need to do is take that same emotion and change the scenario where no one has tried it. Be the first, and be the best.

7. “Faith is critical to all innovation. Without faith, it’s suicidal to be a leader, to act like a heretic. Religion, on the other hand, represents a strict set of rules that our fellow humans have overlaid on top of our faith. Religion supports the status quo and encourages us to fit in, not to stand out.”

– What a new look at faith. LOVE it.

8. “A couple walks by, obviously on their way to bed, having pushed the idea of vacation a little too hard. The woman looks over to me , in a harsh whisper a little quieter than a yell, says to her friend, ‘Isn’t that sad? that guy comes here on vacation and he’s stuck checking his e-mail. He can’t even enjoy his two weeks off.’ I think the real question–the one they probably wouldn’t want to answer–was, ‘Isn’t it sad that we have a job where we spend two weeks avoiding the stuff we have to do fifty weeks a year?”

– What a remarkable view of the event. Overall, wonderful book. It is not something I would push to the top of your reading priorities, but it’s definitely near the top. I got my notes here so I will be sharing this book now with someone else. Exciting. Hope you enjoyed what I posted and check the book out. I’m always here to talk about it if you want.

Stay Positive and Embrace Fear

Garth E. Beyer

Standing Up And Standing Out

Garth Beyer

I had just attended my first TOASTMASTERS CLUB (#137) on Wednesday the 16th at downtown Madison. Speaking has been a passion of mine since I had an audience; my parents. They tell me stories of how I would cry whenever I was alone and never stop with my “baby talk” when I was with people. This was not a habit that could be broken like sucking your thumb.

Diving into middle school I was the most outspoken person in the class. Now, it has gotten me in trouble quite a few times, but that was before I learned how powerful of a speaker I am. Even in my first two years of high school I was Mr. Talkative and always spoke at any events I went to, always contributed my input at conferences or meetings, and always wanted to know more than what I was told; resulting in the fact I asked a lot of questions.

I say that I was like this my first two years of high school because I passed a college admissions test and enrolled in a duel credit program in which I went to college full time for my junior and senior year of high school. That is right, no high school classes at all! I was the president and founder of The Running Start club at Rock Valley College, I gave a speech to all the students and parents of the students who were also enrolled into the duel credit program,  I participated in Model United Nations, I gave the opening speech at my high school graduation,I attended the Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour, and many other events. All of which I was speaking in front of groups, or on the local radio, or on the television. Everyplace I went, not only did I have something to say, but I had something worth hearing. Now that you know some background of me, you can tell how inspired I am about public speaking which results with me attending my first Toastmasters Club meeting the other day.

Back when I lived in Illinois with my dad, I remember him bringing up the Toastmasters club one day. He had joined for about a month so that he could improve his group speaking skills since he is in the Archery teaching business and will have to speak in front of hundreds of kids and parents. I said he joined for about a month because he learned quickly it was not one of his talents, nor did he have the motivation to make it one. Other than that, he may have mentioned to me once more while I still lived there that I would be great at Toastmasters, but I never listened.

I have since moved to Madison Wisconsin with my girlfriend and have taken up a writing job for an entrepreneur, Dale Suslick. Dale is one of my mentors for business and balance management.  He receives a couple speaking engagements each month and it is something that I wish to take up as well. Dale is also part of two Toastmasters clubs. Now you can bet that he has encouraged me to join Toastmasters and I decided that I would go to the next meeting nearest to where I live.  I researched where the meeting was and found that it was on the first and third Wednesday of each month. I was really disappointed that I would have to wait two weeks until the next meeting. I emailed the vice president of public relations for the club expressing my interest in learning more and possibly joining. He offered me a quick response full of information, and at the end he noted when the next meeting was.. was in two days! I must have looked at the calendar wrong. I still did not know if I could make it to the meeting since I was still working on my eBook (Parents Cost Us Money Too).

That Wednesday was an extremely busy day. I worked at my temporary job at the Higher Educational Aids Board for seven hours, and came home and continued writing my eBook for another three hours. I gave myself a deadline to have the eBook done, and I knew I would not reach it if I went to the Toastmasters meeting. But I had to go. I can write more of my eBook every day for the next month, but I would not be able to go to a Toastmasters meeting for at least two weeks, and who knows if something may come up that day. As I said, I had to go. I quickly changed my clothes, sprayed some cologne on, and raced out to wait for the bus. I continued waiting, and waiting, and waiting, until I started considering skipping the meeting and going back home. My jeans were stiffening up from the cold 25 degree winds blowing all over. I stuck it out and got on the bus after waiting nearly twenty minutes out in the brutal cold. (On a side note, for those who did not catch the small lesson in this part of the story. Always take the earlier bus, or leave 10 minutes earlier to a meeting, because you never know what may hold you up. I arrived to the meeting on time because I took the earlier bus.)

I walk into the meeting room about five minutes early and am acknowledged first by a member of the club. His name was Dave and he requests that he is called the Sasquatch because he is slightly over sized and has a long hair and even longer and more thick beard.You can only imagine. I was then introduced to the Toastmaster, Matt. In meeting with him, he asked if I would be the Time Keeper of the meeting. I went into this meeting with an extremely positive attitude and a need to prove myself worthy. I readily accepted and was fed the info I needed to know to behold the responsibilities correctly.

Once the meeting had began and introductions were made, Matt asked everyone if anyone knew a good joke. I immediately raised my hand because I had heard a great joke while listening to some of Zig Ziglers pod-casts at work. In addition to the Time Keeper, I was now the Joke Master as well. Before I continue I would like to update you on how this particular club’s agenda was laid out. Hopefully having more of an idea of what goes on at a meeting will motivate you to join. Each meeting begins with the president giving an improv introduction. Following this the Toastmaster will give a speech reaching out to the members and persuading any noobies to join. Next, table topics are discussed. One person, in my case Dave, got up and began giving a speech about a topic. His topic was “Veterans”. After he spoke about his own experience having a family member that was in the Vietnam War, he began to ask each member in the club different questions related to the topic. He asked everyone a question except me. He was not trying to exclude me, he simply knew that I was new and already had a task I was trying to carry out. Fortunately for me, the Toastmaster interrupted and said that Dave had time to ask one more question, and he suggested to ask me since I had been the only one who had not participated. I was eager to respond since speaking was exactly what I went there for. Since he was all out of questions, I was able to give an impromptu speech related to the topic. I spoke for a minute and ten seconds (I had to time myself) about how my Papa was in the Secret Service and would always tell my family and I stories of when he was in the service. I related this event to reading a sci-fi, horror, military, and historical novel all combined in one. I described that I would hear the story and it would get extremely suspenseful, but I never heard the ending. There was no conclusion in the novel. As I said, my Papa was in the Secret Service and with that he has been sworn to secrecy about a lot of subjects. (All the good stuff!) Everyone loved my speech and applauded greatly.

The time carried on and I kept track of the time it took for the next four speakers who had speeches to present. Then people are selected to evaluate each speaker and they get up and present their feedback. After all the evaluators present their information, the Time Keeper (me), has to tell everyone their times. That was easy enough, but I was also the Joke Master that was next in the agenda. I told everyone how I had been listening to Pod Casts of Zig Zigler (who I highly suggest researching and learning from). I had to say that I could not attach the joke to the motivational story that Zig told because I did not remember it completely and I did not want to butcher his work. I stuck with the joke and I asked everyone, “Why are blind people afraid to sky dive?”. After dead silence and looks of puzzlement all the way around the room, someone shouted out “Why?” I said, “Because it scares their dogs.” Laughter bounced off each wall in the small room as everyone got a kick out of the joke.

The Poem Master was up next and he gave a phenomenal voice to a poem.

Then the quiz master was up and asked us questions to see if we had paid attention to the speeches.

Then the grammarian was up to say how many times people said “uhm”, “uh”, and other various faults.

During the process we were filling out ballets for best table topic, best speech, and best evaluator. The Awards Master was next up and he began by saying that I won the Table Topic award! I was thrilled and jumped up to the podium with excitement and thanks everyone for their votes, shook the Toastmasters hand, and sat back down with such a huge grin on my face that I could eat a banana sideways.

The Toastmaster gave a final discussion and the meeting was over. I could not believe it, I won an award at my first meeting and I was not even an official member! Looking back, I cannot believe that I even considered not going. You need to take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way, especially when it is something that interests you. I hope my story encourages you to give Toastmasters a chance, and your still the opportunity to be connected with other brilliant people. I greatly look forward to the next meeting and you can bet that I will post another blog about my experience.

Do you recall when I said that I often asked a lot of questions in life? Well, I do because I want to learn. So if you have any Public Speaking skills, lessons, websites, blogs, etc. that you would like to share with me, I would be the most grateful. I have a wide variety of experience with speaking and maybe we can connect! Feel free to contact me at TheGarthBox@gmail.com

Stay Positive and Stand Out Among The Others Who Stand Up

– Garth E. Beyer

1 Step For Time Maximization

Garth Beyer

Each and everyone one of us needs to make time for maintenance.  Almost everything we use that will bring us closer to success needs to be warmed up, prepared, kept up to-date, tuned up, ready to go, recharged, and so on. Take cars for example, so many of us need to change the oil in our cars, or change our brake pads. We do not do it because we are wise enough to know that we can be doing more productive things: working on a paper, spending time with our loved one, making business calls. But will the time and effort we spend on not doing maintenance work create more of a benefit than if we blocked out a time period to work on the brakes and change the oil? Some are now thinking that you will just take it in and have it done. Yet, I respond with a similar question. Is paying the extra money to have someone else do it worth it? Is showing your loved one that you are not Mr.SexyMechanic worth it? Is not bonding through teaching your kids how to do it themselves worth it? I know that changing the oil or replacing the brakes on our vehicles is not a top priority, but in asking all that you will be missing out on by not taking the time to do it, move it to the top of our priorities?

It is no different than how humans need time to recharge, to sink in information, to let the feedback loop keep spinning so we learn what we can do better next time. In all honesty, I am not writing now to tell you to make time for maintenance. I am writing to tell you a story to encourage you to TAKE your time for maintenance. As I said, maintenance is never really at the top of our priorities.

On November 15th, 2011 my girlfriend’s safety was my number 1 priority. That day we had planned to go to Dale Suslicks “Currency Is More Than Cash” Un-Workshop. It began at 6:30pm and it was already 5:55pm. Consider that it takes 20 minutes to drive there. That leaves my girlfriend and I 15 minutes to do what we needed to do to get ready. But suddenly I remembered that the car had eaten up all the oil and I had said to my girlfriend earlier that day that we would have to fill our oil up before we left to the Un-Workshop. Since there were no gas stations in the direction we would be heading for at least 15 miles, we were forced to go to the nearest one which was in the small section of town; the ghetto. I pulled as close to the station as possible, ran in, grabbed two quarts of oil, paid for it hastily with my debit card (Once you begin to know me, you will find out that I only like to spend Cash), and ran back out to the car. All the while I checked to make sure the car doors were locked and my girlfriend safe inside while I put the oil in the car. In my haste, I neglected using a funnel to insert the oil and consequently spilled a fair amount of oil. I do not want you to be under the impression that this was the absolute worst place in the world, but it was not normal for my girlfriend and I to be in such a place. So this unfamiliarity lead me to be more fearful and kick the adrenaline in. I quickly closed the hood, tapped the glass to have my girlfriend open the door and we took off. Since my girlfriend and I budget our income, she asked me as she always does after I make a purchase, how much I spent. “I have no clue, but here is the receipt. I just grabbed the first bottle I saw, paid for it and bolted.” As we slowly began leaving the area, she yelled “You spent $30 dollars on two quarts of oil? What the heck!” I did not believe it, I have never spent more than 7 dollars for a quart of oil. But in my hurry, I must have grabbed the most expensive kind. As my mom has always said, “Haste Makes Waste”. Now, my girlfriend is a real positive, go-getter, fun and loving person. With this sort of purchase not in our budget, her initial reaction was logical. We then began to joke about it saying how we loved our car so much that it deserved the best oil there was. We took what many couples would have fought all the way to the meeting about, lightheartedly.

My message to you, in order to maximize your daily, weekly, monthly, yearly time, you can take one step by not only making time for maintenance, but taking time for maintenance. As far as vehicles go, I say expect any maintenance to take an entire day as it should be for our bodies as well. If it takes more than that, than it is not worth using the time that could otherwise be spent more productively. Do not make just enough time to replace your breaks, or recharge your body, or mend a broken friendship. Take extra time to allow for unexpected occurrences, or to simply follow all the way through a task.

Stay Positive and Repaired

Garth E. Beyer