Gillette Stadium

Working on Gillette has some perks - here is my latest "business trip". Nothing better than seeing "P&Gers" trying to kick field goals in the freezing cold!

Also Joia was there!

Stadium thoughts - the filed looks smaller form the stands than it does on TV. Every seat had a great view. BUT once you are on the filed - it seems HUGE. I can't believe how far Brady can throw a football!

Also the filed goal posts are A LOT narrower in person than they look on TV.

Tips for Better Life in 2009

My friend Dave D. sent these to me an I wanted to share them with you!

1. Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. And while you walk, smile. It is the
ultimate anti-depressant.

2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day. Buy a lock if you have
to.

3. Buy a DVR and tape your late night shows and get more sleep.

4. When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement, 'My
purpose is to __________ today.'

5. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy.

6. Play more games and read more books than you did in 2008.

7. Make time to practice meditation, yoga, tai chi, and prayer. They
provide us with daily fuel for our busy lives.

8. Spend time with people over the age of 70 and under the age of 6.

9. Dream more while you are awake.

10. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is
manufactured in plants.

11. Drink green tea and plenty of water.. Eat blueberries, wild Alaskan
salmon, broccoli, almonds & walnuts.

12. Try to make at least three people smile each day.

13. Clear clutter from your house, your car, your desk and let new and
flowing energy into your life.

14. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, energy vampires, issues of
the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest
your energy in the positive present moment.

15. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are
simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class
but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.

16. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a
college kid with a maxed out charge card.

17. Smile and laugh more. It will keep the energy vampires away.

18. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

20. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

21. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

22. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.

23. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey
is all about.

24. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

25. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: 'In five years, will
this matter?'

26. Forgive everyone for everything.

27. What other people think of you is none of your business.

28. GOD heals almost everything.
29. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

30. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will.
Stay in touch.

31. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

32. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

33. The best is yet to come.

34. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

35. Do the right thing!

36. Call your family often. (Or email them to death!!!) Hey I'm thinking
of ya!

37. Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements: I am
thankful for __________. Today I accomplished _________.

38. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.

39. Enjoy the ride. Remember this is not Disney World and you certainly
don't want a fast pass. You only have one ride through life so make the
most of it and enjoy the ride.

40. Please Forward this to everyone you care about.

May your troubles be less, May your blessings be more, May nothing but
happiness come through your door!

Me - In Trophies

The last time I was home - I cleaned out my closet in my childhood bedroom. As a quick aside I feel like I had a unique experience in that my parents have lived in their home for over 30 years - so I grew up in that one house for the 23 years I lived in Massachusetts. Most of my junk was moved out long ago (and probably thrown out since) but a few things remained. So I found it amusing that I found 3 trophies from my childhood - and perhaps the only 3 surviving trophies. But if I could only pick 3 to describe who I am - these are a pretty good bunch.

The trophies are:
- 1st Place in a Problem Solving competition in Junior High (which is pretty representative of the Engineer in me).
- A Little League Baseball Championship Trophy (and I still play softball today)
- A Drama Award which I believe was for a play I wrote, directed and produced as part of our student written plays competition. I am most bummed that my creative side is not being utilized as much today as it used be be (be it acting, writing, music etc).



I guess if I were to take my own advice about "Not discarding any of your disconnected interests" I should look to find a regular outlet for the creative arts part of me now.

Don't Discard!

Here's that great speech by Steve Tomlinson about not discarding any of your passions in life. If you have 3 very separate career interests, keep them all going because you might not yet see how they will all come together.

I tried to link to this before, but here it is! Enjoy the video (although it's just audio!).

Great Quotes

I read this quote in "The 4-Hour Workweek" that I have to share. Especially since I often hear from friends, co-workers (and myself!) about the drudgery of the corporate world. This quote puts "the worst case career scenario" in perspective:

"Getting fired... is often a godsend. Someone else makes the [difficult] decision for you, and it's impossible to to sit in the wrong job for the rest of your life. Most people aren't lucky enough to get fired and die a slow spiritual death over 20-30 years of tolerating the mediocre." - "The 4-Hour Workweek"

Another related quote comes to mind

"All courses of action are risky, so prudence is not in avoiding danger (it's impossible), but calculating risk and acting decisively. Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer." - Niccolo Machiavelli

I have heard a lot of positive feedback from the Steve Jobs speech posted in my blog, however the Steve Tomlinson speech is even better! Since many people prefered to watch Steve Job's speech than to click the little play button of Steve Tomlinson's, I found a link to the text of his speech that is pretty close to the one I liked so much. I hope you have the strength to get through a fairly long text (10-15 min read). Also assuming the audio is working (sometimes the site is down) feel free to try the link again from my blog Less is more & Doing what you love!

10% of a Promotion

"Love of bustle is not industry" - SENECA

I got a promotion at work today, only it had nothing to do with my career. I officially got approval to my proposal to work Less Than Full Time (LTFT) at 90%. What does this mean? It means I don't have to go to work every other Friday and it's genius. I consider it a promotion to 10% freedom!

At work we have a Flexible Work Schedule (FWS) in which you can work LTFT. Often women with young children or returning from maternity leave work LTFT. Not so often do men take advantage of this, even less often men who don't have children yet. Just last week I thought, "Why not me?"

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." - George Bernard Shaw

Since I knew immediately that I wanted to do this, it really happened fast! The timeline looked a little bit like this.

Monday (Memorial Day) - Reading "Living the 80 / 20 Way" on the porch with Shelby. Since I enjoy these days off - a lightning bolt hits me to work LTFT.
Tuesday - Research company policy and plan my proposal (including convincing argument)
Wednesday - Approved by Human Resources
Thursday - Approved by Section Head
Today - Approved by Director

By no means should you take my excitement to be boastful. I know how fortunate I am that my company has this policy, and that I am in a position to take it. And certainly this is not for everyone. The career implications on paper put me a mere 10% behind, but to many "old-school" managers it is an unwritten black mark I am sure. At the very least the communication to "management" is probably "take me off the fast track" and I am comfortable with that (see my previous entry entitled "Less is more & Doing what you love!")

I could go on and on about my passion for Work / Life balance but Penelope Trunk sums it up better. So I will just end with a Top 9 list that my co-worker Rachel wrote (I only get 90% of a Top 10 list).

Here are the Top 9 Reasons I am working LTFT according to Rachel:
9) More time to create Shelby YouTube videos.
8) Minimize the number of QA compliance days to participate in.
7) Safe way to test if he can make a living blogging.
6) One less commute every other week reduces his carbon footprint.
5) Figured it would be a way to kick start his plan to drop living expenses to zero (inside joke).
4) Court ordered community service had to be squeezed in (not really).
3) Uninterrupted day trading.
2) Couldn't fit in enough Guitar Hero practice without cutting into sleeping.
1) Shelby's modeling career is taking off and this allows more freedom to schedule her photo shoots.

Since the LTFT program is completely reversible on my part, there seems to be very little risk. I will blog in the future about how I am using my "days off" and the value I would place on them.

Also be sure to post a comment to share your thoughts on Work / Life balance.

Less is more & Doing what you love!

You may have heard it, but I am on a less is more kick. Less working, more living. Anyways here's a collection of motivational materials related to improving your life and doing more of what you love!

Quick Story:
Thanks to: "Living the 80/20 Way"

     Thinking about lunch, the vacationing businessman stared at the calm, blue sea. A small boat, laden with large yellow-fin tuna, docked near the pretty Mexican village. A lone fisherman jumped ashore.
     "That's a great catch," said the tourist. "How long did it take you?"
     "Not so long," replied the Mexican.
     "Why didn't you stay out there longer and catch more fish? It's only noon!"
     "That's enough fish to keep the family provided for," replied the fisherman.
     "What do you do with the rest of your time?"
     "Sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, have lunch, take a siesta with my wife, Maria. Stroll into the village each evening, sip wine, play guitar and cards with my amigos - a full and rich life, señor."
     "I think I could help you," the visitor said, wrinkling his nose. "I'm a Harvard MBA and this is the advice you'd get in business school. Spend more time fishing each day, buy a bigger boat, make more money, then buy several boats until you have a fleet. Don't sell your catch to the middleman, sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You'd control the product, production and distribution. You could then leave this small town behind, move to Mexico City, then Los Angeles, perhaps eventually New York City to run your expanding firm."
     "But señor, how long would this take?"
     "Fifteen, twenty years."
     "But what then, señor?"
     "That's the best part," the businessman laughed. "When the time is right, you could float on the stock market and make millions of dollars."
     "Hmmm, millions you say. What then, señor?"
     "Then you could retire. Move to a pretty village by the sea, sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, Maria, stroll to the village in the evenings, sip wine, and play guitar and cards with your friends!"


Two of my Favorite Speeches:
Thanks to Ivette for these!

1) Steve Tomlinson:

   Click the little "Play" to hear .

Listen up until he takes questions from the audience.

2) Steve Jobs:


I've listened to both a bunch of times now!

Stop and Hear the Music!

Have you heard the cliche "stop and smell the roses?" I was never one to smell many flowers, having allergies and all. But I have stumbled upon a great story that will coin the phrase "stop and hear the music!"

Are we all too busy and self-involved? What are we running around for, aren't we busily passing the wonders of the world around us? I think these were the questions the Washington Post was trying to answer.

What happens when you take:
1) A world famous violinist who makes $1,000 per minute when performing
2) Put him in a busy subway dressed as a street performer
3) Have him play 43 minutes of the word's most amazing classical music on his $3.5 million dollar violin.

When 1,070 people will pass this performance what do you think will happen? Will crowds gather? Will they delay their commutes for a once in a life time treat? How much money will the musician make?

The sad answers are $32.17 and very few people seemed to care (only 7 people stopped for more than 1 minute).

The whole experiment was video taped and there is an excerpt in the article. While the article is long I recommend it, it's a great read especially to hear how the world famous musician Joshua Bell felt when a song would end and no one applauded. I guess people had something more important to do that hour with their lives (sarcasm). You could of course make an arguemnt about people not recognizing the "opportunity" presented to them (shout out to Kenny) but really isn't that the point, we are moving too fast to recognize all the potential around us. I know one fellow blogger who might have been on her blackberry the whole time :)

On many occasions while out for a walk, Shelby and I stop and watch the squirrels. It's a start!

Stop and hear the music!

It's painful to watch.

Here is the full article
Pearls Before Breakfast: Can one of the nation's great musicians cut through the fog of a D.C. rush hour?

Also here is a link to the entire performance in the subway (audio only)
At the 14th minute there is a great version of Ave Maria