First Post

Weblog and random thoughts by Daniel Chirstopher

Life Goals:

"If you're coasting, it means you're moving downhill"

Success tips: 1. DonŐt wait for a revolutionary idea. It will never happen. Just focus on a simple, exciting, empty space and execute as fast as possible 2. Share your idea. The more you share, the more you get advice and the more you learn. Meet and talk to your competitors. 3. Build a community. Use blogging and social software to make sure people hear about you. 4. Listen to your community. Answer questions and build your product with their feedback. 5. Gather a great team. Select those with very different skills from you. Look for people who are better than you. 6. Be the first to recognise a problem. Everyone makes mistakes. Address the issue in public, learn about and correct it. 7. DonŐt spend time on market research. Launch test versions as early as possible. Keep improving the product in the open. 8. DonŐt obsess over spreadsheet business plans. They are not going to turn out as you predict, in any case. 9. DonŐt plan a big marketing effort. ItŐs much more important and powerful that your community loves the product. 10. DonŐt focus on getting rich. Focus on your users. Money is a consequence of success, not a goal.

Exercise/Eating Healthy Foods - Including walking, running, swimming, rollerblading, bicycling, resistance exercise, yoga, pilates, taking the stairs, drinking plenty of water, drinking healthy tea, taking vitamins and/or minerals, practicing martial arts, and eating foods in the proper proportions and at the proper times of day.

Staying Focused on Mindset and Tasks - Including being mindful of the proper mindset for any given situation, avoiding stress by knowing when to say "no", staying focused on the task(s) at hand, listening to your intuition, consistently working on tasks that lead to goal attainment, being persistent or having a high level of perseverance, being focused on the journey rather than the reward, taking one step at a time, reminding yourself why you are doing what you are doing, giving your best effort every single time, and practicing affirmations.

Finding Joy/Happiness - Including the realization that we can create joy from our own state of mind, observations of the many things in our lives to be joyful about, having fun, smiling, laughing, appreciating life/nature, not taking life too seriously, enjoying the little things, doing what you want to do at any given moment, having a cheerful attitude, loving your work or your career, living/working with passion, celebrating your successes, living every day as if it is your last, and acting silly.

Practice Gratitude - Including reflecting on life, being grateful for wonderful events, for lessons that have been learned, for health, for opportunities, for other people in our lives, for the beauty of nature, for jobs and careers, and for technology. Also, thinking of things before bed and again upon rising to be grateful for, and not taking people or situations for granted.

Visualize/Clarify short and long-term Goals - Including visualizing the future, setting new goals, reading goal lists, clarifying and documenting desired outcomes, saying goals out loud, making/focusing on vision boards and other goal reminders, setting intentions, practicing Law of Attraction principles, and reevaluating and refocusing on your goals when circumstances change

Learning from other People - Including emulating successful behavior, avoiding mistakes that other people have made, learning something new every day, and engaging in interesting conversations

Practice Personal Growth/Self Development - Including asking "How can I?" questions, reading personal development articles, books, & blogs, surrounding yourself with positive/empowering people, committing to personal or spiritual transformations, being self-sufficient, and listening to, reading, or watching motivational or inspirational content.

Not being Afraid/Pushing your Limits - Including taking on challenging projects, setting hard to reach goals, accepting difficult employment assignments, trying new things, asking for help, saying "no", and taking risks. Also includes getting outside of your comfort zone, continuing to focus on a task even when you think you can't do it anymore, doing things that you wouldn't normally do, putting yourself in difficult situations so that you have no choice but to perform, having big dreams, and embracing the unknown.

Helping Others - Including social work, forgiving others for past misgivings, being available when others need assistance, opening up, donating time or money, giving back/paying it forward, giving advice/feedback to others, knowing when not to give advice, helping others to attain greater heights, and being generous

Be Confident in who you Are - Including coming up with your own solutions to problems, choosing appropriate advice to take that is given by others, believing in yourself and your abilities, believing in your career or choice of business, leveraging your personal strengths, knowing your weaknesses, having great love for yourself, and making eye contact with other people. Also, not being afraid to be yourself, admitting your mistakes, not modifying your personality to suit the needs of others, allowing yourself to be at ease as you go through life, and making personal observations about yourself so that you can make modifications as you see fit.

Doing things Differently - Including interacting with people in different ways than the norm, taking a different path than others take or that is expected of you, questioning present systems or management guidelines, and doing what you want to do regardless of what other people think. Also includes standing up for your rights, standing your ground for what you believe in, "sticking to your guns" even when others don't believe in your ideals, allowing your beliefs to power your life, and remaining effective as a parent despite social stigmas, expectations, or standards.

Get up Early - Including getting out of bed before other members of the household, getting up early enough to accomplish tasks before the busy parts of the day, enjoying quiet time before the world wakes up, and getting up at the same time on the weekends as during the week.

Having a Positive Attitude - Including looking on the bright side, not succumbing to negativity, not allowing circumstances to dictate your level of happiness, practicing forgiveness, and removing negative people and influences from your life.

Get out in Nature - Including going for walks, hiking, gardening, sitting outside, enjoying fresh air, and general communing

Prayer/Spirituality - Including active prayer, mindfulness of spirituality, reading from religious texts, working inline with specific religious beliefs, practicing devotion, and examining existence or spirituality.

Ask the Right Questions - Including "How much can I do with my life today?", "Am I fully committed, yet completely detached?", "How can I feel good today?", "How can I make the impossible possible?", "What is my body thinking and feeling and what does it want?", and "What is the next obvious thing that I should do?

Never, in peace or in war, commit your virtue or happiness to the future. Happy work is best done by the man who takes his long-term plans somewhat lightly and works from moment to moment "as to the Lord." It is only for our daily bread that we are encouraged to ask for. The present is the only time in which any duty can be done or any grace received. -CS Lewis (The Weight of Glory, pg 61)

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Ephesians 5:1-2

"The men where you live," said the little prince, "raise five thousand roses in the same garden--and they do not find in it what they are looking for." "The do not find it," I replied. "And yet what they are looking for could be found in single rose, or in a little water." "Yes, that is true," I said. And the little prince added: "But the eyes are blind. One must look with the heart..." The Little Prince pg. 77

The baker who does not eat his own rolls will find it hard to sell them to others. -German Proverb

We are priests when we create beauty in music or other forms of art and when we teach the next generation to do the same--and when whe appreciate beauty, which Scripture sometimes uses as asynonym for God. We are priests until the moment when our last priestly act might be to let doctors and nurses, friends and family tent us in love. -Christianity Today

A lot of holy work boils down to non-holy work done well. -Christianity Today

Commit thy ways to the lord, trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass. Psalm 37:5

All a man's ways seem right to him, but the LORD weighs the heart. -Proverbs 21:2

"There are no safe paths in this part of the world" -Gandalf (The Hobbit)

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight Proverbs 3:5-6

The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace. Exodus 14:14

And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the LORD, to deliver thee. Jeremiah 1:19

"Wisdom" is the biblical term for this on-earth-as-it-is-in-heaven everyday living. Wisdom is the art of living skillfully in whatever actual conditions we find ourselves. -The Message (intro to proverbs)

"Even in the worst case, mistakes of action teach you much more than inaction. Forward!" -Garry Kasparov (How Life Imitates Chess)

Christ in our hearts, Christ in the poor we meet, Christ in the smile we give and in the smile that we receive. -Mother Theresa

While creativity for its own sake is a smart way to strengthen your lateral thinking skills and to align your work with what you love to do, itŐs when you create something useful to others that you add value to the world. -Copyblogger.com

Spending too much, or too little. I know of a small business owner thatŐs been running on empty for some time, not because heŐs blown his budget, but because he attempts to save money by trying to learn and do absolutely everything, from accounting to programming to design to copywriting. He spends the majority of his time on areas that could Ń or should Ń be delegated, and generally achieves less than desirable results. Meanwhile, he neglects his core business and his customers, which is crippling his growth potential and very existence. Sometimes it makes sense to focus what youŐre good at and delegate the rest to qualified specialists.

I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best of advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite. J.K. Chesterton

"...does this mean that everything-everything-that is in us can go on to the Mountains?" "Nothing, not event he best and noblest, can go on as it now is. Nothing, not even what is lowest and most bestial, will not be raised again if it submits to death. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. Flesh and blood cannot come to the Mountains. Not because they are too rank, but because they are too weak. What is a Lizard compared with a stalion? Lust is a poor, week, whimpering whispering thing compared with that richness and energy of desire which will arrise when lust has been killed." -The Great Divorce, PG 104 C.S. Lewis

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issue from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can begin it. Boldness has genius, magic and power in it. Begin it now. -Goethe

God wants to give us something, but cannot, because our hands are full -- there's nowhere for Him to put it. -St Augustine (Make sure to let go of all your material possessions and illusiory sources of happiness so that God can give you the true gift that he intends for you)

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable. - Helen Keller

"We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about." Ń Charles Kingsley

"So act as to treat humanity, whether in thine own person or in that of any other, in every case as an end withal, never as a means only." -Immanuel Kant

Our interactions with one another give us the material to create, our alone time is where we allow ourselves to create. We must balance them. -Steve-Olson.com

Turn everything into an opportunity. Find the angle. Make the connection. If youŐre selling a blue box and everyone wants red boxes, find a new way of doing it. Either find a new market for your blue boxes, or paint them red, or do something. Success doesnŐt just fall in your lap. -instigatorblog.com

To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour. -William Blake

"Lord, grant that I might not so much seek to be loved as to love." -Saint Francis of Assisi

"What really counts in life is that at some time you have seen something, felt something, which is so great, so matchless, that everything else is nothing by comparison, that even if you forgot everything, you would never forget this." -Soren Kierkegaard

"To be truly prosperous one must live in a state of joyous expectation" -energymuse.com

"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." -Abe Lincoln

You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it true. You may have to work for it, however. -Richard Bach (Illusions)

If your happiness depends on what somebody else does, I guess you do have a problem -Richard Bach (Illusions)

If you want freedom and joy so much, can't you see that its not anywhere outside of you? Say you have it, and you have it! Act as if its your's, and it is! -Richard Bach (Illusions)

Argue for your limitations and you get to keep them -Richard Bach (Illusions)

Every person, all the events of your life are there because you have drawn them there. What you choose to do with them is up to you -Richard Bach (Illusions)

You don't do anything. Cosmic law, remember? Like attracts like. Just be who you are, calm and clear and bright. Automatically, as we shine who we are, asking ourselves every minute is this what I really want to do, doing it only when we answer yes, automatically that turns away those who have nothing to learn from who we are and attracts those from whom we have to learn, as well. -Richard Bach (Illusions)

Here's a test to find out if your mission in life is finished: If you're alive, it isn't. -Richard Bach (Illusions)

Don't be dismayed at good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends. -Richard Bach (Illusions)

[God] wants to bring the man to a state of mind in which he could design the best catherdral in the world, and know it to be the best, and rejoice in the fact, without being any more (or less) or otherwise glad at having done it than he would be if it had been done by another. [God] wants him, in the end, to be so free from any bias in his own favor that he can rejoice in his own talets as frankly and gratefully as in his neighbour's talents -- or in a sunrise, an elephant, or a waterfall. He wants each man, in the long run, to be able to recognise all creatures (even himself) as glorious and excellent things. He wants to kill their animal self-love as soon as possible; but it is His long-term policy to restore to them a new kind off self-love--a charity and gratitude for all selves, including their own when they have really learned to love their neighbours as themselves, they will be allowed to love themselves as their neighbors. -CS Lewis (Screwtape letters)

The present is the point in time which touches eternity. -CS Lewis (Screwtape letters)

Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, For wisdom and power belong to Him. It is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men And knowledge to men of understanding. It is He who reveals the profound and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells within him. -Daniel Ch2 verse 20-22

I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalites, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our lord. -Romans Ch9 verse 38-39

"If passion is what wakes you up in the morning, gives you a bigger jolt than a cup of oil-thick coffee, and keeps you awake at night with excitement for the next day É youŐre an entrepreneur. You should look at starting a new business. Passion leads to everything else - personal freedom, personal development, etc. Without passion youŐll be hard pressed to succeed. If youŐre really, really, really passionate I might just put money on your horse." -Startupspark.com

I would like to thrive and find myself in an environment filled with passionate, hard working people. I would like to always find myself in situations which I can live from and grow within.

  • Create a network of successful content/media sites
  • Read the entire bible
  • Manage my money extremely well
  • Attain a helicoptors pilot's license
  • Attain a Masters Degree
  • Develop my musical skills/knowledge, tour in a band
  • Circle the globe
  • Produce/Own a top 500 internet destination.
  • Own an office space in downtown portland
    • Create a flexible environment of passionate people who have the freedom to follow their dreams while they passionately produce good work for the company.
    • They can spend time working and benefiting themselves while helping me with my inspiration
    • People I can work with and learn from
    • Employs about 15-18 people