500 Days of Flossing

Just a quick update. Today I flossed for the 500th day in a row. Pretty crazy, right? I've been using an app called Lift to track my progress and it's worked great. I've talked about the app before and this goal in particular. So I just wanted to give myself a big pat on the back. :)

In other news, I've done push-ups for 158 days in a row. I'm up to doing 42 in a row. My goal is to do 70 in a row by the end of the year and I think I stand a chance of hitting that goal.

Gardens Are Weird

Gardens are weird. I'll admit that.

From a pure economic standpoint, individual gardens don't make a ton of sense. It's the opposite of economies of scale and specialized work, which tend to maximize output (and returns). In theory, I should spend my time doing something I'm great at (like analyzing data), earn my maximum potential, and then buy food at the store. Even if I buy local organic food, they can grow it more efficiently, and probably even healthier than I can, at a lower overall cost.

As a economist, it's hard not to think about that.

But them I'm also a male... who would just as easily spend my hard earned money buying pizza instead of something genuinely healthy. Anyways...

Now we found ourselves looking to expand our garden from one bed, to four. And not so we can specialize in one specific crop and trade with our neighbors, but so we can grow a variety of foods for us to eat (and let's be honest, have less grass to mow).

Why?

Because it's fun. I really don't want to sit at a computer ALL DAY doing work. And this is an excuse to go outside and hang out with Jessi.

Because fresh food tastes excellent. Pizza sauce made 100% from the garden just tastes better!

Because it does still provide an opportunity to trade with neighbors and build relationships. It also provides opportunities to strike up conversations while watering/weeding/harvesting.

And because in the end there is more to life than maximizing economic output. Which is exactly the argument I'm going to use when I suggest we buy a moisture sensor that will regulate when we water the lawn (because that "investment" will never make sense).

This year we're planning on growing a bunch of things like: tomatoes, peas, corn, sun flowers, pumpkins, asparagus, sweat potatoes, and watermelons (maybe... we hear it's tough in Oregon). Some herbs include, fennel, oregano, basil, and parsley.

If you have any suggestions, we'd love to hear about it. If we run out of room, that just means we'll have to expand again next year. :)

The Story Behind the Corvallis Pulse

The past 5 months, I've had the privilege of helping organize an amazing event in Corvallis. It's called the Corvallis Pulse and is happening Wednesday, February 26th from 8am - 2pm at LaSells Stewart Center Austin Auditorium. It's going to feature 8 Corvallis business leaders who will share their own perspective and insights on the state of the Corvallis market. Each talk will be concise and information packed – no more than 20 minutes each. You'll also have the opportunity to discuss, debate, and dive deeper with each speaker during breaks. The cost of the event is $25. Lunch will be served and the event is not-for-profit. All net proceeds and donations will be given to Benton Habitat for Humanity in Corvallis.

The event is going to be great! This is the story behind the Corvallis Pulse.

The Seed of an Idea
It started back in October when my realtor, Lee Eckroth, came to me with an idea. I had been making real estate reports for him for the last couple years and that report was now starting to be used by the entire Town & Country Realty office. In other words, it was incredibly useful.

So, at the end of a real estate investor club meeting, Lee comes to me with this idea, "What if I turned the report into a presentation and talked about it  for four hours." My response: "I love the idea, except for the part where you talk for four hours."

Ha ha. We all laugh at the awkwardness of my blunt statement.

But the seed of the idea is there.

We started talking about the importance of real estate. How it plays an essential role in our personal lives and in the economy. How residential real estate provides housing for families, and is an important source of wealth and savings. How commercial real estate creates spaces for jobs in retail, offices and manufacturing. How real estate income provides a source of revenue for many!

Lee's office manager, Jenny, did some research and found that when you buy or sell a home you have more of an impact than you probably ever thought, affecting a lot more people than you thought as well. A resale affects approximately 50 people's lives and incomes directly (i.e., real estate agent, broker manager, listing agent office, title company, loan officer, appraiser, home inspector, home warranty company, mortgage insurance agent, handyman, plumber, moving truck service, gas stations, hotel, etc.). According to the National Association of Realtors, when a home is sold in Oregon (Median Price $210,800):

• Income generated from real estate related industries is $18,972.
• Additional expenditure on consumer items such as on furniture and appliances is $5,647.
• Expenditure on remodeling within 2 years of purchase is $4,451.
• It also generates an economic multiplier impact with greater spending at restaurants, sports games, and charity events. The size of this "multiplier" effect is estimated to be $13,953.

Crazy, right? We started to hone in on this idea that real estate really is the pulse of the economy. Don't believe me? Look at what happened in 2007 when real estate crashed... The rest of the economy followed.

Inspiration!
So we knew giving some kind of real estate update would be valuable to the community, but the idea of Lee giving a four hour talk still sounded horrible. Then inspiration hit... what if we did something similar to TED? We could have 8 speakers talk for 20 minutes each instead of 1 for 4 hours. They could each bring their own perspective of how the Corvallis market is doing.

We also knew this could be a great time to create discussions and so we wanted time for individuals to be able to meet with each speaker. The name of the event wrote itself: The Pulse of the Valley 2014: Corvallis Real Estate Forum.

Fun fact: Corvallis means "Heart of the Valley". Boom!

We started floating this idea to others and they loved it. Town & Country, Mortgage Express & the Corvallis Chamber of Commerce all instantly jumped on board to sponsor the event. We even had another company so inspired by the event that they're given an additional donation to Habitat. Now all we had to do was find speakers and put the event together.


IN Corvallis, ABOUT Corvallis, FOR Corvallis
We also quickly decided this had to be bigger than Lee. In following the Go-Giver model we wanted this event to be a gift to Corvallis. We intentionally decided to NOT make this a recruiting event. Sure, Town & Country is sponsoring the event and Lee is one of the eight speakers, but they are going out of their way to make it clear it's not about them. Plus, next year we want to have different sponsors and speakers which will really help drive the point home that it's bigger than all of us.

One person we're excited to have on board is Julie Manning, the Mayor of Corvallis. She'll be giving an introduction to the event. Again, because she recognizes that it's an event ABOUT Corvallis, FOR Corvallis.

Furthermore, our intent is to package up this event by creating guides and how-to's and give it away for others to put on in their cities. If a bank in Salem wants to put on the event, they can. Again, this event is bigger than just us and Corvallis.

Why $25?
We get asked this question a lot. Why charge $25? We already have sponsors and the money is going to Benton Habitat for Humanity. Good question. We started out with a desire for attendees to have skin in the game and for them to also be giving to Corvallis as they walked in the door.

Our first idea was to require 3 cans of food... but we quickly decided we didn't want to manage that. I'll be honest, I wanted to charge $50 to send the message that this is a premium event. The Pulse Team had a better idea: charge less and give the money away. For professionals, who are expensing it anyways, $25 is manageable.

Some courses charge hundreds of dollars for their material and I like they way they think about it. They'll say things like, "If you're in business, you know the value of what I'm sharing and the great price I'm offering it at. If not, it probably means you're not actually in business and so this course isn't for you." That's how I like to think of this event too. If you don't want to pay $25, you probably won't be inspired to take action on what you learn anyways. For a deeper understanding, read about 1,000 True Fans by Kevin Kelly.

Adding The Magic Touch
My wife, Jessi, is the Director of Wow in Lee's office (another reason why I got roped in to helping). Her job is to add wow to everything. She doesn't think she does a good job of it, but everyone else knows better. I like to think of her as "Quality Control". Her expectations of "good enough" are so high that something has to be perfect, and awe-inspiring before she likes it. We joke all the time that I need to run everything I create (charts, videos, blog posts) by her before sharing broadly because she represents the normal person. That's partially true (I can be an odd duck), but it also because she catches ALL my little mistakes and forces me to make it better.

What was I talking about?

Oh yeah! Jessi and Jenny have been working super hard to make this event magical. We do that literally in one way by having Hart Keene act as our emcee. He's a magician who's been on America's Got Talent! and does "strolling mingle magic". We think it'll make the event really special. We also have food, gift bags, inspirational quotes, greeters and great music. In many ways, it's a mini-convention.

If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm really excited about this event. I've gotten to preview each of the speakers talks, and I guarantee you'll be empowered with knowledge and inspired to action. I know Jessi and I are already changing our plans based on what we've learned. If you can make it, I strongly encourage you to register and come.

I'm honestly not sure how we're going to top this next year.

It's REALLY Hard to be Excellent at More Than One Thing

I've come to the conclusion that is REALLY hard to be excellent at more than one thing. Here's why.

Since we don't have a TV, I haven't been watching the Olympics, but I have been getting regular news updates. These updates often include who wins the gold medals, especially those who win multiple medals.

For example, today I read about American Ted Ligety who won the Alpine skiing giant slalom gold medal. From what I understand, he's pretty good at skiing. He's so good in fact that beside Ted Ligety, the only other American to win two Olympic golds in Alpine skiing was Andrea Mead Lawrence, who took both the women's slalom and giant slalom at the 1952 Oslo Games.

That's just crazy, right? There are only TWO Americans to win multiple golds in Alpine skiing. And this is just one example of a bunch of updates I've gotten. I'm catching a big lesson here:

It's REALLY hard to be excellent at more than one thing.

That should ring true if you read Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers. If it takes 10,000 hours to become great at something, you inherently have to NOT spend your time doing other things. If you never focus, then you never reach your 10,000 hours.

Want proof? Just look at these athletes: It's rare to win gold at more than one event. The reason is because they picked one and focused on it. If they practiced multiple events, they probably wouldn't even be at the Olympics.

I'll be honest, this is a tough conclusion for me to come to. I want to be excellent... and multiple things... and I find myself getting frustrated that I'm only good at a bunch of things. I suppose that means I need to make a choice: either focus on one thing and become excellent, or come to terms with being good a a bunch of things. I've made a choice by default, but I'd like it to be more intentional.

I guess it all depends on what I want in life. I've noticed that most renown people... people who change the world (or win Olympics)... were singularly focused. Do I want to change the world? Does changing my local community require the same type of focus? What about just being excellent at my job? My intuition says yes, but my heart wants more...

Clearly I'm still wrestling with this reality.

Image: nydailynews.com

Setting Intentional Goals to Reach Big Results

Here's quick update just to share that we paid off another student loan this month! Only 2 more to go! Yes, that's even after taking a vacation to Florida.

Since we're still living off the high of that trip, we decided to skip the fun month and go straight to the next loan. I'm definitely starting to smell the barn too. :)

The next loan is just over $10,000. Assuming we don't get anything back for a tax return it'll take us until July to pay off that loan. Last year's tax return was large enough to fund our down payment on our house (Tax benefits are one of the many perks of a side business), so I'm fairly certain we'll get something back which will bump up our payoff date by a month or two.

Then we'll just have the big one left, which is currently $26,500. That'll take us a full year to pay off if nothing changes. Of course, something always changes...

We set out to pay off all our loans in 5 years... and now we'll finish in 3.5 years. That's what happens when you become INTENTIONAL about something. You put in a LOT of FOCUSED work, but the results are FASTER, BIGGER and BETTER than you ever imagined. That's the Slight Edge principle.

If you have something you want to accomplish. Write it down as a goal, along with a plan on how to accomplish it. By becoming intentional about it, you'll make progress and the results will be better than you imagined. It might not feel like much at first, but it'll add up over time.

When we started, we could only afford $202 extra each month. 5 months later, we "found" an extra $85 to pile on. Then another $63, $3, $15, and $185. Then we drastically changed our living situation and added $477 to the pile! None of those sound huge, but they add up to $1,030 a month. We couldn't jump straight to that amount. When we got a pay raise at wok or earned money from a side gig, it went on the pile. When we saved on electricity by turning down the heat & wearing sweatshirts, it went on the pile. We did it by taking little steps and making little intentional decisions every month. You can do the same thing with your goal.

Again, I encourage you to write down your goal and start down the path of accomplishing it. Start with what you can reasonably give. Then watch over time as you find ways to do even more than you thought possible.

Image: wikipedia.org

Homemade Lara Bars

I know, I know my blog posts are spotty at best. But alas, here I am.

I was inspired recently so I wanted to share a food discovery.

I love Lara bars. Yes, love is the right word to describe how I feel about this food. They are convenient, all natural, filling, granola-bar alternatives that are simple and delicious.

The only downside is that they are usually $1 per bar which if you're eating 1 per day (ok, let's be honest I've been known to have 2 or even 3 on the particularly busy day) that adds up! Everytime I had a bar I read the ingredients and loved that I recognized everything on the list...things like dates, peanuts, cashews, dried cranberries. And I often thought to myself...I could make that.

So, I tried it. We had some mixed nuts in the pantry as well as some sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, dried cranberries, banana chips, and walnuts. I picked up some dried dates from Winco and threw them all in the blender. After things were nicly chopped I pressed the mixture into a dish and put it in the fridge to harden. After a few hours I sliced them into bars wrapped them in baking paper and viola!

I decided to see if I would actually save money by making my own bars. Here is what I found out:

Let's break down the costs:

Lara Bars: $1 per bar

If on average I eat 7 bars a week (that's low balling it) that would come out to ~$28 per month.

To make my homemade fruit and nut bars (I by no means want to rip-off the Lara Bar name) I spent about $9.50 which made me 15 bars. So dividing $9.50/15 I get $.63. Wow! $.63 cents per bar! So, doing the monthly math if I have 7 bars a week that would come out to ~$18.

Homemade bars: $.63 per bar about ~$18 per month.

Thats over an additional weeks worth of bars at the $1 per bar price in savings!

The savings are amazing and here's another upside. I can choose exactly what flavors I want and can mix in healthy add-ins like flax meal and wheat bran. Here are some of the recipes I came up with:




Carribean Island Getaway
1 C dried dates
1/2 C island dried fruit mix (pineapple, cranberries, mango, bananas)
1/2 C dried coconut flakes (no sugar added)
1 T pumpkin seeds
1 T flax meal
1 T wheat bran

Gone Nutty
1 C dried dates
1 T each: peanuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, almonds
1 T flax meal
1 T wheat bran

Peanut Butter Cookie
1 C dried dates
3/4 C peanuts
2 T flax meal
2 T wheat bran






For each recipe... Chop finely in a blender or food processor. Press into a dish or pan. Let chill for 2 hours. Slice into bars and enjoy!

Hopefully you are also inspired to try this healthy, on-the-go snack!

Jessi

P.S. If you google homemade Lara Bar recipes you get a ton more recipes...I am going to try some of these out next time!

9 Marks of a Healthy Church #BookReview

For a really long time, I refused to "read" anything unless there was an audio option. When it comes to story types of books, fiction and non-fiction, that's still true. Audiobooks are awesome for many reasons, and still my preference.

However, there are some books that just make sense to read, re-read, take notes, and reference later. In that situation, audiobooks don't work - trust me, I tried. I listened to The 4-Hour Work Week while riding a bike behind Jessi while she trained for the Portland Marathon. When we finished I would hop online to find some resources I could copy notes from. I did the same thing with Made To Stick - a fantastic book and one I've almost bought a hardcopy of multiple times. My review was my way of creating notes from what I heard.

Anyways, I've learned that how-to types of books are best read with my eyes. My preference are Kindle books because I can take notes and reference it later. Plus, they don't take up any additional room, are always with me, and often cheaper than the paper version. That's how I read 9 Marks of a Healthy Church by Mark Dever.

The title explains what the book is about pretty well. Dever first delivered the 9 marks in a 9-part message series and eventually turned it into a book. The intent was not to cover every single aspect of a church (you'll notice he doesn't mention prayer, but it's still important), but instead talk about those marks that distinguished healthy churches. What are the 9 marks? Glad you asked. What follows is a lot of quoting because in a lot of ways the whole book is a summary of what the Bible is teaching us. Plus, each of these are meaty topics, so I felt the need to include a lot to do it justice. Here we go!

Mark 1: Expositional Preaching
This is the most important mark. Our faith is based on Scripture, and we need to spend time trying to understand what Scripture is telling us. "Expositional preaching is not simply producing a verbal commentary on some passage of Scripture. Rather, expositional preaching is preaching that takes for the point of the sermon the point of a particular passage of Scripture." So instead of choosing a topic and finding Scripture to support that topic. You first choose a passage and let God reveal it's truth to you. In a healthy church, the majority of messages will be taught expositionally.

Mark 2: Biblical Theology
The first mark is how we should be taught. The second mark is what we should be taught. The messages should fall in line with what the Word of God actually teaches, especially when talking about the nature and character of God. "Five words summarize what the Bible teaches us about God: he is creating, he is holy, he is faithful, he is loving, and he is sovereign." As for Jesus, "He came as the One by whom you and I can have a restored relationship with God. He is the One from whom God's people had long been waiting. Where Adam and Israel had failed and been unfaithful, Jesus survived temptations without sin... Jesus Christ is the faithful fulfillment of God's promises." Of course, the only real way to know if what you're being taught is true, is to also be studying Scripture yourself and praying "for leaders in the church to have a biblical grasp of and an experiential trust in the sovereignty of God."

Mark 3: The Gospel
The good news should be proclaimed. The good news is not simply that we are OK. "The Bible utterly rejects the idea that we are okay, that the human condition is just fine, that everyone is really in need of simply accepting their current condition, their finitude, their limitedness, and their imperfections, or that we simply need to look on the bright side of things." It is also not simply that God is love or that all Jesus wants is to be our friend. Here's the good news:

"The good news is that the one and only God, who is holy, made us in his image to know him. But we sinned and cut ourselves off from him. In his great love, God became a man in Jesus, lived a perfect life, and died on the cross, thus fulfilling the law himself, and taking on himself the punishment for the sins of all those who would ever turn and trust in him. He rose again from the dead, showing that God accepted Christ's sacrifice and that God's wrath against us had been exhausted. He ascended and presented his completed work to his heavenly Father. He now sends out his Spirit to call us through this message to repent of our sins and to trust in Christ alone for our forgiveness. If we repent of our sins and trust in Christ we are born again into a new life, an eternal life with God."

Mark 4: A Biblical Understanding of Conversion
Conversion means to change. In this case, it's converting

"from worshiping ourselves to worshiping God, from being truly guilty in ourselves before God to being forgiven in Christ... It's all about realizing that we can never go to church enough, we can never teach enough Sunday school classes, we can never give enough money, we can never be kind enough or beautiful enough, or happy and contented with our religious lives enough to merit God's good will towards us... Our only hope comes in understanding that God has taken on flesh in Christ, that Christ lived a perfect life and died on the cross in the place of all those who would ever turn and trust in him, and that he rose in victory over our sins and now offers to pour out this Holy Spirit into our hearts. Beginning to have this reliance, this trust in God alone, is the nature of the great change that takes place in conversion. We must repent of our sins and trust in Christ."

This conversion comes from the preaching and listening to the Word of God, the Good News. If you haven't noticed yet, each mark builds upon the others.

Mark 5: A Biblical Understanding of Evangelism
What is Evangelism? "First, you must understand that the things you believe in as a Christian are facts. They are not mere beliefs or opinions. Second, these facts are not yours in the sense that they uniquely pertain to you or your perspective or experience, or in the sense that you made them up on your own. When you evangelize, you are presenting God’s truth. Finally, in biblical evangelism we don’t impose anything. We can’t. According to the Bible, evangelism is simply telling the good news; it does not include making sure that the other person responds to it correctly."

Evangelism is "the positive act of telling the good news about Jesus Christ and the way of salvation through him." That's it. It's not the results. It's not our job to convert people; that part is left to God. Dever also includes many resources to help people evangelize since we're all commanded by Jesus to do it, but the basic idea is to share the Good News, use the Bible, and let God change their heart.

Mark 6: A Biblical Understanding of Church Membership
What is a church?

"A church is a local collection of people committed to Christ, to regularly assemble and have his Word preached and obeyed, including Christ's commands to baptize and to celebrate the Lord's Supper... The responsibilities and duties of members of a Christian church are simply the responsibilities and duties of Christians. Church members, like Christians, are to be baptized and to regularly attend the Lord's Table. We are to hear God's Word and to obey it. We are to regularly fellowship together for mutual edification. We are to love God, one another, and those outside our fellowship, and we are to evidence the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5: 22– 23). We are to worship God in all the activities of our home, work, community, and life... We must view membership less as a loose affiliation useful only on occasion and more as a regular responsibility, becoming involved in one another's lives for the purposes of the gospel."

As members we are called to attend services regularly, take communion together, pray regularly, and give regularly of our time and possessions.

Mark 7: Biblical Church Discipline
Often times we're told not to judge people, but that isn't completely Biblical. Instead, "we are told to judge ourselves (1 Cor. 11: 28; 2 Cor. 13: 5; Heb. 4; 2 Pet. 1: 5– 10). We are also specifically told to judge one another within the church (though not in the final way that God judges)... After all, if we cannot say how a Christian should not live, how can we say how a Christian should live?" To be clear, this is NOT a holier-than-thou type of judging. Instead, it's trying to help each of us measure up to God's holiness. Furthermore, discipline is not about revenge or getting back at someone. Instead, "we should discipline with humility and in love for God and for the person disciplined." When I discipline our dog, Vinnie, I imagine him sometimes coming to me asking if I still love him even though I put him in timeout. And my mental response (OK... I do talk to him out loud...) is that I disciplined him because I love him. Church discipline must be the same way.

Mark 8: A Concern for Discipleship and Growth
Growth is Biblical. God repeatedly commands people to be fruitful and multiply. "Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth' (Gen. 9:1)."

"The New Testament idea of growth involves not just more people, but people who are growing up, maturing, and deepening in the faith. We read in Ephesians 4: 5-16: "Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work." How does such growth happen? Ultimately, it happens by God's work. We grow as the body of Christ as God causes growth. According to Colossians 2: 19, Christ is "the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow." It is not the preacher who causes a church to grow."

Growth comes from God. A church can let God grow the church by following the previous 7 marks and by asking the following questions regularly of it's members:

• In what particular ways have you grown in your understanding of the Christian life?
• How have you grown in your practice of the Christian life?
• In what particular areas do you feel that you need instruction?
• Are you disappointed in your own pursuit of holiness? If so, explain.
• How, specifically, can I pray for you?

Now that's accountability that'll lead to growth!

Mark 9: Biblical Church Leadership
The church is a monarchy, with Christ as the king, and the church exists only as the people in it continue to participate in its activities. Those actives include attending, praying, giving, and getting to know the church family. The church should also have leaders, called elders. "All churches have had individuals who performed the functions of elders even if they haven't used that word for them. The two most common New Testament names for this office are episcopos (overseer) and presbuteros (elder)." There is also a main preacher, or senior pastor, who is also an elder. These should be men of good character, of good reputation, able to handle the Word, and have demonstrated fruit of the Spirit. They are also to be focused on others, irreproachable, not violent, not greedy, and not a recent convert. Finally, a church leader is someone who understands and strives to carry out the 9 marks of a healthy church.

Conclusion
Wow - now that's review! I still recommend you read the book because Dever goes into much more detail and does a fantastic job of back up everything he says with Scripture.

Disney World 10K Winter Vacation

In January, Jessi & I had an opportunity to be "those people" on Facebook. Yep, we got to enjoy an awesome vacation in Florida during winter.

How did that happen?

At the end of last summer two friends from church moved to Florida. Jessi used to run with the wife regularly. In October Jessi was chatting on the phone with her about a 10K race in January and lamenting that they couldn't run it together. Jessi got off the phone and mentioned it to me.

Now, I track our student loan payments pretty closely and I knew that we were going to pay off another one in December. That meant that January was going to be our fun month. I also knew that my sister was going to be starting her Disney World internship around the same time we were there. I also knew their apartment was fairly close to Disney World, and even though it was going to be a long weekend, it still was off-season. Plus, it would be in January and who wouldn't want an excuse to leave Oregon in the dead of winter?!

We did a little more research on the costs: Since it was off-season, the plane tickets were reasonable and my sister was currently doing a Disneyland internship and we were able to get discounted park tickets. Finally, we were able to stay at their apartment and save there too. All in all, we could afford to do this whole trip with our fun money.

So we made the decision to go for it.

Now, there are generally 2 types of vacations we take: The first is a relaxing one where we don't set alarms and mostly stay inside puzzling, reading and watching movies. Jessi loves these types of vacations. Usually by the end of one I'm physically trembling from not doing anything.

The other type, the type I like, is where we try to do as much as we can with the time we have. It's the type of vacation that you need another vacation to recover from. This is what we did. Yes!

Here are some pictures of everything we did:

The first day we went to the Animal kingdom. It's like a huge zoo with rides. It was very well done.

Just short of 6 feet. That's me.

This tiger was incredible! What I should have done was take a picture of the huge crowd behind us.

We saw a bird show that was amazing! Every bird was extremely well trained and almost all of them did some sort of trick. It made me feel pathetic when I think about how little we've done to train Vinnie.

Yes! The original reason for coming to Florida! We completed the St. Pete Beach 10K Classic. Our times were pretty good too.

This is what the weather was like the entire time. Pretty. Nice.

We also went house/investment shopping with our friends. The price-to-rent ratios are actually pretty good. I don't think we'll end of up buying one of them, but we did find some interesting ones. At the very least, this was a great leaning opportunity and got us thinking about investing outside our area.

Then Lisa arrived and we went to the Magic Kingdom. How about this for crazy: in order to get from the parking lot to the entrance, you either have to take the monorail or ride a boat across the lake.

Yes, I'm an adult, surround by little kids, enjoying myself just as much as them.

Jessi picked up some pretty cute Mickey ears. They go well with her red hair.

To the gallows!

I came really close to buying this shirt for my brother.

On our last day, we went to Epcot. I think we were all pictured out because we only have a couple. We did go inside the ball, which is fun, and we went a couple futuristic rides.

We also spent time in each little region. Here we are in Paris. We honestly could have spent the entire week at the World Showcase and never be bored. What an incredible place! They even make it a point to hire people from that city so it's truly run as authentic as possible.

That was our trip. It was a lot of fun and we'd like to go back again. Maybe we should buy a place so we have an excuse to go back regularly.

Keystone Habits: How To Floss Every Day For A Year

I have a confession to make: until a year ago, I didn't floss. I'd go to the dentist and they would tell me I needed to floss. So, I would floss a week or two before my dentist visit in an attempt to make it look like I flossed regularly. That didn't really work either.

Then a couple things happened that moved me closer to actually following my dentist's advice. First, I read a great article in The Wall Street Journal on How to Be a Better Flosser. The advice was great and we featured it in our July 2012 newsletter. All too often we get caught up in the details: should we brush or floss first? Should we do it in the morning or evening? What type of floss should we use? They answered all those questions, but the main take-away was: There are optimal ways to floss, but it really doesn't matter as long as you do it regularly.

At the same time, I also started using a new iPhone app called Lift. I wrote about it before and even mentioned flossing. The app helps you track daily goals you want to accomplish. As you do, you check them off. It also tracks how you're doing over time (see the picture above) and gives encouragement along the way. The app is pretty cool and the team behind it really thinks deeply about habits and sculpting our lives.

For example, one of their blog posts talked about keystone habits: "Keystone habits create positive momentum that increases your ability to achieve other goals." The example in the post was making your bed each day. For me, flossing became a keystone habit... eventually...

You see, all of this happened in the summer of 2012.

So I started flossing, but it wasn't every day. Some days I would be too busy, other days I would completely forget. At least it's progress!  Then, through the 2012 holidays I didn't even open the app.

In January 2013 something happened right after the first of the year. I honestly don't know what made me decide to start flossing every day, but I did... And I actually stuck with it. This isn't the first time I finally made a decision and stayed with it. I did it once with ear plugs in 2008 too and I know people do it with quitting smoking and alcohol too. So, there's something psychological going on there, I just don't know what.

One year later, here I am with a full year of flossing every single day. I realized this while flossing at our hotel before going to the airport to Florida... at 3:40am... gross! I took a quick screenshot and finished getting ready. Now flossing truly is a keystone habit for me. (I realize the screenshot is technically 367 days.)

I'm using that momentum to help me with my push-ups. Right before I floss, I do my push-ups. This links them together in a chain of habits: since one is successful, it increases the chances that the other is successful. We'll see if it worked by the end of this year!

Your Keystone Habits
Think about your life. Do you know what your keystone habits are? Are they promoting good or bad habits? Think about what you do when you first wake up in the morning. When you first get into the office. When you first get home. What do you do? What do you do second and third? Why do you think you do those activities? The "why" is important because each activity you do fulfills some sort of need you have. Is there another activity you can do to fulfill the same need?

My encouragement to you is that you can create positive keystone habits that will help you achieve your 2014 goals. If you set a new year's resolution you wanted to keep, you'll need to look critically at your keystone habits because it's momentum might be working against you.

For example, let's say your resolution is to exercise more. Your normal routine is to grab your phone before getting out of bed and checking your email and Facebook. Then you realize the time and rush to get ready with no time left to exercise. Checking your phone is your keystone habit that is working against your exercise resolution.

Why are you doing this? Why are you checking your phone? If it's to help you wake up, maybe you can put a glass of water in place of your phone. Or you can set your phone down across the room forcing you to get out of bed. Maybe the room is too cold you can don't want to get out from under the covers. So, set your thermostat to heat up the room right before you need to get up. If you're not sure, try experimenting to see which leaves you satisfied and which leaves you wishing for more.

Let's say drinking a cup of water first thing meets your need to help you wake up. Use a system to track your progress. Lift works well and so does Jerry Seinfeld's "Don't Break The Chain" Calendar. Eventually this will become your new keystone habit and you'll actually crave water in the morning.

Now, here's the magic of habits: drinking a glass of water doesn't take as much time as checking Facebook or email. So use that time/momentum to exercise before getting ready. I would start small: push-ups, sit-ups, a short walk, etc. Then that too will become a habit and you might actually find yourself getting up a little earlier to fit in a more rigorous workout.

The crazy part is that you'll actually start to think of yourself as that person who gets out of bed in the morning and exercises. Someone who does that also... Eats healthy... Drinks less soda... Runs... Skips TV at night... Yes, a keystone habit can be powerful enough to change your entire perception of who you are. It might happen slowly, but it'll happen. That's why it's critically important to examine your keystone habits.

Again, my encouragement is that you can create positive change in your life and reach your goals by first focusing on something as small as flossing every day.

Income and Expense Analysis

I was once again reviewing our finances for the year and wanted to share my findings. I know for me, I struggle to find information on what's "normal" to be spending... or maybe "not normal" in our case. So hopefully this helps shed some light on what one other family is doing.

For starters, we track everything using Mint.com and then I copy everything over to a spreadsheet once a month. I like detailed spreadsheets, but if you're not into that, Mint will show you what you need to know to make smart decisions. That's what Jessi looks at along with these charts once a month with me.

Monthly Income & Expenses
This first chart is the same as I showed last year, with one difference I'll explain in a bit. The lighter lines are from 2012 for comparison. The blue lines are the cumulative net income. So, in a month where our income was high and our expenses were low, the blue line would go up, and that's the starting place of the following month.

The one change I made this year was to treat our real estate finances as a separate entity. We even have a separate bank account now that all of that activity is done from. Then whatever the net income was for that property, I added it to our income as a single line. So in May and July we did a bunch of repairs and the "income" from that property was actually negative because we spent more than we collected in rent that month.

Also included is the down payment and closing cost of our new home and student loan payments.

The goal is to get the blue line just above zero which means we put all our extra money towards paying off loans. As you can see, we had to dip into our savings to pay for the repairs we did. We had savings from previous years, so it was OK. Then in October Jessi got sick and I paid all the doctor bills in November from our Emergency fund. You can kind of see why my goal this year is to not have any large expenses.

Spending Distribution
Here's a new view I created. I wanted to see how we were spending our money and I wanted something in between the detailed line items and the top line.

• 100% = our take home pay this year (the investment properties net income were included as income).
• Loans = Student loans and car loan
• Mortgage = The property we live in. The investment property mortgage payments are separate (embedded in income). When we lived in the duplex I split the mortgage in half.
• Utilities = electricity + garbage + water + gas + mobile phones (yeah, iPhone = utility)
• Food = groceries + eating out
• Cars = gas + maintenance + insurance
• Home = home repairs (and down payment/closing costs) + personal care items + health & fitness + Vinnie expenses
• Fun = shopping + entertainment + travel

Hopefully you can tell what our priority is. Once our loans are paid off, that'll convert to savings/investing. Also, as a general rule you want your housing mortgage/rent to be no higher than 33% and hopefully below 25%; we're killing it in that category. Our food category seems a little high though. Well... I know it's a little high because we spent $1,500 more this year than last year... mostly eating out. Knowing this will help me stick with my health goals this year.

I'll be honest, "Home" is kind of a catch-all category. I would call them "semi-optional" expenses. Buying a place was a large part of that category. Finally, not included here are taxes and my 401K contributions. First, they happen before it gets imported into Mint, so I can't track it easily. Second, I don't have much control over my taxes and I can't really do anything with my 401K balance for a while.

Spending Over Time
The last thing I wanted to look at were some specific spending categories. There are ones that we have some control over and try to keep low. Yes, I realize I cut off the top of the chart, I did that so I could see the other lines.

Like I talked about earlier, our spending on food is too high. It looks like the middle of the year is where it got out of hand. It also appears to coincide with our home purchase / fixing the duplex / Vegas trip. So, the underlying issue is that when we get too busy, we opt to eat out more often. We'll need to be more conscious of this going forward. Home spending spiked when we bought our place and again at the end of the year when I fixed a bunch of things. Utilities... look at the steady growth rate... I suppose it's normal to grow in the colder months, but December was $230 higher than January! We'll definitely need to keep an eye on this one.

Finally, the Fun spending really seems to spike when we buy plane tickets (May & October), or Disney World tickets (November). Though, the general trend for Fun seems to also be growing. This is another one I'll be watching closely.

Bottom line
If I was grading myself, I would probably give us a B. We did good on our loans and mortgage. We blew it on eating out and can probably make some cuts we don't care about in the fun category. The utilities one can probably be curbed by paying more attention to our heating habits (ie, not letting it get too roasty). I feel pretty good about the Home, Giving & Cars categories. Getting an A next year will require us to not have any large expenses in 2014 and keeping our Food, Fun categories lower.

Always Listen and Always Jump All Over Anything Your Instructor Tells You

My boss recently shared this quote with me. We have many discussions about what it takes to be a top performer at HP and this quote from Lone Survivor sums it up pretty well:

And right here I needed to remember a lesson drummed into me from an early age by Billy Shelton: when a special forces commander makes even a slight reference to an issue that may be helpful, listen and then do it. Even if it was an aside, not a proper command, maybe even starting with I think it might be a good idea . . . Always pay attention and then carry out the task, no matter how minor it may seem. Billy’s point was that these SF instructors were looking for the best, and it might be only small things that separate guys who are very good from guys who are absolutely excellent, outstanding. “Listen, Marcus,” Billy told me, “always listen, and always jump all over anything your instructor tells you. Get out in front. Fast. Then make sure you stay there.”

Luttrell, Marcus (2007-06-12). Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 (Kindle Locations 1198-1204). Little, Brown and Company. Kindle Edition.

How true is that. It's one thing to take an explicit request and do it really well. For example, I might get asked to create a report about a printing trend, and I can make an excellent report. It's another to listen to the conversation, and the questions they're struggling with and make a report that wasn't asked for, but is still valuable.

I've done that in the past and it's fun to delight my boss in that way. The trick to being a truly top performer is to do that regularly. To constantly be listening for questions that suggestions that seem like off-hand comments, and act upon them. That definitely isn't easy to do, and that's why only top performers do it. This is one of the areas I'll be looking to improve this year. Hopefully this quote will also inspire you to listen closer to those suggestions and act upon them. Doing that is what will separate you from the pack. It's yet another form of the Slight Edge.

Image: hachettebookgroup.com

2014 Goals: Consistency

I am really excited, and nervous, about my goals this year! Last year, I let a couple things slide in my life and this year is about taking control of them again.

Faith Focus:
1) Finish Bible
I'm going to finish the Bible this year. I've been working on my reading plan for 2 years and I have a little under a year left. The trick is to consistently read a little bit every day.

Health Focus:
2) Weigh 155 pounds
You may not have noticed, but I noticed the 20-25 pounds I put on last year. That's a 16% increase! This happened because of a few reasons: 1) I worked out less. 2) We started going to a couple group meetings that always provided sweets, and I didn't restrain myself. 3) I turned 30, and my metabolism slowed down just a little bit. Those combined together equaled weight gain.

I'm going to accomplish this goal by running at least 1 time per week. I'm also going to count my calories, and weight myself daily. As the saying goes, "What gets measured, gets managed." This is something that will require consistency on a daily basis.

3) Do 70 push-ups in a row
For me, push-ups represent my strength, and that's another thing I let slide. Weighing less will be nice, and feeling strong/fit will feel even better. It'll also have practical benefits when doing construction projects.

Today, I can do 20 push-ups in a row. So my plan is to do push-ups each day and add 1 each week. This follows the Slight Edge principle of slowly, and consistently, adding on to generate something significant over time.

Financial Focus:
4) No expenses above $2,000
Looking back at our finances, every year we have at least 1 large expense.
2002 - 2007: School Tuition
2008: Got Married
2009: Bought a property
2010: Switched over to Mac
2011: Bought a Jeep... and then another one...
2012: Bought a Prius and another property
2013: Bought a home

So, if every single year of your adult life has involved at least 1 large expense, how do you stop that trend? My hypothesis is that if you don't have the money, you can't spend it. So we're putting everything we can towards student loans. What started out as a 5-year plan, is looking like a 3.5-year plan (1.5 years left). And there's an outside (really outside!) chance we pay them off this year. I'm starting to smell the barn and that excitement will help us consistently avoid any large expense. Side note: I have a separate fund for maintenance on our properties, so I'm not including money spent from there.

Business Focus:
5) HP salary increase
I've got the promotion, now it's time to earn the pay increase. I've got a plan for this too. Last year my focus was split between two jobs. This year I'm back to one. So I'm going to work consistently on creating new tools and enhancing existing ones. You know, kick butt and take names. The other thing I'm going to do is have regular conversations with my boss about it. I want him to know this is important to me and keep it near the front of his mind. All of this is kind of up to the HR gods, but I believe that if I'm consistent, it'll be rewarded.

6) Increase side business income
I am NOT going to go out and buy another investment property this year. See Goal #4. But I would like to continue to diversify our income. Now, as the goal implies, this is a side thing, so it might have to take a back seat if something else requires my attention.

For now, I'm going to do one, maybe two things. First, my goal is to find another paying client. If you know anyone looking to create monthly/quarterly reports for their business, let me know. The other thing I would like to do is finish the finance class and offer it for sale. Again, depending on what other things take my time, I may not get as far on this as I want, and that's OK. Still, I'm putting it out there as something I want to accomplish.

Social Focus:
7) Host a meal 6+ times at our house
We bought a house and so far only had only one couple over for a meal. Now, I get that since we don't have kids it's easier for us to go to someone else's home, but we would like people to visit us too. So this year we're going to be more proactive about inviting people over. I was telling a friend about this goal and he invited himself, and his family, over. So this should be a fun one to accomplish.

2013 Goal Review: Focus!

My theme in 2013 was to focus. The idea was to say no to things so that I could be freed up to focus on the really important things. I managed to move a lot off my plat the first half of the year, which was great. Then the second half I was able to say yes to a few larger projects. At the end of the year, I was as busy as I've ever been, but it was on focused mostly on 3 things, all of which supported my 2 goals. Speaking of my goals...

1) Read all Bible reading plan assignments
Is there anyone who can complete one of those "read the whole Bible in a year" reading plans? I just finished another year of reading, and I'm convinced it's impossible to do any faster in a meaningful way. If you've done it, I'd love to hear from you.

My goal was simply to read another 1/3 of my reading plan, which will eventually cover the entire Bible. That averages out to 1-2 chapters a day. I'm happy to say that I did it! Plus, I actually got a little ahead and am very confident I'll finish it in 2014. I'm pumped to be able to say I've read the entire Bible by the end of this year.


2) Increase my income this year
Technically, yes. I did increase my income (18%!). Though, I didn't do it exactly in the way I planned. I had 3 areas of focus: HP, Furlo Bros Tech Podcast, and a finance class. I worked really hard for HP this year, doing essentially two jobs for most of the year. I got promoted, which is fantastic, it just didn't come with a change in pay. I'm honestly not 100% sure how to feel about that. Right now, I'm choosing to be optimistic that it'll open up future opportunities.

With Furlo Bros, we opened up a store this year. We've sold some swag, but it's nothing life changing at this point. Our subscribers continue to grow, which is pretty exciting, and amazing new tech keeps being invented, which is also pretty exciting.

I didn't finish the finance class I was working on. Part of the reason is that it's a huge project. It's the equivalent of researching and writing a book, which takes years for some people. Don't get me wrong, I've made a ton of progress, but I still have a ways to go. The other reason I didn't make it as far as I wanted was that I started doing some freelance consulting on the side. Specifically, I took on a large project at the end of the year. I'll be sharing more about that shortly, but it's basically helping to put on a forum where people can learn about Corvallis real estate trends.

One of the big influences was actually buying a house, or more specifically, moving out of our duplex and renting it out. Since we downsized, we were able to make more renting it out than we had to pay on our new mortgage. We probably won't stay in this house forever, but for now it's helping us make a significant dent on our student loans.

So that's how I did on my goals. Up next, the goals for 2014!

Best Posts of 2013

It's that time of year again! Here are my top stories of the year. Enjoy!

(BTW, I took that photo using a new app called PebbleCam that lets me preview and snap the photo on my Pebble Watch.)

By Views

#1
Is It Worth Buying A Manufactured Home?
Apparently there's some interest in buying manufactured homes because this was the #1 post by far! It had over twice as many views as #2. My guess is that one of the reasons it did well was because A) it contained a lot of details and A) it included information not easily find-able on the internet.

#2
The Benefits of Mowing Lawns
I was shocked by how popular this post was. Perhaps it had more to do with the cool picture than the content. Though, I do think I made a good case for mowing your own lawn.

#3
Top Gun in IMAX 3D #Review
Let's just say the timing was good on this one. That and it is the best movie of all time.



My picks

#1
How To Have Fun In Las Vegas Without Gambling
Of all the posts I've done, this is perhaps the one I share the most. I'm actually surprised, in a good way, by how many people go to Las Vegas but don't want to gamble.


#2
The Jeep Wave
This was was just super fun to learn about because it's so goofy, but true! Sometimes I'll be driving our Prius and wave because I think I'm in the Jeep. I bet that really confuses the other person.


#3
The Slight Edge #BookReview
I've read a lot of good books this year, and for some reason fell off the wagon on my book reviews. Here's my Hunger Games Trilogy review: The books are better than the movies, though the 2nd movie is really good. The 3rd book is only OK, so I'm not sure why they're going to make 2 movies out of it... Well... I know why, I just don't think it's a good reason.

Anyways, The Slight Edge was awesome. It was up there with Made to Stick, which I read in 2012. Let me put it this way: if/when I ever hire someone, this will be on the stack of required reading.


So there they are! I hope 2014 is an exciting year for you!

Merry Christmas!

We hope you're having a wonderful Christmas this year. We decided not to travel this year and are enjoying a low-key holiday. My mom gave us this flag which we have flying outside our home. It's a gentle reminder of why we're celebrating Christmas: because Jesus was born, and ultimately died for us. Now that's worth celebrating!

Merry Christmas!

Making a Masterpiece out of Aluminum Foil Dryer Balls

I had a fun post planned for today. Back in July 2012 I read a cool article about using aluminum foil balls in the dryer to keep clothes static free. We published it in our monthly newsletter which goes out to our residents, family, and friends. Like most of the articles we include, we actually try them out because they sound cool.

So, a year and a half ago we made a couple balls. And just this week, one of those balls finally cracked. I thought it looked cool and thus came an opportunity to write about it and a couple other drying tips:

• Cut your dryer sheets in half... you really don't need that huge sheet.
• Wash your lint trap with soapy water every once in a while because a thin film builds up that blocks airflow. You'll notice faster drying times.
• If you live somewhere that doesn't rain a lot, try drying your cloths outside on a line.

But then before sitting down to write about it, I decided to read a friend's new blog. She left for Mexico 3 months ago and decided to write about her experiences. Here's a small excerpt:

"I am learning to sense God’s presence in new ways through conversations, different aspects of His creation, and in some of the most simple and—some might argue—undignified tasks. I am learning to practice the presence of God while cleaning toilets; talking to a classmate from New Zealand, Mexico, Belgium or the Dominican Republic; watching a sea turtle burry her eggs in the sand; hand-washing and hang-drying my cotton shirts; playing soccer on the beach with giggling children; waiting with hunger in the dinner line, my physical hunger a subtle reminder of a deeper hunger growing within me; sweeping porches; washing dishes; talking to 17-year old Ameyalli after her basketball game at the park; picking out my roommates’ (and probably mine too) hair from our shower drain; being challenged and inspired through guest speakers;"

Yeah. I'm suddenly trying to figure out the value of my life if the biggest thing I chose to write about this week is an aluminum dryer ball cracking. Clearly, if I try to measure my life in similar experiences it's a futile effort because I'll never come close to her. This also begs a different question: what is the right way to measure your life? Should it even be measured?

I'll admit that I don't know the answer, but I do like John Wooden's famous quote: "Make each day a master piece." It seems to sum of the Lord's prayer pretty well which says, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." (Matthew 6:9-13)

By the way, what is God's will? Mark 12:28 answers this: "And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, "Which commandment is the most important of all?" Jesus answered, "The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these.""

In other words, make the most of what you're given today to glorify God. For some of us, that means working hard at our job today, spending time with your kids, taking the time to listen to a friend you meet at the bar, cheerfully cleaning a toilet, or writing a blog post about dryer balls to help others save money. In each case, you're creating a masterpiece if you take your situation, set yourself aside, and focus on a) loving God and b) loving your neighbor. This is a commitment every single one of us can make. It's a commitment that is worth measuring and pursuing.

The follow up to this commitment is to change your environment if you don't feel like you're able to accomplish God's will as best you can. For some people it's obvious: too much TV or alcohol can steal your focus on creating a masterpiece. Cut back on those and replace them with activities focused on God's will. For some people, it means packing up and heading to Mexico. For my friend, I know her problem was that life was good (almost too easy) and she found herself looking for more. I actually think getting away is a great way to shake things up and re-align your priorities for when you get back. It doesn't always have to be 3+ months either. One week of purposeful mission-style service will do it for most folks.

So, in summary (I feel like I need one after this ramble):

• Make each day a masterpiece.
• Do this by loving God and loving people.
• If you feel like your not, change your environment so you can.
• That just might include making an aluminum dryer ball, cleaning your lint trap, and cutting your dryer sheets in half. Then taking that $5 you save each month and using it to bless someone else's life.