Is it really possible to live life without cable TV?  Yes, yes it is.  I’ve been doing it for the past 9 years.  You might think the reason was economics, and sure that played a part, but the real reason was the feeling I had after a night of television.  I felt unproductive and lazy.

I found myself mostly watching home improvement shows or nature shows.  While these shows aren’t necessarily bad, I felt like the time I spent watching them was wasted.  I really didn’t learn enough about home improvement to turn my house into a mansion, and in all actuality, I can’t remember any tips that were worth all the time I spent watching.  And all that nature knowledge has yet to be proven useful.  Maybe next time I see a tiger staring me down at the grocery store, I’ll wish I had watched more Discovery channel.  But until then, I’ve found all that television to be a waste of time.

So, we took the plunge.  When we moved into our house 9 years ago, we decided to go without cable TV.  For the sake of full disclosure, we did get the very basic cable, which comes with mostly local broadcast channels, about 10 total.  It only costs $10 per month, and since we are a cable subscriber we get a $15 dollar discount on our cable Internet.  Looks like we stumbled upon a small loop hole, plus we don’t have to deal with a TV antenna.

The choice to ditch the cable started some time before moving into our house.  We decided to conduct a little experiment to turn off the TV for an entire week.  No TV at all for one week.  Going into it, I wasn’t sure how the week would unfold.  Like most households, I would come home from work and spend most of the evening lounging on the couch watching TV.  I wondered how I would occupy my time.

We decided to just jump right into it, and here’s how it went.  I spent a lot of time reading.  It was nice to have additional time to read, but the real bonus was I could read in quiet.  There were no noisy distractions.  I spent more time talking with my wife.  We could chat about the day or ponder the mysteries of the universe.  Once again, no distractions.  We were able to spend more time cooking.  No rush to get through cooking or eating dinner just so we could catch some “must see” TV.  The thing I remember the most from our “No TV Week” was the quiet.  All week I came home to a silent peaceful environment.

It might make a good story if I told you we decided to give up TV completely, but we didn’t.  We allowed the TV back into our lives.  When it came back though, it was no longer allowed to consume our evenings.  We were more mindful about what we watched.  The evening news was no longer allowed, as we saw the constant stream of negativity as detrimental to our peaceful evenings.  We applied a loose rule to TV programs that they had to be better than watching a movie.  If we would pay the cost of a movie rental, then it may be worth watching.

The “No TV Week” allowed us to look more objectively about what we wanted to watch on TV.  From this, we determined that we weren’t watching near as much Cable TV as we had thought.  Most of the shows we watched were on regular network TV.   Looking at the cost of $60 a month for standard cable, we figured we had to have at least 10 movie quality shows per month.  That just didn’t pan out.  We didn’t watch that many movie quality TV shows on cable in any given month.  So, when it came time to move into our house, we didn’t sign up for Cable.  I haven’t missed it in the least.

Have you ever tried a No TV experiment?  Have you considered giving up cable TV?  I’d love to hear from you.

Lifescapeartists.com was basically the creation of multiple bloggers who decided to collaborate on a project and what you see today is the result.  Starting today, I’m going to walk you through a series on effective collaboration and how we achieved this.

If you look at the top blogs like Dumb Little Man, Lifehack and many others, you’ll notice that the blog is comprised of a team of regular writers, all of who have their own blogs. But, what’s amazing is that these blogs are also inundated with request from people wanting to write guest posts for them. As a result the founders are fortunate enough that they can write once a week, but still keep the blog continually filled with fresh content.  So, essentially you gain economies of scale in blogging and get to treat blogging as a team sport.  With 4 of you working together, even writing 3-5 posts a week, you will nearly double the content volume that you can produce. The beauty of this extends even further. If you have 4 somewhat established bloggers working together, then you have a certain ability to take things viral and push content out far beyond the level you could if you did everything on your own.

I’m going to assume your multi-author blog is staffed by people who have their own blogs and are getting 50-100 visitors a day. They are getting some respectable traffic. We’ll talk about how to recruit the team in another section.  But if you notice, each blogger has a network of contacts, connections, and online resources. While there is probably some overlap, there is probably also a ton that is not overlap.  So essentially your power to take your content viral goes up exponentially.  You get the point. Working as a team could allow you to grow much faster. I’m willing to bet that team based blogging, with groups of 3-4 writers is going to be the next big trend you see.

I grew up in Washington state, home of some of the best apples in the world.

When I was a kid, I thought this was a lie. Every apple that I ever remember eating seemed dry, mealy, and devoid of any sweetness or flavor. Were these the same apples that people would buy at ridiculous prices in Paris and New York? What were they smoking?

It wasn’t until taking Economics 101 that I found out why Washington Apples seemed so unspectacular. They shipped all the good apples out. The leftovers were for Washington state natives to consume.

Although I’m a little angry that I was forced to suffer a childhood without good apples, I realized that “shipping the good apples out” is actually an excellent business practice. Not only is it good for Washington state apple growers, but it’s good for bloggers as well.

These two factors make “shipping the best out” a good idea:
1. Transportation Cost
2. The Opportunity to Create a Premium Brand

Transportation Cost

Let’s say that a mediocre apple in Washington State is $0.50 and a premium apple is $1.50. Because the cost of a premium apple in Washington State is three times the price of a mediocre apple, people will most likely prefer three mediocre apples to one premium apple.

If you ship the apples to Paris, however, there’s a transportation cost involved. Let’s say that it costs an additional $2.50 to ship each one. Add the transportation cost and your mediocre apple becomes $3 and your premium apple becomes $4. Although the actual cost difference is still one dollar, the relative cost is greatly reduced. A premium apple no longer costs three mediocre apples, but only 1.25 mediocre apples.

The buyers in Paris, when faced with the choice of buying a mediocre apple at $3 and a premium apple at $4, will be much more likely to buy premium than the buyers in Washington State. This is why the premium apples are shipped as far as conceivably possible from where they’re grown. Although premium apples will always be more expensive than mediocre ones no matter where you go, the relative price between the two can vary wildly. Whenever the price difference between mediocre and premium is relatively low, premium will win.

Transportation cost on the internet can be interpreted as: “The trouble you have to go through to get the content you want.” Subscribers to your blog are like Washingtonians. In order to read your blog posts, they don’t have to expend much effort or energy. The article from your blog pops into their RSS feed and all your subscriber has to do is click on it and read it. Because the “transportation cost” is so low, they’ll be much more likely to appreciate your mediocre articles. If they had to surf the web for one hour to get to that mediocre article, their appreciation of the article would be severely reduced.

Non-subscribers to your blog have a lot more transportation cost to deal with. If they click from your guest post to your blog’s home page, they’ll have to navigate through an unfamiliar website, unsure if there’s good content or if they’re wasting their time. If you write a brilliant guest post, however, they’ll be more likely to expect premium content on your blog, and thus be more willing to brave an unfamiliar site. It’s a lot of work for them, but if they expect to find content of a similar quality to your premium guest post on your website, they’ll be more likely to take the plunge.

Whenever you write an article that you’re particularly proud of, the impulse is to post it on your own site right away to make your subscribers happy. If it’s really that good however, you should consider exporting. Don’t hide your best work in your blog’s archive. Do what you can to…

Create a Premium Brand

According to the Washington State Apple commission, the growers there produce about 100 million 42lb. bushel cartons of apples per year. 30 million of these are exported worldwide. You can bet that most of these exported apples are premium.

Examplevania is another place that produces a lot of apples. In fact, Examplevania produces nearly 150 million bushels. Of these 150 million, 70 million are premium. For this fact alone Examplevanian apples should be called the best in the world, but there’s a good reason they aren’t.

Examplevania exports a lot of apples overseas–nearly 100 million bushels. The problem is that Examplevania keeps a lot of the premium apples for domestic consumption, and only ships 15 million premium ones overseas. The result is that Washington Apples outnumber Examplevanian apples on the premium shelf by a ratio of 2 to 1. Meanwhile, there’s an overabundance of Examplevanian apples in the mediocre barrel.

The Examplevanian apple commission made a serious marketing blunder. Despite the fact that they produce more premium apples than Washington does, they decided to export a mix of mediocre and premium instead of premium only. Although Examplevanian apples really do deserve to be called the best in the world, they lost that title when their carelessness resulted in an overabundance of mediocre in the stores. Most American grocery shoppers have never been to Examplevania and don’t know how good the apples really are. The only way they could judge quality was by what they saw in the store.

Don’t make the same mistake that the Examplevanians did. If you write something that you consider your best work, showcase it elsewhere. Your subscribers already know how good you are. Now, let the rest of the world know.

Kenji Crosland is a former headhunter and English teacher who currently blogs about creating an ideal career at unreadyandwilling.com. He is also a novice web application developer and plans to launch his first community driven site early this year.

Q. Whats the worst word?

A. “Can’t”.

Most people can understand that but you might be shocked by what the second worst word in the English language is…its “TRY”

I absolutely hate that word

There is nothing wrong with giving your best effort in pursuit of something. The mindset behind the word “try” is what I can’t stand and what I believe limits your abilities and talents. Master Yoda gave all of us the best advice we ever disregarded when he told young Luke, “Do or Do not. There is no try”. I mean we can’t look to a short, green, Jedi master puppet for sound life advice can we? Yes we absolutely can, because he was telling the plain and simple truth!

No matter what thing or task you are doing in life, there will only be two outcomes. Either you did it, successfully, or you did not do it. Simple. Master Yoda’s point was when you are looking at something you want to accomplish, you must look at it with the mentality that I am going to DO this. I am not going to try to do something because trying implies my lack of belief in what I am doing or able to do. We have all been guilty of it in seemingly small little ways:

“I’m TRYING to get in shape this year” or “I’m going to TRY to be a better person” or “I’m TRYING to clean up my life”.

It’s all bogus. If you want to get in shape, go to the gym and decide that “I am getting in shape”. Whatever you want to do for yourself, your family or your friends should be framed in the mentality that I can and will DO this. Notice how weak the word ‘try’ can sound. When you hear people use ‘try’ in relation to something you are unsure they are able to do, does the word ‘try’ increase or decrease your confidence in them?

There is nothing wrong with failing. ‘You can’t win them all’ is also true. My hope for each of you who read this is that you take a look at whatever you want to do and just stop giving yourself the excuse of trying. Just Do it.

Homework for this week

Here is a brief but helpful assignment. Tell the people you speak with most frequently that you are going to stop using the word ‘try’ and ask them to call you on it each time.

Immediately you will notice a couple of things:

1. Most of us use the word ‘try’ a lot

2. After a couple of days, you will say the word ‘try’ much less.

There are no limits on what you will be able to do once you stop trying and just do it! So quit trying now and start doing!

This is a guest post by Henri Junttila at WakeupCloud

We all cry after inspiration. If you’re a blogger, you probably feel like there isn’t enough to go around, but what you don’t know is that there is an infinite amount of it floating all over the place. All you have to do is tap into it and that is exactly what you will learn to do in this article.

Why wait for something that is all around you? I have an abundance of ideas jotted down and more coming to me all the time. The more open you are to new possibilities, the more “ideas” you will receive.

There is no right way to go about this, so this article is meant as a suggestion only, because what works for me may not work for you. Try the tips in this article and see how they feel. They might give rise to new methods of grabbing inspiration. When that happens, make sure you share it with us!

3 Ways to Be Inspired

1. Meditation. Sitting down for 10-15 minutes of meditation is one of the best ways to be inspired whenever and wherever you want. Sit down, focus on your breath for 5 minutes and observe the thoughts that pop into your mind. What are you thinking about? Is there a problem looming about that you can write about? The possibilities are endless.

2. Walk. Taking a walk is a time-proven way of clearing your mind. When you clear your mind, you allow inspiration to enter. Remember that saying: if your cup is full, then no more inspiration (information) can enter. Make sure your mind is clear and crisp. You will see that the inspiration has always been there.

3. Listen. Most people miss the fact that inspiration is everywhere because they do not listen. Step out of your mind and your thoughts for a while and enjoy what is right in front of you. Sit in silence as often as you can. A lot of people today are scared of the silence, because they cannot face their mind. Constantly distracting yourself will get you nowhere. Turn everything off and just listen. Let your thoughts pass.

Being Okay with What Is

As I said above, there is no one way to do this. We all want certainty. We want that one method that is guaranteed to work. If there’s one thing that I have learned during my short lifetime it is that nothing is certain.

Listen to your own feelings, thoughts and inspiration. You will most certainly feel inclined to do something. Maybe your thoughts flow when you play ice hockey. Maybe you are struck with inspiration when you talk to people.

Whatever it is, embrace it and use it, because it is there for a reason.

Henri Junttila is a lifestyle superhero and the father of the Wake Up Cloud, a blog about small ideas that produce big results. Subscribe now and follow him on twitter

Ever since I’ve started my personal blog, The Skool of Life,  I have always been an avid user of mind-maps. I love mind-maps because they give you an opportunity to for free form thinking.  When it comes to goal setting, I highly recommend you consider the power of goal setting, autosuggestion, commitment and consistency. I also urge you to give in depth consideration to the question “How often do you decide not to brush your teeth?”  These things will get you really geared up for rapid progress towards your goals. But, let’s talk about dissecting your goals.

No matter what your goal, one of the key components of goal accomplishment is ACTION. Often this is where were get caught up and end up giving up on our goals.  By using a mind map to dissect your goal you’ll find that coming up with actions to make progress towards your goal will be much easier. Let’s take a look at this in 2 concrete examples.

3 Examples of Goals for which I used a Mind-map

Earn 5000 dollars per month in disposable income: One of the things that you’ll find by going through this exercise is that you will brain dump tons of ideas that you didn’t have before.  For example, I recently started posting ads on craigslist for my services and have started to pick up freelance business.

Improved Confidence and Charisma in Social settings: While I’m not antisocial and don’t have any real issues talking to people, it’s definitely an area that I want to master to a point where I have natural charisma. As I dissected this goal more, it made me want to understand characteristics of charismatic people. I also discovered several worthwhile actions to take which included affirmations, visualization, and even listening to some new tape programs specifically focused on charisma.

Using  a Mind-map to Find Your Dream Job: One of the mistakes I’ve seen people make in finding their dream job is that they just use a job title or keywords. But, wouldn’t it make more sense to make a mind-map of all the ideal characteristics of your dream job. When I did this, I got a whole new list of search results and options for positions that interested me.

Implementing this process into your goal setting efforts:

1.    Write down your top 10 goals
2.    Put each goal on a mind-map
3.    Identify a series of actions for each goal
4.    Find the easiest actions you can take immediately
5.    Wash, Rinse Repeat

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this and how you come up with the appropriate actions towards goal setting.

If you are anything like me then you embraced the words “eat, drink and be merry” during the holidays.  While I didn’t do nearly as much drinking during the holidays, as in years past, the 7 day cruise to Mexico I took with my parents allowed for plenty of eating. In fact there were days when I couldn’t decide between desserts so I’d just order both of them. Sometimes I’d even double up on appetizers. So if you want to eat to your heart’s content I highly recommend a cruise.

Alright, I’ll get back to the point. There’s a good chance that your holiday eating habits were not exactly healthy. Food that you eat is generally buttery, artery clogging wholesome goodness. Add some booze to that and there’s a reason you only eat like this during the holidays (supposedly).  So let’s look at getting back into the swing of a healthy routine.

1. Water: First things first. We want to start flushing all this crap out of the system. In general most people don’t drink enough water.  I had a friend from Denmark who told me that he had stomach problems for a while and by drinking a liter of water a day for 3 months, they all went away.  You might not have stomach problems, but regular consumption of water is a good thing so I recommend keeping some at your desk, in your car, or wherever you are.  Hydrating will refresh your system quite a bit.
2. Fruits: One thing you want to do is incorporate water rich foods into your diet. I learned this from Tony Robbins. Fruits are a great way to do that. As cheesy as the old saying “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” might be there is plenty of truth to that. Many people often get sick after the holidays because their systems are clogged full of crap.  Eat lots of fruits and you can avoid that. Additionally fruits give you a nice energy boost without a crash.
3. Greens: Greens are another thing you want to incorporate into your diet not just after the new year, but on a regular basis. People who eat lots of greens often seem to have lots of energy. There are so many benefits to eating lots of green vegetables that I’m going to leave it to Google to tell you what they are.
4. Ditch Desserts: I love, love, love anything dessert-like. I have a sweet tooth to say the least and on my cruise when I had the options of 7 desserts, I was in such bliss that I would often order two. I can’t honestly tell you I plan on ditching desserts. But, give yourself a few weeks off from the desserts. You’ll be glad you did and you’ll feel more confident in your ability to be disciplined.
5. Ditch Fast Food: I ate quite a bit of fast food in the last few months because it was cheap. But, I plan on eating much healthier now that I have a job. If you must eat fast food, try to stick to something like subway that gives you an opportunity for plenty of veggies and water rich food.
6. Exercise: This should be the most obvious of all. A friend told me once that the simple weight loss formula was “eat less and exercise more.” While I know that’s not the easiest thing for many people and some people aren’t blessed genetically, it’s still worth incorporating into your life. If you do this, you’ll find your overall energy level is higher and you will be happier. Exercise releases endorphins so that will make you happier and allow you to have the energy to focus on what you want to accomplish in 2010.

As the bells of the New Year are heard from the distance, we are reminded that a fresh, new start is within our reach. It is far too easy to carry with us the things that troubled us, the habits we’ve developed but regret, and even the excuses we’ve made for what would otherwise be productive.

So what are some ways we can progress into the new year with full intention and dedication towards a fresh, new start? Here are a few things I have done in the past or am currently doing as we speak. Some of them may work for you and some of them may not, but at this point you may as well try them, right?

• Take out a piece of paper and a pen. Now, with the next 5 minutes set aside- sans interruption- make a list of 9 things you accomplished last year. Whether big or small, this should put the last 365 days into perspective and having it on paper in front of you makes it easier to recognize your achievements.

• On the reverse side of the same paper, make a list of the 10 things you’d like to accomplish in 2010. Now, you are already setting 2010 as a year that will surpass that of 2009 in the realm of achievements. Unlike a new year’s resolutions list, this list doesn’t have to be about things you’d like to change, but things you’d like to DO. Be proactive.

• Take a road trip. As I do every holiday season, I get on a plane, in a car, in an RV or on a boat and venture out into the unknown. For me, this has a very therapeutic effect because when I return home after the 1st of the year, I see things from a fresh perspective. If you like spending New Year’s eve and day with friends and family at home, try spending the 1st of the year in a place you’re unfamiliar with.

Change something that you use on a daily basis, whether it’s switching your toothbrush holder from the left side of the sink to the right side or leaning out your entire refrigerator and freezer, making even a small change in your daily routine will break old patterns of thinking. For some this works great, for others, not so much. But again, it can’t hurt to try it!

Ring in the new year with the intention and dedication to start anew. Don’t bother making a list of resolutions, it will only make you feel overwhelmed by the changes you need to make in your life. Instead, acknowledge your successes and motivate yourself to step it up a notch!

Happy New Year!

In the process of launching Lifescapeartists, there were absolutely no meetings held. That probably sounds really funny, but it’s completely true and inspired me to write this piece and explain to you why I think meetings are a complete fu#$%$in waste of time.

I personally have always joked with people that if I was CEO of a company that I would put a one hour time limit on all meetings. For the most part, I think meetings are unproductive, uninformative, repetitive and do very little in terms of generating results.  In fact the most that comes out of many meetings is the date for the next meeting. People spend an hour discussing something that could have been summarized in an email that would take 15 minutes to read.

One of the most interesting things I learned from having no meetings during the launch of this site was that concise communication produces great results.  Communication between me and Gilbert, the other founder of this site was limited to a few chat sessions and very concise emails with exactly what we wanted one another to do. 2 months later we had successfully launched this site.

How to Achieve this level of Efficiency:

• Identify the greatest strengths of each team member
• Delegate and divide tasks according to each person’s greatest strengths
• Set Deadlines
• Don’t go apeshit if you don’t meet the deadlines
• Use email, but GET TO THE POINT FAST (e.g. use a bullet list if you want to assign tasks)
• DON’T HAVE MEETINGS

I know that the corporate world or even the average person for that matter is unlikely to suddenly take my suggestions about not having meetings too seriously anytime soon, so for their sake I will share some advice on improving the process of having a meeting.

How to get the most out of a meeting

Time Limits: Make a rule that you have a stringent time limit on meetings and stick to that rule. I recommend one hour maximum. Most people are zoned out after the first hour from what I’ve seen.  When I was in business school one of the best groups I was in had a rule of 2 hour maximum meeting. That way no time was wasted and we finished everything we needed to do.

Designate a Leader: As somebody who talks alot, I will say that the biggest problem with meetings is that people talk too much and don’t say enough.  With a moderator who controls the tempo, the agenda and everything else things will go much faster.

Plan: One thing that bugs the crap out of me in the corporate world is weekly meetings that occur solely for the sake of having a weekly meeting. Don’t meet weekly if you don’t need to. If you do have a meeting, have an agenda and work through it quickly.

Use a weekly newsletter: If everybody on your team has something to say, let them express it in a weekly internal newsletter. The other option is to setup a blog for the team and write a once week post summarizing everything and the commenting on it. Somehow I have a feeling more would come from this then sitting in a meeting getting annoyed that the meeting is lasting so long. In case you haven’t figured it out, I don’t enjoy long meetings.

I think if you approach the new year with a “less meetings, more results” mentality and put some of my tips here to use, you’ll find that life in general will be much more productive.

Invest in yourself for the highest possible ROI

One of the things that I’ve found interesting is how different our commitment is to certain things when have invested our money into them. I heard this concept in Think and Grow Rich because I’ve been listening to the the concepts multiple times every day because I believe that is the best way to get the most out of any personal development course. In fact we’re much more likely to follow through on something if have something to lose (i.e. you spend money on a course). It’s almost as if you have a sense of obligation to follow through because you spent money.

How Blog Mastermind Has Influenced me

Most of you know my blog growth at The Skool of Life has been fueled my by enrollment in Yaro Starak’s blog mastermind program.  At the beginning of April I asked my dad for some cash to join Blog mastermind and for the hosting fees. So needless to say I have made a small, but not insignificant investment in my blogging efforts. For that reason, I feel not only obligated, but motivated to make this a success.  That is why I write every day, come up with ideas every day, and even move and more towards running it like a business. In fact at this point I’ve come too far to even think about quitting even if it means spending more than a year. Now let’s look at the alternative approach.

Blogging without effort or cost:

Let’s say you get started on your blog. You find a few free ebooks or even spend 50 bucks on an ebook that teaches you how to setup a blog. Now you may be a very self motivated person and you might stick with it. But here’s the distinction. Let’s say you stick with it for 6 months. At the end of that 6 months the growth isn’t there, the numbers aren’t there, and it’s really easy to say “F#$# it , it’s only 50 bucks I’m out.”  This kind of thinking is not an option for me. It shouldn’t be for you either.

Investing time, money, and effort into your blog:

My dad would go nuts since he helped me, so I have to follow through. I also wouldn’t be out just a small sum of 50 dollars thanks the price tag of Blog Mastermind.  The other fact is that this point I’ve come so far that quitting now would be like giving up right before I reach my hockey stick. It might even another year before I get there, but the investment of time, effort and money have been significant enough to warrant sticking with it and pushing through the plateaus. In all honesty I have hit a wall. My growth has slowed a bit, but it’s become consistent. I realized after seeing it was time for coming up with a plan to running this like a business.

This doesn’t just apply to blogging:

This applies to almost anything you do in your life. If you have a more expensive car, you probably take better care of it. If you have nicer shoes you take better care of them.  When I started surfing and I couldn’t catch a wave to save my life, a guy at a bar told me “Go 50 times. Then you’ll be to invested to give it up.”  By the time you get to 50 times  you’ve put in well over a hundred hours if you surf 2 hours each time. Add the cost of your board and gear to that and you’ve invested a hundred hours, a few hundred dollars, and energy. Combine that all together and you’ve got a formula for following through on the goal you set.  So, it pays to invest in yourself for the highest ROI.