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I don’t do “resolutions”. The word lacks weight to me. I like a bit more action to a word meant to capture my plans for the coming year. I like the word “intentions” better (sounds more purposeful and deliberate), here are the things I intend to do in the coming year.

• Publish my next book, This Could Help

• Read only books I already own. There are so many books we own that I have never read. Some of these are ones that Bethany has purchased. Some are ones I did but then never got to. Some are ones given to me or borrowed I have yet to crack. I aim to change this. I already have a stack of a dozen or so books that fit this category and have identified a few on our shelves that will be added to the list. If I receive any new books, they will just have to wait until next year.

• More weeknight dinner with friends. So often during the year we have friends that we do dinner with — either have them over or go over there or, even, go out — and we always come away wishing we did that more. This year, I want to be more intentional about following up on that desire. I plan to shoot for every other week.

• One date night a month with my wife. We were pretty successful meeting this shared intention this past year. Why not go for two?

• Keep a journal/log daily. This is one of those things I love to do, espouse doing, and that always makes me feel better having done so. Yet, I find it a challenge to keep up with daily and beat myself up when I go a day (or several) without doing so. I’m also going to make it less easy to “break the chain” by using a Hobonichi Techo Planner for the task. In the past, I have used blank or otherwise undated notebooks for the task. Therefore, it was not visible when there were days between entries. The Hobonichi, being a planner, has dates.

• I’m going to be more mindful of my listening. I think I’m an OK listener as it is, but often I want to try to interject or correct of offer my own perspective instead of taking the time to just listen and understand. Specifically, I’m going to practice what Buddhist teacher and philosopher Thích Nhất Hạnh terms “deep listening” more often. He beautifully describes this practice in this excerpt from an interview he did with Oprah Winfrey:

  Deep listening is the kind of listening that can help relieve the suffering of another person. You can call it compassionate listening. You listen with only one purpose: to help him or her to empty his heart. Even if he says things that are full of wrong perceptions, full of bitterness, you are still capable of continuing to listen with compassion. Because you know that listening like that, you give that person a chance to suffer less. If you want to help him to correct his perception, you wait for another time. For now, you don’t interrupt. You don’t argue. If you do, he loses his chance. You just listen with compassion and help him to suffer less. One hour like that can bring transformation and healing.

• I also plan to do another GORUCK Challenge in 2014. Just to say I can.

A pretty good and actionable list if I do say so myself. Here’s hoping all of our actions for the coming year meets our intentions.

Happy New Year!

As stated in the previous post, here are some things that I read that deserve to be counted among the things I read this past year in their own separate list.

Books I Have Started But Not Finished

• The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman: Timothy Ferriss — This book actually explains, up front, that the best way to read it is not cover-to-cover. Instead, it proposes specific chapters in order to achieve specific goals (weight loss, increased strength, etc.). Therefore, I went with that. What I read was great.

• Value-Based Fees: How to Charge – and Get – What You’re Worth: Alan Weiss — This is perhaps one of the most influential books I’ve read about charging for your services as a freelancer/consultant. But, I’ve had to take it in slowly and re-read several sections in order to meditate on the ultimate meaning and application to my business.

• StrengthsFinder 2.0: Tom Rath — The book is really only a guide to the real product which is a test that helps you evaluate, understand, and best leverage your strengths. A code to take the test is included in the back of the book. Therefore, the strategy is to read the introduction and take the test. The rest of the book is meaningless until you do so and not even needed once you do so. All the information you need is included in the test results.

Books I Wrote Or Was Otherwise Involved In

In fairness, a lot of my reading time is taken up by reading my own books or books I’m somehow involved in. If I’m asked to write a forward for a book, I will likely read through it a couple of times — before and after writing the forward — to make it a good fit. I then often read through it a third time after it has been published. In fact, I might read through my own books a dozen times or more in the process of editing and publishing. This year, these books include:

• The Mobile Writer eBook: Julio Ojeda-Zapata — I wrote the forward for this and it features my writing methods throughout. Julio is a good friend and it was an honor to be asked and included. Therefore, I’m hardly unbiased. That said, this is a perfect book for any writer who has wanted to get more productivity while on the go.

• So, You Want To Be A Mac Consultant… — My guide to everything you need to know to get started as an independent technology consultant. If you’ve ever even considered it, this will give you the tools you need to make the leap.

• Minimal Mac: What We Believe In — My updated and expanded collection of the best post from four years of my other site, Minimal Mac.

Other Things I Read

• Literary Journals — I read a couple of literary journals that I picked up at a book fair this summer. First volumes of The Common and Rust Belt Rising. Enjoyed them both and reminded me of my love of a good literary journal.

• The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls – Three Stories by JD Salinger — Three previously little known and unpublished short stories by one of my favorite authors leaked for free online. This was a no brainer. So, so, rewarding.

• Articles in Instapaper, ious magazines I read monthly, etc. — The point being that time reading these (still valuable and worthy) things means less time for reading a good book.

It has been a pretty busy past couple of weeks but I still have lots to share. Let’s get to it…

Writing and collaborative editing site Editorially is now open to the general public. I was invited to join up quite some time ago but have not had the chance to really play with it as I have been actively and happily using Draft for another project. That said, I’m really impressed by what I saw and especially impressed that Mandy Brown (the CEO) reached out to me personally to ask why I had signed up but not yet used it. That. my friends, is the sign of a product you should support. So, go check it out.

I had the chance to handle and briefly play with a ZTE Open Firefox OS Phone that a friend of mine purchased, carrier unlocked, for around $100.00 on eBay. Seemed like a nice enough little unit. I liked the build quality (think low end but sturdy Android phone), the hand-feel, and size (smaller than an iPhone but comfortable rounded shape). The Firefox OS has the advantage of being truly open instead of Android “open” which would make this a nice little Freedom Phone (carrier free, free as in open, free as in non-three letter agency compromised, etc.). That said, the OS itself was a bit clunky and laggy, the software keyboard almost painful to use, and the third-party apps are all webapps which all seemed to take a bit too long to launch. As my friend said, “If someone were to tell me that this were an unfinished prototype the original iPhone was based on about 6 months before it’s release, I’d believe it.”

While we are on the subject of smartphones and speed, if you really want to have a fast note taking option for your iPhone just get some of these Paperback Notes. Sticky notes that attach to the back. Way faster than launching Notes.app. Not nearly as elegant as DODOcase Notes but sometimes speed trumps beauty.

I really enjoyed the latest (and final?) installment of Put This On which was filmed in Milan. This episode discusses what happens when long storied artisan shops become multi-national brands and what is lost in the process. A whole lot of intersections here with the idea of Final Choices and choosing high quality and longevity over fast disposable fashion.

The Epic Privacy Browser is based on Google Chrome. Unlike Google Chrome it is designed to provide privacy from advertisers and others that wish to track and collect your online behavior. It has always-on Private Browsing, blocks trackers and third-party cookies, routes searches through a secure proxy, uses https whenever the option is available, and Epic clears all of your browsing data on close. It wont protect you from the everything but it will provide a measure more privacy that your current browser likely does not.

I recently went shopping (in that modern, online, sense) for a nice leather cover that would hold a Field Notes notebook, a few index cards, and some other essentials (business cards, stamps, etc.). After looking at many options I first settled on The E2 Field Gear Leather Pocket Notebook Cover because it looked good and the price, at $30.00, was pretty good. When I received it I was happy enough. Nice quality, seemed solid, and was up to the task. That said, with one side being a slash pocket the index cards and other items were less secure inside. Then, just a couple of weeks later I saw the Hellbrand Leatherworks — Chromexcel Field Notes cover for sale on Huckleberry for a decent price so I snatched it up. Turns out, with the full pocket on the opposite side from the notebook, it was better for my needs. So, now I have the first one I bought (the E2 Field Gear model) available for sale. I’ll let it go for $25.00 and will include the shipping in that to anywhere in the US. Please shoot me an email if interested.

That’s all for now. Over and out.

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