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1001 Personal Experiments Continued…

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A casual fling with Vegetarianism

The project continues…

I’ve written on medium before about one of my strategies for being quarantined, which was to give myself a series of challenges or experiments.

A lot of those had focused on my relationship with food, which is not a coincidence, since I’m a little more than half way through losing a significant amount of weight.

This new experiment took my by surprise when it entered my thoughts yesterday and so I think its worth writing about.

Challenges of losing weight…..

One of the challenges of trying to lose a significant amount of weight is that what worked for you in the beginning wont work for you all the way through.

Weight loss plateaus, either because your body gets used to the regime, or because you got fed up following the plan.

My strategy to weight loss is intermittent fasting and exercise, and while I don’t find myself getting tired of either of those, I do still have the weight loss plateaus to deal with.

Im in one of those right now, which is how the thought came about I’m sure…

A vegetarian experiment

As a dedicated meat eater, my first thought was have I been abducted by aliens or drugged maybe, there has to be a reason that these thoughts are entering my head, it’s not natural at all….

The more I thought though, the more it makes sense, I need to change gears on the weight loss again and I have already cut red meat consumption down significantly, so this is just the next step in the process.

I wont become a vegetarian full time, that’s not the goal and I have to be honest in telling you that.

What I am interested in is, what can a vegetarian diet (Still consuming dairy) do for my weight loss and my overall health.

To begin with this will be a 7 day experiment.

What will I learn in 7 days???

Not much I think, 7 days is really too short to evaluate anything.

I will be able to see the effect on my blood sugar levels and I’ll know if I feel a difference in myself but that will be it.

So then why 7 days you ask?

The answer is simple, this is probably the biggest and scariest life change I have ever thought of.

If I can compartmentalize it, then I can do 7 days without issues and then extend it if im comfortable with that in 7, 14 or 21 day chunks.

I know I need at least 1 month on this, but that’s looking to far ahead right now and this approach will keep me going.

An exciting new world awaits

All I can do is put one foot in front of the other here and try and make this work, while that’s daunting there is an immediate advantage.

I get to try something new, vegetarian cooking. An exciting new world where the veggies are the main event and not the side show.

As someone who enjoys cooking it’s a new challenge I can look forward to and it genuinely gets me excited for the days ahead.

Final thoughts

In terms of these small personal experiments this is the big one for me.

Its a radical change, so one small step at a time and a compartmentalised view is key.

Ive not focused on the pro’s/con’s etc of a vegetarian lifestyle here because I honestly don’t know.

Im taking the YOLO approach here and will see how it turns out, like much that I do in life.

I’ll write about initial progress this time next week, in the meantime if anyone doe’s have any advice or tips etc please do get in touch…

Taking the first step in sales

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People do business with people they like…

This is the first rule of sales

Maybe sounds a bit old fashioned but, let me assure you it’s a powerful truth.

People do business with people they like

At a time where we do less and less business face to face, this is being forgotten about, but bear with me its important.

If you want to be successful, you have to build a connection with your sales audience.

Standing out from the faceless crowd

This is a huge challenge today, and one thats being embraced by influencers.

Transcending face to face business and taking those same principles and applying them to vlogging is a great example of how people have successfully reinvented older sales principles to make them work in todays world.

While their audience is a video camera as they present or talk about the product or service their selling, what you see on the other end of that is a face and what you hear is one side of a conversation, this builds a connection.

That connections leads to you liking that person (Or the person they project themselves to be on-screen), the result, your much more likely to buy something they recommend.

Not everyone is on social media or wants to be an influencer of course, but its a great example of standing out from the crowd and building a sales audience with probably the oldest sales rule.

In business day to day there are other ways that we can make those same connections without having social media:

  • Pick up the phone — Its amazing to me the amount of people who try to do business over email only and wonder why its not working. Develop that human connection with someone, if you can have that call over video phone even better.
  • Integrity and honesty — This means being honest about what your trying to achieve and how what your selling benefits the person or the business your selling to, if it doesn’t benefit them chances are they wont buy it so be upfront about that. If you are not sure, then use calls and face to face meetings to work out how it would benefit them, you will thank yourself later. The prospect will also thank you because you will actually understand their needs and can tailor your sales towards that.
  • Talk Plainly — Leave the acronyms and buzzwords back in the 80’s where they belong, this kinda ties back into integrity and honesty, no one talks like that in the real world so don’t talk like that in the business world, a natural conversation with the real you, builds that connection.
  • Don’t present, converse — Death by power point is horrible for both the presenter and the audience, so don’t go there. Instead adopt the corporate story telling philosophy. Just have a conversation with some visual only slides for context as you need them. Its a much more natural way to present and puts both the presenter and the audience at ease.

If you can do these things, it will help you to stand out from crowd, build an honest relationship with your customers and get you more business.

Never forget that people really do more business with people they like, this is what makes sales and business development such a richly rewarding career option.

The biggest and best lifestyle change I have ever made

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Switching from Soda to Sparkling water

The background

I’m not a health nut or particularly fit or healthy and im definitely overweight, after some health challenges and some high blood sugar readings that showed I might be heading towards developing type 2 diabetes, a lifestyle change was required and fast.

Living a more health conscious lifestyle is a challenge for me, not because I don’t want to live a long and healthy life, but because I spent the first 30 something years of my life going in the opposite direction.

The Challenges

Initially I had 2 challenges, the first was getting my blood sugar under control and the second one was losing weight.

Both would require some big lifestyle changes and that was OK, what I wasn’t prepared for was how hard but also how beneficial the biggest change would be.

I’m not really an addict am I?

It turns out that I am actually.

Surprisingly to me I’m a sugar addict and soft drinks or soda was how I was getting my fix.

Like any addiction, beating it was going to be a long challenge.

Its also going to be a lifelong task to monitor and control.

Fail fast, learn the lesson and move on

This is a mantra I live by, in everything I do, and its been hugely helpful to me in my journey to living a healthier lifestyle.

In this case there were a few tools I needed to allow me to gather the data:

  • Blood Sugar Reader kit
  • Blood Sugar and Food Diary (A legal pad is good enough)
  • A set of goals and actionable items

Once I had these in place I could start to try and move forward.

The goals I set myself were healthy blood sugar levels below 5.5 mg/l and a final healthy weight of 95kgs.

This is where trial and error and playing around with foods, eating patterns etc and logging all the data comes into play.

I could see what works and what doesn’t, the big ticket items that really affect the data both negatively and positively, and at the end of each week I could spend some time learning the lessons and make changes which I would trial and implement the following week.

This worked well for me except in one critical area….

Falling off the wagon

I could go for days without my fix of sugar, it was hard but manageable to a point, but eventually I’d walk past one advertisement too many and boom I’d have a bottle of something in my hand.

The numbers crept back up and it took days to get them back under control from one single incident.

It was getting to be so frustrating and I really struggled to get round the issue.

What doesn’t kill you….

I was a notoriously fussy eater and drinker I suppose, the issue being the stuff I liked was junk….

I had switched from soda to tea and water.

I had also tried the sugar free soda but to be honest I still got bad blood sugar readings from those and any way long term they were also going to damage my health.

Sparkling water was something I had tried in the past when I was a kid, but being the fussy person I was, if I decided I didn’t like it after trying it once that was it, in my head I was done with it never to return.

I had to get over that and try sparkling water as one of my many experiments.

What didn’t kill me, didn’t make me stronger, it was actually a game changer.

Maybe its not just the sugar…

This was a pretty quick realization when I moved on sparkling water, it wasn’t just the sugar I was missing from those soda drinks, it was the fizz.

That fizzy feeling of the liquid had also formed a strong link in my brain, maybe just as strong as the sugar.

They say a habit forms in 90 days…

It actually took me about 6 months to get over the need for sugary drinks.

Over that time, I substituted them with sparkling water, the length of time between falling off the wagon became less and less, and now its more than 6 months since I have even thought of having a soda.

Ironically they taste far too sweet for me nowadays.

While it took me a lot longer than 90 days to get there, I have achieved my aim in the end.

The end result

The struggle was worth it in the end, I have met my goal on the blood sugar and more.

Im out of the risk group for type 2 diabetes and my cholesterol and blood pressure have also hugely improved.

Im losing weight, im 50% to my target and fitter than anytime since my teens quite honestly.

I’ve done other things to improve my diet and my lifestyle of course, but the biggest and best change I have made without doubt has been to get rid of the Soda.

The results were instant and obvious, like nothing else I have done before or since for my health.

The Back Up Plan

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Wedding plans in ruins, there are option’s….

Sound familiar?

I can relate to that, I should be getting married to my better half in a little over 6 weeks time.

Between hotels being closed, us stuck in one country while the wedding is planned in another plus the headache of needing a visa for my partner which we can’t get because the embassy is closed, all bets are off.

We need to re-arrange, which at first looked like it would be a nightmare.

What are the options???

As anyone who is planning a wedding will know, they are not cheap, so the first priority in our case was cancelling what we could and minimizing the financial impact.

Once we had done that (nothing like pouring over contracts to suck the romance out of the room), we quickly worked with the vendors to get money back or make settlements.

This was purely because we had fixed dates for being in the UK, and if those did’nt work we needed other options.

If you can delay, then use that option as it gives you time to get back on track, extra time to pay and you don’t lose deposits etc. just make sure you read the contracts and understand what the options are…

A back up plan fit for the king….

Uh-Huh, the back up plan is for us a stroke of collective genius.

We have a deadline to get married due to a pending work move and visa requirements. Looking at all the options and also being people that focus a lot on fun, we did some research.

Turns out Las Vegas even with flights and hotels is a very economical way to get hitched.

Having a suitable fake Elvis tie the know for us should also be great fun and give us some great memories, albeit we won’t get the special day with family and friends that we had planned.

While this works for us I understand it may not be the answer for you. Its important though to talk things through with your partner and work out what does the back up plan look like and how you will achieve it.

Final Thoughts

It can be a bit if a kick in the teeth to have to cancel, delay or rearrange, but as the saying goes:

A smooth sea, never made a skilled sailor

Life will throw curveballs at us from time to time, this is just a big one. There are plenty of options available without having to sacrifice money already spent.

Just make sure you know what the impact is for you and talk with you partner to work out the back up plan that works for you both.

If you can control that then it one less thing to stress about.

You could even be like us and take a trip to the meet the King, just make sure you don’t make a booking at the heartbreak hotel.

Attitude

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The one thing that can make or break a career

Really?

Yeah I have some bad news, our attitude really is the difference between making it or not in our careers.

There is an idiom that often gets shared on social media where someone has written hard work, punctuality and a few other words on a white board and underneath each word they added the number in the alphabet for each letter and added those up.

Its goes on until the bottom word which is attitude equals 100% and I think thats true, there is quote I love which goes:

A bad attitude is like a flat tyre, you can’t go anywhere unless you change it

Its one thing that we all have the ability to change, and the one thing that can make a huge difference in our lives.

A little humility goes a long way

Life happens to us all, maybe we lose out on a promotion or our dream move, or maybe we are less motivated by what we do than we used to be.

The situation can spiral out of control if we let it. Our attitude goes downhill and before we know it we are in a worse situation than we were to begin with.

When these bumps in the road come along its important to keep perspective, and keep a good attitude, the opportunity will come along again and with a little self reflection you can be ready for it.

Even worse is the situation when sadly a job is lost, which in the market right now is happening more and more.

Its really hard to keep perspective and a good attitude during these time, especially coming from a highly paid job to something very different. There can be rewards however, a different perspective on life for example that will pay us back in time.

Final Thoughts

A smile, a laugh, a joke , humility and hard work are the good attributes and attitude that can keep us going and keep us in a job, almost more than anything else I can think of.

In the horrible event that anyone of us loses a job, then its that same good attitude and sense of perspective that will help get us through.

As an ex colleague of mine remarked today after taking a job in a garden centre part time:

I really miss the salary and the free lunches in a fancy restaurant paid for by someone else, but working hard, meeting people and then eating a sandwich in the back of car at lunchtime, has given me a whole new respect and perspective on life

Attitude really is the thing that makes the difference….

Traveling the world

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Its bigger than you think but smaller than ever

Smaller and more connected than ever before

The age of the internet really does mean that the world seems smaller and is certainly more connected than ever before, but that doesnt mean we should’nt take the change to explore it.

The magic of travel

The experiance of the sights, sounds, smell and culture of the places you travel to and experiance, just cannot be replicated by watching or reading something online or in a book.

The magic of travel is soaking up all of those things in person, meeting the people, visiting the landmarks, travelling between places and trying new things, new experiences.

Travel broadens the mind, but often empties the wallet

This is one of the single biggest fears that a lot of people have.

While I can’t say that this isn’t totally untrue, travel today is much cheaper than we tend to think it is, and in fact there are more opportunities to be paid to travel for work than ever before.

Budget airlines, air bnb and group travel options all make it cheaper than you might think to go take a life changing trip.

Or you could explore the career options which allow you to travel for work, these are almost endless and go from long distance track driving and sailing through engineering, sales, management, the list of jobs and list of industries is endless.

If you want to travel and see the world, the options to do that are endless.

Final thoughts

The world really is smaller and more connected than ever before, yes they are some challenges and getting out there right now, but once those end the world is out there.

If you want to make the most of it and see what you can, then the options are there.

When the going gets tough

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It can be hard to get going

The tough get going apparantly, but what about the rest of us?

Well today the going is definitely getting tough, from cancelled wedding plans, vacation plans, job losses and illnesses, their are so many challenges for us in the world right now.

That old saying:

When the going gets tough, the tough get going

Can feel like a joke, at the best of times and especially so nowadays.

Here is the thing though, for the rest of us the same rule applies.

Its just a case of putting on foot in front of the other

This is it, the secret to getting through those tough times, is just taking one step at a time.

This is the secret that the tough live by when they do get going. Its not that they are tougher than the rest of us, more resilient nor do they have superpowers.

They just compartmentalize the challenges and take them 1 step at a time.

Keep going its almost never as bad as it seems

There is a statement made by the US military that when you think your done and can’t go on any further that in reality your only 40% done, you have much more left in the tank than you realize.

By putting on foot in front of the other and making small steps they achieve the aim and get through it.

You can do the same.

How?

Four things you can do when the going gets tough to make it easier to come out the other side of the struggles you may face:

  • Write the problem down, getting it out of your head onto paper will release some stress
  • Take the problem and write down the steps you need to take to make it through and keep these with you, tick them off as you go
  • Compartmentalize it all, break it down in sections to work through, don’t try to tackle everything at once
  • Talk to someone, a problem shared is a problem halved

These things are what those tough people do when the going gets tough, to work through the issue.

Final Thoughts

Life can be tough at times, but its manageable. You don’t need superhuman abilities to overcome struggles in life, just a strategy.

As always what works for you is RIGHT for YOU, but these are some lessons ive learned over the years which im happy to share, and if they help anyone then that’s great.

Turning Negatives into Positives

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Its all in our heads

The glass is always half full

At least this is my attitude, in the eternal optimist.

Not everyone understands that way of thinking and people who think this way can appear to be naïve or living in a different world at times.

Neither impression is quite correct but I do think that being an optimist or opportunist makes you look at the world in a different way.

A World of Opportunity???

Depends on the way you look at the world and the situations you find yourself in.

Often times the only difference between negativity and positivity is what’s in our heads.

When we think negative thoughts or negative words about a given situation come out our mouth, they really influence the outcome of the situation and our thoughts about it.

Im not suggesting that we all need to be joyously happy all the time, but if we look for the positives in a situation it can make a huge difference in how we see the world.

A world of opportunity is only ever a positive thought away, its that simple.

Final Thoughts

I was reading the book by the Motorcycle Racer and Commentator Steve Parrish the other day and it really was the inspiration for writing this today.

While I probably don’t have quite the same attitude as him, I do see where we share similar traits which I think are worth sharing.

Any situation in life no matter how dire it may seem has something positive in it, even if that’s just the fact that your learned a life lesson its a positive.

Humor often works also to change the mood, and again positive humor changes the mindset.

Its amazing what such a small change in mindset can do.

The next time you feel negative thoughts bubbling through, try simple smiling, laughing at them or deleting them by saying something positive, you may well be surprised at the outcome.

Decision Trees

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A more efficient tool for problem solving?

Ok you got me, this isn’t going to be the most exciting topic…

But decision tree’s are a fantastic tool to use to get troubleshooting information to the people who need it most.

In my background in engineering and operations, often when things go wrong, the go to is a massive manual which often is laid out terribly and written in the most odd and old fashioned ways possible. (Seriously why can’t technical literature be written for the 21st century instead of the 19th???)

The end result is that we either ignore the damn thing and rely on experiance to tell what we think happened and what we think will solve the issue, or we keep going with the manual.

In either case lots of time will be wasted head scratching, and most likely even more time will be wasted messing around trying often aimlessly to solve the issue.

What if there was a better go to tool we could use in those situations?

The decision tree

The good news is there is a better tool for those situations, its called a decision tree, and many people have seen them, hidden in the back of a manual.

Normally in these cases they refer you page x or procedure 9.3d, which again just wastes time. Its a classic case of a brilliant tool being used incorrectly and then ignored by the masses because it appears to be useless.

Used correctly this is the most powerful tool for problem solving that operational teams can use, its simple, easy and effective.

Like any other visual tool it lays the information out in an easy to read way and gives clear instructions to move onto the next step.

This saves, time, money and confusion which can lead to more expensive mistakes.

How does it work?

The decision tree when used correctly, gives various options or decisions which are automatically made for you as you go through the questions being asked, in the example below its simplified for effect:



Simple visual and easy to follow, the decision tree can be adapted to anything from starting a car to starting a space shuttle, all it needs is the key questions on it and decisions people can easily follow as they work through the potential solutions.

They can be elaborate and created in fancy software, they can be made easily in power point or word, and I have even had the faxed to me hand drawn on the back of a beer mat.

What are the Benefits?

The benefits of the decision tree, are the ease of use and the time saving, versus dragging though documents or worse relying on experiance.

They can also greatly speed up the learning process for new starts, or someone new to your operations.

No guess work, eliminates other mistakes which can be made trying to solve a problem using a complicated manual or just experiance blindly.

Laid out as a visual guide so very easy to read.

Final Thoughts

These are a go to tool for myself and my teams nowadays, and have revolutionized the way I work.

Especially for those times where you are tired or under alot of pressure, having this to hand can be a god send.

If you have never used a decision tree before, give it a go, it might just revolutionize the way your work.

Goal Setting Its as easy as writing it all down

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Really that’s it ???

Well almost and anyway its a good first step.

Goals that are not written down and don’t have an action plan are dreams.

If we think of the typical goal that doesn’t make it to reality, the old classic the new years resolution is a good example of that.

Its typically something that we tell ourselves, we may even tell friends and family but, very rarely do those new years resolutions make it as goals, they remain dreams unfulfilled .

Ok so what’s next?

The first step is taking those dreams from your head and writing them down as goals to be achieved by a specific date on paper.

The way that works for me is they are front and center on page 1 of my notebook, therefore I see those goals every day, but whatever works best

for you, is correct for you….

That’s it that the first step and the goal set.

After that?

Once the goals are written down, you can make you connection to them stronger, by using visual boards and mind maps, to visualise the steps you need to take to achieve the goal and also what the goal looks like once its achieved.

These are powerful tools which cost nothing but time to use.

If you have some dreams which remain unfulfilled what’s stopping you from writing them down and turning them into goals then reality?