Timothy Birch’s blog

Get in shape.  I walked 12-13 hours a day!  Layer socks to prevent blisters.  Read the Map!
Use Fast Pass! when possible, don't try to get them all at once(computer blocks that)
Drink water.  Know where the Restrooms are located(see map)

Plan.

Take breaks.  Rumor has it you can bring in a cooler nowadays.  Bring plenty of water($3 a bottle is not cheap)

Bring a change of clothes if you go on water rides (you will get soaked in Bear Country)

Eating off 'Property' was just as pricey.  Rain Forest Cafe was great.(not as $ as I feared)

Stay in a Disney hotel to get in early and ride the Monorail.

Tim
new book case filling up nicely.  Will start selling soon, I hope.

Some times the internal staff is worse than the competition!

Openly hostile admin people are killing sales, left and right.

Who pays their check? Sales, eventually.  Everybody is unemployed till the sale is made.  Now to just get them to see it!

"I leave at 4:30.  so if you want the product you'll be here."  They are doing you a favor by doing their job!  Just makes you want to cry.

Sales folks make it look too easy to get the money.  Smiling and spread good will.  While 'support' people slave over a hot computer in a cube smaller than a prison cell to complete the sales reps promises, and Sales gets the big bucks!  How unfair they rant and rave.

Oddly enough support folks hardly ever switch over to sales to make more money.  Easier to bitch than get rich?

Tim
"Go sell something"  or just help them make a wise decision.

"Must be nice."  Ever hear that?  Hope you never say it.

That phrase added seventy pounds to my gut. Flashback ten years.

Working out hard, twenty kilometers of Cross Country skiing.  Great gobs of sweat. Felt great.

Called my soon to be wife and related my successful workout and she just said..."Must be nice"

I quit.

I allowed her opinion and approval to wipe my motivation.
 People pour acid on your success to feel better about themselves.  Don't do that.  Do not permit other to do it to you.

Choose how you feel and stick to it.

"Freedom come when you tell Mrs. Grundy to fly a kite." RAH

Tim
I realized it is my choice.  Here I stand...

Get the unscented bleach.(2-6 gallons, any brand will do)

Some spray bottles(six)

I plan to dilute to 10%.  1 part bleach to 9 parts good old water.

Evil cleaner to kill what might ail ya. 

Clean everything!  When is the last time you cleaned your air vents?

Do the usual suspects.  The phone, this dirty keyboard.  Clean what you and other touch often.

Just hooked hand sanitizer to kids water bottle.  Clean early and often.

If you think I am paranoid, look at a map!  Arizona borders Mexico.  We have a 'open' border.  10,000 people a month cross into my state illegally.

So I am doing stuff at this end.

Tim
"Be Prepared!"  The Boy Scout motto

PS I passed the Board and now am out on training calls for sales gig.  Hope to be selling next month.  Laying out Persuasion technology as applies to sales process and follow up

WE give the advice we need to hear.

"Work hard."  'Early is on time and on time is late and Late is unacceptable.'

Kevin's fav: Finish it! no sleep till complete!  Multi-task time creation.

Just begun is half done.  half done is not yet begun.

Eat less.

Eat better.

Sleep more.  Sleep less. Sleep better(deeper)

Work out.

Laugh! Laughter Is the best medicine.

Have a Positive Mental Attitude ( really just make other people think you do!!!!)

Quote other people to hide your own thinking.  Avoid the Label Trap.

Any of these are a book in themselves.  But (Behold the underlying truth)  A word to the 'Wise' should be enough.

Tim
PS gettin g#1 Son to school then I will comment on all y'alls blogs

"If you are in a hole stop digging!"  Our current plan is to spend our way out of debt nationally. Just invites inflation(hyper?)

Personally here are some tips/plan.  Hope somebody else can write on this as well.

"Pay with cash or do without." No money , no shiny.
I read this years ago, wished I had it tattooed on my brain then!  OK, so I ignored this advice.  How about you?

Stop digging! Start paying with cash, keep tracking it!

This will slow the finical bleeding.

Now, write out ALL your debts.  How much to who.
Order debts from smallest to largest.
Pay more on smallest till it is paid in full.
Roll payment on to next lowest, so on and so forth.

Bought a couple of courses on this, all pretty much the same.  Dave Ramsey does the best job on this stuff.

Back up a step, do you have a Emergency Fund? Before all else stash 2-6 months of money to cover expenses.
Lose your job?  Bank don't care.

Might sell some stuff to raise cash.  eBay is your friend there. 

Think on paper, and don't play the blame game.  Be a grown up and pay your bills.  So what if your now X ran up the tab on the way out.  You got it pay it.

Get another job?  Lower expenses!  Eat at home. Buy tickets early.  Skip some stuff.  Turn off some lights and put on a sweater.  Little stuff will add up.

This is advice I am taking.
Invest in your business and grow your garden of wealth

Tim

Ok. I admit to be a computer guy.  I build them and fix them after they break.  So here are a few tips.

Viruses et al.  Computers get sick from playing with the wrong servers(think playground)

Install at least TWO anti-virus programs, no they will not like each other so what!  Free is a good price.  pop over to majorgeeks.com What a selection, enjoy!  AVG, Avast, Norton get some and get updated and running! (avast can be set to run at boot to clean the beast from the beginning!)

Spybot Search & Destroy.  Use it. digs out malware etc

CCleaner, stands for crap cleaner.  dumps excess crud off your drive.  Real useful to get speed up.

Firewall?  Protect your system, install one.  The Windows one just is not enough!  I unplug my modem when PC is off.

Ever run Scan Disk or Defrag?  will help system run faster.(they came free as part of Windows)

Back up your data.  Your system will fail.  Lost a great deal this way.  Try a online backup service.  DVD disks are good for 5 years or so.  Not trustworthy enough for me.

Hardware side:
have more RAM installed.
Video or Sound card as well.
External 1 Tera Byte drives are under $150 now and 2 TB internals are not bad either.  (Downloading the Library of Congress?)  can use to mirror your drives and serve as local backup.

Tape a reminder on your screen: "Finish" Kevin might tell you why.(upper right hand corner)

Numbers?  We don't need no stinkin' numbers!

Welcome tax day in the USA!

Rob will kick you butt if yo aren't keepin' good records.  How often you tracking your income and expenses?

Yann, knows who pays his rent.  Do you?

Follow the money trail.  Cui Bono?

Once upon a time I did Tech Support for QuickBooks.  Lots of people in business are clueless about the importance of numbers.  Explaining a P/L and Balance Sheet to a Muffler shop in NC.  High comedy at best.

Computer tracking of your business is key.  The days of book keeping in a notebook is so over.

Get some software, learn how to use it.  Enter your info daily if you can, weekly if you must.

Jim Rohn, "Story don't fit in the little box." or something to that effect.

Track your time too.  Is X getting you to Y? Why not?

Tim
More coffee, skipping the Tea Party

We study SUCCESS.  We attend seminars, listen to audios, watch streaming videos by Gurus.
Chasing the edge. Always reaching for the Elusive Obvious...
"Enough is never Enough!"

Ever look at the flip side?

Have you defined success and failure?  What do they mean to you?  How do you define them in reference to others?  your kids?

Dig deeper.

Failure means you found a way it does not work.  Post-it Notes, failure, it was to be Super Glue.  Ask Steve Chambers a story or two.

I failed at lots of things, thankfully! Not in Construction or Meat Packing anymore. Couldn't read til I was twelve.  Now I measure my library in cubic feet(hard drive is pretty full too!)

Note failure and stress are engineering terms first.  And labels/traps second.

Tim

Three weeks without food.  Some of us can go longer!(I include myself in that number)

In the Bible there are examples of Fasting.  40 days...  Have some experience missing meals.  You'll be hungry Day One then Day Three.  Finally you get hungry on Day Forty(I am told)

I pack food!  In your Three day(72 hour kit) have food and water and other gear.  Think, maybe Life Boat Rations.  They are temperature stable and non-thirst provoking.  NASA developed some food that is 98% absorb-able! (not much too worry about at other end!)  Can get at Nitropak.com  Two week supply fits in a 2qt. canteen cover.

Think about foraging(hunting,gathering) and having a stash of stable food.  Make friends with a Mormon.  Those folks make being prepared a saintly devotion. (They want to you have a one year supply.)

Remember the Government doesn't expect to help you for at least three days.  You are on your own, Buck-O!

Tim
PS The Police are NOT required by Law to protect you.

Spent Easter in Urgent Care with a Feverish puking kid.(Will fix a nice dinner when can enjoy it.)