Last year, as many newspapers, magazines and tabloids have pointed out, was filled with a lot of insignificant negative things. As I write this post, I’m trying to remember the remarkable things that occured in 2009. I can think of a few remarkable events Presidential Inauguration, US Airways Flight 1549, and the Recession. I remember a few remarkable people Obama, Kennedy, Michael, John & Kate plus 8, Octomom, and Tiger. Thankfully, most of the negative press has died down. Of course, it will be brought up again as this decade comes to a close. In the latter part of 2009 I saw some remarkable deals in consumer electronics; affordable Blu Ray, affordable GPS.
» Read more: Have a Purple 2010
Archive for December, 2009
Have a Purple 2010
December 31st, 2009How-to: Get Google to recognize your published Google Document
December 29th, 2009Earlier this month, I posted “How to: Publish your resumé using Google Docs,” I went through the exercise of posting my resume on Google Docs and then publishing it. The link to my published resume is http://docs.google.com/View?id=dd5zbk2d_3cxzd24d8. But Google hadn’t found it at the time of this post. There are two ways to help Google find your published resume. » Read more: How-to: Get Google to recognize your published Google Document
What did you accomplish in 2009?
December 28th, 2009Name three things you accomplished in 2009
I had several accomplishments in 2009 but three notable ones are.
1) Started this blog, MrWes.Net
2) Grew my network of supportive friends and colleagues.
3) Developed Personal Marketing Workshops – workshops that help people discover their Personal Vision & Mission
Did you accomplish anything in 2009? Share it here.
6 things to do in 2010
December 27th, 2009Everybody makes resolutions that they plan to do in the coming year. I have created a list of
- Get your Personal Bearings
- Become aware of how you are spending/wasting your life
- Create a stop doing list
- I read came across an article by Daniel LaPorte that talks about creating a stop doing list. You end up gaining more time because you’re no longer doing the things that waste time. This action item makes a lot of sense. Why not stop doing things that waste your time. To see the article by Danielle LaPorte » Read more: 6 things to do in 2010
New year’s resolution – don’t charge Christmas
December 26th, 2009This is a public service announcement. Christmas is coming next year on December 25th. If you start saving now, you won’t have to put anything on credit cards. It’s quite simple really. If you know how much you spent this year and you plan to spend the same amount next year, you can calculate exactly how much you need to save each month.
Example Scenario Part 1:
If you have a family of 6 people and you plan to spend $50 on each person that would be $300 for next Christmas.
Christmas Budget = $300 = (6 people x $50 per person)
To figure out how much to save each month you would divide $300 by the remaining months. I have created this little table here to help demonstrate how much you would need to save if you started in a particular month. So, if you are reading this post in February, you have 10 months to save. You would need to save $30 per month for 10 months to reach your goal of $300 by Christmas. If you read this in June, you would have only 6 months left to save, so you would have to save $50 each month for 6 months to reach your goal of $300 by Christmas.
| Month | Months | Save |
|---|---|---|
| Dec | 12 | $25.00 |
| Jan | 11 | $27.28 |
| Feb | 10 | $30.00 |
| Mar | 9 | $33.34 |
| Apr | 8 | $37.50 |
| May | 7 | $42.86 |
| Jun | 6 | $50.00 |
| Jul | 5 | $60.00 |
| Aug | 4 | $75.00 |
| Sep | 3 | $100.00 |
| Oct | 2 | $150.00 |
| Nov | 1 | $300.00 |
| Dec | 0 | Christmas |
What about Black Friday?
If you want to have the money by Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. You’ll have to step up the pace a little.
| Month | Months | Save |
|---|---|---|
| Dec | 11 | $27.28 |
| Jan | 10 | $30.00 |
| Feb | 9 | $33.34 |
| Mar | 8 | $37.50 |
| Apr | 7 | $42.86 |
| May | 6 | $50.00 |
| Jun | 5 | $60.00 |
| Jul | 4 | $75.00 |
| Aug | 3 | $100.00 |
| Sep | 2 | $150.00 |
| Oct | 1 | $300.00 |
| Nov | 0 | Black Friday |
Example Scenario Spending:
If you made it to your planned shopping date and you reached your planned Christmas Budget, then you’re going to have a Merrier Christmas, because you won’t have the January Credit Card blues.
Now for the final part, take your budget and divide it between envelopes for each person. Then when you go shopping, as you buy items for that person, you take it out of their envelope. Once, the money’s gone, you’re done shopping for them. It doesn’t get any easier than that.
New Year Resolution:
If you make any resolutions this year. Promise yourself to save up for Christmas and avoid charging Christmas. You’ll be much happier if you save up for it.
Merry Christmas
December 24th, 2009I hope everybody has a Merry Christmas. My wife and I had a fabulous dinner Christmas Eve with our kids. We open presents a little early, since all the kids are grown up & spend time with other families as well. We received several BluRay DVDs as gifts; Princess Bride, District 9, Lost Season 5. Our kids also brought over Terminator: Salvation in BluRay. It wasn’t a gift, but it will probably stay here for awhile.
I love watching BluRay videos. We’ve been totally amazed at the detail of the movies in 1080p. It’s just amazing to watch.
The most important thing though was not about the gifts, but the time we spend together as a family.
My wife and I will be calling relatives & watching videos Christmas day.
How will you be spending Christmas?
Social Network sources
December 23rd, 2009
Your social networks are made up of people you’ve known in your past and present. The question is where do you find these people? Some of them are not as obvious as you would think. » Read more: Social Network sources
Informational Interviewing
December 22nd, 2009Informational interviewing is an informal way of building your networks and expanding your understanding of an organization or gaining new information in the industry. The cool thing about this kind of interviewing method is that you’re not asking to be hired. » Read more: Informational Interviewing
Personal SWOT Analysis improves job market position
December 21st, 2009When a business wants to understand where they are in the market compared to their competitors they would perform a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. When an individual wants to figure out where they are in the job market compared to their competitors they would perform a personal SWOT analysis on their chosen career. » Read more: Personal SWOT Analysis improves job market position
The internet is not always there when you need it, don’t rely on it
December 20th, 2009We live busy lives. Some of us have busier lives than others. We often make appointments days, weeks, or even months in advance. When recording an appointment, we write down the person’s name, reason for meeting, location of the meeting, in addition to the date and time. If you’re like me, you have the name, time, and reason written down on a calendar. Many of us expect to retrieve the driving directions on the day of travel. This practice of scheduling and Just In Time trip planning sounds perfectly reasonable to most people. That is until you discover the interenet is NOT available when you need it most. I had this experience today.
» Read more: The internet is not always there when you need it, don’t rely on it
