Dennis Fahringer's blog http://fotofah.posterous.com Most recent posts at Dennis Fahringer's blog posterous.com Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:53:00 -0800 Why You Should Embrace Discomfort - Michael Hyatt (excellent blog piece) http://fotofah.posterous.com/why-you-should-embrace-discomfort-michael-hya http://fotofah.posterous.com/why-you-should-embrace-discomfort-michael-hya

Think you have big goals? Think again. Several years ago, I read an article in Wired magazine about a long-distance runner named Dean Karnazes.

A Man Running in the Desert - Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/skodonnell, Image #7572215

 

Get this:

  • He ran fifty marathons in fifty states on fifty consecutive days.
  • He once ran 350 miles in three days—without stopping and with no sleep.

 

  • He’s run the Badwater Ultramarathon seven times. It starts in Death Valley, 250 feet below sea level and concludes, 135 miles later, halfway up Mt. Whitney, at 8,360 feet. He won the race in 2004 on his fifth attempt.
  • He runs 100 to 170 miles a week.
  • He couldn’t find time to run 4–6 hours a day, so he began sleeping less. He currently only sleeps four hours a night.
  • His resting heart rate is 39 beats per minute!

I was so inspired by the article, I bought his book, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All Night Runner and devoured it. I then made a commitment to run my first ever half marathon. I have run one per year ever since.

In another interview in Outside magazine, Dean makes an important point that many of us have forgotten:

Western culture has things a little backwards right now. We think that if we had every comfort available to us, we’d be happy. We equate comfort with happiness. And now we’re so comfortable we’re miserable. There’s no struggle in our lives. No sense of adventure. We get in a car, we get in an elevator, it all comes easy. What I’ve found is that I’m never more alive than when I’m pushing and I’m in pain, and I’m struggling for high achievement, and in that struggle I think there’s a magic.

This rings true for me. I think there are three reasons why you and I should embrace discomfort, whether we deliberately choose it, or it simply happens to us.

  1. Comfort is overrated. It doesn’t lead to happiness. It makes us lazy—and forgetful. It often leads to self-absorption, boredom, and discontent.
  2. Discomfort is a catalyst for growth. It makes us yearn for something more. It forces us to change, stretch, and adapt.
  3. Discomfort is a sign we’re making progress. You’ve heard the expression, “no pain, no gain.” It’s true! When you push yourself to grow, you will experience discomfort.

A few weeks ago, I started participating in a Pilates class with Gail. It sounded easy enough. Boy, was I wrong. It has proven to be incredibly challenging. I hurt when I am doing it, and I am sore afterwards.

But that’s the very reason I love it. I feel like I am making progress and becoming stronger with each class.

The bottom line is this: you can either be comfortable and stagnate or stretch yourself—become uncomfortable—and grow. You may think that comfort leads to happiness. It doesn’t. Happiness comes from growth and feeling like you are making progress.

Question: Where are you uncomfortable in your life right now? In what way could this be a sign you are growing? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

 

via michaelhyatt.com

 

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http://posterous.com/images/profile/missing-user-75.png http://posterous.com/users/hes5aomIZZaoG Dennis Fahringer fotofah Dennis Fahringer
Sat, 06 Aug 2011 23:20:00 -0700 Very valuable presentation tips from Michael Hyatt http://fotofah.posterous.com/very-valuable-presentation-tips-from-michael http://fotofah.posterous.com/very-valuable-presentation-tips-from-michael
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Thu, 30 Jun 2011 19:44:00 -0700 Four Actions You Can Take Now to Dramatically Increase Your Blog Traffic (by Michael Hyatt) http://fotofah.posterous.com/four-actions-you-can-take-now-to-dramatically http://fotofah.posterous.com/four-actions-you-can-take-now-to-dramatically

 

In the last 30 days, I have seen my blog traffic jump by 81.3%. I have seen steady growth since I converted from TypePad to self-hosted WordPress two years ago (up 338.6%). But the last 30 days represented the largest single jump in my traffic ever.

My January 2011 Google Analytic Stats

Source: Google Analytics

I want to share why I believe this has happened, so that you can apply what I have learned to your own blog. Hopefully, you will experience similar results.

 

First of all, this traffic increase wasn’t the result of a single post that just happened to catch fire. Nor was it the result of a large site linking to me. Rather, it was the result of several specific changes I made to my blog.

Even here, I don’t think it was a single change, but rather all of them working together that accounted for the impact on traffic. The good news is that these are all things you can replicate.

First, the facts—directly from Google Analytics. (By the way, if you don’t have this installed on your blog, do that first. It’s easy, free, and essential if you are serious about growing your traffic.)

  • Absolute unique visitors went from 71,885 last month to 130,320 this month (a 81.3% increase).
  • Pageviews went from 173,794 to 284,192 (a 63.5% increase).

Now, what did I do to make this happen?

I had already installed Standard Theme back in October. This had an immediate, positive impact on my traffic. This was due primarily to faster page load times and better Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Other bloggers I know have had similar results from this premium theme.

However, in the week between Christmas and New Years, while on vacation, I asked myself, What actions can I take to significantly grow my blog traffic? I came up with a list of four:

  1. Increase my blogging frequency. I have always known that there is a correlation between frequency and growth in traffic, but I proved it to myself empirically this past month. For most of last year, I posted three times a week. I decided I would post five times a week this year, Monday through Friday.
  2. Write shorter posts, shorter paragraphs, and shorter sentences. I owe this insight to CopyBlogger’s post, “Shorter Is Better.” I determined that I would keep my posts between 500-600 words. I would include no more than 3-4 sentences per paragraph. I would avoid compound sentences wherever possible.
  3. Improve my SEO metadata. I started using ScribeSEO. This WordPress plugin analyses your posts and gives you a score, based on how Google will rank it. Best of all, it tells you how to tweak your metadata to improve your score. It’s expensive, but I think worth every penny.
  4. Become more engaged in comments. I changed my commenting system from native WordPress to Disqus. This is the system that most of the larger sites I visit use. I believe it is the easiest, most elegant commenting plugin available. It also allows me to reply to comments via email, which makes it super-easy for me to engage with my readers.

Encouraged by these results, I plan to continue with my strategy. However, I now have a list of three new actions I plan to take next month. I’ll report on those in another post.

(Michael Hyatt is the former CEO of the largest Christian publishing company in the world, Thomas Nelson.)

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Thu, 23 Jun 2011 19:35:39 -0700 Packing tips for taking just one carry-on (from Michael Hyatt) http://fotofah.posterous.com/packing-tips-for-taking-just-one-carry-on-fro http://fotofah.posterous.com/packing-tips-for-taking-just-one-carry-on-fro http://michaelhyatt.com/how-i-use-a-single-carry-on-bag-to-travel-lighter.html#

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Wed, 22 Jun 2011 12:59:00 -0700 2 good links on how to find your stuff in Evernote http://fotofah.posterous.com/2-good-links-on-how-to-find-your-stuff-in-eve http://fotofah.posterous.com/2-good-links-on-how-to-find-your-stuff-in-eve
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The above link has links to Michael's past blog posts (ten?) on using Evernote.

See also: http://www.evernote.com/about/kb/article/advanced-search

Evernote is a terrific app and service. I have it on my Macs and my Apple mobile devices. (The apps are free.)

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http://posterous.com/images/profile/missing-user-75.png http://posterous.com/users/hes5aomIZZaoG Dennis Fahringer fotofah Dennis Fahringer