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John Persico Business Consultant and Educator

I have several models for organization excellence that I think will help any business to be more successful. This short video provides some of my philosophy in respect to both consulting and teaching. Please feel free to contact me if you have any interest in my work or would just like to discuss how I can help your business or organization grow.

For more information, please contact me at 612-310-3803 or persico.john@gmail.com

I would be happy to talk to you about training or other organizational needs you might have. 

John's New Blog Site.

I left "time parables" and started a new blog at http://www.agingcapriciously.com    I wanted to explore longer themes and a greater variety of subjects. I should have left this message two years ago, but I guess "better late than never."  If you have enjoyed my blogs here, I think you will enjoy my new site. My posts are now longer, generally 2000 to 3000 words and my subject matter more diverse.  I would like to think my writing has also improved and has more variety to it.  If you go to my new site, you might want to start at the beginning which was Feb 2013.  Hope you enjoy.

Beginning Again

I want to thank all of you who have followed my blog here and posted comments or sent me feedback.  I am starting a new blog and have written the first post today. I will try to do 2 per week and the subject is on Aging.  This subject affects everyone of us since we are all, whether young or old, aging.  You can read my first post at my new blog site:

http://agingcapriciously.com/2013/02/06/aging-or-saging/

I look forward to your comments and continued readership.  If you enjoy my blogs, please send them to others, print them out and use them wherever you like or send me ideas you might have for subjects or content.  I don't know about other writers but I enjoy feedback and like Mark Twain said "I can go six months on a small compliment." 

It is Finished

It Is Finished!  What does the phrase, “it is finished” mean?  Does it mean, over and done with? Does it mean that it is accomplished?  These were Jesus’s last words on the cross (John 19:30).  Did he mean that his life was over or was he saying that his life’s work was over?  Somehow, while I did not want to seem blasphemous, this phrase was echoing in my mind and it seemed a fitting way to end my Time Blog.  What does “it is finished,” mean?

I started this blog sometime in October of 2009.  A friend of mine had asked me what I had written recently.  This was several years after my last book was published (1998) and I had not been writing for several years.  He noted that it was a shame that I was not writing and I replied “I only write if I get paid for it.”  Later on I thought about this and upon some reflection realized that in writing one does it because they love it but not necessarily because you think you will make any money on it.  Putting aside my pecuniary interests, I decided to write for love and passion.  Meaning to hell with any writing for business or clients or money, I would simply write what I felt like.

It took a while but I finally settled on the idea of writing about time. I decided that I would write a series of reflections upon the many and manifest varieties and concepts that time is associated with.  Time seems to affect every element of our lives and I am and have been (or at least thought I was) a master at using, saving, managing, deploying and creating time.  Money has tnever been important to me or my life but I am obsessed with time.  I cannot waste a minute of it. It is the most precious thing in the world to me.  It is truly (or was anyway before I started this blog) my GOD.  Along the way of writing this blog, I began to see that I was holding on to a phantom.  Time did not exist except in my mind and heart. I was creating it each morning when I woke up and letting it go each night when I went to bed. 

I decided to write a blog every weekday or at least try to.  I reasoned that more people would read my blog if it were regular and dependable.  I have now posted or written 700 blogs counting this one.  I confess that I have recycled several blogs and either edited them or expanded them as upon further thought, I decided they needed more work and could be republished.  I have written at least 500 new blogs on time over the past 3 years.  My readership grew from about 400 “views’ per month to about 3,000 views per month.

I do have some confessions to make.  Would it were only one.  However it would not be fitting or just to close my final blog without being honest.  I had thought of ending this blog many times.  Often I would write and ask for comments or feedback. I even posted polls and surveys and seldom if ever did any readers respond or reply.  It was very disappointing.  I constantly questioned the value of what I was writing and saying.  I was on the verge of quitting many times when out of the blue I would get a comment or remark from a reader with some insights, praise or questions about my blog.  This single comment out of nowhere would reenergize me.  I would decide to continue writing.  It was sufficient that at least one person knew I existed and depended upon my blog for some inspiration or motivation.  I often decided that even if only one person in the universe read my blog, I would continue writing it.  Over the years, the number of comments trickled in and it was enough to sustain me. 

My sorrow and regrets are somewhat mundane. I had selfishly and egotistically wanted my blog to grow to at least a million readers a month.  I had secretly nourished a hope that I would be “discovered” and a talk show, movie and many You Tube videos would all trumpet my talent and creativity to the world.  The days turned into weeks. The weeks turned into months and the months turned into years and here I am.  Still unknown!  Still unheralded!  Still not a celebrity!  Many others with what seemed to me much less talent and much less to say were feted and lauded every single day.  From Donald Trump to Sarah Palin, fools like these make millions on talk shows, speeches and lectures.  Is value truly determined by the quality of what we have to say?  Dr.  Deming and many of my other mentors all sent a message that quality was more important than quantity.  Have I been lacking in some intrinsic quality that is necessary in order to find fame and fortune?  Have I been too mean spirited to the gods above or perhaps not offered Zeus the right sacrifice?  Why have Oprah and Sally and Jay and Barbara not called upon me for advice and recognition? 

One of my other friends cautioned me.  She said “write about things that uplift people.  Do not write negative ideas and spend your time criticizing or harping on the evils of the world.”  She said, people will take more note and value from your writing if you spend more time on the positive side of life than the negative.  For the most part, I agreed with her and I would say that I have tried to write inspirations and motivations to help others. However, I decided that there is also a role for me to speak out against what I perceive as the evils and injustices in the world.  I reasoned that a little lecture would not turn off to many readers and might just help to mobilize others against injustice. 

One of my most proud efforts is my series of blogs on immigration.  I was worried that many people would take offense at my opinions.  Living in Arizona, I was even advised that it might be dangerous to write about this subject when the tensions and feelings are running so high.  Nevertheless, for many reasons I chose to speak out against the anti-immigration forces.  I truly do not know whether my comments made one iota of difference to anyone but it seemed the right thing to do.  I am constantly reminded of the quote by Edmund Burke (1729-1797) that "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Thus, I have taken the negative road several times over the years to speak out against what I thought were evils in the world.  If you hated or loved these blogs, it really did not matter to me.  My faith was that somewhere on this planet, I might make a difference to someone who felt hopeless, unloved or unlovable. 

Jesus in his ministry consistently noted that we must help the poor.

John 3:17 -  But if someone who is supposed to be a Christian has money enough to live well, and sees a brother in need, and won't help him--how can God's love be within him ?

John 3:18 -  Little children, let us stop just saying we love people; let us really love them, and show it by our actions.

I will end this blog with the famous words of Dr. Martin Luther King:  “If you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter.”

I don’t pretend to have the depth or piety of Jesus or Dr. King, but I have hoped that over the years some good would come to the world from my writings. 

But difference or no difference to the world, it is time to move on.  For those of you who have been faithful readers, part-time readers or sent comments and feedback, I want to thank you. Go and do likewise.  This blog is finished.

A Sign of the Times

Zeitgeist is a German word that roughly translates to “tempo of the times or the sign of the times.”   A sign of the times may be “tribal tattoos” or SUV's, or black Fridays.   I can see a list developing here, some of the things I associate with the “Times” today are:

• Greed is good
• Shop till you drop
• He who has the most toys wins
• Serial killers
• Pedophiles
• Helicopter moms
• Sports scholarships, sports stadiums, sports salaries
• Astronomical college tuitions
• Non-stop news, sports and stupid sit-coms on TV
• Billionaire Ponzi schemes
• Increased  gas prices
• Decreased water resources
•  Global warming, climate change, swarms, tornadoes, hurricanes, fire storms and more storms
• Casinos, lotteries, pull tabs and scratch offs
• Ridiculous lawsuits, ridiculous litigants and ridiculous lawyers
• Celebrities, royal moms, TV Stars, Movie Stars and more celebrities
•  Smart phones, Facebook, LinkedIn and IPads
• Travel leagues, T-ball, gonzo fans, gonzo coaches and gonzo parents
• Crooked politicians, stupid politicians, partisan politicians, despicable politicians
• Outsourcing, off-shoring, insourcing, global competition
• Designer jeans, designer dogs, designer homes, designer weddings, designer funerals, designer people
• Aging, retiring and dying baby-boomers

A “sign of the times” may be the poor attitudes of teenagers today.  But wait, wasn’t that a sign of the times during the days of Socrates?  A quote attributed to Socrates holds that:

“Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.”

Perhaps a sign of the times is the “great recession” that we are either coming out of or still in.  Maybe a sign of the times is the increased unemployment or maybe the “war on drugs” or maybe the increased road rage or maybe our attack on immigrants and immigration.  Maybe it is our shift to the political right and the increased influence of evangelicals and Republicans.   A sign of the times is an expression used to denote something that seems symbolic or emblematic of the era we are living in. “Sign of the times” was a phrase strongly related to Roman Catholicism in the era of the Second Vatican Council.  It was taken to mean that the Church should listen to, and learn from, the world around it.” (wikipedia.org) 

The problem is we do not have any good reference points to compare our times to.  Most of us do not have a very good knowledge of history or of what happened even a few years ago.  We all tend to forget how things really were. So we think: crime is worse today, teenagers are worse today, life is harder today, etc. Then we say: “it’s a sign of the times.”  However, it could easily be a sign of many times and eras gone by.  What then are the dependable and predictable signs that would allow us to say with certainty that our times are different (for better or worse) than past times? 

Very few things really emerge that make good signs of the times.  Rising costs and rising taxes have been true forever.  War, famine and pestilence were frequent during the days of the Pharaohs and are still with us today.  Disease kills millions yearly and people do not really seem any less or more happy than in days gone by.  Is life easier or more difficult today?  You would probably notice that it depended on who you asked.  How then can we find a true and accurate “sign of the times?”  Bottom line is you will probably not. The idea sounds good on paper but it is just too subjective.  There are few signs that exist today that could irrefutably tell you what year or even decade it was, without the value of hindsight.  Twenty years from now, it will be possible to look back at today and say things about it with some certainty but the present is never certain.  That is why the past cannot predict the future. 

We seem to dwell on the “bad signs” but maybe you can think of some good signs of the times.  For instance, income levels are rising across the world and many diseases have now been eradicated that plagued humanity for centuries.  We should make a list of all the good signs.  I think it would probably be longer than the list of bad signs.  What do you think are the signs of the time today?  How would these compare to your signs twenty years ago?  Do you think your signs would hold up if you went back two thousand years?  Will these (my list and your list) still be signs five or ten years from now? When do signs become obsolete?  Do your signs tell you that things are better or worse today?

Letter to My Grandson

Dear Sam,

I hope this letter finds you well and happy.  I hope you are honoring and obeying your father and mother.  You have great parents who love you very much.  Grandma and I are looking forward to visiting you a while when you are in Korean Camp this summer.  You always seem to be having so much fun there.  When I was young, I went to camp for one week at a Boy Scout camp called Camp Yawgoog.  My parents could not afford to send me more than once and I was always jealous of the kids that got to go back or could spend more than one week. 

I am writing to clarify something I said when we were having dinner on Mother’s Day. Grandma told me later that you asked if I thought you were stupid for spending time playing baseball and other sports. I was surprised at the question and disappointed that you misunderstood what I was saying to your mom.  I had no intention of hurting your feelings by what I said. So let me explain a bit.

I think sports are great. I think most athletes are dedicated, disciplined, hardworking people.  I think it takes a great deal of determination and effort to be successful in sports and that those individuals who succeed are truly gifted individuals athletically.  In life, we are all given gifts.  Jesus said:  “But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.”  (Luke 12:48).  He also said “Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him." (Mark 4:25).

These comments by Jesus mean that we are all given gifts and if we use them, they will be increased in us.  Many would commonly say “use-them or lose-them.”  This means that if we don’t use them, they will be lost to us.  Unfortunately, many lazy people wait around to get FREE gifts by winning the lottery, gambling or suing someone.  They do not realize that gifts come to us through hard work, sweat and perseverance.  One of my favorite quotes is by Thomas Jefferson.  Jefferson said “I have noticed that the harder I work, the luckier I get.”   The great Roman philosopher Seneca said that “luck is where preparation meets opportunity.”   It is clear to me that we must find those gifts which we have in life and use them to the best of our ability.  It takes determination and hard work to develop them.

My concern with sports and my problems with the way sports are handled today is that for too many people, they have become almost like a drug.  More people will watch the average football or baseball game than will listen to a presidential debate.  We pay the average NCAA Division 1 football coach 1.47 million dollars a year (USA Today, 2011).  This is more than most college presidents make and much more than the average college teacher.  Colleges continue sports programs that are high budget and high maintenance despite the fact that most do not make money for the school.  High Schools that cannot afford art and music programs nevertheless keep their sports programs. 

Writing in Forbes magazine, Steven Salzberg notes:  “The football-industrial complex has too much power over our universities. Nothing else can explain how we spend so much money and time on football, which contributes almost nothing to students’ education, while academic departments are cutting faculty and staff. The culture of football worship has gotten so out of control that I think the only solution is to get rid of it entirely.”

My feelings are not exactly as strong about football and other sports as Salzberg’s but I question why we need so much emphasis on sports and so much less on other areas.  The great Greek philosophers all said that the secret of success in life was “all things in moderation.”   However, even Aristotle counseled that moderation needed moderation as well.

I think sports have a definite place in our lives. However, in America today, people have become so obsessed with sports that we have created a cult of sports worship.  Ironically, the greater this worship has become, the fatter most Americans have become.  I give you great credit Sam for participating rather than becoming a couch potato as so many others have and sitting idly by on Sundays watching the latest sports event.  However, there are also other things in life we need to try in order to find that balance that the Greeks talked about.  There is no telling what other gifts you might have if you could explore some other options.  Perhaps Sam, you are a great artist, writer, musician, sculpture, actor, singer or scientist waiting to emerge.  Maybe your true gifts are not in sports but some other domain.  Only by spending time and energy on other activities can we know what we are truly destined in life to do. 

IMHO, spending too much time on any one activity at too early an age is not a good way to find your gifts.  I wish my parents had encouraged me to do more things and to try more stuff.  If I could go back to high school, I would join band, the drama club and the writers club.  I would take more time to learn Chinese and art.  I was not an outstanding student and I spent more time goofing off then really learning anything.  I did love athletics though and taught myself surfing, tennis, handball and scuba diving.  I always loved the outdoors and being active. I have raced canoes, bicycles, cars, motorcycles and completed several triathlons.  I did not do these for money, but simply because I wanted the challenge to see how good I was.  From these activities, I learned that athletics while fun and exciting were not where my gifts lay.  However, I am still able to enjoy many sports because I have taken care of my body and not abused it.  I still run, canoe, bike, roller-blade, swim and occasionally do a local race.  I believe we should all stay active.  


One good thing about individual sports as opposed to team sports is that I do not need a coach, referee or twenty other guys to go out and get some exercise. The sports I pursue are things I can do my entire life and they are not things that will usually cause great harm to my body unless I am very careless.  I can’t control a 300 pound blocker trying to hit me but I can control the speed I bike or roller blade.  There is risk in any sport and that goes with the game.  However, the intelligent person balances risk with rewards and does their best to minimize risk.

I have been teaching since 1976 and I have taught every grade from kindergarten to Ph.D. programs at the University of Minnesota.  I find that whenever anyone has a true passion for what they are doing, they will more than likely be successful at it.  If your true passion is sports, then you should follow your passion.  Sean John says “Life without passion is unforgivable.”  However, passion needs purpose to have an effective life.  We need to balance our passion for things, with a purpose for doing them. The greatest purpose in life is to help others or to give back to the world some of the gifts it has given to you.  Maurice Turmel writing in Boxingscene.com asks:  “What is Passion without Purpose?  A car spinning its wheels perhaps?  An electric motor running out of control, with nowhere to go?  Passion needs purpose to be attached to, to be drawn by, to be enlivened by and directed towards.  If we have no purpose, then how can we have passion?”

School is a place to learn, to grow and to try new things.  You will often hear college students being told “Wait until you get to the real world.”  I try not to use this phrase because I think that college is real as well. I could not have been teaching college for the past 15 years without feeling that college is real.  However, college does permit more learning than you might find in the work world and that is the beauty of college and all schools as well. They are places where we can try new things without expecting to be punished or penalized if they do not work out. You can join the band, or art club, or student newspaper, or the glee club and no one is going to throw you out as long as you put in your effort and share of the work.  You do not have to worry about a pay check on Fridays or a boss firing you.  Effort in school is perhaps more important than results and this gives us a lot of leeway to try new things.  I may flunk Chinese but I may also find out that I am just not very good at languages or perhaps I will find that languages are something I have a real passion for.  I once had a friend who knew 13 languages. I was always envious.  Of course, I did not want to study as hard as he did.

So, to finish this letter to you Sam, I hope I have explained my thinking and ideas to you some about sports and life as well.  Perhaps the best advice I can leave you with is the famous Hamlet dictum : “To thine own self by true.”   Do what you find passion in Sam, but keep your heart and mind open to other opportunities.  Try as many things as you can when you are young.  As you get older, you may have fewer opportunities to try things.   Adulthood brings responsibilities that often limit the choices we can make.  One of my friends died and at his funeral, they all noted that Harold always said he had no regrets.  Even when he found he had less than six months to live and he was dying of pancreatic cancer, he said he “had not regrets.”  Not a bad way to live a life.  I hope I can say the same thing when I am on my last breath.  I hope you will be able to as well.

See you soon,

Grandpa John,

Famous Last Words

Down at the Frederic library yesterday, the Cucumber Guys were discussing the purported last words of Voltaire and the discussion meandered into the last words of other famous people.  Jerry, Ken and I could all think of some comments made by people on their death beds.  Most of these comments are very interesting, perhaps because you don’t think anyone is going to lie when they only have a few minutes to live.  Or perhaps, we are fascinated because of some irony that these last words provoke.  Voltaire is supposed to have refused to repent his sins because “He did not want to make any more enemies before he died.”  He was referring to the fact that Satan would be upset if he now recanted on his lack of belief in religion or Christianity.  Socrates last words were:  "Crito, we owe a rooster to Asclepius. Please, don't forget to pay the debt."  (Asclepius was the Greek god for curing illness, and it is likely Socrates' last words meant that death is the cure—and freedom, of the soul from the body.) (Wikipedia reference) 

Regardless of the reason for our fascination with these “last words”, there is no doubt that many of us find considerable inspiration in the last words of others.  I am going to share some that I like in the rest of this blog today.  If any of these motivate you, please feel free to send me your comments on why they inspire or excite you, or simply send me some famous last words that you like.  I may post again on this subject if you can send me enough inspiration. 

·       Adams, John (1735-1826) "Thomas Jefferson--still survives..." (4 July 1826. Jefferson died on the same day.)

·       Barrymore, John (1882-1942) Die? I should say not, dear fellow. No Barrymore would allow such a conventional thing to happen to him.

·       Eastman, George (1854-1932) "My work is done, why wait?" (His suicide note.)

·       Marx, Karl (1818-1883) "Go on, get out. Last words are for fools who haven't said enough."

·       Picasso, Pablo (1881-1973) "Drink to me."

·       Runyon, Damon (1884-1946) "You can keep the things of bronze and stone and give me one man to remember me just once a year."

·       Stein, Gertrude (1874-1946) "Just before she [Stein] died she asked, `What _is_ the answer?' No answer came. She laughed and said, `In that case what is the question?' Then she died."

The above list of my favorites was taken from a much more extensive list that can be found at http://www.mapping.com/words.shtml,   Real Last Words from Famous People.

So as you ponder my list, will it provoke you to think the obvious or maybe not so obvious?  Is it too early to wonder or maybe even plan what you will say for your last words?  My friend Harold was reported to have said “No regrets.”  I wonder what my last words will be.  We may not have a choice over our last words now but we can decide now what we want written on our tombstone.  Will you go out simply with your name and date of death or will you leave some inspiration for future cemetery wanderers?  What would you like written on your tombstone?  What do you want the world to remember you for?  This is something we do have a choice over.   What would your epitaph be?  Are you living it now? 

What can Blue Grass music tell us about time and life?

“I am a man of constant sorrow” This line is from the song in the film “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”  John Hartford wrote the lyrics to the song.  Some credit the music and the film with a rebirth of Blue Grass and Old Time music in the USA.  It is hard to believe that one movie could have so much impact.  I am inclined to think that this claim is somewhat exaggerated.  Nevertheless, there is little doubt that the movie did spark a renewed interest in Blue Grass music particularly among people with whom it was not a familiar genre.

The most popular song from the movie was “A Man of Constant Sorrow.”  This haunting song resonates with us somewhat like hearing a drum beat.  Deep in our hearts we somehow identify with these lyrics.  Nevertheless, I continue to wonder what it means to be in constant sorrow.  What events or episodes in ones life could create constant sorry? What would anyone be like if they were in constant sorrow?

“For six long years, I've been in trouble
No pleasures here on earth I found
For in this world I'm bound to ramble
I have no friends to help me now.” 

(From “I am a Man of Constant Sorrow”, John Hartford)

Did so many people really like this song because it resonated with their own sadness and melancholy?  Can it be that many of us have: No friends, no pleasures, no home and no one to help?  What could be sadder?  Would this be enough to induce constant sorrow? Constant means never ceasing, not changing or varying, uniform, steadfast.  Constant means to have a feeling with you 24 hours a day, everyday of the week and every week of the year.  A Man of Constant Sorrow would be a sad person indeed.

 Do we all sometimes feel this pain and sorrow from the daily toils and doubts of life?  I think many of us do. There are too many depressed people in the world for it not to be true.  Most of us get over it though, but what of the people who do not? What do you think it would be like to live in constant sorrow?  Do you know anyone who you think might? What could you do to help this person?  How can we all help make sure that no one in the entire world lives a life of constant sorrow? Is this an impossible dream?  

Why so fast? Are you moving at the speed of light?

Have you ever felt that you were moving at the speed of light?  Do you understand what time and speed have in common?  If you are familiar with Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, the theory says that as speed increases time slows down. You might remember the famous paradox about the space traveler going away on a long journey and coming back younger than his or her parents.  How can this be true you might say? Well, according to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity it is true.  As we approach the speed of light, time slows down. Wouldn’t it be great if we could we use Einstein’s theory to help slow our day down and get more done?  If we could move at the speed of light, time would just about stand still.  Just think how much stuff you could get done.  However, if everyone moved at the speed of light, then relatively speaking, time would not move any slower for you.  This technique would work only if you or a few others were moving faster than everyone else.  

In practice, we all seem to be working on the presumption that if we could just move fast enough we could get more done.  This negates the overall benefit and we become like rats on a wheel. All of us are running and running and just staying in the same place.  Target company has a motto or credo that says something like "Fast, Fun and Friendly."  How many workers do you know who are moving fast and feel like they are having fun?  And if they are not having fun, do you really think they are going to be "friendly" to the customers. More like, "get out of my way jerk, I have things to do and my boss says I better move faster."  

We move faster and faster and faster but paradoxically we seem to get less and less done. I took a class in motorcycle racing once and the key message of the instructor was “You must first learn to go slow before you can go fast.”  Most of us think that by going faster we can accomplish more.  In many cases, we only accomplish less since our haste results in more rework and having to do things over again.  Most of the organizations that I have met that do not have "real" time for their customers eventually perish or they become second choice to the consumer. 

Today, concentrate on moving slower.  Forget the speed of light.  See if you can study your motions; watch your body move more slowly, exert less effort and try to move at the speed of a snail.  What differences could this make in your life? Can you do this for one whole day? Why not? What keeps you moving at the speed of light?  

This won't take long!

This won’t take long!  How often has someone said that to you or you have said that to someone else?  A few years ago, I bought my first gas grill.  I had never owned one and Karen and I decided it was time.  To save a few bucks, I ordered it through the Internet. When it came, it was in one huge box which I had a hard time moving into the garage by myself.  I vaguely remember something about it only taking fifteen minutes to put together.  Well, it took me 30 minutes just to lay all of the parts out. Three hours and forty five minutes later, I had finished putting my grill together.  Except for putting the batteries in backwards, I was able to fire the thing right up and do my first outside grilling at the age of 60. I was thrilled except when I thought how long it took me to put it together.  I was even angrier the next day when after going to Home Depot, I found the same grill assembled.  I could have purchased it there pre-assembled; with delivery and it would have only cost me 25 dollars more. Thus, my savings did not even come close to paying for my time, not to mention my aggravation.

We often underestimate the length of time it will take to do things.  Sometimes we are misled by advertisements but often by our own misconceptions.  The thought “this won’t take long” should be a red flag for most of us. On reflection, the phrase is seldom true. They say anything worthwhile takes time.  We can do the worthless fast, but those things that are really meaningful and valuable will take more time.

What things and events do you most often underestimate?  What jobs or tasks do you rush through?  What work do you have to do today that you should allow more time for?  What areas in your life should you spend more time on?  It is a lot easier to be less frustrated and to do a better job when you can allow the right amount of time needed for the job and not worry about it “taking too long.”  

I lost tract of time today? Did I lose my mind as well?

I lost track of the time. Where did the time go? How often have you heard someone make this comment? Generally, it means we were so engrossed with what we were doing that we forgot we had another appointment or schedule.  When we lose track of time, time no longer seems to exist. It is not moving fast or slow, it just does not seem to matter to us. I heard someone say recently that they did not wake up and say “gee, I have to go to work today.” Instead, they woke up and said “Wow, I get to go to work again today.” Can you imagine the difference between time for the first case and time for the second? Time in the first case is drudgery and time in the second is a joy. 

When you do not enjoy what you are doing, time is the most oppressive. You check the clock. You wonder when the time will go by. You find ways to “break” up your time. The more “breaks” the better.  When you enjoy or even love what you are doing, you forget the clock.  You don’t worry about breaks or when it is time to go home.  Sean John’s says “life without passion is unforgiveable.”  He lives this in his daily life.  His message is important for all of us.  How many of us find lives that are full of passion?  Why not?  Is such a life beyond our reaches or do we just fail to make the choice? 

The more our world is dominated by time, by pressures to do things faster, to multi-task, or to live in the fast lane, the less happy and more stressed we will be. Wouldn’t it be wonderful, if time did not matter anymore and we could lose track of time on a permanent basis? What if our lives were so filled with passion that every second was one we could live with for eternity? What if we counted Passion instead of minutes?

When was the last time you lost track of time? Can you hardly wait to go to work today or do you count each workday between Sunday and Friday? Is your life filled with passion or wondering when the minute hand will move forward?  Are you in the “Thank God it’s Friday” camp or in the “I am looking forward to Monday” camp. 

Time to Play! and not Hard either!

There is no time that is better than fun time.  Most children would not have a problem with this statement.  When we are young most of our time is fun time. The older we get, the less fun time we have.  Fun time is spontaneous, unstructured and not goal driven.  I get a laugh out of the corporate saying: “We work hard, but we play hard.” That is an oxymoron.  Play and fun are not about hard or about accomplishing anything.  Hard is a macho concept that denotes a phallic reference that often seems to take ascendancy over the feminine in society. Thus, working hard and playing hard are more to be valued than playing soft or working soft. When did you ever hear anyone extol the virtues of playing soft? 

Well, if you want to work hard, that’s good, but don’t play hard.  Playing hard destroys the essence of play. I look at all these young children playing in these league sports and wonder what their lives will be like growing up without any real play time.  All of their time seems guided by misguided parents who either through ego or greed think their kids will play big-league sports or get a free ride to college on an athletic scholarship. As my friend Ken noted, many of these parents think parenting is about showing up at all of their kids numerous league games and "conference" playoffs. They are not teaching their kids anything about play or about living their own dreams. 

Play is about freedom and spontaneity. It is going where you want to go, doing what you want to do and not having to answer for the results.  Retirement is the oasis of play that many people dream of.  People wait years for retirement so they can do what they want to do. Retirement is future play time for adults.  Once we retire, we can become as little children again. Can you imagine wanting to have a “hard” retirement.  I would much prefer my retirement to be soft and leisurely.  I want to take long walks in the woods, smell more flowers, kick more cans, take more long naps and get in as much unproductive time as I can get in. We all need to have more fun time.  We live in a work-alcoholic world driven by time clocks and computers.  Perhaps, there would be less stress and less crime in our society if we all had more time for fun.  I know there would be less road rage.  

How much time do you have set aside for fun today?  Do you take time each day just for fun?  What do you have to do to have more fun time in your life?  What would your life be like if you could play more and work less?

Are your summers really easy?

“Summertime, when the living is easy.”  This line from the musical “Porgy and Bess” by G. Gershwin seems to always resonate in my mind when the warm breezes start blowing the cold weather away in Wisconsin. We all love summer.  For many of us, it is a time of vacations and connotations of freedom from school and work.  However, why does the song say the living is easy?  I think it is because summer seems to bring that association to mind despite the fact that it is not now nor probably ever was easy.  Nevertheless, we think of the lushness of fresh fruit, vegetables, the farmers market and long days and nights.  It does not matter that we may work all summer, the dream is still there of “easy living.” 

As we get older, many of us will think back to our childhoods with fond summer memories of doing nothing but playing baseball, grilling out, fishing, swimming at the lake, camping with our friends or weekends at the cabin with our family.  Perhaps these are more traditional Wisconsin memories but no doubt you will have your own memories associated with summer time.  All over the world, people are in vacation mode during the summertime.  Perhaps you will spend your summer traveling to exotic destinations or simply taking a short trip to visit relatives.  Summer brings a longing for what we want life to have in store for us as we age.  Summer is a time of psychological retirement years before any of us will ever retire.  You might say summertime is practice for that time in your life when you really have retired.

However, now that Karen is retired and I am working less, we have seen first hand how easy it is to stay busy with one project after another. I think we don't really want to retire, we really want to simply lead the life determined by our own choices and not guided by the "bare necessities of life."  Summertime is a time of easy living not because living is ever easy, but because we make our choices on what we do and when we want to do them. At least that is our dream.  Are you living your dream?  I hear people using this phrase a great deal as I talk to more retirees.  Why did they wait so long?  Why not live your dream now? Its summertime and the living is supposed to be easy.  

What are your best summer memories? What did you once do each summer that is now simply a memory? What summer traditions do you still celebrate?  What do you hope your future summers will have in store for you?  

Just another Friday in Frederic, Wisconsin

Friday, Friday, way too much too say about this day!  Black Friday, Freaky Friday, Good Friday; Casual Friday, Unlucky Friday! Can you believe a chain of restaurants, a god and more songs than I could list named after this day?  Friday, is derived from the Anglo-Saxon form of Frigga, the Germanic goddess of beauty.  Frigga was the goddess of love, marriage, and destiny. She was the wife of the powerful Norse god Odin, The All-Father.

If there were a magic day, it would be Friday. You know the reason why too, don’t you?  The last day of the week, payday, the day that three day weekends begin on and a holy day as well.  The Easybeats sing:  “Monday, I’ve got Friday on my mind.”  We can all identify with that song, since many of us start thinking about Friday as soon as we are headed to work on Monday. Even those of us who love our work, often look forward to this last day in the week, the day before our weekend break begins and frequently the day we begin it on early.  In Japan, Friday is Kin-Youbi: "Gold Day" or "money day", and in many Asian cultures, paydays are on Friday (Wikipedia).  Friday for others has often been associated with the dreaded pink slips.  Instead of getting paid, you receive your layoff notice.  Love it, hate it, dread it, fear it, you cannot ignore it.

Well, Friday up North today begins the great 3-day weekend known to us locals as Frederic Days.  Three fun filled days of bake sales, book sales, brat fries, chicken and pork dinners, church dinners, races, sporting events, queen coronation and an amateur hour for local musicians.  I need to be at my library early this morning to get to the book sale.  I want to get their early to get the best selections.  Thus, this Friday I am up a little earlier than usual. Got to get started so I don't miss anything.  Who would want to get started late on a Friday when there is so much to do and so little time to do it? 

What do Fridays mean to you?  Have Fridays more often been good to you or bad?  Do you anxiously wait for each Friday or do you take your days one at a time?  What do you like most about Fridays?  What if we had a four day week and skipped Fridays? How would you feel about that? Would you miss your Fridays? 

Will you live forever?

“Your time is running out” says the villain to the hero. How often have you heard this phase in the movies? Of course, we know that this is a lie. The villain’s declaration is just a cue for our heroine to spring into action. She will then surprise us with some type of unexpected near miraculous escape.  Perhaps, she will fool the villain into talking long enough so she can manage her escape. You know how villains like to explain their entire rationale for their villager.  This comment on time may be the most common phrase or at least one of the most common in all of theater. It is so melodramatic that authors can not refuse to use it. 

However, what do you think you would do if your doctor said this to you?  Perhaps at your next physical, you doctor tells you that “your time is running out.” Would you simply think of the metaphor of an hourglass with the sands of time running through it or would it strike a more essential chord of your being.  I am going to guess the latter.  You would want to know how much time you had left. You would want to know how you could escape this trap.  If there were no way out, eventually you would start wondering how you should spend the rest of your remaining days.  Suddenly time and its effective use would become the most important priority in your life.  Many of us would drop the nonessentials and focus on only the truly important things in our lives.

Karen's mother died from breast cancer and she has always had a fear of this form of death.  We often joke about who will live longer, and she has repeatedly said "Oh, you are so healthy and active, you will live forwever."  I seldom if ever am sick. In 13 years of teaching at Globe, I had only taken one sick day. In my 11 years of consulting before Globe, I had never taken even one sick day.  Imagine, our surprise when I was diagnosed with prostate cancer two weeks ago.  I told Karen "See, I beat you again and I was right again."  Sort of sick humor I guess.  I know few men die of prostate cancer (could I be the first?) but the idea of having cancer and of hearing my doctor say "The bad news is you have cancer" is not what I expected to hear.  I mean, I have always been so healthy how could these f-------- germs attack me.  I would think they would pick on a smoker or drinker or someone who is always sickly.  I watch my diet and my food.  Oh, well, that's the way the diagnosis goes.  I want to live my life like my friend Harold who when he was dying said "I have no regrets."  What a great inscription for my tombstone.  

Ironically, whether your doctor or a villain says it to you, it is a hundred percent true fact that time is running out for each of us each day.  Do you know anyone who ever said “my time is running in?”  Do you know anyone who knows the hour of their death?  Maybe, you should think more about your real priorities each day before it is too late, before someone else tells you that your time is running out.  Perhaps, you should be asking yourself today “What really does matter to me?”  

Do you spend more time doing what matters or do you spend more time on the nonessentials?  What would you change in your life if you were suddenly confronted with the fact that “Your time is running out?”  

Tempus Fugit?

Tempus Fugit:  The expression was first used in the verse Georgica written by Roman poet Virgil: Sed fugit interea fugit irreparabile tempus, which means, "But it flees in the meantime: irretrievable time flees." (Wikipedia). Two thousand years have past and sadly, no one has yet learned to retrieve time.  Time is a precious and scare resource that is valued and sought after but that becomes more important later in life.  As one grows older, the law of supply and demand enforces an increased value for time.  Time is to the elderly as money is to youth.  Yet, where money can be retrieved, time cannot.  I can lose a fortune but if I waste ten years of my life, I can never recover the spent time.  Who would not want to find the Fountain of Youth?

Time flies and flies and flies and ever I wish I could just “stop” the clock. Stopping the clock seems only possible on game shows and in some sports.  However, we do have those special moments when time seems to stand still. When we are truly engaged in something or someone, time may not seem to be present in our lives.  Like a hummingbird, time can hover in one place but only for short sequences.  Inevitably the clock starts to move again and we return to the world of time and money.   

As you go through the day, try to reflect on the Latin phase “tempus fugit” and see how and when your time flies. There is a value in truly treasuring the moments of our lives. Sometimes we seem to be trying to make time fly faster than it does.  Are you in a hurry to get home, to go on that date, to get some job or chore done?  In such cases, you can’t stand to see time standing still.  You want tomorrow to happen today.  It does not matter then that time flies. Where will your time fly today?  Where would you rather have it linger like the hummingbird?  Do you take enough time in the day to just let it hover for awhile?  What would your life be like if you had more hover time and less “tempus fugit?”

10 Things the ADA requires from Websites.

This post was from a reader and it might be helpful to many of you out there. My thanks to Ms. Howard for sharing it with us.

We recently published an article that you may be interested in entitled, “10 Things the ADA Requires from Websites” (http://www.longhornleads.com/blog/2012/10-things-the-ada-requires-from-websites/).

After having followed your blog for a while, I feel that this one article would align well with yourblog's subject matter. I thought perhaps you'd be interested in sharing thisarticle with your readers? Thanks, and keep up the great blogging!


Sincerely,
Hannah Howard           

Are you still on a time clock?

Time clocks are synonymous with the industrial revolution.  Prior to industrial work, people thought of time as more cyclical. Time clocks went hand in hand with factory or machine and assembly line work.  The concept of a “Time clock” is an oxymoron.  Aren’t all clocks, time clocks?  The industrial revolution was a period when brawn became more valued than brains.  It was more important to measure the amount of time that a person worked (and this was equated with productivity and quantity) then the quality or creativity of their work. The information age and knowledge age has reportedly ushered in a quantum change in how we view and value work. Today, creativity and innovation have become highly prized, at least in word if not in deed.

On hears today that quality, creativity and innovation are the cornerstones of success in the 21^st century business world.  Nevertheless, we still see managers who are more concerned with the time clock as a measure of productivity than anything else.  How long did you work today is often more important than how much you accomplished or what new ideas and innovations you could come up with. We talk about allowing workers to telecommute, yet many managers express the view that: “how will I know what they are doing or if they are really working?”  “Well, perhaps they will not get their job done and then you would know!”  We may live in the knowledge age, but the industrial era mindset is still dominant in many workplaces.

It often takes a generation before minds catch up with new technology and paradigm shifts. We have 21^st century needs and technology still driven by 20^th century minds and concerns. Companies that cannot make the change are destined to go the way of the dinosaur.  The same might be said for managers who cannot change their mindset.

What do you value in your workplace? Do you measure how much your employees contribute, including ideas and innovations or are you measuring how long they work and how many hours they put in?  Do you have the power to change things?  If so, when will you go from the 20^th century to the 21^st?   When will you start treating your employees like knowledge workers rather than machines?     

The value of spiritual exercise

We often hear the comment from someone getting older that they are “Aging like fine wine.”  Well, yes, wine does gets better with age, but sadly, the human body does not. My joints and muscles are no longer as flexible as they once were. My body does not recover as fast from aches and pains as it once did, and I no longer dream of playing football on the weekends or any rough contact sports for that matter.  My body seems to be aging more like cheese.  It is getting softer and moldier around the edges.  It might still be edible but it is not as fresh as it once was.  The good side of this issue is that my brain is more nimble and astute than ever. (IMHO) 

The body will inevitably deteriorate, (even with plastic surgery, knee and hip replacements etc.), but the brain does not necessarily age the same way. Studies have shown that IQ can remain the same throughout one’s life, if you keep “exercising” the brain by reading, studying and learning. Now of course, the body will stay in better shape as well if you keep up with some exercising.  However, no amount of exercising is going to keep the body in the same shape as when we were 21 or younger. 

Then we come to the soul and spirit. Here is where age can really excel over youth. Through experience and moral exercise, we can all become better then we were. We can continue to grow spiritually and morally throughout our entire lives. We can leave this earth as better people. We can give back to the world some of what we took from it. However, this also requires exercise. It requires exercise of both moral and spiritual values.  It requires moral and spiritual discipline. You will not grow in either area if you do not take the time to practice skills that lead to moral and spiritual development.  The virtues of faith, hope, charity and love must be practiced daily or they atrophy like old moldy cheese.

What exercise do you get each day?  Do you exercise morally and spiritually as well as physically and mentally?  Which areas do you need to concentrate more on?  Are you aging like a fine wine or like moldy cheese?  What do you need to do to perk up your aging process?