Best thing you’ve ever done

Jun 23, 2011 by Ben

You know when you have those things you do that after you do them you stop and think,

“why didn’t I do that years ago?”

Its those things that each time you use it, or look at it think,

“I am so happy I did this!”

I have a few of those things and I will share them with you, but I also want to learn from yours. What awesome thing have you done that has become one of your Best Things Ever that you did?

Let’s spread the joy and knowledge and share those with the world.

I’m going to break this out into a series of posts so we can get specific advice/projects in different areas, but please send me any and all projects/ideas etc that you consider your Best Thing Ever.

I’ll get this started with the kitchen. I love my kitchen and I love to cook.

Here’s the Best Thing Ever I did for my kitchen.  What about you?  Any good kitchen projects that you are happy with?

Please share in the comments or drop me a note and let me know so I can feature it here on TrulySimple.

Ben…

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I have no idea what I’m doing…but its working

Jun 8, 2011 by Ben

 A  new neighbor moved in across the street.  Nice couple with a young kid.  They asked me about my garden as its huge and takes over my entire front yard.  Since they have moved in she has started a garden of her own in their front yard and has come over to ask for advice.  My answers have been filled with  a lot of this.

I have no idea what I’m doing…but its working

I’m good at figuring things out.  Its probably one of my best skills.

Quick story: When I was really little I found a small piece of gray plastic on top of our piano.  It was a few days before Christmas and I stared at that piece of plastic for a few minutes and then I walked up to my mom and dad and proclaimed, “I know you got me the Millennium Falcon for Christmas”

They had indeed bought  and assembled the Millennium Falcon and had this extra tiny piece that they left out thinking nothing of it.  I had found it and was able to figure out that this was the piece that held on the radar onto the ship and thus discovered ruined my Christmas present early.  I was very happy with myself that day.  My parents, not so much.

I can jump into a project and not know what I’m doing, but figure it out and make it work.  It doesn’t always work out perfect, but those times are few and far between.  Most times it works out really well and I learn a lot in the process.

My garden is one of those adventures for me.  My grandpa had a garden that I barely remember from when I was little and thats about the extent of my gardening knowledge.  I know to grow anything you need dirt, sun, water and some luck.  I am lucky that I live in southern California where we have a lot of the sun part of the equation so its very easy to grow things.  But for the rest I’m learning and making it up as I go along. And its working

I pulled out a HUGE  zucchini yesterday I didn’t even know I had in my garden.  It was hidden below the big leaves of the zucchini plants, where it sat among a lot of other zucchinis growing.  This thing was giant so I chopped it up and made a big double batch of zucchini bread, my favorite, and gave it away to the neighbors.

I’m working on starting a few businesses right now and its been very frustrating lately at the pace in which they are moving.  I had hoped to launch one several months ago, but its been delayed by technical difficulties and working with outside vendors.  I am very tech savvy and that only leads to huge frustration when I can’t figure out a technical problem.  The flip side of that is when I do figure it out, and I always do, it feels amazing.  A huge sense of accomplishment comes when I figure it out, make it work, and learn something in the process.

A lot of people don’t start things because they think they don’t know what they are doing.  They don’t know how to grow a garden, so they won’t try.  They don’t know how to start a business so they won’t try.

My advice, is just try.  You don’t need to know everything about everything.  You will learn as you go.  You will figure it out. And you will come out on the other side with a huge sense of accomplishment, you will have learned something and you can use that knowledge and inspiration to help others do the same.

What are you afraid to try right now?  Go do it.

Ben…

p.s.  I still have half of this huge zucchini left so if you know of any good recipes for zucchini, let me know.

 

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Giving up fear for lent

Mar 13, 2011 by Ben

This year I’m giving up fear for lent.

I’m not Catholic, but I like the idea of lent.  Each year my wife and I usually give up some of the same things as in years past; soda, TV etc.

This year I thought more about it as I already don’t drink soda, and the TV is always a nice thing to do without to reset for a while, but I was searching for something else.  Something bigger…

So I’m giving up fear…

 

I told my wife this, and she chuckled, “but you aren’t afraid of anything!”   And thats true for a lot of things, but its not 100% accurate.

In 4 days I’ll be without a job.  I’ve been winding down my work with a great company, and as of the 15th I’ll be unemployed.  Well unemployed in the technical sense.   This time I’ve decided to take this opportunity to start my own businesses.  Yes, plural; multiple businesses.  And that is really scary.

I can easily overwhelm myself with the amount of details and minutia that comes along with choosing that path.  But for the next 40 days I’m giving all of that up.

I won’t let fear paralyze my progress.

I won’t let fear stop me from pursuing this dream.

I won’t let fear tell me that I don’t know what I’m doing.

I won’t let fear stop me.

And the thing is, as I write these words and look at the list above its clear to me that its all bullsh*t.   I know I’ll be fine. In fact I know I’ll be much better than fine.  Without fear I’ll move forward.  Without fear I’ll figure it out.  I always do.

Fear is only as deep as the mind allows.
Japanese Proverb

So the next 40 days are all mine to live without fear.

Ben…

What is fear holding you back from today?  What would happen if you just gave up that fear and pushed forward?

 

 

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Why we don’t work

Aug 7, 2010 by Ben

Opportunity is missed by most people because
it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
–Thomas Edison

I recently went on vacation to Mexico.  It wasn’t my first choice of places to go, but my wife wanted to get away and “just lay by a pool”.  So we did.   We went to Cabo,  we stayed at a beautiful resort, and we laid by a pool.

I hated it.

    
    

OK, I didn’t “hate it” hate it, but I was bored out of my mind immediately.  I made the conscious decision to not bring my laptop and not work while I as there.  I decided I would be present in the moment, and take the time to do nothing and just recharge my batteries.  Turns out my batteries don’t recharge when I’m doing nothing.

My batteries charge up when I am doing what I love, and I love to work.  I love building things.  I love fixing things.  I love finding simple solutions to complicated problems.  I love working with smart creative passionate people all day and then coming home getting my hands greasy tearing apart an engine in my garage.  I love remodeling my house.  I love taking something old and restoring it to new. I love growing food in my garden. And  I love being inspired by others doing great work.

Work and our view of work has gotten a bad name in our culture.  A lot of people don’t want to work.  There’s a thousand get rich schemes out there, and lately the “start your own business and work from anywhere” fad has caught on and promises freedoms to travel the world and work only 4 hours a week.  Don’t get me wrong.  I like Tim Ferriss and I love the idea of ROWE.  Our 2010 idea of work needs to catch up and move past the old industrialized history it still holds on to, but we still need to do great work.

We should want to work hard.  We should take pride in the work we are doing.   We should try to do the best job we could in every job we do.  How and where we do this work is negotiable and its not the point. The point is the ethic of work.  Its the satisfaction of knowing you gave your all into the project.  Its the pride of seeing the job completed and enjoying the fruits of your labor.  No where in our culture is that message being said or taught.

We need to get back to the idea that work is good.  Everyone should take pride in working hard at something and then should also enjoy the results of that work.

What I’m not saying is that everyone should work 100 hours a week, sacrificing time with family and friends to make more money. You’ll notice that nowhere above did I mention making money.  Work isn’t about money.   Work is about creating something great.  You may be a farmer, a CEO of some high tech company or someone who makes candles out of their garage.  The point is to make the best product you can and enjoy the work you are doing.

This wonderful TED video of Mike Rowe from the Discovery Channel show Dirty Jobs inspired this post.  I highly recommend watching it.  Mike knows how to tell a story.

What do you think of work?  Love it, hate it?  Let me know in the comments

Ben…

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Minimalism is Contageous

May 27, 2010 by Ben

One of my good friends Dave threatened to punch me in the nose the other day and I loved it.  This threat came in the form of a comment from him because I had gotten him addicted to looking up/researching/reading some minimalism blogs.   I know exactly how he feels, and he’s not going to like this post because I’m going to share with you a lot of great resources that inspire me.

I’m not a minimalist.  Not yet.  I don’t ever plan on reducing my possessions to less than 100 things, but that story is for another post.  I’m all about living a simple life (hence TrulySimple.com).  I’m big on reducing waste, eliminating clutter, and filing our lives up with those things that truly matter.  I love this stuff.  I love getting rid of crap I don’t need.  I love fixing or restoring something old and making it new and fresh again.  I love finding the simple way to do something and sharing that with others.  And its working.

People catch on to this stuff.  My friend Dave is hooked now.  I can tell.  My next door neighbor saw my garden and is now building his own.

People are tired of being busy.  They are tired of buying things they don’t need.  I believe people are searching for this simple life and its starting to catch on.

I’ve been on this path for a long time, but only recently have the flood gates opened up and I’ve been introduced to so many great people, blogs and resources that I was inspired to create TrulySimple.com.

I want to thank those people and introduce you to their great work:

Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman

Ree is amazing.   Martha Stewart has nothing on her.  She lives in the middle of nowhere on a working cattle ranch, chasing her children around, taking amazing pictures and cooking some of the most amazing things you’ll ever see.  Her along with Jamie Oliver have inspired me to do the cooking part of TrulySimple.

All of her recipes look like the most amazing thing you’ll ever eat.  Be careful visiting her blog will cause you to spend hours there drooling.  Here is one her latest recipes I haven’t made yet, but it looks amazing and I will.

Tim Ferris, The Four Hour Work Week

I met Tim right when he first was launching his book several years ago at SXSW and loved what he had to say.  The simplicity of his ideas, such as putting off your dreams now due to what might happen someday.  I especially like how he details out how inexpensive living your dreams really are. I recommend reading 4 Hour Work Week as well.

Chris Guillebeau, The Art of Non-Conformity

World traveler, and entrepreneur, Chris shows and inspires many as to what can be done when you think outside the system.  He has a great writing style and some great ideas on how to achieve success doing what you love.  One thing I’ve really gotten out of his site is how to do a personal annual review of yourself. Also recommend reading his manifesto.

Tammy Strobel, Rowdy Kittens

Tammy writes about living a simple life and creating social change through simple living.  She is car-free and has some great posts on her site. One thing I love to do that she recently wrote about is exploring your own backyard.  Check it out.

Everett Bogue, Far Beyond The Stars

Everett shows how easy it is to live with a minimal amount of “things” and how to get the most out of that lifestyle.  His blog inspires others to look at the minimalist lifestyle.  One of my favorite posts of his explores Leo Babauta’s post on society re imagined.

Ashley Ambirge, The Middle Finger Project

Ashley does what I love and questions everything.  The status quo, the American dream, its all up in the air and up for debate with The Middle Finger Project.  One of the posts I really liked on her blog was about proving that you are not a robot.  Well worth the read.

Leo Babauta, ZenHabits & Mnmlist

Leo is truly amazing.  His Zen Habits blog has some amazing posts, but its his Mnmlist site that truly inspires me. His recent posts on society re-imagined struck a deep chord with me on ideas I’ve been thinking about for way too long and have not yet put into action.   I will have some of these ideas put into writing soon and hopefully into action as well.  Part 2 of his society re-imagined is a good follow up.  Please please please read those two posts and think about them.

Leo also provides a good list of links to check out.

I hope you will take a minute out of your busy day, take a deep breath, and read something good from one of those authors.

I hope they inspire you as they have inspired me.  Sorry Dave…

Ben…

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