Update

Here we are in the month of June, '07. A little over three weeks ago I was informed that my position at Accenture @ Best Buy had been dissolved -- either by off-shoring, or by consolidation with another role. (Guess it doesn't really matter to me which one: I'm gone either way.)

Seems like they've done a lot to help: they gave me over four week's notice that my last day was 6/15, I get a severance package for an additional two months and my normal benefits through the end of September if I don't find a comparable job by 6/15.

And we've had a house on the market for the past year. Not so bad, right? Oh, wait: did I forget to mention we already had bought another house and moved into it? So, two mortgage payments. Jeez!

Well, yesterday things began an upturn: we have a good offer on the house and we've accepted it. They'll get it inspected and ask us to do a couple things (like fix the leaking valve in the downstairs toilet tank, I'm guessing). Then we have to bring several thousand $ to the table because the market hasn't been as good to us in the past two years as in the past.

But we sold the house. Only one mortgage payment. Hallelujah!

And I got a great lead on a job yesterday. Interviews follow, and I want it to be a great fit. And it's downtown Minneapolis, which I could do without, but oh well. I mean, I love working down there, but I hate the commute. I love having the Farmer's Market on Thursdays along the Nicollet Mall. Nothing like bring fresh fruits and vegetables home along with a big bunch of daffodils in the evening. And I'm guessing I'd commute either on the train or by bus -- parking rates downtown are outrageous. But I'm getting ahead of myself, aren't I?

Books: The 8th Habit is very good, and I'm excited about it. Here's what I've learned so far -- well, not learned exactly, but more been reminded: between something happening and my response to the thing that happened, there's a gap. How I choose to use that gap is my choice: positively or negatively.

Deep stuff, eh? It may have lost something in the translation between Dr Covey's writing and my interpretation...

I started working on John Maxwell's The Success Journey, too, and so far have learned about myself that:

• I have a passion for anticipating someone's needs and fulfilling them,
• I have the ability to identify and tap into people's best skills, and
• I am pretty darned good at writing and speaking -- I have what I like to call an "artful command" of the English language.

(I don't have too much life experience, though, so it's hard for me to relate to what others say on some planes of existence. Oh, I can talk vacation spots, limited financial conversations, TiVo and technology and the mundane stuff of life, but I'm talking about political unrest in the Middle East and stuff like that. That stuff comes up and I'm 98% uninformed.)

So, that's sort of an update. Hope it's interesting. I hope to have more soon.

Blessings and Regards,
Pablo

Here's a photo of The Fambly from a recent visit to my home town:

Life's Direction

So what's exciting me now?

Steven Covey's "The 8th Habit", that's what.

And "The Art of Getting Things Done" (a.k.a., GTD), by David Allen.

Really just starting reading the former, and have watched one of the short films included on the accompanying DVD. (BTW: Got this new book with still-sealed DVD for a grand total of $5.79, including s+h, on amazon.com. Goes right along with the "The 8th Habit" tab in my Franklin Planner.)

ANYway:

Things are not going well, to say the least, at my day job. I just can't get into all the forms and processes they put around putting in a new process and tool to get something done. Seems like we went through lots of forms in 2004, then again in 2005, and each time funding ran out, or was approved too late for us to complete the project before it was deployed into production.

Even so, we kept track of all the stuff we developed (hours of work by several people on a team and tracked by one person who gave it to us mid-2006 for the third go around with new meat -- er, I mean, PEOPLE -- involved in the project.

But apparently there was more to be done: A vision. A strategy. A grand set of ideas yet to be uncovered from the innermost regions of our individual and collective brains. The boss knew about them, but wanted us to draw them out. Everyone else on the team brought ideas to the boss, but I didn't because I'd been through two failed exercises in brainstorming for two consecutive years, wasting a total of perhaps a hundred hours on cancelled initiatives.

Pardon my cynicism, but I'm not really interested in wasting hundreds of hours of time. Again.

So I want to do something different; but what? Enter the 8th Habit. It wasn't like I didn't have enough self-help books in various stages of consumption (and bookmarked to show it) already; no: I needed another book. And I realized I already had not only the 8th Habit Audio CD and the 8th Habit workbook in my planner, so this seemed like a natural addition to my reading "to-do" list.

So the 8th Habit advocates that we "find our voice and inspire others to find theirs." But what's a "voice"?

Voice is where our passion, talent, conscience and need converge to define our unique, personal significance. Am I alone in getting a big charge out of this stuff? I mean, doesn't everyone want to know why they're here? Seems like this title will help put some meat on that bony framework.

So I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Next, GTD (or, Getting Things Done). This I've had for months but I'm only halfway through the book. It's a GREAT resource for organizing and setting up a system; it's just that every time I read two or three pages I get so excited I have to hurry and do what it suggest... before I continue reading.

Don't laugh: I've had people comment on my clean desk and productive time at the office (though not my boss, whose complaints have compelled me to begin reading the other title, above).

Gotta go. Stuff to do for work, still.

Back soon!