the mario blog

I am almost 29.

I have a good job, and gotten plenty of recognition for what I’d call my career. I have all the physical possessions that I will ever need or want.  I’ve run a few marathons, given a graduation speech, taught a college course, traveled more than most,  lived in a few countries and have gotten to do pretty much whatever I set my mind to. I am training for an Ironman, because it seemed like something one should do in their 20s. I am healthy, moderately hansom and really can’t complain about anything at all. Most people who I love are alive and well. And my cat is cooler than your dog.

I’ve found nothing but good fortune in my life. But I haven’t found myself.

I am almost 29.

And for the first time, will make the time, to find myself.

A few weeks ago I heard a story on NPR on why time seems to go by faster the older we get.  You can probably find it somewhere on their website, but here is what I took away from it.

In our childhood, most of everything we do and see is a new experience. Actually everything is new. We are constantly learning and evolving. We don’t allow negative habits to form. As a matter of fact, the only negative habit I remember from my childhood was the stress of having to do/copy all my homework on the bus ride to school.  Thanks to all these “new” experiences, we have a much greater sense of awareness of time. And it doesn’t move fast.

But then as we grow up, habits form. We all pretty much do the same thing all the time. Wake up, go to work, work out, feel stressed about certain things, get frustrated with the same folks and life just seems to just go by. Life gets pretty boring. At some point we ask ourselves where time went and what the heck we did with all that time. We don’t make nearly as many memories as we did throughout our childhood.

Thanks to this insightful NPR piece, I will try my hardest (and sometimes I already do a pretty good job) to experience as many new things as possible.  To try and not get stuck in too many habits – especially not ones that I don’t like.  To learn new things all the time. And whenever I can to try and see the world through eyes of a kid.

Don’t let life get boring.

About a week ago I did an interview with the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network, which is an all around awesome organization. If you live in Oregon, and are looking to start your own business and/or invest into someone’s business, you should check them out. The main focus of the interview was IdeaMensch.com but I was able to talk about some of my other projects as well.

Here are the questions I answered:

• What is Idea Mensch?
• What inspired you to create the site?
• How do you select thought leaders and entrepreneurs to feature on Idea Mensch?
• Tell us about your own entrepreneurial ventures, and what you’ve learned in the process of pursuing and/or founding them.
• What advice do you have for emerging entrepreneurs?

Shawna Harch (the lady who interviewed me) did a great job and made this very easy. You can click on the image to go to the interview, or just follow this link.

Having moved into a smaller apartment, we’re all making sacrifices. The bathroom is a little tight these days, but Otto is adjusting well to his new potty shelf.

I am in the process of moving again. I move a lot. It’s probably something that I will be remembered by some day. Anyhow, I had the genius idea of moving little by little. Every night a little bit. Last night was kitchen night. Check out the pic below.  Please don’t ever move your dishes this way. It doesn’t work.

The Montanan (University of Montana Alumni magazine) did an interview with me a couple of weeks ago, which has now been published.  It’s a very nice piece and I am super thankful for both Brianne Burrowes who did the interview and my good friend Adam Steffen who made the connection.

I have a very special connection with the state of Montana, so being in the Montanan means more to me than just about any other publication out there.

Click on the image to download the pdf of the full interview.

When I was leaving Europe to fly back to the states, I decided to to spend a night at a hotel near the Frankfurt airport to avoid any bad weather surprises. As I was scouring the German equivalent of Expedia, I ran across a rather interesting ‘feature’ at my hotel. It was gay friendly, whatever the heck that might mean. Then I proceeded to check out other hotels and learned that most of them were gay friendly.

With that being said, I was ecstatic to see that my hotel even had non-smoking rooms. That’s rare in Germany.

This post is a couple of weeks late but that’s because “eliminate procrastination” is not my 2010 year resolution.

Rather, my new years resolution for the year 2010 is to simply be more focused.

Over the past couple of years it has become more and more clear to me that while I have been mostly successful in my life, what has been lacking is a clear sense of focus.

I am constantly involved in a million different projects, talking to dozens and dozens of different people and trying to excel at 3-4 sports at once. It has been fun and given me an opportunity to learn a ton, but as my twenties are nearing their end, I want to take what I learned and apply it really well in a few different areas.

So, what does focus mean to me.

Finishing an ironman. This is going to take all kinds of focus and commitment as without such I will have no chance in hell to cross that finish line in Switzerland. I will have to work out with great regularity, rest lots and have a near perfect nutrition. Anything less, and I will fail miserably. 3.8km of swimming, 180km on the bike and a full marathon will be a great measuring stick for me.

Being a better friend. I’ll never stop making friends but I am now at the point where I need to focus a bit more on the friendships I already have. And that shouldn’t just involve me tweeting more. I look forward to spending more time with the people who mean a lot to me.

Cutting down on my projects. I love what I do. A little too much. That leads to me becoming distracted with random website, marketing and bratwurst stand ideas. While I am not willing to say that I will cut down on pursuing different ideas (never), I will be a bit more conscious of completing a few before starting new ones.

That’s it for me. Wish me good focus.

1. A wood fire oven

2. Plenty of body fat

Perfected as seen below by my little fat cat friend, Sophia.

1. When you don’t have to take your shoes off at airport security.

2. When you can buy a beer, and then drink it while walking around the airport.

3. When you turn on the television at 11pm on Christmas Eve, and a porno is running on cable TV.

Merry Christmas.