As I am sitting on a train going through a very snowy Germany, I am contemplating some of the things that I want to work on in 2011. Normally I make resolutions but they always end up too close to being goals. And once you achieve a goal, improvement stops. So this year, rather than focus on very specific goals, I am going to tackle three areas that I want to work on. If I do a half way decent job at these, I am sure many productive things will happen and I will end up achieving what one might call a bunch of goals.

1. Get out of my own head

Problem number one for like fifteen years in a row now. I am pretty sure the last time this wasn't my biggest issue, my biggest issue revolved around trying to figure out how to French kiss Ina Hellweg. Getting out of my own head simply means dropping unproductive thoughts; thoughts about things that I cannot change. They either happened in the past or they are completely out of my control. I have a vivid imagination, which is good from a creative perspective, and horrendous when it comes to this. Put a thought in my head and I can take it to the end of the world. Give me a glimpse, and I'll make a feature film out of it. The biggest problem with thinking about things that you cannot change (unproductive thoughts) is that it keeps you from thinking and acting on the things that you can change (productive thoughts leading to action). The more that happens, the less productive you become and the more you feel bad about wherever you're at in life. Men who have lots of productive thoughts are healthier, more successful and probably have lots of sex with gorgeous women. People who worry too much about crap they cannot change are caught up in their own minds, conflicted, experience a much lower quality of life and definitely do not live in the moment. Forty percent of our happiness is not determined by whatever situation we're faced with but rather by the stuff that is happening in our minds; oftentimes removed from reality. Here are some unproductive thoughts that can keep you up, occupied and miserable for hours - and there is absolutely nothing you can do about any of them:

• Envisioning your girlfriend having sex with her ex. Or with anyone for that matter.
• Imagining what it would it feel like if your dog died. Or your cat, snake or pet rat. Which is a really weird pet to own, by the way.
• Wondering what life would be like without your parents, brothers, sisters - people you love.
• Turning your swollen lymph node into a self-diagnosed life with cancer. Confusing your indigestion with a heart attack or attributing a day late period to pregnancy.

I highly recommend against trying any of them. While it's hard to control the things that come to mind (and even harder to stop them when they do), here are some coping strategies that people much smarter than I have come up with. When I remember to use them, they usually work:

• Assign one hour every week to worrying about crap you can't control. Whenever an unproductive thought comes to mind, tell yourself that you are only allowed to think about it then. Put that hour in your calendar and make sure to ignore it when it comes up. Or try to be really unhappy during that hour, which I promise will be a hard feat.

• Go do something active. For me, this normally means going on a long, painful run. The focus should be on an activity that helps you flip the switch mentally.

• Wear a rubber band around your wrist. Whenever a dumb thought shows up, flick it against your wrist. It hurts like hell. We don't like pain. Again, it's an opportunity to flip the switch.

• Clear your mind for a second, then intensely focus on wondering what thought will come to your mind next. If you really do that, nothing will come for a long time. It makes you recognize how trivial thoughts really are and that you don't have to be miserable. They're just that: thoughts, not reality.

I have always been a thinker, and a very creative one at that. My career and life have been built upon it. Last year I unfortunately let my mind get the best of me, got stuck worrying about things I couldn't change and then just felt stuck. Things snowballed and I went from somewhat of an overachiever to someone who barely functioned. If I can make some serious progress on this, 2011 is going to be a fantastic, happy and very successful year. Considering how many unhealthy, unproductive and at times unhappy people are out there, I think it is something that just about everybody can work on a little bit. Maybe even you. Because, well, you can.

2. Screw multitasking

Rumor has it that women are better at multitasking than men. Actually, there are data out there to back it up. I don't know if that's true or not, but I can tell you for a fact that I suck at multitasking. That doesn't mean I can't be a successful person who achieves on a number of levels. But it does mean that I can't try to do multiple things at the same moment. Same year, yes. Same month, yes. Even same day. Same moment, hell no. Whenever I try to do two things at once or even think about two things at once I underachieve. Actually, I usually get bored and then start introducing even more crap to the equation. Here is an example that happened a million times last year: I try to publish an IdeaMensch interview while responding to a work email. While talking to someone standing behind me. While glancing at Facebook and while remembering that I need to make a doctor's appointment. I usually end up publishing the interview with a mistake, write a crappy email, appear unthoughtful to my co-worker and don't go to the doctor all year. I am a rock star at checking Facebook, however. If I do one thing at a time, my attention is focused, my work is better, I find more enjoyment in everything and I am someone who people find a pleasure to be around. Well, maybe on the latter. Here are some things that I will try to do to drop multitasking once and for all:

• Schedule 15 minute blocks for different tasks throughout the day. I will put them in my calendar and during those blocks, I will only be allowed to work on those tasks. I will even block off 15 minutes every day for personal errands, since that is the stuff I never get done.

• When I have to write something, I will disconnect from the Internet. I use a program that turns my screen black (with green type) so I only focus on my writing.

• Facebook and my favorite German soccer sites will be blocked at work.

• When I am meeting with someone, I won't carry my iPhone. When I am in a meeting with a bunch of people (even if it's a complete waste of my time), I won't bring my iPad. While that will be very painful initially, it will help me to cut stupid meetings out of my schedule.

While I do believe that women are better at multitasking than men, I truly think that multitasking is a fundamentally unproductive habit. Rumor has it that men are much better at consuming copious amounts of alcohol, which is also an unproductive habit in most cases.

3. Introduce habits

If you know me, you know I hate habits. I don't like working 8-5, I don't watch the same TV show every Sunday night, I don't like eating the same thing for breakfast every morning and I don't believe people should only have sex right before they go to sleep. For the most parts, I have cut out just about every habit imaginable. Now my life is a mess. I eat like crap, I exercise at midnight and I check my mail twice per year. If anything is a habit in my life, it's that sometimes I wear the same t-shirt a couple of days in a row. And I only sport Chuck Taylors without laces, albeit in various colors. Oh, and I wear very colorful socks. Every day. But that's probably more style than habit. Anyhow, it's time to introduce some new habits. Productive ones. Why? My hope and assumption is that by introducing some habits into my life, I can spend less time trying to make decisions about things that shouldn't require so much attention and instead focus that attention on things that will truly move my life forward. Here are some habits that I am going to introduce and why: 1. Eat breakfast every day. Maybe the same thing. And definitely something with lots of protein. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. If you skip it or eat food with little nutritional value, your body and mind are on the wrong track from the getgo. I am thinking that every morning I will eat three eggs, whole wheat toast, a Greek yogurt and maybe a banana in the car on my way to work. And lots of ketchup with everything, except with the yogurt. That goes with honey, people. 2. Exercise in the morning. Generally speaking I exercise every day, not because I think my body needs it but because my mind does. By getting exercise out of the way early, I hope I can start every day on a positive note. 3. Bring my lunch to work. Not to save money or live healthier, but rather so I don't have to spend 20 minutes worrying about what the hell I am going to eat every day at 11:45. 4. Check my mail every day. This pains me, but it's necessary. While I hate physical mail and have very successfully ignored it, it has created piles of clutter in my mind and in my living room. I've heard that some people check their mail every day. I am joining that club. 5. Do something nice for someone every day. This one sounds good, but actually, is quite selfish. Do something nice for someone else and you'll feel better about yourself. Try it. 6. Write a blog entry on here once a week. Every time I write something on my blog, I feel great. And I usually receive tons of feedback of all sorts, which is a nice confirmation of, well, humanity. People care about others. I usually only write when I am inspired to do so, but I have a hunch that all great writers schedule time every day to create. And since I have no ambitions or right to call myself a great writer, I'll go for weekly rather than daily. Ok, that's it for now. If I think of any more habits, productivity strategies or ways to control my mind, I'll add them via comment. Maybe you can do the same if you have any ideas, habits, etc. that help you. Happy 2011 everyone. I wish you the best, awesomest, healthiest, most passionate and happiest year ever.

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.

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.

While in Rome Plettenberg, I was fortunate enough to run a marathon with both Jen and my parents. Well sadly, Jen and I only competed in the half marathon while my parents completed the full one. A few things about marathons in Plettenberg. During the race, bystanders will try to give you various kinds of hard liquor. Avoid if at all possible. There were just over a couple of thousand participants, and about 1800 volunteers. I have never seen such enthusiasm. My mother took fourth in the city championship, which she'll surely tell you the next time you see her. They serve beer to everybody who crosses the finish line. Prost. Here are some impressions from the race.

After an excruciating flight back from Germany (I am never flying Lufthansa again - joke), sitting in the midst of German snorer and a Russian elbower, I am back in the US. And after sleeping for a few hours, I've been catching up on email and sipping espressos since about 4am, with Otto on  my lab. Life is good. So was my trip back to Europe. I am so thankful for all the friends and family I got to see, and all the other people who made this such a great trip. Most notably, thank you Jefferson Farfan, for scoring a goal against Frankfurt and letting me see a Schalke win after all. Whenever you return from a trip like this, there are always a ton of impressions on my mind. Here are a few, more coming later, complete with some pictures of our journey.

• Jen loves gelato. If we lived in Europe, we'd have a problem.
• I greatly missed Otto who is about half the size of my parents' cat
• Thank you Adam for staying with Otto while I was gone. I hope you like the new roommate I brought you from Amsterdam.
• Schalke is awesome. When I am old, I am going to fully devote my life to watch them play.
• Germany is an interesting country. Actually I think it's the greatest country in the world, but many people there are too negative to ever recognize it.
• Jen and I got along great while in Europe. We also get along great in the US, which is nice.
• My family rocks. I wish I could spend more time with everybody, such as my little sisters who are growing up to be beautiful young women. And by spending time, I mean making sure that pubertal German boys don't.
• My parents both ran a marathon. I hope I am that cool when nearing 50.
• Both my cousins are married now, with Stefan breaking the golden rule of dating a woman for 10 years before getting engaged.
• Dominik and Sebastian win the "friends of the trip" award for getting me into all kinds of sporting events while in Germany. Christian gets the same award for driving all the way from Austria in his luxurious Dacia Logan to come and visit me.
• I love German food and beer, but look forward to once again eat something green now.
• Amsterdam is one my favorite places in the world. Jen and I must have walked around for 12 hours one day, all the while we were eating Dutch French Fries. I love Dutch French Fries.
• Otto just managed to get stuck under my couch. Got to go.

My time in Germany is starting to come to an end. Only a few more days and then I am back on a plane to America. This has been a great trip and I will be sad to leave everything behind again. But I am excited to see Jen, Otto and all my friends (7) in the US. Anyways, Christian came up from Bavaria and we spend the evening with my cousin Frank,  Henrike and Jens.  And tomorrow I will be going to one more Schalke game. It's not quite the end yet.

It was marathon weekend in Plettenberg. Jen walked the half marathon (2:45), I ran it (1:41) and my parents both ran the full marathon (mum: 4:31, dad 4:45). It should be noted that my father ran the last ten miles with cramps and my mother was doped to the gills. Jen also got interviewed on stage after finishing her half marathon, and they even called me out as she was having troubles locating me after her run. I was having troubles showering at my grandma's house (why would anyone not have a shower curtain?), which is why unfortunately how I missed Jen crossing the finish line. We then both left right after the race to see the most incredible derby ever (Dortmund vs. Schalke - 3:3) and came back just in time to see my mother up on stage at the townsquare to receive an award for her 4th place finish in the city championship. She was supposed to pick us up at the train station.  In between, Jen got to see what it's like to be the only Schalke fans in a block of Dortmund fans, how I got three of those fans to leave the game early due to my beautiful chants and finally how a little discussion on a train ended with a Schalke fan dimming his cigarette on a Dortmund fan's forehead. Not your average Saturday.

I just wanted to send a quick update from Deutschland. All is good. We have finally adjusted to the time change, and survived my cousin's wedding. Barely that is. I had almost forgotten how much alcohol Germans are able to consume. I saw family  members and close friends consume 20-30 alcoholic beverages and still stay up longer than I did.  Jen and my mother are off looking at castles today. Tomorrow, we're heading out to Amsterdam for a couple of days. On Thursday, we're off to a professional hockey game before running a marathon this weekend directly followed by watching the biggest derby of the year. Then another party, another day of family and then Jen is off back to the States.

As I am typing this blog entry, I am arguably sitting on the best flight ever – flying from Portland direct to Frankfurt on Lufthansa. Since Lufthansa is a German company, there might be a slight bias in play here but that’s ok.  I am constantly flying for work, and other than flying on a private jet, this has been the best flight experience in a long time. It’s refreshing to see an airline do some things right, especially from the perspective of a guy who publishes a book on how to write complaint letters. Here’s what Lufthansa did right today:

• When checking in at the gate, there counter was well staffed and we got checked in to our flight within a matter of 5 minutes. This is unusually fast for an international flight.
• At the counter, I asked if there was any chance that Jen and I could get a window/aisle seat rather than the “bathroom watch” row we were assigned in the back of the plane. The guy told me that he wasn’t able to make any changes right now, but to find him once we got to the counter.
• I, of course, forgot to find him at the counter. Instead, he found me. While walking on to the airplane, he pulled us aside (I was assuming they had opened my luggage and were wondering why I was bringing 37 brand new soccer jerseys) and asked whether we’d still like to change seats.  2 minutes later, we had graduated from the bathroom watch row and were sitting in a window/isle in an exit row. As you can see in the picture above, the leg room was incredible.
• Before walking onto the plane, we grabbed a half dozen magazines (GQ, Mens Health, Cosmopolitan, Nudists News) from their free magazine counter and boarded the plane.
• Once on the plane, we enjoyed excellent food, great service and lots of sleep induced by French wine and a couple of blue pills – the sleeping kind.

Lufthansa really didn’t do anything crazy here, but unlike most airlines, they upheld the promise of the kind of service that one should be able to expect. Nothing crazy, just basic stuff. Now, some might say that international flights are always more pleasant than domestic ones. But I disagree. I paid $900 a piece for this tickets, which isn’t that much more than a number of domestic routes are going for these days. Anyways, we are about to land in Frankfurt. Who knows what will go wrong there, but this is was an awesome flight. Thank you Lufthansa. Ps. It should be noted that the on-board entertainment was broken for the duration of the flight, as the system’s hard drive somehow got corrupted. While this was certainly a bummer, I won’t remember it as a negative. Rather than keeping us in the airport for hours and hours, the captain made the right choice in departing Portland rather than trying to fix a problem that wouldn’t have been fixed anyways.