Today I am jumping on a plane to fly back to Germany for a little while. So, these last few weeks has been spent “saying goodbye” to a bunch of good friends over both food and drink,  and in the case of Spencer Helm - in our speedos. 

As you can probably tell by my constant ranting about Los Angeles,  I am not the biggest fan of this city.

I’ll always have something to nag about when it comes to LA, but you’ll never ever hear me complain about the people who live here  who’re near and dear to my heart.

Saying goodbye to those people is hard because in my mind I recognize that things will never be the same they are at this very moment. Right now will never come back. The way we are, the way we are right now, well, that will be lost tomorrow. All that stays are memories and a lifelong connection. 

But really, if you think about it. Life is a constant sequence of saying goodbye and hello. At least mine is. 

Because tomorrow, I will land in Germany and I will be with my mother again who hasn’t seen me for more than two weeks at a time since I am 16 years old (no mother, I am not going on a bike ride or mushroom hunting with you this weekend). Tomorrow my father will have a partner in crime again to diffuse the constant influx of exercise, chores and vegetable juice concoctions my mother is trying to inflict on him.  Tomorrow, I will be able to see my sisters again.  And I’ll get to have beers with those very same people who I first had beers with, this time legally. A lot of awesome hellos, minus the vegetable juice. 

So yes, things will never be the same. And that’s ok. 

Appreciate the time you have with each other, wherever you are - with whoever you are. 

* I am only writing this post to make myself feel better about all the wonderful people who I won’t see tomorrow. I won’t miss LA. But as Otto would say, “I’ll miss the shit out of my friends in LA.” And yes, it's totally normal to quote your cat. 

You can't avoid rumors. People love rumors. They are part of being human. There are rumors about everything.

• "WONGDOODY is now Wong, Doody, Crandall, Wiener." That is true.
• "Obama is a Muslim." Nope. Not true.
• "That John guy, he's a total freak the way he always stares at me." That is a dangerous rumor.

The latter is a type of rumor that I unfortunately hear all too often. Guys hitting on someone. Guys having Asian fetishes. Girls being sluts. People being freaks. The list goes on.

These kind of rumors make me really sad. If someone does something wrong or inappropriate, take action. Don't tell others, tell the person. Don't talk, do something about it. Unfortunately, I think that many times rumors start because people want attention.

People wanting to feel better about themselves by talking bad about others. People wanting attention because they are getting none. Truth be told, sometimes I catch myself ranting about people, which isn't good. Because rumors are a dangerous game. Because all it takes is one of those comments to ruin a person's reputation. To ruin a marriage. To ruin a family.

Just because a guy has a beautiful Asian wife and you're Asian, it doesn't mean that he in any way or shape is attracted to you. Just because a girl wears a short skirt and high heels, doesn't mean she's a slut. Just because a guy is overly nice to you, doesn't mean he wants to sleep with you. Rumors don't solve anything. But they can really hurt somebody's feelings, damage their self-esteem or potentially ruin a life.

If you make an appropriate observation to yourself, good for you. If you have a problem with someone, try to fix it. With them.

If you are just spreading a rumor about someone, you are the problem.

In case I do a really bad job of communicating what I mean to say in this post, here it is in a nutshell. Cut  people with negative energy out of your life, and you'll feel better.

When I lived in Portland, my buddy Patrick and I would always go on these epic bike rides (epic for me, warmups for him) and despite our  ridiculous looking tight cycling outfits, we actually talked about girls quite frequently. And oftentimes Pat would use the term "Negative Nancy" when describing women who exerted an extraordinary amount of negative energy. For the purpose of this post, Nancy can be both female or male.

Meet Negative Nancy,  a deeply unhappy person who chooses to deal with her/his unhappiness by trying to make others miserable. They are the kind of people who you often feel sorry for, try to deal with them and then find yourself being stabbed the back (not literally, not yet at least) over and over. Unlike "well-meaning"  unhappy people, Negative Nancy does not actually try to achieve happiness but rather gets satisfaction out of making others unhappy. Her end goal is not happiness but rather widespread misery.

So here is the secret on how you deal with Negative Nancy. Cut her out of your life - completely and immediately. Example, numero uno. My former downstairs neighbor is a Negative Nancy. The guy would come upstairs three times a week to complain about anything and everything. He complained about me not switching my laundry from washer to dryer fast enough, he complained about me talking on my cell phone with my door open and he'd complain about Otto sprinting around my hardwood floors after going potty.  Nevermind that he ran a call center in his downstairs apartment that specialized on selling online marketing services by loudly yelling at people - with his door open. I used to entertain his complaints, even contemplate them at times; then I recognized that's exactly what he wanted. So I stopped. And I stopped answering the door when he knocked. Then he stopped knocking. And now he has stopped living there. My new downstairs neighbor is a lot more understanding about that crazy trampling cat of mine.

Example, nummer zwei. A former co-worker of mine is the ultimate Negative Nancy, who to this day blames her failed career on the fact that she didn't understand what I did. Actually, I think she believes I am a career scam artist who achieved temporary success through various "delegation schemes" which nobody other than her has caught on to. She's right. I am a total scam. Let's hope nobody ever finds out. What isn't right is that she uses every opportunity to contact me with passive aggressive emails, comments and the like with the sole purpose of trying to get a reaction out of me. Actually, she ended her last email to me with the following words: "Buh bye (and I know you'll be stewing on this regardless)" Nice, huh? Congratulations Nancy.  You have managed to upset someone. And you thought Hosni Mubarak was a jerk.

But she was right. I stewed on it for about five minutes. Then I figured out how Gmail allows you to filter something as spam and then automatically deletes it. Now Gmail does the stewing for me. Thanks for the productivity inspiration, Nancy.

I believe it was the French Author Emmanuel Bove who came up with the line "Misery seeks company." Don't let it. Cut Negative Nancy out of your life, and use that extra time and mind space and spend it with and on positive people who's life's purpose isn't to spread misery. And don't feel bad about doing it. Your happiness is more important than whatever ill behaviors Nancy finds pleasure in.

There are millions of nice people who you can interact with. And if you don't find one, get a cat.

I have a reputation as being a pretty selfish person. And really, there isn't much I can do to dispute that. You don't leave home at the age of 16 and move around every 3 years to make other people happy. So far, every major life decision I have made was to try and find happiness for myself. And truth be told, I don't feel like I did anything wrong with that course. Put yourself first, try to find happiness and then use that strength to help and inspire others. An upset, depressed and low energy person doesn't make anyone happy.

That being said, most of my career choices have also been focused on my own success. I have quit jobs, taken jobs, moved up and the down the West Coast and pretty much have done whatever I needed to achieve success. In the process I somehow became the guy who was able to get shit done. If that meant stepping on other people's toes, so be it, I just wanted to get things done. Bosses like that. So, I really don't regret doing that all that much, as there are just too many people in today's workforce who're slowing things down intentionally due to their own lack of talent or happiness. Sounds harsh, but it's true.

But this year something happened. I've been fortunate to lead a team of people who're as committed and as talented (much more talented probably) as I am. Meet Justin, meet Connie and meet Bri. These three not only care about their work, but they also care about each other. And myself. See, Warren Buffett always says there are three things to look for in people you hire. Intelligence, ambition and integrity. And if they don't have the latter, the other two will kill you.

While nobody is perfect, Justin, Connie and Bri have all three of those qualities. En masse. Once I recognized that (which was pretty much the moment I met each one of them), something shifted in my mind. It became less about me, and more about them. Don't get me wrong, my career is important. But really, at this point, I needed to learn how to engage others, how to make others shine and how to lead a team of people who I someday might just report to.

How do you lead such a team? You care. And you make them care about each other. Because, smart people with ambition don't need you to explain things to them. They need to know that you're there when they need you, and they need to feel appreciated when they do the same for you or each other. So for the first time in my career, I care less about my own career than I care about the future of people like Justin, Connie and Bri. Surround yourself with smart, ambitious people who you can trust and then do whatever you can to get out of the the way and let them succeed. Because the brighter their light shines, the more it shines on you.

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.

Weakness. No man likes to be weak, yet we all are. So we just don't admit to it. We cover it up. And we go to great lengths to do it. At least I do. So I am about as excited writing about it as I am about the case of Shingles on my right butt cheek. But here we go.

About a year ago, I was thinking about what I wanted to accomplish in 2010. The list was long. Finish my first Ironman, kick ass at WONGDOODY, make IdeaMensch famous and have CareerSparx help thousands of recent college graduates start their careers, sell tons of DogPause dog bowls, open a restaurant and write my first book. In addition, it made sense to be a better son, brother, friend and just an all around good and loving human being. Now looking back, I failed at most. And it's really not all that surprising. One would have to be pretty superhuman to succeed at all of these. Me, I was probably pretty weak and thought that I'll get strong by trying. That seemed to work out quite ok until about half way through the year. I finished the Ironman, got that jacket I now wear every day, came back to the US and then fell into a deep hole. I was physically injured, wasn't all that crisp mentally and actually became a bit depressed.

My immediate reaction was that those kind of things happened because I wasn't doing enough. See when you are training for an Ironman, there is no such thing as a free minute. You go, you go, and then you hit the pillow and you're out. All the sudden I had free minutes. Free minutes that I didn't know what to do with. And while I had a long list of ambitions that I could have attended to (see above), my lack of excitement and a slight onset of depression kept me from truly being able to focus on any of them.

My immediate reaction was to just sign up for another Ironman. I probably was just one of those people who needed a million things on his plate in order to function. Unfortunately, I already had 999,999 things on my plate and wasn't really succeeding at any of them. Hence, it didn't make a whole lot of sense that adding one more thing would all the sudden turn me into a star performer.

So I did something very uncomfortable. I admitted weakness. Initially not to anyone but myself, which by the way,  is much harder. I talked to my boss and asked if I could work part time. I gave away equity holdings in a number of ventures that I was involved with. For the first time in my life, I turned down opportunities. I make much less money now than I did even five years ago. On a personal level, I started sharing what felt like weakness. I would admit to people close to me when something hurt my feelings. I haven't cried yet but sometimes I wish I could. Physically, my body fully supported my admission of weakness by completely breaking down.

Long runs turned into crazy fevers, peeing blood, visits to urgent care, severe colds and now Shingles. If I ever had to slow down, it was now. If I ever had to look at what mattered in my life and what didn't, it was now. If I ever had to admit weakness, it was now. So as the year is coming to an end and as I am contemplating what I want to achieve next year, I am going to attempt to be realistic. Realistic about the energy I have. Realistic about the strength I have. And for the first time ever, realistic about the strength I do not have.

Don't get me wrong, I can achieve ANYTHING I set my mind to. Just not EVERYTHING at once.

Here's to saying "no" more often in 2011.

Generally speaking, the word 'expectation' can carry both positive and negative connotations. Expectations can be slim or great, but in my opinion they are always bad. Let me start by explaining what I think what an expectation is. Keep in mind that I am no linguist, English is my second language and my SAT scores presented me with the opportunity to pursue my education at the University of Montana. Expectation, to me, means expecting something to happen (good or bad) based on what happened in the past. Expectation has little to do with what is happening right now, and unfortunately, has no impact on what will happen in the future. All it does is put a lens (good or bad, light or dark, specific or blurry) on what you think should happen in the future.

If your expectations of something are negative, well, then that obviously sucks and won't make you happy. But even if your expectations are great, well, then that isn't a positive thing either. Because if great things happen, then you expected them and likely won't enjoy them as much as you should. On the other hand,  if things don't turn out like you expected them to, then you will be disappointed. I'll give you some examples.

You meet a stripper, you fall in love with her. You met her as a stripper, really didn't have any expectations and just see her for who she is. That's a good thing, and really the ideal way to fall in love with a stripper.

You meet a girl. You fall in love. She becomes your girlfriend. You marry her. Then you learn she used to be a stripper. Your expectation of your wife wasn't that she used to be a stripper. The fact that she used to strip now hurts you. What hurts you isn't that she used to be a stripper but rather the expectation you had built up in your mind. The same thing oftentimes happens in the workplace.

At WONGDOODY, we have summer hours. That means every Friday in the summer (assuming you got your work done), you can take the afternoon off. Totally awesome and something you don't necessarily expect from your employer. As a matter of fact, my last employer didn't have summer Fridays and it's not like it was something I expected. Now, if WONGDOODY were to take away our summer hours (even if it's for the right reasons), that would disappoint people.

Why? Because of expectation. One last example. It's weather related.

I live in Southern California. It's always sunny. Actually, I expect it to be sunny. When I wake up in the morning and it's sunny outside, that doesn't bring a smile to my face. Compare that to when I used to live in Portland. It always rains. When I woke up in the morning on a beautiful sunny day, it would bring all sorts of smiles and energy to my life. Why can't I have that feeling here in Southern California...because of my expectation. Maybe there are good examples of expectation. I would love to hear about them.

But from what I can tell, expectations are always bad. Myself, I am going to try and turn them off.

I am 29 years old and graduated college about nine years ago. Since then, I have worked pretty much non-stop in ad agencies in Montana, Seattle, LA, Portland now LA again. Next to work, I have launched websites, published a book, figured out various eBay schemes, traveled across China and Europe, bought a couple of condos, spent lots of time backpacking up and down the West Coast, ran a marathon, finished  an Ironman and buried my father. I spent the last nine years trying to achieve things, often times things I really didn't feel that passionate about. But things that would make me more money, get me a bigger title or a prettier girlfriend.

Most of what I have been doing these past nine years were activities that boosted my ego. And whenever my ego got a bit out of whack, I'd turn away from whatever was bothering me and just shoot for a bigger goal. I took on bigger jobs, ran more miles and ran away from relationships that mattered to me. All things that kept me from having to confront my own ego. All things that ultimately led to a much bigger ego. Having recently completed my first Ironman has left me with a gaping hole, chubbier abs and lots of time on Saturday mornings. And my initial reaction was to, of course, fill that hole by coming up with another huge challenge to tackle. I mean, who wants chubby abs?

But unfortunately, I am really quite happy with the life I have and it wouldn't be physically responsible for me to try and top the Ironman. So, the only thing that stands between myself and myself being really fulfilled is me. And by me, I am referring to my ego,  which I have been carefully cultivating over the past decade. Now, having an ego doesn't necessarily mean that I am cocky, selfish or self-absorbed, even though it might. When I am referring to my ego, I am more thinking about my "unconscious mind," which makes irrational, rational and sometimes fictional judgments on my behalf. It keeps me from me being me. So, how do I get out of the way of my own ego? I am going to starve it.

How? Well, first of all, I am going to take some time to think about what is important to me. And then I am going to stop feeding my ego some of the things that it really enjoys. Sort of like when I weaned Otto off Tuna.

Starting next week, I am going to go into a more part-time role at work. Less time in the office, for less pay. Not something that I could have ever imagined myself doing, but I am fortunate that my bosses are accommodating me, and well, that I need time more than I need money. I am going to take that time, and work on myself, grow the IdeaMensch community, write my first book and most importantly, invest into my relationships with people near and dear to my heart.

And I'll still kick butt at work, by being myself. But rather than define success by the impact on my salary, job title or athletic endeavors, I am going to define it by the impact I have on others. Everything else will fall into place.

Before I dive into this entry, let me preface things by saying that I have been doing a lot of thinking these past few weeks. I spent the first half of this year thinking about not much else than my Ironman. Getting that out of my life has created a lot of time and energy which fortunately has been filled with people who I really care about. Saying that I have been able to live a pretty blissed life is a gross understatement. But that doesn't mean that I am always happy and fulfilled. And that's what this blog entry is about and what most of my thoughts for the past week have been devoted to. If life is perfect, how in the world can unhappiness creep in? Through thoughts. Thoughts? Yes, thoughts about both the past and the present.

Anytime you are thinking about something, you aren't living in the moment. That means you are experiencing feelings that aren't real nor are they happening right now. And honestly, the only way unhappiness can develop is if you nurture whatever thought is hurting you - by thinking about it. While that makes a ton of sense, I can tell you that I unfortunately spend 90% of my time thinking and maybe 10% living. I have the rare (in)ability to get absolutely obsessed with things which on a positive note allows me to not only be creative but also to get things done very quickly. If I get excited about something, I am going to get it. I believe that 100%, with no exception. Sounds great, huh?

And cocky. But unfortunately, the flip side of such is that if I get upset about something, I have a very hard time letting go. As a matter of fact, my mind can nurture those negative thoughts and make them much much worse than when they first entered my mind. And they have nothing to do with reality as they either happened in the past, might occur in the future or more likely than not are completely fabricated. Obsessed about positive thoughts => get overly excited => many ideas => inspire others => make it happen. Obsessed about negative thoughts = depression. That's how I lost my father. When I first started thinking about this concept and looked at the situation, the obvious solution was to just think about positive things. Duh? But unfortunately I don't think that's the way to go. Because if you train your brain how to nurture good thoughts, well, it will also be pretty good at nurturing the bad stuff.

Plus, one continues to spend a lot of time thinking rather than being. The key seems to be to learn how to stop thinking and work on being able to be in the moment. So how does one go about that? For me, I know there are certain things that absolutely put me in the moment. When I completely exhaust my body, I am in the moment. When I fly down a mountain on a bike, I am (forced to be) in the moment. When I schlepp a bunch of crap up to 10,000 feet, take off my backpack, sit down and gaze across a beautiful mountain lake, I am in the moment. When I get all jazzed about IdeaMensch and spend 14 hours,  in an absurdly  over-caffeinated state,  cranking out some stupid new section on the site; I am in the moment. But unfortunately, I also don't think that the key to living in the moment is to only do things that you're either really passionate about or the require your full attention.

Learning how to be content without having to be excited about something is a challenge I need to conquer. I need to recognize when a thought has entered my mind, and recognize it as just such. Thoughts, not problems. Thoughts, not reality. Thoughts, not something I need to get all worked up about. Then take a deep breath and recognize the moment. The more you're able to recognize the difference between thoughts and reality, the more you'll understand what it means to be in the moment. The more you appreciate the now, the more you're going to want to live in it. If I do that enough, I'll probably like Yoga. People always talk about how joyful kids are, and how easy it is for them to get excited. Well, that's because kids aren't worrying about the past or the future. They are living in the moment. Otto isn't laying around right now, pondering why he didn't get any treats Thursday night. The squirrels in front my window aren't all fucked up worrying about what happens if this is going to be a tough winter. They are devoting all of their energy to what is happening right now. They're digging holes, hiding nuts and are driving Otto crazy.

Who, by the way,  is sitting in my window, fascinated by his furry-tailed friends and thinking absolutely nothing else.

No thoughts, no problem. Carpe diem.