Remabulous

The Happiness Project

I started reading Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project this morning in bed. I had a bit of a grouch fest last night and felt like it was time to dive in. I've made it through the first two chapters and I'm loving it.

I am a list maker, and it's always exciting to find someone in the same boat. The level and refinement of lists made my simple 32 list seem a little feeble by comparison.

Not only does Rubin have lists- she has broken them down by theme, assigned them to a month, but she also has commandments and a principle by the end of chapter 2. Wow. I'm going to have to step up my game next year, I think.

There is something lovely about thinking that writing things down on paper and referring to them frequently can change your life. Fortunately, my experience, and the experience of clients I have worked with has proven this to be true. How amazing!

It's funny how suspicious we (and I definitely fall into this group) are of simple solutions. Want to be happier? Make a list of things you suspect would work, print out charts and have at it.

"It can't be that simple," we think. Notice I did not say easy. Following through with the items on this list is rarely easy. Sometimes it's not even easy to write the damned list in the first place- just ask my mother about her 59th birthday when I spent the entire dinner prying her list out of her. Charming.

Still, as Rubin helpfully pointed out in the intro, it's often the idiosyncratic and highly personal story that helps to show how something can be accomplished rather than a general list of universal ideals. I think the universal is harder to live up to and often impossible to relate to.

But when I read about Rubin struggling not to snap when she is irritated with her husband even though she loves him dearly? That is inspiration I can work with. Immediately, in fact during a phone conversation this morning with my gentleman caller about whether or not I am feeling better after my brat fit last night when he had to postpone plans due to an unexpected work deadline.

Out there, on the opposite coast, I know that Gretchen Rubin is biting her lip and breathing as she knows her husband is doing the best he can, so I am able to answer "I'm fine today" when I get the concerned call. And I mean it.

Emma Bovary's in the house! (And she's gone high tech...)

One of my goals for the 32 for 32 challenge is to read Madame Bovary. I think throwing in a classic book each year raises the intellectual rigor of the challenge, and any excuse to read makes me a happy camper, even though Flaubert (pictured right) didn't expect me to read his book anywhere other than in a paper copy when he wrote it...

Over the past few months I have been enticed by the electronic reader concept.

Before you freak out let me say that I:

1. Shop in independent bookstores. In fact, I may have sent many employees children to college. Most people say "My god" when they come in my house in response not to the view or the lovely layout- thank you Jackie Page- but instead to the number of books everywhere. I have to install floor to ceiling shelves in the Dining Room this month just to keep it under control.
2. Used to work for an independent bookstore in LA for several years.

So, with the previous two things in mind I thought about the following:

1. If I have to pay a goddamned overage fee one more time for a suitcase that is over 50 pounds because I have so many books with me I am going to lose it.
2. If my dad has to lift said suitcase into the trunk of the car when he picks me up on visits and is trying to be nice, I'm afaid his back will lose it.
3. On a recent business trip to Las Vegas, I finished the book I'd brought on the first night. I had five more days. There are NO bookstores on the strip in Las Vegas. They don't want you to read. They want you to gamble. I needed another book and I needed one fast. Help!

All of these second set of problems would be solved by one of these magic new devices.

So then... which one to choose? Kindle? Nook? Wait for the mythical tablet from Apple and see if it is a reader?

I went with the Nook. Here's why...

Why reading totally unrelated books is one of the best things you can do for your business.

I am a library junkie. I can admit this right out in the open. One of my favorite tricks these days: browsing in a big box bookstore with my iPhone at the ready and open to the LA Public Library page. When I find something I want to take home, I just type the ISBN into the search on the library site and request it. I can pick it up at my local branch, it's free, and I still get to browse in bookstores. It's my favorite game lately.

However, I was falling prey to a deadly disease for the entrepreneur. It's one people don't talk about nearly enough in the business world. It doesn't have a name yet, so I will call it the "Reading Far Too Many Business Books Disease." This disease is deadly for a number of reasons.

Let's go through them one by one and discuss the cure...

image: eseering.

Running your business on the right side of your brain...

This week seems to be all about visual thinking. I started this morning by looking at logo options  from my brilliant friend Jessica Krewson of Design Krew as we begin my web and company redesign, and this week's read is A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, by Daniel H. Pink.

It does seem that visual thinking and learning is every bit as important as literacy these days. As Ken Robinson said in the video I featured a little while back, we have no way of knowing what the future will look like even five years from now.

We encounter more visual material today than ever. As far back as 2006, sources were estimating that the ads we encountered on a daily basis numbered in the thousands, especially for television watchers. But internet usage can more than make up for that, if you're in front of the computer all day- I know this!

So what does all this mean? Visual literacy is essential in today's world. Information is being conveyed to us through visual communication just as much as through written. Video is becoming the medium of choice, as YouTube becomes a sort of how-to serach engine. Given the choice, we'd all rather be shown than told, right?

As Daniel Pink explains in A Whole New Mind, we have long been on a left-brain/logical thinking bias. We believed at one point- over 100 years ago, granted, that the right brain had very little to do with our effective functioning. But now we see that it has everything to do with success nowadays. The right and visual brain sees the whole picture, synthesizes meaning from facial expressions, and understands things far more quickly than a supercomputer by pulling out the whole picture from all information available, especially emotional content.

Hmm. Starts to sound more like the world we are operating in now, doesn't it? As logical sequential routinized work gets moved overseas as these sorts of tasks can be simply trained and left to run along indefinitely, we are left to look at what kind of work is meaningful for us.

It is the visual, emotionally connected work that we need to engage in. Video allows us to communicate in a visual and personal fashion. If your business message is up on a brochure style website that doesn't allow for users to connect, engage, and that doesn't stimulate them visually and emotionally, everyone is missing out.

Who are you today? Who is your business? How can it be more high concept and high touch, and how can you put that concept out in a more meaningful way.

If these are new ideas, I highly recommend both Daniel Pink's book as well as the short video at the top of the post with Tom Wujec, where he talks about why images are an effective mode of processing information.

Where can you be more visual? Share your thoughts with us below...

Reading on the road... my biggest challenge.

As i write this, I am still in LA, getting ready to leave on my trip with my family. My obsession lately: what am I going to take to read?

I am the guilty party in my family who always has the heavy suitcase. Heavy with warning tags on it. Heavy having to pay a fine when I fly back. Seriously heavy. Why is this? Because I am the sort of traveler who would have been better served during the days of steamer trunks. This is because I cannot travel without books.

Not just one or two either. For one night away I have been known to bring as many as three. Even if I read nothing, which rarely happens on a trip this long, the thought of being stuck somewhere with nothing to read or, even worse in some ways, something that is absolutely wrong for my mood or the place where I am, puts me in a cold clammy sweat.

At the time of this writing, I have whittled it down to six, no seven:

1. Unlimited Power by Tony Robbins. have already started it and love it, so it has to come.
2. Vagabonding by Rolf Potts. Whenever I get to travel, I want to do it more. Got this recommendation from the Random Show that Tim Ferriss and Kevin Rose did, so it's in.
3. Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski. Looks like a gorgeous read about travel as well. It's small, will pack well and the NYT said "Few have written more beautifully of Unspeakable things." It's in.
4. 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing. Al Ries and Jack Trout. Another of Tim Ferriss's. Another thin one. And as my dad, who serves as a bit of a business advisor, is travelling with me, I love having things to talk about with him.
5. The Devlin Diary, Christi Phillips. A big novel. It came out in May, but I have the paperback galley and so get to enjoy the Rosetti Letter's follow-up in paperback.
6. Leaving Microsoft to Change the World. John Wood. Ok- last one from Ferriss' list. But yet again, I love an enthralling business read on vacation. This looks amazing- from the founder of Room to Read, and the story of a man finding his true passion in a classroom in Nepal. So on the Remabulous wavelength!
7. And, Provenance, by Laney Salisbury & Aly Sujo. Another galley. This book comes out mid July. And as it's about con men and art theft, when my friend Paige presented it to me, there was no way I could resist.

Perhaps by the time you read this I will have reorganized this list several times over, but for now it feels pretty good. I will review all those I got to when I get home...

Essential reading from Tim Ferriss and Kevin Rose

I had hoped to show you a lovely video of the Kenyon sky with a crazy cloud in it today on the blog, and talk about what I am reading at the moment tomorrow, but for those who get my newsletter, you know that things don't always go according to plan. Sometimes that is for the better.

I am going to reverse this plan since my computer is being very ornery and taking hours and hours to upload my tiny little cloud video. I will do my very best to get it up tomorrow and will instead share about reading today...

I started Keith Ferrazzi's Who's Got Your Back today, and I am delighted with it. I think the nature of business connections and what they are needed for- more than just passing along leads- is an essential topic we all need to pay attention to. It's not just about who you know, it's about how you interact with them. Keith has a lot to share- I'll check in more about what I've learned.

I was also very happy to discover that Kevin Rose and Tim Ferriss did an episode of their show, The Random Show, on the 5 essential books they each think everyone should read. It's a great list- I have read some of the selections and am ordering those I missed as we speak.

Please check out their thoughts, and then share your essential 5 books in the comments- I am always up for hearing about great reading!

Random w/ Tim and Kevin - Ep3 from Glenn McElhose on Vimeo.

Recommended read: Secrets of Six Figure Women

As a means of continued inspiration, I have been making it a goal to read a business book each week. While I don't always hit that magic number, i am definitely enjoying the current selection enormously.

While Secrets of Six Figure Women sounds like a dramatic title, one that has often raised eyebrows while I have been reading it at the register at Book Soup, I think it raises a good point: why should it be shocking to be a woman making six figures? Isn't about time we were all in the game, too?

image: DavidDMuir

Special Giveaway of Andrea N. Richesin's new book: Because I Love Her! (To the selected Ask Remabulous question of the week)

 I am so excited to get to share a great new book just out by author Nicki Richesin. (Be sure to check out her site for additional info and a beautiful video piece on the themes and stories in the book.)Because I Love Her is a collection of essays from authors including Joyce Maynard, Karen Joy Fowler, Jacquelyn Mitchard and Susan Wiggs, among others on the subject of mothers and daughters. It is getting rave reviews and is just in time for Mother's Day. (although you may want to keep it for yourself if you win!)

Some of you may remember Richesin's last book The May Queen, which has become a much-loved favorite in my own collection. Already critically acclaimed, Because I Love Her is ready to become a new source of delight and inspiration. I am so happy Andrea Richesin was willing to share a copy with one of you!

"This collection about one of the most complex relationships we have is so rich and varied that you ll want to read the whole thing from start to finish and then dip into it again and again. The essays are, by turns, wry, funny, angry, forgiving, sad, joyous, and a great many of them are all of these things at once. The book is suffused with hope and punctuated by a fierce, fierce love." --Marisa de los Santos, New York Times bestselling author of Love Walked In and Belong To Me

So... everybody get excited and e-mail me your Ask Remabulous question to [email protected] and if you are selected for tomorrow's column you will find yourself the new owner of a copy of the book.

Ready...set...go!

Updates on a crazy life... and: I'm in a movie!

Hello, all. I have been sorely neglecting Remabulous over here. I've been working on some new projects for coaching and I've also been promoted to Social Media Maven at Book Soup! Please check us out on Facebook, Twitter, and check out our Blog, where the staff and I are all posting. It's been really fun getting all of that started, but it's meant I have been a bit behind over here.

However, I have new stuff coming! My sales page is up for my new coaching package, and I recorded my first episode of the new Remabulous podcast, which I hope to post this week!

I have long meant to share this great film by Kristen Havens, called "The Demon Doily." We filmed it last year in the valley on a day so hot I was sweating everywhere! The film came out great and it is funny to see myself on a screen, even this one.

Hope you enjoy! Be sure and leave happy comments on YouTube for the film so Kristen will keep up the great work and make more films.

Want to write a non-fiction book? This class is for you!

Hello all... Many of us have books in us. I have worked with clients who have published in record time once they set their minds to it.

Jen Sincero, published author- who also wrote the awesomely titled "Straight Girl's Guide to Sleeping with Chicks" is teaching a class that takes you step by step through the non-fiction proposal, writing, and publication process.

I highly recommend this class as a way to achieve your book-writing goals for this year, if that is a goal you have.

Check out the course description below...