Rhoneisms

For many years, I have maintained a short list I like to call my Personal Manifesto. These are simply little statements that I believe as truth and try, despite my many failures, to live by. I review this list every so often, just to remind myself of what’s there and fact check my daily living against it.
Some of the items are original thought or distilled from a larger personal beliefs. Some are simply truisms I heard elsewhere, believe in, and I feel are important enough to deserve a place on the list. Therefore, I add to it occasionally. It is a “living” document that, while an important statement of some things I believe, is open to change and growth as I am.
Here is the current list:
* Don’t worry. Do. If nothing can be done, don’t worry.
* The past serves us only in having taught us the lessons needed to thrive in the present and strive towards the future.
* Time is very precious. More precious than money. One can always make more money but one can’t have back this moment… Or this one.
* Do not place blame with others. Instead, look inside yourself, recognize your own shortcomings and work to overcome them. That way, others may be able to learn to do the same.
* The courage to speak your own truth will free others and allow them to do the same
* Time not spent on the front end of a task will usually be double on the back end.
* Get over the need to make others happy and worry more about making yourself happy.
* Wisdom is knowing what to do. Skill is knowing how to do it. Virtue is getting it done.
* The strongest position in any negotiation is held by the person most willing to walk away from the table.
* In the tightrope of life, if you start to feel unbalanced, simply stop where you are and find your center.
* Travel as light as possible. Carry only what you need to have. 
* All notes, lists & ideas worth keeping should converge in one location, be readily accessible and easy to locate quickly.
* Reserve at least 1/2 hour before bed to read. This will help to sleep soundly and dream easily.
* Turn off the TV, turn the radio on more often and listen to more stations.
* Play games. They improve your cognitive response and focusing ability. Allow them to let you escape to other worlds.
In the coming days, I am going to explore many of the items here in depth. This is more of an exercise for me to flesh out these items a bit but It is also my hope that you, gentle reader, may find some value or inspiration herein.

I recently acquired some more Levenger goodness. Amongst the items received were some of the newish Circa Note Pads and I thought I would do a quick video review. Enjoy:

First Look: Circa Note Pads from Patrick Rhone on Vimeo.

I really have nothing in particular to bring you today. No specific topic. No enlightening new gem of life changing wisdom. I just have some thoughts that have been bouncing around my head. Just little reasons to sit down and write. You know, get them out and set them free. You are going to start seeing more and more of these types of posts. Think of it as a more freeform version of my “remainders“posts but with a few less bullets and a whole lot more in the way of my rambling.
As a matter of fact, remainders are my dirty little lazy secret. When I felt like I had not posted here in a while, and I need to post something, I simply went through the starred items I had racked up in Google Reader and collected them together with links, bullet points and the least real thought possible. In a way, I thought this was real content. I thought this satisfied my obligation to keep up with this little online publishing thing I have going on. Of course, this was a lie.
The fact of the matter is that this was really nothing better than many of the blogs I regularly decry. They are filled with entry after entry of what I like to call “list posts”. I know you must have seen them… “50 ways to be the king of your world” or some other such title. I could count off 10 or so “productivity” blogs that are filled with these types of posts. Why are these posts popular? I think for the blogger it is because they are easy to write. Tick of a list, throw in some links, and no real writing has to be done.
Not only that but, for whatever reason, these types of posts done by bloggers seem to draw traffic! Precious, precious traffic. Traffic is the commodity upon which bloggers dreams are built. More traffic means more clicks on ads. More clicks means more money. More money means you might just be able to turn this little hobby into a real paying gig. It is the same reason people play the lottery, the hope of little effort in return for a big payoff. Nothing wrong with trying to make a little scratch I guess, but wouldn’t it feel better to, I don’t know, feel like you were being rewarded for actually doing something? Won’t that help you sleep a little better on top of the pile of cash?
I don’t have ads on my site. I don’t care about traffic. I am not trying to get rich doing this. I also have never done a “list post”. But I would argue, I have done their functional equivalent. Not for money. Not for traffic. Just out of the feeling of having to post something. Lazy.
Well, here is where my gauntlet meets the table. I resolve to be better. I am going to make sure that the content I post here has a voice. I’m going to make sure it is my voice. I refuse to waste time, yours or mine, because time is very precious. More precious than money. One can always make more money but one can’t have back this moment… Or this one.
Now, this is not to say that there have not been posts here that I have been really proud of. There are a lot of them. Like this one, and this one. I just want to make sure that, I am bringing that kind of quality with every single post here and, if not, I wont post at all.
P.S. Thanks Merlin.