Goals 3 - Raul Colon - photographer, digital marketer & writer living on the beach in Puerto Rico.

Number One Dime

June 26, 2011 by Raul Colon

We all have something we value and cherish. It can be something of sentimental value that can get us thinking of a neat experience in the past. Many business remember the first dollar they made and will frame it as a momento for their clients to see. This act is similar to Uncle Scrooge’s Number One Dime in the 90s cartoon series Duck Tales. But Uncle Scrooge’s Number One dime was placed inside a vault and highly protected. .

I remember as a kid wanting to swim in Money like Uncle Scrooge. I was always worried when the bad guys (the Beagle Boys and Magica De Spell) got close to Uncle Scrooge’s Number One Dime. Years later I kind of kept focusing on making money and climbing the corporate ladder. Yes I would say I was making a bit more than most of my peers. Working for KPMG I did get many perks from moving around in car services in New York City, eating and drinking in some awesome restaurants, interacting with key players of large companies, and many other things that I thought had me on track to being Uncle Scrooge one day.

I was already looking for a location to keep my stash. Then I got tired of all the sacrifices I was making. I looked around me and I clearly saw many individuals focused on making money and doing almost anything towards reaching the top level. I caught myself waking up at 430 am to make it into the office at 7am with a 2+ hour commute one way and then leaving the office at 12am sleeping on the train or car service to get some rest so I could go at it the next day. Yes I did a lot of sleeping on the train like many. I have to say I was very privileged to working at KPMG and I had great people around me which made the experience a more pleasant one. My turning point was when I read Gene O’Kelley’s book Chasing Daylight: How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life (Amazon Affiliate Link). He really made me focus on enjoying life and keeping a balance in between reaching your professional goals and meeting personal goals. Gene left us at an early age and he clearly impacted many of us including me.

Although changing my lifestyle took some time I have to say I am extremely happy to be working on my dreams with the privilege of being able to wake up in morning and plan my day out with a lot of control on my life. I make sure I meet my commitments and I work harder than ever because I love what I do. In most occasions some of the projects I do are not even compensated with money (Papaheroes.com & Veglatino.com) but the fact that I am creating something that is useful for someone else is the best compensation I can get.

I work every day towards having people understand and protect what they most love. I work with small businesses which are struggling and do my best to help them keep afloat.

Projects that make it easy for me to be successful are those where management or owners are focused on giving good customer service, great quality products, unique services, and for them making money is not a priority. For many there Number One Dime is their house (which I lost last year given Banco Popular’s shady loss mitigation practices. I am cooking up a post on that) in my case, my house was a place to live. That is why I easily handed it over to Banco Popular they seemed to want the house more than I did. My biggest challenge is with people that don’t want to lose something material to gain more important things. Many of those people I will not change and I work on those that are interested in working alongside me so we can all grow.

The biggest perk KPMG gave me was not wanting to go after the stash of cash. I have to say that for me my Number One Dime is not focusing on material things and following my dreams. I won’t let anyone take that away from me.

What is your number one dime? Are you willing to sacrifice your material things to find happiness long term?

If I won the Lotto?

February 26, 2011 by Raul Colon

On many occasions when I am around friends, family, Business contacts, and even standing at the supermarket waiting in line I hear about everyone’s lotto dreams.

That famous question everyone has asked himself or herself:

What would I do if I win the Lottery?

I love to gamble and although I only visit the Casino a few times a year every once in a while I play lotto. Like everyone else it is just the fact of having a very small opportunity of hitting the jackpot is reason to throw away a few dollars here and there.

When I throw away those few dollars I daydream of how a winning the lotto would change my life:

It would give me more freedom to do the things I want to do, and shocking to many of you they are aligned towards my business goals so yes I will continue to work as hard as I do now but focusing only on what I love to do.

The capital will allow me to grow my business and really kick off some projects I have that are delayed.

I would definitely travel a bit more and visit those great places in the world that I am yet to see.

Learn, learn, and learn some more. I would not miss out on opportunities to attend courses, conferences, and events of many of my interests.

In conclusion I think that if won the lotto I would be living and having the same goals I have now with a huge cushion to fall on.

But instead of waiting to hit the winning ticket I am focusing on getting enough wins to reach all those goals and dreams without having to win it.

How are you going to reach your goals and dreams? What changes do you need to do to ge there?

photo credit by dno1967b

Preparing for 2011 by Prioritizing Tasks

December 29, 2010 by Raul Colon

The beginning of 2011 is very close by and I see people creating there New Year’s Resolutions.

I was reading Keep Your Resolutions To Yourself written by @rdempsey and It really got me thinking on how people create lists of things they want to accomplish for the next year. For the most part resolutions end up being wishes because of lack of action.

I personally keep many lists of things to do. I use various Tools such as software to manage my tasks to simple post it notes posted everywhere in my office.

How do I attempt to accomplish most of the ideas that come to my mind?

Once and idea pop’s up (which later might become a task or a goal) I write it on a post it note, my smartphone, ipad, or a simple txt document on my computer. Writing it down helps me to stay focus on the task at hand and limits the amount of interruptions that I create when handling each project or large task.

I try to organize the tasks I quickly determine in what current or future Project am I adding the task to.

Once I assigned it to a bunch of tasks related to a Project I keep track of the progress (When I can’t find a Project I have a separate bunch of ideas which I categorize as future projects or ideas).

During the day whenever I have a break I go over my tasks. If I am dealing with a large Project and all of the sudden I hit a wall in proceeding with it I quickly scan my tasks and try to identify a sample task I can do in a short time. By shifting my attention to a small task in many ocassions it allows me to come back and have a better idea to continue with the much larger job at hand.

For 2011, I have some tasks, lists, and goals that are a mix of projects I have been trying to start, continue, or complete from as far back as 10 months to a few days ago.

It is my experience that I always want to do many things but other things get priotized over them. I periodically at least once a week evaluate if I gave the right things the correct priority.

By doing these daily, weekly, and monthly checks it keeps me on track of accomplishing many more things than just writing a list at the start of the year and waiting a whole year to evaluate what I want to do the next.

What are your goals for the new year?

How many things did you want to start, continued, or stop from the previous year?

How do you prioritize your tasks and goals?