onedegreecloser

Category Archives: Business


by 1 Comment

There’s an (green) App for that…

Many of our conscious readers also happen to be iPhone users. If you have an iPhone and are interested in being green, there’s certainly an app for that! Here are a few of our favorites:

GoodGuide, free on iTunes, helps you find safe, healthy and sustainable products, while you shop. Simply scan the barcode of the product and immediately see details ratings for health, environment and social responsibility for more than 65,000 products and companies. GoodGuide provides this information about personal care, household chemical, toy, and food products. GoodGuide’s goal is to help people shop smarter and motivate companies to offer even better products.

Green Genie, $.99 on iTunes, offers more than 100 green projects and tips telling you the environmental benefits and how much money each will save you. The app includes a breakdown of certified green products, links to green websites, an explanation of the different kinds of plastics and their recyclability, list of green organizations, and more.

Green Outlet, $2.99 on iTunes, helps you identify which of your household appliances are costing you the most to run, so you can make informed decision about your electric use. By selecting the types of appliances you use in your home and estimating how many hours of use per day for each, green outlet will predict what your electric bill will be for the month.


by 1 Comment

Once in a Lifetime Moment

At exactly 06 minutes and 07 seconds after 5 o’clock August 9th of this year, it will be 05:06:07 08/09/10, this will not happen again till year 3010. Have a good 5-6-7-8-9-10 moment!

If you missed it this AM, you can always catch this moment again in the PM.

Life is full of “moments” that once they pass you by you will never get a chance to experience them again. It is only in missing these “moments” will you experience regret, so to that I say – CARPE DIEM!


by Leave a comment

Reality Check

What do Orange County, New York, Atlanta, New Jersey and Washington DC have in common? Each is home to Bravo’s “Housewives” television series, centered around the lives of Housewives, their families and their day-to-day activities. The Housewives have captured the focus of America. In fact, the recent finale of “Housewives of New Jersey” was the highest-rated season finale for the network’s entire “Housewives” franchise.

Why is it these Housewives have captured the attention of millions? Most live arguably dysfunctional lives. They certainly are not role models. Hour after hour, week after week, millions spend their precious time watching other people’s “reality”, when they could be focusing on improving their own lives.

Kathy Welch said, “We all have the same 24 hours in a day. The difference lies within how we use those 24 hours”.

Just one hour per day would add up to 21,840 minutes per year. Think of positive impact you could create in your life if you spent just one hour a day on self-improvement activities. You could challenge yourself to meet new people, read new books, learn new skills.

While the “Housewives” franchise triggered me to come to this “reality check”, I am not suggesting everyone stop watching the show. Maybe you truly watch for entertainment. Maybe the dysfunctional lives of the Housewives help you escape the challenges in your life. I am however suggesting you be more mindful of the regular activities in your life and challenge yourself to leverage your precious time for activities that could improve your life.

What regular activities in your life have you replaced, in efforts to improve and better yourself?


by 1 Comment

F.A.T. (Frivolously Acquiring Things)

I recently moved and in the process I discovered that I am F.A.T. – Yes, I have been known to frivolously acquire things.

For instance, why do I need to go menus to every restaurant in town, when I have Urbanspoon, Siri and a web browser? Or how many gadgets and gizmos does one need to listen to music with? And when i got to packing up my bathroom, I felt like I was cleaning out the supply closet at Sephora. Not to mention in my closet, I had enough shoes for a college football team.

Don’t act like you don’t know what I am talking about – whether you buy an “extra one” when there is no need or more than one flavor or color. Most all if us our guilty of being F.A.T.

So where does this come from? Why does it happen? How do we stop the cycle? There has to be a solution other than shopping til you drop, the store closing, running out of cash in the pocket of your designer jeans or maxing out your credit card.

Shortly after realizing I was F.A.T. the solution began to appear in my everyday life. For instance . . .

I was at the mall and before making that can’t live without purchase for my professional wardrobe, I paused to ask myself “do I really need this?” Sure enough I did not and enjoyed the rest of my day less one new pair of slacks. In fact, this week the day I wore my “old” suit I had a great day and landed a rather large contract.

This past weekend at the farmers market, I found myself consciously asking myself how much food would I actually consumer this week before my next trip to the farmers market and proceeded to purchase just enough to be satisfied. This is a lot better than having to empty my fridge ever couple weeks with all the spoiled, rotten foods that I purchased because I did not take the time to ask myself if I was being F.A.T.

So these are some if my steps to reduce overconsumption and overindulgence. What small steps can you take in your personal and professional life to stop being so F.A.T.?


by Leave a comment

Keeping Score

When you were a child, your Teachers used report cards to track your performance. As an adult, your Managers complete performance reviews, to evaluate your work. Keeping Score, as a method of tracking performance, is nothing new in your life. Yet why do you not track your performance with respect to your personal goals and objectives?

How do you know you are constantly improving and working to better your life, without evaluating your performance?

I created a daily report card, which I use to evaluate my daily performance. I keep a daily report card journal and reference it throughout the day, checking off items, as I complete and accomplish them.

It is important to note this is not a catch-all summary of my life, rather it is a method for tracking my performance in areas, that I am working to improve.

I have found this to be a simple, stress-free method for motivating me to accomplish and achieve my daily, self improvement, goals and objectives.

I modify my daily report card template on a regular basis, as I learn new skills and set new goals. I remove items from the list, as tasks become part of my daily-routine. Any time my life feels out of place, I can reference previous daily report cards to see what I am missing, then can add those tasks back to my current daily list.

Below is a snapshot of my current daily report card.

• Maintain a clean, clear and organized environment
• Do not procrastinate
• Be overly nice to at least 3 people, per day
• Read at least 10 pages of non-fiction, per day
• Read News/Blogs a maximum of 3 times, per day
• Network for Business and Personal Life (LinkedIn, Facebook, Associations)
• Email/Call two personal contacts, per day
• Make more money, by decreasing daily expenses
• Drink at least 60 oz of water, per day
• Do a minimum of 30 push-ups, per day
• Do a minimum of 100 crunches, per day
• Run 3 times, per week

I challenge you to take a minute to start your daily report card. Just think – if I offered to let you complete your own performance review at work, you would do it without thinking twice!

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started