Coffee Nerds

Stretch!  The importance of stretching is a known fact in sports, you but it’s also important in all areas of life. It’s important to always be reaching for the next thing. Alex Trebek said “Have you ever met a successful person who wasn’t restless— who was satisfied with where he or she was in life? They want new challenges. They want to get up and go, and that’s one of the reasons they’re successful.” How can we be better rubber bands? Stretching starts with a decision to stretch. Lots of people want to find a better job, lose weight, write a book, etc. but they don’t. Why is that? You can’t win a race if you never cross the starting line, and likewise you can’t win if you don’t try. Stretching always requires change. Always. It’s going to be uncomfortable, but that’s part of the process. Once it becomes habit, it can become a lifestyle. “The difference between what we do and what we are capable of would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.” -Mahat...

Know Thyself -Greek Maxim Expanded on by Socrates: The unexamined life is not worth living. How do you get started in your quest to know yourself? Maxwell mostly talks about awareness in terms of your occupation. Pay attention to your passion. Do you like what you’re doing now? If not, what do you want? You will never find your destiny doing work you despise. There’s no energy or passion to be found there. How can you get where you want to go?  Albert Einstein once said “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” Looking at what you’re curious about can help you find your passion. But what if, like me, you already found your passion? Knowing yourself is still important. You can continue to improve yourself and reach for greater successes. Other ways to know yourself: Ask yourself questions! Chinese proverb: “He who asks a question remains a fool for five minutes. He who does not ask remains a fool forever.” Not just for the outward. Asking yourself questions is t...

The Wright Brothers Perseverance and the First Flight Perseverance - You never know how close you are to a breakthrough. Last week we talked about Madeleine L’Engle . She was just a few years away from writing her most famous novel, and her persistence paid off. One of the most famous modern stories of persistence, the Wright Brothers invention of the first flying machine. April 16th is the anniversary of Wilbur’s birth. There’s no other major anniversaries in the discovery of flying machines. I think I mostly just thought it’d be cool to talk about the Wright Brothers. Wilbur and Orville ran a print shop (they actually built their own printing press!) and a bicycle shop before turning their attention to powered flight. Neither brother had engineering training or had even completed high school. They studied other aircraft of the age, and went to work on a glider. This alone came with plenty of difficulties.  The brothers put up with numerous setbacks and failures, their...

Episode 38 Notes Success through Fear and Madeline L’Engle Coffee: God’s Gift to Gamers (Medium Roast) Overcoming Fear to Achieve Success In Crushing It, Gary Vee talks about three types of fear that can hold us back from being successful in a new endeavor. 1. Fear of Failure This can often boil down to fear of judgement by people whose opinions matter to us. You have to just push through this and do what it takes. “No one who played it safe ever made it big. This is your life, and I promise you the chances of truly ruining it are slim.” 2. Fear of Wasting Time We might be afraid our idea won’t pan out, and all that time will be wasted. But is all our time truly valuable? If all you’re giving up is TV time, what have you really got to lose? You can always go back to watching Netflix later. TV will always be there later when you come back. And as we’ve discussed, you can learn a lot from failure, maybe even more than from quick success. 3. Fear of Seeming Vain ...

Episode Notes In this week's episode we were drinking Player One Coffee Lab's "First Person Smoother." Though as we noted it did NOT taste like a light roast. I was able to peel up the label on mine and found a label for a different coffee, so we think that perhaps I got two of the "Leeroy Jenkins" in the sample pack. Patience and the Construction of the Eiffel Tower Leuke's Notes Gary Vaynerchuk created a $60 million dollar wine empire, but instead of blowing all the money right away, he was patient. He kept driving an older car. He lived in a one bedroom apartment. He used what he’d created and instead of living it up and blowing it all he leveraged it for even greater successes. There is no such thing as the overnight success. Most of the time it takes an incredible amount of hard work and patience to be make it. Put yourself last and your goals first, and it’ll pay off in the long run. Patience doesn’t have to mean going slow. It ca...

Here's the notes for Episode 36! Piracy and Positive Problem Solving Some steps for positive problem solving: Courtesy Your Road Map for Success by John Maxwell The focus here is on family but these steps can be useful in other situations as well. 1. Attack the problem, never the person You’re (hopefully) on the same side. Try to fix the problem, not the person. You can’t make a person change but you can change a problem. 2. Get all the facts. Jumping to conclusions can be damaging. Before you seek solutions, make sure you fully understand what’s going on. 3. List all the options This can help you get an outside, unemotional view at an issue and look at it with objectivity 4. Choose the best solution Because why would you want anything else? This can be harder than it sounds when there are multiple good solutions are available, especially if people on opposite sides of a conflict are each pushing for their preferred solution. Maybe we should do an episode on...

Creating an Environment For Self Improvement Aspects of a Growth Environment 1. Others are ahead of you You need people in your life who you can learn from. You can’t make all the mistakes yourself. There isn’t time. Learn from the experience of others. 2. You are still challenged Complacency kills growth. And it’s super boring. 3. Your focus is forward There’s no such thing as standing still. You’re either moving forward or your sliding backward. Time is vicious, and it’s especially hard on the idle.  Muscles atrophy, skills deteriorate, memories fade. Keep moving forward so you can keep what you have.  4. Atmosphere is affirming This goes back to the last episode and the power of positivity. 5. You are out of your comfort zone We also talked about the benefits of risk. Staying where you’re too comfortable eventually makes most improvement minded souls uncomfortable. 6. Others are growing If the people around you aren’t improving, then it’s going...