5 things I’ve learned about persistence from my 2 year old

May 9, 2011 By 2 Comments
caleb

I have a two year old boy, Caleb, who is constantly on the go. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve begun to notice that his energy and enthusiasm for life is unstoppable—really, it’s unstoppable. For example, in our subdivision, we live on a cul-de-sac that is essentially a roundabout. When we go out to play in the yard, he isn’t climbing trees, playing with trucks or jumping around on the grass, he’s running multiple laps around the circle for fun.

When he plays with his older sister, he grabs and runs. It’s a fun game—to him. To her, it’s just mean. When you tell him to stop, he will for a moment, but then the game picks up again. This time slightly different than the last. The back forth ensues as long as it takes for his mom or I to notice.

When he plays indoors, it’s in and on everything. He thinks he’s invincible so he therefore runs, leaps, flies and jumps, oftentimes landing close enough to a corner to make my heart leap, only to be relieved by his smirky smile and laugh.

In all of these things, he’s often corrected: don’t jump, don’t take that from your sister, don’t do this, don’t do that. Caleb—-STOP!

Imagine if we had the persistence of a two year-old for just one moment. Here are five things I’ve learned from watching him:

  1. Don’t let NO stop you. Persistence demands repetition. Which leads me to my second point.
  2. Be aware of how your actions effect others - By all means, become self-aware. This is the key to being a strong leader!
  3. Rest/Eat/Play & Repeat – The key to keeping a two year old living optimally is rest, food and play. Adequate measures of all of these will make for a healthy, active life.
  4. Jump! – The risk is often greater in your head, than in reality.
  5. Laugh & have fun – If there’s anything that I’ve learned from my two year old, it’s to laugh and by all means, have fun. Everything to him is an opportunity for fun. Every single thing.

What have you learned from your two year old?

Filed Under: Leadership

Three Steps to Creating Great iPhone Pictures using TiltShiftGen & Instragram

January 24, 2011 By 4 Comments
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The introduction of a 5 megapixel camera to the iPhone 4 and the creation of a handful of photography apps have paved the way to every user becoming an iPhonetographer. While the milage for for each user may vary, everybody can do it and frankly, it’s a lot of fun.

Over the past couple of months I have come to LOVE using three different apps to create some pretty fantastic pictures. I’ve had several friends ask me how I was able to get the look of some of my pictures, so I thought I’d share them with you. Again, anybody can do this. It’s the apps that do all the work.

You’ll need three different apps to get started:

iPhone Camera – Free (comes with your iPhone)
Details: 5-megapixel still camera

TiltShiftGen – 99¢
Details: By adjusting various parameters (blur, color and vignette), it allows you to apply endless effects to your pictures.

Instagram – Free
Details: Snap/upload, edit and share with your friends. Comes with 14 different filters that make it easy for regular pictures to become works of art.

Now for the fun

Using the iPhone camera, I recently snapped this picture of my two year old son eating cake:

Using TiltShiftGen, I changed the color and added some focal depth using the blur settings:

Finally, using Instragram, I used the “Earlybird” filter to output this:

So easy. So fun. It’s literally a few adjustments, about 3 minutes and you get amazing results.

If you’re wondering what exact settings I used to get these results, the best thing to do is to download the apps and give it a try yourself. It really is as easy as I’m suggesting.

What apps are you using for iphonetography?
Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: , , ,

Five Steps to Collecting & Using Business Cards Effectively

January 19, 2011 By 3 Comments
businesscards

Stacked in my drawer are dozens, if not hundreds of business cards that I’ve collected over the years. Perhaps you have the same quandry as I do: what do I do with all of those cards?

If you’re like me, you don’t dare throw them away. After all, you might need one of them some day. But, the problem is, most likely, you don’t have a clue when and where you met those people. All you know is that somehow, you have their card. Good, but not helpful.

Jeff Pulver, co-founder of the Vonage Internet phone company and creator of the VON and 140 conferences, has an expression that you absolutely must take to heart:

“We live or die on our database.”

The days of just collecting business cards are over. It’s time to do change our ways and actually put them to good use.

Here are five steps to collecting and using business cards effectively:

  1. Context – Take a moment to immediately write on the back of the card, the event and details of your conversation. If you promised to follow up, write that down too.
  2. Storage – While at the event, be sure you store the card in a secure place: preferably your wallet, purse or notebook pocket. Avoid putting them in your clothes pockets. It’s almost a guarantee that you’ll lose them.
  3. Review – Once your back at your desk, review the cards for context and action points. You’ll want to be sure you do this within 24-48 hours of making a connection. Also, a quick email follow up, or better yet, a handwritten note is a nice touch.
  4. Address Book: Take the time to input each contact into your address book. You can do this manually or using one of those nifty business card scanners. Don’t forget to insert your contextual notes too.
  5. LinkedIn & Connect. You now hold in your hands the currency for connecting to people on LinkedIn: an email address. Do a quick search and LinkedIn.com and request to connect with your new contact. Be sure to erase the generic note and write something related to your meet and greet. Including details will be a good reminder of who you are and why you’re asking to connect.

If you look at your stack and get overwhelmed about the amount of time it’s going to take to get through it, consider breaking it down into daily segments. If you started each day processing 10 cards, you’ll get through your stack in no time.

Chances are, reviewing each card will jolt your memory and you’ll be able to remember when and what you were discussing during the business card exchange. Be sure to include details in your follow up or LinkedIn connect message. People always appreciate it when you recall details: personal or professional. The extra time it takes to do so will always be worth it.

Has LinkedIn.com proved to be helpful for you? If so, how?
Filed Under: Leadership, Social Media Tagged With: , , ,

Persistence. Like Angry Birds.

January 17, 2011 By 7 Comments
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Everything changes when you’re keeping score. Take Angry Birds for instance.

Some people look at the above and celebrate their victory. Others, it turns out, only see opportunity to better their score.

What I find fascinating is the time, effort and persistence that people put into this game. It’s not that it returns anything tangible to your life. In fact, it’s not that it’s even a point of pride. Right? Unless, of course, you introduce yourself like this…

“Hi. My name is Kyle Chowning and I’ve achieved three stars on every level of Angry Birds. What’s your name and Angry Bird status?”

Not likely.

But, it begs the question: If keeping score helps you find time, effort and persistence to achieve full potential, how could this play out for the projects or tasks that you’ve been putting off for days, weeks, months or even years?

If you’re one of those people who reads this and decides to give up on Angry Birds because it now represents failure in other areas of your life, you’re missing the point. What it reveals is that given the right set of circumstances, you have what it takes and you will prevail.

We’re trained to take on challenges in certain ways: tradition, culture and preferences tend to guide these paths. What if you approached it like Angry Birds?

  1. Detail the individual tasks within the challenge(s)
  2. Start at step one
  3. Rank your performance based on each tasks potential
  4. Keep score
  5. Try again
  6. Don’t stop until you achieve the best score, i.e., fullest potential

Can you imagine what you would accomplish?

If you need a jumpstart to helping you define the projects and tasks in your life, I highly recommend the book, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (affiliate link) by David Allen. This book has changed how I approach most of my personal and work related projects and tasks.

Filed Under: Productivity Tagged With: , ,

Introducing Daniel Noble Chowning

January 15, 2011 By 7 Comments
dnc-blog

It’s with great pride that I introduce to you, Daniel Noble Chowning. Born on December 29, 2010 at 7:53am in Charlotte, NC, he weighed in at 8 pounds 5 ounces at a healthy 20 inches long.

The Name

Many of asked about the origin of the name. Both Daniel and Noble are family names.

Daniel is named after my father-in-law: Daniel Keith Kitchell. He’s known by most folks at Keith, but Daniel is his first name and we couldn’t be more thrilled to use it. Daniel “Keith” is a man of valor, integrity and strong convictions. He’s taught me a lot about life in the short amount of time that I’ve called him my father-in-law. To give my son his name is both an honor and high bar.

Noble was the name of both my grandfather and my great-grandfather. The name is rich in legacy.

My dad’s dad, Noble Jr., died in a plane crash when my dad was 16, while looking for a friend of his who went down in a plane just days before. He died doing a noble deed, thus living up to his name.

My great-grandfather was Noble Sr. I was fortunate to have had a relationship with before he died in 1997. He was a business owner, entrepreneur, visionary and a man who was dedicated to his family, faith and life. A little fun fact: In 1991 I purchased my first car from him: a 1968 Ford Mustang Fastback that Noble Jr. originally purchased. I still own it and plan on passing it down to my boys someday.

And that’s my boy. He’s growing like a weed and full of life. I couldn’t be more thrilled and honored to be his dad.

Filed Under: Personal Tagged With: ,

One Word for 2011

January 14, 2011 By 6 Comments
ONEWORD

It’s tradition: at the end of every year, I take the time to think through what I hope and expect the next to be like. Sometimes it’s a word, or a phrase, but it’s always something.

A couple of weeks ago, some Nashville friends of mine challenged me and others to come up with just one word for 2011 (#oneword2011 on Facebook and Twitter). So I did:

Excellence.

Some of the characteristics of excellence are time, effort, saying no, focus, commitment, intentionality, and the like. It’s not that I don’t already practice these disciplines, it’s just that I have a tendancy to compromise them for the “opportunity” of something new…different…more interesting.

I recently heard someone say…

If the grass is greener on the other side, try watering your own.

I think I’ll do just that.

What’s your one word for 2011?
Join the #OneWord2011 Community

Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With:

This space…

October 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

See this space?

It’s blank. Wide open. Full of potential.

These words can help. Hurt. Direct. Communicate. Distract. Make you laugh…maybe.

What’s important isn’t what it is, but what it will become.

I We own you blank spaces. You will become our art.

Filed Under: Leadership

Talking: A Lesson in Courtesy

October 12, 2010 By 4 Comments

We have a house full of Invisible Children Roadies [video]: Four American’s and two Ugandans.

Yesterday, Grace, one of the Ugandans, was speaking in front a crowd of rowdy high schoolers. Gracefully, she said…

“In Africa, I was taught to never speak when someone else is speaking. So I will be quiet until you are done talking, then I’ll continue.”

A quiet hush came over the audience.

Grace resumed her story.

It’s not that we live in a culture where people constantly talk over each other, although they do. I’m convinced that most of the talking happens inside our heads, while someone is talking.

What?

Exactly.

Filed Under: Leadership

Insecurity.

October 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Insecurity is my number one deterrent from achieving my potential. Therefore, I fear my potential frequently.

What do you fear?

Filed Under: Leadership
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