Average Joe

Last week, I wrote about planning for success, and in that article, we talked about using SMART goals to help keep your goal setting and planning on track. This week, I wanted to write about how I write. What I have found is that how I write and how I try to plan and goal set are very similar. Here’s why:

I maintain two main blogs. Here at Average Joe, I talk about my personal hobbies, things that make me tick, etc. It’s a catch all journal that is really all about me. The Bunker Blog is my retail loss prevention blog, and there the conversations are more about my career and profession in the field of retail loss prevention.

Whenever I write at either blog, I try to follow a few simple rules to make sure that I keep my material interesting (hopefully it is). These same rules apply to our goal setting and planning, though, and I’d like to share that with you here. I call it Keeping It REAL:

Relevant: I want to speak to my audience, not in LP or professional terminology, but in real dollars and sense. I want my content to be relevant to their situation. That’s tough when you are just learning who your audience is, but by producing what I hope is quality content that is easily understood and applied in practice, I want to keep the blogs relevant to all who read them.

I apply the same rule to my goal setting and planning. If what I’m doing is not relevant to what my goals are, then it’s probably wasted time. I’ve had to put away some “childish things” because they weren’t relevant to who I want to be.

Educational: One of my main goals is that my readers learn something new every time they visit. My goal is to help retailers save money and add to their profit line by reducing losses through shrink. Or, at Average Joe, hopefully readers get to know me a little more each time they read a new article, and I am a little more credible to them.

In daily life, I have a very important rule: Learn something new about something new EVERY DAY. I make it a point to ask myself, “What did I learn today?” everyday. I need to be able to have a clear, relevant answer to that.

Attitude: I like to add a little of my own attitude to my posts. That is why I post commentaries on current news articles that are related to shoplifting, employee theft, and shrink reduction principles in general. I always like to make sure a little bit of me comes out in every post. I also believe it is important to have the attitude of a winner if you expect to win.

The same applies, again, in daily life when it comes to goals and planning. Be yourself, and let your winning attitude come through (if you don’t have a winning attitude, that’s a different story). It is very important that we are sincere and “ourselves” with others. I hope I never come off as fake or insincere. When it comes to my goals, I want to make sure they fit my personality, so if they don’t fit with “ME”, then they need to be adjusted or dumped.

Long Lasting: Although some of the articles posted here are very temporary in that they deal with current events and news related to theft, I do make every attempt to make each and every article memorable. I try to add my own experiences, successes and failures, to the mix so that the point made is memorable to the reader. I have posts from very early on that are still regularly visited, read, and commented on. That, I believe, counts as long-lasting content. As technology, trends, and programs change, so will this blog, but the core principles will remain.

I think the most obvious life application here is that our choices have long lasting consequences, good and bad alike. I know that what I do will follow me, so my goals, my plans, should reflect the knowledge that there are far reaching reactions to what we do in life.

So, my goal for my little piece of blogosphere real estate is to just always keep it REAL. If I can accomplish that, I think I can build on it to make the site a success.

So, what do you think? Is this blog REAL to you?

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After submitting a bunch of new resumes today, I began to feel a little stir crazy, and wanted to get out of the house for a bit. I decided to do a little geocaching, and to check on my own geocache while I was out. I had been wanting to test the BlackStar Navigation app I had installed on my Blackberry Bold anyway, so this was a good chance to do just that.

So, after checking to make sure that my cache was in good shape and well stocked, I opened the BlackStar app on my blackberry. Within a couple of seconds, it located several satellites, and had my location locked in. Now, I simply opened the menu and scrolled down to “Geocaching.com Closest Caches”.  I was immediately directed to the geocaching.com site, where I was greeted with a list of nearby geocaches. Amazing!!

The nearest one to my current location was closer to town. I clicked on Download LOC Waypoint File and saved the .LOC file to my media card.

I then go back to the Blackstar app and pull up the menu again. This time, I click “New Waypoint”, then open the menu and click “Import GPX/LOC File” Then I just navigate to where I saved the .LOC file from Geocaching.com and the file is added. I follow the direction and open menu and select “Close” to be taken to a list of saved waypoints. I highlight the new waypoint and click “Set As Destination”.

And, I’m on my way. I drive to the general area of the cache, which happened to be a local park. Once there, I get out and begin to search, using the BlackStar app to guide me. It worked flawlessly. It was very accurate, and took me straight to my target. After a few minutes of searching, I located my geocache and was on my way.

BlackStar also integrates with Google Maps and Blackberry Maps, has the ability to save waypoints and tracks, and tons of other features, all for free. If you love to geocache, or if you’ve never been geocaching but want to try; and you have a blackberry, this is the app for you. It is easy to learn, has tons of support, including a forum, and it’s free.

This is truly paperless geocaching. You need only take your blackberry and a pen/pencil to sign the log. Have fun!!

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I was updating my blogs today, and I realized that they were crowded. Also, I realized that the themes didn’t work well with Internet Explorer. Funny thing is, I almost never use IE, so it was by accident that I even noticed. So, it was time to streamline and update.

So, my search began for a new look. After hours of searching and trying on new themes like my wife tries on clothes when we go shopping, I found the Swift theme. This is a VERY easy theme to personalize and make your own. This is a great theme, very well thought out, and very easy to edit with its included options page. There is also a very good user guide and support forum. Best of all, it’s FREE!! That’s right, this is a free theme. So, how do you like it?

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I was at an event this past weekend, and I noticed a booth where folks were asking passers by to sign a petition to get some new government agency created in the state. As I walked by I was approached by a nice young guy who asked me to sign his petition.

“What’s it for?” I ask. He explains that they are advocating the creation of a new government body that would oversee energy efficiency. So, I ask him what it’s going to cost. He stares at me. Then I ask him how it will be funded. He looks at his paper, then back at me.

He then proceeds to tell me that I’m the first person to even ask questions, and that he is unprepared for them. He tells me that everyone else just signed the petition. Nice guy that I am, I politely explain that I am distrustful of almost every government agency when it comes to managing anything financial. I explain that whenever the government, at any level, gets involved in pretty much anything, a new bureaucracy is created, with all new problems.

This guy then proceeds to take off his mask. He tells me that the only way to increase energy efficiency is to increase the cost of energy. He says that we need to raise the prices so that people will conserve energy. He points to the gas prices last year as an example. He states that this new agency would help those that can not afford the new, higher prices for energy. In other words, the agency would regulate energy to the point that providers would have to pass along fees and such to their customers in the form of price increases. Then, funded by our taxes, they would pay the bill for those who are deemed, by them, to need help.

I was furious, but I kept my cool. I smiled, and I said, “So, you’re telling me that you want me to sign a petition that will ultimately have me pay higher energy prices, and have me pay for those who meet some government guideline that states they qualify for assistance? And, you want me to believe that this is good for me and my family? How am I not paying twice?”

He gives me this puzzled look, and I swear he says it. He whips that card right out there and plays it. “But it will help save the planet.”

“Really?” I ask, “And how will making people pay more for energy and subsidizing those who can’t pay more do anything other than make us all even more dependent on governmental programs?”

Long pause…

Then the nice young fellow explains that the true cost of energy is measured in pollution, and that we need to pass that cost along to those who use dirty energy, as a way to penalize them for using that energy in the first place. When I asked him why not just give energy companies incentives to use alternative energy sources, to fund more research to create alternative energy sources, and to leave the marketing of energy to the business folks who understand the business, he asks me if I really trust a businessman to do the right thing.

“More than I trust any politician to do the right thing.” was my reply.

Are we really so blind as a nation that we don’t ask questions anymore? I saw literally dozens of people sign that petition without so much as a word. Nobody questioned any of it because it was “for the planet”. Really? I’m all for conservation, and I do think we all need to consume less and save more. I think that, if we would do just that, energy costs would fall without any help from Uncle Sam. 

It seems like we just keep creating new government agencies that increase regulations and cost taxpayers more and more money. We can’t fund our schools, but we can fund every whim agency ever created through some petition signed by people who didn’t even read it. Our legislators pass laws without ever opening the bill to read it, all because somebody says it’s for the planet. We find money to create government jobs for folks who create new rules for what light bulbs I can use in my home, but my kids’ schools ask for money constantly so that they can properly educate my kids, and that’s with an “education lottery”.

How do we justify this?

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Today while updating some things, I decided to clean out my feed reader. What I saw as I clicked through each feed was that many of them had not been updated for months. Some had not been updated for over a year.

Some I never missed. I didn’t even realize they weren’t being kept up. Others I will miss because they were either very informative or entertaining. I still deleted them if they hadn’t been updated in more than 90 days. I figure that, in that time, there should be an update if the blog is active.

I was surprised a little by the number of dead feeds in my reader. I would estimate that roughly half of my feeds were not being regularly updated. That’s about 50% of the blogs that I’ve subscribed to that are no longer active.

It’s sad, really. So many blogs that fell by the wayside and I didn’t even notice. But, I do have a few that I would definitely notice if they weren’t there. My core blogs/feeds that get read everyday, or at least everytime they are updated.

How about you? Do you have “can’t miss” feeds? Want to share?

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You may not believe this, but I am not motivated by salary. I am also not motivated by status. Titles don’t mean much, and I’d rather be known for what I’ve accomplished than for the title that follows my name on correspondence.

Simply put, I am VERY results driven. I am motivated by success. I like to complete what I start, and I like to be ranked high on the list of performers in my field. There are a lot of people in my business who can talk the talk, but not nearly as many who can walk the walk. Even fewer can do both.

I am motivated to get up and go to work each day by the prospect of achieving a goal. I set daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly goals for myself; independent of any goals set for me by my supervisors, etc. I am a Type A personality, who is goal driven, and results driven. It’s that simple.

A few months back, I was challenged to become more well known among senior staff at my company. I was told that, although I do outstanding work, the senior managers didn’t know much about me. My immediate reaction to this was to say that I have consistently ranked in the top 10 in our company now for 2 years on all measurables and metrics. My performance is documented each month on a company “scorecard”, and that my results speak for me.

That didn’t go over well. So, again I was challenged to build partnerships with senior managers and to show them that I can talk the talk and walk the walk. This was very difficult for a country boy who feels very “out of place” in the “business world”. I just wanted to do my job, do it well, and keep pushing for that number one spot; not that I am competitive, mind you But I have done what I was asked to do over the past several weeks, and I have seen some positive results from my efforts.

All that aside, I am still motivated by the same things as before. I really don’t care so much if senior managers look at me as a rising star, as long as they recognize that I do a good job, and that I am very much a team player. I met with my staff today, and as usual we had our monthly meeting that covered all the current and upcoming issues. Every month, I end my meeting with a statement. I have done so for many months now. “We are Charlotte. We don’t just meet standards. We set them.” That’s what motivates me to succeed.

A few days ago, one of my people asked me how I know that I’m having an impact in my stores. I pointed to the scorecard posted on my bulletin board and said, “Our numbers speak for us.”

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