Nerd Fitness and the Angry Bird Workout

It's been a while since I'd posted an update blog.

The semester is finished, and summer has started. I managed to pass all of my classes, although Greek II almost got me. I'll have to be reviewing that material this summer, otherwise Greek III will destroy me. :(

My part-time job at the school registrar's office has ended, and I wasn't able to land another position yet, so a lot of my time this summer is free. I'm valeting part-time again to help counter that monetary lapse in my income, and I'm still working part-time at church, so I should be doing okay financially.

Recently I've been reading a bunch of blogs (what else is new), and the standout of the bunch is called Nerd Fitness. If you know me at all, I'm a pretty nerdy kinda guy. I mean, I balance it out fairly well with my enjoyment of sports and guitar, but I'm a nerd. Video games fascinate me, and I thoroughly enjoy the books I read (when I read). I'm even writing short reviews on the different books I read (or listen to as the case may be).

EntreLeadership Review

Title: EntreLeadership

Author: Dave Ramsey

Target Audience: Small Business leaders, particularly those with scalable businesses. But really, this book is good for anyone who is going to be in any leadership role.

How I Found It: I listen to Dave's podcast and radio show fairly frequently, and every once in a while he talks about this book.

The Go-Getter Review

 
Title: The Go-Getter

Author: Peter B. Kyne

Target Audience: Really, I feel like this book is good for anyone. It's a narrative, published in 1921, but the style reads easily. 

How I Found It: I've always known about the term "go-getter", but I didn't realize it came from a book. Dave Ramsey, a Christian financial adviser, has five short books that he makes every one of his employees read within the first 90 days of working for him. The Go-Getter is one of those books.

Content - The Facts: As I said, this book is a narrative. It's a story about Cappy Ricks and Bill Peck. Cappy is the owner of a big company, and he needs to replace part of his upper management team. In order to see if Bill is the right man for the job, Cappy arranges a test.

I Will Teach You to be Rich Review

Title: I Will Teach You to be Rich

Author: Ramit Sethi

Target Audience: "At last, for a generation that's materially ambitious yet financially clueless comes I Will Teach You To Be Rich, Ramit Sethi's 6-week personal finance program for 20-to-35-year-olds. A completely practical approach delivered with a nonjudgmental style that makes readers want to do what Sethi says, it is based around the four pillars of personal finance— banking, saving, budgeting, and investing—and the wealth-building ideas of personal entrepreneurship." - Book Description via Amazon.com

How I Found It: I found Ramit’s blog before I found his book. I think my first encounter with Ramit was in an excellent interview by Chase Jarvis. As an avid information collector, Ramit's blog was fascinating to me. Although on the surface the blog covers such topics as earning money, finding your dream job, and negotiating like an Indian, this blog is really focused on the psychology behind these things. I could go on and on about Ramit's work, but I think you get the picture. Warning: He communicates in a brusque, edgy, and occasionally offensive manner on his blog, although his book a bit more refined.

Don't Kill Desire, pt. 3

I'm sorry that it's taken me so long to get this last post out. I needed to make sure that my schoolwork and stuff was under control. Now that I've finished with that, I finally have time to sit down and finish up my thoughts on desire. This is part 3 of my mini-series on desire. In part 1, we established that desire is at the root of various habits and problems in our lives, and that killing those unwanted desires isn't enough to help us to overcome those habits and problems. In part 2 we further clarified why attempting to kill desire isn't enough with the examples of overeating and pornography. Now we're going to dive into what to do about it.

One last caveat before we jump in: Attempting to kill negative (or unwanted) desires completely is nearly impossible by itself, or so I've found. Willpower isn't constant, and when it wanes, I have found that negative desires spring up.