Recovering from a rough start

When things get off to a bad start in any business venture, stabilizing your footing through digital transformation via systems and process can be the key to success.

I jumped back into the world of entrepreneurship not entirely of my own free will, but completely at my own decision. This was abrupt and unexpected for everyone involved, including myself. This didn't fuel inspiration as much as it did fear. I have failed many of times, and each time I've come away with some wealth of knowledge. Knowing how prepared I should be going into this, I was flooded with lack of confidence.

I reached back into my old Scrum Master days and put my energy into reimplementing Scrum for a Agency environment. I'm not saying that it is the right way to go, but it was this undertaking. something that is already well established, and implementing it into my productivity, is what made all the difference.

Don't let panic take over your mindset.

When things get out of hand, you need to step away from the issue, and get a grasp of the situation. Sometimes when people come at your from different angle, all with urgent objectives, you need to plan out what can be done and act accordingly.

First create a list of everything needs to be done. It can be in on a piece of paper, on a post-it note, in a google document, where ever. This doesn't have to be perfect, its a starting point to weave through the chaos, and can always be appended. Once you have an initial list to work off of, time to prioritize.

Prioritize based on a few principles; timeliness, value of delivery, amount of work, risk, and consequences on delay. Timeliness is just when does it need to be done by. Value of delivery is how much value does it bring to your stakeholders on its delivery? Are people waiting on your part before they can start theirs? Amount of work is how much work it will take you do complete. Risk involves how much are you guess with all this? Is it something that could take 1 hour or up to 10 hours, this is high risk. Consequences on delay, if people are contracted to do something, but can't start without you completing your end, your consequences on delaying amount to $. Mapping these out the best way you can is ideal. It doesn't have to be perfect, and just thinking each of those out should clear up your priority.

If prioritizing didn't get your engine going by now, take the top priority item and break it down into its first steps to completion. Ensure you keep this list someone you won't forget about, because it may have to be revisited to expand. Once you have simple steps to get going, just blindly start completing those simple tasks. This momentum should get you out of a panicked state, and into a completion oriented mindset. If you complete those items and start entering a panicked state of what to do next, just plan out on simple steps. And yes, talking to someone about next steps can be a next step. You are never in it alone.

Blog: Goal Achievement

Goal Achievement

Recently I was able to complete a goal I set in March earlier this year. The goal was to acquire equivalently an achievement per day on Steam. With the year's goal of being 365 achievements, I was able to complete it in early November.

I was surprised on my ability to actually keep to this goal. Normally I set goals and let them fade time and time again. There was something about this time around that stuck, so I investigated.

Some key points about this goal stood out to me. First, it was, for lack of a better term, a chill goal. There was no consequence if I wasn't able to complete it. It was just a fun goal that would yield me some positive bumps as I achieved achievement after achievement. 

Off that thought, it became appartent that I enjoyed doing this goal. Not only did it fulfill my need for achievement, that my video game upbringing yearned for, but also it was something I WANTED to be doing. It wasn't a health goal that I know I should hold high value towards, or a goal to squeeze more out of every penny I earned. It was fun. 

Which leads the my last point of investigation, it was more than realistic. If I had put get 1000 achievements, considering I don't have time to game everyday, it would have not been likely doable. In the sense I could do it if I was working at it all the time, but I wasn't and it still felt significant enough that I feel great having achieved it.

In conclusions this goal seem to hold 3 simple characteristics:
    - There is no consequence to not achieving the goal
    - The goal should be enjoyable to progress through, not only complete
    - It has more than enough time to comfortably do it

I'll be back next time to go over my next dual goal I have for the upcoming year.

Wielder of Lifestealer

Lifestealer

Nightfury

The one with no name, the blood night, the one that remains, that which follows death.

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Born from the wastes of a long forgotten battle, having to survive through the strength of his own will and determination, Nightfury spent his life fighting those who would say they were stronger than him, only to fall in his wake. Weilding the power of lifestealer, nightfury has slain countless foes.

A Barbarian by professional, Nightfury is a black Dragonoid with acid spit, and a purveyor of alchemic arts.

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He is currently contracted to Et-Han the tiefling under the guise that he will be seeking powerful relics, and such will be finding the strongest foes around to be slain by Nightfury, in exchange he will utilize his knowledge of the alchemic arts and acid breath to seperate the power ink from the parchment it is attached to.

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NIGHTFURY'S CHARACTER SHEET

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NIGHTFURY'S HELPFUL LINKS

 

Cooking Log 0001: Gluten Free Waffles

Cooking Log 0001: Gluten Free Waffles

I'm trying to find a good recipe for gluten-free waffles.

From what I have tried so far, the following had good results but have much more to be desired.

  • 2 cups of gluten free flour
  • 1 teaspoon of salt
  • 4 teaspoons of baking powder (gluten-free)
  • 2 tablespoons of white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups of milk
  • 1/3 cup butter
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Easy to follow the steps:

  1. Plug in your waffle iron to heat it up.
  2. Add butter to pot and heat on low to melt
  3. Add flour, salt, baking powder, white sugar into a mixing bowl and stir
  4. Once butter is melted, add the milk and vanilla extract
  5. Turn off the heat, and add the eggs to the pot, and stir
  6. Now add the liquids into the dry mixing bowl, and beat everything together
  7. Add any additional ingredients you want in your waffle (chocolate chips, raisins, cheese)
  8. Pour into waffle iron and cook.
  9. Remove once reached desired texture and set aside to cool.

With this recipe, I often use white raisins and only a small amount. If you go overboard with any of the additional toppings, it could easily ruin the taste and structure of the waffle. Interestingly I have found that when I put too much batter in the iron, they end up very soft, and when I just fill enough to cover the waffle, they are much harder. Not 100% sure if this is due to time cooked, after all the first round is usually when I'm most attentive to the waffle. Will have to test cooking time and quantity used in the waffles. I also tend to add more milk to better spread on the iron.

I'm mostly posting these recipes, so that I have a readily available place to find the ones I like, and for me to keep a consistent record of my baking progress.

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