live lean

Finding Your Why. How to Create a Personal Manifesto.

Whats your POV?

I watched a show with my son yesterday, which he loves, called Food Network Star. He enjoys cooking shows, particularly those which involve intense competition and chefs being eliminated.

One term that kept coming up over and over on the show was “POV.” “What’s your POV?” the judges would say. “Your POV is not coming through!” The judges would then proceed to tell the celebrity chef hopefuls what their Point of Views were or should be.

“You are Coastal Kitchen Gal” “You are the Butcher Babe” You are the Cowboy Chef” On the show, you could be a very talented, gregarious chef but if your POV was not coming through to the judges you’re as good as gone.

I am not a fan of reality TV but it is true that the characters that we remember in fiction, and in real life, have a well defined POV. Their mission, their view of life, attitudes, and intentions bleed through in everything they do.

I believe a great way to discover your own POV is to start with a personal manifesto.

What is a Manifesto?

“A manifesto is defined as a written statement publicly declaring your views and intentions. “

Manifestos are popular with groups, companies, charities, and political parties but for our purposes we want this to be personal. A well-defined personal manifesto can anchor your point of view and that will start to come through in everything you do. Parts of it can even inspire others.

Why should I create one?

Most people have a good handle on what they do and how they do it. What’s often missing is the why. We should start with the why. Why do you do it? Author Simon Sineck has one of the most viewed Ted Talks of all time about Starting with Why. Starting with why is important for any organization, political party, or company but it’s especially important for you, because it’s your life.

How to craft your personal manifesto.

Get inspired. Start by looking at some great examples. Don’t be afraid to use famous quotes if they inspire you. [Read more…] about Finding Your Why. How to Create a Personal Manifesto.

The Frug Diet. How an old pair of pants can have long term impact on your health.

08/14 by The Frug Leave a Comment

Okay, here it is. Are you ready? There’s nothing to click on, no free report to download, no exotic powders to buy, no veggies to blend.

Here’s the Frug Diet.

Step 1. Don’t buy new pants

That’s it. There’s also an advanced version.

Step 1. Don’t buy new pants or belts.

When I decided to start living lean about a year ago,one of the first things I did was go through closets and drawers and give away clothing I no longer wear.

I came across was an old belt I had in high school. I’m not kidding, my mom bought me this belt at the GAP when I was in high school. I also remember getting a sweet pair of corduroys as part of that deal. The GAP website still has the same pair of corduroys and belt available. That’s because once every decade the clothing industry recycles every fashion trend. The 80s are currently being heavily recycled — cords, Day-Glo, Ray-Ban Wayfarers etc. I’ve got this decade nailed.

Being a Frug and giving away stuff sometimes creates a conundrum. You don’t mind giving away a pair shorts that no longer fit but you really hate going out to replace them. The same goes with the old belt. Old belts tell another story. If you held onto the belt long enough, those damn holes on the belt that show your progression over the years. If you’re like me, you’ve probably worked your way through each of the holes until you get to the last few holes then you get rid of the belt. For some reason, this one hung around.

This was a message. I needed to go on a pants and belt diet.

If you’re not frugal, and buy a new belt every year, you won’t notice this progression. So, what does one do with a 30-year-old belt and a 20-year-old pair of shorts. Put them on, of course, and convince yourself that they still look fine. If they don’t look good (as was my experience) you have now discovered the Frug Diet.

If they do look good, they have officially become vintage. So now you have a choice. You can get rid of those old pants and that belt that tells the terrible tale. Or you can decide to keep them. [Read more…] about The Frug Diet. How an old pair of pants can have long term impact on your health.

Living Small. How The Tiny House Movement Found Me.

07/14 by The Frug 6 Comments

By Brad Beckstrom AKA The Frug.

Sometimes it just takes a few pioneers to get a movement started. These early adopters often do things in the extreme, they set benchmarks. For example, last week I met Dee Williams. Dee spoke at WDS in Portland Oregon about selling her three-bedroom home and building an 84 square ft. tiny house.

She spoke about her discovery of the tiny house movement. In her presentation, Dee didn’t spend a lot of time on architecture or zoning. It was really about her 10 year journey towards a leaner lifestyle. It was more about how living in a tiny home helped her spend more time in the community, get to know her neighbors, and learn how to build something. It wasn’t just a house she was building, it turned into a small business called Portland Alternative Dwellings and later a book The Big Tiny.

The Appeal of a Tiny Home

There’s something deeply appealing to me about smaller dwellings. Maybe it’s Dee’s eight dollar electric bill or zero property taxes. But, more likely, it’s just a simplified lifestyle. See the thing is, I don’t live in a tiny house. We have a rug in our family room that’s bigger than 84 square feet.

If you read this blog, you’ll know that I’m on a quest to simplify my life and get rid of excess stuff. In this quest, the Tiny House Movement found me. Simple, modern, prefabricated houses started popping up in Dwell Magazine years ago. Then I read about a project at Auburn University where students were challenged to design homes that could be built for $20,000. [Read more…] about Living Small. How The Tiny House Movement Found Me.

The Trail That Saved My Life.

06/14 by The Frug Leave a Comment

By Brad Beckstrom

180/90

That was my blood pressure reading. My doctor came in to check it again. She came up with something higher. She said “You’re not going anywhere. We need you to lie down while we bring in a EKG machine.”

I had gotten some friendly warnings about my blood pressure before, but I was the proper weight (range) for my age and believed I was living a healthy lifestyle. But this blood pressure reading was off the charts for me, well, for anyone.

Trouble

I was in the process of being unceremoniously bought out of a company I’d co-founded 10 years earlier. The stress of been building up for over a year and was showing up in all the usual places, poor sleep, weight gain, high blood pressure. At that point, I was lifting weights 2 to 3 times a week but I’d given up running years earlier due to some knee issues. I enjoyed mountain biking but rarely found the time to do it.

If you’ve ever lived through a major lawsuit or been forced out of something that you spent over a decade building, whether it be a marriage, a company, a career, or something that feels like all three, then you begin to discover a whole new level of stress. It’s different than work-related stress when you’re part of a team dealing with a difficult situation. In my case, it was personal and it was prolonged – 3 ½ years by the time it was all over.

Personal and Prolonged

It was the personal and the prolonged part that really impacted my health. The blood pressure warnings were in the early stages. I needed to do something immediately. In addition, who was going to provide life insurance for a guy with blood pressure like that? In what my former business partner later called a “strategic move,” all of my insurance had been canceled.

I needed a solution very quickly. It was a chilly fall day and I needed to just get outside and breathe. I walked down to the bike trail and just kept going. I only walked 2 miles but it was the most important walk I’d ever take. [Read more…] about The Trail That Saved My Life.

Big Box America. Maybe our middle class is vanishing because they’re buried under a pile of stuff.

06/14 by The Frug Leave a Comment

The average U.S. household has 300,000 things.

Let that sink in for a second. Okay, how about this one: Children in the United States make up only 3.7% of children on the planet but have 47% of all the world’s toys and children’s books.

Who comes up with these stats? As it turns out, quite a few people. Anthropologists and archaeologists, sociologists and economists are all studying our addiction to stuff. When you think about it, it’s fascinating. Writers and academics want to document this phenomenon so that thousands of years from now when an archaeologist comes across 750 plastic toys at a single family dwelling dig site she will be able to explain why.

Life at Home in the 21st Century

The UCLA Institute of Archaeology Press recently published a book called “Life at Home in the 21st Century.” The book is filled with U.S. stuff statistics, but what I found more interesting was the thousands of photographs from families who bravely opened their doors to researchers. [Read more…] about Big Box America. Maybe our middle class is vanishing because they’re buried under a pile of stuff.

Mo Stuff = Mo Problems

05/14 by The Frug Leave a Comment

Separate happiness from owning stuff

by Brad Beckstrom

You would think someone who writes about living lean and minimalism would not have a stuff problem. Think again.

It’s the start of a holiday weekend and I just spent a over an hour on the phone with Apple support. Turns out I have too much stuff on one of my two computers. I have too many extensions on my Chrome browser. One of these extensions, or other apps, are creating issues, causing the browser then the computer, to hangup.

Apple was nice enough to help me with my out of warranty iMac. I’d imagine there’s some reason for this. Maybe they looked at my support file and got a glimpse of how many Powerbooks, Macs, iPhones and iPads I’ve purchased over the years. I’m embarrassed by this number. When you add in my wife SuperK, my two kids, and various ventures I’ve purchased Macs for, I am very embarrassed by this number.

Mo Stuff = Mo Problems

See the problem is not really the Mac, it’s the number of Macs and the number of apps. Mo Stuff = Mo Problems. Rapper Notorious B.I.G. famously said Mo Money = Mo Problems and things did not end well for him. Shot dead, likely due to some money problems with other rappers. [Read more…] about Mo Stuff = Mo Problems