Comments on: Life and Discipline: Using the Five Personal Finance Business Cards for Other Aspects of Life http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/12/27/life-and-discipline-using-the-five-personal-finance-business-cards-for-other-aspects-of-life/ Financial talk for the rest of us Sat, 16 Feb 2013 01:14:45 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Daniel E. Friedman http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/12/27/life-and-discipline-using-the-five-personal-finance-business-cards-for-other-aspects-of-life/#comment-146996 Daniel E. Friedman Wed, 02 Jan 2008 10:04:37 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/12/27/life-and-discipline-using-the-five-personal-finance-business-cards-for-other-aspects-of-life/#comment-146996 There’s no doubt that you have your priorities straight. The drawings would work well on a fridge door. Imagine waking up and getting a quick reminder before breakfast as to what’s important in life. Thanks for the post.

]]> By: bargainbtch http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/12/27/life-and-discipline-using-the-five-personal-finance-business-cards-for-other-aspects-of-life/#comment-143389 bargainbtch Fri, 28 Dec 2007 19:44:47 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/12/27/life-and-discipline-using-the-five-personal-finance-business-cards-for-other-aspects-of-life/#comment-143389 H-bomb…I did just that…sort of. The first time these cards where talked about I printed them out and posted them on my closet bulletin board. Trent’s drawings are cute yet constant reminders.

]]> By: Nathan http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/12/27/life-and-discipline-using-the-five-personal-finance-business-cards-for-other-aspects-of-life/#comment-143232 Nathan Fri, 28 Dec 2007 15:36:36 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/12/27/life-and-discipline-using-the-five-personal-finance-business-cards-for-other-aspects-of-life/#comment-143232 I could argue (but won’t write that long of a comment) that neither running nor a vegetarian diet are proper measures of health. Moreover, weight and BMI are poor standards as well.

If your goal is to get in better physical condition and to read from better qualified commentators here are some suggestions:

Books:
The Zone Diet by Barry Sears (several related books)
Core Performance by Mark Verstegen (if you haven’t exercised in a long time his book Core Essentials might be a better place to start)

Websites:
http://coreperformance.com/ (Verstegen’s website)

CrossFit.com (There is plenty of information to read on the website and discussion groups. Don’t let the intensity scare you away. If you have any questions e-mail me if you don’t want to e-mail them directly.)

Thanks for the great blog. I’ve been reading for a while, but this is my first comment.

]]> By: guinness416 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/12/27/life-and-discipline-using-the-five-personal-finance-business-cards-for-other-aspects-of-life/#comment-142798 guinness416 Fri, 28 Dec 2007 00:27:12 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/12/27/life-and-discipline-using-the-five-personal-finance-business-cards-for-other-aspects-of-life/#comment-142798 “Couch to 5K” is a great program for getting fit, if you want a goal/checklist, but if you enjoy the weight loss you’ll probably want to add free weight work in eventually. I agree with Chris above that BMI/weight are numbers, but functional fitness is what counts. And taking front/side photos in your undies, johnstonefitness style, is an enormous motivator when you start dropping pounds. Good luck!

]]> By: Chris http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/12/27/life-and-discipline-using-the-five-personal-finance-business-cards-for-other-aspects-of-life/#comment-142787 Chris Thu, 27 Dec 2007 23:59:28 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/12/27/life-and-discipline-using-the-five-personal-finance-business-cards-for-other-aspects-of-life/#comment-142787 BMI isn’t a great indicator of health. It’s just a ratio of your height to your weight. For example, I have a low BMI simply because I’m thin. I’d say I’m in less than “good” shape though.

I would say set more athletic type goals if you’re looking for good health. For example, if you’re walking, walk two miles without stopping. Add distance or decrease time taken for future short term goals. Once you’re a really good walker, start jogging. You can jog for one minute, walk for two. Decrease the walking time and increase the jogging time incremently until you jog the whole time. And then, you can add distance or decrease time taken for future short term goals.

Weight loss is a decent goal, but it will come with you being more healthy. A lower BMI will not ensure being able to make it through a game of tag with your kids without a call to EMS. You’ll know when you’re in shape or not. Plus, it’s more fun to beat a competitive type athletic goal than punching your weight into a BMI calculator.

By the way, thanks for the blog. You’re very inspiring. I will definitely be setting some work out goals for myself. The “I’m going to work out more” New Year’s resolution never seems to “work out.” I think having actual goals will get me going.

Thanks :-)

]]> By: Michael http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/12/27/life-and-discipline-using-the-five-personal-finance-business-cards-for-other-aspects-of-life/#comment-142771 Michael Thu, 27 Dec 2007 23:17:50 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/12/27/life-and-discipline-using-the-five-personal-finance-business-cards-for-other-aspects-of-life/#comment-142771 This is a critique partially on rhetoric as well as substance. I noticed you used the phrase “this is basically,” or a similar phrase, several (four) times in this post. This is a habit many people have when speaking, and is less frequent in written communication. Many people say, “this is basically,” in order to stall for time to think, rather than saying, “uh,” or, “hmmm…” This gets aggravating if overused in speech, and doubly so if overused in writing.

While the generalized form of your 5 principles are applicable to most self-improvement tasks, your frequent use of the word basically shows the difficulty in applying the original form of the 5 principles to some other tasks.

1. Spend less than you earn / learning the piano. If you’d led off with practice more, put it off less, the comparison would have been much better. The principle of spend less than you earn is a command to maintain an inequality (A make a personal commitment, keeping one thing less than another doesn’t translate well into learning piano. In fact, the comparison you make is not basic at all. To start with the maxim, “Spend less than you earn,” and arrive at “a motivator to practice,” requires a rather complex metaphor. The “make a personal commitment” generalization, while revealing a clear similarity between “keep A lower than B” and “increase C”, does not take explain the logical jump, basically, from spending less to a motivator to practice.

If you’d like my analysis of the three other uses of the word “basically”, please email me. I don’t want to make too long a comment, and I’m afraid I’ve done so already. I realize that I’m nitpicking, and I’m sorry for bothering you with this drivel if you don’t care about this kind of thing. I wrote this because I’ve been increasingly annoyed at hearing people lead off with, “basically,” when the description to follow is anything but basic.

Minor note: for Learning the piano, saying practice more would be more similar to burn more and earn more than stop avoiding practice.

]]> By: Jen http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/12/27/life-and-discipline-using-the-five-personal-finance-business-cards-for-other-aspects-of-life/#comment-142763 Jen Thu, 27 Dec 2007 22:54:42 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/12/27/life-and-discipline-using-the-five-personal-finance-business-cards-for-other-aspects-of-life/#comment-142763 Your determination is impressive. Just remember that playing the piano is an art. Build in some leeway to plink around and play whatever you darn well please. Technique and theory are crucial, but free play is valuable too.

]]> By: Ron http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/12/27/life-and-discipline-using-the-five-personal-finance-business-cards-for-other-aspects-of-life/#comment-142758 Ron Thu, 27 Dec 2007 22:44:17 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/12/27/life-and-discipline-using-the-five-personal-finance-business-cards-for-other-aspects-of-life/#comment-142758 Great post Trent.
Principles remain the same for many things, regardless of the individual situation. Principles of selling remain the same whether you’re selling cars or software. Principles of personal finance are the same whether you make $20,000 or $200,000.

You hit the nail on the head by showing how goal setting works the same in personal finance, losing weight, or playing the piano.

]]> By: Jason http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/12/27/life-and-discipline-using-the-five-personal-finance-business-cards-for-other-aspects-of-life/#comment-142743 Jason Thu, 27 Dec 2007 22:20:10 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/12/27/life-and-discipline-using-the-five-personal-finance-business-cards-for-other-aspects-of-life/#comment-142743 Wonderful advice, as usual! And so very timely, as we all ponder goals for the new year. My wife and I plan to sit down one night this weekend and lay out two or three specific goals for our “health and wealth” next year.

]]> By: Michael http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/12/27/life-and-discipline-using-the-five-personal-finance-business-cards-for-other-aspects-of-life/#comment-142681 Michael Thu, 27 Dec 2007 21:05:05 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/12/27/life-and-discipline-using-the-five-personal-finance-business-cards-for-other-aspects-of-life/#comment-142681 Hanon’s book of exercises may help you learn quickly.

]]> By: Matt Carter http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/12/27/life-and-discipline-using-the-five-personal-finance-business-cards-for-other-aspects-of-life/#comment-142663 Matt Carter Thu, 27 Dec 2007 20:45:39 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/12/27/life-and-discipline-using-the-five-personal-finance-business-cards-for-other-aspects-of-life/#comment-142663 Great goals Trent. I really love your sight. It’s been helping me understand and stay with my money goals. Weight control has also always been a problem for me. Things that have helped me: Start a food journal (I just use a 1.00 memo notepad), limit time in front of the computer, take a 20-30 minute walk on your lunch break, eat less (also helps on the frugal department!), and I joined a gym so I can keep the intensity of my workouts up during the winter months. Hope that helps!

]]> By: Chris Conley http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/12/27/life-and-discipline-using-the-five-personal-finance-business-cards-for-other-aspects-of-life/#comment-142648 Chris Conley Thu, 27 Dec 2007 20:26:39 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/12/27/life-and-discipline-using-the-five-personal-finance-business-cards-for-other-aspects-of-life/#comment-142648 What a perfectly timed post.

We were at my uncle’s for Christmas, and I had a chance to peck away on their 1920′s Steinway; it was beautiful. I love the piano, but have never been able to fit it in to play it well.

I’ve since then been looking into finding a free/very cheap piano to build up my humble skills and double as a fun restoration project!

]]> By: H-Bomb http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/12/27/life-and-discipline-using-the-five-personal-finance-business-cards-for-other-aspects-of-life/#comment-142644 H-Bomb Thu, 27 Dec 2007 20:21:13 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/12/27/life-and-discipline-using-the-five-personal-finance-business-cards-for-other-aspects-of-life/#comment-142644 I feel like I should hang this on my fridge or something for a constant reminder of all of my goals. :)

]]> By: Writer's Coin http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/12/27/life-and-discipline-using-the-five-personal-finance-business-cards-for-other-aspects-of-life/#comment-142636 Writer's Coin Thu, 27 Dec 2007 20:12:36 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/12/27/life-and-discipline-using-the-five-personal-finance-business-cards-for-other-aspects-of-life/#comment-142636 Good luck with the piano! Maybe this will help: http://www.wisebread.com/how-to-become-an-expert
My learning guitar experience ended in a whimper.

As for the exercise, I’ve found the mornings to be THE time to get it done. After work I just don’t have the energy.

I really like the business card idea, it reminds me of the elevator-pitch concept.

One question, where are you going to find the time for this along with everything you’re doing now?

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