Tag Archives: entertainment

Plan Your Lifestyle, Then Business

Posted on by

It is impossible to separate the lifestyle we lead from other areas of our lives. The jobs we do, the business we have, and where we live all affect the quality of life. I honestly believe that to build a successful business you have to envision the lifestyle you desire to have first. For example, it does not make sense for me to start a fishing business when I hate fish. Regardless of how much money I make, I will hate every second of the process. Wealth is not only measured in terms of money but the fullness of life we enjoy as a result.

Lifestyle design or lifestyle entrepreneurship is designing your business around the lifestyle you want. Lifestyle design is something that became important to me when I had my first child. I knew I did not want to spend hours working away from my children but at the same time I needed to provide for them. I was determined my children were not going to spend countless hours in daycare and as a result I negotiated with my boss to design my job in such a way where I can still spend quality time with my baby. Even though I did not have an official terminology for it then, I never based my decision on taking a job based on money alone. The job had to be flexible enough to grant me the lifestyle I desired.

Now fast forward fifteen years later, I treat my business with the same mindset. I was not afraid to do away with all the traditional norms of starting a business and building a business that will afford me the lifestyle I love. I have been truly blessed all through this process.

Planning a lifestyle business

Firstly – specific and measurable goals
If you throw a penny up, it will come down: One truth we cannot escape is that we will most likely end up in the direction we are heading. We cannot meet the goals we set for ourselves unless we aim for them. So if you want to design a business that accommodates your desired lifestyle, you have to become very specific. In other words, you need specific and measureable goals.

For instance, rather than saying, “I want to lose weight” say “I want to lose 10 pounds in 3 months”. Having specific and measurable goals can translate in any area of life. If your lifestyle goal is to spend your winters somewhere warm then you need to incorporate that preference in your business. You will need to think of a way to structure your business where:

  • You make enough money to afford the lifestyle
  • Your business is mobile/ flexible enough where leaving your permanent residence for a whole season will not disrupt cash flow.

If you do not take your preferences into consideration, what ends up happening is you grow a business you learn to hate and you find yourself stuck in a hamsters wheel. Planning a lifestyle business is less complicated than people make it.

Secondly, identify what you need to know and learn
In the case of losing 10 pounds in 3 months, you would need to know how to lose 10 pounds in 3 months. When you have clear specific goals, then knowing what you need to know will come quite easy.

Thirdly, write some actionable steps you can take to get started
Once you know what you need to know, you need to write some actionable steps on how to gather the information you need. To lose 10 pounds in 3 months, you can do the following:

  • Buy a book on how to loose 10pounds in 3 months and do it yourself
  • Research online for some practical steps on losing 10 pounds in 3 months
  • Hire a personal trainer
  • Join a gym

Your actionable steps should be written in such a way where it takes you one step further than you are today. You do not need to know how to get to the end line but each action should lead you to the next one which eventually takes you to the end line. For instance if you were totally clueless, you can hire a personal trainer to take you through the process. When you hire an expert, you get the advantage of having someone help you to the finish line faster than you can do on your own.

We often have a mental picture of what we will like to achieve. But until we write down our goals and create a system for measuring our progress we are likely not to take action.

Lastly, ask yourself, “Am I willing to pay the price?
This is a hard question: I hear men talk about wanting a close family, but they aren’t willing to place their family ahead of their career or hobbies. Someone says they want to advance in their career, but they aren’t willing to gain the education necessary. Achieving success at anything requires a certain level of sacrifice. Some people may want to attain the level, but they aren’t willing to invest what is required to get there. At some point you will have to determine if you are ready to make the required sacrifice.

After you figure out what is required of you, you need to ask yourself if you are willing to pay the price. Do not start unless you honestly answer this question or you will never finish. Don’t answer this question too quickly but spend some time wrestling with this question and be truthful to yourself. If you do decide to pay the price, share your goal with someone who can keep you accountable.

To achieve anything in life, you need to do things differently. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result each time.

A Brief History of Home Entertainment

Posted on by
Reply

The concept of home entertainment and indoor recreational activities changed when home electronics invaded our lives. One can say that access to numerous electronic products at home has revolutionized the idea of what constitutes a complete home entertainment. Nowadays, anyone can have immediate access to every kind of electronic entertainment via different media within the comforts of their homes. They can have their choice of entertainment which may range from the latest DVD players, radios to the wireless internet connection which offers them the convenience of mobility. Advancement in technology has gifted us with loads of home entertainment options ranging from radio, television, CD, DVD players, home theatre system, games consoles and so on.Music has always been one of the most preferred leisure activities. It found its way into our home through the long playing discs and the gramophone. Of course with the coming of radio a decade later made music a more widespread home entertainment. Before the advent of the CD or DVD player, the radio was the most popular home entertainment system available. Though there were some juke boxes available in the local pubs or salons where one could listen to a song of their choice at home there was only the radio. With radio, the choice of listening was however quite limited as people had to listen to the songs that the radio channels would play, even though some of the stations would at times play the selected numbers based on listeners’ requests. But there were no complaints as there wasn’t anything better for decades to come.Initially, when television had not yet become an everyday part of our lives, the visual entertainment strictly meant those theatres which had large screens to view a movie. Things changed dramatically with the invention of the television in the initial phase of the 1950s. The television was a complete wonder in the days when it was discovered. People did not have to restrict themselves anymore to music as their only entertainment at home. They could actually watch a full length movie in the comfort of their own home.Not only movies, this small wonder box started entertaining people with more and more new ideas, programs and techniques. Television has been considered as one of the pioneers in the history of home visual entertainment. Of course it provided more than just entertainment. With news and special documentaries, TV soon became the most important source of amusement. The long playing discs were also a part of home entertainment which was an early discovery. While radios, LPs and television made a permanent place in everyone’s home, the quality of sound in those times essentially required tremendous development.Good sound systems and speakers stared to develop in the mid 1970s. Various technologies were discovered to enhance the quality of sound. And with the music genres like rock, pop and discos coming into being, there was a specific and urgent requirement for good quality sound systems. Thus the electronic giants did not stop producing recorders and put more emphasis on amplifying and equalizing the sound to give it a new dimension.Good quality sound systems were specially designed and created for homes which produced outstanding music. Woofers and subwoofers along with various amplifiers equalizers and multi channel audio were being used to produce crisp stereophonic sounds.However, this concept took a back seat when CD and DVD players came into existence. During the end of the ’70s and early ’80s some of the electronic giants worked in collaboration to develop the world’s first Compact Disc system. Experts proved that this CD player was quite compact and lightweight with its unique durability. For music lovers it was truly a boon. At the same time this CD system opened a new window in the audio equipment industry.Compact discs were more durable than any other long playing discs or tapes. Thus the CDs removed all other music disc and tapes from the market and held prominent position. The 80s and early 90s saw a vast improvement in the technology of compact disc systems. It became very popular with people because of the crystal clear sound it produced and was affordable. These CDs not only stored music, it was versatile enough to store movies, data, pictures or even software.Along with CDs a much improved device which actually revolutionized and changed the entire system of home entertainment is the DVD or digital versatile discs. These discs are powerful and large enough to hold two movies in one. It stores data digitally and is more durable. The scratch proof technology of the DVD players also makes the DVDs last a long time. Both music and movie buffs felt delighted when the DVD player came into the market. Recent survey statistics reveal that the DVD player is the most successful product of home entertainment. It was introduced in the year 1997 and has reached great heights of success ever since.Nowadays, people can have the same effect of a movie theatre in their homes. With the latest DVD players, LCD screens and the sound systems with woofers, sub woofers and multi channel audio systems, anyone can have a fantastic home entertainment system with high quality sound and spectacular visual effects. The plasma and LCD screens are high resolution televisions which started to develop in the latter half of the 1990s and these sleek televisions enabled the viewers to experience digital sound and vision with fantastic picture quality and various advanced features.With the invention of DVDs and a major development in the visual media such as Plasma and Liquid Crystal Display or LCD in the late 90s gave home entertainment its latest technical dimension. With it, the meaning of home entertainment changed significantly with more and more people installing the home theatre systems with newest gadgets and technologies.