When I was in college, I changed majors three times, either from fear of commitment or boundless curiosity, you pick. At one point, my major was computer engineering because I hated writing. I thought, writing code and commenting didn’t need to be in full sentences. I was wrong and I remember turning in weekly engineering reports with schematics detailing the process for labs. Some of these reports would be over 20 pages and most weeks there were three labs to turn in. I thought I was going to die writing and eventually switched majors to information systems since PowerPoint decks were the deliverables, sweet!

Ironically, since founding Hand Things Down, my co-founder and I started blogging about our startup lessons to help other first time founders with our anecdotes. I suppose it might be easier to video blog, however coherent thought seems to leave my mind the minute I turned on the webcam. You could see a couple of our video blogs on the Cache Crew YouTube channel.

Here are some of the things I’ve done, which would you like as a how to series?
– Moderated a tweetchat on Social Media for Business to Business companies, you can search for it on Twitter using the hashtag #smcphxchat.

– Installed analytics into WordPress blogs to understand which posts were driving traffic for the week. It was eye opening to learn which organic search terms drove people to each site.

– Installed Uservoice to gather feedback and suggestions on the Hand Things Down Facebook page

– Embedded Mailchimp collection into Facebook and on the blogs to collect beta information.

– Moving a Blogger blog into WordPress and making sure to get the 301 redirects right to preserve SEO.

– Creating a comic strip.

I’m inspired to share what I’ve learned, let me know what you would like to see in the comments.

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/philsquires/4097914782/sizes/m/

What is on your bucket list? Most people think of a bucket list as the list of things you’ve always wanted to do before you die. I know that sounds somewhat morbid, I like to think of it as the list of things to do to feel alive and the adventures to take during a lifetime. I’ve been consumed by work since I’ve arrived in Seattle and my only source of stress relief is finding ways to free my soul through dance.

My Bucket List

• Dance in a flash mob
• Perform like Cirque du Soleil acrobat
• Work in a job that offered world travel – check!
• Fall madly, deeply in love – check! I should have been more specific with this and instead stated “Fall madly, deeply in love and keep this relationship alive”…live and learn.

A couple weeks ago, I took a Zumba class being offered at a Lululemon Athletica store at University Village by Medora, one of my favorite instructors. It was such an amazing experience to dance in the store as shoppers walked by on a Sunday evening. I thought, wow, this is what it must feel like to dance in a flash mob.

As I’ve wandered around Seattle I stumbled across a trapeze school in West Seattle and a barre studio in Capitol Hill. I thought to myself, the best way to conquer my fear of heights is to confront it head on by taking to the air like a Cirque du Soleil acrobat, plus it would cross off an item on my bucket list. The trapeze class I signed up for was silk aerial which was done on the silks or the long fabric attached to the ceiling that the acrobats climb and suspend themselves. I naively thought there would be a harness to hoist the beginners up and down the fabric. I later learned it is your body strength and the technique to strategically wrap the fabric which gets you up there.

The barre studio workout focuses on the barre warm-ups traditionally done in a ballet studio, not the bar with alcohol. I found this spot as I was on my way Tavern Law which is the bar with alcohol, confusing, right? Since this was essentially my last week in Seattle, I decided I must take at least one class at each of these places since I’ll was going to miss the Glee Flash Mob rehearsal on Saturday.

I signed up for 3 ballet classes at Barre3 for $30, versus $20 for 1 class, awesome deal right? I might have to reserve judgement on this since Tuesday morning will be my first ballet class in a little over a year. I’m still pretty sure I’m going to discover new muscles in places I never knew existed.

On Thursday evening, I’m scheduled to take a beginner silk aerial class. That is what’s pictured in this blog post, I’ll post pictures of the class and how it went this weekend. No time to chicken out now!

Ordinary Errand

I stopped by the bank on the way home since I didn’t want to do it before my 7:30 AM meeting. Everyone knows I’m not quite an early bird yet, maybe one day. I wanted to get my banking done and pack my gym bag to get a head start for Thursday since I would likely sleep until the last possible second in the morning.

The ATM machine was inside so I swiped my debit card to unlock the door to let me in the bank. While I’m at the ATM, I hear this commotion at the door and then this guy walks in. I was nervous until I turned around and saw I could take him. He commented that the door was a little finicky.

I finished my transaction, then when I got ready to leave the door wouldn’t open, so I tried pushing and pulling harder then tried the other door and IT WOULDN’T OPEN! It was my turn to cause a commotion and the guy stopped what he was doing to see what was going on. When I turned back to the first door, I saw this GIANT RED button that you’re supposed to push to get out.

Blonde moment:

During all the commotion, i thought omg I don’t want to be locked in the bank until the morning but wait if that happens I’ll be on the news! Ummm no…all that happened is that I managed to get out of the bank, just slightly embarrassed with my inability to open the door for myself.

Has this happened to anyone else? Tell me I’m not alone.

November 2
I attended the Delivering Happiness Book Tour at 7:30 am in downtown Phoenix, about an hour away with traffic and parking. It was a feat to wake up at 5 am. My eyes were open but my brain was behind on the memo to function. I had to ask my daughter to help with the coffee machine because I couldn’t get it to close and brew coffee. I felt more alert after breakfast, then got ready in record time because I didn’t want to miss a minute of the talk.

After arriving at the venue we were given stickers with a space to write our name and the instruction to write something weird that makes you happy. My mind momentarily went blank then I wrote, “random experiments to change my life” and stuck it on. Every week I experiment with different experiments or personal challenges. An example is to eat salad for dinner three nights in a row or go to Zumba three days and run 2.5 miles on yoga days for two weeks. Then challenge myself to go to three weight training classes and write for 30 minutes a day on the iPhone about lessons learned or links to useful business tools. These experiments build into larger dreams and are less intimidating when I schedule them into my calendar.

When the time arrived to get my newly purchased Delivering Happiness book signed by Tony Hsieh, he asked me what was the latest experiment I attempted. I told him waking up early was an experiment that crashed and burned in less than 2 days. I set my alarm early but reset my count the day after I oversleep. He asked me if I was left or right handed and he said, “try brushing your teeth with the other hand for 30 days, it’s an easy challenge to start.” I challenge you to try this experiment with me.

At my first attempt, I had to use two hands to turn on my electric toothbrush. I thought to myself, did I turn on the toothbrush one-handed with my other hand? I finally had to hold the top part of the brush with my right hand and slide the switch with my left thumb to turn it on.

As I brushed my teeth I was very aware of which tooth the brush was on and when I moved onto the next tooth because it was more deliberate. I consciously kept track of which teeth were done so none would be skipped. I automatically switched back to my right hand when I went to rinse. The goal for the next day or so is to turn the toothbrush on one-handed on my left hand. Funny, how I never thought about before.

I will post this weekend from the fabulous Las Vegas on my progress. If you take the challenge post your thoughts in the comments after your first attempt to brush your teeth using the opposite hand. How many days did it take to make it feel effortless?

Update: November 3 – 14
Day 3 was much better, I was able to power on the toothbrush with my left hand and wasn’t using every fiber of my being to concentrate on brushing my teeth without stabbing myself. I also told myself to only use my left hand to touch my toothbrush so I can continue on with the challenge in Vegas. After coming home from a night of dancing in Vegas, I thought oh wow, I haven’t actually thought about brushing my teeth with a manual toothbrush. Luckily, having a few days of practice using my electric toothbrush helped. I wanted to do a victory dance in the bathroom after I finished brushing my teeth but since none of my friends knew about the toothbrush experiment, I had to refrain. I could have blamed it on the alcohol, then of course not jumping around the bathroom was a better solution.

Photo credit: just.Luc

At least once a year, we look back at our lives and try to figure out what we would have done differently if we had a crystal ball. This is usually prompted by a birthday or the start of a new year.