Christian Lautenschleger

Put yourself out there, for good things the happen

January 20th, 2017christian0 Comments

They say good things happen when you put the ball into play. Watching the ball whiz by our bodies only leads to a ball or strike. But, from swinging the bat we see many possibilities. We can get a hit, a sacrifice fly, or reach base on a fielding error. Anything can happen. We take action into our own hands, away from the decision of the umpire. In life, good things happen when we put ourselves out there, meeting with, and talking to people. We have to leave the confinement of our own homes. In theory, we never have to …

Word count obsession: stop it!

January 19th, 2017christian0 Comments

topsailislandsunset word count christian lautenschleger

For the love of all things sacred, please stop with the word count obsession while writing blog posts! Obsessing leads to poorly-written blogs post. Write everything that needs to be written and no more. Word count may contribute to better SEO, but poorly written posts won’t have people returning, which is probably what we want. A rule of thumb is blog posts between 300-600 words for search engines. Fewer words mean we didn’t write enough to really contribute to a topic. More words can mean we really went into depth or wrote more words for the sake of more words. …

Time: Our Most Valuable Asset

January 18th, 2017christian2 Comments

Time, our most valuable asset. We don’t get it back. We can’t “create” time, but we can become more productive. Today became a sort of soul-searching day for Christian. I got caught up in traffic this morning (it felt like a metaphor, actually), did a lot of reflection, and just decided to make a day of it. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard “well, there’s five minutes I’ll never get back.” But when we think of it, it’s really damn true. And can be applied to most aspects of our lives. Watching TV, surfing the web, checking Facebook, …

I don’t watch Shark Tank: Am I a winner or loser?

January 17th, 2017christian0 Comments

watch shark tank christian lautenschleger

Full disclosure: I don’t watch Shark Tank, so I don’t know much about the show. In fact, most of what I know about the show I learned from watching a standup comedienne and Wikipedia. If sitting down to watch Shark Tank inspires one to become an entrepreneur, great. But do the people who start businesses and seek investor capital watch the show? I’ve read in a forum or two about why more famous people don’t post. Maybe because they’re doing what they’re doing that make them famous? Duh. People rarely stumble upon being famous; it takes years of persistence, struggle, …

How to instantly start a business?

January 16th, 2017christian0 Comments

How to instantly start a business? Step 1. Think of an idea Step 2. Start a business. It’s that simple. If it’s an obsession, passion, or calling, we start now. If there’s a new show to binge on Netflix, we bet our asses those aficionados start binging now, not next week. Those two steps are all it takes. We can read “20 GREAT BUSINESS IDEAS!”, but if none of them peak our interest today, do we really think we’ll start tomorrow? For those who’ve been in the startup circle, we know there’s too much that goes into starting a business …

Introducing Blogsfere

January 15th, 2017christian0 Comments

Welcome to Blogsfere. I am extraordinarly excited to bring you Blogsfere. Do you blogger? Do you want to connect with other bloggers and blogs? Do you want to learn more about blogging? Blogsfere was created to connect bloggers in an online community with a growing library of information, tutorials, and articles. It creates, fosters, and educates a blogging community. I created Blogsfere, because although I’ve blogged for years, I’ve never found a really good way to connect with other people or bloggers, let alone have the “power” to have many posts highly ranked on Google (which has about 2/3 of …

The Great Marathon Garmin Watch Challenge of 2017: Who wants it?

January 15th, 2017christian0 Comments

garmin 620 garmin challenge christian lautenschleger

This past week I received my new watch, the Garmin Fenix 3 HR, replacing the venerable Garmin 620 (I wanted fitness tracking, better battery life, and all of the bells and whistles, which aren’t too shabby). What to do with the old watch? I found a resourceful, productive way for someone who will really use it! I wanted to create a challenge for someone this year. You accomplish it, or pay my asking price if I had decided to sell my Garmin 620. Enter, The Great Garmin Watch Challenge of 2017. My guidelines: DON’T own a fitness, GPS, or sport …

Living for the weekend fallacy

January 14th, 2017christian0 Comments

working for the weekend christian lautenschleger

The American work week goes like this: Monday morning comes as we stammer to our place of work, where we talk about what we did “all” weekend. Tuesday doesn’t matter. We call Wednesday “hump day” because we’re “getting over the hump”, and for its double-entendre. Thursday is the new Friday! Let’s go out and do stuff, tomorrow’s Friday! It’s TGIF! That means we only have to kill a few hours at work! It’s Friday night! Saturday, let’s do something recreational! Sunday! Time for church and family! Ugh, it’s Sunday evening and I’m counting down the clock until I go to …

Listen to your body: the key for healthy running

January 13th, 2017christian0 Comments

vitruvian man listen to your body christian lautenschleger

We run more to run faster. The more we’re able to run, the more we’re able to able to train, which means the more fit our bodies become. There’s a problem. Overtraining, niggles, dehydration, fatigue, and much more. It takes an experienced runner to know how much we can safely run before our bodies turn against us. The most important thing to learn about running is the ability to listen to your body and know what it’s telling us. My most important piece of advice is to listen to our bodies. It means if our body doesn’t feel like it’s ready …

How often do we read books that change our lives?

January 12th, 2017christian0 Comments

give and take book christian lautenschleger

When’s the last time you’ve read a book that’s changed your mindset and outlook? We may read books all of the time, and they may be “good”, but how often are they ones that change us? How often do we read books that open our minds to something we haven’t known – or even considered – before opening the cover. I just started reading Give and Take (thanks, Prime shipping!). It’s absolutely captivating. I’ve heard of Gary V’s “Jab, jab, right hook” metaphor, but GaT takes it to an academic level that really brings it home. There are three types of …