Adam Kayce

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Most days, I’d bet most of us feel like drones. Life’s commitments suck you dry, you race from one place to another only to complete seemingly inconsequential tasks half the time, and the phrase, “rat in a maze” comes shockingly close to summing up your daily activities.

Wouldn’t you rather do amazing things with your life? You can. And one of the ways to make sure you do is to preserve your sanity by not acting like a rat, and doing the things that will set you free. How? Genius Time.

Genius Time, in a nutshell, is about building time that’s for you and your most important things into your schedule.

Sounds simple, huh? Hardly.

I’ve seen this idea talked about most often by “Creatives” — folks who do creative work for other people, like designers, artists, etc. If Creatives aren’t careful, they can spend all their time and energy working on client projects, and not have any juice left over for their own business.

But it’s not just for Creatives. Everyone needs genius time.

What is Genius Time?

Genius time, as I’m defining it, is time for you to focus on what you personally need to focus on more than anything. When talking about your work, it’s often when you work ON your business instead of just IN your business. When talking about your health, it’s when you focus on the thing you need most, whether it’s stress-reducing meditation, or getting to the gym consistently. When talking about relationships, it’s when you carve out the time to do that which matters most, whether that’s working out issues that have come up between you, or spending “quality time” in whatever way you do.

The idea behind Genius Time is also concordant with Pareto’s Principle, aka the 80/20 rule. Genius time is often when you focus on that 20% of whatever it is, because if you don’t, the whole thing falls apart.

How much Genius Time do you need?

Start with a half-hour a day, if you have to. Heavens, you should be able to set aside at least that much, but if an hour is too scary to contemplate in the beginning, start with half. Eventually, you’ll want to work your way up to two hours, at least.

Most people these days, when confronted with the idea of finding more time in their days, tend to either shrug and dismiss the possibility, or get vehement about why that’s impossible. “My days are crammed as they are!”, or, “I get up at 4am and go to bed at 11pm as it is!” To you, I say:

Get a grip, or be gripped.

Because if you can’t find a half an hour, you’re seriously gripped. Life’s got you by the short-n-curlies… but do you want to know how you got there?

It’s your own darn fault.

Sorry to be the one to break it to you, but you haven’t taken responsibility for your actions if you’re playing the victim about your schedule. You, and you alone, have chosen to live the way you’re living. And that means that you can change it.

I hope that no one reading this is in that situation, because I hope you’ve moved beyond that phase of your life where you perceive life as happening to you rather than through you… but if you are, get some help. Now. Start here.

Got your life back? Good; let’s continue.

How to get your Genius Time

First, you’ve got to carve in a block of time. By “carve in”, I mean that you’ve got to build it into your schedule as if it’s completely indispensible (which it is), and make it inviolable. (The corollary, as in, “carve out”, is how most people think about it. As if life is full, and you need to squeeze something else in. Basic rule: Don’t be “most people.”) Otherwise, you’ll run the risk of pushing it aside when the seemingly urgent matters of life want to intrude.

It’s just how financial experts talk about the “Pay yourself first” rule: if you don’t, the money disappears into a crack somewhere. It’s inevitable.

So, Genius Time has to be a top priority.

Next rule: no distractions. Turn off the phone, close TweetDeck (under no circumstances should Genius Time and twitter time ever—EVER—coincide), and lock the door if you have to. For the next half-hour/hour/two hours, the rest of the world can wait.

Now, on to the meat.

What do you do in Genius Time?

Short answer: whatever you have to.

It could be:

• meditating
• writing blog posts
• researching your next career move
• studying
• walking through the park (sometimes it’s easier to get your head clear when in motion)
• practicing your intuition skills
• kicking your feet up on your desk and daydreaming of how you want to spend the next half of your life
• anything else that’s critical to your well-being, or the well-being of your career

Obviously, that last one is a pretty broad definition, but that’s the idea; do what you have to do to be the person you need to be.

And if you don’t take Genius Time?

In the words of my high school English teacher, Mr. Engfeldt…

… you’ll become a mental weiner dog. Seriously. Don’t tempt fate like that.

Images by phill.d and hellvet2000.

Calling all website owners: Want to take control of your website once and for all?

A new round of my WebFit workshop, where you learn how to become the master of your own website, begins on January 13, 2010.

Here’s a snippet about what WebFit is about:

In essence, you’re going to get so good and so comfortable with your website that you’ll be able to do anything you want to do with it, quickly and easily. No more shelling out thousands for keeping your designer on retainer, no more waiting on anyone else’s schedule for your needs, and no more fear and paranoia about touching your website in fear that you’re going to break it. (from the WebFit page on Bright Coconut)

Enrollment is limited to 12 hungry individuals. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

I love these shoes. I love ‘em so much, I have to share them with you. And, in the same vein as recommending eye exercises to rid yourself of glasses and/or contacts, I totally recommend you get yourself a pair.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit they do look a bit odd at first…

http://www.vimeo.com/7920232

… but they feel amazing, and you get used to them really quick.

You may have heard of Vibram Five Fingers before; they’re definitely making the rounds among the kind of people who know a good thing when they see it (heck, there’s even a site completely devoted to them!). But if you haven’t, I highly encourage you to try them. Why?

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I am thoroughly and utterly convinced that fear is the driving force behind every bad decision we ever make.

Now, don’t be afraid of fear—that’s a scary thought!—just learn to recognize it for what it is.

And now, on with our story.

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Once upon a time, there was an idealistic youth (let’s call him John) who believed that perfection existed, and to seek it was the best use of one’s life. He was sure that the attainment of perfection would result in happiness. He quickly learned, of course, that perfection was an impossible ideal (not to mention a miserable one). So, instead of seeking perfection, he saught inner peace, believing it would bring him happiness.

The search for inner peace led John to a group of other like-minded people who also saught the same thing, all rallied around a teacher who demonstrated some very successful techniques to help his students find and experience that peace. As the group grew, the teacher realized that he must establish a “method”, so others could teach the work as well. After all, what good would it do unless a means could be identified? And so, this method became concretized, shared, and taught to many more seekers of peace.

John, who believed the methods and the community around it to be the best thing he’d ever seen, became a teacher of this system. He taught others the methods, used them himself, and his life got better.

But then, a shadow began to grow…

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You know I’m a die-hard coconut fan, right? I mean, I named my webdesign company Bright Coconut, I’ve won recipe contests for coconut-laden recipes, we use coconut oil in our cooking, and I honestly eat something with coconut in it each and every day, no exceptions.

So, you can imagine that I’m always on the lookout for ways to sneak coconut into all kinds of recipes… and I found one recently. It was good to start with, but a little coconut took it over the edge.

“Fauxtatoes” are the name I came up with for these yummy puppies after we made them a few times, because the consistency is pretty much exactly like mashed potatoes. And, they’re the closest I’ll get to eating ‘taters, since I’m a Primal guy, through and through.

Here’s the recipe:

• 1 head o’ cauliflower, chopped however
• 32oz chicken stock
• 4-5 garlic cloves, peeled

… all in a big pot, adding water to just about cover the cauli, boil for about 15 minutes until it softens up a bit. Depending on how thick your pieces are, it may take 20-25 minutes. It’s all good, though.

Drain off the liquid, and mash it all up—if you have a hand blender, by all means use it—adding:

• a splash of coconut milk
• butter (no, you do not measure this. trust me… just add butter, and then add some more)
• salt & pepper to taste

Yum!

Now, these are tasty, with or without the coconut milk. But what kind of coconut addict would I be if I didn’t add some?

I’d love to hear what you think if you try these, especially if you play around with the spices some… I’m more than happy with how these have come out, but I’d be open to experimentation (curry? herbs de provence? ginger?)

Bon appetit!

It lies within you, thirsting.

Like a baby bird chirping desperately for its mother’s return to the nest to bring the food that will keep it alive, there is a yearning that lives within you, and it calls incessantly. It can be satiated with the smallest of moments, and it has a camel’s resistance to thirst, but if you ignore it too long, it will shrivel and die.

And as it does, color will fade from your world. Meaning will ebb away, enjoyment will wither, and you’ll sit around trying to remember a time in your life when richness existed. You’ll get dry, stiff… and when you hardly recognize the crusty you that you’ve become, you’ll chalk it up to being busy. Or being a parent. Or being a professional. Or getting older.

But it has nothing to do with any of those things.

The Urgent Call is your spirit’s need for connection. Like the migrating herds of the plains of Africa, who travel thousands of miles every year in search of life-giving food and water, your spirit has an essential drive to feel its connection to all around it. It’s the reason we seek community. It’s the reason we search for purpose and meaning in life. It’s the reason we feel better when we’re on a spiritual path, and it’s the reason that it doesn’t really matter what path that ends up being.

What matters is that you connect.
What matters is the Urgent Call gets listened to.
It doesn’t matter how your Urgent Call gets fulfilled, only that it does.

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Evernote rocks. Let me just sum it all up, right here, right now.

I’ve mentioned this before, but I still have conversations with people all the time where I mention Evernote, and they say, “Huh?” And that just blows my mind.

And the latest reason why I love them? Because not only have they produced the most awesome, flexible, useful piece of organizational software around, they also have a great sense of humor. That’s rare, people.

What I use Evernote for, just to give you a heads-up:

• managing all my client projects
• storing any and all info I find while out searching the interwebs
• recording all my recipes
• brainstorm-rain collection
• notes about places we’re thinking of moving to or visiting
• read the second one again, and let it sink in. Seriously.
• essentially everything I want to remember/record/store for the future, on subjects like WordPress, web design, CrossFit, nutrition, spirituality, personal development, family stuff, marketing, copywriting, and more.

Seriously, if you haven’t checked out Evernote, you’re bonkers. It’s awesome. It’s life-transforming. And—hello?—it’s free! Come on, now, people! Go get you some.

Ever notice how certain times of the year have a certain “energy” to them? I’m not just talking about the obvious seasonal changes, either; my auspicious rhythms tend to revolve around birthdays (I just had one), school vacation times, tax season, and New Year’s. Maybe it’s just the whole “collective consciousness” thing, even though that can sound like it’s on the fringes between common sense and froo-froo philosophy. Wherever the meaning comes from, I sure notice the effects in my life, and I’m guessing a lot of you do, too.

And as much as “cleaning” has been associated with the Spring, I tend to do a big cleanup and realignment of priorities in the Autumn. Maybe it’s the product of going to school every Fall from age 5 to 35 (K-college, then grad school and teaching seminars). Or maybe I’m getting ready for hibernation; who knows.

On my docket now are reviews of two products I’ve promised to do, but let slide in the face of busy-ness and upheaval. That’s not to diminish the value of the products, by any means; I thought they were great, each in their own way, and in their own intended use. (Okay, enough jabbering – on with the show!)

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I watched The Ramen Girl last night. I know, I know… not exactly the kind of movie you’d expect from a carnivorous, Olympic-lifting male, but I did. And you know what? I enjoyed it. Truth be told, I actually like romantic comedies as a genre—call me a sensitive, new-age guy, if you must—but what I enjoyed most from The Ramen Girl wasn’t the trials and tribulations of Brittany Murphy, or even the food (and I love food movies).

What I enjoyed most about the movie, without giving away too many details, was the main ingredient that Brittany Murphey’s character, Abby, learned to infuse into her ramen that made it special: spirit. Because in the end, this was not a movie about ramen, or romance. It was about finding one’s place in the world by focusing on the how more than the what.

“How” comes from within

The fact that Abby learned to make a great bowl of ramen is secondary to what it required of her to do it. She got the recipe right long before she was able to make a meal that was worthy of being served to her customers, because she was taught that making soup isn’t just about getting a bunch of ingredients and assembling them. It’s about heart. Unless your soup has spirit, it hasn’t got anything.

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You probably know I’m a CrossFit addict by now. It’s more fun than a cooler full of coconut milk, more effective than erosion, and anyone can do it just about anywhere. However, done on it’s own, with no regard to your nutrition, isn’t going to get you nearly as far or as fast as if you pay really good attention to what you’re eating and why.

Enter: Primal.

It’s not that CrossFit doesn’t have a nutritional recommendation: it does. And it’s about as simple and clear as it can get: Meat and veggies, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, no sugar. And any CrossFitter worth his/her salt is going to be able to rattle that off like a well-grooved mantra. And, at the same time, knowing what to do and actually doing it are often not the same thing at all.

I’ve read all kinds of fantastic nutritional information before, and have for years, but never have I been able to make it a lifestyle like I have since adopting the “Primal Blueprint Eating Plan” like I have with Mark Sisson, at Mark’s Daily Apple.

Primal living is, in my own words, a prescription for eating the way we’ve evolved to. Our genome has honed itself for over 2 million years, adapting to a particular style of eating that didn’t really fluctuate until about 10,000 years ago. And, since that “recent” shift, we’ve done nothing but go downhill, health-wise, except for the hygienic changes that have increased our average lifespan. It’s pretty clear if you look at how we’ve evolved to eat that it makes a lot of sense to stick close to our own internal genetic recipe. After all, you wouldn’t pour rocket fuel in your car’s gas tank, right? It’s just not designed for it.

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