Have you ever done the “perfect day” exercise? Jack Canfield writes about it in his book The Success Principles. It goes like this:

Imagine your perfect day in great detail. Then write it down. Where do you live? When do you wake up? What do you do when you wake up?

Then go through each hour of your day. What projects are you working on? Who are you with? What do you eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner? And when do you go to bed? What are you wearing?

This is well worth it to do, and here’s why. (more…)

My new RV! The blogosphere is on fire lately with regards to minimalism.

In case you haven’t heard of minimalism, it’s a movement whereby you live with fewer material possessions in favor of spending your income on experiences. I’ve Tweeted often lately about downsizing the house that I live in and getting rid of much of my stuff, and I’ve been asked several times if I consider myself a minimalist. This blog post is where I answer that question once and for all. (more…)

There has been a lot of talk about bringing Silicon Valley to other parts of the country–or world. About what makes Silicon Valley unique, and how to replicate it.

As someone who lived in the Valley for 10 years and created a successful technology company there, and who now lives in a decidedly less-tech-heavy area (San Diego), I have a unique perspective: I don’t want Silicon Valley to come to San Diego. In fact, if it did, I’d leave here just like I left the Valley.

A conversation I had recently with an entrepreneur who moved from San Diego to the Valley reminded me of everything that is broken with Silicon Valley. I began by asking him why he’d moved his company to the Valley–I’m always curious about why companies choose to move.

“So, why did you move to the Valley?”

(more…)

Every year here on erica.biz, at the start of the year, I post goals that I want to achieve. Some of them I’ve achieved with wild success–like growing my blog and starting a startup–and some I’ve miserably failed on. But all have been learning and growth experiences.

In December, realizing the new year was coming up, I again sat down to write goals. At first, I wrote them privately–in my notebook. (One of them manifested almost right away, which was surprising.) I fully intended to faithfully copy them down and expound on them in a blog post for the New Year. I even started writing the blog post.

But I never finished it. And the more I wrote, the less it felt “right.” It got to the point where I didn’t blog for three weeks because I was stuck on that post.

I was stuck on my #themeword for a while in December, too. Actually, it kept coming up for me, but I felt like it wasn’t right. The word? Breathe.

I feel as though I’m sitting on the cusp of a huge transition in my life. (more…)

How to achieve your goals is a guest post by Jaime Tardy.

“By setting goals and measuring their achievement, you can focus on what is most important, waste less energy on noncritical tasks, and achieve greater results. “ – Harvard Business Essentials

Most of us have heard the statistic: People who set goals are more successful. You know how to set goals. But do you know how to achieve them? (more…)