In one fluid motion, I raked the spine of my knife down the length of the firesteel propelling a steady stream of sparks toward the small metal can. The denatured alcohol in my homemade SuperCat stove instantly ignited into a translucent blue flame. In less than 10 minutes I would enjoy the steaming, bold, liquid…
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Tall trees reached heavenward and poison ivy blanketed the ground around me like an itchy green photosynthesizing snow except for in this small patch of well worn earth directly in front of me. It looked as if a multitude of hikers had camped here over the years. I scanned the area looking for the next blaze.…
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The pack creaked as I hoisted it onto my back. Or was it my back that moaned under the load? I wasn’t really sure which had protested more. The pack weighed more than 50 pounds, way too heavy to carry for the next 137 miles. Yet that was my goal: 137 meandering miles along the mountains…
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I stood in the parking lot savoring this moment. The years of anticipation, the months of planning, the hours of reviewing my guide book, and the countless trips to outfitters and grocery stores had brought me to this moment: my first day on the Appalachian Trail. It was 11:00 a.m. The gravel parking lot where I…
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How should you reply to the “What’s your rate” or “How much does this cost” question? Should you answer immediately? Or try to discover their expectations? When all it’s all said and done, should you just “split the difference?” The answer to those questions and many similar ones are what Leigh Thompson, the author of The…
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“That’s so simple! How did he write a best-selling book on this stuff?” Those were my first impressions after reading David Allen’s Getting Things Done when it was first released. I was amazed that an entire book could be written on managing to-do lists. Yet, I found myself using the system and actually getting more done than I…
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My father-in-law spent most of his adult life as a cardiologist. That’s a highly specialized and highly technical area in the field of medicine that deals with the heart. Not every physician can claim to be a cardiologist. It requires rigorous training under the close supervision of an existing cardiologist. That period of training and…
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As we enter the last quarter of 2014, I’m reminded of a story by Mike Greene that I read recently in the Business Journals (check it out here). Paraphrasing, the story went something like this: A man walked into an old country store late one afternoon. As he wandered around looking at the merchandise, he…
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