“Tao is a concept found in Taoism, Confucianism, and more generally in ancient Chinese philosophy and East Asian religions. While the word itself translates as ‘way’, ‘path’, or ‘route’, or sometimes more loosely as ‘doctrine’ or ‘principle’, it is often used philosophically to signify the fundamental or true nature of the world.” (Wikipedia)

Oh, the internet is a marvellous place! For a number of years now I’ve been drafting ideas for my magnum opus, A Book About Nothing (I’ll finish it one day). The basic premise being that zeroing out your life can makes things a whole lot easier! And lo and behold Melvin Mann has been talking about the same kinda thing online in his Inbox Zero video, a in the real world in presentations and – some day soon – his book. The Life Zero podcast has been extolling the virtues of Zen and Lifestyle Design. And Tim Ferriss and his many followers have been looking at how to outsource just about everything to attain a Four Hour Work Week and an awesome lifestyle to boot. Oh yeah, Leo Babauta of Zen Habits has been waxing lyrical about the joy of a simple life for years. Beautiful.

So, let’s pull it all together. This is the first Tao of Zero post (I hope there will be more).

Here are a few areas of your life that could do with zeroing out:

• Your email
  • Clean out your email inbox (this could take some time)
  • Delete as many messages as you can
  • Archive the messages that are no longer relevant but you can’t delete
  • Create a task list so you will action any items that come from emails you have received
  • Remember that you email inbox is not a task list
  • Zero out your inbox every day; yes that means deleting, tagging (or filing), archiving and actioning everything straight away!
• Your brain
  • Dump all your ideas on to paper (or a software package like TextEdit, NotePad, emacs or vi)
  • Stop trying to remember everything, you will just agonise over it because your brain isn’t that good at it
  • Zero out your brain every night before bed
• Your in-tray
  • Sort through the items in your in-tray
  • Prioritise, delegate, remove, defer, act
  • Get your tasks under control
  • Zero out your inbox every day (or at least once a week)

Next time, we’ll look at other things to zero out. Have you got any suggestions?

Here are my five Hs of lifting:

1. Head – your head has to be in the lift, you have to know you can do it or be prepared to fail
2. Heart – you have to have the heart to push when you feel like you can’t push any more
3. Hips – you have to use your hips to generate the force you require to executte the movement properly
4. Heels – you have to push through your heels and keep constant contact with the ground
5. Hurt – you have to be prepared to hurt to achieve your lifting goals

Lift heavy, eat meat, sleep!

A few things concern and interest me when it comes to voicemail (and answering machines). Firstly, people have little idea what to record as an outgoing message. Secondly, people often hang up because they don’t like leaving messages. Thirdly, people who leave messages have no idea how to do so effectively.

Point One: if you want someone to leave specific info on a voice mail message then ask for it. Don’t fool around trying to be cool or cute. Cut to the chase. Here’s a simple example:

“Hi this is Bob from ABC Industries, please leave your name and number and a short message. I will return your call as soon as I can. Thank you.”

I don’t like to check my voicemail too often. I’ve found it’s very rare that anyone absolutely, positively has to speak to me right now. So, my message tells people that I don’t check my messages regularly. That way, they know to try another number if they have to, or to be patient. This method has helped me become more productive at work. My message is something like this:

“Hi, this is Adam. Please leave your name, number and a short message. I check my voicemail at midday and 4pm, I’ll call you when I get your message. If your call is urgent please call the office on ….”

Point Two: if you’ve paid for a call that has connected, leave a message. If you are not prepared to leave a message, don’t make the call. Don’t be one of those folks who expects a call back just because someone notices a missed call on their phone. People chasing up missed calls are wasting their time. If you don’t like the sound of your voice, get over it, you won’t be listening to the message anyway (and your voice sounds the same to everyone else in person or on a machine).

Point Three: if you want someone to call you back after you leave a message on their voicemail, leave a clear and concise message with a call to action. Whatever you do don’t have a full blown conversation with the voicemail system!

Be clear! Leave your name and your number. Briefly explain the reason for your call. State if you need to be called back. Repeat your number at the end of the call. Here’s an example:

“Hi Jack, this is Kate Jones from XYZ Consumables. My number is 0488 111 999. Just calling to confirm our appointment next week. Please call me back. My number again is 0488 111 999. Thank you.”

Hopefully, people will start to get their heads around this stuff soon. So many people are wasting theirs and other people’s time by misusing voicemail.

elegance (http://definr.com/elegance)
n : a quality of refined gracefulness and good taste

elegant (http://definr.com/elegant)
adj 3: of seemingly effortless beauty in form or proportion

simplicity (http://definr.com/simplicity)
n 3: absence of affectation or pretense
4: freedom from difficulty or hardship or effort
5: lack of ornamentation

Perhaps my definition of elegance is incorrect in my internal dictionary but I always consider elegance and simplicity to be closely related. When I think of elegance I think of the items and execution of activities that shows no unnecessary flourish, no flamboyance, no BS.

When I think of simplicity and elegance, I think of:

• The dry martini
• The espresso
• Sushi
• Bruce Lee
• Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov
• Zen
• Bushido
• Vibram Five Fingers

An eclectic collection to be sure. But what am I getting at here? I want a simple, elegant life. I am in the process of simplifying and refining lots of bits and pieces to this end. It’s going to be a long (probably never-ending) task, but isn’t that what it’s all about? I think that in trying to simplify and look for elegance, beauty and grace I might just find the life that I’m searching for. And if I don’t at least I’ll have some fun along the way.

Is it possible that some of us live unhappy and unfulfilled lives because we continue to do things that we do not have a passion for? Is this why we remain unsatisfied and stuck wondering what could be?

Is it possible that all those stories of successful entrepreneurs doing what they love and therefore not working a day in their lives are actually true?

Lately, I’ve been spending some time thinking about what I have a passion for and what I really love to do. I came to the following conclusions.

I am passionate about:

• my family
• health & fitness
• educating people

I enjoy:

• travelling
• writing
• reading

Understanding these aspects of myself has led to a level of clarity. I’m now planning to involve myself more in businesses and other opportunities that benefit my family (by allowing me more time with them and the financial rewards to support them) whilst offering education to others in health & fitness (and a few other areas). I’m also looking to write as part of my entrepreneurial efforts and for fun; and to read and travel a whole lot more. Obviously I have to get a whole lot of things right to allow this all to happen. Now that I have the underlying reasons for my activities, I can plan and then I can execute.

I hope that you might learn something from this post. That way I’m well on the way to achieving some of the things I’ve set myself and maybe you will be too.