Oliver the Gentlemen…31 Life Lessons, So Far

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I recently celebrated my 31st birthday. And like most birthdays lately, I didn’t do a party or anything to “celebrate.” My birthday to me has become at least at this moment, just another day for me. And it is not that I don’t want to celebrate with much fanfare because if it happen, I wouldn’t say no. But I rather have a small gathering of family of family and friends over some good food and drink. And I did have that and I got some 100+ greeting throughout the day which was awesome! Thank you to you all. I’m grateful for the well wishes.

But enough about me, I would like to give you a gift since you all have had a part in my life. Here is some things I have learned over the last 31 years. You may have heard some of these before and some you my not have but all of these things together have paved my path in life and lead me to where I am today.

Here are 31 Life Lessons I have Learned so far. Note: They are not in any particular order.

1. Treat people the way that you want to be treated.
2. Travel often.
3. Always share with others.
4. Listen to your parents, they are only doing their best and what they know from experience.
5. Our Teachers are the real heroes. Say Thank you!
6. Treat EVERYONE the same.
7. Be polite.
8. Nurture a good set of friends. Those will be the ones that will stand by you when you are at your worst.
9. Take good care for yourself. You can only care for others if you care for yourself.
10. Learn to eat.
11. Always feed your curiosity.
12. Be spontaneous.
13. Always carry a camera with you.
14. Always carry a notebook and pen with at all times. And keep one at your bedside.
15. Reach and share.
16. Support local businesses. They are the places where you will find opportunities that you didn’t know existed.
17. DANCE!
18. Learn how to make a good cup of coffee.
19. Learn how to tell a story.
20. Make “me time” a priority.
21. Follow your gut, always.
22. Never stop learning.
23. Be truthful to yourself.
24. Find a hobby and always find time to do it.
25. Speak up.
26. A hand written note is always better than a email or text message.
27. Always ask questions.
28. Keep a journal.
29. Be open minded.
30. Learn to cook.
31. Design your life, business, career, and etc to MAKE YOU HAPPY.

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Oliver the Traveler…where have you been?!

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Okay, so it has been a nearly a week and a half that I haven’t posted here on the blog. The reason being is that I was out discovering the wonderful state of Utah with my buddy Randy. This trip gave me an opportunity to relax, explore, and learn. From visiting 5 national parks, 2 state parks, and 1 national monument. And add the immense beauty that a Utah fall has to offer, there was a lot to take in during the whole trip.

Plus during the trip the internet connectivity was fair and few. Which meant that emails, texts, and calls were not happen at all. It was one of those times that you realized what you did when you didn’t have such access. And what I did with that, was talk and reflect. Enjoyed the quiet and the company. It was just one of those trips.

Over the next couple of post I will be posting more about the trip. And quite possibly make a move with some of the post to another blog. The post that will be transferred and move will be the photography related post.

There has been a lot of things that I have been able to realized and think while I was away for the last week. It was one of those things that I needed to have for myself so that I can move further. So with that, I am back and I will be sharing more things in the coming days. But I wanted to touchbase with you all and make you know that I didn’t fall off the blogging bandwagon again. Although some of those thoughts did enter my mine.

So stay tune; some exciting adventures, stories, and news will be posted soon. 🙂

Oliver the…. And changing things up

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Over the last few weeks I’ve been going through a whole process of trying to figure things out; both on the personal and business side. It one of those times where you start thinking and reflecting on what you are doing and where you can go. The key being is making sure thy whatever I do I end up happy.

So I guess we will start on the personal side. There’s has been a lot of things going on. A lot of things that has me thinking and reflecting on doing things. I have made and fostered more friends, reconnecting with some, working out some issues with others, and making plans with others. But ultimately I have realized that I need to make myself happy and make things happen no matter what. I have also been more willing to share a bit more in person. The conversations that I have had with friends recently have been good that have challenged and questioned me to do better and seek what it is that I want.

And that is where the question rest; what do I want. At the moment I don’t know. I just don’t know. I can’t at the moment decide on just one thing. But here a few things that I would like;

1. Do a little more traveling.
2. Display more of my photography work.
3. Open and share a photography place with friends.
4. Spend more time with family traveling and seeing the sites.
5. Improve and continue a good overall health outlook.
6. Advance further in my engineering career.

So as you can see, there is a lot of things on the plate of wants. I am starting on whatever allows itself to be work on. And I do recognize that every little victory that I accomplish everyday helps me get closer to my aspirations and goals. And that currently concludes the personal side of things.

The other thing that I have been working on has been on my business. Over the last several weeks, I have been reorganizing, rethinking, and redoing my business from scratch. This all began a couple of months ago when my friend Jared, invited to attend he in studio audience on CreativeLive. He’s class was about the business of photography. A lot of the topics we discussed and learned there hit home for me. It was one of those lightbulb moments of life. During the three days of class I realized the following;

1. I must design a business to make me happy.
2. I must make the business centered around me.
3. I have to understand every aspect of my business.
4. It’s going to be a lot of work and success won’t come easy.
5. Share your work and business with others
6. Be unique ( think of three words )
7. Your Art and your Business are two different things.

So over the last weeks I have been working on refining my photography business into a business that I’m proud to work on and share with the work.

With the help of my fellow friends that were in the audience with me, we are part of a group called the Bauman Six. Together we help each other through our processes and journey through the forest that is photography. Over the weeks I have discovered, toiled, and figured out my three words. I started with the words of; passionate, loyal, and explorer, and those have evolved into; tailored, outdoorsy, and geek. I have learned from and still learning from this experience. A few things I have learned is that you have to allow yourself to be seen. Allow yourself the time to figure it out. This is something that doesn’t occur overnight but it is a process that takes some time. And most importantly you have to be Yourself. Your true Authentic Self. With that in hand, I have found that you will and continue to discover yourself.

Other than a journey of self discovery, I have also been working on learning the process. The process being everything! And I mean everything. From the easiest to the most complicated task. Everything that I do, to run the photography business. This experience has been. Great and eye opening. It has been one of those things that you didn’t realized you do but once it out on paper you realized that you do a lot of work to run the business. And when you do this you realized that you are WORTH IT. And in doing this, I finally realized that all my work and art is WORTH the cost that I charge. I realized that my cost are justified and it is what I feel comfortable with. So now my outlook with my business is bright and shiny!!! And I’m looking forward to where it will go.

In the next couple of weeks I hope to have my new photography websites up and running. My goal with the websites is to have them represent me and my vision of the world. I will focus both on landscape and wedding photography. Both will be completely different from on another but still have the words; tailored, outdoorsy, and geek, as the main themes in them. They may not be visually apparent however they will be interwoven.

That’s been the latest with me in the personal and business end.

Oliver the….Life’s Path

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It funny how life will throw you a net and pull you into something that you need.  Under no circumstances life does this from time to time.  When it does its always funny to find yourself in it.

I happen to find myself into this situation this past week when I went to pick up some friends from the airport.  What started out with just wanting to help out friends, turned into something that I can only say; medicine that I needed to take.

During our conversation; I realized a lot of things but most importantly, facing the realization that I’m worth it and I’m the “shit.”  Seriously after saying it three times with more and more confidence it felt good.  And it felt good because I know, I know deep down that I’m worth it.  And DAMN IT, I am!!!

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Oliver the Geek…Four Square, Yelp, and Checking In

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You’re where? Where did you get that? Oh my gosh, are you really checking in?

Those are a few of the things that I get asked almost on a daily basis. Following me on Four Square or Yelp can be an interesting study of my habits. I check in everywhere and I mean everywhere. The reason being is so that I can document my own habits.

I promise I will try to limit the posting on Facebook. I don’t do it normally and I only post on super special occasions.

My habit for checking is because I want to know where I go and what I do most often. I think a lot of us kind of know what we do almost daily but I really want to know and have the numbers and documentation for it. Call me a geek but I love those things. I’m curious to see where I go and how often. I always thought it would be interesting to see the pattern. I’m still working on getting a plot of each data point on a map. And it is seeing this on a map is the reason that I check in anywhere. In all honesty I don’t do it to share what and where I eat but rather to show myself a pattern.

Here’s some stats so far:

Four Square
8 Mayorships
90 check ins at my place of work
Food & Drink is my most checked in category
14 times I’ve eaten at a burger joint
41 Four Square badges

Yelp
2740 Check Ins
24 Badges
34 reviews

The fact that I’m a foodie and a traveler has help me gain a reputation among friends of the people to ask about food and where to take visitors. I like to be able to do this because first, I get to help them find and discover new things and places they haven’t been before, secondly it keeps me motivated to keep continuing to explore and try out new things.

The fun thing that I have enjoyed about the checking process is that you do get a title if you happen to check in often. With four square it is Mayor and with yelp it is Duke. Yes, those are just bragging rights and they don’t really get you anything special except bragging rights. But I do see them as a achievements because you do have to frequent these places and keep up with each individual location. In one way it helps you build relationships with the owners and people that work there. And over time you can build that into a good friendship. And from these friendships you can get some interesting opportunities that you would have otherwise.

So I encourage you all to check in into places and explore your surroundings. Get lost and discover because you might be surprise on what you might find.