RGB Basic Color Wheel

From time to time I find that I need the specific RGB - red, green, blue - codes for colors. This is useful in graphic design, presentations, and any situation where color coordination is needed.

The colors are ordered Red, Green, Blue.

From the top (clockwise)

• Red - 255, 0, 0
• Orange - 255, 127, 0
• Yellow - 255, 255, 0
• Green Yellow - 127, 255, 0
• Green - 0, 255, 0
• Green Cyan - 0, 255, 127
• Cyan - 0, 255, 255
• Blue Cyan - 0, 127, 255
• Blue - 0, 0, 255
• Blue Magenta - 127, 0, 255
• Magenta - 255, 0, 255
• Red Magenta - 255, 0, 127

I Shall Go To Texas

In 2016 I kept a journal on a daily basis. Below is part of my introduction and some information on my printing process.

EXCERPT FROM INTRODUCTION

When I was in elementary school, my parents gave me a small diary, complete with a little lock and key. I made some entries, but my older brother made fun of my keeping a diary, and I quit writing. I don’t think my entries were in the style of “Dear Diary,” but even with straightforward writing, I stopped. 

For the past ten years I have been maintaining a planning journal with events and notes. These are a great record, and I have frequently referred back to these journals for information. Last year I wrote a memoir of my life as part of a writing challenge and used my planners to create timelines that, otherwise, I would not have been able to recall. 

In the fall of 2015 I found myself interested in developing another writing challenge. I decided to write 1,000 words per day for a total of 365,000 words written by the end of 2016. At first I planned to base the entire writing plan on creating an e-book every week, and developed several possible topics and seven part outlines (for 1,000 words each day). However, as 2015 counted down, I decided instead to focus my writing in four categories: e-books, devotional thoughts, blog posts, and a journal. Initially my goal was to write 250 words per day in each of the four categories. Writing 250 words per day for 365 days translates into 91,250 words, approximately 350 pages. Thus, starting with January 1, 2016,  I faithfully wrote a journal entry every night. I skipped a handful of entries, but wrote about most days. 

Davy Crockett was an earlier frontiersman in the United States and represented the state of Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives for several terms between 1827 and 1835. When he lost in 1835, Crockett famously quipped, "I told the people of my district that I would serve them as faithfully as I had done; but if not, they might go to hell, and I would go to Texas." This state has been rewritten as a pithier, “You can go to hell; I shall go to Texas,” and adorns a variety to items in Texas-based airport gift shops.

BEHIND THE SCENES

I titled my journal “I Shall Go To Texas,” because I only lived in Texas during 2016. For a handful of years I needed to live in the Arkansas and Texas area for family reasons.

The result is the book you see pictured below. The total number of words was 143,193, which worked out to be 583 pages. 

I wanted a paper version of my journal, and because it was meant only as my own record, I printed it at Lulu.com. Lulu is a publishing platform which allows you to print a small number of books, or you can utilize Lulu’s publishing services to maximize revenue and distribution.

I set up the pages in Microsoft Word, converted them to PDF, and uploaded the files to Lulu. A few weeks later,  I received the printed version of my journal in book form. 

I encourage you to write on a daily basis. Journals are excellent records of activities through the years.

Top 10 Coaching Tips from Hilton Johnson

Every day I receive coaching tips from Hilton Johnson Productions. At the time of this writing, the company’s website appears to be down. However, I still receive tips daily.

I have a folder in my email where I save any tips that I like. From my saved tips, the ones below are my favorites for 2016.

1

Giving a presentation without having a new sales recruit watch or hear you do it is a waste of energy, talent and valuable training time.

I love the idea of always being in training mode. What can you learn from a given situation, and what can you teach others?

2

What's 80 times more effective than cold calls?

A study by Selling Power Magazine states that...

• 1% of all cold calls turn into sales
• 15% of all leads turn into sales
• 55% of all referrals turn into sales
• 80% of all introductions turn into sales

I’ve heard a similar statistic for bringing to members in a church. Mailing out invitations to an evangelistic meeting is not nearly as effective as “friendship evangelism.” Personal connections make a difference in the effectiveness of your presentation.

3

People who spend their time multi-tasking are not as creative, productive, or happy as someone who is totally focused on just one task at a time.

Studies have shown that multi-tasking consists of rapid switching back and forth between activities. It seems simultaneous, but it is not.

4

One of the best ways to learn a good presentation is to write the language down on 3x5 cards, take a few of them with you wherever you go, and memorize them one at a time.

A 3x5 card is the ultimate paper app. You can write and draw on cards, easily rearrange them, and access them without technology. Using 3x5 cards is effective when learning a new presentation as well as for any type of information that needs to be learned.

5

The most powerful thing you can do to get people to take action is to create emotion within them. You do that by asking questions that get them thinking and talking.

6

Create multiple income streams by speaking, training, making online programs, coaching, publishing and providing tools for others to succeed.

This is an inspirational goal for me. This is similar to the idea of transmedia, but with more structure in a way that can be monetized.

7

You can ask all the questions you want (even personal ones) in your presentation by simply asking permission to do so before you begin. Here's what you say: "It would be helpful for me to understand more about your situation. May I ask you a few questions?"

Teachers have used questions for thousands of years. Socrates introduced this concept into the Greek philosophy. In the book of Genesis in the Bible, older than Socrates, God used questions when speaking with Adam and Eve, and again when addressing Cain after he murdered his brother. Jesus frequently used questions to engage his listeners.

8

Learn to be a good speaker. You'll get to make multiple sales with a single presentation.

9

Before offering the benefits of your products or services find out if your potential prospect has problems that your products or service will solve. That way you'll only give presentations to people who are interested and qualified.

10

Create a "Keepers File". When you read articles, find quotes and discover ideas you like, put them in the file for reference. They are a great resource for writing articles, training classes and stimulating your imagination.

I have read this same suggestion in the writings of Jim Rohn, John Maxwell, and others. For a few years I pasted articles or rewrote article summaries into a spiral bound notebook. Now I save many articles electronically or make a note in my planner. 

Some Questions from Jesus

Jesus asked many questions to engage his listeners and test the understanding of his followers? He also used questions as a way to introduce a topic of conversation or solicit specific information.

Please read each passage where these verses are located for the context, but by simply reading through this list of questions, I believe you will see several different applications you may also be able to apply as you teach, present, and talk to others.

Questions Jesus Asked

• Matthew 5:46, 47 - If you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so?
• Matthew 6:25 - Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
• Matthew 6:26 - Are you not of more value than they?
• Matthew 6:27 - Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
• Matthew 6:28 - Why do you worry about clothing?
• Matthew 6:30 - Will He not much more clothe you?

Update for Writing 365

In my previous post, I described how my effort to blog consistently in 2016 did not work out.

I am happy to report, however, that not all of my writing efforts were a fail. At the end of 2015 I set a goal for 2016 to write 1,000 words per day every day for the entire year, 365 days.

I tracked my process, and provided updates on a monthly basis. My July update was the last official entry on the status of the project. By July I had already written over 320,000 words.

By the end of the year I wrote 483,790 words in primarily four categories: daily journal, blog posts, Christian essays (I wanted to write a devotional), and ebooks.

Initially I had hoped to write 250 words per day in each of the categories, but somewhere along the way I decided to focus on writing ebook content. I also discovered that my daily journal entries gradually increased in length. As a result, I exceed my writing goal.

This chart shows my journey to 365,000 words and beyond.

For me, while writing 1,000 words or more per day was exciting, I found that the experience burned me out a bit for writing. I spent 2017 working on editing and publishing tasks, but wrote very little.

In future posts I will be sharing the tangible result of my Writing 365 project.

If you do not have writing goals, I encourage you to start with a small overall goal, like 10,000 words, or a daily goal of 250 words. 

Starting Again

This is a new year, and an opportunity to begin again. 

Previously I wrote a few posts on various topics related to generating ideas for blog posts.

• Transmedia
• Tips from a blogging master

With all of this knowledge, you might think that I would be a faithful blogger. However, in 2016 I was consistent until September. You can see the decrease in the number of posts by month in the chart below. 

Now, after a lengthy break, I have again decided to start blogging. One primary difference for this new effort is that I am going to have simple posts. I am not going to worry about writing at least 500 words to optimize the Google search. I am going to write the posts I want to write, drawn from a variety of sources, including the suggestions found in the two posts above.

Early To Rise

Increase your productivity by waking up earlier.

On the Page

Recently I listen to an episode of the podcast, On the Page, a podcast designed for screenwriters, you can "join professional script consultant Pilar Alessandra as she demystifies screenwriting and answers your questions about script craft and story." I stumbled on this podcast in search of resources for creative story telling.

The guest in Episode 468 was Marc Haimes, a screenwriter involved in several successful films and currently working on many projects. In the podcast, Marc revealed one of his secrets to getting things done: He wakes up early. Marc said he prefers to start working at 5AM with the goal of being 70% done with his work by 10AM. He referred to the 5AM hour as yielding "triple dividends," the 6AM hour as yielding "double dividends," and from 7-9 as a "good time" to accomplish his tasks. Marc likes to plan for the next day as he turns into bed by asking questions he needs to answer in the morning. This way, his subconscious can start working while he sleeps.

Facebook Post

The next day, as I was perusing by Facebook feed, I noticed that several of my friends had shared an article titled, "Why the most productive people start their day at 4 a.m. (yes, we're serious)." In the article, the authors wrote about currently well-known individuals who rise early:

• Tim Cook (CEO of Apple), 3:45AM
• Richard Branson (found of the Virgin Group), 5:00AM
• Michelle Gass (Kohl's department stores), 4:30AM

I shared the post on my Facebook feed, and many of my friends commented. It turns out that some of them also rise early, ranging from 3AM to 5:30AM.

An Ancient Practice

In researching for this article, I typed "Ben Franklin early to bed early to rise" into Google Search. One of the first results was a brief article at Wikipedia on this topic of waking up early. Who knew this warranted its own entry on the iconic online encyclopedia? The authors of the articles quoted Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, "It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom."

I previously wrote about Anthony Trollope, who wrote from 5:30-8:30AM every day before starting his full-time job as a postmaster for the British postal system.

Throughout the Bible you will find many examples of characters rising early. Abraham rose early to see if Sodom had been preserved or destroyed. Jacob rose early after his vision of the ladder to heaven. Joshua rose early to vanquish his enemies. Moses rose early to meet with God. In a time when the availability of natural light moderated activities, it was necessary to rise early in order to take full advantage of the entire arc of the sun, from sunrise to sunset.

Benefits of Rising Early

Below are a few benefits I came up with for rising early.

1. Local quiet time for personal improvement - In this international economy, someone is always awake and working, so you won't be able to find a time when everyone is sleeping. However, it is still fairly quiet locally wherever you are. You can use this quiet time for developing a spiritual practice, exercise, writing, reading, or some other personal improvement activity.
2. Fewer interruptions - Because most people and animals are asleep, you can accomplish activities with fewer interruptions. Writing documents for work, responding to e-mails, and individual brainstorming are easier if you do not have to worry about family and professional interruptions.
3. Sense of accomplishment - By getting an early start, you can have a larger portion of your day's work completed well before the day ends.

Challenges of Rising Early

1. Extra effort is required. If you are not naturally "a morning person," you may have difficulty waking up at such an early hour (whether it is 4AM or 5AM). However, a good alarm clock and a personal commitment to start earlier can help.
2. Early bedtime discipline. Based on the number of hours of sleep you require (I prefer 7 hours), you will need to adjust your bedtime to accommodate an earlier wake up time. 
3. You need a plan. Waking up "just because" may not provide the motivation you need to wake up early. Develop a plan for how you will utilize your early morning time. Find a spiritual book or program to study, answer questions from the night before (like Marc Haimes), or commit to an exercise routine. 

I encourage you to try waking up an hour earlier for at least a couple of weeks. I believe you will see an increase in productivity.