Practical Personal Happiness and Success Tips

I hope you had a great weekend!  I published a book on how to be happy and successful in your daily life.  The book isn't about tech or product management, but I wanted to share the news with you!  It is available on Amazon.

How To Be Happy: 12 Powerful Steps to Boost Your Confidence, and Live a Happier Life Now

I wrote this book for you to share tips I have applied to move forward when life seemed at a standstill. 

I will show you how to be happy with 12 powerful, yet simple actions you can take. 

How To Be Happy by David Kim

It will be available for a FREE kindle download for the next few days, and I would love it if you downloaded free of charge and read over it.  Also, for your sign-up on BetterAndHigher.com, you'll receive a FREE audio download to Tip #8. "You Say Yes, I Say And."

And, if you like it, then would you please consider leaving me a good review (i.e. five star review) about the book?  Thank you ever so much!

A Silicon Valley rite of passage

There is a rite of passage in Silicon Valley.  And it's called hackathon.  If you're new to town, you should experience it.  A few days ago, I wrote about why you should go to a hackathon.  It is a great way to learn by doing, possibly do something good, and maybe even win prizes.  And it's fun!

I wanted to share a quick entry about upcoming opportunities for you to dive in and see for yourself.  Registration is free!

July 11 - 14 Yahoo! Intern Open Hack,
July 13 - 15 AT&T Mobile App Hackathon: San Fran, @atthackathon
July 21 - 21 Code for Oakland 2012: Building our Civic Web
July 21 - 22 SF Gigabit Hack Days, what would you build if you had city-wide 1gbps networks?
July 28 - 29 Hack for Change 2012, San Fran - to bring designers and builders together

Notice that I found all of these listed in Eventbrite.  It's a local startup.  Learn to fish - check them out @eventbrite and look for events that you like.  You can also try meetup.com.  And have fun.  Life is a journey.  And think big.  You might surprise yourself.

Watch this wonderful talk about what hackers do by Pablos Holman at TED. Amazing stuff!  See?  It's a chance for you to do something cool, and further:

a) it is an opportunity for you to get noticed and possibly find yourself with a new job.
b) you can actually win prizes.  That is if you're good.  How good are you?

Further, in my prior entry about why you need to go to a hackathon, I listed a few more reasons:

1. You learn cool stuff from exposure to new ideas.
2. You grow by stretching yourself in new skills.
3. You connect with lot of bright and neat people.
4. There's something about the vibe that you have to feel.
5. Free food!

A beautiful (and happy!) breakfast plate from a recent hackathon

6. Free stuff!

Happy hacking!  Keep innovating!

* An update - more insights about life and winning from a recent event.

If you enjoyed this post, tag along for future posts on twitter @findinbay.

When all else fails, run! [insert your name here]! Run!

The other day, I was feeling stuck.  Stuck on trying to solve a CSS display issue.  Stuck on trying to come up with a new business idea with a friend.  Stuck on making a progress in my learning.  Feeling stuck about what to do next today.  Feeling stuck in life.

And I tried to take a deep breath.  It didn't work.  And I tried to get up and pace around a bit.  It didn't work.  And I brewed some coffee (Starbucks) for a caffeine injection.  It didn't work.  So, what do I do when all else fails?  Run!  Literally.

Picture of a friend running the Blue Ridge Relay

Running takes my body and my mind away from the problem at hand, and helps me get unstuck from the space and problem in which I'm immersed.  Sure, I am tempted to stick it out.  Sure, running can feel like running away.  But, sitting in front of the computer screen for another hour wasn't going to produce anything useful.  Instead, running for an hour had all sorts of benefits.  [For a more authoritative list, I dug up this article from a running magazine: Why running is good for your body.]

As for me, here's what I got:
1. Pulverized calories and felt great from sweating them off.
2. As the muscles burned, I got a jolt of awesome hormones, like endorphin and dopamine.
3. More importantly, running freed my mind from what was bugging me. I felt grateful that I could run.
4. I am grateful to feel the breeze on my face.  I am grateful to see birds and trees.  I am grateful to breathe!
5. I thought about life beyond the computer screen. While I get stuck from time to time, life is more than staring at a screen.  Life is more than making a buck.  Life is more than getting ahead.
6. I felt grateful to be alive.  Sometimes, I feel frustrated that I'm not this or that, that I don't make this or that, that I'm not more, more, more.  But, hey!  Life is still pretty damn sweet.

And when I came back home, I was happy.  And I couldn't remember what was bugging me so much.  Life goes on.  Life is good.

If you are looking for other ideas on how to get out of a rut, checkout my post about going to hackathons here.