What Matters – Using Tools to Free Ourselves and Follow our Vocation

March 15, 2011 at 3:48 pm

It’s becoming increasingly apparent why I need to write about ways to live/work anywhere.

A friend called last night, distraught, and said ‘I feel like my life is empty. Can you help me do what you did?’. I’ve always wanted to travel. I feel like I’m doing what I’m ‘supposed’ to be doing. I have a good job, car, etc, but… my life feels so empty. Can you help me put a plan together?”

I was shocked.  This girl is tough. Everyone is intimidated but respectful of her. To see her break down, I actually asked her if she was kidding, to which – of course, she said ‘no’. There are so many people that have fallen prey to a system that doesn’t work anymore. Or to a system that is fake with so many ‘rules’. But all the rules were invented, they are part of a game.   We allow others to take control of our strings like a puppet.

Everybody was meant to be free, to live life the way they intended – not sitting in front of a tv but going out and experiencing our passion, unleashing our creativity, and following our vocation.  Instead of taking control of our lives, we allow systems to manage our life for us.  The world is becoming increasingly borderless and there are tools that we can use to build the life we want, including especially not being limited to a particular job or location.  

As this blog continues I hope to provide more tools and tips on how we can live and work anywhere we choose.  Follow me also at libtuck.com and twitter.com/libtuck (@libtuck).  

Temperature and Productivity

December 22, 2009 at 2:44 pm

As I walk through the streets of Buenos Aires meandering nonchalantly like a fly in winter, I thought about the concept of Productivity and Temperature, and their c correlation.  Why is it that cities that have seasons or are in colder temperatures tend to be larger, have more companies, more business, more wealth?

But if the summer heat slowed me down so much, then my theory about different seasons didn’t hold.  Then I thought about air conditioning.  I decided to look up the effect on temperature and productivity to which I found a lot of information. For example 1/3 of participants in a CareerBuilder survey said their productivity was affected by temperature.  Too hot or too cold and it’s impossible to concentrate.  I found the same when traveling in Central America.  If the wi-fi was working, still all you could think of was the beach and fast-melting ice cream.

Below is a productivity graph from productivity-science.com.  They say

As you can see, the productivity changes significantly and highest performance achieved in relatively short peak between 70° F (21° C) and   73° (23° C). Outside 63° F (17° C) and 82° F (28° C) temperature range the productivity decreases more than 5% and significantly impacts on workers ability to work and even can influence health”

This makes sense now, as I searched for a place with air conditioning to dry my sweat beads and allow me to concentrate, as though I were in the perfect temperature all along.

Temperature and Productivity graphic