I just wanted to quickly share a little realization I had yesterday…

So I’m in this Italian cafe, looking forward to having a nice cappuccino & a sweet biscuit to accompany. But which biscuit do I choose? Ah, the conflict of decisions, we are all faced with having to make choices and sometimes the prospect of making the wrong choice can be immobilizing – however big or small the potential effect of that decision may be.

My initial preference was a jam drop shortbread cookie…but then I settled on the chocolate biscotti…only to spend the whole cafe experience wishing I had gone with the jam drop cookie. By the time all was gone I found myself feeling frustrated and unsatisfied.

Frustrated that I hadn’t enjoyed the treat mindfully.

Unsatisfied because I felt that I would have enjoyed the jam drop more.

So in feeling this discontentment I took a moment to explore the situation a little more…

“How can I avoid this sensation in the future?”

I’ve been here before. A small example, but relevant nonetheless…

Last time I came to the conclusion that I should always just go with my initial preference. Yet obviously I ignored that advice – as here I am. So what more is there to learn?

I thought about the people who inspire to be a better person. Particularly this ‘loony’ yogi character I met in the park the other day. What would he do?

“Accept his choice and enjoy whatever he has for what it is – enough”. Don’t you just love it when a suitable answer magically joins your previously confused consciousness?

“The ideal isn’t to make the right choice, but to accept and be content with the choice that you make. Stop weighing up the options and just enjoy the chosen possibility for what it is.”

I wanted to share this because I am proud – not so much of the answer itself – but of the thought process behind it. I considered what I had already learnt in the past from similar situations – but built on it. That’s progress.

Too often do I just settle for things as being a result of a mistake, rather than having learnt enough from the previous experience.

When you find yourself in the same state over again there is more to learn.

The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today – Franklin D. Roosevelt

Domestic violence is unfortunately a common phenomenon in the United States. Of all violent crimes committed against the family in America, 49% of them are committed against the spouse. For this reason it is extremely important to understand domestic violence as it affects the family, and what you can do to prevent against it.

Domestic violence occurs when a family member, usually a spouse, has exceeded its limit of physical control in arelationship. This includes, but is not limited to pushing, shoving, slapping and punching. The victim of the elements to use in case this happens. He or she may make an order or injunction prohibiting a spouse from coming within the distance of the victim.

If this order is violated, the Court granted in May to the offender a citation for contempt, which allows the victim to be the person fined or imprisoned for his actions. If this does notvictim may file a protection order, which is designed to protect the victim against the aggressor. In general, local police officers have cases of precautionary measures on their list of high priority.

Despite these legal measures to assist the individual, many people are still not facing domestic violence. The reason for this is that because of the nature of our legal system, the offender can not be processed after the crime was meant. The best thing to doin these situations is to recognize that domestic violence and let the situation before it gets to be serious.

Claim that you can be in an abusive relationship depends on the behavior of your partner. According to experts, the violent behavior is progressive. It begins with comments ridiculous and humiliating. Then moves to the handling, separation from family and friends, and the imposition of deprivation and financial control. Over time, this problem becomes morefrequent, more intense and turns into violent attacks.

Contact a family lawyer who specializes in family businesses, a move can be very beneficial. They will be able to recognize the dangers and get the right help you need to protect themselves. For more information, visit www.denton divorce-lawyers.com.

how would you explain

some things happening with

head, belly and heart combined

head hurts as you just fell down

heart aches as the days are losing

and people near you, are not people you keep

as they are to be freed from your bound

and people you desire, require

more than what you are on ground

they are god believers

they believe in gravity

so apple must go up bound

belly is reasonable

as there is no food in it

it must run the silly brain

and heart drowned

combined they disorient you

with the cohesive action

children alive in your womb

and then there are more

some listen and some see

feelings…if more than touching

heart is already drowned

huh…i am already raising a family

though this dumb family decides

what must be the radii

of the path…life gonna turn around…

I could be at a party right now, but since I’ve just come off the flu, I think it’s better to stay at home. Enjoying a bit of music, a glass of water and just the dim light in my room. This is nice. Better than a large-crowded party. At least for now it is. It’s hyggeligt, as we say here in Denmark (cosy is the closest you come to a word of the same meaning in English).

Now, what would be a nice thing to write about tonight? I could write about crushes on girls.. done that. I could write about music.. done that. Could write about random stuff.. done that. Perhaps I don’t really need to write anything at all at this time. Normally it’s kind of a therapy process for me, this blogging. I guess I’m just too happy at the moment.

Nothing is wrong. Nothing is ever wrong, I know that. It’s just a mind trick whenever I feel down. I live a good life. I’ve got what I need. I have tons of friends, who – after my 4 day absence – were glad to see me in school again. They had missed me, what more can you ask for? Gave me a fresh portion of energy. Lovely.

Haven’t talked to my crush the past week.. she’s been spending the days in a town far away. I miss her. Really need to see her again during the weekend. Tomorrow, perhaps. If she’s back home again, don’t even know that for sure. I hope she is. She’s so sweet.

Great, now all my thoughts concentrate on her. Oh well, thinking of her makes me smile. That’s good.

I’m looking forward to something I don’t know what is. Always dreaming about it, though not knowing how to achieve it. I suppose it’s somewhat based on freedom, traveling, being with 1 or 2 friends, a lot of music and a lot of beautiful nature and sunshine. Alright, I’ve got a pretty good idea what it is I want. I know I want it now aswell. My best friends both want to go with me, just not now. School. Heck, I’m in school too. That’s the point of the journey. Freeing yourself from the standards of society (don’t get me started on society!). Hopefully we’ll say our goodbyes in a year or so, and then just head South, East, West, North. Whichever way our legs might lead us. Just away – towards new experiences.

Christmas is coming up. As mentioned, I’m not a Christian, but I do believe in Christmas, nonetheless. It’s all hygge (cosiness) and great food. Presents aswell. Just pure joy. More of that. I envy Aussies. Christmas on a warm beach. Sure, it was nice back when we could enjoy a white Christmas every year. That’s just not happening no more. If we’re lucky, we get a snowflake or two during the evening. Otherwise it’s pretty much just cold. Would be nice to try the warm Christmas – hey, I’ll get to experience that when my friend(s) and I take on the world on our Great World Adventure. I hope.

That’s pretty much what I do at night. I hope. I’m a dreamer. I dream that the music I’m listening to will turn into a concert, right here in my room. Just a small, intimate concert. Please. Either that, or my crush knocking on my door. Or my friends giving thumbs up for the journey to begin. Whatever it is, I hope it’s good. Something that makes me smile.

If nothing happens, then I’ll just have to force a smile upon my face and hope all my dreams come true tomorrow (:.

“But, my own
understanding is this, that whenever
commandments are
given they create
difficulties for people,
because by the time
they are given
they are already
out of date.
Life moves
so fast;
it is a dynamism,
it is not static.
It is not
a stagnant pool,
it is a Ganges,
it goes on flowing.
It is never
the same for two
consecutive moments.
So one thing
may be right this
moment, and may not
be right the next.
Then what to
do? The only
possible thing is
make people
so aware that they
themselves can
decide how to
respond to
a changing life.“
- OSHO

I’m starting this series with financial metrics under the theory that financial statistics are the easiest, most objective things to track and report.   Financial performance metrics address the entire suite of measures related to consulting activities as measured by hours, revenue, billings and cost.   The focus for this discussion is using these metrics to judge individual consultant performance, not overall practice health – we’ll discuss the broader picture of practice health at another time.  Also, this is not intended to be an exhaustive list – I picked the measures that I consider MOST important to evaluate.

When considering financial metrics, three things are important – what do you measure and what do you do with the measurement?

What to Measure?

1. Utilization: 

This is a labor efficiency metric showing the total number of hours you billed as a percentage of the total available to be billed.  Three total available hour calculations are available to you:

Full Year:  Easy, its 2080 hrs per year (52 weeks * 40 hours).  However, using this as the denominator means that some people are okay at 88% ute (like consultants) and some are okay at 30% (like directors).  Hence, I don’t use this.

Net Planned NC:  This is 2080 – PTO – Study/Admin – Sick.  If each of those components is 80 hours, that leaves you about 1840 hrs available time or about 88% of the fully loaded hours.  I’d expect a consultant to bill this, but a PM engaged in selling or a director would not be able to.

1600 Rule:  This is a good thumbnail for a low intensity practice.  Basically, everyone is expected to charge 32 hours, 50 weeks per year and spend a little less than one day per week making contributions to the the company knowledge base, recruiting and doing administrative work.  Practically speaking, if you factor in sick time, you’d need to bill about 33 or 34 hours per week to stay in range.

I keep the use of the above pretty simple:  “Total Available” for consulting staff (sole contributors) is based on Net Planned NC (1840).  For PM’s, I use the 1600 rule.  Directors, and other team contributors in similar capacity, are at 10-20% of the Net Planned NC target.  Don’t forget to adjust the denominator for the Hire Date if the person was hired inside the year being measured.

The target goal for Ute, in my opinion, is always 100% of an individually set number of totally available hours.  95% is bad, 100% is good, over 100% is best. 

2. Realization:

This is a revenue efficiency metric showing the total revenue captured out of the total available to be captured, expressed as a percentage (Revenue Billed / Total Available Revenue expressed as a percentage).  Like ute, the denominator in the Realization calculation is critical.  Generally, it is Total Available Hours x Budget Rate By Position.  The last two words are critical – like ute, you want to target 100% as the performance standard, so the rate by which you multiply the hours should be the rate at which that position is intended to bill.  Associates may bill at $140; Directors at $210.  Both would use these individual rates to rack up the total available revenue number.  Its up to you if you want to measure realization using budget rates or avg rates for a prior period – I prefer budget, but I actually look at both.

And, like ute, don’t forget to take into account hire date for employees hired inside the year under analysis.

3. Gross Mark Up:

This is the ratio of total earnings to total revenue.  The calculation is pretty easy:  take the total YTD salary + total YTD bonuses and incentive payments / total YTD revenue billed.  The resulting ratio shows you the the gross markup on the consultant cost.  In general, a practice needs to be above 2.5 as a group (including mgt), so the gross markup at an individual level should probably be higher.

With that said, the markup is going to be different for different levels of skill set.  Someone 1 or 2 years out of school, being used as a sole contributor should be close to 5.  Someone 15 years in the business, who does significant selling work, helps mentor, adds significantly to the ability of the firm to excel, etc may be at or just slightly above breakeven.

How do you use the measures?

First, don’t manage these metrics in isolation.  Managing solely to ute gets you high billed hours but not necessarily good collectible hours or high realization (as an old co-worker of mine once explained to the VC run board of my then current employer: “Hell, if ya’ll want ute I’ll sell our time on eBay at $1 an hour”).

Second, always look at all of this for the billing week, then MTD, QTD and YTD. Make certain you isolate the trend (up, down, stable) rather than making decisions on a single billing period.  It doesn’t hurt to look at a rolling 6 week average to flatten a bad week.

Third, always look at ute and realization together.  I don’t have high ute.  However, I usually bill at or above $200 / hr.  So, I don’t need a ton of billed time to nail my realization target.

Fourth, review Gross Markup monthly or quarterly and always look at YTD numbers.  Any period shorter than a month starts to get misleading.  If you don’t pay incentives monthly or quarterly, you probably need to start building in accruals to the analysis or your numbers will be too low.

Finally, don’t make any decisions about people based on the above.  Read the next few posts in the series and make decisions based on both financial and cultural perspectives.

And, lastly, how do you accumulate all this detail information?  Business Intelligence tools like SSAS really help, especially when combined with ERP time billing systems.  I’ll do another post a little later detailing how my company does it today because I can fill pages about techniques for doing this right.  However, don’t let a desire to automate stop the measurement process – if you system isn’t perfect, its still better than nothing.

Next post: Objective Measures – Client Satisfaction

I wrote this at school

Through this stained hour glass of impending sorrow,

Bliss awaits the near triumphant end

Why o’ why must the laughter of children be heard after the cries of mourning men

Ears and eyes drown in the broken sonnet that seeps from their empty hearts

O’ how I lust for the day when the scent of a woman enchants me from this cold crooked ground and into the orange soothing sky

O’ how I lust for the day of Summer’s end.

Consumed by all I have become.

Reasons in which I drown.

Justifying that which I know as ill.

Parading my faults as a crown.

Revolted by my own deeds.

Deny that I can fall.

Floating upon a mask that is hollow

Lending my ails to all.

Crushed by my webs upon webs of lies.

Blindess through which I see.

Hiding from the face that is mine.

Living as the fool I be.

straight talks

refining

refining to make the point

skipping the bumps

aiming whatever

making elevation

of the plans

refining the straight plans

but this comes in medium

why i always talk straight

and don’t do crooked talk

when you look a region

being inside

when you look a region

being in space around

when you look the region being inside

after being in the space around, outside

when you talk straight

and when you talk crooked

when you mumble

when you write poetry

when you unsay with need to say

when you write all along

sleepless nights

when you help

with yourself on line

when you love abundant

being penniless in love account

when you let go

and then bring again the same

gone

when you talk about “when’s” and “why’s”

speculating and straightening the universal questioning sound

when you share

in dumbest medium

when you tilt

just to tilt…with first wall you sketched

in your plans

when you make your work

unreadable and more undoable

to transgress…the knowings you gained

when i see my ruthless elders, teachers

and me being taller each day

gone

and when this when…stops being future

and becomes present

this will go on

this must go on

when something happens

something intact, pure

true and beautiful

its you…obviously you…

lingering in painful state for almost forever

but…

thank them too…who just lingered around

its dramatic

beauty takes unusual means…of pains

to know…it takes forever….of individuals

civilizations

to create beauty of permanence…

ok!

how you resolve words

how you resolve the words

you’ll use in crude expression

how will you edit

what you must scream

how you’ll hold

and go for aftermath

what lies in editing

what lies in hiding

what lies in politics

what lies in polishing

what lies in refining

when you look in those eyes

submissive eyes

why you turned around

and gave the same cornered eyes

to someone else around

what lies in photo finish

of the reality around

what lies in loving each time truely

and being rational

what lies in your behind

and the present you present

what lies when you are taller

and you look down

just going round and round

its not a judgement

it sounds nice…round

now since i don’t have answers

must use metaphors

sun, rivers, life, damn

why i can not say

will never say

the utmost, most crude

immediate thought

please remove my teeth

god!

In a way…it’s like I foresaw something I was never meant to see-our demise. I thought it was just another one of Love’s cruel jokes, but that wasn’t the case. This had come to pass as my current reality. As I laid there pretending that I had went deaf just so I wouldn’t have to hear those words escape your lips. Sadness loomed over me as I laid there with nothing more to say then “Um…okay…” repeatedly because I couldn’t find anything profound enough to say to make this situation different. I suspect that he could feel my pain just like I left his. Though, no tears had fallen. The setting of still silence offered no comfort. As I searched for something I knew had long departed, but at that moment I wanted it back. I wanted every trace of what we once were back. I wanted to take it all back. It was selfish…and in my heart I knew that my selfishness would only lead to false love. That’s not what I want.

            So I let go yet memories still lingered. It was in those memories I had found comfort. In words that seem to be just random thoughts etched onto a pad: ANGER…GUILT…EMPTY…SAD…TORN…and for a moment lost. Tormented by my own actions I blamed myself. Then it dawned on me that “us” as we once were could be again just not now, not in this moment, not at this time.  I had nothing left. Emptiness consumes me. Yet, comfort found me…I still didn’t sleep well last night, but I was at peace. I thought of how glad I was that I had the opportunity to be invited in and share the world he called his own with him. I could think of nothing negative to scar any images of him stored away to memory.

Conditional Love vs. Unconditional…

I didn’t understand then what Conditional and Unconditonal Love was…until now…there’s a lessoned learned, but life must not stop it must go on. Memories and experiences written to compose chapters of a New Year Times best seller that’s sold more units through its poetic words composed by ME the literature world’s unsigned hype. My love for my craft is Unconditional and for him it was limited to his mood swings. I loved him.

 I find

me scared

Afraid

Lonely

Hopeful

And yet once again

Single

Imagine that 

I’ve learned some valuable things while we were together and I’m still learning. Conditional Love always leads to heartbreak because risk are not being taken because limitations are set to expectations that were set by the next man…you expect Mr. Right Now to live up to past transgressions. Not being realistic about the situation and seeing that its circumstances are different. “No man can live up to the expectations of another.” At least not until you realize what it is you want in the present will your love be Unconditional. That is my dose of reality.

Every Thing arising depends on everything else arising and although we think we are separate entities, separate forces, separate energies, emotions and forms, all is an All, all is a One, all is a None – such is the suchness of Being as It Is.

Like the jewel-encrusted spider web that stretches out across all perception, reflecting in each pinpoint of light another jewel inside another and another, so the play of life unfolds. What we believe ourselves to be reflects the light of a billion stars, a million snowflakes, a hundred-thousand heartbeats, a thousand kisses, a hundred rainbows, ten prayers, one eye.

And it all disappears in one instant of clear, unadulterated Seeing.

When this Is, That Is and when this Isn’t, That Isn’t.

And it is understood that we are nothing but a dewdrop on a filigree of shadow, reflecting back our own Seeing into Eyes that Know the nature of Infinity intimately and compassionately, without end.

One death, one birth set free through quivering spinnerets weaving One Life, ten Lives, a hundred, thousand, million, billion lives like teardrops lost in rain, lost in love, lost in silence.

And things continue to pull on these heart strings, stretching out as they do across our world, tugging us back into our story again and again like wind rippling through wind chimes, stirring up a melancholic symphony of orchestrated desires and sufferings, joys and despairs.

Yet we have always known the silence – We are The Silence, We are The Light, even though we see ourselves as dirty jewels, hanging out on the washing line of Life, waiting for that day when we become clean and fresh, blown through with new spring air, really alive again. And for this moment we are always waiting, always searching, totally dependent on news from afar.

This is the illusion that separation can play upon us but it is only a trick of the light. Really, we can never be anything but pure, crystalline and perfect, devoid of doubt, devoid of identification, devoid of story, devoid of being devoid – totally complete and without form, the Light that shines upon Everything.

And Everything reflects back everything else and this is the net that holds the jewels of Being, this is the Web of Conscious Awareness that shines out One Beacon to illuminate that which can never be illuminated.

This is The Source, The One, The Void.

This Is It.

From the Seeing of this comes the Knowing of that and out of the shadows creeps the Light.

It is in the moment between inhale and exhale that you find your purpose; in the interstices between one moment and the next; in the pause before the leap. They occur rarely and happen constantly, these moments of meaning, an endless stream of enlightenments that you catch in a long sweep of strings, the scent of rain, a slow drive home on a night with a full moon. A song you put on endless repeat, humming the refrain beneath your breath, swinging your heels on a green park bench. Sunrise over the ocean. Falling in love.

we spend so many days of our lives searching for the right answers to random questions..and we focus immensely on finding “the right one”, whether it be a soul mate, a job, car, etc…have you ever stopped to wonder if anyone is looking for you?I mean, who you are may be the perfect combination of amazingness for some employer, a friend, or even a companion. The point is–more than likely someone is seeking you just as much as you are looking here and there for them. The challenge is connecting the two of you together. How does that happen and you can’t help but think…will it ever happen? everyone is wonderful to someone else, the charm is in you…hopefully patience will bring them to you.patience in combination of persistance is trying to become an even better, more successful, and more motivated version of YOU!