Ben Wills

On Living a Good Life.

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I Wanted to Be a Writer. So I Made a Deal With Myself…

I first had the idea about 10 years ago that I wanted to write a book. It had been in my intuition for long before, but 10 years ago was the first time I let myself explicitly think that thought. Similar to Augustine of Hippo praying: “Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet.” I found myself wanting to write…but...

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Innovation is About Forgetting that What You are Doing is Old

“…innovation is not about doing somethingnew out of thin air. It is about forgetting that what you are doing is old.” - Dawn Nafus, anthropologist Everything old is new again from yiibu

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The Single Most Important Piece of Personal Development Advice I Can Offer

Immerse yourself with people you love (and who love you) who will show you those parts of you that you can’t see yourself. /eom

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When Well-Aligned, I Find…

I find when I’m well-aligned with work that is the most deeply meaningful to me… Carelessly spending time is an option only for rejuvenation or recreation. Never to waste it. Decisions are made with greater awareness of the impact on my entire life (including my future wife, children, those I choose to serve, and the world), rather than its impact...

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A Short Word on Designing an Introverted Social Life

I’m an introvert yet, somehow, I found myself spending lots of time with lots of people. It eventually got to the point where I began logging how much time and when I spent time with people. The first five days I logged, it was 65 hours. Aside from the fact that most of my work fell to the wayside, that...

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Beware of Day 15

Often, if I’m making some sort of behavior change (new diet, fitness regimen, habit, etc), I will begin this on a Monday. I find that starting a new habit/behavior on a Monday lets me leverage the inertia that comes with a new week beginning. What I’ve discovered is that I can I can pretty easily keep up this new behavior...

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Do it. Every Day. (i.e. Why You’re Not Actually Learning)

I have a fear of heights. I also rock climb. This poses an interesting situation: this thing that I greatly enjoy brings me great, physically-paralyzing fear. Over the years, I’ve become almost entirely consumed by the desire to understand human behavior and our motivations. A critical part of understanding human behavior and motivation has been about learning how we learn....

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Valuing Completion

You don’t get paid for what you think, you get paid for what you do. More precisely, you’re valued for what you’ve done, not what you’ve thought or felt. This applies if you’re an agency, consultant, individual contributor, manager, etc. This also applies to friendships, family, and intimate relationships. Stop talking about what you’re going to do. If you talk...

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Addicted to Trying

“I’m trying this new diet and…” I hear this all the time. Even more so here in Boulder, the city where world class athletes mingle with the common folk and an outsider would never be able to tell which is which. This is the town where, when I rock climbed in Raleigh, NC, I was one of the better in-shape...

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The Value of Doing Nothing

In some way, shape, or form, I’ve studied “productivity” since reading The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People in middle school. Just a couple years ago, I was drinking no less than 12 shots of espresso every day. It helped me get more work done. Faster. I could stay up later to do more work, and I could wake up...

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About this Guy

Me
Founder, Ontolo SEO Tools.

It appears that I like: climbing rocks and mountains, Type-3 fun in the snow, Texas, BBQ, road tripping, cooking (sauces and grilling), bluegrass and folk, blue jeans, boots, white t-shirts, scotch and cigars.

Loving Boulder, CO.
I might never leave.

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