Author: davidholly@gmail.com

Be prepared

One of the things that I enjoyed during the coronavirus panics time that I spent at home is getting a garden going on my deck. I’ve done that for a couple of years now but this year I have tomato plants, some peppers, and a few more flowers. I also bought a couple of blueberry bushes and a couple of grapevines just to see if I could make them grow.
I keep them on the deck which means I have to water them daily. I’ve collected bottles as we’ve emptied them out and I now have a collection of five or six big 2 L bottles that I used to water them with.
I keep the bottles filled with water so that when I go out morning or in the early afternoon to water the plants I can just start watering them. It’s been so nice because last year and the year before I always had to grab the bottle or some picture, fill it with water, then go out and water plants.
But with the ability to adjust decide it’s time to water and then go out and start doing I feel like my productivity is out. It’s much more satisfying when I go to water the plants. And it’s a lot more fun because I don’t have to think about steps to get started, I just go and get started. Yes, I still have to fill the water bottles when I empty them. But it’s much more satisfying to have already watered plants than having to stop and figure out which ones to fill out and all that.
So the Scouting motto “be prepared” applies here. I am prepared to water the plants and because I am prepared I can just start doing it.
In so many other areas of our lives it would be better if we were prepared so that when it was time to do it or we decided to do it we could just pick it up and no. Instead of having to go through a checklist of all the things that you gotta gather up and get together and then possibly use and may not need and all that. All the decisions get in the way of actually accomplishing what we set out to accomplish.
So do your best to be prepared. You’ll come out ahead because of it!

Introducing yourself

One of the best things you can do when meeting someone either for the first time or for an interview for a job or even just passing on the street is to make a good impression. If you’re given an opportunity to introduce yourself it’s good to do it well. Firm handshake, look the other person in the I and smile, and say hi, I am so and so.
It’s not hard, but it is a skill that I had to learn. When I was in high school I was a shy teenager with a face covered in zits and a haircut that my mother gave me that was embarrassing when I look back on the pictures. My mom did the best she could, but we were trying to save money and so she cut my hair until it was 16 years old. She was the one that gave me the money to go and get a haircut at a salon that a friend of hers I worked out.
I was in the band and I had a band director that enjoyed his job and he enjoyed developing the people in the band into the leaders. I remember one day I had to go and talk to him about a fee or some sheet music that I had lost or something. He was at his desk sitting. I walked up and I stood in front of his desk and looked at the ground. He looked up at me, smiled, and said how can I help you? Still looking at the ground I told him what I needed. And he said I can’t really help you until you look me in the when you’re speaking to me. Because I don’t understand what you’re saying unless you looking at me. And I met his eyes and said what I had to say in a quivering voice and he helped me.
After that they always look them in the eye when I spoke to them. He always smiled with a twinkle in his eye and answered my questions and patted me on the back verbally and helped me grow into a much more direct and engaging the individual.
I can’t look you in the eye and tell you that you need to look me in the when you speak to me via email, but I can encourage it with my words. I can also recommend searching YouTube for eye contact practice if you prefer to practice on a video before you actually do it in the real world. But I think the best thing you could do is if you have trouble looking somebody in the eye when you talk to them to go and practice. When you go out to eat at either a fast food place or a sitdown restaurant look the server in the eye when you speak to them. You want to look at both eyes, just focus on one of them. Smile or at least don’t grimace and look like you have gas or something. Laugh at how funny it is. People tend to laugh with you and smile with you and you’re happy.
And when you are out there practicing practice saying your name and introducing yourself. It will help you in the long run!

I want to help you

The main reason I started this site and these courses is because I want to serve and help people. I want to help people stay organized or get organized. I want to help them develop skills that will make them literally unstoppable in achieving success success.
How can I do that? It’s a question that I’ve worked through several times over the years. I am the father of four adult children. As they grew up I tried to teach them things that would help them succeed as adults. I told them that my main goal for them was that they grow up to be fine upstanding members of the community and that they be wildly successful at whatever they set their mind to do. And that’s what they’re doing! My oldest son is working for a company and managing payroll for a lot of people. My daughter is married and working with her husband at a church to share the good news of Jesus. My younger sons are adults still in school and learning to practice the things that I and my wife taught them.
And I want to share some of those things with others now. I want to share those things with you. The main way I want to do that is through email. What I’ve learned over the years is a email is very personal. And despite all the spam and junk I still think that email can let me reach you in a way that few other mediums can. Social media is a close second, but it’s still not quite as personal as email. At least if you use email the way I do!
Along the way I hope to offer quick videos and short courses on how to apply some of the things that I want to share. If you’re interested please do sign up for the email list. I try to be very open and honest and will not share your email address with anyone except the service that I use to manage it. And I selected them because they don’t share with anybody else.
My focus is teenage and college-age guys, although girls can benefit from this also. But the skills are necessary at all ages, more so for adults but also applicable to middle school as well as high school. I hope you find what I share here useful.

What we’re about

There are some skills that help people become successful. Here at Unstoppable Skills we will be giving insights into some of those skills.
A quick list will give you a taste of what we’ll be going over:
– Calendar skills and time management – Common courtesies – Ways to get ahead – Applying for a job and interviewing – And more
Please join us in this journey. If you have a teenager or college student that could benefit from some guidance in these areas please subscribe to our site via email and forward them the emails you receive. Rest assured that your email address is safe and will not be shared or sold to anyone other than Unstoppable Skills and FeedBurner – we hate spam just as much as you probably do, maybe even a little more.
Thanks for your interest in acquiring Unstoppable Skills. More to come…