Use Your Password to Focus and Motivate You

Dale Denham

Clearly it doesn’t matter what your password is. The NSA is going to read our email and I’m not too worried about it, but I’m not a paranoid privacy person (see my blog paranoid privacy parts).

But that isn’t the point of this blog. The point of this blog is to use your password to focus and motivate you every day.

The point of this blog is NOT to:

  1. Convince you to use different passwords for sensitive sites. But you might want to read this great blog post on lifehacker.
  2. Convince you to use software like www.lastpass.com or 1password to secure your passwords and make your life so much simpler. (But you really should.)
  3. Point out the hypocrisy of those of you whine about the government checking your email and phone but you leave your passwords open for easy hacking. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)
The point of this blog is to get you to use your primary password to motivate you to take action. Several people liked the concept I used to help me focus on losing weight (see the blog here how technology helped me lose 20 pounds) where I changed my password to my goal weight (190pounds, which I’m glad to say I have now achieved and am still losing, thank you very much).
I’ve used this technique several times and not just for exercise goals. Here are a few ideas for you to use your password to help keep you focused and motivated.
  1. 730000inSales! A great way to keep focused on your annual sales goal.
  2. 40GPmargin$ — A great way to focus on your margin.
  3. Make5ColdCallsADay$ — Remind yourself to make those calls
  4. PrayOrMeditate10MinutesToday — Helps you take time for yourself
  5. July72000# — A great way to remember an important date like a birthday or anniversary but be careful, this is one of the easiest to hack if people get some personal information.
  6. QuitSmokingByDecember&SaveMyLife — You can do it!
  7. DrinkLessWine+Beer — Help remind yourself to cut back a little.
  8. Run@8MinuteMiles — Motivate yourself to hit a new training goal
  9. SendDaleAGift! — Remind yourself to send me a gift. 🙂
  10. LeaveACommentOnThisBlogSoIDontFeelLonely! — (It’s nice to get comments via private messages but there is something very nice about getting a thumbs up or comment on the blog.)
You can use your most frequently used password to help you focus on whatever goal you want to set for yourself. But be sure to use a few special characters to keep it from being too easy to get hacked. Especially if your account has credit card or sensitive personal information.
And for those of you with kids like me, here is a bonus tip. I change my kids passwords too. Several times it has been spelling words that are tough for them. Type a word as a password for a week, and they won’t forget how to spell it. But I also use it to reinforce messages like “cleanmyroom”, “iwillnottalkback”, “dontleaveclothesonthefloor.” Have fun with it. It drives them nuts and they learn something!
Geiger CIO Dale Denham, MAS+ provides practical insights on how you can benefit from technology in no nonsense terms. Follow him on Twitter: @GeigerCIO.

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