At least once per month I will highlight a business, life or even funny lesson here. My purpose is not to teach nor preach but to share some of the crumbs I’ve gathered from other people’s tables.

Have you ever read the book, The Alchemist? It’s a great read by author Paulo Coelho. You should check it out. As a result of me reading this book many years ago coupled with my recent interest in all things Twitter, I have started to “follow” Paulo. He offers insight and inspiration to everyone.

In fact one of his quotes really got me thinking. Here it is:

@paulocoelho: 26/08: Freedom is not the absence of commitments, but the ability to choose your task in life

That’s deep. Many people have given their opinions on what freedom is. Is it simply retiring from work and watching game shows? Is it stopping a job to start a business? My mom “retired” a while ago. Not by choice mind you. But she’s been busier than ever taking care of our grandmother, son and doing a variety of volunteer work.

So, when I came across this quote it hit me because this makes the most sense.

Freedom is the ability to choose your task in life. So, while I’m not free yet, I know that I’m working my way towards it.

I would love to know your thoughts on this. With this quote in mind, do you consider yourself free? If so, why? If not, are you working towards your freedom?

Yesterday I asked on Twitter what you defined happiness as.

Here are your answers:

Not too long ago I became interested in what tools like Facebook, Twitter, iTunes and YouTube could do for my various activities in work, business and volunteer efforts.

This lead me to create various profiles on Google, Facebook and a host of other “social media” sites.

Finally I got myself invited to host a booth for the Toronto Green Community as a volunteer at an event known as TwestivalTO.

Which leads me to today as we enter the last few days of an event myself and a few others are spearheading. It’s called GREENtuity. More on this in a bit. But first I must tell you why.

Toronto Green Community has been home away from home for my wife for over the past 10 years or so. She started as a volunteer and is now the Director. They are an amazing grassroots-based not-for-profit organization. They have played a role in the creation of AutoShare and the wind turbine co-op many of you see near the CNE grounds.

Despite these amazing programs as well as many community-based initiatives like Lost Rivers Walks and Green Gardening, TGC seems to have never managed to create a following large enough to attact major donors, sponsorships, and even new and young memberships.

And this is where myself and the GREENtuity team come in.

GREENtuity

GREENtuity, a Tip to the Environment, works by allowing patrons of our partner stores to make a $1 (or more) donation at their time of purchase. The goals of GREENtuity is to increase the profiles of our partners during Earth Week; increase the profile of Toronto Green Community and raise $5000 for TGC’s various initiatives and programs.

1. Increase the profile of Toronto Green Community across Toronto.
2. Raise $5000 for Toronto Green Community.
3. Engage the “wired community” to become involved with Toronto Green Community.

GREENtuity, a play on the words green and gratuity, has increased the profile of TGC among our various partner stores. We have also had great support from various bloggers.

Which leads us to the $5000 goal. Can it be accomplished? Is it posibble? Impossible? Does it even matter? It does matter and I believe that we all can raise the $5000. The objective and the receipient are both worthy of our efforts.

I hope you will help.

Thank you.

Many people…a few people…okay…just you read this blog. However, this blog also gets linked to my Facebook account. As a result I have readers who are both web savvy and not so web-headed. So I thought I’d introduce some of you to a couple of pretty cool tools I’ve discovered over the past year.

These tools may be able to help you in your career or studies. Or maybe you’ll just love to use them to help you keep up to date on your old wresting fixation. Ahem.

Twitter. Yeah, I know you’ve heard about it but you think it’s a waste of time. Depends. Watching TV 5 hours a day is a waste of time too. Anyways, here’s the cool thing about Twitter. You decide how to use it! It’s a micro-blogging program that let’s you tell your “followers” anything in 140 (or less) characters. Anything! You can also “follow” people you want to and search for keywords about things that interest you.

Google Reader. I like it better than Google Alerts. It compiles all the cool articles, blogs, keywords that interest you and stores it for you. So, when you’re ready to read the latest additions from the fun folks at Freakonomics then just log into your Google account and see what you have yet to read. I like it.

Well, these are just a couple of tools that I use and enjoy. I’ve also figured out how to use them for business. What tools have you discovered that others may be able to exploit?

To my regular reader(s), sorry about the nature of this post. I’ll be back to my regular programming soon. Maybe an Obama post on Tuesday. I hear it’s a big deal….

If you follow me on Twitter (@karimkanji) or Facebook, you now know that I’ve “lost” my cellphone.

You can stop snickering now.

First time I’ve been without a phone since 1996 when I joined SunLife as a Life Insurance agent. I’ve always had the phone. By my side. In my pocket. In my bag. It used to wake me up in the morning as well. Recently it was my calender and notebook as well.

Not any more.

Back to basics. I just dusted off my calendar and notebook.

I do feel fine though. I just realized that life does go on without a wireless device. So, this Thanksgiving weekend try turning it off. For no other reason than to share my pain.

I do feel fine. Really.

Wow! The weather here in Grenville, SC is awesome. I should have brought my swim trunks! The pool is very inviting.

If you want to follow me here in Greenville, then join Twitter, if u already haven’t, and follow karimkanji.

Talk to you folks later!

KK