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Join Team World Bicycle Relief for the 2017 Ride the Rockies (and bypass the lottery!)

November 21, 2016 By Michael O'Brien Leave a Comment

I would like to invite you on a bike ride that you will never forget while helping change the world at the same time.  Specifically, I am asking you to join Team World Bicycle Relief for Ride the Rockies this coming June. What is Ride the Rockies? Ride the Rockies (RTR) is one of the premier organized…

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Filed Under: Business

New Bike Day

October 11, 2016 By Michael O'Brien Leave a Comment

On August 24, I was hit by a pickup truck while riding my bike.  After an ambulance ride to the ER, we discovered that I had a broken left clavicle and broken right thumb.  It was not a comfortable recovery but due to the love of my family and friends, and some excellent medical care,…

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Filed Under: Business

How to Build a Good Resume

June 26, 2016 By Michael O'Brien Leave a Comment

I am frequently asked by friends to review their resumes and I find that I often give the same advice over and over, so decided to make a blog post to go over the main points. I have been on both sides of the resume game.  I once had six resumes in a row lead to…

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Filed Under: Business

Be the change you want to see in yourself

June 8, 2015 By Michael O'Brien Leave a Comment

Gandhi taught us to “Be the change you want to see in the world.” I would like to suggest if there are areas where you could improve, to “Be the change you want to see in yourself.” Often we have things about ourselves that we don’t like and sometimes devise a host of defense mechanisms…

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Filed Under: Business

Remembering my mom – five years later

May 26, 2015 By Michael O'Brien 2 Comments

Five years ago today, my mom passed away from lung cancer.  It was a traumatic experience but I consider myself lucky to have been surrounded by absolutely saintly people. A few months before she passed away, Christina tasked me with writing a thank you note for a quilt she made for Christopher (he was 10 months old…

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Filed Under: Business

So what do you get your mom for Mothers’ Day when she has weeks to live?

May 10, 2015 By Michael O'Brien Leave a Comment

Five years ago on May 9, 2010, we visited my mom at Potomac Hospital who was suffering from the final stages of lung cancer.  Patrick, Eileen, and I wanted to do something meaningful and special – but getting her something was not really an option as she only had weeks or months to live.  As…

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Filed Under: Business

How Getting My Inbox to Zero Changed My Life 

April 16, 2015 By Michael O'Brien 2 Comments

Since the dawn of e-mail, my inbox has largely ruled my work days, often displacing the important for the seemingly urgent.  And since the advent of mobile devices, e-mail went beyond ruling my work days to largely ruling my life.  As a result, I was in permanent and perpetual reaction mode.  I jumped from the hottest fire…

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Filed Under: Business

Ride the Rockies

June 26, 2014 By Michael O'Brien 1 Comment

Prologue: As I prepared to leave for Ride the Rockies this year, I struggled with what to call it.  Was it a vacation?  Most vacations involve fun – and this would involve hours of discomfort, aching muscles, saddle sores, and waking up every day around 5:15 a.m..  Calling it a “bike ride” did not seem…

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Filed Under: Business

Avoid the PowerPoint Trap! How to give an effective presentation

March 7, 2013 By Michael O'Brien Leave a Comment

PowerPoint has been responsible for millions of dreadful presentations.  Everyone reading this post has probably suffered through dozens of awful PowerPoints (and some unwittingly have given some!). Fortunately, there is one thing you can do that will produce dramatic results.  A presentation has three parts – Preparation, Design, and Delivery.  Unfortunately, PowerPoint guides people to combine…

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Filed Under: Business, Marketing, Tips

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Michael O’Brien is passionate about living life to its fullest. In this blog he shares his observations on life, family, and fitness.

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Recent Blog Posts

How shifting my focus (and taking pictures with my iPhone) made me find beauty in the ordinary

We as a species are adept at finding what we are looking for.  We all know people who look for trouble and they always find it.  People who look for something to complain about tend to find it 100% of the time.  But what if we were deliberate in what we were looking for?  And what if…

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2017 Ride The Rockies

Prologue: For me, this story begun on August 24, 2016 – the day I was hit by a pickup truck on a rural Virginia road.  I was left with a broken clavicle and thumb and a totalled bike.  The recovery took months, as did my comfort of riding on roads with cars again.  It was…

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What To Pack For A Staged Bike Tour like Ride the Rockies or RAGBRAI

When preparing for your first bike tour, you may wonder what to bring.  This blog post should get you pointed in the right direction. After doing Ride the Rockies seven times, I have created a list that I have found especially helpful to ensure I have all the bases covered. Some quick background: Ride the Rockies…

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How Not to Accidentally Kill a Cyclist

Two weeks ago, I was riding my bicycle on one of my standard training rides when a pickup truck hit me on a local road. I was about a foot from the white line and the truck’s mirror smacked me in the shoulder blade. I was taken to the ER in an ambulance and now…

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Ride The Rockies 2016

Prologue: When my brother Pat was a priest in Aurora, Colorado, a parishioner named Steve O’Leary introduced him to bicycling.  In November of 1992, Pat came home for Thanksgiving with a VHS tape of a bicycle tour he just did with Steve called Ride the Rockies.  It seemed unreal that normal people with day jobs…

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  • How shifting my focus (and taking pictures with my iPhone) made me find beauty in the ordinary
  • 2017 Ride The Rockies
  • What To Pack For A Staged Bike Tour like Ride the Rockies or RAGBRAI
  • Join Team World Bicycle Relief for the 2017 Ride the Rockies (and bypass the lottery!)
  • New Bike Day

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  • Caryl Chuquillangui on Remembering my mom – five years later
  • Bob Sullivan on Remembering my mom – five years later
  • Michael O'Brien on How Getting My Inbox to Zero Changed My Life 
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