New Inspiring Articles

Blogger won't let me link you directly there, but DO check out updates to the new inspiring articles on the right near the bottom. Danielle LaPorte's and Howard Rheingold's are both worth your time!

Also, in line with a couple of posts I've written about getting discouraged, here comes Chris Brogan with confessions of his own. Oh. And I found Howard Rheingold via Chris Brogan so thanks! Mentioned in this video of Chris's is Skip1.org (I skipped lunch today**-brilliant concept!!!) and InvisiblePeople.tv. I have enough that I'm considering giving a lot of it up and doing a massive downsizing in 2010. Most people in the world don't have enough to give anything up.

**UHM. Disclosure: couldn't eat lunch today anyway BUT this gave me a place to relocate those funds that was more useful than my thighs.

Be Smarter Than The Jerk: The Myth of a Special Purpose

A scene:

Navin R. Johnson: The new phone book's here! The new phone book's here!

Harry Hartounian: Boy, I wish I could get that excited about nothing.

Navin R. Johnson: Nothing? Are you kidding? Page 73 - Johnson, Navin R.! I'm somebody now! Millions of people look at this book everyday! This is the kind of spontaneous publicity - your name in print - that makes people. I'm in print! Things are going to start happening to me now.

Oh boy. THAT's optimism!

Navin (aka Steve Martin) went looking for his special purpose in The Jerk (circa, gasp, 1979)? Are you still looking for yours? I'm not inferring that YOU are a jerk for wanting a special purpose but I think Rick Warren simply increased American angst when he wrote The Purpose Driven Life.

Do we REALLY need a single special purpose, one focus, for our entire life? I hope not and I don't think so. Barbara Sher doesn't think so either. If so, my special purposes is to find and share as much information and goodness with as many people as possible, offering my own input from time to time.

I have a dear loved one, downsized awhile back, seeking a special purpose. At midlife, with years of corporate, career-driven "purpose" behind her she suddenly feels lost, adrift and is waiting for THAT THING to fall from the sky and smack her in the head, her own special purpose. She has no idea what that thing is. I have ideas on why this is:

• perhaps it isn't one thing
  
• perhaps she's already done THAT thing
  
• perhaps it is time to focus on play and use work as a means to an end (she didn't get much play before)
  
• perhaps it is time to learn to relax, connect with spirit, care for her dogs (after a long haul caring for her father), love her land, and slowly unfurl, while realizing those are all a reason for "being"
  
• perhaps she should take a stab at a few things and see what brings her joy
  

What I firmly believe she should NOT do is feel like she is a failure if that ONE THING doesn't show up. Some of us are born knowing our passion. For the majority of us it is a matter of trial and error, moving towards what feels good (and away from what doesn't), and staying open to possibilities that will arise, even if our only intention is to be happy.

Stop killing yourself, feeling lost and worthless, if that one special purpose is not calling you. Being alive, kind and curious is truly enough, but more than that will surely find you.

A "Sticky" Thought: Commander's Intent Translated

Made to Stick, the classic from Chip Heath and Dan Heath, is filled with insights that made me want to scrawl multiple notes for blog posts (PRODUCTIVITY TIP: my way of doing this is to send text messages to my email address from bed while reading). As I was reading about the restructuring of the military's battle planning to the newer Commanders Intent (I believe this is on page 26 for those who want to follow along), I couldn't help but think that this is a perfect analogy for how to live life.

Before Commander's Intent, the military was developing incredibly detailed battle plans and then finding they automatically went awry as soon as troops went into the field. There were just too many variables. So they revised the overall system and ended up with Commanders Intent which was basically the core intention at each level of the operation. At the highest level "we intend for the enemy to surrender", next level "we intend for the 3rd Brigade to take control of the NE quadrant within 10 days" and so forth. Instead of the HOW they started with the WHAT. And they let the officers in the field work with the variables they were given to figure out HOW to get to the Commander's Intent.

After having read The Art of Possibility, it occurred to me that Commander's Intent was a great way to live a life.

Set the intention, stay open to unexpected possibilities, remain flexible to detour around roadblocks, and keep on taking small steps while your intention remains fixed. You may have many ideas on how to get a book published, but in the end someone might unexpectedly ask you to provide a guest column on a website that leads to your intention but that you would have never pursued.

Set your intention. Stay open to possibilities. Be flexible with detours. Keep taking incremental steps.

You WILL arrive.

I'd LOVE to hear your stories of how this has worked for you. We've all written up incredibly detailed plans only to have life through us massive curveballs. How did you work around this? What unexpected opportunities came your way?

Embracing My....Pooh?

I tend to operate at Eyeore lows and Tigger highs. Not manic depression but certainly there are recognizable moments when I feel invincible and others when I'm convinced there is no place in the business world where I will find my perfect fit. I suspect this is the personality of many an entrepreneur.

Lately I've been trying to think at Pooh speed. After working with my elf who has encouraged me to seek a more open, average, calm state of mind, and some unexpected forced down time this week, I find I recognize Pooh-time more. This isn't that easy! When most of what we read as entrepreneurs is motivational in tone, it is hard not to feel chronically motivated, which can lead to moments of real let down and questioning.

Look. We can't all operate at Gary V levels. I love the man! But some of us are quiet and introverted. I really don't ever want to do public speaking. Small workshops? YES! Big groups with a headset and technology? NO!

What does embracing Pooh look like? ;-) Well, it sounds a lot like that sound your dog makes when they are settling in to go to sleep. A deep breath blown out. It sounds quiet, it sounds like honey, tea, good friends, a living and not an attempt at being discovered and admired by everyone in cyberspace. TIGGER WANTS THAT! Pooh couldn't care less. Pooh is happy just to be. That takes some thinking about. Happy just to be...Pooh.

In Defense of Blogging

I read recently that blogging may have run its course. There are millions upon millions of blogs, the majority of which go mostly unread and unmaintained. The writer (I've lost where I found it) suggested Twitter and Facebook will and should replace the personal Weblog. Pity. And I hope it isn't true.

I've been blogging for a little over three years now, almost entirely for the pleasure of sharing things I've discovered with other people and yes, my own opinions as well. When I'm consistent, my personal blog gets about 20 readers a day from all over the world, this one a little less. When I see that someone from Belgium or Indonesia has spent a few moments on it, I feel thrilled and blessed. If someone comments, so much the better. But my ego-and more importantly, my bank account-are not dependent on readership.

And I absolutely love the medium. I love searching for images...or "stumbling on" one and then being inspired to write a post. I love commenting on other blogs. I love blog design, embedding video, widgets, the whole nine yards. Then there are the success stories...bloggers who went on to being published via their blog who turned a passion into something larger.

I realize I'm unique. I'm insanely curious about a variety of subjects: art (journaling-of which blogging is really the digital version), design, small space architecture, poetry, music, pop culture, gardening, etc. So blogs, for me, are informative brain candy. I LOVE THEM. I've found so many cool people via blogrolls, been introduced to new music, new business ideas and learned so much.

Once monetizing blogs started being pushed along with all other forms of online marketing, blogging begun to lose its original purpose. And I think the form became bastardized. Don't get me wrong. I'd be so happy to do my own blogging full-time and make a living (is it possible? plenty of people say so, but I have my doubts about the type of blog I have).

I hope blogs don't die. I think there's a community of us who do it simply for the joy of it...not as a marketing tool, not as an income source. By the way, the book above is a compilation of blog highlights from Live Journal's first ten years published via Blurb.com. Very cool.

If I See One More Squeeze Page...

Maybe it is simply because of the business I am in.

It requires me to be on Twitter (ok, I like Twitter but I get Twitter fatigue).

And on Facebook (cough, spew).

And LinkedIn (the site for proper grownups...but check out the "questions section" these days...50% tripe).

I get lots of newsletters. Why? Because I write newsletters and blog posts and articles (and their various versions). The Art of Non-Conformity is the best newsletter I subscribe to btw. You can sign up for it here.

I saw a newsletter today. It had a link to a person who I thought might be interesting.

THE PAGE WAS NOT INTERESTING!

It was a squeeze page (a sales page for a mini-course on leveraging content-do I hear an echo, echo, echo and WHO NAMED IT THIS?!?!).

I do not for one minute believe that the droves of online e-book, mini-course, teleseminar, newsletter, podcaster, multi-channel marketers are making the millions they want you to believe they are. They want you to believe that

SO YOU WILL GIVE THEM MONEY AND THEY CAN TEACH YOU HOW ITS DONE!

The majority are cookie-cutter wannabees without a lick of anything interesting or unique to say.

I had a client who wrote an e-book about online dating using The Secret who shall remain nameless. He got frustrated that his marketing attempts for the e-book weren't as successful as his online marketing coach told him they would be if he just networked and squeeze paged enough. As his blogger and, for a brief period, his social media manager, I had him send it over.

Uh. Dude. They weren't buying 'cuz your product was stinky. Riddled with typos, grammatical errors, clearly outsourced cheaply. And you had nothing original to say.

Hey. I'm pretty much one of them, right? I've got my own e-book in the works. There seems to be no path other than the one lit by squeeze page madness. But I hope to offer a thing or two new (it won't be about making money online and it won't be something I'll market here).

If all this online marketing stuff makes you a bit crazy, it can at least feel more palatable when you follow Naomi, Dave and Sonia. Thoughts?

The Depressed Entrepreneur

I'm depressed and I don't think I'm alone. This entrepreneur stuff can be lonely and ridiculously hard work for what feels like a pay day that will never come. Twitter feels like standing around at a party and watching the "cool kids" have a conversation (you know who you are!) while the rest of us wait for an opportunity to jump in. There's all the personal branding stuff and "when will I have enough money to get a Wordpress site off the ground" and reading about SEO and ROI and Google Adwords and Adsense (and how the f*%k are they different?) and reading, reading, reading and watching YouTube videos to explain it all.

In the meantime, you read blogs where the authors are complaining about only having 150 visitors a day. 150?!?! And the market seems really really crowded with PEOPLE JUST LIKE YOU (and ME). It gets harder to face the computer, to write (which you really do love), and to work with clients. You start wondering "am I just a hack? do I serve a purpose? will I ever get this whole thing fully off the ground?"

Am I right? DO you go through this too?

I've decided today, after I shower, I'm snapping out of this gloom and reminding myself:

• all of this, including the pay, beats sitting in a cubicle asking a 30 year old if you can have Friday off for a dentist appointment and spending money on clothes you hate
• the people on Twitter do not represent the world as a whole. Very few people are actually using Twitter and they all know one another. The rest of the world is clueless about anything but Facebook and Farmville (Farmtown? I don't know)
  
• I have valuable and unique experiences that provide a service
• Rome wasn't built in a day...it's only been a little over a year
• Every day that I work for a client, I will work a little on my own stuff
• I'm learning a LOT

I'm thinking we need a community of entrepreneurs who really let their hair down, who say "I'm tired of social networking" or "I haven't showered since Monday" or "I wonder if I should get my old job in HR back" instead of constantly rah rah-ing about it all the time. What do you think?