I’ve been exchanging email with someone who has a great relationship, has much to be grateful for and generally recognizes that he has a good life.
Except.
Ah, the pesky “except” clause. A good life except that (he wrote) “It’s a struggle, and I don’t feel I’m in my right place. Is it the way I’m thinking? or what I’m doing? I get depleted far too quickly, and find the moments of joy too far apart. Do I keep my head down and just get through this?”
(more…)
I just picked up mail at my PO box. In it was a scintillating flyer with kid-style writing and goofy clip art enticing me to attend a course that will be coming to an area near me this year. Joy!
Unfortunately for them, the mailer did not have the intended affect of inspiring me to sign up. Even with the “Express Enrollment!” option.
The strategy of sending out ads to anything half-alive to produce a minuscule return is completely irritating to unwitting recipients.
In case you were wondering, here are three tips to get on my snarky side:
We’re in a time of reworking business and marketing models. The spam approach, a.k.a. the I’m-not-going-to-bother-figuring-out-who-my-people-are-and-how-to-reach-them approach, is done. If I have my way in the universe, it will be extinct in the very near future.
What’s replacing it? Content marketing. In a nutshell:
If you want to learn about it for your own business, check out Copyblogger‘s Content Marketing 101:
How to Build Your Business With Content.
Why do I get so riled up about this stuff?
As a human being, my intention is to help people.
I don’t want to be a burden, and I don’t want to be in someone’s face if they don’t want me there. In other words, permission is important to me.
Meaningful connections with people, from close relationships all the way through to simple writer/reader relationships, are important to me.
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Photo credit: Pleasing the Junk Mailer by mikecogh
Since Hollywood doesn’t give us natural professional main characters, here’s my idea for a storyline.
Catch the exciting story of the young, naive, newbie Zen practitioner who, despite all of his good intentions just keeps making more of a mess…
No promises, but this may be an ongoing rant on the popular term: “life balance”. The first was on the Project Simplify channel.
(If the video is really jerky here, you might want to try it directly on Youtube.)
As a natural professional, I don’t like to admit that my wrists are sore from too much computer keyboarding, that I’m hardly doing any yoga, and cooking is a once a week endeavor (if that). Walks or biking, fuhgettaboutit.
Granted that when you go through a big push, like launching a new website, this is acceptable behavior. And maybe a week after the launch to tie up loose ends. And maybe a week after that…
Doh! that was a trick. Were you ready to go along? Waiting to see how compelling the argument was going to be?
The frightening power of the mundane…
I had coffee on Friday with a friend who told me about some physical back issues she’s been dealing with over the last couple of months.
I asked her if she was doing some kind of yoga or low-impact stretching and back strengthening class of some sort.
“When?! I work all day then get home and have to take the dog for a walk, make dinner, and there are certainly going to be emails from the org that I’m president of and I can’t respond to those during the day…” and so on.
Whoa, Nelly!!
Taking care of your canine friend is important, but your long term back health and mobility is critical!
Here’s the thing. We can:
Whether it’s your health, your art, or anything else that makes your life hum more sweetly, it’s up to you to set boundaries, rearrange your schedule, or recalibrate your thought process to make it happen.
Q: What Good Work aren’t you doing?
Q: What busy-ness is filling up your time?
And most importantly,
Q: What are you going to do about it?
I drafted up this post on Friday, four days ago. It inspired me to get out and enjoy a gorgeous weekend complete with bike ride and hike at the river. =)
Want accountability or support? Share what you’re going to do below in the comments.
I’ve been exchanging email with someone who has a great relationship, has much to be grateful for and generally recognizes that he has a good life. Except. Ah, the pesky “except” clause. A good life except that (he wrote) “It’s a struggle, and I don’t feel I’m in my right place. Is it the way I’m […]
I just picked up mail at my PO box. In it was a scintillating flyer with kid-style writing and goofy clip art enticing me to attend a course that will be coming to an area near me this year. Joy! Unfortunately for them, the mailer did not have the intended affect of inspiring me to […]
Since Hollywood doesn’t give us natural professional main characters, here’s my idea for a storyline. Catch the exciting story of the young, naive, newbie Zen practitioner who, despite all of his good intentions just keeps making more of a mess…
No promises, but this may be an ongoing rant on the popular term: “life balance”. The first was on the Project Simplify channel. (If the video is really jerky here, you might want to try it directly on Youtube.)
As a natural professional, I don’t like to admit that my wrists are sore from too much computer keyboarding, that I’m hardly doing any yoga, and cooking is a once a week endeavor (if that). Walks or biking, fuhgettaboutit. Granted that when you go through a big push, like launching a new website, this is […]
