Getting the most out of your life.
Arbitrary Barriers.
Do you know what these are?
Arbitrary barriers are traps we set up – for ourselves, by ourselves – that preclude us from doing great work.
The dialogue is pretty simple. It’s usually an “if-then” statement, a wish to be fulfilled that can only happen after you do something else. This is what it looks like:
Continue reading “Why You’re Not Getting There. (Clue: It’s You, Not Them)”
This one was inspired by Tyler of Advanced Riskology. Who are you? Who are you when no one is watching?
Inspired by #Trust30’s Post-It prompt by Jenny Blake, I’ve put together a series of a dozen or so challenges and questions that I ask myself and post up in my office and my home workspace. To see the rest in the series, check out the Post-It category.
Who are you? How do you describe yourself to other people?
Business cards are great – for when you meet in person. (I love the ones I have!) But you can’t send them out via email or snail mail. And email signatures are becoming so inflated, it’s downright annoying. (You know what I’m talking about. The 17-line email signature on every email message that includes your place of birth, how often you pick your nose, and a gajillion other titles.)
Personal branding, especially on the web, is about simplicity in messaging. A brand is an identifier, a way to understand something. It’s about creating a message and an identity for yourself that resonates with what you do. You may do way more than what your brand message says, but it’s important to have a clear description of who you are and what you do. More importantly, it should be simple for other people to understand.
How do you represent yourself? How do you tell your story? If you’re developing a personal brand, we want to know who you are.
About | Me is an interesting site that’s pretty simple: an online landing page for you and your many online media outlets. A simple, streamlined page for all of your fun stuff. I find it useful. Here are a few image examples from the About.Me online profiles:
You can set one up pretty easily. It’s a great, simple first step in starting to build your online presence (you can do it with and without a blog, website, or other sites). If nothing else, this is a really good exercise for those starting out online, and a really great hub or landing page for people with multiple websites. Here are important items for consideration:
Here’s my profile. I’m always working on it – I have a lot to learn about telling my story and creating an online presence. Later this summer and year, I’ll be working with a few teams to craft my business vision, goals, and personal brand (for this website and more). You can always learn more.
Still not sure where to start? Begin with observation, research and studying. If you’re not ready yet for your own profile, browse through the catalogs of people. See what people are doing. See what you like – what do you respond to? Which people draw your attention? Why? Keep notes on why you find them interesting and what you like about what they say. Print out a few of your favorites as templates to use later when you develop your own files.
It starts with // Identity.
Inspired by #Trust30’s Post-It prompt by Jenny Blake, I’ve put together a series of a dozen (or so) challenges and questions that I ask myself and post up in my office and my home workspace.
This was inspired by Jonathan Fields and the still-buzzing #WDS crew. What are your questions? What are your challenges?
An urban nerd meanders Portland, camera in hand: LOVE. The city is beautiful, stunning, green, progressive, relaxed, beautiful: HEAVEN. Then come 500 amazing souls to congregate in the best conference in the world, aptly titled the World Domination Summit: A MIND AFFAIR. #loveatfirstsight. DONE. I hope you enjoy some of these photos.
It’s late Tuesday night, and I’m lying on the floor of my apartment, two new friends (from #WDS) crashing in my place – having just met them a few days ago. Yes, it’s like that. We traveled to Portland and then, less than 48 hours later, I’ve opened my doors in San Francisco to some of the most amazing people, brilliant minds, and interesting folks doing great things around the world.
We are geeking out over the nerdy stuff – the technicalities of blogging, the massive spam attack on several word press sites late in the evening, bantering about some of the stories we heard (or lived), … and … this, THIS is the spirit of #WDS. This is the intangible. This is why we do what we do. This is what IRL means.
I leave #WDS with notes and thoughts and ideas; but more importantly, I leave #WDS knowing that each of the people in attendance is going to do something to change the world and that somehow, our lives will continue to cross paths in the future. I leave in excited anticipation of watching the energy and potential of each person unfold into remarkable, stunning work throughout the world. The world needs more builders and do-ers. These are those people.
It’s hard to capture that ‘special’ feeling of #WDS, the way that the event brought talented people together in a physical space for something truly exceptional – without sounding somewhat ‘woo-woo crazy,’ as Natalie Sisson describes it. In a brilliant post, Dave Ursillo writes about the “indefinable, indistinguishable, impossible-to-totally-describe sensation” of being with a group of 500 ambitious, talented, like-minded individuals:
“[It was a] crowd of complete strangers brought together for something beyond our differences. […] There’s a sensation of unabashed unity, a common denominator among us, a shared foundation of support and learning that makes us each a complete equal to those sitting around you. you share a passion, an interest, a hobby, an “appreciation of,” and upon that humble basis you are suddenly interwoven with hundreds and thousands of amazing and unique people, in a very special way.”
Natalie Sisson, aka the Suitcase Entrepreneur, says: “When you put that much energy, love, compassion, intellect, humour and openness into one room, you’re bound to come away enlightened.” Read her recap – it’s amazing. And in case you’re not convinced, check out Caleb Wojcik’s summary on Pocket Changed, called “Why You Need To Go To The World Domination Summit Next Year” – it’s also brilliant.
For a few more gems, check out Bindu Wiles photographs or Gregory Berg’s photographs, Matt Langdon’s Hero Handbook recap, Devon Mill’s recap (LOVE her quote of Nate Damm: “If you feel called to do something and don’t do it, it’ll haunt you for the rest of your life.” <– so true!), or the eloquent, beautiful words of Crystal Street.
Each person is writing, documenting, seeking, trying to capture the essence of what it was. It was definitely Something. Something involving hugging, dancing, bollywood, laughing, talking, connecting, exploring, sharing, being. Something that was awesome. Something amazing.
Sunday I woke up overwhelmed, in the best sense of the word, brimming with thoughts and ideas and possibilities and potential. I had to leave – I had to go “be” again, and so – forgive me to all of the wonderful morning speakers – I went running. My mind was buzzing with potential and I had to let each of the ideas sink in before returning to drink from the water-hose of awesome again. Here’s a list of just some of the opinions, insights, talks, and events from Sunday: a jam-packed weekend full of amazing, non-conforming, genius-laden, insanely talented individuals.
I’m a big fan of country music. I’m sitting in a coffee bar, thinking and dreaming about this past weekend, and reminiscing and relishing in the beauty of it all. “I don’t have to be me until Monday” came on my headphones and I laughed, because at first glance, this is what the weekend was: a beautiful explosion of self-expression, of being, of doing our most amazing work, of being more than boring things that don’t stimulate us or showcase us at our best and brightest.
But it’s wrong. It’s completely wrong. The message of the weekend is that you already are you; your best self should be available and present all week, every day, in what you do. What #WDS was is a glimpse into the potential of your LIFE. You should ALWAYS be you. All week should be a weekend, all weekend should be your week. You have beautiful things to offer the world and your mission needs to be to find ways to be your best, creative self. (Whether or not that includes a day job is up for discussion).
Perhaps you, like me, returned home and stumbled through the real world for a bit, or you’re still stumbling, like I am – confused about what is real and what’s not, and wondering how to implement all of the ideas and plans in your head as you move through the motions of daily life again. Walking home on Monday, stepping up to my apartment door, standing there and looking at the worn mat and the broken light and feeling the fog sprinkling my body in San Francisco fashion, I wondered what was going on. It was a pattern that was so ingrained, and yet felt so strange. The people were gone. The explosions ended. The fireworks ended, and our 4th of July Fantasy was over. The only remnants from #WDS are the smoky memories and the rapid-fire email exchanges littering my inbox. Pictures. Messages. Notebooks. Fading.
What just happened?
It will take a long time to unwind and unpack the missives of the week and integrate them into the things you do and try. For all my fellow WDS-attendees, there will be a dissonance between the you that you dream of and the reality of this week, and that dissonance, as Jonathan Fields says, is good. The uncertainty is good. It means the feelings you have are right – that some action needs to be taken in the face of uncertainy, and we need to step forward into being.
However, unlike the skydiving adventure of Thursday, living boldly and stepping into action rarely happens in one fell swoop that jolts you through thousands of feet of air in milliseconds. Most of us won’t go home and quit our day jobs and become new people instantaneously (and, for the record, I like my day job and keep it because we fit well together – lest I suggest otherwise!) It likely won’t happen today, or tomorrow. Leo reminds us gently of this reality: habits take time, change is slow, and it’s best to focus on just one thing at a time. One very small thing, something that we can do successfully and easily, and build our way into success by rolling together micro-successes sequentially. The power of the ability to change is that it happens in increments, and we can be surprised along the way as we make individual changes that seem so exceptionally small and, turn by turn, watch as our lives unfold magically in new directions over the coming days and years.
And then Zac Brown Band comes on my headphones, telling me that “We only get one change to leave our mark upon it,” and this time, I agree. While we have to be patient, and make changes one by one, we can’t sit by and do nothing. The beauty of the weekend is that it should stir up in each of us an impetus to grow, to change, to explore, to create. We all must begin somewhere. And we better start – ’cause we only have today and now. Even those things aren’t guarantees.
Here are my notes from Saturday. I hope this stirs in you a desire to move, do, create and be – it certainly did in me. I captured as much as possible, although I didn’t capture everything – I’m sure the #WDS community and the videos from the conference will cover better much of what I’m trying to capture below. Here are some of the great things I was fortunate to be a part of:
Pam Slim, Escape from Cubicle Nation: Find your roots, seek out your elements, protect yourself.
Pam gives hugs. Pam is a mother and sister to everyone, instinctively, intuitively, seemingly without trying. Her eyes seek you out as you talk to her, her body squared and facing you, receiving you, telling you that she can help you root into the essence of your being. Her presence makes you feel more relaxed in being you. In her opening talk, she focused on these notions:
ROOTS.
AVATARS.
PROTECTION.
Favorite moment: Pam taking on Masa in martial arts center stage.
Leo tells you his story, describing the start of his journey as somewhere between helpless and hopeless: “I was a donut-eating, junk-food addicted, lazy, fat, in-debt slob.” I find this hard to believe, but he has the pictures to prove it – and now, a world-famous blog documenting the power of incremental change and simplification.
CHANGE YOUR HABITS.
SIMPLIFY.
LIVE WITHOUT GOALS.
Favorite moment: Leo showing us a picture of his dirty Barbecue T-Shirt. And doing pushups on stage.
Danielle is a hotbed of beautiful language, wonderful sayings, and explosive missives that both stir you up inside and calm you down with powerful, potent clarity. Her voice – the sexy richness of it, her amazing use of tonality, the power she has over language and emphasis – makes you sit on the edge of the chair and listen, just listen. I want to soak it all in, breathe it, be it. I scribbled to capture the insights but nothing in that picture, above, tells the story of being around this fire starter. Here are a few good ones:
“Your body knows. Pay attention.”
“Let’s not focus on what you want to DO. Focus on what you want to FEEL. What do you want to feel like next year?”
“If you trusted that your art would support your life, how would you live?”
“Art is showing up. Let yourself be enough.”
“I think we have a responsibility to stop being polite to Corporate America.”
“I think Plato said something important. Something like, ‘be kind, because everyone is fighting the same fucking journey’ – something like that.”
“If you can’t get out yet, you have to LOVE the HELL that you’re in. Because it’s teaching you where you want to go.”
“Winners quit sooner.”
Mark exudes a gentle calmness and balance that quickly soothes an entire roomful of people. When he looks at you, if you look carefully, you can see the energy in his eyes and the power in his being. His voice resonates with the reminder to connect to yourself, to be gentle, to be patient, and to wait. We don’t have to rush along, and we don’t need to do everything. Vulnerability, patience, and reception are enough. What you are is enough.
The best example of practicing what you preach came when he paused, looked at us all, and said, “You know, it’s okay to be tired.” And he paused again, before he continued: “I’m tired.” He spoke from the heart, telling us where he was, connecting to us when he made each point, and enabling us to see him as ‘just’ a person, just another one of us, who just happened to be standing in front of us. This subtle shift, this sharing, brought us together on the same page as imperfect, yet perfect-as-we-are, beings.
There is a power in vulnerability, and most of us are afraid of this emotion – this feeling – this state of being. We want to pretend we know it all, that we are more than we are, that somehow, we’ve been blessed with some ability to be perfect. This is just not true. We are what we are. It is okay to need. We get hungry and thirsty, and we don’t judge these feelings; why judge so harshly the other feelings and needs that come into our being? In telling us, simply, that he was tired, Mark shared the ability to be vulnerable, to speak from his core. Here are some of the best:
“We are all powerless.”
“We were not made to own or control or be in power; we were made to serve.”
“Sometimes we feel like we need to be something other than what we already are -we are nothing. And this is okay. The place of nothing tells us we don’t have to be anything more than what’s already there.”
“Your power comes from connecting. From bringing these feelings and questions into your mind and ruminating on them, examining them, in just simply looking at them.”
“You don’t have to do it alone.”
This was just the beginning. The speakers continued and I regret not being able to see them all in their entirety and capture everything along the way. The videos and images from the conference will be available soon – I’ll be sure to link to them as I continue to process, think, ruminate, capture and reflect.
Until tomorrow. xoxo. Sarah.
When you tell people you’re going to a World Domination Summit, you get some pretty strange looks. I told my day job that I was going to a writing/blogging conference (although I guess the cat’s out of the bag now). I left Friday morning, early, to head to a 2-day conference in Portland with 500 of some of the most talented, interesting, creative people in the world. People flew from New Zealand, Poland, Germany, Japan, and multiple other countries to participate in a mingling of minds that has left me without a voice and with so many ideas I’m almost not sure where to get started.
Here are the moments I’ve scribbled in my notebooks. This is only to get you started; I’m not sure if I can possibly capture the entirety of the conference. Notes from Day 1…
The feeling you get when you enter the room. It felt like walking into a room with 500 of your new best friends. The energy – captured on the left, by the media team at the conference (photos here) – was nearly indescribable. So what was it? #WDS was, in short, another way to answer the questions posed to all of us as we live our lives around the world:
In addition to the keynote speakers, the breakout sessions, and exploring downtown Portland, each night had a plethora of events to choose from – including skydiving and karaoke on Day 1! The offerings included bike tours of Portland, beer tours and cocktail tours, walking along the river, going to the Farmer’s Market, checking out the food carts, unofficial events and meetups, a final after party on Sunday night, and mountain climbing on Monday. In each event, presentation, meet up, and movement, we all asked ourselves these questions about the Great Work we aim to do, how to be Unconventional, and what and why Non-Conformity is such a gift to the universe.
It was certainly not to be missed. See you all next year, #WDS 2012.
(To learn more about the summit, check out the World Domination Summit Website. Or take a peek at Chris’ website, The Art of NonConformity. To get everything you want, as the title suggests, just follow this blog or sign up for updates….okay, fine, you’ll have to do some of the work yourself. But it’s a start.)
“To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self Reliance and Other Essays.
Writing begins when it begins. You put your pen to your paper, you hem, you haw; you write. We delay, we procrastinate, we dally. I write often, but never as much as I want. I have committed to writing more, and I’m taking a challenge to write more this summer.
Some of my greatest writings have come from challenges proffered by the network of talented web authors abuzz in blogging media, such as Gwen Bell and #Reverb10’s month-long reflections each December. This June, another challenge sets forth: a 30-day challenge to write and reflect, grounded in the writings of philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Writing, to me, counteracts the busy-ness and near insanity of the media blitz world we live in of hyperconnectivity. With media, consumption and networking, I dip into it, I grow my addictions, and I blissfully engage in the beauty of interactivity. And then, for hours, quietly and simply, I depart. I escape to my notebooks, my pens, my walks, my runs, my swimming. Swimming can’t take social media with it – I don’t think it ever will – and I feel the same way about writing. When I write, I am with me – and only me. My brain is focused, challenged, quiet, still – and I have to create something, pull something outside of myself and put it into the world.
Writing is terrifying for most people. But you must – you must create, for you have to get outside yourself to really see yourself. What you think you know you must look at and see, at that involves pulling and pushing and moving it around, outside of your head. Take it from within you and put it outside and play with it. Feedback is terrifying, scary, painful, personal, and fundamentally necessary. Without it we stagnate, we sit, we fester – we stay the same. And in a constantly changing world, iteration, adaptation and growth are paramount.
A 30-day challenge to writers new and old. For those of you considering writing, longing to write, thinking about writing, one of the best ways to develop a new habit is to start something small for a dedicated amount of time. Amber Rae and The Domino Project have launched an online initiative and 30-day writing challenge for aspiring writers, longtime authors, and people looking to develop their craft: Self Reliance: Trust 30. Each day a prompt to cue writing and guide your thinking will start your day. You can join in for a few days or make the pledge to write for all 30. The prompts will come from web veterans such as Chris Guillebeau, Jonathan Mead, Buster Benson, Sean Ogle, Ashley Ambirge, and more. Each day a single prompt will lead the writing, and for 15 minutes, write everything and anything you can based on the ideas put forth.
Better writing, like anything, comes through practice. Each time I set a committment and embrace a challenge, I am amazed at my growth – and the things I learn about myself and the world. Without quite knowing what I’m going to write about, I discover more about myself than I imagined I could. Good luck – and happy writing.
To join the project, which launches today, May 31 – sign up here.
(If you’re curious about my writing for the month of June, I’ll probably publish a few excerpts here on this blog. For all the other posts, check out my less organized, much more chaotic tumblr page. Full disclosure: that site is my unfiltered thoughts and ramblings, and is not edited – it’s just stream. I contradict, I question, I lurch, I stumble, I babble – the normal of writing. For a more inside look at the way my brain works, check it out. But don’t hold it against me… )
At some point, you need to let go. Stop holding on to the project. Take your hands off the working table and put the tools down. Put it out in the world.
What’s worse than a “good” project is a project that never sees daylight.
Most projects can be iterated. Most projects can get better – even after they launch. The trajectory of a project’s lifespan does not end at “publish.” Half the time it gets better when you put it out there for feedback.
A few weeks ago I almost pulled the plug on a big project I’ve been working on for over a year. Definitely a disaster. Cue the trusty quotes and the stores of inspirational knowledge I have built up for the terrifically-terrible meltdown moments:
“When you hit a wall with an idea or project, before you back up or give up, get help.” – by Matt Brown of Klutz Books.
So I got help. I sent a lengthy email to my advisors. I took a short break. I got advice.
They said: Stop working. Finish. Put it out there. Set your expectations lower for the first iteration and make it happen faster. Don’t hold on to the idea so tightly. Stop trying to control everything. Set a deadline. And put it out there.
Ideas are pretty worthless, really. Everyone has ideas. It’s what you do with them that’s important. Projects are key. Projects that launch are even better (although you can learn from everything you kill or don’t finish, too) – but find something to finish and put it out there.
Make it through that last 10%.
What’s the worst that can happen?
