tongue and groove

annual goals

i hate to write goals. there, i've said it. i don't mind making lists, but ask me to write down my goals and i instantly picture a chisel and a large piece of stone. and i don't want any of that action. as a young person i somehow equated goals with permanence. i know better now, of course. now i understand that goals are fluid and that the only person holding me accountable to them is me. but old habits die hard...or maybe i should say old thinking patterns die hard. so even though i might make to-do lists, i still don't write down any concrete goals. EVER. i prefer to keep them all rattling around inside my head. and, trust me, that's probably not the best place for them.

somehow Communicatrix made writing down one's goals--and not just daily goals, but annual ones--sound appealingin this video. i'm going to go buy myself a spiral notebook today and give it a shot. take a look.

ROSI

spend enough time online among social media types and bloggers and you're bound to hear the term ROI...return on investment.  i've been thinking a lot lately about my social media ROI. not in an outward way, as in how to generate ROI for my online presence...but inwardly, in a quest to streamline the platforms i use and how i use them. ROSI, if you will...return on self-investment.

finding myself with lots of free time these days (being unemployed in a traditional day job), one might think i'd want to spend more time online. my last job blocked all social media at my workplace, so in my personal time i often felt a bit frantic to stay connected with my virtual world to try to keep up. now that i have control over how i spend my time, i find myself wanting to spend less time online. i've been gravitating more toward real-world experiences...reading...going to movies in theaters...going for walks or bike rides...sometimes just daydreaming and taking naps. notice what's missing there? actual creating. i'll get to that in a minute...

i've been thinking about the various social media platforms i use and looking at the ROSI i'm getting from each of them. i've decided that i'd really like to winnow things down and focus primarily on just a couple of them. for me, those would be Twitter and Flickr.

i hear some people say they couldn't possibly use Twitter because it's too much of a time-suck. if that's the case, you might want to re-think how you use it. by utilizing Twitter lists, you can really personalize your experience of it. i just hit the 3-year mark at Twitter. when i first started tweeting there were 5,000 tweets per day worldwide...now there are 50 million!  if you follow a fair number of people that can feel like trying to fill a thimble from a firehose!  that's why lists can be so valuable. fill your Twitter stream with those who give you the best ROI, and shift the rest you're following over to a list. i continually tweak my Twitter stream and lists, and i encourage you to do the same. creating your lists takes a chunk of time initially, but tweaking and maintaining your lists and stream pays off big efficiency dividends down the road. and with 50 million tweets a day, efficiency is paramount. why bother tweeting at all? in my opinion and experience, there's nothing else like it. Conan O'Brien recently made an appearance at Google HQ. about 18 minutes in on that video, he says he didn't spend one penny on advertising for his tour. instead he sent one tweet linking to a site where people could buy tickets and the shows sold out in a couple of hours. still think Twitter's not valuable? 

the other platform that gives me enormous creative inspiration and helps me find my mojo is Flickr. i've been a Flickr member for a long time (6 years?) but have gone through long spells where i haven't used it much. thinking about my ROSI, i had to admit that Flickr gives me enormous creative returns, even if they're not immediately tangible. i think it's one of the most extraordinary social networks we have. by putting this in black and white i'm hoping it will inspire me to get my Flickr groove going again.

i'm finding Facebook to be a big time-waster because it's too redundant. i don't need to follow the same people (and their blogs) at Twitter, Facebook and Google Reader. what's fallen by the wayside in an effort to have some online/offline balance is reading my friends' blogs, yet that's an activity that's given me some of the best ROSI over the years. the inspiration and joy i get from reading your blogs inspires me to want to engage on my own. needless to say, the other thing that's fallen by the wayside as my social media efforts have splattered all over the place is writing here...that's where the 'actual creating' part comes in.  ;)

opening to grace

i *LOVE* this video. take a look. even if you don't practice yoga (i currently don't), listen to what they're saying...because it's a great message translatable to life in general.

KB's blog is here. and her YouTube channel--where you can find more of her great videos--is here.

for Emma

recently my friend Patti Digh asked her readers/followers/fans what advice they might give to her daughter Emma as she graduates from high school next month. Patti has called this project "consider this" and she plans to publish one post per day from the submissions for the 37 days leading up to Emma's graduation. the first post on that project appears today...and i'm deeply honored that it's a poem i wrote for Emma. you can still be a part of this project (details are at the top of the linked post). Patti will be publishing a free e-book with all of the submissions after Emma's graduation.

for Emma