Carefree Highway

My escape is to hit the road. Doesn't matter if it's the open highway or mountain backroads, just getting away from the city and driving away from four walls helps clear my mind and recenter my little world. I've been traveling a lot lately...

Today I'm in Columbus, Ohio, visiting this unexpectedly cool little city and its foodtastic scene. On the road over, I was treated to some pretty spectacular vistas of the rolling Appalachians and farmland; I'm looking forward to touring the city and being taken out to some delicious eateries. The perfect breather.

What's your escape?

Nike's onto Something

Entrepreneurs. I looked at them like movie stars- living the dream and untouchable- especially if they were my age and had a success under their belt. I've always dreamed big and from the time I was a little girl, I cooked up some pretty concrete ideas of how I would earn my life in a beach house, as a world traveler, as a pony owner - depending on which stage of life I was in. These ideas all involved businesses that allowed me to work for myself. I'd dwell on the idea for a couple of weeks, get it all planned out and then come to the part where I had to do something about it. That's where I failed.

Let me take that back a bit. That's where I failed as an adult and until recently.  When I was a kid, my ideas didn't require much money to start up (except that one where I had a legion of 1,000 adoring employees who made me cotton candy and flew my friends and I to all the finest amusement parks.). I'd create something and then recruit salespeople or organization members and have at it. No, none of these businesses landed me multi-million dollar success (obviously) or even much cotton candy (still sad about that). But I did it. And it was fun.

Somewhere along the way, I lost the part where I "just did it". I started thinking there were rules to this kind of thing: you had to be somebody or know people or have this-much-more-money-than-I-have to start a business. I had lots of business ideas that I worked out to the finest details and then put away, frustrated. I glorified young business owners but believed that they had some secret formula and knowledge that I'd never have. I started thinking of working for the government.

Yeah, dream crushing, eh?

One day I got tired of it. I knew one thing I'd always been praised for and I just started telling people I'd do it for them. People accepted. They told others. Others accepted. Everyone rejoiced. No secret formula, no cash flow genie. 

One evening, at a party full of people I didn't know, I realized the roles had been reversed. The typical question was asked: What do you do for work? When I answered that I owned an organic bakery, the movie star stare came.  Others in the vicinity drew close. I found myself surrounded by a small band of starers praising my ability to start my own business and whispering to each other how they wished they could do something like that. Feeling uncomfortable by the attention and slightly creeped out by the care-bear stare, I told them simply, "Then just do it. That's what I did."

The fan club quietly dispersed, shaking their heads.  They didn't believe it was that simple.  They wanted a secret formula, just like I had.

The moral of this story can best be summed up by an excerpt from a book written by a couple of guys I had the opportunity to listen to at a summit a few weeks ago: 

Start the process of tinkering... start a new web site, a new marketing campaign, or a new Web community.  Why? The answer, you will quickly come to realize, is that, with everything you decide to do, "it's so crazy that it just might work." Understand that failure is an inevitable part of the game, but that the chance of success is much greater the more often you roll the dice.  You shouldn't fear it; you should embrace it.

 -Chris Brogan, Julien Smith in Trust Agents 

Throw away the notion of a secret formula. You just gotta do it.

Sing Sing Sing

Ever notice how sometimes a song hits you just right to where it practically commands you to dig into it from the bottom of your soul and let it out in the loudest, clearest notes possible and how, after you do, you feel so... amazing?



I bet he felt good after that.

I'm gonna do some soulful singing every day. You should join me.

P.S. What are your favorite songs to get into?

I wrote poetry

But I'm not sharing it.  You know how it is with poetry. 

Maybe I will if you email me and really want to know. 

This is my post. I'm a little short-worded today, in case you can't tell. 

Disconnected

Life without the internet isn't as bad as I imagined- even though using my phone as a substitute is akin to the dial up days (not to mention the functionality of available web pages).  The only struggle is getting through the daily blog challenge.  Today I actually have a lot to say... a lot is on my mind.  But as I'm typing this on a keyboard the size of a business card, I'll end this post by asking you- right now, this second without trying to sound philosophical or anything - what is on your mind?

Round One

My twin brother and I have always wrestled with each other.  I can’t remember many times when it was anything other than good-natured fun (though maybe my mom can).  It’d usually start out with me instigating the matter and him having to put down whatever his genius mind was working on to take care of the matter.

Soon after graduating from high school, I moved 2,500 miles away from home and thus, my brother.  The distance afforded few chances to challenge him to one of our duels.  I’ve tried engaging new friends in the tradition but quickly realized that many people don’t appreciate being tackled.  Awkward.

So I lived my life, its ups and downs, without my childhood pastime of I-come-in-peace aggressiveness.  I worked, grabbed an education, met exciting and not-so-exciting people, traveled, took up new challenges and lost a few monopoly games- all without my brother.  

This past week, as I mentioned my previous post, I drove to Maine to visit family.  Kyle, a cousin of mine who has a great affinity for the Muppets and a very quick (and dry) sense of humor, came home for the occasion.  The second evening, after dinner had been cleared and the usual family sit-around had commenced, Kyle tested his sarcastic limit on me and lost.  I attacked by grabbing his wrists and attempting to tie his arms into a bow.  Of course, being a guy with only about an ounce of passiveness in him, he’d have none of that.  Wrestling ensued, ending much later with both of us laughing so hard we had to be reminded to breathe.

My semi-adult mind had, prior to this little match, been occupied for a long time with very grown-up circumstances and little had been able to lessen the weight of them.  But after this mini-rumble that weight dissipated and didn’t return for the rest of the evening.  I realize now that many of the times my brother and I played was during a time when one or both of us were working on or dealing with something intense and a break was needed (in addition to the times when he just needed a little riling up).  Playing helped keep things in check.

Kids have more fun.  Revert for a while.

Dandelion Dreams

My eight and ten year old cousins' enthusiasm to show their older compadre (aka- me) their secret hideout in the Maine woods was practically bursting out of the seams of their grass-stained clothes. They raced forward on the dirt road, telling me to pick up a stick for protection from the... actually, I never clearly understood what. I played along. I know we started out with a definite destination, but being young and very excited that they had a new (and willing) audience, they were easily distracted and pointed out every little thing along the way. The spooky chair sitting off to the side; the blueberries that were coming out early; the tire scrap in the stream; the dandelion puffs that you could make a wish on.

My eight year old cousin picked one for me while the ten year old blew furiously on hers. I hadn't wished on dandelion puffs in a while so the rules eluded me. I received the pillowy seed stalk as as though it really held the magic promised me by my two guides. I thought carefully, inhaled as deeply as I could, quickly stated my wish (no, not out loud- I didn't forget that rule!) and let a gale of direct-hurricane-force wind assault my wish-maker.

They didn't all come off.

I really wanted my wish.

I noticed my cousin's dandelion stems were free and clear of any seeds. Surely my lung capacity was greater! Timidly, I asked the oldest of the two, "Do all the seeds have to come off in one blow?"

She answered immediately without looking up. "No. Try more."

I did. I just couldn't get the ones on the bottom off no matter how hard I tried. And I must have lost some of my cool with these two little munchkins because I really tried. (It doesn't look that cool to really try to blow seeds off a dandelion.)

Feeling even more sheepish and actually pretty childish compared to these experts, I ventured another question on completing the task. "What if I tried, but there are some that just won't come off?"

My cousin stopped dead in her tracks, looked me square in the eyes and said "Then pull them off with your fingers."

Wishing is passive. Making dreams real is an exercise. Forget the rules and get it done.

Affirmation Pie

Thanks to Kim for putting this in front of my eyes.

When I was a kid, I could do anything, and anything I did was the best. It didn't mean that what others did was not the best, too; I could share that glory with others without losing any value. My parents were the best, I made the best snickerdoodles, my brother drew the best boats, I made the best forts, the woods in the back of my house were the best... and if you had been my friend back then, you and everything you did were the best, too.

Now I compare. I often hear myself speaking a different type of affirmation: I'm not as good at (insert drawing, photography, practically anything in life) as (insert friend/associate/practically any stranger on the street). Was life really that harsh on me from the time of my childhood "I'm the best and so are you" confidence to my grown-uppish "Man, I wish I was that cool"  attitude? Or is it that along the timeline of my existence I began mimicking how others acted, picking up on the cultural norm that often confuses self-confidence with owning a little too large of an ego?

Sure, keep eating the humble pie. It's good for you. But stop after one slice.

Challenge

My pic of one day: Fort McHenry Tunnel

You've all probably heard about the newest trend: "sketch a day" or "pic a day" goals where fine citizens everywhere ramp up their efforts to perfect their (real or perceived) talent. I have a camera and love playing the part of an amateur photographer so a pic a day isn't really much of a challenge. Sketch-a-day outcome has already been determined by actions of the past: my landscape architecture professors required us to do this and I always found myself scrambling the night before the due date to draw thirty unique pictures. I suppose I could try to correct this, but eh! I'll just look at my friend's blogs and let them shine in their artsy glory.

Speaking of, check out the artsy glory that comes from the hand of Tom.

My challenge from now until the end of my time here in the east is to write each day and then post what I come up with right here, whatever that might be. That gives me until June 7th (and by publishing that date, I am now accountable. See how serious I am?)  Hey, my challenge might not be so lofty in its duration but small steps, my friends! Great things are about to happen. 

Now I want to know- what is your daily challenge? Is there anything you want to perfect or give a go? Have you tried this in the past or are you doing it now? Sit down and tell me all about it...