But with these feelings I also realize that recognizing this issues are half of the battle. I know it now. I know I am off track. And consciously knowing will allow me to make the course corrections I need to make to get back on track. Minute by minute the ship is coming back in line with the originally planned course. I go to bed and wake up with a sense of purpose and satisfaction knowing that I’ve made steps in the right direction. Every day is just that - little tiny steps in the right direction.
Has this ever happened to you? What did you do to get back on track?
A quick thanks to all of those that showed up for class at Francis Tuttle NW this morning. We had a great turnout and I know we have a huge interest in more beginner classes as well as some more advanced classes.
From what I understand the webcam cutout after the first break, but the ustream audio and chatroom were still going. We will work on that and getting the powerpoint online to make it easier for our remote viewers to keep up next time. Technology is moody - I don’t care what they say.
Your blog author will be helping teach a social media class in Oklahoma City on 2/17/2009 at 8am.
The horrible news: The class is already full. It filled up very fast. Not only has it filled up but we have a queue already forming for the next class and that class is likely to fill up.
The most excellent news: We’ll be broadcasting it live via ustream. The link will be in the upper right hand corner of my blog. Attending in person is really the best way to get the information, but if you cannot make it because you are the governor of some very cold Pacific Northwest State (Alasksa) then watching on the internet is OK also. Don’t forget to click the ‘Subscribe’ button in the upper, right hand corner to get the latest news on our other forthcoming classes.
If you are in Oklahoma City and you’d like a class tailored for your group or a more advanced class on a particular social networking subject please click the ‘Subscribe’ button in the upper right hand corner. That will get you on our mailing list and you will be the first to find out about our next class.
I believe that one of the reasons that you and I get frustrated with life is that we are spending too much time thinking about and focusing on the details of our lives.
I would like to offer you a simple solution for you to consider the next time you feel any stress or tension creeping into your life.
Do you drive a car ? Do you shop in a crowded grocery store ? Do you ever eat in a restaurant ? These are very common activities that force us to interact with a lot of other people. And if we are going to interact with other people they are not always going to the things we want, how we want them, and when we want them then done. They are going to drive too slow. They are going to take too long in the checkout lane. And they are going to take a lot longer than we would like to bring out our order sometimes.
But if you stop, take a breath, and look at our way of life from a higher perspective - you’ve heard of looking at things from 5000 or 10000 foot view before. When you look at thing from that perspectiveyou see and realize that overall we have it pretty good in this country. Things move relatively smooth for us. And some of the things that cause us frustration or to get riled up in our lives are issues that other people in other countries would love to have as their problems.
One the hobbies that I have that I really get a kick out of is flying. I literally can take a break from details every now and then of life and literally look at our city and our way of life from 10000 feet up. And when I do look at our life from that perspective I feel a a lot better and I realize that my issues and your issues really are not that bad.
So the next time someone cuts you off on the freeway take a deep breath and think about how lucky you are to have a car and a well paved countrywide highway system to drive it on. Then call me and I’ll take you up and we’ll look at the world from 10000 feet together.
Happy New Year my fellow earth dwellers (shout out to those from off the planet that may be reading via RSS). Here it is January 1, 2009 8:32 Central Time. I am catching up on my RSS feeds, Twitter Feeds, etc. and sitting here wondering what the New Year will bring me. I am also thinking about what I will accomplish in the coming 365 days.
Have you thought about that? Yep… those trendy New Year’s resolutions that are so popular to talk about. You made them yesterday. Now it is time to ‘Cowboy Up’ and dig in and do them.
Don’t even bother.
Because you did not write them down. In the past 30 days if you verbally or mentally built a list of items that you want to accomplish in 2009 and you did not write them down you wasted your vocal cords and burned some brain cells that could have better been used elsewhere.
Don’t get me wrong. I love New Year’s resolutions. As human beings we love to set goals that start on a major time period. Every morning when we wake up it is a new day and most of us feel it is a new time to start over and do something with our life. The same goes with Sunday morning and the 1st of every month. The New Year is a very large milestone in each of our lives (we usually get less than 100 of them) and therefore it is natural that we want to set very lofty goals for the next 12 months. It is also a great time to measure what we have accomplished in the past 12 months.
But if you did not write them down so you can see them then they might as well not exist. Writing them down is the equivalent of making a personal contract with yourself. Thinking about it (the gentleman’s handshake) is one thing. But we all know that handshake contracts can be dangerous. Actually writing it down make you legally bound with yourself to actually perform said services. Plus you don’t ever want to break a contract that you can see taped to the bathroom mirror every morning so you?
So the question to you is: Did you write them down? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
You are a person that is blessed with many skills.
I know that Mr/Ms Reader without even meeting you or ever talking to you. I know that you have the ability to do some amazing things and do them well. It is just something that happens to us once we leave the womb. From the moment the sunlight hits ours eyes each of us starts getting great at something. And thankfully it is never the exact same thing for two different people.
As I network with people online and offline the one thing that I want to know when I meet them is what you have to bring to this relationship. If I meet you in person I will gladly tell you that I am a great communicator and I love anything involved in that field. I’ve owned my own business for a decade, and the one thing that I really enjoy is listening to what my customers want and making sure that they get it. I have to be able to communicate it back to them effectively. And if I screw it up, tell me. I will listen intently, repeat it back and make it right. But you don’t have to tell me twice.
But if somebody (like me) asked you (like I am) what is absolute ONE best skill you had what would it be and why are you so good at it?
I went flying last night and took a buddy to go see the Festival of Lights in Chickasha Oklahoma. Enjoy the basic footage that we took! I didn’t to the entire audio track so I probably get pretty excited in there every now and then.
The Oklahoma Twitter Community is having a twitter meetup this Thursday morning in Downtown Oklahoma city. I’ll be there along with Derrick Parkhurst and other people in Oklahoma City trying to make the tech community grow and prosper. Every event that is put together is a great amount of fun, and really helps out in the networking department. Everybody is welcome and invited - not just the tech community (props out to all of the ad firms that are on twitter :) )
As a big fan of time management and itemizing what I want to do in life I have always been a proponent of checklists. One of the reasons I have always loved Outlook (all versions) is that it has all of the essentials tools of organization: Email, contact lists, calendar and to do lists/checklists .
Over the past 18 months I have strayed from my marriage with Outlook to snuggle under the covers with my mistress Google Apps. As much as I love my nice warm web-based mistress mistress and as much time as I spend with her I have still been hooked on Outlook for my support payments. Google Apps has just been missing a little something.
And now it is here.
Google Apps and Gmail FINALLY have todo lists. They are available AFTER you click the little beaker for Google Labs and enable todo lists. You should see the link show up over on the left hand side above your chat lists and below your contact link.
More to follow in later posts. But this is something that really could break up a marriage.
