Posts Tagged ‘posterous’
Dissolve your recession blues with 3 questions (and a Posterous blog & camera)
Posted December 2, 2009
on:The mark of a good businessman is that he can succeed in bad times
Anyone can do well in a rising market. When an economy is doing well, people trade with each other. I make bread and I swap it for your milk. While I am making bread, you plough my field.
In a sophisticated economy, we make the exchange process easier by swapping goods & services for money. It’s easier all round. And the sovereign ~ the king, queen, president or government ~ demands their share. That’s called taxes.
In good times, we simply slot into the system. Its easy. Somebody wants something done. We do it. We get some money. Our options improve.
In bad times, everyone tries to do everything for themselves. It is harder to specialize because no one wants to trade their speciality for yours?
Is it? Why is it so hard?
Why not just walk up to the person who has what you want and make an offer. I can do this for you if you do that for me?
Why haven’t you just done that?
Some where along the line we’ve lost our ability to think for ourselves
If we intend to be successful, in bad times and good, we have to be a little clearer about what we offer.
Here are 3 questions to ask and answer.
#1 What do I really enjoy doing?
Think about when you experience ‘flow’, that wonderful feeling when you are so engrossed that you loose track of time (and are late for the next think.) Young people often experience flow in sport. Where else have you experienced flow?
Now commit yourself to doing more of that. Commit yourself to remembering when you experience flow. Commit yourself to experiencing more flow, more often, and very frequently (every hour?).
Good. Now we are enjoying ourselves we help others enjoy their lives!
#2 When do I bring the light to other people’s eyes?
When you are in flow, it’s unlikely that you are looking in the mirror. If you were, it is likely you would see a magnificently radiant and happy person. You eyes will be alive and dancing.
Everyone wants to feel like this. When do people around you feel flow? When do their eyes light up?
What is that you do that brings the light to other people’s eyes? Which things do you love to do and which of these make other people so happy that their eyes sparkle with pleasure?
Where does your deep gladness and the world’s hunger meet?
It’s a humbling experience to think of these sweet spots, isn’t it? We don’t feel bold and brazen. We feel shy. We feel hesitant. We feel gentle. We feel calm. We know that this is our mission. This is what we have been called to do in the ‘family of things’.
#3 Why do their eyes light up?
But we aren’t sure how to begin. How do we grow this sweet spot where we are bringing a light to other people’s eyes? We ask “why?” When their eyes light up, what story are we helping them live? What “flow” are they experiencing at that moment? Who are they at that moment? What is their purpose?
What essential information did we provide in that moment that helped their story come true?
We need to tell their story. We need to take a photo and write a blog post. Day-to-day, let’s document the place where we made someone’s story true.
That’s the point where we have something to trade
And to return from the poetic to commerce, it is at this point that we have something to trade. We understand what we love to do. We know when our pleasures are pleasures for others. We understand their stories and we able to make them come true. We can walk into someone’s shop or business and say to them, “I can do this for you. Would you be able to do this for me in exchange?”
Capture those micro-moments when someone in your life lit up!
Now get on with it! Opening a Posterous blog will take you a few minutes. Getting out your camera will take even less. And send me your link! I want to see you capture those micro-moments when someone in your life lit up!
I can’t start . . . that’s my problem, I don’t know where to start!
If you have been scouting the internet for advice on turning your dreams into reality, then you will have come across advice to begin. Just begin!
“Arrgh!, you scream. If I knew how to begin, I wouldn’t be asking!”
Well, here you go. This is what you can do to begin.
It’s within your power and it is a test of whether you mean to begin, ever. Or whether you will be a lurker in the shadows of your dreams to the end of your days on this earth.
Bring your dream alive through your blog
Whatever your field, whatever your concern, whatever your dream, I want you to blog evey day. A quick picture from your phone, if you have one, and a short text describing what you saw, what surprised you and what you would like to know more about.
Example
Here is a good example of a format that would suit you: the Timbuktu Chronicles. These are stories of entrepreneurship and inventing in Africa. Captivating, isn’t?
Steps for blogging your dreams alive
#1 Sign up to Posterous and make 3 accounts
- Account one is your long term record of who you are: MyName.Posterous.com
- Account two is for your children and relatives: ApetName.Posterous.com
- Account three is for the development of your dream: MyDream.Posterous.com
#2 Update your MyName account weekly
Post one update of how your career has progressed this week. Salute your colleagues. Give your clients some airtime.
#3 Update your account for your children and relatives daily
Take a picture of something you are doing and put it on line. Describe what you are seeing, feeling, tasting, hearing and let them see it too. Let them share your life.
A quick picture and a caption of what is what you walk past, eat, smell and hear when you are not with them.
#4 Add a snippet to your dream collection every day
And never break the chain!
Everyday, add a picture of something you noticed that is relevant to your dream. Or summarize what you are reading. Or connect the dots between points in your field.
Maybe over the weekend, add a summary post : the best 7 videos on . . .
Start collecting the jig saw puzzle pieces of your dream, one piece a day.
After all, by the end of the week, you will have 7 pieces!
Have you begun?
It’s a relief, isn’t it, to begin, just to begin!
Do subscribe to my jojordan.posterous blog here and I will subscribe to yours!
The best of weekends to you. Set up your blog!
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