James Costa |
Dance like no one is watching. |
History shouldn’t repeat itself. It makes no sense. I think it was Albert Einstein who once said that “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, without a change in the result”.
Sometimes I wonder if some things that are going on in life that I try so hard for are things that just prove me insane. These beliefs have proven me wrong before, and yet I’m in the same situation as I am six months ago wondering what is going on.
I truly hope that - for my sanity - things turn out different than last time. Hopefully better, but only time will tell.
It seems I’m at a crossroads in my life now where all these opportunities are coming my way, but I need to distinguish which ones are going to be good and fruitful, and which will just be a waste of time. At the same time, as I grow, I seem to notice certain patterns in people and things that not only rub me the wrong way, but based on my experiences ruin relationships with those people.
Now, I’m not one for burning bridges, but it’s tough not to when they were built poorly.
Tough call now. I don’t have any time to sit back and debrief everything that has been going on and figure out what I can sacrifice (e.g. what isn’t working), and what I need to focus on (e.g. what I believe in). I can’t waste my time with things anymore, and I’m finding that I have less and less time with all the projects I commit myself to.
So it comes to this: What am I willing to throw aside to improve other aspects of my life/ventures?
Oh, and you’d think that hour a week I decided to dedicate towards debriefing the week would be enough, but I haven’t had a chance in all of January to have that hour yet.
Fireflies - Owl City
While I don’t expect anyone to have noticed, I missed yesterday’s posting schedule… The second time this month I’ve missed a day. For some reason I couldn’t figure out what to write about for yesterday’s entry.
I’ve been working on my resolutions for the New Year for a while now and thought I should post them somewhere lest I lose them on the mess that has become my desk. That, and today is New Year’s Eve.
This year I decided to make some easier goals that are a lot more flexible for my personal life. My business goals are new this year, and I’ve set very small, manageable goals.
So here they are, in all their senseless glory… My resolutions for 2010.
Business Goals
Personal Goals
This is getting ridiculous. I wish (for once) I could have a nice and calm holiday. I mean, I still have work to do so that’s one thing, but on top of it having to deal with Caleb’s mom being ridiculous? This is getting to be a little much. She’s always saying one thing but doing the complete opposite. She’s asking me to be the responsible father, and at the same time doing something that would show me to be very irresponsible. It’s just sad that I’m on her side telling her what she needs to do, and she’s making me look like a total asshole. It’s sad that a just-turned-17-year-old mom is being as ignorant towards things as a five year old. Come on, grow up a little and learn the consequence of your actions.
I have. I mean, how many young fathers do you have? I can’t even count one that would do what I have had to do. I’m not trying to make myself out to being a saint, because I’m definitely not one. But she is, and she’s making herself look terrible. She plays a terrible good person. She’s talking about putting her life on pause - I’ve had to go from a job to being at home literally 24/7 because she can’t get her act together enough to switch the Child Tax Credit over to me so I can apply for daycare. In that, she’s keeping all the money and I haven’t received a penny of it. If this is affecting you as much as you say it is, why the hell aren’t you making the simple call that could fix all of this? You missed your opportunity and now you have to wait a week and some. Boo-hoo. Your problem, not mine.
This is getting ridiculous, and I’m getting so sick of her. I can’t wait for this New Year to come because there are going to be a lot of changes. I am not going to put up with this shit, because it’s what made 2009 a train wreck.
Ah, Christmas. The impending disaster amongst most of us living in less than ideal situations. For some it means sitting around the fireplace opening presents, for others it means sitting around a T.V. with the eerie glow of a fake fireplace transcending commonplace emotions. I find it an interesting time of year because I forget what you do on Christmas.
Alright, alright. So I just got out of one a romance that only Lady Gaga could explain as a “Bad Romance”. Fact of the matter is, we dedicated ourselves to each other much too quickly. So much so that for the past three years I pretty well spent this time of the year with her. This year feels a littler different because I don’t have to go to four houses for Christmas and can finally settle with two. Still, there are plenty of changes.
This year is the start of something different though, and the pain in my back only reinforces that fact (while others feel the impending winter storm coming along to make this a truly white Christmas). So here’s to an absolutely ridiculous Christmas for all of us, getting a nice new wool sweater that we’ll hide from the light of day after this day, and an even better New Year.
Dig - Incubus (Light Grenades)
Heard ‘Em Say - Kanye West
It’s unfortunate to say that the editor from The Phuse and I had an argument when it came to the articles that we were putting together. It seems that he didn’t think that any of the articles that were being thought of had originality to them. While I agree that most of the articles we’ve written have been topics that have been covered about by other blogs, I don’t believe that it means there isn’t originality to them. It came to a huge debate as to what is original and what isn’t, and while it became the demise of our working relationship, I feel a need to decipher original topics from ones that are just “rehashed”.
A “rehash”, by definition, is a do-over with little or no changes. In providing resources through The Phuse’s Twitter feed to others, I find a lot of “rehashed content”, in that there are many articles that reiterate the same points and don’t stray from them besides different wording. What makes them original is how they explain things, the author’s flavour of writing, and when they bring up an angle on the topic that hasn’t been discussed before.
Otherwise we wouldn’t have any topics left to talk about. I’m not writing this to bash him as we still have a personal relationship, but I feel it unreasonable to say that every article can be completely original and never-before-talked-about. For example, the idea of “hats” when it comes to people and having different responsibilities is talked about often (in fact, in many of my keynote addresses and workshops I focus on this metaphor), however does that mean if we talk about “hats” at all we’re copying someone else? With that thought process, phrases in the common language shouldn’t be repeated. I mean, these topics are essentially categories - therefore when we have an article in any given category, does it therefore mean that we can’t talk about it again?
I truly believe in quality over quantity. However, I have a very busy work schedule and blogging schedule because of the market I’m in. You not only have to capture readers’ attentions, but keep it. This is the age of major blogs like SmashingMagazine posting once a day or more, and it’s all about competition. I’m not being paid to blog besides my posts for other blogs. Really, I spend more of my time writing than coming up with topics since the topics I come up with are ones that I come up with when I’m working. It’s because of this that my articles have a personal touch because I talk about my personal experiences when it comes to different situations. How can you say that this is a “rehash”? How can any two situations be absolutely identical? I’m not going at the blogging scene for materialistic reasons, but it is an extension of my company. (Although, realistically any blog that has advertisements in it is.) That means in the end I do expect to make some sort of revenue albeit through ads or through obtaining clients. There is a whole business aspect to this that isn’t being understood which completely infuriates me.
So what’s original? I believe something that is original is written by one person without influence. For example, when I’m writing an article I don’t search to see if there are any other articles written that relate to it. I write an article because I believe I have enough personal knowledge about the topic to make something of it in an article. I write these topics because I know it is a topic of interest to my readers. I don’t go out and look before every topic idea if it’s been written before.
I could go on and on…
