Seth Godin on how to succeed

Notice things, turn them into insights and then relentlessly turn those insights into projects that resonate


read the full post here: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2012/06/how-to-succeed.html

Rest, or something like it

My BFFGF recently asked me where I find rest.
I quickly recited my hearts hobbies:
writing, guitar, reading.
Then I wondered if I really found rest there,
or if I knew what rest really meant.
I thought about how I secretly long to be recognized for my hearts hobbies,
while simultaneously knowing such to be taboo.
Then I thought if I even partially think
I do or could do or long to do these things for others sake,
could my rest really lie there?
Or is it just a lie.
I think you don't give these thoughts much entertainment,
if the gesture is for rest.
And so ill cease to confess much more,
whether my writes are wrong or right.
I'll just simply continue to explore,
letting go of this debatable mystery
I'll let my rest be,
and let the rest be history.

Ideas: Life and Death

Any Nay
Some ideas take on life
while others only die. 
I wonder how many there have been
where we haven't gotten it right.

We get a light bulb in our brain
& let others place their vote
& that's when ideas sink
or start beginning to float.

How I dream of that day
when my ideas passion veto's any nay
& I'll hold that needle nice & high
atop that mountain of hay.

ridiculously naked lives

I haven't been able to get these lines from Dr. Victor Frankl's book "Man's Search For Meaning" out of my mind (p. 34):

"... the illusions some of us still held were destroyed one by one, and then, quite unexpectedly, most of us were overcome by a grim sense of humor.  We knew we had nothing to lose except our so ridiculously naked lives." 

It's funny, because I think all any of us really have are our ridiculously naked lives.  Since the creation of man, our creator has given us nothing more, and nothing less.  Yet it takes the hell of a Nazi concentration camp to remind us of this.  Most of us forget it still, often.  As I ceaselessly do.  Worrying and afraid, foolishly, as if I had something to lose.  God is not a void where we sit when we're naked.  Our nakedness is the truest expression of God we will never know, by our own power.

Laughing Fish

Give a man a fish
you feed him for a day.
Make a man laugh
he'll be your friend for life.

My Best Enemy

Oh, how misery often fuels my energy.
How desperation diminishes my procrastination.

Sometimes moving forward,
simply requires of me to get low enough to look upward.

It's BLUSTERY- misery.

Yet onward it moves me,
a perpetual mystery,
my best enemy; misery.

The Stuff that Stuck: 2012

Reflecting back on the 2012 year, in no particular order, without really trying too hard, here are my top moments and thoughts I thought I'd highlight:

*Adult hood:  I feel like the transition into adult hood has been most evident for me this year.  Turning 27, the legality of the 9 year title I think has finally started to catch up with my mentality, maybe.

*Love:  Earlier this year I took my Girlfriend on an adventuresome picnic I worked really hard to plan.  I wont give away the juicy details, but lets just say it started with me skateboarding down the street in my leather jacket holding a bouquet of flowers in the early pitch dark of Winter strolling up to my Lady's front door like a true Romeo.  

*Guest List Theory: "If everyone's invited, no one can be missed."  I don't entirely agree with this idea that Henry Nouwen wrote in his book, "Reaching Out", but I found it highly interesting and worth considering.

*About Me: I have low moral and high energy.  This was something I had never identified about myself before, but an in-depth personality assessment pointed it out.  If my moral ever gets high enough I plan on exploring this conundrum more.

*Work:  Not only did I quit my job as a delivery technician, I plunged into the entirely new world of Real Estate.  It has been 6 months and the transition continues to be bumpy, but I'm excited to keep moving forward.

*Habit:  Podcasts have become a part of my daily life this year.  I really enjoy listening to content while I drive.  There is so much great stuff out there!  I love it.

*Marketing Theory: Beware of the race to the bottom, Marketing/ Author/ Blogger mastermind Seth Godin came across my radar this year.  I was enthralled by his theory of the "race to the bottom" that McDonalds, Wal-Mart, and many major corporations are participating in.  The danger of the race to the bottom he says, is that eventually, "someone is going to win".

*Action: Also inspired by Godin, after reading his book, "Poke the Box", amongst being motivated to do other things, I started this blog.  I feel like this also rides the similar thematic wavelength I should acknowledge from this year, of embracing fear and failure.  I often don't do things because our fear of failure is greater than the possibility of success.  This is a fact that I hope to continue to keep in check and defactualize in my own life.  Oh yes, I also invented the word "defactualize", apparently.

*Book of the Year: "The Dream Manager", by Matt Kelley.  More than making me laugh and cry, this little gem re-ignited my youthful passion for dreams and goals.  This fictional tale had an extraordinarily real impact on my imagination.

PS. I cherish my memories of the Dinner en Blanc, White Water river rafting, Milltown Progressive Dinner, Victoria, Spoons Diner, mourning lost life with loved ones, Autin TX, Spokane action training, Selling my Tundra, seeing Sherman Alexie speak, Milltown Retreat campout, Darington Blue Grass Festival, Beirut, Punch Brothers, Everett adult spell down, Leavenworth sleigh ride, eating a Peseo's Cuban, recording my first secret hit single, Book Thanksgiving, Breakfasts w/ Josh, Rock Olympics, Discovering: Dan Miller, pocket casts, and Seth Godin, meeting: Andrew Bauman, Bob Cenk, Mrs. Overby, & DR Whitson, watching "Blue Like Jazz" by the camp fire, and probably more stuff that I'm forgetting.  Amen.

I found this on the ground today

Faith & Argument

"You see, if your faith stands in human argument, someone who is a better arguer can argue you out of it again.  But when the spirit of God reveals truth to your heart and God manifests that truth to your heart, nobody can argue you out of it.  If you know God through Jesus Christ the Lord, nobody can argue you out of it."
-A.W. Tozer

Be determined to value what you do

“You’ve got to wake up every morning with determination if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction.” (Goerge Larimer)

"To be able to manage oneself, one finally has to ask: What are my values?" (Peter F. Drucker)

"We are what we repeatedly do" (Aristotle)

Where is your wonderland?

 Alice: "Would you tell me, please, which way i ought to go from here?"

"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to." said the Cat.

"I don't much care where." said Alice.

"Then is doesn't matter which way you go." said the Cat.

-Lewis Carroll

There's no Music like pre-grave Music..

"Most of us go to our graves with our music still inside us, unplayed."  (Oliver Wendell Holmes)

Perhaps, our music may be made

when we are able to look inside of our selves

and outside of our selves

and marry those findings

in a way that is true to our self