"LAST CALL!"

What happened to 2013? Where did it go?  It's that time again.  We are smack-dab in the middle of the last quarter of the year.  If you are just beginning to figure out what you want to do with 2014, you're kinda late.  Me too.  Like Michael Jackson, "You Are Not Alone."  I am here with you.

The Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC

I'm just starting to really think about next year.  How can I bring order out of what I am currently undertaking so that I can begin the new year with some kind of focused, well-contemplated effort?  It's funny, but most people don't get into the full swing of a new year until about March or April, at least in the US.  We're like crocuses.  We pop our heads up above the frost in February or March, but we don't really resonate as the miraculous proof that winter has passed unless some observant person takes note.  By then, we've lost the hibernation season as a time to reestablish our goals and priorities for the upcoming year. Certainly, a new year is an arbitrary point in time to reassess things, but most people do it then.  It's like a group consciousness.  Everyone is thinking about it at the same time--except maybe Jewish people and the Chinese.  They get a jump on the proceedings with a thousand-year head start, at least!

Procrastination can take on many guises.  Waiting until the last week of the year to figure out what's gonna happen next is a colossal capitulation to the vagaries of chance!  Our ability to influence outcomes is so limited anyway, why not do all we can to chart a course for the future?  On the other hand (said the Libra), I've come across two or three five-year plans that I painstakingly mapped out at different points in my maturation process.  They are all hauntingly similar--and I did not keep a single one of them in front of me as I went about my year.  Shewt.  Looks like all that work was for naught, for real.  Maybe not.  I hope that the process itself gave me some needed direction.  Looking back, it seems like busywork to me, but like a seedling, a bunch of stuff happens below-ground before it pokes its vulnerable head above the earth and into the light of day.

One of the things self-starters do so well is build accountability features into their life-plans.  They tell somebody what they're gonna do, and give that person or group permission to call them out when old patterns or habits begin to sabotage outcomes or implode enthusiasm
 

Comfort zones are comfortable until they widen out into a rut, or erode so deeply into our motivation as to become THE HOLE.  

The quickest way out of such self-inflicted ennui is calamity.  Nothing feels worse than to find yourself in the midst of an uproar that you KNOW could have been avoided.  Your hateful mind will take you accurately and unerringly back along the chain of events that precipitated the current mess, and show you every circumstance, situation, or scenario in which you zigged when you ought to have zagged.  We can let these shortcomings become the on-ramp to depression and defeat, or we can take a hard look at our personal culpability and do better.  You gain the respect of others when they see you doing this.  More than one person has come to me and admitted that part of the reason they were able to persevere through The Great Recession was because they knew I was getting by on far, far less than they.  "If she can do without it, so can I!" was the mantra of one of my very best friends, whose landscaping jobs simply evaporated during that time--leaving him with a thousand-dollar drop in his monthly earnings.  I'd no idea he was making so much money cutting folks' grass! He's now in the succumbing stages of lung cancer.  He was a smoker when I met him thirty years ago, and knowing that his life is winding down motivates me to establish myself.  I don't want him worrying about what's gonna happen to me when he isn't around to bail me out anymore.  The kindest thing I can do for Ellis is to get my house in order.  NOW is the time to make that happen.

I want to be in Napoleon Hill's "Massive Action" mode when Spring 2014 arrives.

These are FIVE GOALS that I have set for 2014:

1. Get a bank account

2. Connect that account to PayPal

3. Focus this blog on fundraising

4. Establish a viable online revenue stream

5. Have Malachi's trip paid in full by March 30, 2014

Feel free to hold me to account regarding these five things. 

The completion date for items 1, 2, and 3 is January 31, 2014.  Number four starts right now.

It's tough to admit to The Plus that I do not have a bank account, but the fees to keep my cash trickle in a bank became prohibitive in 2008.  I "pay as I go," and I'm a chick who hustles with all her clothes on, but now it's time to hold myself to a higher standard.  

If you want to come out of the closet with your most fearfully un-articulated goal, I'll be the first one to reach in and drag you out from beneath your self-inflicted clutter!  

Just let me know.

Thanks for taking the time to read this blog.

#FriendsofMalachiMaxwellGlass

The Drawing Board

It's great to start over.  Every day is a new chance to excel.  Sometimes though, when you've had to reset, revamp, reconnoiter, re-evaluate and recommit several times, discouragement can set in.

Will I ever get a grasp on the basics of blogging?

Will I ever find the time to watch all those videos so I don't have to reinvent the wheel?

Will my kid EVER involve himself in this blog?  It's business, but it's business for him; to secure his future.

Fortunately for me, there's always THE DRAWING BOARD.  I've been thinking about the Drawing Board ever since I looked at a post from Colman Carpenter, and was overwhelmed with a desire to try his client's cheese!  Colman thinks he needs to go back to the drawing board, because I wanted to try his client's cheese more than I wanted to improve his site metrics, but to my way of thinking, Colman has hit a home run.  I cain't find Comte Cheese, so I'm going to his website to see where I can get it.  My point is this:
By putting his clients' interest first and foremost, Colman stimulated a higher impulse within me; which was to try their product.  He wanted me to admire his site and I do--so much so that I wanted to be able to indicate in my feedback to the Comte folks that the site led me to the cheese, and not the other way around!  http://www.comte-usa.com/

I'm no closer to making a hat that looks like SpongeBob, but I haven't given up on that, either!  I'm gonna keep going back to the Drawing Board until I get it right.  I've made some butt-ugly hats in the process, but when I started, I couldn't make anything more than an aggravatingly ruffled doily.  I despise doilies.  They remind me of the more unpleasant aspects of aging.  Hats are for active people.  I admire Meladora's Creations, because its origins arise from necessity--a woman who left her country for broader horizons.  She found a way to contribute to the family coffers based on an enjoyable hobby.  She is now a global entrepreneur.

When you watch her tutorial videos, you see where she went back to the Drawing Board as often as necessary; often as a result of some truly unkind thumbs-down type of feedback!  It illustrates the reason we have a love-hate relationship with the thing.  It takes courage to go back there, fortitude to stay there until improvement happens, and motivation to come away from there with something new, fresh and innovative!

I'm going to pop in on +Colman Carpenter and ask him about the lack of hashtags associated with his posts.  He may not have had time to acquaint himself with their awesome power.  I thought they were merely a nuisance until I started paying attention to the likes of Mark Vang, Craig Fifield, and John Kellden.  Now I know they are indispensable.  The trick is to employ them elegantly and unobtrusively.  That's the innovation I want to bring forward.



A lot of people think Tony Robbins is a New-Age shill, but I don't agree.  Some of us need to know how to stop fighting with ourselves.  If you are your own worst enemy, usually you are the last to know.  I saw a meme of a man with his nose just clearing a brick wall.  He was perched precariously upon a pile of ladders.

I don't always know how to make the best use of my resources.  I know that in the scheme of things, as an American I am not poor!  However, I believe I should be more able.  More able to provide my sons with the extracurricular stuff that will help them become resourceful, self-starting adults.  More able to travel.  More able to seek education regarding what interests me.  More able to stop fighting an uphill battle, and win a damn war once in a while.

Thanks for taking the time to read this blog.

#FriendsofMalachiMaxwellGlass

There are many great G+ primers out there.  This is one of them!
http://www.virante.org/blog/google-business-training/