In From the Sea

When the wind blows in from the sea you can hear

the crackle of palm fronds
breaking free from the heat
the hiss of sea oats
bowing defiantly inland
the whisper of sand
celebrating its lofty release from gravity
the sputter of foam
cascading skyward cut from wave caps
the chimes of delicate shells
dancing across dunes

When the wind blows in from the sea you can hear
the prayers of ancient mariners
reaching home


Image used by Permission

Bob The Squirrel

Face it. I find this comic strip hilarious!

So hook your laughter up and start reading Bob The Squirrel!

Habit verses Change

I’ve been told it takes 21 days to start a habit. Do the same thing for 21 consecutive days and you will soon be ‘in the habit.’ I’m not sure it takes me 21 days.

I go to a new restaurant and have great menu item. Boom! I’m hooked. I will likely return to that same restaurant and order that same item – for the rest of my life. I am a creature of habit. I follow daily routines and patterns. Most of us do. We brush our teeth – habitually. We bathe and exercise – habitually. We drive certain routes to work, school, and recreation – habitually. We shop at the same grocery stores and even follow the same path through the isles – habitually. Yet, here is the interesting thing.

Most of us have habits of one form or another because they work for us. We get what we want out of those habits – but how often do we evaluate our habits to determine if there is another, even better way, to accomplish our goals? Who Moved My Cheese, by Spencer Johnson, is one of my favorite books is about learning to deal with change as it interrupts (read demolishes) routine.

Habits bring order and in some measure comfort to our life. To a greater or lesser degree we all depend on the predictability of routine. Yet, we all need change, interruptions in the expected to continue to learn and grow.

Do habits, routine and daily discipline make up a large portion of your life? Do you get energized by a successfully executed routine or by the surprise of novelty?

Yoda Had It Right!

Yoda said it this way, “There is no try. Only do or do not.”

Nike said, “Just Do It!”

The word is out, and yet we too often keep using it. My days are busy rushing to get things done, and someone asks me to do one more thing. Instinctively, I hedge my commitment with, “I’ll try.” A colleague offers a valid improvement in my technique and suggests that I make a change. Hesitantly I agree, “O.K. I’ll try.”

The difference e between saying “try” and “do” may seem subtle, but it is powerful.

Find a pencil or pen right now.

Yes. Really. Go find one.

Set the pencil on the table in front of you. Now ‘try’ and pick it up. Fact is, either you did it, or you didn’t. Yoda is right. There is no try. Try is something we are not committed to doing.

My suggestion for today is that we stop saying ‘try’ and make the commitment to do things we need to do, or simply want to do. Proclaiming “I’ll do it” may lead us to failure, but failure is the friction that makes success possible – and that is another post…

Do It!

Quoting - Why Writers Don't Care

The artist doesn't have time to listen to the critics. The ones who want to be writers read the reviews, the ones who want to write don't have the time to read reviews.  - William Faulkner

6 things I Hate About Social Media and Why I'm Not Stopping

1. Social Media consumes time like a hot dog eating record setting chow hound! Sure, you can manage the time by planning your Social Media activity around goals and a set strategy, and you can use third party tools (Hoot Suite, CoTweet, etc) to manage multiple accounts and platforms - but in the end, it ALWAYS bites off one more chuck of time than you planned - and then your lost...

2. Social Media eliminates the art of descriptive and erudite conversation. No matter how many links, abbreviations and pictures you include in your tweets, or how descriptive your Facebook status is, you'll never capture the beauty and eloquence of a single paragraph as uttered by the likes of Garrison Keillor. Sometimes conversations need to ramble and flower with articulacy.

3. Social Media is overrun with self proclaimed experts selling Social Media skills. Every day I have to wade through DMs, emails, blog comments, Facebook suggestions and LinkedIn invitations from Social Media sellers just to use Social Media. It feels like listening to a hoard of doctors scream their prescriptions at me as I walk to the medicine cabinet to take the medication I already have.

4. Social Media restricts communication to short, cursory blasts of information and replaces interpersonal communication with information exchange without human context. Social Media is rampant with one way information presentation. Everyone is 'telling' and there is a real lack of mutual discovery of new awareness by virtue of caring conversation. What I would give for a single "ah ha!" moment out of Social Media.

5. Social Media gets too intimate, too fast. Your Social Media sharing tells me too much about your life and preferences without me having to get to know you - at all. Intimacy doesn't follow shared experience via actual time spent together on Social Media, it comes just by virtue of my data stream crossing yours (didn't "Ghost Busters" warn us about crossing streams?)

6. Social Media hurts my brain in a BORG like way. The pace, variance and mass of information traveling via Social Media is mind numbing. Perhaps because I'm 'old school' and not a proficient multitasker, but I find my mind gets tired from so much incoming data and not enough time to process and assimilate that data - much less the time to reflect on the meaning and ramifications of said data. I feel like I am being sucked into the collective mass of information without the space to remain in touch with my thoughts, my ideas, my perspective.

Having said all of this, I am still an avid fan and user of Social Media and don't plan to stop. For all of its quirks and peculiarities Social Media does offer a novel and unique access to others and information. Social Media is the voice of the masses. It is a ground swell movement through which we all get to speak and influence our world. News is quickly dispensed (if sometimes erroneously) and public opinion is rapid fire available on social, political, business and consumer issues - and much more. Social Media is becoming a platform for businesses to more directly engage consumers and has the potential to evolve into a new and more agile way of marketing. It may be that in a matter of months all of this may change and we may remember the Social Media craze as a flash in the pan occurrence (I don't think so really), but at least I can say I was there when.

Are You A Dreamer?

Follow Your Heart's Desire...

How often do we here these words "Follow your dream?" I have heard it said that dreams, passion, desires... are the fuel that move us through life and, in fact, give life value and purpose.

How do your dreams affect your living? What dream do you follow? Have you captured your passion? Have you ever sold your dream for practical living?


*image used by permission http://www.everystockphoto.com/ 

Words - Now You Know

There are certain words, that if you are going to use them, you should really know what they mean. Today’s example includes three words with related, but quantifiably different meanings. Read on, dear reader and just feel the brain matter expanding.

Our words are: Moron, Imbecile and Idiot. According to a very old and not necessarily contemporary dictionary of mine, these words reflect classifications of mental aptitude related to a person’s IQ.

Idiot = < 25 IQ
Imbecile = 25-50 IQ
Moron = 50-75 IQ

Therefore, while it may make sense to proclaim, “Don’t be an idiot, you moron!” Stating, “You’re a moron, you idiot,” would be a compliment – of sorts. Which begs the question, which is worse, a moronic idiot, or an imbecilic moron?

Aren’t you glad you stopped by?

Wanting for Words

i want to say something

something beautiful and bold

a fine proclamation of intent

words dripping with overflowing meaning

writhing upon the page in into the mind

courting creative thoughts and endless primal

possibilities

i want to say something of tangible, useful

inspirational

of

weight

and

what comes out

is this

whisper

Quoting

The power of hiding ourselves from one another is mercifully given, for men are wild beasts, and would devour one another but for this protection. -Henry Ward Beecher

My Attitude Could Whip Your…

“The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude.” –Williams James

                                                                 

I spent 8 years in higher education, 15 years beyond that as a pastor for a mainline denomination, and studied human psychology, pastor counseling and theology. It took a man with no more than a high school education and a background in construction to teach me something real about people, about me.

I was having a bad day and it wasn’t even 10:00 am. I’d had an argument with my wife. My children were not behaving the way I wanted them to, and my work schedule for the day was so packed that I knew I wouldn’t be able to get all of it done. My brain hurt, my back hurt and I pretty much hated everything and everybody at that moment.

My boss at the time took note of my very bad attitude and asked me to come into his office. I did. He listened to my story and then paused before saying, “You have two choices this morning. You can stay pissed and have a sorry day, or you can do something about your attitude.” He reached in the desk drawer and handed me a card* that resembled one of those “do not disturb” door hangers. On the front and back were a series of saying, positive affirmations. He told me to take it and if I wanted to change my attitude to read the saying out loud on the way to my first appointment for that day. My attitude wasn’t very receptive. I thought of all the psychological cliques that I knew. I thought about how what I was going through was much bigger than a few clever and witty sayings. I thought of a hundred reasons why his suggestion was, at best, inadequate. I didn’t challenge him. I took the card and headed for the truck. As I walked out of his office he said one more thing, “I bet you’re too chicken to try it.”

I smiled and for some reason warmed up to the idea of proving him wrong. On the way to my first appointment, I read them out load:

“I will win. Why? I’ll tell you why – because I have faith courage and enthusiasm.”

“Today I will meet the right people in the right place at the right time for the betterment of all.”

“I see opportunity in every challenge.”

“When I fail, I only look at what I did right.”

“I’ll never take advice from someone more messed up than I am.”

The readings continued, and so did the change in my attitude. There is great power in the words we speak to ourselves, and by the time I was done – I did feel better and begin to think on the things I could do to be effective and successful that day. I have never forgotten that lesson.

*The card is produced by Tom Hopkins International and can be found here: Shower Card

New Camera - Sony Alpha 330

Through some very fortunate circumstances, I have acquired a new camera. Honestly, I've never used anything this sophisticated. I'm enjoying myself, however. Here are a couple of my recent pics. I'm having fun (even if my focus stinks sometimes).

What if Bloggers Went Public?

What if bloggers went public? Not sure what I mean? Think on this.

What if some local bloggers set a time and location to gather and write posts for their blogs? What if they took turns each week - one offering a 10-15 minute story, topic, concept or technique about their blogging and then all in attendance took a vow of silence for the next hour to write.

After the time expired you could hang around for some share and feedback time, or just leave. Once a week or once a month?

Am I mad? We could call it something... Open Blogging? Blogging Out Loud? Public Blogging? We Are BLOG - Resistance is Futile?

The Power of Our Dreams When Properly Stirred

DreamMaker

Sight yields beauty
Thoughts beget ideas
Sounds stimulate awareness
But, touch, ah, now...

She is the maker of dreams!

In Loving Memory

My father died in June of 1964. He was 36. I wrote this poem in memory of him, William Earl Williams

In Memory

It should be the memory of a hammer striking the crude nail
Driving it through the rough hewn pine
Slicing grain from grain

It should be the great effort, heavy grind of stone on stone
Sliding the lid to alignment with vault
Solidly into place

Such sounds and visions would be true reminders of the drama
Moving painfully among breath and dream
Caressing wounds to scars

Yet, what remains is the dull click of metal
Latches with well insulated springs
An almost insignificant sound

As the casket closed.

Word Play

It is funny how the context in which a word is used so drastically effects it's meaning. Take the word 'crown' in the piece below. What is it?

The King fractured his crown

By biting too hard

Upon the edge of his watch

Trying to stop the time

Of his reign.

Seminar - Social Media

I'm teaching, again. Feel free to join me for a fast paced look at formulating your Social Media Strategy.

Small Business Development Seminars

June 16th!
Pre-registration required.
Call 336.631.1320, 336.631.1167
or 336.761.1002.

Time: Noon - 2 p.m.
Cost: Registration Fee - $10
Location: Room 105, 4th Street Small Business Center, Chamber Building, 601 West 4th Street, Winston-Salem

Strategy & Success in Social Media Marketing
This workshop is an in depth discussion on social media marketing (SMM) strategies and how to measure your success in SMM. Find out what key performance indicators you should be watching. Learn how to “listen” for your brand on the internet. This workshop will show you how to take what you’ve learned in the previous sessions and weave it into your interactive marketing strategy for fabulous results.
Course Code: #41788 Wednesday, June 16

Regarding the Oil Spill in the Gulf, USA

A moment of consideration brought to you by Natalie Merchant: