It’s been an interesting week – almost completely occupied with work drama. The very reason I want to avoid working for someone else. What’s interesting to me is that the explanation given for some bad behavior was being tired and stressed.  Fair enough, most of us release our inner toddler under those circumstances.  But what about the decisions that led to the sleep deprivation in the first place?  I’m pretty sure an adult made those. Consequently I’ve made some decisions of my own to stay true to my core beliefs about not getting in that state.It’s not going to go over well – another human standard. We all seem to take it personally when someone chooses not to make the choices we’ve made.

Beyond that I’ve gotten some volunteer work in. Not the most productive week in terms of output but maybe one of the most in terms of personal growth. It’s been a long week but I feel better at the end of it than the beginning and that seems like a major accomplishment.

Technorati Tags: Personal Growth, time management

There is an implied stability in anything with three legs that is not present in anything with either two or four. In Jungian philosophy the number three is associated with creativity, self-expression, and optimism. By default a third option will get you out of either/or, black/white thinking and take you into the ambiguous area of maybe’s and shades of gray.  It’s not a bad place to be and may take you places you had no idea you would get to.

I find it interesting that my solstice tradition (borrowed and adapted from the one in Write It Down, Make It Happen) involves three things I want to come into my life in the coming year and Chris Brogan’s personal New Year’s tradition involves three key words for the year. I don’t believe it’s accidental.  The number three provides both balance and something that is still manageable.

If you are working on resolutions, or breaking things down into manageable steps, try for groupings of three. I think you’ll find it’s a technique that will get you thinking more than you may realize – for some things it’s hard to limit and for others you’ll scratch your head trying to find a third category. Sooner or later you discover some overlooked detail that will add clarity.

Technorati Tags: Personal Growth

I would liken this excuse to being suddenly blind and deciding to sit in the same spot until either you could see again or magically become confident that you would never bump into a wall.  Just because I see the fallacy in the argument doesn’t mean I haven’t used it! A belief that you are always attracted to the wrong men (or women), or that you can’t seem to get a business off the ground when others are doing so fits into the excuse that you are somehow inherently flawed and can’t trust your own judgment.  The primary flaw in this excuse is the underlying belief that there is a perfect standard – some absolute truth that can be measured against.  But there just isn’t. There also isn’t a set schedule that everyone else follows nor do people usually own up to their own bumped noses.

Just like eyesight we all see things through the same technical process (light waves) but we receive slightly different data and process it differently.  No one person holds the truth on the exact shade of yellow in a daffodil or the right time to move across the country.  So how can your perception be skewed if there isn’t a single one out there that isn’t? The only real recourse is to blindly get up out of the chair, make a note of the walls you encounter and adjust course.  Being self-aware and able to acknowledge your own mistakes without recrimination will allow your judgment calls to grow with you; sitting in the chair won’t bring any more clarity.

Next week: I don’t have the right equipment

Technorati Tags: common excuses, Personal Growth, self-perception

They say that you begin to grasp a subject when you realize there is more that you don’t know than what you do. For some that’s an ego thing but I think for most of us that means we can itemize what we don’t know; we have a more specific form of measurement than just “a lot”.  That was me this week as I worked on remedying my lack of knowledge regarding online marketing combined with my complete lack of talent in that area;-)  I’ve made progress, enough to know how much I didn’t know when I thought I knew something.  (Read that last sentence fast and you’ll have some idea of how my brain is feeling right now!)

What I’ve also run into though is having to spend more time and energy finding solutions to “recommended” tools and processes that don’t violate my ethics, things like lifting content without crediting the author, etc. I don’t think I’m alone in that but right now the Internet seems to be set up for those that don’t know or don’t mind bending a few rules to succeed so their recommendations rise to the top. When I get it sorted out for myself, maybe I’ll start a website for artist marketing, who knows.

In the meantime I’ve gotten started on Christmas and left the Gallery where I had my jewelry (lack of a lot of things is closing it down shortly). Christmas is going to feel different this year without my dad but I’m confident something good will fill the void.

Technorati Tags: learning new things, Personal Growth, solopreneur, the way to happiness

Truly, I can’t think of a word or phrase that can sum up the jumble of events over the last week. Firstly, the craft show last weekend – unfortunately a massive disappointment in terms of sales.  However, I’ve come to the conclusion that even moderate success would have caused me to continue pursuing events by the same group which would not serve me in the long run. Nice people, but advertising and attracting a completely different customer base than is appropriate for what I make.  I had lots of compliments on my work which was encouraging so I think I have one half of the equation.  Now I need to find the customers!  I was disappointed and a little frustrated by the end on Sunday, but it’s also brought out my stubborn streak – not to be right at all costs but to keep searching for that successful combination.  And at least I now have a lot of pieces to post on the online shop.

I also got a long standing item on the list crossed off by creating my own CafePress shop for the Nurdle.net blog.  There’s more I could do there and eventually I’d like to create one for this site but that will have to wait a month or so. I’ve been studying up on marketing, which continues to make me feel inadequate but I think I’m beginning to learn a few things (don’t look for them to be applied just yet!)

My Thanksgiving tradition of putting a message in a bottle was also a significant part of the week – someone found it a few hours after I threw it in.  A part of me feels like I must not have done it right for it to be found so quickly, but another part says the right people find the bottles.  Out of three years and three bottle messages, two have been found and both meant a great deal to the people that found them.  It means a lot to me that such a simple thing that costs absolutely no money and was done with no expectations on my part can have such a huge impact on total strangers.  I must be doing something right…

Technorati Tags: Personal Growth, solopreneur, the way to happiness