SUMMARY: In our recent Collective meeting, I gained insight into the difference between Art and Craft, which helped me to understand how to separate my passion from what I need to sell. It's a slightly-different model than "follow your bliss" or "do what your passion is" in that it seems more implementable.
SUMMARY: I thought I didn't get anything done last week, but after listing everything that happened it's apparent that I'm actually pretty active. What creates the feeling of non-productivity is not the general lack of continuity, but the lack of measurable distance traveled on the metric that is most on my mind: funding all the things that I do every week that make the journey interesting and exciting. In this article, I lay out the services that I think are viable offerings for 2010 and how they relate to my mission.
SUMMARY: I've been feeling that there are too many things going on, diluting my efforts to make significant progress. But how do I pick what to focus on and what to ignore? First, I acknowledge that I am feeling uncertain about some aspects of my current work, getting the negative out in the open so I can have a good look at it. Then I synthesize the list of things to focus on for now that alleviate those fears through recommitment to principle.
SUMMARY: I expand my "create then show" mantra to include the means of producing products and distributing them. Maybe this is the way to sell out with integrity.
I had dinner with SXSW buddy Britt Raybould last night, and during our conversation I finally put into words something that's been on my mind: an "alternative economy" that I sense I'm being drawn into. This is the larger pattern behind trends like DIY, Social Media, Open Source, Crowd Sourcing, CSAs, NPR, non-profits, BarCamp, PodCamp, independent film and music, idling, global microbranding, the long tail, sustainability, and good old fashioned face-to-face. This is perhaps what the New Economy was supposed to be about, before the wave was hijacked by the Old Economy's model for making a quick buck. In the implosion of 2000, lots of people re-evaluated their value systems amidst the smoldering ruins of their stock-optioned lives, and refocused on building community. My thought was that it might be possible to eschew the "old economy", which is currently in shambles.
I don't have much to say on this yet, but I wanted to stick this post up to see how it resonates. I've found a few other terms related to this:
Anyone looking at anything similar?
Summary: I outline the essential element of clarity over planning for its own sake, and establish my next slightly-mad steps in moving ahead in my design business.
Summary: I’ve been preparing the relaunch of my design business, and have realized that the way I’m doing it may not be suited to my “natural strengths” (now that I have an inkling of what they are).
If this is the case, I need to think of optimal action as applying the skills I have WITHOUT planning, trusting that I have the training to do it right. If firefighters act this way, perhaps I can learn from their example. And this suggests a radical plan of action.
I set aside some time on Sunday to start drafting that master plan I've been dragging my feet on. A daunting task! I warmed to the task as I sat at Starbucks, staring at the large piece of paper I had brought for a good ten minutes. Where to start?
SUMMARY: World domination? Seriously? Yes, seriously. It’s doable when you realize that a flexible definition of “World” puts it within your grasp. This is a self-inspirational post to focus my energies on planning very big for something that’s rather small.
SUMMARY: So how does one get started on a plan of world domination? In my case, by taking very small steps, equally-balanced between adopting the right mindset (which for me is to admit I “want more”) and creating a plan of some kind that will be measurable. I’m starting by establishing some basic assumptions about myself and the “terrain” I’ll be facing. This ongoing series of articles is part of the new Methodology “World Domination” category here on the blog.
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