It’s a New Year and it’s that time again to tackle the New Year’s Resolution question.
As is now becoming The Chris Brogan Tradition, it’s time to pick three words that will represent your goals in the New Year.
The three words that I have chosen are based on what I want to change from last year, and what I think will be needed to make sure I accomplish meaningful personal objectives in 2012, and that I no longer feel like I’m just waiting as days get checked off the calendar like a prison sentence being served. The (perhaps trite) spirit of my three words is this: No longer passive spectator for me; it is high time to be an active participant in living life.
My three words for 2012 are as follows: Read more »
I remember times while growing up when I’d ask my Mom if I could get a certain hairstyle or buy a certain type of clothes so that I could be more like the other kids in my classes.
I also vividly remember my Mom’s response going something like this: “Why, do you want to look like everyone else?”
I also remember desperately wanting to reply, that: “Yes, I’d love to fit in and to look like everyone else.”
Read more »
I am not a social person, yet I love social media.
I prefer email correspondence over phone conversations any day.
At my day job, I work with numbers, yet I would actually prefer working with words.
I truly admire people who are humbly confident. I love Pink and Lady Gaga. I yearn to express the inner artsy side of myself, yet I never seem to be able to act on that. Read more »
At the recent Inbound Marketing Summit 2011 in Boston, I was impressed to hear the behind-the-scenes stories of author, Ben Mezrich, who is known for creating his own genre of nonfiction. (Sidebar: other highlights from #IMS2011 were recorded by the Pulse Network.)
As a quick background for anyone who may not know Ben Mezrich, he is known for writing the true-to-life stories behind the MIT blackjack team and the rise of Facebook, The Social Network, i.e., stories, which his website describes as “chronicling the amazing stories of young geniuses making tons of money on the edge of impossibility, ethics, and morality.” Read more »
On this day of remembrance of the 9-11 attacks and the ensuring military actions that followed, I find myself reflecting on a number of other similarly tragic events (both man-made and naturally-occurring) that have also occurred in this last decade.
In my thoughts are the many people that continue to perish and suffer in the ongoing tragedies of life.
As I reflect, I think of the common criticism that often accompanies these sorts of events: that the hardest/largest hit area gets the most attention (e.g., be it aid, or media coverage, or whatever). Attention lasts until the event quickly gets overshadowed then forgotten as the next tragedy strikes and takes its place in the queue. It seems to be a never-ending line. Read more »
There is nothing new about the age-old debates around Free Speech and Free will.
Here is another example in the news recently:
Tobacco companies are challenging the federal government’s power (via the FDA) to regulate tobacco product advertising.
The tobacco companies claim this violates their right to free speech, that the government doesn’t have the right to force them to display imagery which persuades the public not to purchase their product, which they point out is a lawful product.
The Court’s reply was that the tobacco industry’s imagery “seeks to distract potential users from the fact that tobacco products are lethal and addictive.” Read more »
I don’t have too many major regrets in life; at least not yet. 
In the past, I believe that I did what I knew best at the time. Not that I wouldn’t go back and do some things differently. But, since I didn’t know then what I do know now, I feel I wouldn’t have known to make other choices to get other outcomes at that time…if that makes sense?
At some motivational-type of events, activities like fire-eating or fire-walking are life changing experiences for some people. Those experiences are actually designed to be just that. Read more »
We all have bad days at work. When we do, it is not uncommon to entertain the thought of: “do I stay, or do I go?”
Recently I came across strong arguments to support either option.
From “don’t quit your job…never be without an income stream”, to “appreciate what you have until you have a plan to go after something better,” to the enticing: “Oh, go for it, don’t live a life with regrets.” Read more »
As I work towards developing a more consistent writing habit, I absolutely agree with the reigning advice which is to always have a few ideas ”in the works” to keep the development process flowing and to avoid writer’s block, e.g., always have a couple of articles started; topics/keywords mapped out; titles/ideas scheduled; thought-starters handy, etc.
According to plan, I had a couple blog posts in the works, in draft, which I thought were ready to simply clean up and post.
As I was re-reading one of those posts, to make sure I was making a valid supported point, etc., etc., I realized I was violating one of the key points of advice I was trying to make in that post. Read more »
Commitment is important to being successful. Recently I found myself contemplating whether commitment was easy or difficult?
At first I thought that when someone knows their life purpose, commitment to it would just cleanly, easily be there. The simple part about commitment is that it is relatively easy to see if it is present or if it isn’t.
Yet, as I believe about most things, I feel there is probably a range or scale of stages between the two extremes.
So, commitment, too, would have components, elements, and dynamics. Read more »
