Be on the lookout

Anytime something has come my way, I was open to it. I haven't created all my breaks, far from it, but I have had open arms when those opportunities presented themselves, or been adventurous enough to extend myself for something I might have otherwise thought was unreachable. Whether the forest for the trees, the mirage on the horizon, the unsent email, the unmade call, or the help not offered, they all have to do with failing to adjust our focus. By zooming in and out, we remind ourselves of the opportunities between mile markers.

I don't know about you, but I wanna do it all. I better be on the lookout.

Sharpening the saw

"If I had six hours to cut down a tree, I'd spend the first four sharpening the saw." - Abraham Lincoln

(Thanks for the reminder, Abe).

The Age of Earthquakes

I read The Age of Earthquakes last night. I forget how I came across it, but it's been on my bedside table for a month or two now. I might describe it as the Be Here Now of the digital age.

High praise, indeed. I couldn't put it down.

There's mixed reactions out there about it. I'd venture to say that's because many readers feel indicted somehow. I know I did. There were definitely moments that made me question my relationship to all things digital. There were also moments that felt concise, clear, and poignant.

This book is a trip.

Some of my favorite portions were...

'We haven't just changed the structure of our brains these past few years. We've changed the structure of our Planet.'

'By rewiring our brains on the internet, we've tampered with the old-fashioned organic perception of time.'

'The natural human attention span is the length of a Beatles song.'

'Time snack (v.) - Often annoying moments of pseudo-leisure created by computers when they stop to save a file or to search for software updates or merely to mess with your mind.'

'Memory is irreversibly addictive.'

'The future loves you but it doesn't need you.'

'We all should give ourselves a pat on the back for absorbing as much technology as quickly as we have.'

'I miss getting emails from Nigerian princes.'

'Bored people crave war. Fact.'

'There's no shopping in Star Wars.'

'Healthy people are bad for capitalism.'

'A one-way trip to Mars would actually be okay if it had smoking hot wifi.'

Intelligent or insightful?

What's of more use, intelligent or insightful? When you want to be right, intelligent is better. When you want to figure out what works, it's insightful all the way.

Time spent, impact created, value added

Up, up, up? Close, but not quite. Down, down, up? Nah, that's not it either. Up, up, down? Surely, not. Down, up, up? There we go, now we got it!

It seems like efficiency, mission, and solutions should be our focus. Less time spent, more impact created, more value added. We gotta work smarter.

I'm finding it's all about proportionality. The more targeted we get, the closer we get to down, up, up.

Being present

Over dinner last night, the topic of distraction and the present moment came up. We were mostly referring to the pace and self-importance so closely ascribed to people who are never where they are. If I'm talking to someone, they're thinking about their next or last meeting. If I'm on the phone with them, they're clearly working on other things at the same time. If I send them an email, they glance at it and miss the meaning.

Our increased digitality has made this balance harder to achieve, which means we just have more opportunities to work on being present.

As I venture into fatherhood, I keep on reminding myself that lack of presence on my part isn't an option. And as important as being a dad is, this level of care for the people we communicate with, even if they aren't our children, is paramount.

We can feel when someone isn't there with us, and it sucks.

Here's to keeping our phone in our pocket when other humans are our present.

Out of thin air

To all the artists, educators, designers, scientists, strategists, organizers, chefs, lawyers, botanists, writers, activists, entrepreneurs and anyone else that ideates, iterates, and delivers... Thank you for making things out of thin air. (Poof! Existence!)

Creativity isn't about paint, clay, or watercolor, it's about thinking up a new way to do something interesting & valuable.

Umm, what is digital strategy?

Facebook amassed users, then sold our eyeballs to the highest bidder. At first people thought that social media was this massive microphone, but decreased organic reach has significantly turned the volume down. The idea went from getting "Likes" to figuring out how to make sure the people who had "Liked" your page could actually see what you were posting. The page turned, and people who had thought ahead were already creating great content via newsletters that were chock full of value.

I, personally, am annoyed at how long it took me to see the light with respect to this exact pivot.

The takeaway for me has been about making sure we're agile enough to understand the platform (whatever it is), how it fits into our overall strategy, then see where it's going and adapt preemptively.

The questions for any business owner with respect to digital strategy are:

• What is our digital strategy?
• What components does it include and in what proportions?
• How often do we evaluate the strategy?
• What indicators will we use to measure effectiveness?

And perhaps most importantly, how will this work best connect us with interested partners, collaborators or clients?

Outreach, marketing, and advertising are never free, and the cost goes up without a strategy.

Steady over fast

My pops used to always tell me to 'play the game.' It always made me insane. As an immigrant, my pops learned to do exactly that, and he's way less political or even out there as I am, so that worked for him and didn't feel like a huge compromise. He was also part of a different economy, a different time in history, a different social mix. I remember losing it in high school or college when he said that, a bit of a breaking point... I think it had to do with cutting my long hair to please an authority figure.

My deepest conviction, for some reason, was that being who I am is not something to compromise on, being a better version of who I am, is.

The question to me is, do we really even want to work, play, or commune with the people who will only accept us if we are a carbon copy of them? Why 'play the game' the gatekeepers have set up? Why curtsy when we can create?

I'd argue there is way more room to roam, be creative, and play our own game when we build projects based on models that don't revere lottery logic. The tortoise and the hare, y'all!

I'd take steady over fast, any day.

Maybe and no

I saw a quote the other day on Twitter that went along the lines of... "Don't say maybe when you mean, no."

As I reach out to potential partners for IPaintMyMind's Shared Walls™ program, this idea rings true. By a long shot, I'd prefer a clear NO than a false MAYBE.

This is an important idea. How often do we say the former when we mean the latter? Probably too much, even if our intentions are good. But to be fair, expecting others to mean what they say starts with each one of us doing the same.

No is a perfectly acceptable answer... especially when a false maybe is the alternative.

I'm going to try and get better at this. Wanna join me?

Youth

You know what I'm talking about, I'm sure you do... Those times when a word or idea seems to circle back to you frequently, almost as if it's taunting you, reminding you of its priority in the world.

There are a few thing to say here:

1. I think those words or ideas circle back around to us because we're focusing on them, not because they or it exists in greater proportion than anything else. Once you notice something, it becomes so obvious that you can't miss it.
2. That doesn't mean it isn't important. It is, to you.

"Youth" is the most recent example of this phenomena for me. The word came up with respect to my personality, then again with respect to my soon-to-be-daddyness, then through a song (cool kids, don't be afraid of a great pop song), and finally through this film (which might be one of my favorite films ever).

The point is, it's an indication of awareness.

So I wonder...

What's been circling back to you lately? And probably more importantly, why?

Think, speak, do.

There's a certain audacity to thinking we can succeed. Most of the time, regardless of what we do, we're trying to make something from nothing. No small feat.

But to be fair, it's no more likely that we'll fail. Success and failure are two halves of the same coin and it seems like intent could go a long way in tipping the balance, not matter how we measure it.

Over the years, I've thought about the process of taking something from idea to reality. That's where think, speak, do comes in. In the most rudimentary way, that's how we take things from initial spark to final product.

First we have the thought. A solution comes to mind. And it's precisely this gap between thinking & speaking that trips most of us up. We hold back and keep the idea internalized, not letting it out into the real world. This is the "safer" solution in one sense, but we also risk more than we ever could by stifling our unique contribution.

If we can bridge that gap and speak the solution, making it happen is so much more realistic.

Maybe we have to wear our heart on our sleeve more.

Maybe we have to risk getting it wrong.

Maybe we have to think openly, annunciate clearly and get to work.

Visualizing information

I'm fairly obsessed with infographics these days. They've taken storm over the last decade, proving to be an effective way to communicate granular information that people might just glaze over if embedded among 1000 words.

In writing an article about the decay of media standards for Mode, I found this awesome infographic entitled Media Consolidation: The Illusion of Choice. It shows just how unilateral the media is, & does so with imagery not alphabet.

One solution is for us to create the media outlets ourselves, especially because of my belief that advertising as a means of funding media is the inherent problem, but that's another post altogether.

The idea I wanted to chat with you about though, was this notion of making information more real for our communities. Images, illustrations, video, and increasingly flat tools for creating those assets allow a larger segment of the population to utilize them every day. We have the ability show instead of tell.

By turning our words into visual content, we help bridge the gap. Instead of eye test their way into alignment with us, why don't we make it easier for our advocates, communities, supporters, and confidants to message for us?

Part of that is why we created the IPaintMyMind 2015 Annual Report Infographic. We wanted to make our impact easier to understand, and I'm super happy with the results. I hope it shows people that our mission is not only worthwhile but picking up steam.

Going forward, regardless of the project, I wonder how we can all distill our verbose concepts into meaningful visuals that cut to the chase. It's an exercise of turning words into images and thus reducing the essence to the point where clarity is inevitable.

How can your company, project, movement, or idea communicate better?

How could visualizing information be an asset to you?

I need to find the manifesto I wrote about IPMM before we incorporated. Way too many words.

Expression v Communication

For those of us with opinions, it can be tempting to give way to our latest linguistic guitar solo. Passion turns into words and we get our point across. What comes into focus is our intent, as well as each one of our abilities to read our audience and understand what approach might be best. Even so, speaking with is different than talking at.

In my mind, expression is about getting something off one's chest, about making a statement and not necessarily being that aware of or interested in how it lands. The artist, creator, or speaker is in a position to express themselves, and they do.

Communication by contrast, takes the observer, listener, or collaborator into account a lot more. It's intent on sharing space instead of claiming it, and doing so in a way that invites the listener to participate.

Being aware of this has helped me pick my spots more, but it's also helped me show up to situations in ways that I'm prouder of.

Expression and communication each have their place. The question seems to be about whether or not we can remind ourselves when it's time for each.

Strategy starts by stepping back

I tend to work on various projects at the same time and getting organized about how I create for those endeavors has been a process. In the nonprofit world, resources are usually at such a premium that a near frantic pace ensues.

Whether as an entrepreneur, a nonprofit, a small business owner, or an employee in a larger company, the tendency can be to feel like we don't have enough time to stop, analyze & strategize.

We have to act, and now! But maybe we should rethink that........

Whether taking a walk, stopping to read something for leisure, meditating, or setting certain schedules for tasks that help anchor our day, there are various habits & rituals that can help us back away for a moment, only to come back to our work with fresh eyes and renewed energy.

What habits and rituals help you decompress?

Hit the button below to Get In Touch or just reply to this email, I'd love to hear what you do to step back.

Habits and rituals that help refresh the mind are hugely valuable because they help us do better work in smaller amounts of time. Have you ever felt like you HAD to get something done, then basically tied yourself to the laptop until it was completed (even though you were creating way less potently and the flow really wasn't there)?

I sure have! But I'm trying to do it less and less. I've been trying to convince myself that it's OK, even better, to stop for a minute or 15, then jump back in.

And it's true. Creative potency up, time spent down.

This allows us the space to slow down long enough to have a plan. And here's the thing... the plan can change. In fact, it has to if it's going to work.

But having a plan is about how our different projects function (whether in one company or various companies), how much time they require, how we're going about implementing them, and most importantly, how having new data about what we've done can help us improve it.

Let's be skeptical of anyone who says something can't be done better.

The ripple effect is: Step back for mind breaks -> Create more in less time -> Use saved time to strategize more effectively.

I suspect that strategy starts by stepping back.

Buildings, websites, relationships, and vehicles

Buildings, websites, relationships, and vehicles all require maintenance. It can be helpful to remind ourselves that solutions are temporary & that things worth keeping, building, growing, or preserving, are going to require at least a little bit of elbow grease.

Plug-n-play isn't forever. It's fair to assume a certain level of upkeep.

The Sistine Chapel, it is not

It can be easy to fall into the trap of being overly precious about our ideas. I can't tell you how many friends or clients I've spoken to or worked with who have hesitated to hit the launch button on a project because of a minute detail. The tendency is to protect our idea before it sets foot in the big bad world.

When I look back at how we executed our first few Shared Walls™ exhibitions at IPaintMyMind, it's hilarious. No systems, all passion, high cost, and tiny margins.

Now we have procedures, guides, systems, supplies, and support tools that help ensure we do the best job possible when hanging art for our partners.

Thinking back to Brian and I spray painting frames in his alley that we bought at a hotel liquidator feels like recalling an episode of I Love Lucy that I had somehow been cast in.

I realize now how great it was that we just went for it. If we had waited for perfect circumstances, we wouldn't have made real progress. It was all about trying the idea and seeing what parts of it worked and which parts of it didn't.

Launching is the first real test, not the end-product. For us, everything since then has been a process of iteration & there's still plenty of room for improvement.

One thing I know for sure... the Sistine Chapel, it is not.

No matter what IT is.

Friendtor (new word alert)

Friendtor (frend-tor) noun. 1. Someone who is both your friend and your mentor, this relationship can be reciprocal or unidirectional, but has the most potency when shared in both directions. When I spoke to my friendtor, we shared some awesome ideas & both learned a lot.

2. A relationship between people in which there is true equanimity and both people teach each other. The emphasis is on a free exchange of ideas where based on the subject, the teacher and the student shifts. The value of having a friendtor is immeasurable, I'm so lucky to have them in my life.

Kids know a lot

Yesterday I participated in my high school's Career Fair as an alumn who was now an "Entrepreneur." Instead of talking at them about what I thought entrepreneurship was, I started by asking them why they were interested in knowing what being an entrepreneur meant. Answers ranged from wanting to create their own schedules, to being their own boss, or having some experience of a family business. Freedom, both creative & social, was central to their curiosity.

I joked that some days I feel unemployed, but I also reminded them not to worry too much about what they think they want to be or do now, but to collect info by testing things out. Finding the intersection of interest & value definitely came up a few times.

It made me think about the level of digital normality that existed when I was in high school versus what these kids have to work with. Instant publishing, social media, and digital tools a keystroke away.

The fact remains, there is no currency like being current. There is a potency in having it all out in front of you.

Today I was reminded...

The kids know a lot and I've got to be the one asking them the questions.

Thank you is free

Thank you is free. It also feels good, makes others feel good, and tends to create more chances for you to say it again.