April 2007

I used to think that I need a central sense of purpose or meaning in my life before I could set meaningful, long term goals. After my recent foray into future success goals, I think the opposite is true:

Setting intuitive, long term goals can reveal important clues to what you find meaningful, and may even help you discover a deeper sense of purpose over all.

How do you set intuitive goals? It’s not as hard as it might sound.

Remember the “gotta get” goals meme? It’s a lot my approach to that.

Fire up your imagination, and project yourself into a blissful, satisfied and successful future. Look around. What do you see? What things around you, in that future, make you smile? What things make you feel satisfied?

What you see (or don’t see) will probably vary at different times, and there’s no pressure here. No worries about what is possible, or what you think you want, or what you think you should want. Just calmly, quietly let the image of a satisfied future develop around you.

Come back to the now, and bring those images back with you.

Write down what you visualized in that future.

Tada. Intuitive Goals! These goals aren’t necessarily things you need to plan to work on achieving, or even that you expect to achieve. They are just how you intuitively imagine success in your own life.

So, what meaning does that reveal?
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Over on Elemental Truths and Blogging for Business, Reg and Ted have been conspiring to send me into a panic attack with their witty repartee about blogging being a fad.

Blogging a fad? Oh gawds, what if it is… and what if it’s already peaked? Are the cool kids already moving on to catch the Next Big Wave? Maybe the blogosphere is dying. Is the in-fighting-meanness a death rattle? Maybe there’s no point in newcomers even getting into the game…. Should I hang up my keyboards, close the tags, and go home?

<cue anxiety attack!>

Ok, settle down. Stop clucking like your head has been cut off already. Remember to breathe. There, that’s better.

Now I’m going to ask the question again, calmly, and neither one of us is going to hyperventilate. We’re going to calmly consider the answers and implications in a self-interview. Ready? Here goes:

Q: Is blogging a fad?
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I’ve become a blogging packrat; my ‘drafts’ folder is full of links to research studies in neurology, psychology, and who knows what else. My intent was to write a post on each one, but… that’s not gonna happen.

I’m on a spring cleaning kick this weekend, so along with the unidentifiable stuff from the junk drawer, I’m going to toss out a few links. They aren’t necessarily new, or earth shattering, or even correct, just interesting. Maybe they’ll find a good home with someone.

• Psychology Today: Is Panic Hardwired? Experts Disagree Interesting theories about an over-sensitive suffocation response, and the impact of early experience on panic attack sufferers.
• New Scientist: Meditation Builds Up The Brain Studies show that not only does meditation increase mental performance, but actually thickens areas of the cerebral cortex.
• MindHacks: Hacking The Senses I loved this one! Links to Wired magazine articles describing people who hacked their senses with magnets, and developed an unerring sense of direction and/or the ability to detect magnetic fields. Seriously Cool Stuff.
• ABC News: Basic Instincts: The Science of Evil Article about how PrimeTime recreated the famous Milgram Experiment… and yes, people still followed authority, over ruling their own moral concerns. Not great science or info… just a good reminder.

And see.. even after all my bitching, I posted on topic and on schedule.

MindTWEAK: Declutter, destress.

Day One of the topic schedule, and I already hate it.. Down with overly-regimented inspiration-killers! Down with posting schedules!

It seemed like a good idea. Other people publish their blogs on a schedule. Then again, other people manage their lives with calendars, clocks, and traditional to-do lists. I’m not other people, and you probably aren’t, either (or you’d be reading their blog right now, instead of mine)

When I made up that schedule, I forgot almost every thing I’ve learned about how creative people like us think and organize and motivate.

• Inspiration trumps “the shoulds” every time. It makes sense, then, not to focus on what we “should” do, but what we’re inspired to do. Our productivity systems should direct our enthusiasm, not , stop it dead in its tracks.
• Organization is a *TOOL* not an obligation. If a system starts feeling like an obligation instead of an aid, put it down! We wouldn’t hold onto a screw driver when it became clear that what we needed was a saw. (Well, maybe we would, but it’s a wasted, frustrated effort)
• Focus on success. A good organizational/motivational system needs to create more opportunity for simple success, rather than more chances of failure.

In fact - that last point makes me think my approach with the topic-schedule was misguided from the beginning. What I was looking for wasn’t organization at all… but motivation. Motivation for posting every day. Motivation for covering a range of topics.

So it’s into the trash with the schedule, and back to plate-spinning: focussing attention where it needs it, rather than where it’s scheduled.

MindTWEAK: Recognizing failure is a type of success.

A week or two ago, my blog-friend Jackie posted a list of “Me Me Me” things. She decided to tag her readers (The Evil Wench! ) and ask that they list “me” things, too. At the risk of justifying those who insist blogs are self-indulgent, here’s a modified list of “Me” things. I thought it would make for a good TGIF fun post.

My Simple Pleasures

• My new dishes. They were on sale. They were cheap. They were simple and not offensive, and I needed some, so I bought them. But the dang things make me smile, every time I use them.
• Browsing and Buying images from iStock Photo. So many of the images are graphic designers dream. I can buy the rights to them for a dollar or two just amazes me. I like possessing them. It makes me smile.
• Blank books. They represent unlimited potential.
• Coffee with heavy cream. Pure decadence.

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