Keep It Real

Image via Wikipedia

The Oconee chapter president of the Gold Prospector’s Association of America tells the story of a friend who went prospecting for gold in an Alaskan mining area. The guy was digging around in the clay, looking for a sign of gold. He came upon a huge clump of clay that was packed tightly together, thought that it looked like too much work to mess with, and tossed it aside. One of his fellow prospectors came up behind him, working through the soil, and came upon this same clump of clay. Instead of tossing it aside, he decided to put his effort into breaking it apart to see if there was anything inside. There was. A $30,000 piece of gold.

This story has more than one moral, but the one that stood out to me was: Something might look like a lot of work. Don’t be lazy, looking for the easy way out. Get to work! If something looks promising, even if it’s a lot of work, dig in–you may find a treasure.

Had a fabulous brainstorming session with the world’s most amazing brainstormer today: Jon Evans. I’m excited about what’s in store for Northstar Creative (my company) and the world of search engine optimization!

Now it’s time to come down (if only slightly) off the high of the IDEA and get to work. Making the idea a reality is the hard part, but I’m definitely not content to let this one stay in dream land.

Let’s make this thing happen!

I was flipping through channels last night and caught something that got me thinking–a lot more than TV usually gets me thinking. A kid named Connor Doran was at the America’s Got Talent audition in Portland, doing indoor kite flying choreographed to music. It was beautiful to watch, but what amazed me was the kid’s attitude. He’s got epilepsy and some other problems, obviously struggling with more than most of us ever will. But he doesn’t tell himself that he can’t do things just because of his challenges–he just works more diligently to do what he sets out to do.

Two thoughts: 1) How many times have I set out to do something and then decided, for whatever reason, that I wasn’t cut out for it? Just because I’m not the most talented person in the world doesn’t mean I should give up. 2) How do I define success? Sometimes, inspiring someone to live a more meaningful life is worth more than making a six-figure income.

Here’s Connor’s performance:

Back from the Saturday Market, downtown Greenville. Picked up some fantastic blueberries, tomatoes, green beans, and fresh-made pesto. Note to self: Get there before 10:30 next week before the farmers start selling out of stuff!

I love shopping at the Saturday Market, and not just because you can get some of the best, super-fresh, locally-grown food. Shopping out in the open air rather than in a freezing cold, fluorescent-lit supermarket–no comparison! And there’s something about being able to chat with the very people who grow your food–it just gives me warm fuzzies!

Going to go eat some of those blueberries. . . .

Two conversations today got me thinking about how people develop over time and how it does take time–growth and experience usually can’t be rushed. That sounds kind of abstract–so what am I talking about?

The first conversation was with a client. A big part of what both of us do for a living includes sales. I was saying something about how I wanted to be better at listening and asking questions to better understand the prospect’s situation, and bemoaning the fact that I tend to talk too much in appointments. He said he used to be like that too–but over time and with the experience of lots of appointments, he’s gotten good at it, and gotten a lot more confident in his ability to help clients in the process.

The second conversation happened when I ran into a girl I went to college with. I haven’t seen her in probably nine years. In school she was crazy (a lot of fun!), kind of irresponsible, and more than a little scatterbrained. Now she owns her own company and is doing really well! A lot can happen in nine years!

Those two conversations made me realize that sometimes I need to have a little more patience with myself. Sure, I have this grand vision of what I want to be and do. That’s great. But personal development doesn’t happen overnight. And that’s ok, as long as I’m participating in the process.

The whole day today I felt like I was behind schedule on a huge list of to-dos. I don’t know why I had in my head that I had to get the whole list done today, but I did. And so the whole day I was going around in this frantic frame of mind. Combined with a nice big mocha with extra caffeine, I felt like one of those wind-up toys that somebody over-cranked.

Around 4:30 I realized that the to-do list wasn’t about to admit defeat, and I had a choice to make: I could pick a couple more things to knock out, or stress and frantically whirl around in a pointless attempt to do more (and, incidentally, actually get less done because of my unfocused and crazy state of mind.)

So I decided to chill out and pick a couple of things to work on. Got them done. It’s 7:00 now and I’m going to enjoy the evening. Might even reward myself with a TCBY treat for my new self-awareness.

The mail lady just arrived with the Amazon package I’ve been waiting on for a week (has it just been a week?). I had to order Jamie Oliver’s book, Jamie’s Food Revolution, in the paper-and-binding version because, well, have you ever tried using a cookbook in a Kindle version? Me either, but I just don’t think it would be the same as flipping through glossy pages of food photos.
Anyway, I am super excited about this book because I am totally on board with Jamie’s from-scratch, healthy, simple, and delicious food movement. I want to abandon the sodium-filled, fake food that comes in a box. I want to make some yummy stuff from ingredients that come from farms rather than a manufacturing facility.
I subscribe to Food and Wine magazine, which I love, but truthfully I don’t always have an hour to make a meal, and I can’t always make a trip out to Whole Foods for those “I’ve never heard of that!” ingredients. So Jamie’s book is going to be a lifesaver for weeknights when I’m coming home at 7:00 from a networking event!