Among the 100 billion other obligations I have only myself to blame for, I've been prepping my presentation on marketing and social media for my alumni group this coming Monday.
The core of it is the same as what I did for my Seattle workshops, and for my actor marketing seminar, and for the keynote Dyana and I gave at the Design Center. If you want to get down and dirty, it's probably the core of any (responsible) speech on the topic of marketing and social media because really, the principles are the principles are the principles. There's no mystery sauce someone has that will magically make you rich, internet-famous, and decrease your belly fat the way the stars do. Because that belly fat thing is just what regular people do, expending more calories than you take in, only the stars have unlimited resources in the form of personal chefs, personal trainers and time, blessed time to enlist in fighting the good fight.
In the same way, I've come to realize that most change happens the same way. And today, combing through old emails, looking for something else, I stumbled on this gem of a formula so simple, even a BROKE, HAS-BEEN star with NO personal anything at her disposal could follow it:
- Recognize where you are
- Figure out where you want to be at
- Plot out action steps to get you from 1 to 2
See? Ridiculously simple.
But "simple" is so often confused with "easy", and that's where the trouble lies (and the rows upon rows of self-help and money-management and find-love/etc books sprout up.)
Also, as I'm finding via my own incredibly circuitous route to fabulosity, things have a way of changing that can mess you up, and implementing things in real-time often takes far more will, time and resources than it does in the dry run of your mind's eye. Not to mention luck. If you don't believe me, ask those two guys who just landed the plane in the Hudson River.
Also-also, the more creative and excellent one is, the very people who have really great things they want to achieve, and whom the world really needs to have get a move on, the greater the likelihood of getting stymied by one's own multifaceted excellence. The slightly dumber, or less gifted, or at least less multiply-talented often have an easier time of finding the necessary focus to get traction: they aren't saddled with a lot of pesky alternate routes sitting there, looking alluring.
The good news is that my (repeatedly) messing up, underestimating how much time something will take and overestimating the energy and resources I have to devote to it, will be good for you, because I will keep writing about it. This, in turn, will be good for me, because I will be forced to examine things. I mean, don't get me wrong: I'm doing a metric crapload of examining right now as a result of all the stuff I've taken on this year. But really, the blog is good for forcing me to get my thoughts out and down, instead of swirling around in my head or even sloughed off in a morning walk. This way, they're there for posterity AND my own, forgetful self.
For tonight, however, the formula is both simple to sort out AND easy to implement:
- I am here in the cold, messy dark of my apartment, overwhelmed by everything I've committed to and the enormous burden of responsibility it feels like.
- I want to be in bed, watching good/bad BBC, snuggled up with a warm, friendly body (with another, furrier one at the foot of the bed.)
- Put on shoes, get in car, drive to The BF's.
Well, okay, I may opt for clogs...
xxx
c
Image by cyancey via Flickr, used under a Creative Commons license.