After almost 48 years on the planet, many of them splashed over with big, fatty dreams, I know this: the more you want something, and the more it is the Next Right Thing for you to be doing, the harder you will push away from it.

It's sort of a glorious indicator, really. I mean, if you want to take the Pollyanna/Rabbi Yehuda Berg angle on it: (1) Pinpoint what it is you're trying to avoid; (2) then go, baby, go!

I've been gearing up for the Creative Freelancer Conference this week in San Diego. And by "gearing," I mean, "alternately sweating every moment of it and avoiding the hell out of it." It's not like this is a brand, new thing for me, I've given many, many talks on Right Use of Social Media, i.e., using it for good (like a non-tool), not evil (like a latter-day gladhander), in the year since I spoke at the last one. I know and love the people who are putting it on, and, unless they're a bunch of lying pirates, the feeling is pretty much mutual.

And yet, I've found myself putting off putting on those finishing touches I know I want to. Somehow, there's always an email that needs answering or a request that needs tending to, or or or.

This weekend, a half-hour into plugging photos into my address book application, yes, really, I stopped myself. As in, "STOP. Now. Close this application. Finish what needs to be done, then go to bed, so you are fresh tomorrow, and the next day, and this next week, when you will need every bit of energy to vibrate at the ultra-high frequencies being in the presence of so much awesomeness demands of you."

Amazingly, I obeyed myself this once. (This is me, obeying, how does it look? Also, don't get too attached to it, I'm not so much with the obedience in general.) Here is the last part of it, for now:

Think of the thing you really want, that you really, really want. More than a scoop of ice cream, or an hour vegging in front of the idiot box, or what have you.
Now, think of the one, next thing you need to do, that you really, really need to do, to get there.
Do it.

We will get there together, you and I.

And the Resistor? Well, a bad guy's gotta do what a bad guy's gotta do. Nothing personal...

xxx
c