The Mountains & Bloggy Con

The Mountains

Driving through the hills and trees to get to the Bloggy Conference in Ohio I realized that I felt extremely comforted. I'm from Illinois where it's flat as a pancake. It feels airy and thoughtful. But over the last few months I have realized that feel most comfortable taking action instead of thinking all the time.

Although I'm naturally an action-oriented person I've been spending much of my life thinking and planning. It's been quite frustrating. Last month I threw away my endless todo list and while a couple times I've had so much going on that I just had to write stuff down I don't have the years worth of tasks and chores anymore.

Being in the hills has reminded me how earthy I am. Rocks and trees and rolling landscape keeps me stable and grounded. And it's only being in this environment that I realize how spacey the flatlands of Illinois makes me feel.

I'm pretty sure I belong in the mountains. Hopefully soon I can start making plans to get there.

The Meaning of Life

We have been trying to define it for centuries and some people claim to have the answer for you. You know who I'm talking about...self help gurus and leading experts and political groups. I don't believe there is a universal meaning of life.

It's interesting how much my definition of life has changed over the years and how much more it's changed in the last few months. I used to think that the meaning of life was to be the best at everything and be liked by everyone. And then the meaning changed to just being yourself. And there's always been that urge to do everything.

I think my meaning of life is changing again. A pattern I'm seeing is that we all try to do more than we are capable of or have the time and energy for. Acknowledging that you can't do something isn't a confession of defeat. It's a confession that you are being honest with yourself.

So much stress in my life has been accumulated from trying to be something I'm not or agreeing to things that I don't have the expertise or the resources for. When I'm honest with myself and say, "I'm sorry, I'm not the most qualified person to do that", I feel a wave of calm and meaning wash over me. Ironically, most of the time I have to say that to myself more than to others.

BloggyCon Theme

It seemed like the theme today at BloggyCon was to behave online the same way you would in real life. Just because Twitter and Facebook and your blog on virtual doesn't really mean the rules have changed.

I know some people won't agree with me on this but if blogging and Tweeting are like marketing and the best way to market is to build relationships than why wouldn't you treat your online friends the same way as your offline friends?

If you would whisper something to a friend at a party don't tweet that same thing to all your followers. Likewise, if you need help from a friend, what would you do? You'd probably just call them up and ask them a favor. Obviously you shouldn't call up a new Twitter follower if you haven't established a relationship yet but you can at least Direct Message them your question.

That's what I did today...what did you do?

P.S. HA! I just typed in "random quote" in Google and the first quote I found ties into another theme of the day.

"Determine never to be idle...It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing." -- Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)

How perfect is that? More on "Authentic Action" tomorrow.