Successful Blog

Good-byes and New Beginnings

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I've been thinking . . .

A week later, in another hotel room, I type this. This time I am the one away from home. On Saturday, my son graduates from college.

“An ending,” I said on the phone a few weeks back, “and a new beginning.”

“No, it’s not,” was the only reply that he gave.

As the president of the college TV station, he’s always had a part to play at this event. The director role, that’s the part he likes this year as well.

My son is busy organizing and planning other kids’ graduation. I’ve just come to realize that’s his way of not saying good-bye.

Saying good-bye doesn’t have to be melancholy. Sometimes saying good-bye is the only way we realize how meaningful something has been.

I wrote right before I graduated from college.

That’s the way of new beginnings . . . they all seem to start from saying good-bye.

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On Connecting: Friends, Ideas, and Words

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I've been thinking . . .

It seems like everyone, it’s not, but it seems so. People tell me I’m a connector. That’s a good thing. Some folks offer that observation with some awe.

I see the outcomes they see that happen because of me. For them, that’s the end. For me that’s a point on a continuous timeline. I see the before and the after. I know the future of where such things go. It’s a curious thing that has been with me all of my life.

It’s the same with the people.
It’s the same with the ideas.
It’s the same with the words.

When I meet new people, unique and intriguing — as they all are. My mind finds their mind; my heart finds their heart; my hand finds their hand. We become friends. It transcends understanding because of the unconditional part. A contract is made that true friends carry tacitly.

Maybe that’s why, even now, I don’t understand, the concept of “best friend.” I don’t have a best sentence, though I’ve written many musical, meaninful ones. How could I choose one as the “best”? It would seem even more wrong to do so with people. People are so valuable, each alone. No comparison to be made there.

As with words and ideas. I find people with whom my friends make grand ideas, laughter, music, and color. I’m not sure how I know they will. Maybe it’s the size of their hearts, maybe it’s their hearts and brains working together. Either way, they sure enough do. They find each other and become living art. I watch. They smile. They talk. They become part of each other’s life.

I opened a door. They walked through. To get the credit for that is like getting the credit for making a flower bloom.

Friends, ideas, and words — the answer is always to let them be, let them go. Enjoy what they do.

Like these words, my friends stand on their own. They are not me, except for that part they will always take along.

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When Saying “Thank You” Can Never Be Enough

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I’ve been thinking . . .

about saying “Thank you.”

It was always a problem, from the time I was wee one called “Bashful.” How do I express sincere gratitude when the words, the simple words that are available have been over used and pounded in to submission? How can I just say them, when I need their tired forms to carry the deepest meaning, yet they sound just the same as when they are tossed out frivolously by anyone with a vocabulary?

They say actions speak louder than words, but . . . sometimes words are necessary. The right words are an action in and of themselves. They take time to be chosen and arranged to convey the thought.

Here is the thought:
We, everyone of us — those who went, those who held their breath in anticipation whether they were going to attend SOBcon or not. — We all made it happen. It was a product built from our faith in each other and a focus on hard work –the details that the committee — Chris, and Lisa, Terry, and Mike worked on daily. It’s the serious work that the speakers put into the content and the passion with which they collected and delivered it with joy and generosity. It is the open hearted joy of those who could attend and the quiet support those who could not –all standing by ever ready to help. Always ready to offer their faith and passion for the event.

This was so not the worde of one — simple words cannot expand to describe or express my deep, deep gratitude for every voice, every thought, every good feeling that was a part.

So I am left with a heartfelt “Thank, you, you have changed my life.”

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Change the World: Make Something Happen

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It’s Really Happening

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You know it was the power of many people who made the SOBCon even come together. It was the risk of a few, but the energy of so many. Lots of folks make an investment to be here because they sensed the difference. Last night they saw it in each other’s faces.

How increidible, the intelligence, the spark, the respect. When open comment night came it was no stand and tell us who you are. It was you’re on Oprah, talk to us, we want to know you.

Later when it was time to tell a Gorgeous nonblogging, blog reader, a blog tip or two, the tips came from the heart, folks wanted everyone to know.

It was the best of friends, the best of education, the best of kids playing in the back yard with imagination.

Imagine if every person you worked wth could be from a relationship like that?

Business and relationships belong together.

We can change the world — just like that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

On a Friday Morning, When Among Other Things . . .

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I’ve been thinking . . .

On a Friday morning when among other things, I will be meeting some really important people — every one of them. . . . I sit here with my laptop, thinking about what a lucky a person I am. Like the rest of us, who would have thought anything like this would have come of it when I wrote that first blog post (how long ago?)? I had no idea that anything like this would ever come of it.

Yet here I am, deleting a sentence I just spent a good hour editing. What I was trying to say in too many words was that I’ve changed and that folks who’ve known me are noticing.

“Wow, you did that differently than you would have done that a year or two ago.”

“I don’t have time for grown ups who act like spoiled brats anymore. Too many good folks are worth worrying about.”

“Blogging has been good for you.”

Everyone who reads my blogs has had a hand in that growth. Everyone has taught me.

On a Friday morning, with my laptop again in front of me I am wondering. Who would have thought anything like this might have been come of it?

I never dreamed I would fall in love.

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25 Ways to be Jazzed about Productivity

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Jazzed Yeah!

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Ben started a writing project on productivity. I had to get productive to even particpate in it. I might have had too much on my desk. I think I might have missed it. Kim asked me to tell about productivity. She even said that sometimes she got mean about it — no, no, not really, well, at least it didn’t seem so. She’s the Kim who is desparately escaping adulthood with Jason.

Still, I can’t let the concept of productivity sit there. So here are 25 ways to get Jazzed about productivity.

  1. Get up early when no one’s around. Nothing’s more fun than working without interruption.

  2. Look out the window to greet the day with a few minutes for yoursef before you begin. Then you’ll be ready to dig in.

  3. Clean off your desk before you start working. If you haven’t done for a while, clean your computer screen too.

  4. Make sure that the tools you use often through the day are close to you.

  5. Make to do list. Divide according to what you can move most quickly to get someone else working too.

  6. Review your calendar for deadlines you have meet. Determine what has be done and how much time you have to do it. Plan for when and how and include breaks.

  7. If the work takes longer than the time you have, find the work that anyone can do and let anyone do it. Don’t ask for help — delegate. Find a partner, a pal, or an apprentice who wants to learn what you do. Barter their services.

  8. Don’t multitask. Research shows it’s not productive.

  9. Choose a task and a move it forward one small step. Then decide if you’ll move it two.

  10. Choose appointed times during the day to answer email. Every two hours might do.

  11. When an email or other tpiece of paper bearing a task comes your way. Assign it to a pile — Do it. Delegate it. OR Dump it. If you set it aside, you’ll only have to pick up and go through thinking about it again. That last pile is the waste basket.

  12. When you are interrupted, learn to say, “Do you mind if I take a minute to finish this?” Then do. Having to start up again will steal the time that it take for you to find your place again.

  13. Before you make call, know what the outcome is that you want and know how much time you allot yourself. Then at the beginning of the call share the time limit with the person on the other end.

  14. Know the job and routine of the person or persons you are working with. Understand how your work and decisions impact theirs. That will avoid making work for them, which would, inevitably, make work for you.

  15. Take a break for 3 or 4 minutes every hour to walk around, giving yourself a change of view.

  16. Ask a child to solve a problem for you. Better yet have 10 year old organize your supplies.

  17. Start in the middle of a hard task. Usually we know what the middle of anything we want to do will be. It’s the beginning and end that confuse us.

  18. Organize a large document by laying all of the pieces of it on the floor and literally looking at it while standing above it with a top-down view.

  19. Quit thinking poor. Buy the tools you need. Get the best quality you can afford. For those tools you use every day calculate how many pennies per day it will cost you. Then calculate how much time you will save by using the new tool.

  20. Pick one hour a day that you will not take any outside interruptions — no email, IM, or telephone calls. The hour after lunch is good. Clean your desk before the hour begins and place a task that requires focus on it. Ready for when the hour begins.

  21. Have a routine for writing that suits the time of day that you write well and get the least interruptions.

  22. As you begin each task, allot a time to it — how long it will take you to do it. If you find yourself falling far behind at the half-way mark, stop to re-evaluate your understanding of the task.

  23. Do a sample for every new job and every new task to ensure that what you heard is what folks really want.

  24. Learn to say “no,’ when you don’t have time. If you can’t say “no,” at least schedule requests for a time when your schedule will allow them.

  25. Leave one task at the end of the day about 20 minutes from finished. That way when you begin the next day, you’ll be able to accomplish something quickly and start on a roll.

Whew! 25 ways to get jazzed about productivity. Some a little and some are much larger. Every one of them will have its own impact in your life. Choose the ones that work for you. Leave the rest on the proverbial table. A proverbial person just might come along. That proverbial person might find that those you left are exactly the right fit for a problem he or she has been staring at for months.

What gets you jazzed about productivity. . . Ilker, Daniel, Jason, Singhania, Katiebird?

–ME “Liz” Strauss