doubt, leadership, stress
In Entrepreneurship, Inspiration, Work/Life Balance on August 30, 2010 at 8:41 pm
People don’t think of me as a quitter, which is funny, because I think about quitting all the time. It’s probably my number-one threat.
Just ask my husband. He’s the one person on earth who cannot avoid me when I’m in a mood, mostly because we live together. This is one of many under-appreciated perks of marriage.
Quitting a job, quitting a task, quitting the cats and their never-ending litterbox dramas, quitting this blog, quitting marriage, quitting my company, quitting writing, quitting cleaning the GOD-DAMN-HOUSE (sic) – all things I have threatened to do, more than once, and usually with hand gestures.
In fact, I’ve come to think of not-quitting as the bravest thing I do most days of the week. If only because I choose to not-quit in the face of what seems like damning evidence that I really should.
Not being a traditionally religious person, I don’t walk around appealing to the heavens when I strike out. There’s evidence us dithering humans could use a little faith to avoid killing sprees.
Still, some (ironically Protestant) part of me thinks that’s a weak tack. Go figure, right?
Also, I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I wrote a very heavy-handed poem once about god. My principle beef with him at the time?
goal, life
In Inspiration, Work/Life Balance on August 3, 2010 at 11:44 pm
I have had a few very personal posts locked away in a closet for a while now. I even adapted one for another blog, the thought-provoking GenYJourney, which is run by @TylerDurbin, and I really encourage you to read it.
It’s called “Shut Up and Ride,” and it deals in passing with some of the larger questions I’ve been mulling over these past few years.
I was reminded of these questions again recently when I read Betsy Talbot’s post on Married with Luggage, “Can We Start All Over?” and it occurs to me that perhaps I’m being too withholding.
The personal anecdotes I share have been proofed for shareability – that is to say, they are stories I have told many times; stories that through years of retelling have lost some of their emotional freight.
You know:
Stories that don’t hurt me anymore.
Then, last week, as I was preparing to wrap up a post in response to Betsy’s post, I got a phone call from my mother. Her younger brother – my uncle and godfather - had dropped dead that afternoon.
So I deleted the post I was working on. Surprising how small things look when you get hauled into perspective.
Copywriting, crap
In Writing for Web on July 7, 2010 at 9:40 pm
Is anyone else surprised at the amount of crap they read online? Sometimes, I think I spend entire days reading crap. I actually have to do a double-take when I read something original, because my mind’s been blown for 10 consecutive days by – you guessed it – crap.
It’s hard to define crap. Fellow Brazen Careerist user Hannah Kane is too nice to use the word “crap,” or even suggest it (and so was I), but she did ask a great question about identifying crap just two days ago – specifically regarding the career advice variety of crap. I should have been honest with her, and mentioned crap.
But I hate to use a word that no one can quite define, yet that describes something ubiquitous – it’s tricky. As a writer, it’s against my religion. And as a person, it just gives me a headache.
Besides, I think you need to know crap when you see it. If you’re not sure yet, you’re either a source of crap, or you need to find yourself some real-life mentors so you can learn how to suss it out.
The ubiquity of crap is nothing new, of course.
The same thing is happening to blogs and web writing that’s been happening to business (copy)writing for years: good old language dilution.
