I’m at The TLDC 2016 conference, sitting in a session facilitated by Shannon Tipton. This session is all about blogging. She asked, why does your organization blog? Or, if your organization did blog, what is the purpose?
Is it to help people to improve business writing? Share organizational knowledge? Develop solutions?
Now I’m pondering why I blog. I’ve had this blog for years. About 8 years. I’m not a dedicated blogger, and I may go over a year between posts.
Here is why I blog:
I am at The TLDC16 conference and just listened to the keynote by Allison Rossett. Her speech was about happiness. And it got me thinking about myself.
Most people who know me find me unrelentingly happy. But it hasn’t always been this way. In my late teens through my early thirties, I suffered from undiagnosed Clinical Depression.
I bet you’re wondering how I go from there to the me I am today. It is because of my mom.
We learned that I needed to smile until I made it. In other words, if I smiled enough, I found things to smile about.
I learned that if I looked for humor in situations, I could make myself laugh. Instead of getting angry about poor service, I now rewrite the interaction as a scene from a sitcom.
But the biggest impact on my happiness is my daily habit of listing everything for which I’m grateful. This gratitude habit changed my value system. I used to value what others had. Now I value wha I have.
Happiness at work needed me to include one more factor. I had to learn who I am; what I want, and what I will not sacrifice even for a perfect job.
Once you know how to make yourself happy, how to be happy at work, life becomes fun. Not easy, but fun.
Do you know how burlesque, vaudeville, and the Ziegfeld Follies differ from each other?
This one minute clip from the movie Singing in the Rain explains the differences…without using a single word.
I challenge you to explain something in a course without using words. It’s hard, but when done right, it’s beautiful.
Anyone whos met me would swear up one side and down the other that I’m the most outgoing extroverted people-person you could ever meet. And as long as I was with one person I know well, that description fits me to a tee.
For a while.
See, I like people, but I MUST HAVE disappearing time to recharge. You’ll never see me doing a full day at the convention center. I can’t.
What’s it like being a people person who suddenly can’t be around people?
It’s like my nerve endings are exposed and the slightest movement will flay the skin from my bones. The voices are louder and louder and drown out every thought in my head except “GET OUT”. My fists clench, and it’s all I can do to keep from screaming.
I go to a quiet place, turn off tvs, radios, texts. Emails, and just relax.
I’ve been like this my whole life.
I know I’m not the only outgoing introvert here. Anyone else?
“I’ve spent my life trying to undo habits—especially habits of thinking. They narrow your interaction with the world. They’re the phrases that come easily to your mind, like: ‘I know what I think,’ or ‘I know what I like,’ or ‘I know what’s going to happen today.’ If you just replace ‘know’ with ‘don’t know,’ then you start to move into the unknown. And that’s where the interesting stuff happens.” ~ Lady in picture as seen on Humans of New York Facebook page
True learning happens in the unknown spaces when you change ‘I know’ to ‘I don’t know’.
‘I know what I think and I know what I know’ locks you in the closet of your beliefs. You’ve bolted the closet door against anything or anyone coming in.
‘I know what’s going to happen’ blocks you from the unexpected moments of life. Unless you’ve always done the same thing, do you really know what’s going to happen? Remember the beauty of being human – we don’t know what we’re going to do.
‘I know what I like’ narrows and constricts your world view down to predictability. You’ve settled to live life without a single opportunity to challenge yourself.
Open your mind to the possibilities and serendipity of the world. They’re what make life truly worth living.
Otherwise, you’re stuck. Content. Average. Repetitive. Boring.
I don’t know what I think.
I don’t know what’s going to happen.
I don’t know what I like.
Tree of Learning 