Over the past week, I have been really busy. Three sets of friends came to visit (meaning 4 trips to and from the airport) and I backed that up with a trip out to DC for business. In the past seven days, I have been to an airport 8 times.
I am tired. Tired to my core. I am wrecked. Which, of course, is the best time to explore that core.
Someone I am just getting to know well commented on two things that seem to hold true about me: 1) I live in a world of absolutes (I am bipolar, guess it fits); and 2) I have a list of tenets that I believe in and are immutable.
My friend Meg, who is probably one of my favorite and most respected writers I know, and I talk a lot about writing styles in terms of style and flow. She tells me often that I always write in terms of conclusions and completeness. I dont write open ended. I dont allow the reader to garner their own interpretations or continue or shape the conversation.
This is not done on purpose. I dont begin writing a post thinking to myself, “Gosh, I know how this starts and ends!” I just start writing. But, lets go back to my other friend who claims I live in absolutes and have tenets. I am going to take Meg’s advice, and let you draw your own conclusions.
Here are my beliefs/tenets:
- I believe that there is always a right thing to do. We all know what the right thing to do is, we sometimes decide to not do it.
- I believe that honesty and openness always trumps deceit. That the pain that sometimes goes with being honest is worth more than the avoidance that comes with deceit.
- I believe that above all respecting yourself and others allows others to respect you.
- I believe that giving should be done without expectation. Always.
- I believe that you have to always be the most important person to you. That if you dont put you first, then you will have nothing left to give others.
- I believe that its always about the person.
- I believe that how you life your life is a clearer message than telling someone else how to live there’s.
- I believe change comes from one person convincing one person that difference is good.
- I believe that the only thing I really own in my reputation.
- I believe that to make someone happy is the greatest gift you can give yourself.
- I believe that respect is the greatest gift you can give of yourself.
- I believe trust is the most fragile gift you can receive.
- I believe that being the best is a curse, but being the worst is pure torture.
- I believe that my bad habits will one day be my downfall.
I believe this list has gotten too long, so to summarize:
1) do the right thing. always.
2) be open and honest. always.
3) give. time. respect. knowledge. friendship. expect nothing. always.
4) bad habits. bad. avoid.
Why am I so scared of my bad habits (these are personality traits, like talkative, etc. those could be another list)? And what are they? Yay! another list:
- I tend to think in terms of “I,” not “we” or “us.”
- I tend to not see shades of grey.
- I find asking for help really really really hard.
- I tend to feel that I can brute force any problem.
- I tend to worry. a lot. about everything. always.
- I dont ever relax completely.
- I am unbelievably loyal.
- I want everyone to respect me.
- I want to be the best. I want to win. always.
- I dont like being a follower in any situation.
- I like knowing. everything.
If you have been a long time reader of this blog, you will see within those bad habits every failure and mistake that I have experienced. Every one.
No wonder they scare me.
Here is my final struggle. Here, Brad and David, is what I suck at.
My beliefs/tenets exist to make me a better person and a more valuable to the people around me, but my bad habits are endemic to my nature and hard to eliminate or change. Frankly, I dont like it, but dont know if I have the strength to change it.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
Im going to bed.
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There is a phrase, spoken mostly by “social media experts,” that I just cant stand. Can you guess what it is?
(drum roll please)
“Its not in my brand”
Yuck.
As social media continues its explosion, and more and more people are becoming “social media experts”and talking in terms of personal brand.
(BTW, “social media expert” is another complete misnomer. [...]
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