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Guest Posting at the Daily Gallen

February 18, 2013 in blogging, friends, Guest post, humor with 0 Comments

I have the privilege today of guest posting at that the Daily Gallen, the blog, and brainchild, of my friend, Tim Gallen. This month, he has turned his site into a digital playground, and is hosting all manner of different creative expressions from bloggers, writers, artists, photographers, etc.

Think of it as a creative magazine in blog form.

My contribution is less post, and more conversation, as I attempt to engage in dialogue with the online A.I. entity known as Cleverbot. (I’ll leave it to you to decide just how clever this ‘bot is).

Here is a taste:

“User: Hello, Cleverbot, how are you?

Cleverbot: I’m alright, I guess… Why are you sad?

User: Glad to hear you’re alright. No, I’m not sad. Are you?

Cleverbot: Are you?

User: Am I what?

Cleverbot: My wife.

User: No, I’m a happily married man of 22 years. I’m definitely not your wife! I didn’t even know robots could marry? Is that legal where you live?”

To read the rest, please click over to the Daily Gallen.

Social Media Strategy

January 16, 2013 in blogging, lessons, Life with 3 Comments

I hear a lot these days about platform and strategy, about how important it is to have both. I don’t discount it. I believe it is important to live with intentionality.

But these usually go hand-in-hand with someone else’s success story, e.g., do it this way (my way), and you will succeed.

It’s never worked for me. The more I’ve tried to emulate others, follow their path to success, the more I’ve failed, and fallen flat.

Which has been my approach to both platform, and strategy: do what you see others doing.

Thing is, I’m not them, I’m not a Jeff Goins, a Michael Hyatt, a Jon Acuff, or a Bryan Allain.

I’m me. And I’m beginning to understand that God’s path to success for me is mine to trod. Now I’m not knocking those other guys, as they are very successful at what they do. I’m simply saying I’m not them.

That my path is not going to be the same as their’s.

As such, 2013 is going to be a year of change for me. Where before I followed the crowd, I will instead be intentional with my social media connections. In other words I will have a strategy.

But it will be my own.

And as far as platform goes, I will be stepping away to put time, thought, and effort into matters of a more personal nature.

In other words to live.

See you down the road.

Social Media Strategy

January 16, 2013 in blogging, lessons, Life with 0 Comments

I hear a lot these days about platform and strategy, about how important it is to have both. I don’t discount it. I believe it is important to live with intentionality.

But these usually go hand-in-hand with someone else’s success story, e.g., do it this way (my way), and you will succeed.

It’s never worked for me. The more I’ve tried to emulate others, follow their path to success, the more I’ve failed, and fallen flat.

Which has been my approach to both platform, and strategy: do what you see others doing.

Thing is, I’m not them, I’m not a Jeff Goins, a Michael Hyatt, a Jon Acuff, or a Bryan Allain.

I’m me. And I’m beginning to understand that God’s path to success for me is mine to trod. Now I’m not knocking those other guys, as they are very successful at what they do. I’m simply saying I’m not them.

That my path is not going to be the same as their’s.

As such, 2013 is going to be a year of change for me. Where before I followed the crowd, I will instead be intentional with my social media connections. In other words I will have a strategy.

But it will be my own.

And as far as platform goes, I will be stepping away to put time, thought, and effort into matters of a more personal nature.

In other words to live.

See you down the road.

Looking Back, Forging Ahead: 2012 In Retrospect, & My One Word for 2013

January 8, 2013 in blogging, confession, Culture, faith, family, friends, grace, lessons, Life, sharing with 17 Comments

'oneword rip' photo (c) 2008, Jem Stone - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/Last year was interesting one for me. I both ascended to some of the highest heights, and hit some of the lowest lows. After having God, at Bootcamp, show up so amazingly, I (like Elijah after Carmel) bottomed out, turned to man for something I could only get from Him.

At the age of 43, I’m only just now confronting some of the ugliest parts of me.

I’m often:

Willful

Stubborn

Selfish

Prideful

Yet I can be:

Humble

Self-effacing

Gracious

Thing is, I’m more often the former three at home, and the latter online. There is a disconnect, a dividing line know as “hypocrisy,” all too frequently crossed.

In the last couple of years, I’ve been pursuing success here in the
blogging arena, and all the while mostly flailing around in life. I keep looking to things, people, stuff for significance. Which is really an Adam and Eve: looking for validation apart from God. Which, to be perfectly honest, is idolatry.

But God, Who must really love me, keeps pulling down my idols, smashing all my golden cows, and grinding them into a fine powder. As He should. There can be no other before Him.

I would venture so far as to say that the root of all sin is this desire we inherited from our famous forebears to achieve something, to be something, to be significant apart from God.

In my pursuit of success, I gave up something I never should have: my integrity. Which lead me to places where I should not have gone (at least in my heart and mind). The irony is that this is no way to succeed.

That’s why I’m laying down my dream, and exchanging it for the one God
has for me. If I’m to be successful in anyway, I want it to be on His terms (not mine), in His way, and in His time. I only have a finite amount of time/energy/resources to invest. And I don’t want my family on the wrong side of “my dream.”

I want it to be our dream, and I want us to invest together.

Which leads me to my One Word for 2013: integrity. I want to be the same in public, and in private. Consistent in my actions, my life laid bare before those close to me. This word was not chosen by me, but rather (I believe) for me.

By God.

I am telling you, my faithful, constant readers for the sake of accountability. I’ve laid my heart bare in the hopes that it encourages you to do the same (not necessarily here, in this forum, but in your life–with those closest to you). The point of looking back is to learn, and by learning not to be ensnared again in the same way. That is the way of wisdom.

Which goes hand-in-glove with integrity.

Thank-you for reading, and make a great 2013!

Featured on The Isle of Man Today

December 31, 2012 in blogging, creativity, Culture, friends, Guest post, humor with 3 Comments

Folks, along with an elite cadre of fellow bloggers, I’m featured today on Kevin Haggerty’s often hilarious Isle of Man.

With those other fine folks, I’m there offering (at Kevin’s suggestion and instigation) New Year’s resolutions for celebrities.

Such as:

Honey BooBoo resolves to take her family’s beloved Ketchup “Sketti” sauce recipe global.

Click here to read the rest.

(Yes, this represents the less angsty, more funny, side of my writing. In other words it was fun to be asked to participate. Thanks, Kevin!).

Happy New Year!

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