Browse Author: leesalu

Beyond Bucket List

My dad is getting rid of a trench coat. It’s a tan, button-front, dry-clean only, J.C. Penney, mostly polyester trench coat. He hasn’t worn it in over a decade and can’t even remember why he bought it to begin with. Maybe it was for a trip he took with my mother somewhere. How it ended up in his closet is a mystery.

He says it takes up way too much room and it doesn’t have enough pockets anyway. And during our coat discussion, my mom starts cracking up. Just giggling. She simply finds the whole thing funny, and I find her finding it funny equally funny.

When I start giggling, my mom laughs harder which starts my dad up. His laugh is mostly silent, with little bursts of sound that make his whole body shake with little eruptions. He snorts. This triggers fresh rounds of laughter.

My mom has tears running down her face now, and my dad is taking off his glasses to wipe his eyes. I’m saying “ouch!!” as the muscles behind my ears are starting to hurt, my dad grips his belly and also says “ouch!”. More peals of laughter.

After a few rounds of this, we start to re-enter the atmosphere, sniffling, drying our tears, punctuated with giggles. As we catch our breath, I realize that this moment has been on my bucket list since I was born.

A moment of laughing together until we cry. It’s beyond a bucket list. It’s a moment gifted, and a moment joyfully received.

Ranking Your Goal

What do you want to do on social media?

You may want to grow your audience, especially if you’re new. The best ways to do this are: through posts, both paid and unpaid, and possibly running a promotion to make you “top of mind” and create awareness. Establish yourself as an expert or thought leader, to establish trust with your audience.

Always tie it to a deadline and create a goal – simply a number to hit – and see where you fall.

Adjust.

Repeat.

Micro (dot) blogging

So, if not Facebook or Twitter, what social media platforms are available to play on? Preferably one without adds, popups or other disruptions. Guess what? I listened to a podcast and am excited to try Micro.blog! It has a minimal host/subscription fee with the ability to tie in your existing blog. I’m testing it out right now 🙂

Promoting Loyalty

You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone.

Leadership has a responsibility to employees – one that transcends a 401k and affordable healthcare. After working with a privately-held company for nearly a decade, I see the frustration and resulting departure of many workers who are forced to leave because they’re unable to achieve their professional goals.

As part of the now-required jargon of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), employees are asked to give to charities the company supports by taking time off of their weekends & with family – or by donating money – so the company could “match” the donations. This highly-encouraged but optional participation was communicated as team-building activities. And execs then couldn’t understand why no one was interested in “giving back”.

Employees are more likely to donate to baby showers, cancer funds, or birthday gifts. Rather than have the company donate $25k to the Whole Planet Foundation, I’d rather see them help with my co-worker’s childcare, continuing professional development, or medical expenses.

So, CSR looks really shiny from the outside, but it’s hard to get behind when you can’t get ahead.

The Party

I invite who I like. That’s the rule. If it’s a party I throw for someone else, I invite who THEY like, and I usually like them just fine, too. Because we’re all friends.

But when someone takes offense that they weren’t invited to the party, I’d say that person is self-selecting for a party-less future.

Sometimes, it’s best to simply zip it & throw your own damn party.

Paying attention…

A cynic is someone who is passionate but does not want to be disappointed. Pay attention to the passion, and not the cynicism.

What can we create from this perspective? People don’t change, but the context does.

Curation: what’s it to you?

Content curation. Digital curation. Art curation. It’s the act of organizing, pulling together, sifting through information. There’s a vast amount of resources, best practices, and advice out there. The trick is choosing how to spend our time.

Time is finite but information is every-fucking-where. How did I subscribe to so many email lists? Where did all these books in my queue come from? Why do I have so many Unplayed Episodes in my podcast stream? Overwhelm!!

I start writing lists of Ted Talks to watch or blogs to follow or series to watch. All of these things are constantly streaming into my consciousness from such random places and all the while I’m trying to figure out what to do with it all. So I’m starting here. Here I will chronicle things I notice and things that help me as simply as possible.

First thing: My BuJo. Bullet Journal. A place for it all to live. One notebook, multiple roles. Kind of like an extension of my brain. I hope. Most importantly is is my opportunity to STOP and focus on a single thing.

I’ve been keeping my BuJo for the last five months and I love it. The act of writing things down somehow cements it in my memory – or allows me to LET IT GO (I still haven’t finished watching “Frozen”). I can reference my lists, meeting notes, calendar, and future plans all within one lovely, bound book.

If you want to check it out, here’s the original site. Warning: rabbit hole. Once you go down this path, you will find many, many suggested layouts (to curate) and many people with opinions on HOW to best CREATE your journal. All bullshit – since it should be a structure that you personalize. Trust your instinct. Trust your slightly crooked lines. Trust what comes out when you put pen to paper…

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