It?s not a resolution, honest
Published by on January 1st, 2008 Comments Off
I’m not one for new year’s resolutions. But as it happens, a number of elements of my life have been coming into sync over the past handful of months and now is as good a time as any to make some forward-looking plans – it just happens to be the first day of 2008, too!
I have a philosophy for 2008: less noise, more substance.
Just over a year ago I sliced something out of my life which was generating a great deal of noise, and in 2007 I got close to making the same mistake and letting noise rule my personal development. By noise I mean all those little (and sometimes not so little) projects/tasks/wishes/ aims/”needs”/constraints/etc. we all allow ourselves and others to tag onto our lives for other reason than we think we should. This is usually the result of subtle peer pressure, something which is a much more significant and subliminal now that we have the social network pressure system firing bucket-loads of peer-fueled expectation at us daily. Noise dissipates our energy. Noise gives us the feeling that we are doing something, that we are making a difference – to our lives and/or others’ – and that what we do matters in the grand scheme of things. Noise provides a sense of forward movement to our goals. But what noise provides us is an illusion. Every time we listen to the noise, a little piece of us becomes dragged into the unstoppable current and swept along with little control or influence of where we might end up. The one certainty is that we end up being diverted from those paths which will offer us the best of potential for our future.
Clearing out the noise – or at least not acting on what you hear (listening is still very important, but should be done from an position of detachment) – is just one step. The open space the noise once filled is as enticing as the still-warm duvet singing for you to return to bed when you should be off to work. The space must be filled, but filled with that which brings joy. What is joy? Joy is that which moves you in a positive way, allows you to grow, invigorates your soul, and energises your life. But it must be your joy, not the joy imposed on you by the expectations of society, culture, or too many geeks buzzing around the latest web2.0 unsocial media communication inhibitor – that’s all just noise.
At its core, what all this waffle is about, is that good old life/work balance. But what is even more important than that balance, is establishing what is important – to you – in life to offer your the greatest opportunity for joy. Joy may not immediate and often takes work, but positive work can never be entirely without fulfillment.
That is the transition I am going to be trying to achieve over 2008.
No Responses to “It?s not a resolution, honest”
No complaints here, waffle I love, unedited chatting, unloading thoughts, random tangent blah blah I love.. tis intellectually refreshing and good eargonomics.
And FKN love zero “pod” in semantics, rocks beyond a head bang.
lovely to hear you back again
Looking forward to hearing this Neil.
I clicked the iTunes button on the top right though and it seemed to want to subscribe me to some old content instead of this ep. Thought you should know.
Nice use of the word leverage ;o)
How about Creative Digital Media… sounds better than podcasting and encompasses everything.
Creative Digital Artist.
Thank you for your support everyone.
@Emma: ‘leverage’ is better, and more appropriate, than ‘exploit’
@Chris Leydon: OOh, that’s getting there. Though ‘artist’ is a little strong for many
I was listening to your latest podcast the other day (not all that wafflly, BTW), and it struck me that the things you say about state of podcasting were not only spot on, but it brought to my mind an already existing comparison. It sounded all the world like podcasting (which I’m rather new to), was following the direct path already taken by webcomics (which I’m sort of new to). In both, they started out with big innovators blazing the trail and getting things launched, then a sort of grass-roots support community forming that consisted of like-minded people, then wild growth, and then (at least in the case of webcomickry), there came a sort of glut of content with no focus or purpose, a myriad of copycat strips, no standards of quality, and then the originators burning out on something they once loved. The freedom to post what you create without bowing down to “The Man” is wonderful. The down side is, anybody, regardless of talent, or skill, or anything can post a “comic” even if it’s completely naff. So maybe webcomics are a good comparison to use when people ask what may happen to podcasting one day if podcasters aren’t careful. As I listened to your show, it made me realize that there sure seem to be more similarities than differences. Well, just a thought, anyway.
HI Mark, thank you for your comment.
I had not any real awareness of the webcomic scene, but none of what you describe is particularly surprising.
The key to survival in all of this is for the innovators and early adopters to evolve, move on, discover the next level and not succumb to the temptation of the warm, comfortable, soapy bath of mass mediocrity.