I thought I would do a quick post on where I am on Tuesday of the first week of this blogging challenge. So here it goes…

I must confess that I’ve started a lot of these marketing/business concepts before only to get discouraged and then allow them to drop by the wayside. I’m looking to use this challenge as a way to be held accountable by my peers and by a person who has had success with marketing (Ariel). I think that I read in a Stephen Covey book that it usually takes 3 weeks for a new habit to form (and in the process break old/nasty habits). The catch is the ability to stick to it and make the action a habit.

I’m aware of a lot of the names in the entrepreneurial self-help business: Pam Slim, Stephen Covey, John Jantsch, Ali Brown, Bob Baker. Often, awareness breeds contempt and a kind of resentment at the fact that these people are making money off of me for something that should be free. It feels like a Ponzi scheme at times: I tweet a little, grow a FaceBook page, grow a list and then I tell everybody else what to do and make money off of it. That’s the contempt and the cynicism. The reality is this: HARD WORK AND CONSISTENCY. Hard work – nothing in business is easy; Consistency – doing it again and again like practicing scales and modes and rhythms. If you happened to read Derek Sivers’s blog post last week you read that success is about doing something, failing and then getting right back up and doing it again with the knowledge you gained from getting your teeth knocked out the first time. This is where I am: I do something, get punched in the gut, but then I don’t get back up and figure out the best way to punch back. Well let’s put a change to that, eh?

So I sat down last night and read the first chapter of MSi9W. I made some notes and sketched out some short term and long term goals that I will tweak today. I dusted off my success journal which I kept for a time and then let go of and placed it by my bed and will write in it tonight.I am also going to start up my ‘Gratitude List’ which I send out to a lit of a few people who I know really care about my well-being.

I’m getting up
I’m bloody
I’m throwing a left jab, but it’s a feint ’cause here comes my right

~ Darryl

 

It’s never easy to say good-bye, especially at an airport where you usually do not have the luxury to linger. I was intrigued when I saw this posted to Twitter recently: “Had coffee with my husband at the airport this morning, a date without the kids for the first time in a long time.” (That’s 117 characters by the way). This was posted by Pam Slim, a person I follow on Twitter who is an entrepreneur, wife and mother. She travels a lot as does my wife and her posting hit home. I typed back that that line sounded like a song and I wrote it down in my journal. After looking at the line for a few days I knew that there was a story in there. It may not be Pam’s story or even my story, but I’m sure this happens all too often: one spouse goes and one souse stays to make sure there is something to come back to. What are the feelings involved? Loneliness, regret, resentment, guilt, nostalgia? The list could go on and on. I also thought about the person leaving and how they have one side at home and one side that is committed to the trip to where ever they are headed. The one constant throughout this scene is love: love on the other side of good-bye, love on the other side of the person who is leaving.

This is a demo recording and the thing I’ve noticed is that I don’t think I should be singing this song. Perhaps this is more a song suited to a female voice? What do you think?

Peace -

Darryl

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The Other Side of You

I just had coffee with you in the airport
Waitin’ for your plane
A date without the kids
The first one in I can’t remember when
Another week-long business trip
They’re callin’ your flight to leave
And I miss you already
I can’t let go of your hand

There are so many ways to interpret this scene
We pick the one that makes us feel alright
Say good-bye, see you soon, just make me believe
That our love isn’t a lie
This love isn’t a lie

‘cause on one side you go
One side you stay
One side you know what is true
One side’s your heart
One side’s your fate
But my love will be waiting on the other side of you

The kids are in bed but they’ve been askin’
When you’d be comin’ home
Please stop by the gift shop
Those little things help them forgive
Our bed is half empty
I put a pillow where you usually sleep
I turn out the light, check the time
It’s too late for my wish

Are you as lost as I am with out you
Do you ever ask what we’re working for
College tuition, Disney Land trips
It seems we always want more
It seems we always want more

‘cause on one side you go
One side you stay
One side you know what is true
One side’s your heart
One side’s your fate
But my love will be waiting on the other side of you

I just want to dance
Like we did that first night
Where did the moments go
In our hands then out of sight
Out of sight out of mind

‘cause on one side you go
One side you stay
One side you know what is true
One side’s your heart
One side’s your fate
But my love will be waiting on the other side of you