This time of year brings all kinds of New Year’s resolutions and fresh start revelations to mind. A brand new year brings with it the marvel of wondrous possibilities and opportunity. It’s tabula rasa baby… a clean slate.
Re-invent yourself, start anew, reach for the impossible, and set ridiculous goals. That’s what I like to do—all year round. I’m an eternal optimist nag. I never settle. It’s part of my quirky charm.
Others, well, they stand around waiting to tuck the past year neatly away and then stare vacantly into the dawn of a new year—of the same old crap. I imagine little thought bubbles over their heads that read “mediocrity, I wish I knew how to quit you.”
You are better than you think. I can’t say it better than Timothy Ferriss, so here he is—in his own words:
99% of the world is convinced they are incapable of achieving great things, so they aim for the mediocre middle-ground. The level of competition is thus fiercest for “realistic” goals, paradoxically making them the most time and energy-consuming. It is often easier to raise $10,000,000 than it is $1,000,000. It is easier to pick up the one perfect 10 in the bar than the five 8s.
If you are insecure, guess what? The rest of the world is too. Do not overestimate the competition and underestimate yourself. You are better than you think.
Unreasonable and unrealistic goals are easier to achieve for yet another reason.
Having an unusually large goal is an adrenaline infusion that provides the endurance to overcome the inevitable trials and tribulations that go along with any goal. Realistic goals, goals restricted to the average ambition level, are uninspiring and will only fuel you through the first or second problem, at which point you throw in the towel. If the potential payoff is mediocre or average, so is your effort. I’ll run through walls to get a catamaran trip through the Greek islands, but I might not change my brand of cereal for a weekend trip through Columbus, Ohio. If I choose the latter because it is “realistic,” I won’t have the enthusiasm to jump even the smallest hurdle to accomplish it. With beautiful, crystal-clear Greek waters and delicious wine on the brain, I’m prepared to do battle for a dream that is worth dreaming. Even though their difficulty of achievement on a scale of 1-10 appears to be a 2 and a 10 respectively, Columbus is more likely to fall through.
The fishing is best where the fewest go. There is just less competition for bigger goals.
Net policy or social media policy? I hear both of these terms being thrown about as if they were interchangeable. There is a difference. There should be a difference. The main distinction is the focus on what employees can do in the web world, rather than what they can’t. An internet policy typically outlines employee internet use during work hours—and consequently the monitoring of that use. A social media policy governs the individual interactions of your employees in the social sphere—as it relates to your brand—and can be much harder to monitor once an employee has clocked out and is operating in their own time.
I’ve been following Google’s launch of Google+ Pages for brands with some anxiety. I envisioned Social Marketers everywhere flocking to Google+ and spamming my circles with brand promotions.
One of the biggest challenges I face in my day-to-day business is trying to help clients evolve their thinking. I say challenges, but I mean frustrating-bang-my-head-against-the-wall-soul-crushing experiences. It’s SO easy to think that a social media strategy is about joining social network sites as a clever way to push your same tired old junk. And you’d be kind of right. That’s exactly what a social media strategy is—because that is EXACTLY what most organizations are doing. But PEOPLE, listen up! It’s not about social media anymore—in fact, it hasn’t been for a couple of years now.
I don’t care what colours your preferred political party are—Jack Layton was a great Canadian leader. He was, and continues to be, an inspirational force. Canadian pride is limitless. It forms lumps in even the most temperate of Canadian throats. Jack Layton knew this. He felt this.
Stephanie Rosenbloom, of the New York Times writes, “One in every 4 1/2 minutes spent on the Web is spent on a social-networking site or blog. And last year the average visitor spent 66 percent more time on such sites than in 2009, when early adopters were already feeling digitally fatigued.
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