No more complaints...

When I saw this cartoon, it gave me a good chuckle... and then it reminded me that complaining, or even just negative thoughts, don't help make the situation better.

The sooner I recognize, and accept, the current reality ... the sooner I can begin to figure out a way to change it.

I would also add that the "experimental German treatment" works especially well with an old American Indian remedy...

Kwitcherbichen and Giddyup !

[Any resemblence of the person in the cartoon to this author is purely coincidental.]

Before 6

The weather was TOO nice this weekend ... but I still managed to paint a little more on the "Before" picture.

I was surprised that I still have a good amount of black to do... and since much of it is in odd places on the canvas, I have found that it is easier to do in sections and let things dry (so that I'm not putting my hand in wet paint and tracking it all over the place).

Oh, I should add that I have started walking with slight bursts of jogging. I will have to work my way up to really running... but at least I won't look as much like the painting !

How is your "Shine"?

I saw this article from Duct Tape Marketing and even though it is about marketing and business, I really liked the concept of "shine".

...This 3rd strategy element is something I call “Your Shine.”

Essentially this is the illumination of your marketing and life vision in what is ultimately a highly personal and unique way.

You already know that line that separates your business and your life is so thin that without a vision for how one will serve the other, perhaps neither will serve either.

And that’s what I believe holds people back from building truly
remarkable businesses and equally remarkable lives.

So what does this shines thing look like? I don’t know exactly, but I do know it has nothing to do with balance.

First off, balance is impossible to achieve and it’s wrong thing
anyway. Building a business and a life that shines isn’t about balance, it’s more about blending the right notes to create a certain kind of dynamic harmony.

See, the beautiful thing about harmony is that only you can determine the kind of music that excites you.

Your Shine then is your personal understanding of your organization’s ... higher purpose or reason for being that syncs perfectly with your personal goals and values. ... You and only you can decide what “higher purpose” means, the only point I’m making is that without this driving vision or “this is why I do this” it is far too easy to get knocked off track the first time you
suffer some setback or criticism of your dream.

A firm grasp of this thing I call your Shine is what gives you the courage to stay with what you believe.

So the parts of your Shine, your harmony and by their very nature parts of your marketing strategy are:

• Your personal, business, strategic and tactical long-term and short-term goals


• Your marketing vision - the higher purpose of why you do what you do that helps you throw off the desire for a homeostasis kind of balance in search for a much more dynamic kind of harmony


• Your vision story - A detailed description of a day in the life of your business if, in fact, your marketing vision was being fully realized and that your business was indeed allowing you to create a remarkable life - in a word, a
  life that Shines.

Once you create Your Shine as part of your marketing strategy you may find that the other elements of your strategy, your ideal customer and your core difference, are much easier to get your arms around.

The most exciting thing I’ve witnessed when people take the time to really get this idea, is that all of a sudden marketing gets really easy, because they have a guiding light that drives every single marketing decision.

It doesn't just apply to Marketing.

Have you got your Shine On?

If it's worth doing, it's worth SINGING !

It has been a while since I posted something from Seth Godin (my favorite marketing author & blogger), but when I saw this post, I just had to pass it along...

Sing it!

I spent some time a few days ago listening to a nascent band
performing classic rock songs.

The first group sang a note-for-note rendition of a song by the Stones. The notes were right, but nothing else was. The singer
didn’t know what the song meant. And the musicians, they just stood there. No energy, no smiles, no connection. It could have been a funeral with a great soundtrack.

A concert isn’t about the music, is it? And a restaurant isn’t about the food.

The funny thing is that learning to Sing It is a lot easier
than learning how to play the guitar. For some reason, we work on the technique before we worry about adding the joy.

If you’re going to go to all the trouble of learning the song and performing it, then SING IT. Sing it loud and with feeling and like you mean it. Deliver it, don’t just make it. When you
answer the phone or greet me at your office or come to a meeting or write something, don’t bother if all you’re going to do is do it. Sing it or stay home.

I had composed this post in my head, when, in a scary example of blog synchronicity, they announced the next song. One by Bluë Oyster Cult, of course. And yes, the announcer demanded that the guest on stage give us more cowbell. More cowbell indeed.

As a speaker or artist, how often do we get trapped by the mechanics of what we are doing and forget that a good part (probably the biggest part) of the value comes from our emotion and connection with the material.

In other words, how we SING IT !

Are you singing today? Why not?

Leave a comment below and tell us !

Before - 5 Weekend of Progress

Again, some rainy weather this past weekend helped speed my progress on the current work.

It was also a good rest between working out and working in the yard... but, unfortunately, the sun came out on Sunday!

As the painting starts to come together, I'm starting to think about the other colors that will be added soon... I have some gray but I'm not sure if I'm happy with the current shades of blue or purple that I have.

In a few days, we will see what I decided.


Any thoughts or questions about the progress so far?

Leave a comment below !

P.S. I also created a self-portrait this weekend and added an electronic thumbnail version of it to the NoteWordy Artist page.
Check it out... http://notewordy.com/Artists.html