Murphy’s Law

“Everything that can go wrong ~ will go wrong” ~ Murphy’s Law

Being from the Murphy Clan, everyone in my family takes Murphy’s Law pretty seriously. It’s not just an old saying for us, it really is a way of life. Murphy’s Law is a double edged sword.

On the one hand, you go into every new endeavor expecting the worst to happen, then when it does, you’re not surprised and not overly disappointed. On the other hand, on the rare occasion when things turn out right, the victory is twice as sweet.

Now, don’t get me wrong, we Murphy’s aren’t necessarily pessimistic half empty types either. We may always expect the worst, but we still always hope for the best. It’s in the knowledge that “everything can go wrong” that we are able to draw our greatest strength.

We never really see the cup as half empty or half full, to us the halfway mark is actually the perfect amount. Life is like that cup…sometimes our cup is full, and sometimes it’s empty…but most of the time it’s somewhere in between, and that’s a really great place to be.

Let’s Write!

On September 15, 2009 one of my favorite Squidoo lensmasters, Giant Squid Greeter GrowWear , aka MiMi started a thread on the SquidU  forum called Let’s Write! 

MiMi wanted to find out if she could start the longest SquidU forum thread ever, by creating a thread where forum members could help write a story one word & one post at a time.

Slowly, a really fun forum thread & story began to form. Each day a few more words would get added and soon our SquidU story grew to be a pretty funny read.

A couple weeks ago, I asked Mimi if she was going to make a lens about the thread, and was delighted when she asked me to make the Let’s Write!  lens. I made the lens in a way that showcases all of the wonderful Squids who have contributed to the story, as well as the story itself.

This continues to be an ongoing project that we are both very excited about as we watch our Squidoo story grow. The best part is that this story belongs to all of us and is the perfect example of a successful group project.

So, if you’re looking for something to make you smile & giggle, please stop by the lens  and read the story…and don’t forget to visit the SquidU forum & contribute a word to our story. All Squids are welcome to help us, so Let’s Write! 

Finding Balance

Many of us find ourselves in a constant struggle to balance everything we have going on in our lives. Even before I became involved with the Internet, I was trying to find balance juggling family, work and all the little details of life.

Those of us that work part-time or more on the Internet, can easily find ourselves overwhelmed with projects, social networking, marketing, promotion and more. Building a brand, a tribe & creating high quality content can be a time consuming endeavor. Doing it while working another job, raising a family and having a real life off the computer, is even harder.

I see & hear a lot of talk & information about time management, prioritizing & productivity, but rarely hear anything about finding a healthy balance. I imagine some will argue that prioritizing is balancing, but it really isn’t. When one prioritizes, some things always keep falling to the wayside, until soon the stuff on the wayside is a looming mountain with dark clouds hovering in our peripheral vision at all times.

Finding balance means reaching a plateau where one feels comfortable and happy with every aspect of their life. A place where your friends and family don’t comment that you spend too much time on the computer. A place where you are satisfied with the amount of time you are spending both on & off the computer, as well as the quality of your work & play both on the computer & off.

I struggled with time management just like the next guy. I prioritized & juggled and mostly just ended up burned out and tired. Once I realized I was just making myself crazy, I stopped, took a deep breath and remembered my own personal golden rule: “Life is too short to waste on bullshit”

How did this help me?

Well, I no longer even try to manage my time or prioritize. Anything that is not an automatic priority anyway or not something I enjoy, I just throw it away…delete it…let it go.

Rather than having a pile of projects in the wayside, my personal curbs & ditches are now clutter free. If it is not something I want to do or have to do 100%, then I just get rid of it completely.

You would be amazed at how much free time you suddenly have after you just let go of all that stuff you’re never going to get around to anyway. All that clutter in the wayside just causes unneeded stress. Once it’s gone, you can concentrate on the projects, people & things you truly love and enjoy.

Without all that worry and stress about the ever growing “to do list,” it becomes a lot easier to find balance with the things in your life that really matter.

Who Is Skilly?

We all talk a lot about doing our part to help make the World a better place and many of us do volunteer our time & service to worthy causes, we donate money and live environmentally conscious.

But it takes a really special kind of person to sell everything, leave the comfort of their home and civilization to go work hands on in a third World Country helping the people who need it the most.

 Meet Skilly, aka Will Skillman who joined Squidoo in June of 2008. Will did just that. On his blog Social Compass Will says “As I have searched for my life purpose over the last couple of years I slowly began to realize that I want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.  Pondering this has caused me a lot of frustration.”

Many of us feel this way, yet very few of us actually take action like Will has. Will decided that he needed to change his life to become part of the solution. 

He explains “This is far easier said than done.  How do I exit the ‘rat race’ and implement fundamental change in my own life so that I can help people around the globe?  The short answer is that my family and I decided to sell everything and move to Africa.”

Most of us are unable to make the sacrifices Will has, we have mortgages, jobs, family obligations that we can’t get away from. That’s ok, like I said earlier, it really does take a rare and amazing person to do what Will has done. We do what we can, and in the end, every little bit truly does help.

I first discovered Skilly in the “critique” section of the SquidU forum, where he was looking for feedback on his lens The Faces Of Africa. The lens blew me away, then after visiting Will’s blog, I just had to share Skilly and his story with all of you.

Finding Your Voice

Becoming truly involved in any online community can be a daunting proposition. For many, just quietly watching from the sidelines is as involved as they can get, and that option is a nice safe place to be.

Finding the courage to speak up is always risky. What if people disagree, think I’m crazy, stupid or God forbid, what if they don’t like me?

Yes, it is easier to just watch quietly from the sidelines and never take those risks… Of course, it’s also very lonely there on the outside and you miss out on a lot of great things that you can be a part of once you do find your voice and get involved.

No one will ever accuse me of not having found my voice, if anything they may be wondering if I will ever just shut up. And yes, people disagree with me all the time, some think I’m crazy, some think I’m stupid, and (gasp) some people even don’t like me.

But here’s the thing… even more people do agree with me, like me and are genuinely interested in what I have to say. By finding my voice I’ve gained amazing friendships, created a loyal fan-base and become a part of some wonderful online communities.

By finding the courage to speak up and get involved, I’ve gained so much more than ever would have been possible by just lurking quietly in the corner. Of course, if you never find your voice and take the risks, you’ll never know what opportunities you’ve missed.

Online Community Dynamics

A good friend e-mailed me today to compliment a lens critique I did on the SquidU forum. She mentioned how when she does a lens critique, she sees syntax, spelling and grammar errors.  That even though she can sense that the layout and composition of a lens is somehow wrong, she is unable to verbalize why or suggest ways to fix the problems.

She had noticed that I on the other hand could easily see how a lens can be changed on a more structural level to make it more visually appealing as well as ways to make the content flow smoothly.

Her e-mail got me thinking about how in every successful online community, the magic ingredient truly is our differences as much as our commonalities. We need each other’s strength to compensate for our own weaknesses.

Syntax and editing tasks put me right to sleep. I rely on my online friends to catch my grammatical errors as they rely on me to help them with visual presentation. Together we are stronger than alone.

Survival Stories

Everyone loves survival stories. We all love to hear or read about people who beat the odds, overcome life’s obstacles and triumph over personal tragedy.

We think, there but for the grace of God go I, and find it easier to put our own troubles into perspective after seeing how someone else survived troubles much worse than our own. We gain strength to face our own obstacles after being inspired by other people’s stories.

Today I discovered a new blog that celebrates Squidoo lenses that tell personal stories of survival. It is called Squidoo Survivors and written by one of my favorite Squidoo lensmasters, boshemia, aka Ayngel Overson.

Ayngel’s writing style reminds me of the president Theodore Roosevelt quote “Speak softly and carry a big stick,” because her softly spoken, empathetic words, sneak up to you and knock you out.