Exit

Exit
Originally uploaded by Zane Taylor Anderson

Ever have those moments when you realize that life is real and there is no avoiding the sheer fact that you have to face it no matter how hard the circumstance or event? It always seems to be very abrupt and unexpected. There isn't a text or email saying FYI your gonna be hit with some craziness today. Nope. Just bam and here we go. Well there is no way to avoid it so I have come to accept it. Take a second and ask why, then take ten minutes and say how. How will I proceed to turn this around, to solve this problem, to resolve this conflict. How will I take control of this why and how soon can I make it happen. I am a big believer in being prompt. Don't wait to resolve or the stone may be set. It is easier to work with clay than with a jackhammer.

TOMS

TOMS
Originally uploaded by Zane Taylor Anderson

Sometimes there is a situation that comes along where a business can meet a financial need as it fulfills a social need. This situation is TOMS shoes. There is no "we will give a % of donations" or any other gray area. It is one for one. You buy a pair of shoes, someone in need gets a pair. Plain and simple. And isn't that what we are all striving for now anyway? The reason TOMS has done so well is because they realized this fact. There is no room for confusion. So I ask you today, what are you doing to make your passion, work, life or dreams a little more clear and simple? How will you grant access through a concept? How will you create an archetype that even a 4 year could grasp?

Passion

What is it in your life that you strive for? The thing you are thinking about while working or driving or any of the endless things we "have" to do. You can't stop thinking about that moment when freedom from all the "haves" occurs and you move toward participating in that thing, your passion. If you don't have one then find one, and if you do, then learn how to thrive in it, refine it, learn it and in return benefit from it. So, what is your thing?

The Juice

This is a blatant excuse to not work while my creative juices start moving. On that note, I believe there is something to stepping away from whatever you may be engulfed in and taking a breather, getting some coffee or a drink and disconnecting for a bit. Being able to step away and forget about it all will help so much when you step back into your work place with a fresh set of eyes, refreshed brain and maybe so new thoughts on how to finish that design, make that deadline or solve that problem.

Thursdays

Ever have one of those days where nothing seems to get done. You look up and the day is over and it seems like it just started? I am in the middle of one of those right now. What do i do? Accept the fact that I wont check anything off my to do list and research some new technologies and ways of creatively affect my work or designs. You could call it creative submission through learning. Enjoy your day and when you get a "wasted" one, turn it into a creative revelation or simple tool that will assist in your day to day work.

Procrastination

Everyone has those times when are just at our limit. When you feel as though the time to collapse and give into what your body has been screaming for the past two weeks is only seconds away! Some of us will perform at our peak level at these times. When iron it hitting iron and there is no chance for mistakes. I am one of those. In college I left that 17 page paper until the weekend before it was due and if I even tried to start it three weeks earlier I would waste hours staring at a blank screen. I still function on this level but just a little differently. I will wait until necessary to "think" about what needs to be done but I will have everything in place to make it happen right then! I think this is just about growing older, figuring out how YOU work and adjusting so you don't mess up, slack off or forget, but you strive for excellence and make it happen no matter what that journey looks like. Even when the sleep is not there and the fast food dinners are a daily staple, in the end you make it happen, succeed and do it with excellence. So no matter what you do to finish that project, lead that team, build that house, or clean that floor. Figure out how you do it best and then go for it. Even if you only have thirty minutes to get it done.

The end

I have talked in the past about death and what it does and how it affects each one of us. But do we really understand the true reality of its grasp and how it can take control? There are those moments and times where we can let it completely take over our lives, out of fear, concern or love. We can live in fear daily of what might happen or could happen. Grasp it, control it, and understand that it is inevitable. We all die and we can run or hide from the sheer fact of this, or we can understand that this is the way of life, the beginning and the end. Your choice, but you must realize that you will choose one way or the other, accept and allow yourself to thrive in this moment, living it to the fullest or allow death to overtake your life until that fateful end.

Create

What will you create in 2009? User-generated content is on the rise, it is expected to surpass 30 million between now and 2013, that is almost 113 million new user created, distributed and consumed content. That is a lot. It is inspiring to see people taking control of and molding their experience. People are changing the tide of society and corporations. Using the Internet as their launching pad, they are not sitting by and being control. People are connecting, expressing, changing, living and causing new mindsets and corporations to study this phenomenon. We are causing them to look to us on what is fresh and new, and how they can attract our attention, time and money. So I ask you today: what will be created in 2009 by you, me or our network of bees. Here is a great article where I got the inspiration for this post. Enjoy.

Routine

Today was full of great conversation and thought provoking concepts and realities. I was presented with a great thought from a friend. It is 2009, we are living it and experiencing it. We are also at the tipping point of a huge change for our society and world in almost every aspect. Not only is our economic situation up in arms and ready for a drastic change but every area of people's lives are in transition. We are seeing a societal shift into new ways of thinking, processing and grasping our world and our lives. The Internet is on the edge of a new horizon in ways of connecting, functioning and thriving. The question is this: During the 20's, 30's and so on, there were huge societal archetypes instilled in our nation. An industrial revolution filled with new technologies to help everyone function at a new and higher level. We are now in 2009, far removed from those days and systems, with a fresh new outlook on the future and what is to come. So what are you going to do to make a difference today? Can you cause another shift in how we as a society thrive? Can you start a new way of connecting and relating and providing value to each of us? I believe you can and I believe that during these vital times all of us have the opportunity to step out, shift mindsets and habits or the choice to just conform to the ebb and flow of this society. I want to step aside, analyze and see how I can start to shift my own routines and habits, how I can start to connect in a new and fresh way. How will you?

100,000 pounds of Reflection

Once in awhile you have those moments that really allow you appreciate God's beauty. And there is nothing like seeing a 100,000 pound Humpback whale less than three feet away from you 2 miles off the coast of Maui. I have just experienced this moment, courtesy of a marine biologist friend named CT, who took me and my wife and family on her little red inner tube boat just feet away from a Humpback whale and her 1 day old calf. Those moments take your breathe away and cause you to reflect on the beauty of this land and ocean and how magnificent it all truly is. Everyone should sit back and reflect on their own lives and how precious and beautiful it is, whether your situation is the greatest or the worst right now, life moves in clips and phases and everything will pass and go, the good and the bad, so don't take this time for granted and grasp the world around you with a new eye.

The Dash

We often look at things in terms of the beginning or the end, how every new beginning starts from some other beginning's end. But is that really it, is that what we should be looking at? The big things in life: career, money, job, social status and the number of friends on your networking site of choice...are they all that matters or as with everything, is it the little things that tend to matter most? Love, family, happiness. Things that our society doesn't weigh you against. If you live happy and thrive in your marriage or family life, yet make no money or change zero lives, you are forgotten, lost in the array of people that reside on this earth, day in and day out, 300 million of us just in this precinct, let alone the world. But it is those little things that help us thrive and grow and no matter what any society stamps its approval on, it is those that can make one fall. The dash in between life and death is what we will be remembered by, yet at our demise, people around us will look at the beginning and the end, where it started and when it ends, but really the dash that penetrates those years is the most significant part, that is where we lived, thrived, struggled, and survived. The dash is where you are now if death hasn't knocked on your door, and how will you choose to live your dash, in regret? in fear? or grasping every moment, never letting go for the sheer fact of living that "dash" up to the fullest. So I challenge you to love like you have never loved and live like never before, for all of us 300 million plus can't predict when this dash will turn numeric, and the beginning will crash into the end.