I’m referring to this post, and okay so…
Short answer – I am overwhelmed.
Long answer – I’m overwhelmed and here’s why:
Someone asked me a couple weeks ago what my next 10 blog posts were going to be and I said “I don’t know because I haven’t lived that yet” and see, I’m finding it difficult to find a balance between blogging, making episodes, exploring, learning about Canada, responding and writing to people online, and just like, living. I’ve caught myself a handful of times thinking, “oh this’ll make a good post” or “this’ll be good footage” but then I don’t do it because it’d be a lie.
And so I freeze up, deer in the headlights and all of that. Like, I installed Tweetdeck the a few days ago, opened it, took one look and have since left it closed. OMG I have trouble keeping on top of my own life, how you keep up with each other is impressive to me. And Facebook, and other people’s blogs, and and and. It’s not that I’m not interested, I just can’t seem to get ontop of it all.
So I’ll work and work and you can kinda tell by my blogs’ up and downs where this has happened… I’ll keep going until I can’t see straight then my blog gets really light for a few days while I recover. Absolute inefficiency. I wonder how I’m supposed to learn better time management skills.
I’ve been actively online only since February of this year, so I suppose I need to remember that… like, I used to find it took a real presence of mind to remember to Tweet every day, now it’d feel odd not to. Everything takes time I guess, and boy do I abhor that expression.
And my Blackberry started malfunctioning last week, my external backup hard drive does weird things when I hook it up, my laptop’s keyboard disables itself at least once a day, I should be using Picassa for all my photos so I can geotag them for “THE Map of Canada” I have started, I should launch that map, I should create a Facebook Fan Page, [insert lame cloning-myself joke here].
Then I get to thinking about how enormous this country is, and HOW am I supposed to document the thing if I’m struggling with getting an episode / week out? I shoulda started off by being… what’s the smallest country… ‘The Monaco Explorer’. Or the ‘Vatican City Explorer’, except then there’d be run-ins with those Swiss Guards, who are supposedly the toughest in the world.
And I won’t even talk about my ‘Gold Silver & Bronze Advertising Program’ that I’ve yet to launch. I am scared, yes scared, for when I start that at how I’m gonna handle all that, too.
Please know I’m not complaining here, I’m just saying, just wanted you to know. If I didn’t love all this I wouldn’t do it, I do love a challenge, but just needed to get this off my proverbial chest.
And no, I don’t want a team of people for this project, it’s a solo mission and that’s the best way. I’ve tried in the past partnering with people and it weighs it down. A new friend recently wrote to me, “would you really want to risk the magaement of your brand image to a fan?” and the answer was “NO”. Then he told me to “suck it up” and I liked that part too.
I’m gonna have to leave to start my cross-country trip sometime, right? When I made my Manifesto Episode I had in mind the beginning of October. Then I binned that and thought, “I can’t even get this all together while sleeping in the same spot every night, no way”. But another new friend recently wrote me this, “Don’t get comfortable in Toronto, and definitely don’t wait for sponsors or a network before you get moving”. And that had the ring of truth to it, as things you need to hear often do.
I imagine if I looked back a year from now, still living in the same spot, exploring just around Toronto and the surrounding areas, well I’d be kicking myself. Then I go one step further and think, “well, I have to go sometime, and necessity is the mother of all inventions so yaaaaa”.
So blah blah blah maybe I just need to bite the bullet and hit the road going west in October. There are Olympics that need to be covered out there. And a set of DVDs in my head that need to be made, and ‘Blog Parties’ that must be thrown.
Any advice please leave it in the comments, and thank you for listening to me vent.
Blog parties, I’m there.
From my experience with my online life, do something each day. In your case there’s a few things that might help – Picasa yes. Download it, it will organize your photos and you can upload to a web album, geotag them and slide them into your blog via html which is fast and convenient. ALso keeps them all sorted online and safe if your external drive goes wonky. I’d be interested to see some stuff about Canada ex. neat facts, places you are planning to go, history, did you knows, things that people outside (or in) Canada might not be aware of. Stories about growing up in Canada are cool too. You’ve got a great personality and good thing going here. Try not to get over whelmed!
If you want help setting up the Disqus commenting, I’d gladly help you out. That way you can easily have blog linked to Twitter/Facebook and post stuff in more than one place with little time/effort. Helps to keep your mind at ease! It also is helpful to write a couple posts that could be posted anytime and keep them as drafts, that way, if you’re not feeling it one day you can pull out one and post it.
Keep it up!
Seize the dream and just go for it. You’ll be happier if you try and fail than if you didn’t try at all.
One more thing: you don’t have to stay on top of everything to succeed. View all of the social media stuff as a stream that you fish from when the timing is good for you. In some cases, you toss something into the stream and it floats away for others to fish for.
I mean, you don’t talk to everyone at a party…but that doesn’t take away value from any of the conversations you *did* manage to have, right?
It’s like control. Knowing and accepting that you don’t have control over everything is when you really take control of your life.
I am a big believer in the notion that it all begins and ends with the thing itself. What’s the phrase? The main thing is the main thing. Going into the world to make a video a week about Canada is easy enough, but also hard enough. Twitter, Facebook, etc. is all nice as extras. But don’t think about that stuff. Do the work, let the work speak for itself and do it’s thing, and spin it like a top.
I kind of wish I was as open on my blog as you are here. This is the good stuff that’s going to make it a lot more fun to watch when you start doing it for real.
Hey Casie –
Kay, Picasa is on my to do list now, and I will take you up on your offer to help me with that Disqus thing. And likely will need advice on Picasa, too.
Re: more CDN facts, yup, I’m with ya. Before we met there were much more here, I fell off a bit there. And like your idea of "draft" posts… like having a backup plan eh, okay.
Oh and as for the blog party, ya you have to be there to "stir it up" (remember that? haha)
Thanks a lot lady.
Hey Chris –
I feel like you’re so dependable.
You’re right with your first comment, then there’s no regrets eh. That stuff’ll haunt you.
You said "you don’t have to stay on top of everything to succeed" and my shoulders instantly went down. And as for viewing the social media stuff like a party, well that switched something in my head. How _could_ I have good conversations with everyone at the party? Getting it…
But your last line, that is not computing. I’m not arguing with you, it’s just I’m a girl whose stuff is edited precise to 2 decimal spots, so probably learning that will take some work, but if you say so, okay.
Thanks very much.
Hey Sean –
"The main thing is the main thing" sounds like some sort of koan so that’ll take me a bit to figure out, but ya, you’re right, just gotta bite the proverbial bullet and just do it.
As for your last line, thanks, but I’m not sure it’s good I said all that stuff, I just know I had to so it stopped echoing in my head.
Thank you eh.
Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.
Robert Collier
Hey Andy –
I quite like that quote, taking it. And thank you for taking the time to leave it here.
Someone said to me yesterday "I read [this] post Keri and am not surprised". This is the 6th person to tell me this, everyone wasn’t surprised only I was. Meh.
Sounds like you’ve got to fit in some "me" time in all this. You’ve got some lofty goals and so far you’re doing great, but without a game plan and a solid strategy for managing your time, I fear you might burn yourself out. The fact you’re already discussing this on your blog is encouraging. You’re obviously a very smart person, just apply yourself and you’ll figure it out. Keep up the fab’ work!
Dave
Funny Dave, last night at dinner that’s exactly what my parents were grilling me about – "me" or "down time". Odd timing. And you know, I think you guys are right; I think I’m well on the way to burn out.
And yup, without a solid strategy it’ll be fail all over the place. Thanks for the encouraging words dude, your message was motivating.