by JimRaffel on March 15, 2010
Commitment is turning my choice to deliver 31 blog posts in the month of March into reality.
Delivering 31 blog posts in the month of March has required a commitment to new priorities. I made a commitment to myself that writing every day is a priority for me. Reality set in and I realized there might be days I just can’t get a post out. I added reasonableness to the commitment by wording it as 31 posts in 31 days and not a post a day.
The blogging commitment has resulted in a dramatic increase in my creative thinking. This morning I looked through my list of topic ideas and none of them jumped out at me as needing to be written. Yesterday, however, I realized just how busy I am becoming. Without continuously improving my goals, choices, and priorities I will not be able to keep my commitments to my family and my work. Presto I have a topic for today!
Commitment is about sticking to it. Growing my business is a priority. Yesterday I realized that the combination of extensive travel and the additional commitment to social media had unintentionally lowered my priority on “paperwork.” I’m committed to my business so that had to change. I made a choice to stick to it all day yesterday and get as caught up as I could. The payoff was finding a significant business opportunity that can be followed up on and turned into cash flow fairly quickly.
The key is to turn those activities you are committed to into habits. Writing daily has become a habit and I have reached a point where not writing for a day would feel weird. This reminded me that last year I developed some regular habits with paperwork so it never got ahead of me. I’m going back to some of those habits starting today. The choice to return to those habits is consistent with my goal of being committed to having a successful business.
Writing is the doing part of thinking and by writing about goals for this post I have solidified some of my own thinking. Can you see how my commitment to writing is helping me grow my understanding of goals, choices, commitments and priorities?
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by JimRaffel on February 18, 2010
On my home turf of Milwaukee Twitter has significantly changed my social life. With Twitter as the enabling technology my wife and I have found a whole new group of friends with interests similar to our own. We have also tracked down local places like AJBombers, Streetza Pizza and Water Buffalo where the Milwaukee Twitter set likes to dine. All three locally owned and because of Twitter I know the owners Joe and Scott on a first name basis.
I decided to see if the phenomenon was transferable to the cities I visit on business. As I prepared for a trip to Atlanta last week I let my tweeps know I was looking for social media friendly, locally owned resturants, for the two dinners I would be eating in Atlanta.
In very little time @vitanga my Twitter friend from Milwaukee introduced me to his Twitter friend in Atlanta @ratpack (Chad). Here’s that part about that Twitter that just blows me away – Chad had never met me much less communicated with me on-line. In the span of several tweets he established what kind of food I was looking for and what part of town I was staying in.
So, last Thursday evening I enjoyed Pizza at @BaraondaCaffe. While they don’t get Twitter at all, the atmosphere and food was great. I would recommend staying away from the place if there is anything going on at the nearby Fox Theater. Baraonda is less than a block away and does a brisk pre-theater business. I scored the last stool at the bar and had a great pizza in a local Atlanta restaurant I’d have probably never found on my own.
On Friday night in the midst of what for Atlanta was a huge snowstorm (3 inches) I ventured across town to @flipburger. Here they sort-of get Twitter and even have about 1500 followers. Flip Burger has a very hip decor and an even hipper staff manning the bar and serving the tables. Now, when I think of burger joints I think of AJ Bombers where we throw our p-nut shells on the floor….so this was a bit of an adjustment for me. I will tell you that the grass fed beef burger and the Krispy Kreme milkshake made the trip out in the snow well worth the effort (sarcasm – I’m from Wisconsin).
While at Flip Burger I shared tweets with a few local Atlanta Tweeps. Some could not believe I drove crosstown in the storm. Others complimented me on my menu selections. The cool part is I now have a list of tweeps I know in Atlanta. I’m headed to Stamford, CT next week and am hoping for the same Twitter success dining like a local!
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