The difference between wanting and getting what you want

I have been thinking about this post for a little while now...and I haven't been quite sure how to write it all down. I guess it is because sometimes I am afraid about what I want. Not that its bad (get your mind out of the gutter) or even that unique, but writing it down makes it real.

1. Travel: If I had my way I would see EVERYTHING. I would travel to South Africa, Australia, China, Russia, backpack through Europe. I was told the other day it was too late for me to be so idealistic, is it? Every time I have traveled I have met new people I love, been to places I won't forget, and experienced moments in "the now." I want to feel that way again.

2. Live somewhere new: This is different than traveling. It involves similar reasons, but home is where you get to rest, where all your things are, where your friends are. To a large extent, this is still Boston, but its wearing on me. I have been looking into London, LA, and New York, my trifecta. I want to make one of those places my home for 2 years, just to see where life takes me.

I want my family to be OK with me leaving for a little while. When talking to my aunt about a month ago, she said she wishes she had just left and lived somewhere else, not let our family hold her back. I don't like to think about it that way. I don't think they're holding me back, I think they are a bit of my excuse.

This brings me to the difference between wanting and getting what you want. I want those two things because they offer a change, a chance to live life at least a little differently and not regret I hadn't done more. But getting to these things is scary, change is scary. But the difference between those who succeed at getting what they want and those who don't is action. Everyone wants a change at some point in their lives, but not everyone acts on it. No one ever said they got what they wanted by just willing it to happen...

I'm going to take the next step, it is just a matter of when, where, how, and actually going after the things I want and not being afraid of getting them.

Regret is no fun

This is a conclusion I came to a long time ago. I once told my Mom that I didn't believe in regret while on a walk. She stopped for a second, cocked her head, and said "What? You regret nothing?" To this day, I can honestly say no.

Chris Brogan posted a great video today about regret. Chris Blake, a alternative pop musician, recently Googled "Biggest Regret." Some of my favorites from his finds:

"Not traveling enough."

"Not grabbing the most gorgeous girl I've ever seen in my life when I had the perfect opportunity."

"Not leaving sooner."

"Not speaking up"

"My lack of control."

"Not growing up to be a Transformer."

"Not telling him how I feel."

"Sweating the small stuff"

"I don't regret anything."

The overwhelming repetition in the quotations above, the word "Not." What I have learned is that "Not" doing something, is usually worse than doing it. No matter how ridiculous or stupid it may feel at the time, you will never regret that you didn't do something. Of course, use digression, but if something absolutely feels right, than why wait for it to become wrong? Their are definitely things in my life I could regret:

1. Not listening to my father when he told be not to attend the ski race that would result in me pulling my ACL and derailing my ski career.

2. Not calling my Nana or Grandfather more o while in college before they died.

3. Not staying in the Virgin Islands to return to work on Martha's Vinyard and having one of the hardest summers of my life.

Each one of those decisions has lead me to where I am today, and I like where I am today. Deciding that the decisions you make are not the "end all" means that they are launching off points for your life to take a different direction. Is the direction always easy? Certainly not. However, I think instead of focusing on regretting decisions, I learn from them. Yes, I might make the same mistakes a couple times, but I'll get it eventually. The biggest thing is having faith in the decisions you make.

Do you have regrets?

The "Change" We Want to See in Ourselves

So going to give you a little insight into how I think, I know, dangerous. I was at the gym today reading Seth Godin's new book Meatball Sundae about in order for a company to become successful in utilizing New Marketing, they must first change the way their company works. His point is that you cannot sell old products (meatballs) successfully using ONLY New Marketing (whipped cream).

So as I was reading, Michael Jackson's Man in the Mirror came on during my workout mix. Please hold judgment, Michael had his fine moments. So I started thinking about how you could apply the similar analogies to making changes in your personal life. If you simply make a physical change, you cannot make the assumption that other aspects of your life are going to improve. In actuality, you have to start at square one. Think about the goals you want to accomplish, the people you want to surround yourself with, the relationships you want to create, and then start implementing small changes that will make those goals a reality. In order to change the greater direction of your life, you need to start with the basics of how you are living.

Just a thought :)

Playing around with Ping.fm...pretty cool thus far, but much more to be discovered I have a feeling :)

What Makes You Happy?

Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action. - Benjamin Disraeli

Or to Charles Schwartz, a warm puppy.

So while experiencing my current state of happiness, I have been questioning what is different about my life now, than 2-month ago? A couple month ago I wouldn't have conceded to being happy. I pretended pretty well. I had a great job, good friends, and supportive family, what could make a girl happier? But for some reason, when things reach a certain level of stability, I get restless. I can't help it, honestly, no control. Consistency, routine, all the things that are suppose to make you feel as though you have achieved something...get under my skin and make me feel stagnant.

So what makes me happy? Change. I thrive under change, even though it scares me. I had a friend, Thomas, tell me earlier today change was "just a matter of breaking through your fears." I feel as though much of what we don't do is because of the fear of not knowing the outcome, but isn't that half the fun?

Ever since then, I have embraced that change is what makes me happy. I have been more committed to being myself in other ways too. I say things that don't necessarily pass through "the filter," attend functions where I don't know anyone, and reach out to people I might have been too afraid to continue a relationship with. I guess you could say I am doing my own little social experiment on myself, and so far I love the outcome.

We'll see how it goes ;)

Might be cliche, but what have you done before that scared you? Did it come out how you planned, better?

Trumpets!

You might be wondering what I meant by "Trumpets!" and thought I might try to explain the joke...so here it goes.

First, I'll let you in on my train of thought. Have been wondering lately why some videos catch on and become sensations and why some wallow in YouTube purgatory. One of my favorite videos is Charlie Bit Me and show it to all friends who have not seen it as much as possible...until I run out of friends. The video on has been seen 57,255,789 TIMES and has 87,455 comments!! I mean, when you break it down the video is of a little kid getting bit by his brother. It certainly happened when I was little, and I'm not famous. Did the parent's know their children were going to be seen by 57 million people, I'm thinking probably not.

So, companies have been trying to break the YouTube code by creating corky videos to promote their product. Wario did a cool thing here, and it worked for them increasing their views by 500%. And the Cadbury Gorilla is still considered one of the most successful YouTube campaigns to date. So what makes a video a success or a flop? Uniqueness is essential, but the hardest to balance. Going too far to one side can mean millions or zero views. By tapping into something people are already familiar with (YouTube or Gorilla) and playing around with people's perceptions (shaking it up or making it play drums) make people look twice, and share it with their friends. It might not hurt to add a little Phil Collin's music ;)

I would mention the ones that flopped, but I haven't seen them.

Finally!!! Here is the video that inspired the joke...let me know what you think :)



Success, flop, funny...???

I know...it has been FOREVER!

I'm sorry, this has been a long time coming. Life has gotten crazy, but luckily in a really good way. In the last couple months I have been diving into the crazy web of social media and loving it. The first real pull towards the medium was while attending BlogWorld in Vegas in September. The people at the conference were amazing, and found was more intrigued by the side conversations than sessions, although those were great too. Check out my 5 minutes of fame (look about 14 years-old, but rolling with it):



While there I was lucky enough to make friends with James Whatley from London, Matt Singley from LA, and Mark Burstiner from NYC. These guys really made my time there a lot of fun, definitely best Vegas experience yet, plus great new friends. Each of them work within the social media space and have intriguing projects on the horizon. Trumpets!

I feel that once good things start happening it is a domino effect. Through James and twitter I learned about an project called Someone Once Told Me. The project takes photographs of people with sayings that have either been influential in their life or just memorable. People are starting to submit pictures from around the world, and I was the first Bostonian! My saying was from my little, feisty Nana who told me the saying below just before I flew to Thailand for 2-months. She was amazing and I think she would laugh if she saw this picture today. So, here it is:
On a more personal note, have official ended all communication with Mr.J, which I think is the best decision I have ever made in my life. So freeing!! Taking control of my life and finding it is OK to be myself is a pretty awesome change...and things are looking up because of it. That is my deep thought for the moment :p

Ok, promise to be more regular with posting.