Category Archives: enough

A Week Without Social Networks

As stated last week, I plan to start going a week wIthout some things in order to best evaluate my needs. It should come as no surprise to any of my patrons that I have been struggling with how I approach social networks.

Don’t get me wrong, they are a great tool for communication and engagement. In fact, there are many people that I have met and converse with primarily through social networks that I would call my friends. I would not have been able to build these relationships without these tools.

I have no problem with advertising at all. When it is done well advertising can connect people with really useful products and ideas they may not have heard of otherwise. If a social network wants to go down the advertising path to pay the bills, I can support that.

I guess what I’m increasingly uncomfortable with, and the reason for this break, is two fold:

  • I find I spend and share far too much of my time and words there with no clear intention of why I’m doing so. Are the things I’m saying really things others need to know? Is it helping them in any way? Is it helping me by sharing them? Could the words I’m sharing there be better shared some other way? On a website or a book? With a tool that allows me better control and retains personal ownership.

  • As a writer, I make my living off of my words. Is a social network, as a tool, worth the trade of letting someone else profit from my words as well? Is it OK for them to listen into my conversation about the double-shot of espresso I pulled and then deliver a burr grinder ad into my stream? Does the fact that I happen to be in the market for a burr grinder make that transaction OK? Because, those words are ultimately what they sell to advertisers and use to deliver “relevant” advertising to us.

Once again, I’m not saying it is good or bad one way or the other. I honestly do not have an answer. These are all questions, along with many others, I will be pondering during my mini-sabbatical. I will also be pondering how to come back with a better intention and approach. Which, ultimately, is what we should be seeking with any tool we wish to use well.

A Week Without

When was the last time you went a week without something? Perhaps something you enjoy. Perhaps something that you struggle with. Perhaps something you are sensing transition with.

Maybe, for some of you, you have done so or are doing so right now due to circumstance. There has been bad weather and flooding in the eastern United States. For some that has meant a week without power, telephone or Internet. For far too many in the world at large a week without food or shelter is a regular occurrence.

This is a question I have been sitting with for a while now. I think it is often times important to do without in order to get a better sense of our place within. Perhaps a week without Twitter or Facebook will help you better understand the value that you derive from it. Perhaps a week without caffeine will help you better frame your dependence on it. Perhaps a week without your iPhone will help you evaluate your use of it.

The week is intended to help one see the advantages as well as the disadvantages so that one may determine the best approach. That may be a revelation that the thing you went without holds an important place in your daily life. It might also determine that after a week you could do another until you find you did not need it at all.

Starting next week I’m going to go without something. I have not quite decided what that is yet (hence the “next week”). I’ll announce what it is next Monday so that I may be kept accountable. This is not a directive nor am I trying to start some movement. I’m just asking a question aloud in the hopes that the asking may help others as well. If you too are inspired to go a week without something, I welcome the camaraderie and would love to hear about your experiment and experience.

Stay tuned.

Enough – The Book: A Sneak Peek

As I have mentioned and intimated many times in ious places, I’m currently hard at work on my next book. The working, and likely final, title is Enough. Anyone who has followed this site long enough should have a basic idea of the what the book will be about from the title alone. That said, for those that are new here, it will be about my ideas surrounding simplicity, minimalism, clutter, consumption, and living a life of balance.

Like my first book, Keeping It Straight, Enough will be a series of essays mainly focusing on concepts, deeper thinking, and discussion surrounding ideas such as…

What is enough?

How does one find it?

What strategies might help in getting there?

Why is it important in the first place?

In a way, it is as much manifesto as it is instruction. There may be some tips and suggestions but they will be bolstered by a heavy dose of reason and purpose.

I have no idea when the book will be “done” let alone published and released. I’m working hard to get there though. Some weeks are better than others. This week has been disastrous but last week was promising. Just know that some of the lack of deeper and more frequent writing here (and for the foreseeable future) is due to my energy and thoughts being directed there.

That said, I wanted to give you a sneak peek at the current draft of the first essay/introduction (I’ve not decided which it is yet). It is not finished but should give you an idea about the sort of direction the rest of the essays in the book will go.

So, here it is…

Enough

My daughter takes classes at a European Style Circus Arts school. It’s a pretty amazing place. They teach and train children, starting at age two, how to perform all manner of classic circus acts. German Wheel, Trap, Triple Trap, Side-by-side, Silks, Spanish Web, etc. Think of Cirque du Soleil but with kids and you have the idea.

Recently, in class, she was learning how to walk the wire. As I watched her, It began to occur to me that this was the perfect metaphor for what I believe the idea of Enough is, and how to discover it.

We all have a center of balance that is unique and different from everyone else. My center of balance is different than yours. My daughter’s, from mine. As she walks the wire, hands out, wobbling to and fro, this is what she is in search of. As she gets older, this process might become easier, faster, with less wobble, but it will never end. No matter how good, she will always need some device to assist her – arms stretched, a long poll, a racket or fan. Even the Flying Wallendas, perhaps the greatest wire act to ever perform and a family team stretching back 10 generations, still wobble and use devices to maintain their balance.

Why is this? Well, because the conditions are constantly changing. Changing in ways that we never really even think of. Here are just a few:

  • The wire is usually made of metal. Air temperatures change. Metal expands and contracts slightly in such changes. Thus, the tension of the wire changes ever so slightly as well.

  • Wind, as one can imagine, is a factor. Even a slight breeze can make a difference.

  • Is there a crowd? Well, applause and other loud noises cause vibrations in the wire.

As you can see, there are many unseen and rarely considered things that can affect one who is walking the wire. Those are just a few of them. These changes require frequent adjustment.And this is outside of the fact that, even if nothing on the wire changed, even the most seasoned wire walkers would still need to make constant slight adjustments to maintain balance, both physical and mental.

So it is with the idea of Enough. What is enough for you will be different than what is enough for me. Also, what is enough for each of us will change with changing conditions. If I’m really hungry, an apple will likely not be enough for me. If I have just eaten a full meal with dessert, an apple will be too much. The goal is to find the sweet spot, the center of balance, that allows one to have enough or what one needs when one needs it. But even this will change and requires constant adjustment and re-evaluation as the conditions change. Just like balancing on the wire.

The goal then, is not to find what is, or will be, enough forever. That is impossible. The goal is to discover the tools and strategies you need to find what is enough for you right now and provide the flexibility to adjust as the conditions change.