The ModBlogger Remaking Life+Work 21st Century

The ModBlogger Ends – Tracking Breakthroughs Begins!

I just can’t resist the symbolism of the three doors in today’s date (11/11/11 – see the doors?) I am officially closing The ModBlogger today as I amble across the triple-powered threshold to officially launch my new site! Join me at Tracking Breakthroughs (and I’ll actually post there, too!)

This is what happened…

I set out to learn all about blogging almost two years ago. I knew next to nothing. I didn’t even read blogs at that point! But I wanted to find out what this blogging thing was all about, and if I decided to blog myself I wanted to make sure I stepped out with my best foot forward.

So to make a long two-year story short, I read and studied a lot of blogs (and I got hooked on blog reading, too!) I took a long and circuitous internal (crazy-making) trip to uncover my interests and values (to find my “niche”). And then I put my non-techie mind around enough of the technical aspects to come up with a blog of my own.

Pretty soon The ModBlogger was almost launched…but then I pulled back. Something wasn’t right.

After just a handful of posts, I went back to the drawing board. What was keeping me from posting? Yes, fear and the internal critic definitely made for a great ruckus. But that wasn’t all. I had inventoried my interests and passions, what I valued and what I wanted to share, but I just couldn’t find the ease — the flow — in the topic I had chosen for The ModBlogger. Yes, I believe we all have a stake in figuring out how to achieve balanced and fulfilling life+work in this crazy, changing world. Yes, I have some definite opinions about how this world is changing and what we need to do. I certainly have a lot more questions that would be worth exploring.

But there was something I wasn’t seeing.

And then it hit me. This topic isn’t my real journey, not what I really want to explore.

So I backtracked, made a few more crazy-making, circuitous internal routes, and I finally found my path. The entryway to a whole new journey, for sure!

What is happening now…

I’m closing down this blog that was never launched and I’m chalking it up to one of the steepest and most breathtaking learning mountains I’ve ever had the pleasure to scale. I know much more than I did two years ago about blogging — most importantly, I know now that I must blog; it’s no longer a question. And I have so much more to learn!

I’m launching a whole new blog. Please check out my new blog site, Tracking Breakthroughs and join me on the next leg of the journey ! Let’s do this together! We’ll be talking about finding our creative powers – that artist within (Hint: it’s a sleuthing adventure – a mystery we’ll set out to solve. What fun!) We’ll be figuring out what happened in the first place to get so lost, and best of all we’ll get inspired and motivated to pay attention to those breakthroughs – that’s where the clues lie!

I hope you’ll subscribe to Tracking Breakthroughs and be among the first to set out with me to solve the mystery (or at least get immersed in the thick of it). See you there!

Denise

November 11, 2011 · 0 comments

How to Discourage Unconventional

At the age of questioning, my 12 year old daughter Valerie announced suddenly just before getting into bed one night that she had tried wearing two different shoes at school that day. And she liked it. And maybe she would do it again tomorrow.

Snapping the covers down to invite her into the cotton sheets, I’m sorry to say that I responded in a crisp one-two: “Well, that sounds kind of lame to me.” And then I remembered I needed something from my room and left for a moment while she climbed into bed.

Except she didn’t.

When I returned, her eyes were dark as she looked up at me from the floor, holding one teal and one black sneaker.

“How could you,” she said, “Be. So. Normal.”

I was the one, she said, who had a vision the other day. Remember?

I did remember. That morning I sat behind the wheel of my car in my sweat shirt and slippers. I balanced my cup of coffee in one hand and I waited 10 cars deep in the usual line near the elementary school as parents in suits or sweats (depending on their day jobs) converged to get their kids to school.

And as I told Valerie, a somewhat overweight woman wearing a navy blue t-shirt and jeans crossed at the crosswalk. Suddenly in my mind’s eye she was bouncing – yes bouncing – from curb to curb in a floppy, many-jewel colored top hat, polka dot scarf, a knee length velvet purple coat and bright patent pink boots!

The image was delightful, and I thought, “Wow! Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all the people at this intersection – and beyond – chose to dress in dizzy multi-textured technicolor as a matter of form?

And then I looked down at my own drab hues. What if instead of pulling from our closets each day our blues and blacks and greys (sweats and jeans or suit coats and trousers), what if we all dressed in zany joy? That woman back in her over sized navy t-shirt looking down at the ground? Joy and color would be so much more becoming–and so much more fun.

Now, I looked down at my daughter.

“Thanks for shooting me down,” she finished. I actually try not to be normal.”

Ouch.

She was right–sort of. What she meant by “normal” was “like everyone else,” someone who accepts the status quo and falls in line. My practical mom-wisdom spoke out (I’m pretty sure healthy feet require similar insoles), but I didn’t consider that Valerie was actually just questioning conventions. Why should people wear matching shoes?

Questioning conventions is powerful and important. I know that. In fact, in this globalized, digitized, connected world, success and even survival may depend upon it.

“What we want, what we need, what we must have are indispensable human beings,” says Seth Godin in Linchpin, “We need original thinkers, provocateurs, and people who care. We need marketers who can lead, salespeople able to risk making a human connection, passionate change makers willing to be shunned if is necessary for them to make a point…Some organizations haven’t realized this yet, or haven’t articulated it, but we need artists. Artists are people with a genius for finding a new answer, a new connection or a new way of getting things done.”

It’s important to note that we all have this capacity to find a new way. As Seth says a few pages later: “I’ve never met someone who had no art in them, though it’s buried sometimes.” (Buried by well meaning parents? Yikes!)

I thought about it and realized I had been wrong–sort of.

So I apologized.

And I explained and Valerie came to understand that wearing two mismatched shoes might damage her feet.

But she decided that she’d be on the lookout for other conventions that should be changed. And a polka dot scarf for me.

March 3, 2011 · 4 comments

Let’s Go! Over the Rainbow

If you didn’t know about the PS22 Chorus, you probably do now. Did you catch the Oscars last night? To close a somewhat uneventful 83rd Annual Academy Awards show, the finale featured children from New York’s P.S. 22 elementary school singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow, and ended with the academy’s winning stars flooding the stage behind them. You could see their hearts, children and adults alike up there in the spotlight: over the rainbow isn’t somewhere, it’s here for me, “I oh I”, right now. (I’m not sure I can embed a video of this moment at the Oscars without infringing on copyright – so here’s a link instead. Enjoy!)

I love that song. Every year Judy Garland made my heart stop as a child when she sang Somewhere Over the Rainbow in ABC’s annual The Wizard of Oz re-broadcast (my parents always always let me stay up late to watch that one movie, even if it was a school night). And I never tire of IZ Kamakawiwo’ole’s pure melody and simple ukelele. Another equally mesmerizing rendition? I didn’t think it was possible.

In the Oscar’s finale, the melodies and harmonies are certainly lovely (though nothing beats Garland or IZ). But what knocks us over are the children. When the camera pans through the group, it comes in close, one child after another, and you look right into their eyes as they sing their hearts out. And unlike traditional choirs (thanks to Director Gregg Breinberg), each child interprets the song with movement as they sing. They rock their heads back and forth to the music and they tell the story with their hands. Their voices meld in perfect unison, but they each create something different of the song.

Models for us all

And once again I am struck by the light in each single person and how important it is that we keep that light shining over the course of each entire life. The cameras show us: Look at these children. Look what they can do when they are allowed to shine. For these kids, it’s music. They can sing and they are given a unique opportunity to perform (especially in this age of underfunded public schools that often eliminates art education). But all people can be fueled by passions in many forms in their lives and their work, just like these kids. We all have Superpowers.

People are a precious resource. As yet as a society, we squander people. We don’t provide enough opportunities for enough people to contribute their unique gifts. And too many people don’t make it a priority in their own lives and work to shine that particular, special light.

Up Series

I am reminded of the British documentary Up series, a set of documentaries that features the same fourteen individuals every seven years of their lives. They began in in 1964 with director Paul Almond who filmed the children when they were seven years old, and then director Michael Apted continued when there were fourteen, again at twenty-one, twenty- eight, and then on. 35 Up, 42 Up, 49 Up and now, the next film – 56 Up – is due for release in late 2011/early 2012.

While originally documentaries about socio-economic class, I am not the only one who ended up taking away a much different message. It is fascinating, of course, to just watch people change from one seven year period to the next. But what hits you in the gut is that light, again, in the children’s eyes. That passion for living is there for all of the kids when they are seven.

But for too many of them, the light seemed to be extinguished at fourteen or twenty-one, but not for all. And surprisingly, by twenty eight anyway, some seemed to have lights rekindled. (I haven’t actually caught the series past 28 Up, but I’ve often wondered what happened to those points of light, and now I plan to find out!) In any event, this documentary series reveals at least one very important truth: all people start out with light and a lot happens along the way that determines which people shine and which don’t.

P.S.22 in Staten Island, New York received a GreatSchools Rating of 1 out of 10 on state test results. Seventy percent are eligible for free lunches so many of their families struggle. Yet, here this small group of 40-50 kids from that same school get to shine. With the confidence and thrill of doing what they love, these kids will most likely shine in many ways as they grow older.

Most of them probably won’t be rock stars. But I’m willing to bet all of them will find ways to fill their lives and work with passion and purpose because they know what it feels like to do what they love and to have an effect on people; with that kind of experience, anything is possible. (And I bet most of them are beating those state test averages, too; just a hunch.) All people have potential to shine in their own unique ways.

As the new global economy unfolds, it’s more imperative than ever that we apply our greatest resources to our greatest challenges: people. I believe strongly that we must find ways for all children to shine and that the right kind of education is a national top level, first priority. But just as importantly, we adults – at any age – must cast our light, too.

Somewhere over the rainbow can be here for us, too.

February 28, 2011 · 0 comments

What Change Do I Want For The World?

Well, that’s easy. Peace and prosperity for all humankind. And natural habitat for all other species to live out their natural lives.

Next!

Okay, not so fast. Those are outcomes, ideals, broad brush strokes across a canvas. Details, please. Answer the question. What change?

Okay, okay. So I’ll be Alice…first, I was very big, and now I’ll go very small:

Into the Looking Glass

I think all the world’s problems comes down to our inability to be fully conscious. Individually and as communities and nations, we don’t see the true motivations behind our actions: fear and love. We can’t see when or how we behave, respond and react to others out of fear (and when and how others do the same).

And we fail to acknowledge the need for love in all its forms from passion to acknowledgment. And too often we fail to give it to others.

So one huge and fundamental change I’d like to see in the world is that we wake up! That we each become conscious beings who see the why beneath our own (and others’) actions and responses.

And I guess all other changes I’d like to see comes from awakened consciousness.

If we were conscious of our connection with the earth, we’d choose to care for it.

If we were conscious of why we need more (more friends, more money, more fame, more respect, more anything), we serve the real need behind the more (connection, security, acknowledgment…).

If we were conscious of what we are afraid of, we might address the fear instead of the shadow on the cave’s wall.

If we were conscious of our own need for love, we just might make it a priority to love.

And if we could all go out awake into the world, at the very least we couldn’t be manipulated by those advertisers, politicians and anyone else with power who in a twisted way are conscious of our unconsciousness, pushing and pulling at these needs that the rest of us are so busy stuffing!

And we might create a world where we choose to occupy ourselves – that is, choose occupations – that both serve ourselves and the world in the best ways, rather than serve what we pretend is most important. Instead of selling widgets without true value, for example, we’d sell only widgets with value. Instead of one bottom line (profit), we’d focus on the triple bottom line: good for me, good for those I work with/for and good for the world.

We would create a world where economic prosperity remains important, but a world where the definition of profit expands to include not just monetary return on investment (and its benefits), but return in joy and satisfaction (for self and others).

Because once awake, we wouldn’t want to be in a world where others sleep.

Setting Down the Looking Glass

So back to my regular skeptical shape, the one whose radar stands on end when people get all preachy. Like now.

Oops. Didn’t mean to do that. This was going to be just a post about the change I want to see in the world. But I just can’t seem to zero in on a problem without looking at the whole big picture first–and leave it to me to start with the universe.

But…I guess the change I want to see in the world is a tilt to our rightful place in the universe.

I want a healthy earth that we humans use our vast powers to preserve and protect so that it – and we - thrive.

I want all people to flourish.

Simple, really. Kind of like what I said at the beginning.

Peace and prosperity for all humankind. And natural habitat for all other species to live out their natural lives.

October 29, 2010 · 0 comments

The Call to Change the World

So I’ve been thinking about this idea for a while. How does one go about changing the world? And, not surprisingly given the current state of the globe, it I don’t seem to be the only one with change on my mind.
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The call to change the world is one popular Google query these days: Over eleven million search results for the exact phrase. The Blogosphere seems to be littered with it, too. In October, Google Blogs reported that there were over 1.5 million posts with the exact phrase “change the world” in the last 5 years and one third of those posts referencing the phrase “change the world” were posted in the last year and a half. Nearly 500,000 of those 1.5 million bloggers posted the term since January 1st, 2009.

And the true test that this preoccupation with changing the world might be a cultural phenomenon? Click on those we sites and you’ll find many, many purveyors selling products and services.

Has it ever been different? We know all too well what happens to art or ideas or anything original and true when they go mainstream. They did it with John Lennon, Janis Joplin, the peace sign, and just about everyone else! Hawkers are pitch-tune perfect to the times because they know that what is close to our hearts sells. What sells is what is close to our hearts.

I think it’s safe to say that we humans are feeling the need to change the world.

Hello? It’s not like it’s about time or anything.

Some would argue the world is no different than it ever was. The quest to change the world is really nothing new. It’s a yearning for every age.

And the answer has always been (in one form or another, but most succinctly said):

“Be the change you want to see in the world.”

I wasn’t always so optimistic.

Hey Ghandi, we’re each one of us among six, seven billion points of light on the planet. Sure, wouldn’t it be nice if each one of us lit up the sky…but the reality is very few get up on the global stage and change people’s minds–and many billion more would never change anyway. Their lights are snuffed even as they walk the earth. Me, one little point of light? Maybe not worth the bother.

Hmmm. It seems now that maybe I was ducking the call. It’s a lot easier to give up, says the Lizard Brain, then it is to shine.

And maybe I’m not the only one who is beginning to see that maybe we underestimated the possibilities for change, that one point of light becomes a whole galaxy pretty quickly. And besides, this is no time to duck.

We live in extraordinary times marked by great opportunity and great risk. We now have tools, access, knowledge and resources like no other age. But we face seismic, global challenges that threaten the planet and future generations and widespread economic prosperity.

And as I’ve said before, my particular American generation had the luxury to grow up at a time when not much was asked of us except to prosper.

We are now being called.

October 25, 2010 · 0 comments

Where Do You Light Up?

Too many people close the door on their creative selves. And they don’t just turn the knob and push. They slam it shut and seal off the edges with duct tape. “Me?” they ask, backs against the door, “I’m not creative.”

Bah!

Human beings. Are. Creative. We’re also curious and social by human nature. We can turn off those qualities as easy as we flick off a light switch (and we leave the room, door tightly shut). But we are born curious and social–and creative.

Why do people close off their creative places? I only know what I experienced as a child: I loved to make things. I was at my happiest when I constructed Christmas trees out of reader’s digest magazines, built villages for barbie dolls, or set up clubs for all the neighbor kids. I also loved to draw, write, act.

But to grow up is to learn more about ourselves…and why is it we only seem to pay attention when we fail?

I paid such close attention to each lesson, in fact, that I remember them even today. I didn’t write poetry as fast as Katrina–or as well. Okay, she was in fourth grade and I only third, but my poetry rhymed (unrhymed poetry was the thing, she said, didn’t I know?) I failed drawing lessons in 4th grade (that Kendall was such a good artist; my teacher even said so). I couldn’t get my animal sculptures to emerge out of lumpy balls of clay.

So, I learned: I was not very good at being creative. The next step – lights out – would have been to acknowledge – click, door shut and locked – that I’m not creative after all (can you hear the “screeeeeeetch” of the tape off that roll?)

I didn’t go so far as to get out the duct tape. But I do know that it’s very easy to lose sight of the creative self. Especially when you don’t have grownups with big ‘ol headlamps to help light the room. “See? Good job! Here’s how.”

I also know that we confuse the word ‘creative’ with the word ‘artist.’ Maybe to be an artist is to be something else, someone who devotes a lifetime of days to creating works of original expression.

But we are all creative. We all have what is, in its simplest form, a capacity to create something new.

Some of us create new art. Some of us create new meals or new designs or new tools. Some of us create new processes. Some of us create new ways to reach other human beings. Some of us create houses or spaces or corners in a garden. Some of us create new ways of working or living or interacting.

We all create solutions where only problems loomed before. At home. In the office. In public. Or in very private, dimly lit recesses of our “what if?” and “if-only” minds.

We need to honor that creative place inside ourselves. I know I do. It is where we light up. It’s where the world lights up! So rip off the duct tape, open the door–and look inside. See: I am creative.

October 20, 2010 · 0 comments

Striking Out on My Own

I closed the door to the shop for the last time. Done. Business: over. Partnership: free. Dream: dead.

Yet instead of regret I felt satisfaction. Owning a small studio/retail business was one great learning experience. What I learned about launching and running a business and about my own skills (and weaknesses)? Worth it all.

Best lesson: Hitching on to someone else’s dream just doesn’t work. You gotta travel on your own.

If you’re at a similar stage in your life, you can probably relate. Especially if you’re also a Gen Joneser like me. I’m coming of age! I’m energetic, enthusiastic–and empowered. A generation or two ago, middle aged was old. I remember my grandmother when I was a young child: Grey hair and jiggly arms. She must have been in her forties. She actually lived to be 92 but she spent forty years before she died being old!

Not us. We cover the grey and cover up, work out and move out into the world. I think Marc Freedman of Civic Ventures has it right. It used to be life expectancy (at least in America) was 70. Now, on average, we’re closing in on 100 year life spans!

We spent our first age growing experience and wisdom (growing ourselves and our children) and now we are entering a second age of productivity and creativity. Barring illness (and even then), this second age presents unlimited opportunities in a changing world.

So this is the truth about where I’m going – and maybe you’re going there too. I closed the last door knowing I’d move on, but this time I don’t think it will be to the “next” thing, as in one more in a long series of things. I think it will be The Thing.

Some people know from the start what they will do with their lives. Their brains must come with a a Kodak-like snapshot embedded in the right cortex of their brains: Doctor. Carpenter. Scientist. Teacher. Politician. Engineer. Designer. I am not one of those people.

Instead of a Kodak moment, I got a damn door lodged somewhere between my brain and my heart. One that I kept opening–and closing (see above). I step out a bit, but always come back. No. Not there. Not going there after all.

My generation has held an average of 11 jobs over their lifetimes so far, so I know I’m not alone.

People who know me know I’ve been looking for more than self-fulfilling work. I’ve been looking for that thing – that place, that opportunity to do what I’m supposed to do, to change the world for the better in some way.

It’s been kind of like a door to and from a cosmic roulette table swirling brightly colored careers and jobs and projects. I’d close the door and start blowing on the dice as the wheel of time and circumstance spun. It would stop. I’d get out to explore and each time it was a whole new world.

I’ve worked for large bureaucratic organizations and small autocratic businesses. I’ve worked for causes. I’ve worked for myself. I’ve managed projects, I’ve taught students, I’ve raised funds, I’ve raised (three great) kids.

Door opened, door closed, wheel spun. Again and again. I wrote stuff and edited stuff, organized and planned, designed and executed. I read a lot and dreamed a whole lot more. Back and forth through the door as I offered this skill and that to his problem or hers. Because that’s what I did, searching for that thing I was supposed to do:

Oh, I’ll help them because I’m good at ____ (fill in the blank with a subset of my skills) and they need my help.

But this is my point. Not the next but The Thing I need to do – finally – is all about helping people because I am wired to help people. But this time, I’m going to choose what–and how. So bring it on. Next!