Today's challenge was disappointing. It was disappointing because of how similar it was to another very recent challenge.
The concept between the two is essentially the same, always doing what you are afraid to do is in essence being bold.
I guess if I had to answer the question though, I would say it's scares me to be uncomfortable; however, sometimes ... it hurts to stay comfortable.
Today's challenge was by far the most interesting to me.
The sheer simplicity of the question is masked by the potential depth and complexity of the answer. Even if you are not participating in the challenge, it's worth taking a look at today's question(s) and answering them for yourself.
Here are my answers:
1. To me five years ago: You're about to go to school, but don't let that get in the way of your education (funnily enough a friend of mine from University said that to me in my final year).
2. To me five years from now: Are you still learning as much as you were five years ago? If not, you better change that.
Although all these challenges are quite personal, today's felt extra personal for some reason. I really think that anyone, regardless of what stage they are at in life, can come up with a response to today's challenge. I invite you to please jot down yours in the comment section below because I am quite curious to see what other people come up with.
One of my dreams has always been to learn a new language. The underlying reason being simply that I love learning.
A couple of the biggest things holding me back from doing this are: The time commitment and of course ... the actual decision to choose a single language to learn. Do I go for a local language like French (being Canadian) or a dialect of Chinese, or Hindi or Spanish? Sheena Iyengar was most certainly right when she said that too much choice can lead to no action.
I guess these are just variations of the resistance talking though. Rational thought (when will I ever really need to know how to speak another language, when the world is increasingly trying to better understand English) is clearly getting in the way here.
Perhaps, just this once... it's time to abandon rational thought.
I found today's challenge to be fairly similar in nature to the first challenge. They both revolved around the idea of time and how we tend to take it for granted. Today's focused more around the notion of living in the moment as opposed to waiting for a better moment to come along.
I am actually going to answer the bonus question as opposed to the main question because I think the former is more interesting. There is a lot to be said about the value of setting short-term goals. For instance, what if you woke up every morning and before you even got out of bed ... you set a goal to ship something ... today. It may even make getting out of bed easier. To take a line from the movie Hitch, 'begin each day as if it were on purpose.'
Don't get me wrong, it's good to think long term as well ... but for now, all you have is today ... so how are you going to make it better?
The first part of today's question is easy enough, the second part is where things get tricky.
Without a doubt the one place I would visit is Hawaii.
I grew up on an island and so I've always been drawn to island living. From all the stories I hear, the pictures I see and the movies I watch... Hawaii seems like the ultimate island. Hawaii is also home to one of my favourite musicians, Jack Johnson. My dream vacation in Hawaii would be filled with enjoying soothing music, taking in luscious landscapes and of course ... having a surfing lesson .. or three.
There is really only one simple thing I will do to ensure I get to go to Hawaii one day... work hard. Hard enough so that I am able to earn it ... because you can be certain that when I do go to Hawaii, to me it will be a vacation like no other.
Forgive me for being a day late on this challenge.
I found today's challenge a little exciting because it's something that I'm already doing and now I have a chance to talk about it. Ever since Seth Godin introduced me to the term 'shipping,' I have been fascinated by it and its implications. The concept of shipping to me is something everyone can do in some small way everyday.
Shipping is a very big part of the reason why I took up this challenge. In order to keep shipping as a constant reminder to myself, I changed the background of my Twitter page a very long time ago. It now asks a very simple question, "What have you shipped today?"
I think the true challenge here is going to be what happens after #trust30 is over. My hope is that, #trust30 will instill a habit of shipping (even if it's something small). It is certainly inspiring to see people like Seth Godin ship something everyday. It's hard work, but that's what makes it fun. Find your inspiration and keep shipping.
Very sadly, I do not have an answer to today's challenge and to be completely honest, I am ok with that. I think the notion of independence or strong opinion is variable, in that it can change depending on a given topic.
For instance, some of your friends and family may have a different opinion of a certain good or service than you; however, when it comes to strong beliefs ... I think it's very hard to have one that will be distinctly different to what your close friends and family believe.
In fact, it almost seems oxymoronic to have a strong belief that is not shared by your close friends or family. The very fact that they are your close friends and family would generally mean that they share the same strong beliefs as you do.
I believe in the notion of strongly believing in something and to me it should not necessarily matter who else believes in it, so long as you do. In most cases though, if your belief is strong enough ... you will typically find you are not alone.
Listen to the episode on iTunes
Episode Summary:
On this episode I am joined by a fellow KWAwesome Trustee, Matt Duench. Matt is currently the Director of Marketing at Oryx Advertising and also attended Laurier as well as Conestoga College. On this show, Matt and I decided to tackle a topic close to both our hearts ... the mobile space. We dove deep into NFC and touched on the potential of the smartphone market in general. Matt's experience and insight into the topic helped make the conversation a very interesting one. We hope you enjoy the show! (Runtime: 40:57)
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The Digital Marketing Lounge
A blog and podcast dedicated to the musings and occasional insights of a digital marketer. Written and hosted by Shaminda (Shum) Attygalle.
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