THE BEST THING FOR BEING SAD…
Food for thought (by way of friend and mentor, Hutt Bush and T.H.White)
“The best thing for being sad is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then – to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting.”
Pick up a newspaper. Listen to five minutes (or less) of televised news. Consider our endangered environment. The state of our union. The shadow that threatens to overwhelm us. Just ask someone (anyone) how they’re doing today. It ain’t all chocolate and chuckles out there.
No shortage of advice on what to do about it either. But there are some simple ways to battle the malaise. See above.
Accompanying the learning of something? Exploration. Discovery. Challenge. Growth. Involvement. Pick one or all of these options and you’re snapping out of it already. Do I have any suggestions? Of course, I do.
Teach. Personally, I find that teaching a client how starting a blog or a newsletter can establish and differentiate them as a thought leader in this “Everybody’s-an-expert-or-at-least-claim-to-be” business arena is the height of learning — on a number of levels. It’s been said that you don’t really know something until you can teach it (or explain it clearly) to someone else.
Read…and if you must multi-task, do it while you’re on the elliptical or the treadmill or the stationary bike. Do it over a light, companion-free lunch -- instead of visiting the All-You-Can-Eat Steak-Sushi-and-Sandwich Buffet that always features regret as one of the menu items.
And, by the way, choose something different to read. If you usually (or exclusively) read non-fiction, try fiction this time around. (Yes, reality purists, you can learn something from fiction.) Just do it. Just read. I’m not a snob about literacy (or the lack thereof), but encountering individuals who wear their lack of reading experience like a badge of honor truly saddens me.
Take a class. The one you always wanted to take.
Take a train ride to anywhere or somewhere or elsewhere.
ON THE BUSINESS END:
Audit your competition’s web site. Take note of what you could do to better serve your base.
Discover a web term or concept or approach about which you have no clue -- and make it your business to define it. Master it. Apply it for your purposes.
Brave the opposite – go to a site or source that represents an area you don’t typically travel in, e.g. if you’re an accountant, go to a psychic network site. If you’re an artist, visit an insurance brokerage site. Mathematician? Play Scrabble online. Use Monty Python as your cue…"And Now For Something Completely Different.” Perspective can be a wondrous thing. Cultivate your“renaissance man” instincts.
Challenge yourself to discover something. Explore something. Learn something. Move something in a new direction. Appreciate the way another individual at the opposite end of the spectrum speaks to their clientele (or prospective clientele) and gets the word out to the world at large…and always, always, always, take away what you can use to further your entrepreneurial efforts and/or improve your life.
You’ll feel better. You'll be better.