THE BEST THING: REPRISE
“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.”
Thought this was worth re-posting, because it’s been my salvation of late. It’s easy to be sad these days…real easy. Pick up a newspaper. Listen to five minutes (or less) of televised news. Consider our endangered environment. Just ask someone (anyone) how they’re doing today. It ain’t all roses 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.
Learning something involves exploration. Discovery. Challenge. Growth. Involvement. Pick one or all of these options and you’re snapping out of it already. Do I have suggestions? Of course, I do.
Teach. Personally, I find that teaching a client how starting a blog or building a website can help establish and differentiate them as a thought leader in this “Everybody’s-an-expert-or-at-least-claims-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. If you must multi-task, read while you’re on the elliptical or the treadmill or the stationary bike. Watch a little less television and read a short story or essay or article. Walk past the All-You-Can-Eat-Steak-Sushi-and-Mac 'N Cheese Buffet, find a park bench and eat an apple while reading a chapter from the latest bestseller. And choose something different. 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. Attend a seminar. Join a group. Start a group
Take a train ride to anywhere. Somewhere. Elsewhere.
ON THE BUSINESS END:
Audit your competition’s web site. Discover that thing they're doing that you could do too...and do better.
Take a web term or concept or innovation and make it your business to define it and master it and apply it for your purposes.
Brave the opposite – go to a site or source that represents a pond that you don’t typically "swim" 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 dive into "Something Completely Different.” Perspective can be a wondrous thing. Cultivate your “renaissance man” perspective.
Challenge yourself to discover something. Explore. Learn. Appreciate the way another individual at the opposite of your 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.