I recently signed up for Path. No big deal right? Wrong. It's been a huge eye opener. You see, I have no friends on Path. Now before you start shedding tears for me, hear me out.

For some reason I am more deliberate when posting to Path even though no one is watching. At first I found this unsettling, but now I find it liberating. I don't care if I share content that appeals to others. It's just me. When I post, there are no preconceived expectation of a retweet, like or a comment. No anxiety created by the need to be popular.

My Path stream has become a space for me and no one else. I don't post there often, but I am repeatedly taunted to do so knowing that nobody is watching. That is the beauty of it. It's an outlet for me, not for the people connected to me.

Lesson: To compete for attention is bull. To do something deliberately with thought behind it will bring you greater fulfillment.

Yes, it took me being alone in social space to remind me of what is important.

 

In the spirit of giving I thought I'd share some things that will make your holiday more enjoyable.

1. Due to heavy traffic avoid going over the river and through the woods to your grandmother's house.
2. Take kids Christmas shopping with you. This way they will know what they're getting and you avoid a meltdown on Christmas morning because bought the wrong gift.
3. Do not engage in any conversations with Jack Frost. He's an asshole and has a thing for noses.
4. Talk drunk uncle into singing "I Like Big Butts" at family gathering.
5. Avoid one horse open sleighs. They're dangerous.
6. Insist on wearing fake deer antlers in every photo.
7. Go to mall and watch parents try to keep their kids under control.
8. Post images of lavish gifts on Facebook to trick friends into thinking you actually received them.
9. Talk drunk uncle into trying to enter a house via chimney.
10. Fill stockings with coal and tell your children it's a magic rock that will give them anything they want if they rub the rock all over their face.
11. Invite neighbors to bring their Christmas trees over and have your own version of Burning Man. 
12. Run to neighbors house twice a day to borrow a cup of sugar.
13. Offer to babysit a friend or family members children. Then feed them Red Bull and cookies for an hour before taking them back home.
14. Talk grandma into believing you own the hat that makes Frosty The Snowman come to life.
15. Send out fake IRS audit letters as Christmas cards.
16. Remove tree and gifts from house on Christmas Eve. Dress up like the Grinch and pretend you're sleeping on the couch when kids wake up.
17. Give two front teeth as gifts
18. Call mom Christmas morning and beg for bail money.
19. Rent a car, wrap in bow and place in driveway. Stand back and watch wife go berserk.
20. Wear Santa suit to strip club to get free lap dances. 

From my family to yours. Happy Holidays.

Each morning we rise, scratch an itch, relieve ourselves, stumble to the coffee pot then crawl to the shower and clean up.

Why? Because each day offers us the opportunity to accomplish something. As humans we like to see what we've started come to an end, it's a fundamental need.

There are situations that put us in a never ending loop of changes and tweaks with no finality attached. This can drive us to the brink breaking something just so we can say, "Yep. I did that."

I like to cut the grass, rake leaves, paint, do dishes, clean up the garage and so on. Why? Because when I'm done, I can see what I've accomplished.

Each thing we finish gives us a sense of accomplishment. When we are in a situation that does not allow us to finish, we lack closure This makes us frustrated, which leads to procrastination, which leads to more frustration. The loop continues, until we surrender or finish.

Go forth a finish something. Anything.

 

Image source unknown

I say no. You can become motivated to inspire others, but I'm not convinced you can inspire yourself.

Inspiration is something that punches you in the face. It's a feeling provoked by seeing someone perform an act of "greatness", a movie with a compelling storyline, a photo or a random act of kindness. It's a personal thing that's different for each of us. It's not a feeling brought on by our own actions. That's motivation.

Feeling inspired leads to motivation, which leads to inspiring others. Not yourself. When you're feeling inspired by your own work, I'd say you're actually motivated.

Agree? Disagree?

 

If you're like me, you spend a majority of your day "trying" to be professional. Personally, I suck at it. It chokes the life out of me. It feels fake. I often think I'm an eight year old that has been thrust into this reality and am obligated to play by the rules. Not that easy if all you want to do is daydream and play with crayons.

Years ago I studied photography. While the other students were busy taking snapshots of children or flowers, I was smearing Vasoline on filters, scratching patterns on negatives and cutting out cardboard shapes to place over my lenses. When it came time for our critiques, a majority of my classmates would respond with "I don't get it." Why? They couldn't identify with what I was throwing up on the board. They were too focused (no pun intended) on reality.

They didn't play and it showed in their work. It was rigid. Technically sound, but lacked emotion.

The other night I was at a friends art studio. Grabbing a plastic bag, a piece of cellophane and some Plexiglas I began taking shots of myself with the these objects between the lens of my iPhone and me to see what would happen.

Are they good? Shit, I don't know and I really don't care. To me they show emotion and filled my need to play.

For me play is a fundamental need, not a want. It's something I cannot easily shut off. There are times when it works in my advantage and other times I am met with the deer in headlights look. Some learn by reading a book and others learn by playing. I fall into the later.

My need to play leads to curiosity which leads to knowledge which leads to a happy John.

So, I ask you. Have you taken time to play?

I hate to break this to you, but you and I and everyone we're connected with is a broadcast channel. We broadcast 24/7/365. Each of us has our own programming agenda. We broadcast news, information, or the comedy and drama that make up our day.

Nonetheless we broadcast.  

The amount of information that is broadcast via our social graph is immense. Each human we subscribe to is a broadcast channel that is pumping out content at a dizzying pace.

There are channels we have watched for years and continue to watch because the programming hits home with us. There are channels that we enjoy when we first tune-in, but over time we become less interested. We want to turn these channels off, but turning off a human channel just seems wrong.

Why? There is a human element at play. It's personal and once we tune-in we feel obligated to continue to watch the regularly scheduled programming. Well, in most cases.

We are human after all. We have feelings. Feelings that traditional broadcast channels lack. You can turn off a TV. It won't care. You can throw a rock at a billboard. It won't care. You can tackle the person wearing a sandwich board. They won't, strike that one. You get the idea.

Turning off a Human Channel — not that easy.

 

Photo Via: x-ray delta one

I don't think it's a surprise that kids today don't separate their online life from their offline life. Their online and offline lives blur together with no clear distinction.

They have access to more people in real life than us older folk. Real life interaction is easier because of school, sports, and other school related activity. Their online life is merely an extension of their offline life.

For us older folks, its different. Way different.

We graduated from high school and then college. As we moved on, our real life social circles shrank. The friends we had in college and high school became a distant memory, replaced by co-workers. The hundreds of people we hung out with are replaced by a handful of close friends and work acquaintances.

Enter social media.

Social tools have offered us a way to connect with others that was not possible in the past. So we jumped in, hoping to connect with like-minded people. People that can fill the cavernous void that is missing in our real life. People that can offer stimulating conversations, mixed with those that we just want to shoot the shit with. People we can learn from, mixed with those we can laugh with. Conversations that seem to be missing in our real lives.

Everyday we jump online as we sit at our desks. As we watch TV. As we sit at a sporting event. Trying to converse with those that are not physically next to us. We check-in to let people know where we are with the hope someone will see the update and walk through the door and save us from the awkwardness we call life.

We create an online life to replace what is missing in our real world. Then, one day we look up from our screens. We look our physical world in the face and realize we are alone.

Isolated.

As kids we believed that by now there would be magical robots that would make our lives easier. So, where are they? After all, it is 2011.

We are the robots.

Every day we rise from our recharger, clean ourselves up, then head out to assist others. It could be a child, spouse, boss or client, but the fact is we spend a majority of our time doing something for someone else.

Some of us contain “bugs” that are embedded so deeply in our circuitry that we are beyond repair.

Some of us short-circuit from time to time, causing momentary disruptions in our daily activity, but we are able to fix ourselves.

Some of us spend hours in the store window, drawing attention to ourselves in search of a better existence.

Some of us are running on all cylinders and performing within the parameters programmed into us.

So, where are the robots? You're looking at them.

Image via: Roberto Rizzato

Over the last year I have become increasingly agitated with the amount of noise in my Twitter stream. I'm not talking about the over abundance of self-promotion. I'm talking about the non-stop influx of tweets generated by other services.

Part of me wants to unfollow anybody that abuses the ease of clicking a button to broadcast where they are, what they scored, what they're watching and what questions they've answered, but I don't. Deep down I hope they will ease up and talk.

It's human nature to feel like you're contributing to the conversation or one-upping someone because you're hanging out at a new restaurant or kicked ass playing a game. I say, knock that shit off. You become invisible. Those that follow you become so accustom to your non-stop check-ins that when you tweet "I was just hit by a car and need medical attention." you won't be heard.

Those spaces where created for like-minded people, so keep it there. If you don't, you my friend, are a noise maker.