Tell the tale – part 1: What’s the point?

 

What’s it all about? Why am I doing this? What is the end goal? Is there an end?

I’m not questioning my existence. My existence is firmly established. I’m old enough to have gone past the questions of youth that prompt starry eyed angst.

 

What I’m questioning is the existence of this blog. Clearly I haven’t been giving it the attention it needs. Given the last post having been written in June, it’s not getting the love it deserves. I know I have some useful information here. I can see that people DO read it.

To find these answers, I’ve had to go back to why I started it in the first place. It was back in 2010. I had a gallery site for my photography but no blogs. I had just returned from a vacation and was sitting at my desk at my office job thinking about how I’d like to travel more. But how?

• What can I do to earn more money so that we could experience more of the world?
• What are the skills I have that could contribute to this?
• Photography
• Writing
• Creative design
• Marketing
• Small business management
• Bookkeeping experience
• Desire to travel
• What do I WANT to do? What gets me fired up? What do I have enough passion about that I’d be willing to give up some of my spare time to get it going?
• Photography
• Writing
• How could each of those talents translate to the end goal of more travel?
• Travel photography
• Travel writing
• How do you get started?
• DO IT

I researched and found that one of the best ways to get started in either travel photography or travel writing, or both, was to start in your own backyard. I live in Maine. I’ve got a backyard that’s desirable to a lot of people. Maine has a thriving tourism industry, an industry that would support the need for Maine travel writing and photography.

 

All of that is great as far as determining something I could work towards. But, what does that mean on a day to day basis? At that point, it meant:

• Building a portfolio of work that was marketable – How?
• see what’s already out there that’s being created for this
• take more travel related photos – find a way to showcase them
• write more about travel – develop a voice – develop a following –
• DO IT

In the coming weeks, I will further explore these concepts and plot a course for success.

I'd love to hear your advice as you've managed the evolution of your blogs.

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FREE STUFF!

Who can resist free stuff?  It seems foolish to pass it up, right?  Who couldn’t use another rubber jar opener or keychain or tote bag? 

Me.

A year ago you wouldn’t have heard me say that.  I’ve always loved the little freebies.  As this year has rolled on, I’ve done some work related traveling that took me to different consumer shows – travel shows, travel industry events, shows sponsored by magazines and newspapers – and at all of these, people flock to the tables with the free stuff.  Everyone grabs something.  I would stroll by them, glace at the table and the grinning salesperson (I assumed), and try to graciously snag whatever item was up for grabs.  After one show, I can home with a large, heavy tote bag, loaded with brochures and catalogs of places I want to visit someday and  . . . . wait for it . . . more tote bags!! Flash drives, bottle holders, lots and lots of pens, magnets, clips, small notepads, and water bottles.

The lure of free stuff extends beyond the giveaways at trade shows.  That’s marketing.  It’s meant for you to take and use and maybe remember the business when you need a limo to the airport. 

But the free stuff isn’t really free.  It comes with a cost.  For that travel show where I got all the stuff, the cost was an aching back and shoulder from carrying it around, the loss of time and space trying to figure out where and how to store this “reference” material, and just another square foot of my home filled.  Is this what I’m paying the mortgage for?

George Carlin used to say that our homes are just a place for our stuff.  My stuff happens to fill up a two story Cape style home with a basement and garage.  We pay the mortgage to house this stuff and what of it do we actually need? 

These thoughts come to mind a lot lately.  I’ve been reading books about minimalism and seriously considering what surrounds me and the associated costs.  I’m not talking the monetary costs, although that is a part of it, but the costs to psyche from the added stress of maintaining the stuff, storing the stuff, and shopping for more stuff. 

There are a whole bunch of people out there who write about the joys of less stuff.  Who would have thought?

Some of the books I’ve read recently include:

Miss Minimalist – Inspiration to downsize, declutter, and simplify by Francine Jay

This is the one that started it.  I was in my hotel room in New York with my Kindle and somehow searching for “simplify my life” brought me to her book.  It inspired me in that she kept reminding me that less stuff means more travel, and I like travel.  I did find her a bit extreme, though, and couldn’t imagine living in a space without art on the walls.  Here’s her website:  http://www.missminimalist.com/

Simplify – 7 guiding principles to help anyone decluttertheir home and life by Joshua Becker.  Joshua and his wife were doing what many homeowners in suburbia do, clean out the garage, when it occurred to him that if he got rid of some of the stuff, he’d be able to spend more quality time with said wife and their children.  He wasn’t as extreme, and I think my goal would be along these lines.  Here is his website:  www.becomingminimalist.com

Minimalism - Live a meaningful life  by Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus.  Two young guys, friends for years, plodding down the road into adulthood, doing what we’re all told to do, go out and get a job and be successful, but after a few years of “success” – making big money, buying lots of big stuff, carrying big debt – all the while feeling like something’s missing – big time.  They shed their stuff, downsize, get rid of their crap, and now write and lecture about the minimalist lifestyle.  Here’s their website:  www.theminimalists.com.  If you go to Amazon today and tomorrow (June 22^nd & 23^rd, 2012) you can download Millburn’s new book, After the Crash for free. 

How to start a freedom business  by Colin Wright  I love his idea of traveling full time and living wherever the urge takes him.  I’m not sure that I could do that but I’d be willing to try traveling for a while.  I think it’s the idea of not having any roots whatsoever that throws me.  Here’s his website:  http://exilelifestyle.com/

And I liked this post on Julien Smith’s blog:  http://inoveryourhead.net/the-short-16-step-guide-to-getting-rid-of-your-crap/

Especially # 6 . . . I have a spare room like that.  It’s only a place for stuff.  No one has lived in it. 

So this ought to get you started down the road.  Seems odd to suggest you buy more stuff to learn how to get rid of old stuff.  My Kindle is bearing the weight of my purchases.  At least I don’t have 4 (or more!) actual paper books to add to my already cluttered bookshelves. 

Now I’ve got to start getting rid of my crap.  And stop bringing in more crap.  I read this earlier today – sorry but I’m not sure where to attribute it –

It went something like:

Step 1: Rent a dumpster.
Step 2: Put your stuff in it.

The more you let go, the easier it is to let go, and the freer you become.

Be Celeste

In Gretchen Rubin’s bestselling book, The Happiness Project, the author’s research on the subject of “happiness” leads her to discover things in her life that with a few small changes, would not only make her happier, but influence those around her. 

She sets about to focus on different aspects of her life each month and uses a list of her self devised commandments as guidelines.  The very first is “Be Gretchen.”

I love this idea.

So how do I “Be Celeste”?

A question of this sort, whether you are Celeste or Jane or Liz or Gretchen, requires an examination of self.  I have to know who “Celeste” is and sometimes that’s a difficult assignment.  The study of self is as old as human consciousness.  Since the dawn of self awareness the question has been raised.  But I don’t need to concern myself with who found out what about themselves in the history of the world. 

I have only one subject:  me. 

You have only one subject: you.

Celebrating a birthday is an annual milestone that always makes me take stock in what I’ve accomplished in the past year and what I hope to achieve in the coming year.  Accomplishments and achievements are part of what makes me, me.  My style of dress, my sense of humor, my dreams, my home, my tendency to procrastinate, and my desire to perfect the recipe for guacamole are all me.  For Mother’s Day, my husband and daughter got me a Vera Bradley bag – Reality:  I went and picked it out – limey green and aqua flowery swirly and I love it.  When I showed it to a friend, she said “it’s Celeste”.  I took it as a compliment.  But was it?

But what is, and who is, and how do I – how does anyone – determine what is you?

I think Ms. Rubin’s point was that when it comes down to it, be true to you.  Remember who you are and what makes you happy each day.  Those points will change daily and look totally different for each person.  Don't force yourself into a shape that doesn't fit you.  Accept that you just don't like everything you think you should.  Trying to be someone that you're not is a key ingredient in dissatisfaction. 

There are things in my life that I really wish I enjoyed;

I wish I liked sports, so that I could have this common interest with my husband, but really, I don’t like sports.  Forcing myself to sit and pay attention to some ongoing commentary about something that I don't care about goes against my nature.  If I recognize that and not feel badly about it, I will be a happier person.

My daughter loves sushi.  I’m an adventurous diner and have tried it on many occasions and I just don’t like it.  I wish I did.  I think the artistry and the culture of sushi is very cool and I would love to claim that as something I enjoy, but I don’t.  Be Celeste.

Trying to be someone I’m not will lead me to resentment and frustration.  That’s not a place I want to be.  I have to be Celeste.  Just because I truly don’t enjoy some things doesn’t make me less of a person.  In fact, it leaves room for other interests that I do enjoy, like writing and photography, cooking and eating, collage, cool earrings, pink flamingoes, seltzer with lime, exploring new places, hot summer days, the smell of fresh basil, peppermint and coconut, cat’s paws, Jimmy Buffett music, sleeping late and reading a good book.

Maybe we’d all be happier if we recognized that as individuals living in this time, in this place, we have tastes and expectations that differ from other people’s and embrace the differences rather than try to change ourselves or fight about them.

If you like the idea of examining what makes you happy, I recommend reading Gretchen Rubin’s “The Happiness Project”. 

More info can be found here:  http://www.happinessprojecttoolbox.com/

. . .  if you like that sort of thing.