Authenticity

Open the Box–Wood Floors

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Timber Floors Pty Ltd - Forest Reds

Image by timber_floors via Flickr

I opened the box today and found hard wood floors..in boxes…with guys and their tools ready to start installing it all.

This has been my life this week.  My family and 4 cats have voluntarily relegated ourselves to a couple of large connected rooms (mostly to keep the cats out of the flooring stuff) in the evenings, and the cats are there during the work day (plenty of food, water, toys, and, heaven help us all, litter…).  It’s not comfortable and we’re all dearly looking forward to when (hopefully late this afternoon) they will be done, do the final sweep up, and we can reassemble our normal lives.

So, beyond the obvious, I started to think about what this evolution has entailed and what else I can learn from it.  Here’s what I have so far…

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Another milepost on the journey

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Yesterday I officially graduated from the University of Washington with a Master of Communication in Digital Media (MCDM) degree.Jeff graduates from UW I have a huge number of people to thank for “holding me up” when I was ready to fall and joining me on the journey.  The two primary people I want to thank are my spouse and partner, Carol, and Hanson Hosein, director of the MCDM program (pictured here handing me my diploma). This would have been impossible without them.

Of course, while a signature event, the degree was never really the point.  It has always been about the journey, and this has been a doozey. A few years ago I realized that I had reached the limit of what I could do with my existing set of skills and framework of understanding.  I considered going for an MBA, but thought better of it for a few reasons.

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Open the Box 3–The Pressure Washer

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Pressure Washer

Image by Goins via Flickr

So I Opened the Box today and found a pressure washer.

I began meditating on what this might represent, other than the forcible removal of gunk from my patio, driveway, sidewalk, etc.  What has come up for me is the process I go through to figure out whether I should have something done by someone else or whether I should do it myself.  This has broad implications for personal endeavors and business.

First some backstory…

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Open the Box 3–The Pressure Washer

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Pressure Washer

Image by Goins via Flickr

So I Opened the Box today and found a pressure washer.

I began meditating on what this might represent, other than the forcible removal of gunk from my patio, driveway, sidewalk, etc.  What has come up for me is the process I go through to figure out whether I should have something done by someone else or whether I should do it myself.  This has broad implications for personal endeavors and business.

First some backstory…

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Dr. Who and the War of Art

/ Jeff Hora / 2 Comments

The Mark 2 fibreglass (Tom Yardley-Jones) Tard...

Image via Wikipedia

OK, so the title of this post may seem a little like link bait, but stay with me.

I have been a Dr. Who fan for a long time.  Generally each season of the show has some kind of overarching storyline.  This season a race of beings calling themselves The Silence are introduced.  They have a number of disturbing traits, but the back story on them implies they’ve been on Earth for thousands of years and have had a controlling hand in the destiny of mankind.  No one has noticed because they have a particularly disturbing ability: they can erase all memory of themselves from a person’s memory once the person looks away from them.  How do you fight against something when you can’t even remember it when you’re not looking at it?

Where this thought connected for me in my professional development comes with my completion of Steve Pressfield’s excellent book The War of Art last night.

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Slice and dice

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I am in love...

Image by abbyladybug via Flickr
If you follow my blog at all you already know that I have become a fan and follower of Seth Godin (one of my first readings every morning is his blog).  One of the ways he has inspired me is that he has helped me realize that my writing isn’t likely to be, shall we say, a modern masterpiece with every post.
I wish, but seriously, no.
But I am learning that’s OK.  I’m also trying to wrap my head around what this means for other projects, both my own and those at work.

Open the Box 2–The Golden Table

/ Jeff Hora / 1 Comment
Golden table 2

Image by Underpuppy via Flickr

So I Opened the Box today and found a golden table.

So I thought about what this actually might refer to and I came up with: meetings.

Seriously. Meetings…

When was the last time one of those landed in your inbox and made you respond, “Hot diggety, a meeting!” as you snapped your hand to the Accept button?

…I thought so.  Me neither.  So I had to think about it some more.

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Open the Box 2–The Golden Table

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Golden table 2

Image by Underpuppy via Flickr

So I Opened the Box today and found a golden table.

So I thought about what this actually might refer to and I came up with: meetings.

Seriously. Meetings…

When was the last time one of those landed in your inbox and made you respond, “Hot diggety, a meeting!” as you snapped your hand to the Accept button?

…I thought so.  Me neither.  So I had to think about it some more.

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Reaction is not Solution

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A full tree of probabilities for the Monty Hal...

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There is a common wisdom that if you discover a problem, you shouldn’t make anyone aware of it unless you also have a solution at the ready….something like, “I notice the widget sales on our site are way down, so I propose we drop the price.”
I’m not sure that this is the best way to approach problem-solving, at least not in all cases. Here’s why:

Open the Box 1

/ Jeff Hora / 4 Comments
Card index, file system to register and search...

Image via Wikipedia

So I opened my Kindle and a copy of “Do the Work” by Steven Pressfield showed up a couple of days ago. This book has been touted by Seth Godin for awhile, and I pre-ordered the free e-book about a month ago.  Anyway, I started reading it today and something has already jumped out at me.

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