Could I use this blog as a place to write my morning pages? Publish my unedited thoughts to the world?
Yes, I could.
My head is buzzing with creative ideas right now. The problem comes when that feeling goes away, which of course it does. Then I'm left with a feeling of hopelessness, of helplessness.
I've been going through Teachable's Share What You Know summit. It cost me $40 and came at a time when I wasn't able to tune in live on days 1 and 2 (of 3). The result of that was that I got behind and started to feel overwhelmed. I did get through some of it, and found it to be quite useful. I took notes in Roam Research, practising the skills I'd learned from Nat Eliason's Effortless Output in Roam course. I probably watched less than a third of all the content, but I'd already decided that that was enough. Don't get me wrong—it wasn't bad, but it was really just a huge advert for the Teachable platform and to the personal brands of the speakers. And that also isn't a bad thing. One of the talks came up with an analogy of watching someone bleed but not offering your sticking plaster because you don't want to seem markety. In other words, marketing is just a way of getting your thing in front of people that could really use it.
Could I really use the personal brands of the speakers? Yes, undoubtedly. But what I seem to be lacking is focus.
The speaker that has stayed with me is Rebecca Tracey. She did one of the night class sessions and talked about her Uncaged Life philosophy. She's a life coach and made a lot of sense. The core of her philosophy is to come up with a strong message and figure out just what it is that you do.
THAT'S my problem. What do I do? What am I offering potential clients? What do I want to do?
I spend my days being busy, following first one thing then another.
'How much is this course? $250 dollars to learn how to take notes? I'm in!'
'But wait! What's this course here? Learn how to teach a course? But I don't have any course ideas ... doesn't matter - it will change your life! It has the answers! I'm in!'
So, at the end of that week, I've not finished the note-taking course, nor having I finished the Teachable course. And I've done absolutely nothing to earn my place in this crowded world.
I need a plan, a core product, an offering. Then I need to make sure that the things I'm doing contribute to that, to 'moving the needle' in the parlance of our times.
Do I have a plan? Well, I do as it happens. As I walked the dogs last night, it came to me -- even though I was listening to a fantasy book. I love guitar, right? My idea of live streaming my practice sessions fell flat, which in turn meant that I'm not getting through my Fred Noad Solo Guitar Playing book.
Why don't I go through my Noad book to the end, make notes on each exercise on challenges, then go back to the beginning and make a course?
Why not indeed. So that's my idea. I should set myself a deadline to complete the book - how does the end of the year sound? That could work. I'll go through the book and come up with a weekly quota.
