June 22, 2012 · 9:05 pm

A Little Planning

Alright- vacation!

Today was my last day of work before a week of vacation. We’re going to a water park resort next week and I’m thinking about my 30 Days of Write challenge. I traveled for work last week and found that it was harder than I thought to produce any writing from the road. When I think about throwing my responsibilities as husband and father into the mix while we’re on vacation next week I’m a little concerned.

One of the main frustrations last week was my lack of a PC for writing. I swapped my laptop for a Nook Tablet earlier in the year as I still use a desktop PC most of the time and the laptop was just not something I needed. I actually posted some of the pieces from the Nook Tablet using WordPress’s app but the writing process wasn’t the same. It felt clunky. The app seems to be more suited to posting pictures, video, or short pieces of writing. For this coming week, I see myself going analog- I’ll grab a notebook and sit with my cup of coffee in the morning while writing longhand. I can always enter and upload the finished piece later using the Nook.

Tomorrow’s the big day- my brother Chris is in town and we’re speaking at our high school’s commencement ceremony. Our speech is written, reviewed, and edited. Nothing left but to deliver it!

That’s all for tonight- I hope to post our speech tomorrow.

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June 21, 2012 · 11:38 pm

The Invisible Man Never Led Anyone…

So if you caught any of my stuff last week (like this) then you know that I was traveling for work. I’ve been on the road plenty so far this year and expect to keep traveling throughout the rest of the year. Last week, I was in one of the larger organization’s field offices visiting a small team within my group. We have recently changed some of the reporting relationships in my group and so this team now reports in to me. I’ve been a part of this group for about a year and have not been to this office in this role so, based on the new reporting structure, it was the perfect time to visit them.

Out there for most of the week, I had a lot of time to think about a favorite topic of mine. As these thoughts have now been brewing for about a week, I’m ready to put them down on (virtual) paper. So our topic for this evening is- leadership!

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June 20, 2012 · 10:13 pm

[work in progress]

The title says it all- working on the speech for this Saturday’s commencement at the alma mater…

Sorry, not much to report right now- but I plan to share the speech here after Saturday! Good stuff!

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June 19, 2012 · 11:37 pm

More Thoughts About Speaking

Quick update on this. (Are you with me? If not, here’s what happened last time…)

So my brother Chris and I had a great conversation tonight about our upcoming speech to our alma mater’s graduating class. He and I are on the same page- his thoughts about the speech’s theme line right up with mine. This is going to be great!

This is an interesting process- collaborating on our speech. Along with my joining another blog as a contributor, I’m really feeling connected to this writing process. It is truly an amazing feeling to start connecting with something so important to me. (Have you checked out 20 LINES A DAY yet? No? Take a quick peek. Some good stuff going on there…)

If you, my dear reader, are pursuing (or have pursued) something fulfilling, are you (did you) reach a point where you could engage someone else in it? This collaboration feels really good- and I can see how surrounding yourself with people that support or even join you in pursuing a dream makes sense. Hey, that sounds like a great idea for a blog post…

Interact with people. Connect. Immerse yourself in the world around you. We’re all in this together…

(Thanks to Chris for inspiring those words!)

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June 18, 2012 · 11:41 pm

Sharing

Hey- exciting development here!

In reviewing my blog stats yesterday, I noticed that a link to one of my posts, OK Dad- Live Your Convictions, was added to a blog that I was not familiar with. Curious, I went to the blog and starting reading some of the posts. I was interested right away- it’s a collection of writers and photographers challenging themselves to make the creative process a daily routine. After some email correspondence with the blog’s creator, Melissa Hassard, I am now a contributor to 20 LINES A DAY – an exercise in discipline!

This is really exciting for me. I’ve had one piece- the above linked “OK Dad…” about my 3 year old son’s predilection for “girl stuff”- that went viral and resulted in the single most read piece I’ve ever written. The vulnerability of writing pieces that are genuine and then sharing them is absolutely something that resonates with me. I’m not one for false modesty- I’m not some stoic author writing in a shack and shunning outside attention (that actually sounds like the Unabomber). I want my stuff to be read. I want to widen my audience. Being able to contribute to another blog helps me continue this process of cultivating my creativity.

So I’m thrilled to start sharing my work with new readers. I’ve still got lots to write about and plenty of work that needs to be done. I have to figure out how to best incorporate this new channel into my routine. I think some, but not all, of the pieces I’ve written will work well there.

So if you’ve been with me so far, please join me with my new friends over at 20 LINES A DAY- and thanks for coming along on the trip!

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