I know what I know and I hate what I don’t. This is a story about my inner demon that has plagued me all my life — my inability to embrace what I don’t know to grow. Let me share some past and recent examples:
>> Mom said I refused to ride my tricycle until one day I jumped on and went careening down the street.
>> I spent hours in the Paris airport letting all the stand-by flights go without me because I couldn’t speak French although I was trying.
>>I rarely line dance or take group aerobics because I’m a terrible follower and mistakes are rampant.
>>I refused to blog for a year because I was afraid about the tech that goes along with it.
>>My twin Gini chastised me in comments last week on Spin Sucks for not having Clicky already up and running on the blog. Meanwhile, Erica Allison is all over it and can’t wait for more scoopage about who’s visiting her blog. (I kinda don’t want to know.)
There, you have it, and not sure whether that was therapeutic or not, but here’s what I’m doing about it:
>>I’m going to Facebook school this month via Social Media Examiner to take nearly two dozen classes Michael Stelzner and faculty have lined up in October for Facebook Success Summit 2011. I bought this class and have watched one pre-course video during which I was furiously taking notes.
>>I whined in comments somewhere about how scary installation of the new timeline was on Facebook and then decided I would master the dang thing and watched a tutorial four times to navigate being an app developer. Lo, my timeline is launched and waiting for live; meanwhile, I was able to walk Erica through her five-minute installation. (I broke my fear pattern and shared that knowledge in this case.)
>>I bought another course from ClickZ on analytics and SEO which was pretty expensive. I asked a client to pay half, and they concurred. I’ve not embarked on this intensive instruction yet, but will after Facebook school in October. (SEO has been the bane of my existence; seriously.)
>>After hearing all about Clicky and then reading this review on Brankica’s blog, I gave her the nod and clicked from her site to launch it on my blog. Heck, I even installed some code on my php footer (or whatever), but I have no idea of I did it right at all. I will see this week!
>>I did try to install PostRank just prior to Google buying it, but rather than go to the website, I somehow installed it direct from my blog via a plug-in. I get rankings in my dashboard for the blog posts, but, alas, the data are likely skewed because I installed it wrong. Whatev.
What’s my takeaway?
>>I have to fight with myself to embrace what I don’t know. I stall, I kvetch, I whine, I ignore, and I stumble only to realize I’m hurting myself.
>>These learnings are hindering my ability to innovate. As a leading-edge PR peep (I made the journey to the marketing blend a very long time ago) who works solo with virtual teams, there is no one to teach me. I have to strive to stay ahead.
>>I am fully aware of my patterns; this behavior has plagued me my entire life. It’s a discomfort, a fear of failure, a fear of looking like a fool, and it’s also my inability to ask for help.
>>As a starter, I need people on my team who can finish and take it to solution with a deeper dive (and thus I’m happy to turn over the analytics to Erica and Gini and Bran) while I generate strategic ideas. (I haven’t remedied this one yet.)
In conclusion…sorry for the first-person post today…don’t like to make a whine out of a piece, but am thinking this is more of an acute observation of obstacles to growth.
Share yours, please?
(image: inspirationonline.com)
Love this post and love this about you: your willingness to put it all out there in order to grow and learn! I’m happy to help anytime and you will LOVE Clicky! I felt like I was stalking the stalker when i first started! 🙂
Just did a WOW tweet about Clicky. That plug-in RocksHot; absolutely frighteningly amazing. I need a tutorial on how to interpret all that data. What’s a bounce rate?
I love looking at analytics and monitoring tools, but it’s a fine line to walk between simply obsessing about the numbers and still actually creating value. Notice I didn’t say measurement. Analytics are really about monitoring progress and recognizing patterns.
Hi, Jason!Hmm, how did you find me? Twitter, a FB post from a few peeps? An RT from someone else? I bet Clicky will tell me…heh. I am overwhelmed with the amount of data available to me, and in the name of growth, I wonder how this will help me innovate or “create value.
I see already that a post I wrote more than a year ago is still off-the-charts popular. Which means I ought to resurrect this and get on a kick with it. So, I think I can draw a definite correlation to installing Clicky over the weekend to bringing me down a path of blogging topics I can use to help educate. I think.
At any rate, love that you’re here adding to the convo! Thank you!
Will have to try Clicky out! Even if you’re resistant to change, you’re doing a great job of moving forward. You’re taking little steps to make a big impact! Kudos!
RockHot, B! Thanks for saying so…it’s always a personal struggle for me to embrace what I hate. But, afterwards, it’s just another piece of knowledge I can file away! How’s by you?
You put your soul out there, Soulati! It’s refreshing to hear from someone who is willing to look in the mirror at themselves. Nobody’s perfect. And being able to recognize your strengths along with your weaknesses to find balance means you have to be willing to accept who and what you really are. Not being able to do so results is paralysis – you’ll never go anywhere. I think most clients appreciate this and are more willing to share risks and be a part of the process resulting in longer lasting professional – and maybe even personal – relationships. You’re real. The rest takes care of itself.
I love this comment. I’ll go into Disqus instead of my dashboard and give you five likes (when you only get one). Thank you for saying what you said because I did. Sometimes, I do think it important to share these kinds of things bared to the world because it’s like a kick in the pants or an admission that “hey, I’m really NOT a blogger on a pedestal!” I am sure it was a therapeutic exercise; OK, it WAS!
Blogging is an incredible journey, and I’d have to say the first years are truly the growth phase. Thanks Mr. Poynton!
I’m proud of you, my friend!
Like, Like.
I hear ya, I battle the same thing but I don’t know if it’s fear or just lazy.You might have heard me describe myself as the guy that just shows up. That’s pretty true and I’m ok with being a minimalist just getting by with the bare necessities. It’s amazing I’ve been able to do what I have, but my platform is totally different than yours so I might have a different attitude if I needed it to monetize.
You are hooked up to the right people and I’m sure they are willing to help; I say just jump in and ‘do it’. Life is short, no regrets; jump in that line dance while you sing karaoke.
Oh, my. That is not a pretty sight, Bill!
As for monetization…honestly???? I have no flippin clue what I could possibly sell that anyone would want to buy! That is an honest to goodness observation…if you have any ideas, then I’m all ears! Great to see you! Thanks!
G’Day Jayme,
Hang Loose girl! If you’re lucky, one day you’ll be as old as me and still totally unable to work it out. Wasn’t it Victor Kiam who said that even if you fall flat on your face, you’re going forward.
Go and have some fun….whatever that entails.
Regards
Leon
The pressure, sometimes, Dear Leon, is what gets me irkled. (I’m sure that’s a word b/c I used it.) I like that Victor Kiam guy; certainly if you fall ahead instead of backward, that holds true! Sincerely, Jayme
And now I know I can keep on top of you and you’ll concede. Eventually!
Hahahahaha…#thatisall.