In my last blog post I mentioned a new role I’d taken on and my continuing work for a local social media group. I’d like to tell you a bit more about these things now.

Media 140

I’ve started contributing blog posts to Media 140. It’s an organisation that seeks to report on social media developments and challenge the way we think about and use it. They also organise events worldwide from workshops to conferences. You can read my first post here!

It’s exciting to be a part of this. If you’re a fan of social media you should definitely check it out. A wide variety of topics are covered and there are a few different contributors so it’s not just me talking!

Cheltenham Social Media Café

I’m still running café events and our latest one happened last Friday 3^rd September. If you’ve not heard of a social media café before, it’s essentially an opportunity for social media geeks and enthusiasts to get together offline for some coffee and cake.

We hold ours at Pepper Crescent, a local café renowned for delicious cakes. If it sounds like something you’d like to get involved with have a look online to see if there are any social media cafés local to you. For more info about the Cheltenham SMC you can find it on Twitter and Facebook as well as on the blog.

A secret project

Hmm, is it showing off to say that I’m actually involved in a few secret projects? Probably.

This particular secret project is not directly my responsibility but I will be helping out. Naturally it’s social media related and a big announcement is due on Wednesday 8^th September. Follow @4squarestival on Twitter for details!

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve had more than my usual share of both. I’ve taken on new responsibilities. I’ve done things like becoming commissioning editor of an audio magazine, accepting a role as contributor for media140, training for the Adidas 5k challenge and becoming part of a top secret project. I’ve also continued existing responsibilities like organising the Cheltenham Social Media Cafe and my regular client work.

Each of these has required me to take responsibility and as such they’ve come with associated risks. I could break some recording equipment, run out of good topic ideas, sprain my ankle or fail in an entirely secret and mostly anonymous way. At times I have questioned the sanity of taking on all of these things – especially as they’ve all come at more or less the same time.

Don’t get me wrong – I don’t imagine for a second that my situation is unusual or more difficult than anyone else’s. But it’s enough to make me worry about some of my new ventures.

Yesterday I went to train at the gym with my personal trainer. She made me run faster than I’ve ever (knowingly) gone before. I started at 9.5km p/hr, and then went up to 10.5. Finally she pushed me up to 11.5km p/hr. After three minutes at that speed she asked me how I was. I couldn’t speak but I was starting to panic so I shook my head, hoping she would drop the speed. Instead she told me “Just do one more minute instead of two”. When I finished the next minute she said, “OK, one more minute and then you can have a four minute break”. By this time I felt really bad. My breathing wasn’t relaxed; my temperature had sky rocketed; a sense of panic was threatening to take over. My trainer kept talking about the wall and how I could keep going through it. Even as she was telling me that my mind could overrule my body inside I was telling myself it was no good, I couldn’t do it. At the same time I really wanted the four minute break. I was desperate for any kind of rest.

I completed the final minute.

Never have I been more grateful for the speed to drop on my treadmill. I leaned on the handrail and gasped for breath for about a minute, wondering if I’d pass out. Actually I was fine. I recovered surprisingly quickly and managed another five minute run (albeit at a slower speed) after my four minute rest period.

It’s a lesson I’ve had to learn time and time again. On this occasion, my trainer put a different spin on it. She told me that:

Even if your body feels like it’s falling apart and can’t go on, you can continue. The ‘wall’ is an illusion. It’s a work of fiction that you just need to bust through.

To do that I should:

Break larger goals down into smaller tasks

And:

Don’t use negative words, even in your mind e.g., instead of saying “I can’t make another five minutes” say “I’ll run for another minute”, or “I’ll run to the next tree”.

It’s good advice. As with a lot of good advice, it’s easier to know than it is to do but that doesn’t mean we should stop trying.

At the gym this morning I started to think about the children that made me want to run. I hate running. At worst, I think of it as evil. At best, I consider it unnecessary. I chose the 5k run because it was a serious challenge for a good cause. Since that cause is my sole reason for doing this I thought I may as well spend some time thinking about the people I want to help to encourage my progress.

I started out remembering my own communication difficulties and thinking about all the children that were born with similar problems. Then I thought about the children who had an even tougher time. I tried to imagine how a child that was deaf and blind would learn to communicate and how it would affect their life. I don’t believe it’s possible to comprehend some of the things people go through but that’s no reason not to think about it or try to help. Human beings are an amazing species. We can cope and adapt and evolve in ways that constantly baffle and astound me. It’s a big thought to hold onto while your feet are hammering into a treadmill but it does a much better job of keeping me going than the awful music they play at the gym!

As I started to get uncomfortably hot and a bit out of breath I thought about how the training would benefit my health. It would be a shame to let my fitness level slide after the charity run, especially if I get a taste for them and decide to do more. So maybe I’ll start running regularly and add a couple of years to my life? Imagine getting to 100 and still feeling sprightly (albeit with some new knees I expect). When people ask how you did it you can tell them, “it all started when I decided to raise money for charity”.

I wouldn’t have started running just to benefit my health but to help other people, sure, why not? Lots of overweight people struggle to find the willpower to diet consistently but often they will agree to do it for charity. Maybe they’ll volunteer to do a 5k challenge like the one I’m doing and they have to get fit and lose weight for that, or they’ll get sponsored just to give up donuts or something. So they lose weight, get fitter and help their chosen charity at the same time.

It seems strange that we can get so motivated to help others and yet we’d never do these things just to help ourselves. Not that I’m complaining! If you can help others and benefit yourself at the same time that’s a double win.

If you’d like to support me on my challenge please visit the donation page at http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/RachelPictor

If you’d like to share your thoughts about charity challenges or even plug your own event or dire need for sponsorship feel free to comment!

What’s especially strange for me is that some of his advice relates to things I’ve already done (or attempted) but on a slightly different scale. For example, he says you should learn sales, either by going on a course or choosing a job that will train you – even if it means taking a pay cut. Shortly after joining the ‘rat race’ I did just that, taking a job with a pay cut to learn about sales. After a while, I felt that the job wasn’t getting me to where I wanted to be and the lack of oportunity drove me elsewhere. I viewed this as a failure. According to Kiyosaki, this was a success. I just have to keep a different goal in mind.

What is the goal? To achieve financial freedom and make money work for you. To get out of the rat race!

My personal history and culture have taught me to strive for a steady job, to work hard and climb the career ladder. Kiyosaki poses the question people often forget to ask: “What do I want?” Is the clear career path and steady employment going to achieve my aims? Or should I be looking elsewhere?

The ideas are not a ’to do’ list, or even a ‘what to think’ list. It’s about making your own decisions, getting an education and really thinking about what you want to achieve in life and how your financial  plans relate to that. I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to make money (so long as you’re not one of those ‘get rich quick’ enthusiasts or anyone with a ‘can’t do’ attitude).

As I said, it’s an eye opener, and some of the advice and opinions may be hard to swallow. I’m not saying you should take Kiyosaki’s word as gospel – just keep an open mind!

If you’ve ever had trouble communicating please sponsor me! If you haven’t, think about how awful life would be if you did and then sponsor me! I hate running but I’m doing the Adidas 5k Women’s Challenge because I believe in the cause. Now, who’s with me?

Go to http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/RachelPictor and sponsor me!

I’m new to running (apart from some hellish experiences in my school years) so I’ll be buying trainers, checking my running gait and probably jogging around Stroud looking like an idiot for the next few weeks. My sister is running too and I’ll let you know if she puts a sponsorship page online. I figured if you were happy to sponsor me you might as well sponsor her as well! I may even update you periodically with details of my training progress which I’m sure will be fascinating.

If you’d like to send me training tips feel free to leave them as comments at this post or tweet me if your tip is 140 characters or less!

This means that many everyday tasks which cause most people to glaze over their eyes, fall asleep or tear their hair out with anxiety or annoyance are actually enjoyed by the ‘happy’ people. Perhaps you think of them as cartoon characters like Ned Flanders or other fictional creations like Mary Poppins. Maybe you don’t think these people even exist?

That’s because nobody actually says “Okaly doakaly” or “spit spot” but it doesn’t mean they’re not out there! These people are optimists. These people are enthusiastic about life. They get things done. They feel happy most of the time.

Sounds good doesn’t it?

I am not Ned Flanders or Mary Poppins. I am a real person trying to be an optimist and get things done. I used to be more like Moe the bar tender or Mr Banks. Actually scrap the bit about Moe – I don’t need that kind of association! But I was a bit like Mr Banks, plodding along, not seeing the joy in everyday life and set in my ways.

Now I alternate between the two. Some days I’m Mary Poppins and I get lots done. Some days I am Mr Banks and I trundle through my tasks like a reluctant school girl. Most days are Poppins days and I’m glad.

You can’t always choose what happens but you can choose your response and you can also choose to be proactive. Sometimes, like Mr Banks, you might need someone or something to give you a push in the right direction.

If that’s you then start looking for that push right now. What have you got to lose?

Have you ever realised half way through the day that you’re spending a lot of time thinking about and doing things that you don’t really want to be doing? These are the things you do because you should.

I should clean my car out

I should finish the DIY

I should write that blog post

I should finish that book

I often catch myself saying these things in my head. When I want to do something, I normally just do it straight away, or as soon as possible. I don’t use the word ‘should’. Instead, if I think about it, I say “I can’t wait to get home and finish my new book”, or, “I hope the client gets back to me soon so I can start that blog post!”

There is a world of difference between ‘should’ and ‘want’. Life would be a lot easier if we could organise ourselves so that we only do things we want to and there are no ‘shoulds’ in sight! One problem: unless you are an extraordinarily happy, upbeat sort of person you will never get rid of the ‘shoulds’. That’s why for most people a day at work is a bag of mixed blessings. You hated the early start but you loved the weekly catch up meeting. You were depressed by that phone call but you enjoyed learning about saving kittens.

But what about those days when everything is a ‘should’ and you’ve forgotten what it was you ever wanted?

Perhaps it is time to change your career, or take up a new hobby. But before you act, take a little time to reflect and ask yourself some serious questions:

1. Why did you take the job?
2. Have you ever enjoyed it?
3. Is there anything at all you still like or enjoy?
4. If you left, how would you cope financially and what could you do instead?
5. Is it reasonable to do what you want for a career? (I.e. can you make enough money while living your particular dream?)

Sometimes people feel stuck in their career- especially in the midst of a recession and it’s not always possible to quit and follow some crazy dream. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t think about it. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to find a way to balance out the ‘shoulds’ and the ‘wants’. Maybe you think that’s impossible, but have you really considered the options? We don’t always have to stand still.

It’s reasonable to expect a little rough with your order of smooth but when the rough becomes the main course, not a side, it’s time to rethink!

So what do you want?

At school, I got in trouble for being a pedant.

Friends would enthusiastically push their essays under my nose and say “what do you think of that?” When they realised I thought it was good, except for “the missing full stop here, the spelling errors here and the poor syntax almost everywhere” they didn’t seem so happy. Even if I could tell what they were trying to say and thought the ideas were really great, the observation of spelling and grammatical errors always dampened the mood.

I was a geek, a boffin. I was the party-pooper highlighting errors and inaccuracies while everyone else just wanted to get on with stuff. It didn’t make me popular and it didn’t make a great impression on fellow students. Outside of school, I find there are still a large number of people who don’t consider good spelling and grammar a top priority. I’m fine with this, so long as these people aren’t relying on their writing skills as part of their job.

If you work in customer service and need to write letters, every spelling error, typo, or grammatical clanger will be posted out as a representation of your entire company. If you paint signs on the road, any misspelling will reflect badly on your employer. If you work in marketing, PR or copywriting, it can be the kiss of death to your career! I have seen or heard about all of these things happening to all kinds of people.

Whilst it’s true that writing ‘their’ when you meant to write ‘there’ won’t bring about the apocalypse, it will create a bad impression of you and your company for the people reading it. Every blog post I publish puts my reputation on the line just as much as every piece of work I submit to clients. It’s the same for all forms of written communication that people use in the course of their everyday business. Not everyone will notice the occasional small error but they can change the meaning of an entire article or distract us from what the writer is trying to say.

Conversely, we’ve all come across pieces of writing that are just perfect. Writing that is easy to read and understand, engaging, with a nice flow or rhythm. This is good writing – using grammar carefully and breaking the rules only to create special effects.

If you’re worried about your use of grammar and spelling it might be worth investing in a proofreader. They can highlight any inaccuracies and assess your writing in a way that automatic spell checkers can’t.

Alternatively, you could go back to school, read some books or maybe go on a writing course?

If you’d like to ask questions about grammar or share your own ‘favourite’ grammatical bugbears please use the comments section at the bottom of this post. If you’d like to hire me for a proofreading or copywriting job then get in touch!

That’s why I jumped at the chance to volunteer for the Cotswold Listener when I saw it advertised on Twitter. It won’t take up too much time, the office is within walking distance of my own and the work sounds fun and exciting! Assuming I don’t screw up this evening, I’ll be a reader for the Cotswold Listener audio magazine. It’s for blind people in the Cotswolds to keep them up to speed with local events and news but they also have features just like normal magazines.

I’m really looking forward to getting started! It’s very different from the ‘workplace enforced’ volunteering I did when I was in ‘normal’ employment. Back then I used to help out with school gardening projects. It was fun but I think I’ll prefer being a reader more.

There are lots of opportunities available for people looking to volunteer and it’s a great way to have fun as well as being a CV builder. You can even try and arrange your own voluntary projects – you don’t always have to wait for the opportunity to find you! I enjoy donating to charities but I know I don’t have the financial resources to help everyone. Why not donate a little time instead? It all helps!

I know – we’ve all heard it before. Just because everybody says it doesn’t make it true. But it is true!

Thought you couldn’t pick up a new language? You can! Thought your writing/reading/painting/drawing/maths/science skills were doomed to be terrible? They’re not! Even if you are the worst rugby/tennis/football player ever born, guess what!? You can do better!

If we all set aside a little time and make the commitment we can learn new things and get better at doing stuff. So go and do some stuff!