The bell is tolling for 2009. We are closing out the books, taking stock and looking forward. What do we want to accomplish in 2010? We have a few weeks left but good planning takes time and good thinking.
Seth Godin posted a thought-filled and thought provoking e-book today. He collected seventy or so thinkers — each providing a worthy thought to jump-start your own thinking. The book is free to download from Seth’s blog site and is worth the read. Each contributor writes no more than one page, the thoughts are conceptually digestible and you can read it in one sitting or stretch it out and tackle during the orphan minutes in your day. Not specific to healthcare marketing or planning, but inspiring in a broader sense, some of the topic titles include:
- Social skills
- Mesh
- Focus
- Sacrifice
- Momentum
- Open-source DNA
- Passion
- Slow Capital
One of the entries I like the most is written by J.C. Hutchins and is included below but you’ll get even more value by reading the entire e-book:
Gumption
Most of us settle in, and settle for what we have. Rather than pursue, we accept. Our lives become unwitting celebrations of passivity: we undervalue our work and perceive ourselves as wage slaves (and so we phone it in at the day gig), we consume compulsively (but not create), we pine for better lives (but live vicariously through our televisions).
These corners we paint ourselves into, it’s no way to live. There’s no adventure here, no passion, no hunger for change. Remember that relentless optimism you once had? The goals you wished to achieve, before settling in? They’re still there. You need a nudge to find them: a little gumption.
You can start that business. You can lose that weight. You can…write that book, and be a better parent, and be all the things you want to be – the thing this world needs you to be. It requires courage and faith, both of which you can muster. It requires effort – but this effortless life isn’t as satisfying as it seems, is it?
Declare war on passivity. Hush the inner voice that insists you are over-the-hill, past your prime, unworthy of attaining those dreams. Disbelief is now the enemy, as is the notion of settling. Get hungry – hyena hungry. Get fired up. Find your backbone, and your wings.
Flap’em. It’s the only way you’ll be able to fly.
Onward!!!
