If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there!

Russel quotes so much wisdom from his wise old grandmother that if he wrote a book with that title, it would surely be a best seller. You don't have to buy a book, his words are free...just continue to read his wonderful blogs.

If I'm not actually working for a Client doing whatever it is that s/he hired me to do, then I can virtually guarantee you that, in some form or fashion, I'm learning, teaching, writing, or helping others.


Please make your comment on Russel's blog. If you are not a subscriber...you are missing out big time.
Margaret

Via Russel Ray, San Diego home inspector (Russel Ray):

If you don't know where you're going,
any road will take you there!

My wise old grandmother helped me start my first business when I was ten years old, and one of the first things she said to me was, "If you fail to plan, plan to fail."
One of my favorite music personalities, George Harrison of The Beatles, said it a different way on his CD Brainwashed (2002, posthumously): "If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there."
Such sentiments can apply to both business and personal life. I've always been a workaholic, sometimes out of necessity, sometimes simply because I thoroughly enjoyed what I was doing. Although still a somewhat pejorative term, to me a workaholic is simply someone who is addicted to work, either out of necessity or because of a severe love of what s/he is doing. It often applies to the self-employed, many times out of sheer necessity to make an honest living.
I currently consider myself a controlled workaholic, a term that, to the best of my knowledge, I coined in 1987. A controlled workaholic is a workaholic who has to plan his personal life to keep his business life from overruning it. So in 1987, when I was forced to become 100% self-employed rather than relying at least partially on an employer to pay me a salary, I conscientiously decided to control my workaholism rather than letting it control me. That's when I fell back on what my wise old grandmother had taught me almost a quarter century earlier: Plan.
I have four attirbutes that sometimes create havoc in my life:

1. a love of learning,
2. a love of teaching,
3. a love of writing, and
4. a love of helping others, sometimes even to the extent that I'll do it free or otherwise let it hinder my ability to make a living.

If I'm not actually working for a Client doing whatever it is that s/he hired me to do, then I can virtually guarantee you that, in some form or fashion, I'm learning, teaching, writing, or helping others.
The founders and operators of ActiveRain have realized that their points system can easily create workaholics out of people because competition is the whole basis of capitalism and a free-market enterprise system. It's probably the whole basis of society, civilized or otherwise. And competition can sometimes interfere with other aspects of one's life. That's why ActiveRain limits comment points to 250 per day and blogging entries to a maximum of 2,250 automatic points per week.
ActiveRain and blogging should not be the only arsenal in your marketing attack, but if you subscribe to it, and I do, it should be a persistent and consistent weapon. But that's true of any weapon in your marketing arsenal.
If you haven't started planning yet, well, it's never too late (something else my wise old grandmother told me). In addition to planning what you'd like to accomplish for the rest of 2011, plan what you're going to do each day, each week, and each month to reach those goals, and I'd be willing to bet that you actually do reach them.
Every day that you fail to plan puts you one day closer to your plan to fail, and if you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there!

Any road will take me to see
Belinda Spillman and Will Hamm in Denver, Colorado

Twenty most recent posts

1. Unlocking the secrets of your home — ....but there weren't any birds!
2. The Music Chronicles of Russel Ray — Only the lonely.... pretty woman crying... it's over
3. Opinion — 100 things YOU can do to help the world!
4. Opinion — Quit bitching and start contributing!
5. Opinion — It's funny that some people don't want big government until they need big government
6. Pay It Forward — Would you like a glass of Google juice? It's good for you! (part 11)
7. Unlocking the secrets of your home — Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
8. Unlocking the secrets of your home — Complaints are like ActiveRain blogs: They happen!
9. Picture of the Moment by Russel Ray Photos — An unhappy Client means a few hours of happiness at the San Diego Zoo!
10. Unlocking the secrets of your home — Here a crack, there a crack (part 9)
11. The Music Chronicles of Russel Ray — Just a bunch of fluff
12. Flower Fiesta — Flowers for Easter week
13. Pay It Forward — Just a spoonful of sugar helps the Google juice go down....
14. Unlocking the secrets of your home — Here a crack, there a crack (part 8)
15. I've had it!
16. Unlocking the secrets of your home — Here a crack, there a crack (part 7)
17. Nature Handbook — Handle with extreme care
18. Opinion — Why did we change?
19. The Music Chronicles of Russel Ray — Martha, My Dear!
20. Picture of the Moment by Russel Ray Photos — Picture of the Moment - How to sneak up on a sleeping cat

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