Words From The Digital Man Cave

Someone by the name of Derek Sivers. In one post he has single handedly made my list of good people who deserve a handshake and a punch in the arm. Most people on my list can’t say that. Typically it’s their body of work and general outlook that secures them access to that most exclusive of lists.

What has gained him a spot on the list and an impromptu post from me is that just over a year ago, when I desperately needed to be hearing words like his, he was talking about the feeling you get when faced with the paths in front of you. Does it spark you into action, does it make you feel nothing, or does it cause you regret it ever entering your brain space? He talks about and inadvertently recommends a book by someone else on my list that gives a great little exercise on determining what should get your very very, limited time and attention.

Very nicely done Derek. Bravo Steve.

Stay tuned for the regularly scheduled words from the digital man cave!

Todays words from the digital man cave are about music and life and living accordingly.

I’ve been talking about to do lists, road maps, and flowcharts more and more lately. It’s on the brain pretty much every day for me, because it’s all been changing. Young pupil into Kung Fu master. Cute wolf pup into ferocious hunter type stuff. Okay, not that epic but you understand what I’m saying.

In the midst of this change I’ve been thinking again about an exercise that people do for fun. And it’s not listening to the song of the same name by Kid Cudi. It’s making the soundtrack to your life.

The idea is that you think through your life, all the major events and create a list. The list is supposed to define you, or rather the list defines the events that define you. The events that have had an impact on you. From beginning to end. For better or worse.

After you have the list, you stop and ask yourself “what song do I know that most closely describes that event, the feeling of that moment, or my state of being just after it” and there you go. That’s how you create the soundtrack to your life.

I want to take it a step further.

The exercise is fun to do because it gets you thinking about your life and (hopefully) reliving some good memories while you start breaking out the old mix CDs (am I the only one still using those?). It is a revealing activity because it helps you realize what has been important to you over time and you can actually do this list twice. First, you go through and make the list. This would be like the core “if you wanted my life story as cut and dry as possible this is it” list. Then you take that list and fill in any blanks or gaps in time to make the fully well-rounded list that won’t offend anyone because you left off the day you became friends with them. (People hate when you do that)

The hidden value in this is finding out not what events have been important to you, but finding out what is important to you that you haven’t already experienced in life. All you need to do is think of what music you truly want to be a part of your soundtrack, and the kinds of events that would fit perfectly with it. Is that event on your list already?

Maybe you should do something about that huh?

The idea is that you take a backroads approach to finding out what kinds of things you want to do in life. Most of the time when people ask “if money was no object, what would you do?” we start thinking about it intellectually and eventually try to get down to the experiences that make you feel. This way you can start with the experiences, and then work your way up to intellectually figuring out how you’ll make it happen.

What about the soundtrack to your life? Is it long and complete, or are there a few songs you haven’t added yet?

Let me know in the comments and stay connected for more words from the digital man cave!

Todays words from the digital man cave are about education. And a change in format. I’ve been doing this for 12 weeks now and it’s been a  good thing. I started this Sunday regular series for a few reasons. 1) I really wanted to stick to a set post schedule and I needed something consistent to nail that down. 2) I wanted to chronicle my adventures and misadventures in going back to school. 3) I needed a regular post topic to free up time and mindspace to work on other projects.

Well now that the first quarter is all done, I’m going to switch it up a little bit and not post about the educational world every week. The experiment was successful and I’ve got the schedule down. I’ll just post on it as things come up, and the week counter will still be kept for the frame of reference on how far along things have progressed.

I’m doing this so I can provide a little bit more varied content here at the digital man cave. Right now I’m only giving you the meat and potatoes once a week. I need the option to hit you with the double whammy on the regular. Other projects will continue as they have been… something about not being in an office right now makes it much easier to think and create. Go figure. You’re probably wondering what all this has to do with education and what have I learned over the last twelve weeks.

Well first, going back to school is not all it’s cracked up to be. When you’re out of school you kind of miss it. Don’t let the nostalgia fool you. The fact of the matter is, once you get out of school you fill your time with all sorts of other things. When you go back to school those other things don’t necessarily disappear, and change is rarely ever easy.

The second thing that has stuck out to me is that you sometimes want to plan ahead from your planning ahead. You got the feeling like something is about to blow up in your face, listen to it. Things come up. Gotta be able to adapt. Darwin wasn’t stupid. Whether or not you should care what he had to say is something that will probably never be debated here, but in modern life the law of the land is “he who is most adaptable will survive and thrive“.

Stay tuned to the digital man cave as you get more of what I hope you enjoy!