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What’s In It For Me?
What’s in it for me? or WIIFM is an idea first popularized about a decade ago. From business journals to blogs, marketers were proclaiming the way to win over audiences was by explaining your product, service, or idea in the context of the individual benefit the recipient would experience. Looking at WIIFM from a different perspective, the question can also be a useful tool in personal reflection, self motivation, and drawing meaning from what we do. Instead of asking WIIFM about a future option, we reframe it to evaluate our present circumstances. Asking ourselves why we do what we do can help us connect, or reconnect, with the reasons for our choice. Like a mathematical shortcut,…
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Economy of the Heart
“If it doesn’t help, it hurts.” — from a discussion on photographic composition This fundamental economy of expression is true in other mediums as well. More words do not necessarily bring more value to written work. We appreciate Matisse and Picasso for their depth of communication through the use of a single line. This economy has a translation for action, too. How we spend our time matters. Economy of action suggests that right action is exactly enough. Each day we are faced with people and circumstances that demand our attention. We can avoid them temporarily, but they will not be ignored forever. Whether we are faced with an individual or an emotion, if…
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Bloom
Purple crocuses have begun popping up in the yard. The branches of the lilac bushes are laden with buds. It has been raining for 24 hours straight, and signs of spring have sprung up all around us. Bulbs that went in the ground last fall have begun announcing themselves. It will not be long before they are more than hopeful tips of green. Soon they will bloom…where they were planted. This idea of blooming where we’re planted may seem counterintuitive in our consumptive, fast-paced culture. We have been trained to scan the horizon for the next big thing instead of focusing on what’s within our grasp. To that way of thinking, it will…
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YOLO
In the last few decades, the idea that “you can have it all” has grown in popularity for both women and men. Successful career…check. Amazing family…check. Community involvement…check. Multiple degrees…check. Travel the world. Write a book. Start an organic farming co-op. Foster rescue animals. Knit homemade Christmas gifts…check, check, check! But is accurate to say we can have it all? We all have to make choices. Instead of “you can have it all” perhaps we should be saying “anything’s possible”. Except, even then, there are limits…limits to our personal discipline and time, and then there’s that pesky need for sleep. So perhaps a truer statement would be “you can have it all…just not at the same time”.…
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Cannot or Can?
The three things I cannot change are the past, the truth, and you. – Anne Lamott, Help Thanks Wow There are times when you read something, and it’s like stepping on a rake. Knocks you square between the eyes. We can’t change the past. No matter how much we’d like to distance ourselves from our epic fails, they remain ours. Sure, viewing them as a gift or lesson converts yesterday’s liabilities into today’s assets, but nothing can change the circumstances. Another way the past is fixed is that there is no way to go back to it. No matter how special or magical or perfect a time seems in the rearview, the only…
