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My 2010th Resolution

January 1, 2010 in Alignment by Alice Bumgarner | 9 comments

“2010th” is what my 4-year-old daughter calls the new year, so I hope that clarifies the title for you. Are you with me?

This year, contrary to resolution advice from the experts, I’m aiming too high. Rather than pinpointing a specific, achievable goal (“Whittle down the number of pasta dishes I eat per week to 2.5″), I’m using this resolution to try to bring order to a jumble of ideas that have been rattling around in my brain for most of last year. I can justify aiming too high by turning to other experts who say that being guided by an internal raison d’etre will help you stick to a resolution. So I’m listening to those experts.

201059212_15946166bfFor 2010th, I want to make a resolution about something that will make my life saner and more organized: alignment. I want alignment. I know that sounds like a really vague resolution, but think of it as a “thematic” approach to the year, like the Year of Living Dangerously or the Year of Flossing. This year will be the Year of Alignment. And I’ll spend the next few months figuring out how to do it.

Here’s what I know so far: Alignment means gathering up all my skills and passions and actual labor (writing, currently), and having them all move in lockstep toward the same vision. Maybe not everything can move in lockstep. I mean, I’m not completely naive about this. Nobody’s life fits together like a tidy puzzle, even if it looks that way from the outside.

I suppose what I want is to align what I do with what I care about. I want for who I am to dictate what I do, and the other way around. As it is, I move from one disparate activity to the next throughout the day — altering myself to match each task — rather than working toward one big idea. It may partly be a function of freelancing — I’m a hired gun who absolutely must bend and change in order to succeed. But I know that not all freelancers are working this way. (I’ll tell you about one of them later.)

Maybe this is a better way to describe it: It’s like I’m navigating a day using five different maps. Each day I take the necessary steps to successfully reach five different points on the five different maps. I always get there, wherever “there” is, but it seems likely that the maps are leading me to points on entirely different continents, and that some of those continents are a really bad choice for me, like maybe one or two of them are Antarctica.

A 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. work day for me might look like this: write a story about sugar silos, peruse communications listings on SimplyHired, scan newspapers for B2B newsletter fodder, write a grant application for my daughters’ school garden, research summer camps, dash off email to friends to see if anyone has a parenting anecdote I can use for a monthly parenting column, work with a classroom in the school garden, buy eight bags of topsoil, process emails to keep projects and my social life moving forward.

(For proof of my scattered life, look no further than this blog, which jumps from posts about being gracious on Twitter to one about catching a mouse.)

Does that sound crazy? Let me tell you, it feels crazy. For half of those tasks, I’m using my skills as a writer to do work I get paid for. The other half are things I do because I think they’re incredibly important to do, even if I don’t get paid for them and even if they cut into the time I should be spending on work-for-pay. The first half revolve around the business world. The other half revolve around outdoor education and food justice.

I could tell you that the common thread between the two camps is that I’m using my communication and organizational skills to be successful at whatever I tackle. But the truth is that I don’t feel any sense of commonality, not on the average day. These two forces are fighting for my time and focus, which are limited.

I know this: If I’m going to be good — really good — at something, I need to put in a lot of time doing that thing. In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell says that to shine, you need to put in 10,000 hours honing your skill. Of course, I want to be really good at something. I also want that something to reflect who I am. To put in 10,000 hours, I will have to pick and choose, rather than jumping from one disparate activity to the next indefinitely. I’ll need align my work and the rest of my life.

Two initial steps I’ll need to take, as I muddle through this Year of Alignment:

1. I’ll try to discover my true voice. You could also call this authenticity, which everybody seems to want, whether they’re a CEO or a free agent. The idea here is that when you speak, people recognize your voice. Other people grow to expect a certain sort of expertise from you. They also know they can believe you, because you’re being authentic and because you’ve now established yourself as a bit of an expert.

Any successful blog has a focus, and there’s a reason for that: People are drawn to a strong, consistent voice. And that happens in real life, too.

After eight years of researching and writing about dozens of topics, I’m not sure where my voice is anymore.

2. I’ll doggedly follow my interests, even if I don’t get paid. Take my fabulous friend Tish, who writes a blog called A Femme d’un Certain Age and who first taught me how not to look like an idiot. A long-time fashion writer, an ardent lover of and resident of Paris, and a “femme d’un certain age” herself, she has merged her passions in a blog. Rare is the person who gets rich penning a blog, of course, but such things can and do lead to other professional opportunities, which has been the case for Tish. Remember the freelancer I mentioned earlier? The one working toward one big idea? This is the one. And I’ll also say this: The fact that Tish writes about something she’s passionate about — you can hear it in her smart, tart voice, can’t you? — makes the internets a better place.

Another acquaintance of mine, Mark, who is a communications/marketing guy, works for a local coffee-bean roaster. He also donates significant time as a volunteer to the local Slow Food convivium, writing their newsletter, organizing and promoting events, etc. — the perfect blend of expertise and passion. That’s beautiful, alignment-wise.

Back to my point, though: If you start a work/life alignment exercise by thinking about whether something’s going to be lucrative, you might not start the exercise at all.

So my challenge for the moment is to forget about getting paid, and think about what I’m interested in. Because to follow your interests, you first need to figure out what those interests are. Does that sound silly? Like you wouldn’t know what your own interests are — ha! And yet people sidestep their interests all the time and choose to do something else. As Gretchen Rubin of The Happiness Project says, “You can choose what you do, but you can’t choose what you like to do.”

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Coaching yourself through barriers, like an elite athlete

April 28, 2009 in At Home, Uncategorized, Work, Writing by Alice Bumgarner | 2 comments

This gloomy economy has me feeling scattered. My ability to prioritize has flown right out the window because everything feels important, like it needs to be done today, right now.

My daily thought process sounds something like this: “What should I work on now — the stories due Friday? new story pitches? catch-up reading? my blog, so I can build my personal brand? something else that every other freelancer is doing but that I haven’t figured out yet?”

602px-cyclist_l_georget_loc_04379jpgToday my thoughts were in a whirl, when I saw that one of my interviews had gone up on a client’s site. It was an interview with Steve Owens, who runs a training program for elite, Tour de France-level athletes. The topic was overcoming barriers.

Reading it again made me realize that I’m hitting a barrier now. My vision and thinking are both stuck. I’m so worried about being a freelance writer in this economy that it’s getting in the way of prioritizing or rethinking what I’m doing, which requires stepping back and seeing the big picture.

But here’s what I think I can learn from Steve or any good coach: There’s always a way to overcome a barrier or become unstuck. Steve doesn’t believe in barriers. And it’s easy to see why — he’s constantly helping people break through them. The trick is in finding creative approaches to clearing the hurdles.

Steve does it with the help of sophisticated tools and one-on-one conversation. His elite clientele fly in to Colorado to use his training facility’s test bed, which is a stationery bike inside a wind tunnel. Three cameras film the cyclist from different perspectives as Steve is running the test, all the while capturing and measuring body angles — at the hip, knee, etc.

The more information he can collect on the athlete, the better. He can look at what an athlete’s drag is at any particular point of the ride, then help the athlete refine that baseline position to improve his speed. In the case of cycling, it’s all about overcoming wind resistance.

Here’s what I learned from Steve about overcoming any obstacles:

Exploring new ways of doing things requires confirming which things don’t work. Steve might ask a cyclist to hold his neck differently to see if that reduces wind resistance, or he might try a different stem for the bike. He’s constantly figuring out what doesn’t work.

I’ve tried some things lately that haven’t worked. For example, I thought that Elance.com and Guru.com would be a goldmine for freelance work. But after investing time in establishing my profile and clips on the sites, the results have been disappointing — too many low bids from the international market.

For a while, I allowed myself to wallow in that mini-failure. But it was just one experiment, and it didn’t work. Time to move on.

Let go of assumptions. Allow yourself to be surprised. For example, Steve says, “We train a guy who’s a world champion in the time trial. He puts his elbows pretty far apart on the handlebars, which is actually very counterintuitive. You’d think that would be slower. But we took the measurements, and it actually works for him. That’s just how his body is shaped. We can make assumptions about things, but they’re not always correct.”

Sometimes we assume we have to do things a certain way. If a world-class coach can assume wrong, it’s entirely possible that some of my assumptions are wrong too. That’s why exploring — bullet #1 — is important. Rigid assumptions are like shackles when you’re trying to find a new way of thinking or working.

To come up with groundbreaking ideas, you have to forget about the rules. If you’re a cyclist — and I’m not — you probably know  there are a lot of rules dictating what you can’t do within the sport. Steve says it’s important that his team not feel so confined by the rules that they’re unable create new ideas. A good way to do that is to bring in someone who doesn’t even know the rules. In the past, Steve has brought in the U.S. National Ski Team to work on a solution.

Your emotions are going to get in the way. They just are. In the middle of a brutal exam week, you’re going to feel the mental stress getting to you physically. It’s the same thing with cycling or writing. If you don’t factor in emotions, you’re going to expect too much from yourself. Steve asks his athletes to score their mental and emotional stress, to make sure the intensity of their training is a good fit. He may shorten a bike ride, if someone is feeling rough emotionally.

If you’re still running into barriers, you either have unfair expectations or you need to take a break. Here’s where I could use a good coach, like Steve, or a mentor. As a freelancer, I don’t have a boss or trusted co-worker, so there’s no one for me to do a temperature check with. Do I have unfair expectations or need a break?

Steve says that often people don’t have good, realistic goals. You want to run a marathon? It’s going to take some time to reach that goal, so set up some smaller goals along the way. He also says that when a person says she’s hit a barrier or a plateau, nine times out of 10 that person needs a rest. Lately, I’ve been resting. I stopped using Twitter (mostly) and avoided my blog for a month. And I feel much better now, thank you.

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Why having good conversations is more important than ever

March 5, 2009 in Work by abumgarner | 3 comments

I worked for a publisher in Washington, D.C., who almost always kept his office door closed. When he appeared in the doorway of my office, it was inevitably for one reason: to tell me I’d done something wrong.

You could find a lot of flaws with that management style, but I want to focus on just one: the way my boss closed himself off from conversation. It was a management gaffe then. But it would be an even bigger mistake now, in the Age of the Conversation.

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Regardless of what you do for a living, if you’re not out there asking questions, listening, seeking input, collaborating and taking part in the larger conversation, you’re going to have trouble rolling with change. Because here’s the thing: a new style of conversation is transforming the way we do business.

Here’s where I’ve seen it happening lately:

1. Even Obama is picking up the phone to talk. According to a New York Times article, he makes at least two dozen calls a day in an attempt to stay connected to — and glean information from — the outside world.

It’s no surprise that President Obama calls heads of state and high-ranking advisors. That’s a given. But he’s also tapping into a group of people outside “the bubble.” He’s using his spare moments (not something he has in spades) to stay connected to a larger, more-fluid-than-ever conversation, because that’s where he’ll hear reactions that are relevant, unpredictable, maybe even perspective-altering.

2. Inspired by Obama’s presidential campaign, nonprofits are getting in on the act of using social networks to rally people around a cause. The best fundraisers are leveraging social networking tools like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. They’re using micro-conversations, rather than enormous campaigns.

One example: Last month’s Twestival was organized on Twitter and raised more than $250,000 for clean water in Africa and India. The Christian Science Monitor described the evolution of Twestival this way:

The Twestival, which wrapped on Feb. 12, had little trouble generating buzz. Only hours after founder Amanda Rose made public her plans for the campaign in January, the news went viral, spiraling out across hundreds of blogs and Twitter feeds. Soon, Ms. Rose had secured a small army of volunteers and a team of corporate partners including TipJoy, which allowed users to contribute directly online.

3. Smart business leaders have stopped frowning upon water-cooler conversation, and some (like biggies Cisco and Microsoft) fully embrace the collaboration that social networks spark.

I recently did an interview with Brad Brinegar, CEO of McKinney, an agency that propelled itself into the big league by taking innovative approaches to a business model that hasn’t changed much since the advent of television. At McKinney, they’re all about the conversation.

When you visit McKinney at their former-tobacco-factory offices, you’ll notice lots of gathering spaces. Brinegar says he spent a year planning a space that would force more collaboration and conversation between left- and right-brainers. It has 50 nooks and crannies to allow for “natural interactions,” Brinegar told me. The office is sprawled across one-and-a-half floors, instead of climbing vertically. There’s Wi-Fi throughout, a coffee bar, and no mail delivery — you have to pick it up yourself, which means you’ll likely bump into someone on your way there.

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Meeting rooms at McKinney

McKinney Cafe

McKinney Cafe

He also compressed office spaces to a quarter of the size of previous offices. Why? ”Creative people sometimes need to shut off the world and work. We made it private enough for them to have that space, but not enough to encourage them to perch there more than was natural,” Brinegar says.

Equally important, “it’s very easy to get to me,” he says. “I have glass walls, so people can always see me. My assistant has a heart attack because she can’t control the flow of people into my office.”

Initially, the new layout was so different from what they’d had before that a lot of people balked. “But from the morning we walked in,” he says, “the agency entirely changed the way it operated. People that I’d always asked to collaborate all of a sudden were. The structure of the space released people’s natural inclination to collaborate.”

Another thing about a good conversation? It’s usually free. Which makes this one workplace trend sure to thrive throughout 2009.

[Top image from Twitter; all others courtesy of McKinney]

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It’s a new week. Who are you going to meet?

February 8, 2009 in Work, Writing by abumgarner | 1 comment

You’re stuck in a rut, and you want to jolt yourself out of it. One way to break free? Meet someone new.

Lisa Bodell of futurethink

Lisa Bodell of futurethink

The other day I interviewed Lisa Bodell, CEO of futurethink. She’s a hybrid — a cross between a futurist and an innovation consultant. She says that meeting new people is one of the best ways to spark new ideas. (And here’s a woman who has to come up with new ideas.)

She told me:

“I have to meet one new person a week who’s completely different from myself. In one week, I met the admiral of the Coast Guard, the head of the WHO, psychics, the head of a group of maids … Every perspective counts. It’s the wild card that’s going to be the next big thing.”

Even before I spoke with Lisa, I’d heard about this tactic. My friend Ellen, who is not a futurist, swears by it. (And since Ellen is one of my smartest friends, I tend to do what she says.)

A few years ago, when Ellen was feeling a little stagnant in her career as a video producer, she sent a message out to her friends: “If you’re going to an interesting event, let me know — even if you think it’s not up my alley — because I might want to join you.”

Ellen started going to all sorts of events that she’d never dreamed of going to, and she met all sorts of people. Some of them needed help with projects, and she offered help and advice whenever she could. A handful ended up becoming clients. Most importantly, though, meeting new people led her down new paths. She began doing work that more closely resembled documentary filmmaking — a long-simmering dream of hers.

Their point, Lisa’s and Ellen’s, is this: Meeting unexpected people can spark new ideas, or energize your career in unexpected ways. You can’t possibly know. So leave room on your calendar for it.

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Cure for career angst? Diversify

January 30, 2009 in Writing by abumgarner | 2 comments

Like pretty much everyone else, I’ve been obsessing over my career lately.

Since I began freelance writing full-time, I’ve felt the financial insecurity of the arrangement. There’s nothing so motivating (and terrifying) as knowing that to be paid, you have to continually create. Maybe that’s why I began thinking lusty thoughts about becoming an employee again. Because going somewhere every day and putting in your eight hours … that’s got to be less terrifying, right? Plus, writing All The Time can be draining.

Then I talked to Maggie Mistal, who made me realize that the fear was getting me nowhere.

Maggie Mistal

Maggie Mistal

Maggie is one of the country’s top career coaches, frequently quoted in The New York Times, etc., etc. She has a radio show on Martha Stewart Living Radio (on SIRIUS). She’s smart as a whip, but what I love most about her is that she’s also a cabaret singer.

Here’s how it started: After forever advising people to follow their dreams, she realized that she had to follow her own advice and do what she’d always imagined — go on stage. So she kicked off a “Follow Your Dreams” show in NYC. Between songs, she asks people to tell the audience about their own dreams. Why?

“You’re 10 times as likely to achieve a goal if you share it with someone else,” says Maggie. “So I’m layering in a fun, interesting ways to get people to do what they want to do.”

She’s actually coaching. In between cabaret songs.

And if you’re tempted to dismiss Maggie as just another person who is completely not in the realm of ordinary people, who can afford to do something frivolous like sing cabaret in between interviews with The New York Times, consider this: Maggie learned the hard way twice that pinning all your hopes and dreams to an employee can lead to disappointment. She went from working for Arthur Andersen (until it was taken down by the Enron scandal) to working for Martha Stewart (also indicted).

Her advice is to stop focusing on the fear. “Focus on creating and diversifying, because that’s where it gets exciting. Diversification is a way forward,” she says. “You won’t get so caught up in one thing that it distracts you from creating new things.”

Diversification. Marci Alboher calls it having a “slash career” — being able to answer the question “What do you do?” different ways, depending on whether you’re at a cocktail party, a networking event or your high school reunion. Your mom called it not putting all your eggs in one basket.

I know she’s right. But I’m wondering how I’ll ever find the time.

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When receipts spring to mind

January 29, 2009 in Writing by abumgarner | 3 comments

I just wrote a piece for the soon-to-launch “Little PINK Book” newsletter (part of PINK magazine).  Unless you’re already supremely organized, you may find it useful.tab_cov_img

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As spring approaches, thoughts turn to shorter hemlines and outdoor lunches. (So long, mercilessly dry skin! Hello, sunscreen!)

Almost as quickly, though, another feeling surfaces and this one isn’t all sunshine-and-happiness. Because isn’t spring also tax season? And weren’t you planning to come up with a better way to organize receipts by now, only you never did?

Paper receipts still litter the bottom of your bag, like the lining in some mama bird’s nest.

Solution: Turn to one of these nifty services for cataloging, organizing and accessing receipts.

  • Shove them in an envelope and mail to Shoeboxed.com. The service scans your receipts, then allows you to securely search for them online by store name, date, total and so on. Cost: Beginning at $9.95 monthly. Another service, Pixily.com, is similar. Cost: Beginning at $14.95 monthly.
  • Scan your own receipts with a NeatReceipts scanner and software. Bonus? It lets you divvy up purchases according to IRS tax codes. Cost: $199
  • Want the fast and dirty (and free) solution? The Evernote application lets you snap photos of receipts then automatically synchronizes them to your desktop. Text within photos becomes searchable, so you can find and view what you need later.

With a better plan for organizing receipts, you may find that spring in your step after all.

(Photo from Shoeboxed.com)

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Cleaning up our mess

January 28, 2009 in Writing by abumgarner | No comments

Even thoughBlacksmith's Fuller on the job he was already telling Fortune 500 businesses how to reduce their carbon footprint through his work at a top sustainability firm, Richard Fuller knew it wasn’t quite enough. To make a tangible impact on the Earth’s environment, he’d have to go a step further.

So he starts Blacksmith Institute, a nonprofit that busies itself by identifying which places are the most polluted on the planet. (Or, as Richard said to me, the “biggest s***holes.”) The places that are so loaded with toxic chemicals that kids are literally dying. Then he gathers all the political player, raises enormous amounts of money, and cleans them up. This guy deserves a medal.

Here, my interview with him for IdeaConnection.com.

(Photo from Blacksmith Institute)

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