BrandMentalist .

So here I have been asking myself over and over if I’m on the right track and what I actually want to do in the future because I want to minimize any time wasting.

It’s hard to know definitely what you’ll be doing in 10 years time. And being a woman, having kids and getting married get factored in.

There are so many sub-fields and specialists in an industry. It’s so hard to predict the future. And it’s good that it’s not predictable and I’m glad I’m in the field that is on the forefront of change. I’m in the field that is constantly changing at a fast pace. The speed of technological development over the past few years has made us become much more flexible, adaptive, experiential, and somehow elusive. I love being challenged. And besides the skills that can only get better with experience and practice like the art of pitching, communicating, turning your complex data into a compelling story, new technology is new to everyone of all ages and you can only learn by doing.

So I’ve decided to set myself some solid goal which I’m going to follow through. I’m going to finish at least one chapter a day on the book(s) I’m reading. I’m getting to learn how SEO works from a strategist’ perspective which I’m really looking forward to because it’s all about the ability to analyse data and being able to solve complex problems from your findings anyway in the future. I’m going to keep up with all the new social media analytics tools: YouTube and Instagram. Instagram analytics and strategy is certainly what I’m going to master because not many brands/people in Aus are on top of that yet. I’m going to be getting on top with the latest mobile and social technologies. I’m going to practice the art of crafting data and turning it into a simple flowing story that is persuasive and convincing. On top of that I’m going to master the art of paid-owned-earned media and injecting all the new mobile and disruptive technology in.

My goal? …is to one day create a compelling integrated campaign that everyone talks about and loves…a campaign that touches us in the heart, wows us in the head, makes us smile, and inspires.

My goal? …is to become a CMO of a leading innovative FMCG company and take company forward through the technological storm of exciting change.

My goal? …is to inspire people.

My goal? …is to inspire little girls.

My goal? …is to help people with no confidence and motivation in life to get up and have their drive and passion re-installed.

My goal? …is to one day give back to the society by helping young, smart, driven poor kids fulfill their dreams through education. Because education is the only one investment that can only multiply and blossom with time and experience.

My goal? …is to make my Mother proud.

You know what the best feeling in the world is? When you’re surrounded by people who believe in you.

Nothing ever ever matters in life as much as being surrounded by people who believe in you…because that…is the only reason you live…that is what you live for. Without people who believe in you, in your worth, in your talents, in what you can offer to the world as a human being, your life means nothing. And when that feeling creeps up inside you, it hurts. It fucking hurts. Luckily I haven’t had a chance to experience that yet but I can feel how one would feel like after a hard breakup when you have relied your heart and your soul on that one person you love.

I think I need a plan. Having a job is big enough but I still “need” a self-development plan. Because this world is so freaking competitive - more than thousands of graduates each year, static number of retires and companies/work force expansion. How the fuck are the fresh grads going to get jobs? Unless they prove themselves with some awards. But even that, it’s hard!

It’s a cruel competitive world we live in and only the strongest will survive. Talents alone don’t thrive. Persistence alone doesn’t thrive. Enthusiasm alone doesn’t thrive. Intelligence alone doesn’t thrive. It’s a well-crafted strategy of how you’re going utilize all these traits you have that is going to thrive.

Now I’m drunk and I speak my mind.
Watch me…

Like most New Yorkers, I love New York, even when I hate it. If you have creativity and ambition, big ambition, then you will find it hard to leave. This creativity could be art, healing, entertainment, law, finance, whatever. All that matters is that you are very, very ambitious about it. You have to want to excel at what you do. If you are not ambitious, you will find New York City utterly unacceptable. New York chooses you as much as you choose her. If she chooses you and you leave, she will find a reason to lure you back. She loves her babies, and if you commit to her rules, you will be rewarded nicely.
I have lived a lot of places. I have loved them all, but New York is my home, and I love her most of all. I was born here, raised here, and I feel more alive here than anywhere else on earth, at least for a few weeks before I burn out. But what is so special about New York that 9 million people decide to cram in and give it a go?

PARK AVENUE POWER 

Recently, when I was still living in Sedona, AZ (the polar opposite of New York and everything she stands for), I came to visit and work in NYC. I was overwhelmed by how amazing the healing work was, the commitment of the clients, the willingness to go into the primordial mud and transform. After a particularly rewarding work day, I strolled on down Park Avenue to take it all in. Opening wide to my experience, I felt this overwhelming surge of energy rip through me. I couldn’t help it, I began to cry, weep actually, in the middle of 25th Street and Park Avenue. It was so strong, so familiar and it pierced my soul. Luckily, no one bothers you in NY if you do weird things.

I was standing in the middle of the concrete jungle I tried so hard to get away from for a better life, so why was my soul being lit on fire? This had to be wrong! Cities were disconnected from Nature and I had claimed my natural life in Sedona! Nevertheless, I had to lean up against a building and be with this stabbing longing.

A few months later, back in Sedona, my fianc?e and I broke up. While mutual, I was devastated, shocked and disoriented. I packed up my life in Sedona and drove to California to stay at a friend’s. I needed to make some quick money and did not feel like doing healing work. After one email to an old boss, I was on a plane the next day to begin work in New York City at a post-production company. Upon arriving, I was welcomed back on every level by my community, my old professional life, a sweet, affordable place to live with one of my best friends, and more hugs than I knew what to do with. Things that should have taken months to work out happened in a blink of an eye. Lady Liberty was making it very easy for me to be home.

AMBITION ORGASM 

On my way to a meditation one day, I found myself on Park Avenue in that same spot. The rush started to take me over again. I looked north to the Met Life building, which stands on top of the historic Grand Central Station at 42nd Street. It felt like an energy river was running through me. I had to know what was happening. So I turned on my third eye vision. What I saw was amazing. Streaming down Park Avenue was a current of ideas, creativity, drive, excitement, music, concepts and everything else you could think of. I was having an ambition orgasm. I could feel the current traveling through all the train lines that feed into Grand Central Station, carrying with them the hopes and dreams that light this city up, and then spread out into the world.
As I turned my focus upwards I saw huge beings, the guardians of New York City. Oh my GOD, they were amazing. They were huge, powerful, sky scraping giants that monitor and protect this current. They acknowledged me with a nod as I stood there with my mouth open. They were taking what they do very seriously, of course. Their energy was of pure power, integrity and vision. They were not all about the love-dovey, but they weren’t cold. Just taking what they did very seriously, like a lot of New Yorkers.

I stood there absorbing it for a long time. Deep appreciation for their work welled up inside me. After living in an ambition deprivation tank for two years, I was floored at how Mother Earth and these beings were working together to support us, and to control this wild, powerhouse of an energy stream. The energy is all Mother Earth’s. We just naively step into it and give it our best shot. The guardians were called in to help us so we don’t all go insane, thankfully. It’s a good system, although many still are crazy.

Standing on that road, I feel like I am connected to humanity around the world. I feel like my ideas are received, and then transmitted, I feel important. Living out in the boonies, I felt deeply connected to the ecosystem, but uncomfortably invisible to civilization. Here, on Park and 25th, I know I am a part of the great culture we have created today: for better or for worse. I know that I need to be here to gracefully bring my gifts to the world. Make no mistake, what we have created on this planet, no matter how separate from Nature we have gotten, is a gift from God. We are all perfect creations made from Love.

YES 

I could feel the neutrality in this current and it helped me see I was done with the separatist attitude of making civilization wrong and making everything close to nature right. That was exhausting, and it was the governing energy and belief I was working with in Sedona. I wanted both. I wanted civilization, art, music, words, ideas, finance, growth and I want a garden and eco-friendly everything. YES. I want to barter and make tons of money. YES. I want to sit and listen to the trees for houss, and then work till I drop. YES. In this current of energy, YES was everywhere, booming through my desires.

This was before the meditation on the New Moon solar eclipse on January 4th, 2011. Needless to say the meditation was off the charts. Later, I had a conversation with a beautiful indigo starchild, Filip Klein, and I was sharing with him my experiences on Park Avenue. He let me finish and then said, “So, get ready, the shaman I study with told me that the major ley line that runs through New York comes from upstate, then flows down into Grand Central, down Park Avenue to Wall Street, is one of the largest energy vortexes in the world. That vortex is like a huge antenna that broadcasts to the world.” How’s that for confirmation?

I HEART NY 

I don’t like to think of myself as having a boss, or as anyone else being in charge of me, but I knew why Lady Liberty beckoned me back. I was ready for bigger things, as well as a dose of home, and she wanted to help me, and loves it when I help her. It’s not because I am a chosen one and I need to be here to save her, we are ALL gifts. It’s because I am so fired up by what I do that I need the help of the greatest guardians, and some of the most powerful energy of the world, and she supports that. I couldn’t do it by myself.

I am a New York baby, I am committed to this place, and I care about her deeply. And now that I have lived in Nature for 2 years, deeply in love with both a partner and the desert, my relationship to the bedrock here has evolved, softened, and matured. While I will be traveling, dare I say, even moving again, she is here for me now, exactly when I needed her most, as she has always been. And so I honor her, bow to her, serve her and thank her for this support.

Written by CC Treadway

<Nope, I’ve never been there myself. But it’s next on my list… >

Most of the time, we build our jobs and our organizations and our lives around today, assuming that tomorrow will be a lot like now. Resilience, the ability to shift and respond to change, comes way down the list of the things we often consider.

And yet… A crazy world is certain to get crazier. The industrial economy is fading, and steady jobs with it. The financial markets will inevitably get more volatile. The Earth is warming, ever faster, and the rate and commercial impact of natural disasters around the world is on an exponential growth curve.

Hence the need for resilience, for the ability to survive and thrive in the face of change.

A non-resilient hospital in New York City closed for months because the designers failed to design for a flood. A career as a travel agent ends when, fairly suddenly, people don’t need travel agents any longer. A retirement is wiped out because the sole asset in the nest egg is no longer worth what it was.

The choice is to build something that’s perfect for today, or to build something that lasts. Because perfect for today no longer means perfect forever.

Here are four approaches to resilience, in ascending order, from brave to stupid:

Don’t need it
Invest in a network
Create backups
Build a moat
Don’t need it is the shortcut to living in crazy times. If you don’t have an office, it won’t flood. If you have sixteen clients, losing one won’t wipe you out.* If your cost of living is low, it’s far less exposed to a loss in income. If there are no stairs in your house, a broken hip doesn’t mean you have to move. Intentionally stripping away dependencies on things you can no longer depend on is the single best preparation to change.

Invest in a network. When your neighbor can lend you what you need, it’s far easier to survive losing what you’ve got. Cities and villages and tribes with thriving, interconnected neighborhoods find that the way they mesh resources and people, combined with mutual generosity, makes them more able to withstand unexpected change. And yes, the word is ‘invest’, because the connection economy thrives on generosity, not need.

Create backups. Not just your data (you do have a copy of your data in two or three places, don’t you?) but anything that’s essential to your career, your family or your existence. A friend with a nut allergy kept a spare epipen at our house—the cost of a second one was small compared to the cost of being without.

Build a moat is the silly one, the expensive Maginot-line of last resort. Build a moat is the mindset of some preppers, with isolated castles that are stocked to overflowing with enough goods to survive any disaster**. Except, of course, they’re not. Because they can’t think of everything. No one can.

We’re tempted to isolate ourselves from change, by building a conceptual or physical moat around our version of the future. Better, I think, to realize that volatility is the new normal.

Putting all your eggs in one basket and watching the basket really carefully isn’t nearly as effective as the other alternatives. Not when the world gets crazy.

Source: Seth Godin