Quixoting™ - A Quest for New Ideas

Happiness. Where Art Thou?

So if you've read this blog a bit you know that by acting on my ideas, I now feel a sense of accomplishment.  A sense of having honored my ideas and myself. My ideas now have credibility with me and have the chance to be included in public discourse and, inevitably, be available for critical analysis.  

Meaning that people may not like them very much.

All that is pretty good.  And what I was planning for when I set out on this journey with Quixoting.

So why do I not feel a powerful sense of happiness about my efforts to date?  Because I still have a long way to go? Is it that I will never be happy with what I've done? Kind of a perfectionist?

What does happiness mean anyway?  Is it the same as joy?  Is one temporary and one long-term?

Well, to give this a little bit of sense, I've been keeping track of popular references to happiness and now thought I'd summarize it here.  

Am I covering the scope of the world's philosophy?  Of course not.  But I will, I hope, begin to crack the code.  For myself.  And perhaps you'd like to chime in . . .

So how does dictionary.com define happiness?  

hap⋅pi⋅ness

–noun

1.	the quality or state of being happy.

2.	good fortune; pleasure; contentment; joy.

Origin: 
1520–30; happy + -ness 

Synonyms:
1, 2. pleasure, joy, exhilaration, bliss, contentedness, delight, enjoyment, satisfaction. Happiness, bliss, contentment, felicity imply an active or passive state of pleasure or pleasurable satisfaction.Happiness results from the possession or attainment of what one considers good: the happiness of visiting one's family. Bliss is unalloyed happiness or supreme delight: the bliss of perfect companionship. Contentment is a peaceful kind of happiness in which one rests without desires, even though every wish may not have been gratified: contentment in one's surroundings. Felicity is a formal word for happiness of an especially fortunate or intense kind: to wish a young couple felicity in life. 

Antonyms:
1. misery.

There are many other ways to define happiness:

Happiness = The Anticipation Of Pleasure.  

This one worked for me for a while.  Basically, fill your life with interesting things and you feel good knowing that fun things are on the way.  But what if you only enjoy the anticipation and the actual happiness of the event is fleeting?  I wrote something quick on this a few weeks back . . .

Happiness = the anticipation of pleasure

I get pleasure from productive creative time

Productive creative time delivers a tangible idea

That tangible idea is made up of my mental DNA

Mental DNA includes me plus all that I experience

Experience gives thoughts relevance

Being relevant makes me happy

Happiness = The Absence Of Pain

The tough thing here is that pain is multi-dimensional and includes sadness, physical pain, stress, discomfort and the like.  How can we ever be absent of all that at one time?  I have had moments of complete mental freedom and those do feel good.  I remember one particular time in Yakima, Washington.  It was winter, cold and snowing.  I was sitting my garage with the big door open, watching big snowflakes fall on the driveway.  Me in a beach chair drinking a cold beer.  And I had one - a moment of nothingness.  Bliss.  

Happiness - Absence Of Knowledge Or a State Of Ignorance

Think of newborns (except when hungry/soiled, of course).  Think of Thumper in Bambi.  Sid from Ice Age or Donkey from Shrek.  Is that a fair characterization of their reason to be happy?  How does one become ignorant and does it really work?  Are shut-ins happy?  Hermits?

Happiness = A Life Full Of Distraction

I guess you could argue this is similar to or related to "anticipation", but this one came from a recent interview on NPR.  They were interviewing Woody Allen and asked him about happiness.  His view was that there will always be pain and discomfort.  Life will always be hard in some way.  But through filling your life with events and people who keep you busy, you pay less attention to the tough stuff.

Why this focus and why today?  In the middle of feeling the freedom from acting on my ideas, why focus on this?

Well, I find it interesting.  Always have.  While I did not major in philosophy, I always loved the idea that someday I would.  And I think that we as thinking creatures should always ponder life in this way.

I'm not the ignorant type.  Although I'm attracted to their characters in movies.

And, don't get me wrong.  I love what I am doing here at Quixoting and with Spin Strategy.  But taking action on your ideas does not drop you into a nirvana swimming pool.  There will be frustrations and obstacles.

And having thought of them I feel better prepared to battle them.

In conclusion, I'll share a great poem by Carl Sandburg.  I wrote out this poem and had it on my wall . . . in High School.

HAPPINESS

I ASKED the professors who teach the meaning of life to tell
me what is happiness.

And I went to famous executives who boss the work of
thousands of men.

They all shook their heads and gave me a smile as though
I was trying to fool with them

And then one Sunday afternoon I wandered out along
the Desplaines river

And I saw a crowd of Hungarians under the trees with
their women and children and a keg of beer and an
accordion.

A Man Needs A Little Madness

So if you've read this blog you understand that it is based on the story of Don Quixote. His desire to take action on things he believed in makes him a great symbolic mentor. 

Of course you can argue about his mental state if you'd like... 

I'd like to say also that life is full of nudgings. Where they come from, I cannot be sure. But Quixoting came to me over a few months. OK. 240 months. As the time to act got closer I had a number of big indicators. Signs. Telling me it was time. 

So I started writing both blogs (this + Spin Strategy) and the nudgings come more often. I must be doing something right! 

Well, a few weeks ago, a good friend suggested a movie for me. Made in 1964 and starring Anthony Quinn and Alan Bates, the movie is Zorba The Greek. It tells the story of a man (Bates)who travels to the island of Crete to manage land owned by his deceased father. Zorba (Quinn) meets him in a bar prior to departure when the boat has to wait for weather to clear. Zorba is looking for work. 

There is a great mismatch here as the man is uptight. Zorba, on the other hand, is impulsive - an adventurous soul. 

Near the end of the movie, there is a great line I wanted to share with you that fits beautifully with the philosophy here at Quixoting: 

(Zorba speaking) "Dammit Boss. I like you too much not to say it. You've got everything except one thing. Madness. A man needs a little madness. Or else ... He never dares cut the rope and be free."

Hmmm. How much madness do you have?

Finding A Fit For You And Your Ideas

If you are looking for work or looking for the right fit for yourself in the work world, I have a book for you.   

But, if you are secretly pining that you would rather be starting something new, writing a book or pursuing a crazy passion, you will absolutely relate to this book.  In a big way.

It has become a resource I come back to again and again.  You could say it helped to inspire Quixoting.  You see, the passion I don't pursue has always been a burr in my shorts from a career standpoint.

The book is called How To Find The Work You Love written by Laurence G. Boldt.  An innocent enough title, right?  In fact, it could be viewed as yet another self-help book preaching the same old advice found in countless others.  And, if you look on the web, you will find many books with similar titles.

But this one hit me square in the eyes a few years ago.  There are quotes from this book that knocked me back onto my rear end.  And it took me a few minutes to get up.

You see I have been searching . . .

If you don't know my story, I am a marketing guy.  But more importantly, I am an idea guy.  One that sat on his ideas for 20 years with absolutely no clue what to do with them.  So they sat there.  And every year they did, I felt less and less attached to them.

Deep down I knew there was a purpose for them.  A time to see the light of the world.  But that didn't stop me from beating myself up every time I added a new one to my idea book or re-read an old one.

Then on September 1, 2008 - nine months a five month break/job search - I finally took action.  I started this blog and began sharing my ideas with the world.  And I shared my psychological reaction to having done so with hopes that others might get inspired to act as well.  

This book contributed heavily to the mindset that allowed my "break" to be instrumental.

If you have ideas at rest.  Gathering dust. Or ideas that never even got off the page or out of your mind, that is a real shame.  The world is missing out and you are not experiencing the satisfaction of creating.  Creating something that was born in you.

So, here are a few quotes from the book that I hope will inspire you.  They are very supportive of the main message of Quixoting: To take action on your ideas.

ON THE BENEFITS OF TAKING ACTION

“As people honor the actions they value most – by doing them – they become more authentic, more reliable, more self-disciplined.  They grow to trust themselves more; they learn to listen to their own inner voice as a steady, truthful and strengthening guide for what to do next and even how to do it.”

THE RESULT OF NOT TAKING ACTION

“As long as we deny our individuality and fail to develop and express our unique talents and gifts, we miss the joy and creative self-expression.  We feel frustrated, repressed and trapped.”

FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN

“Only after we have stepped out into the creative emptiness do we discover the bridges that have been there all the while waiting to help us across.”

This last quote is similar to one I provide earlier from Kurt Vonnegut.  And it was one of the toughest aspects for me.  

What if I fail?  

The only way to find out if your idea has value for you or others is to act on it.  Each solid step you take triggers a new view as to what is ahead.  It is a cool experience!

I really had no official plan on where I would take this blog or Spin Strategy (job search strategy).  Of course I had some ideas . . . 

So I built them and continue to push them forward.  And every once in a while, a round peg finds another and people react.

An d that feels good.  

An Idea In Motion. Built Here On Quixoting™.

Today I wanted to give you an update on the first idea I decided to launch from this blog (incubator).  I say incubator because the act of writing here has furthered my effort to come up with ideas to launch.

But I can't do it all.  So, for now, I write here when I can.  Allowing Spin Strategy to be the focus.  If Spin Strategy can become a valuable tool for job seekers, I'd love to take another idea and do the same.

Isn't that what entrepreneurs dream of?  Multiple ideas that find favor with the market?

What are you doing with your ideas?

I think the best ideas grow organically.  Lots of people telling lots of other people about what they found. And then you build on the idea so it adds even more value.  Mix in social media and you get something special.  Potentially.

So here's an update on Spin Strategy.  After 10 months of writing, building tools, networking and sharing ideas, here are the stats:

Blog average page views per day ~ 600

Website average page views per day ~ 200

Linkedin group members ~ 814

Blog feed sign-ups ~ 436

Blog e-mail update sign-ups ~ 194

Twitter followers ~ 674

Successful?  Well, it's a start!

Here's today's post from Spin Strategy.  You might enjoy it if you are wondering whether Twitter is for you . . .

Twitter.  Like  Walk In The Park.

Now, of course, those are just numbers up above.  Only one way to measure success.  What I love the most is the helping power of this idea.  People are out of work.  Need help.  And it turns out that my ideas, delivered from the perspective of a hiring manager and a former job seeker, are really helping people.

That feels great.  And while I try to do some promotion of Spin Strategy, most of my growth is coming from word of mouth.  People sharing something that helped them.  With others in need.

What's coming next from Spin Strategy?  A brand new website!  I am very excited to take this idea to the next level and provide some real substantial value to job seekers.

But it has been a lot of work.  Pulling your idea out of the bottom drawer, blowing the dust off and introducing it to the world is not easy.  But, boy does it feel good!

Have an idea you'd like to share?  Let me know.  Happy to provide a blank canvas where you can introduce YOUR ideas to the world.  If interested, comment below.  I'll walk you through it!

What are YOU waiting for?