Riding the roller coaster

“Your dog probably has cancer.”

“Wait, we didn’t find any.”

“But he still has anemia, which could mean cancer.”

“We have to do something about the anemia or he won’t live long enough to figure out what’s wrong.”

“It’s a bacterial infection causing the anemia.”

“But it still could be something like cancer.”

The past week has been an emotional ride that has left me exhausted. Plaid is my boy and one of the world’s best dogs ever. Seriously. The best. People I know who don’t like dogs love Plaid.

I’ve gone from thinking he was going to die within the month to thinking he had something minor to thinking he wouldn’t last the week to thinking he could get better. It’s been crazy insane with lots of tears, confused feelings and a desire to hope but a fear to do so.

I had to leave him again to go back to New York. My heart is full of hope that I’ll see him again, my head is steeling for the worst and my body is just plain tired of all the drama in my life of late.

Can I get a refund on my ticket? I’m not liking this ride so much.

Support me in NY

Quick note: As some of you know, I quit my job to pursue the dream opportunity to come to New York for six months to study with Seth Godin. Which means that I have no income stream at the moment. Which means I am somewhat poor. Which means, I’m asking you for some help.

If you shop online at all, would you do me a favor and shop via a link I provide? Just once in a while. I have relationships with lots of the big names online – Amazon, Target, Wal-mart, eBay – as well as lots of specialty shops you might not have ever heard of. All you have to do is start your shopping from my link. I’ll get credit for sending you to the store and you can help pay my NY rent and buy me lunch.

I’ll be putting the link permanently over on the right hand bar so you can find it easily. And thank you!!

(This ends our commercial messages. Thank you for your patience with the interruption.)

Figuring out my frame on the world

One of the best things about my house are all the windows. Huge windows that let in lots of light and give you a great view of my yard and neighborhood.

If you only looked out my front windows, though, you would think that I do a fabulous job of maintaining my grass and there are a lot of people living close to each other.

If you only looked out my back windows, you could tell immediately that I have dogs, don’t spend a lot of time working in my yard and think you were alone in the world.

The window you choose to look out of gives you a totally different view of my landscaping skills and neighborhood.

In the same way, we look at the world through windows that frame the way we see it. If you grew up poor, you might frame every choice with concern over cost. If you tend to be insecure, you might frame every encounter with concern over status.

Frames help us simplify our choices. But that simplification comes at a price – whether a missed opportunity we never considered or a miscommunication with someone operating under a different frame.

I’ve been pondering my own frame on the world – the one that values finding a bargain, assumes I’m not popular, cringes from cocktail parties and craves order. What am I missing because of the way I see the world? How determined am I to hold onto that worldview? How do I step back and take a broader view, whether to find a new niche in the marketplace, expand my personal growth options or better understand my spouse?

The past month has been a whirlwind of considering new possibilities, some of which I’m ready to take now that the dust is settling. What about you? What new possibilities could you open up if you just changed the way you look at the world?

Pick a new window, get a new view, open up a new option.

A fun brainstorm

Seth Godin keeps telling us that ideas are common. Don't get caught up in the fact that you're good at coming up with ideas. Which I am.

This is hard for me to hear, because it's such a part of who I am - the Idea Hamster. I am the brainstorming queen, the one who's always coming up with some new idea that would just be so cool.

Ask me how many of those ideas I've ever done. Go ahead.

None.

So just how valuable were those ideas? Worthless. Seth's point to all of us is that ideas are easy to come by. It's the person who executes on it that is truly valuable. Without execution, you just have an intangible thought that might make you feel brilliant, but certainly doesn't make you rich.

Just to make the point, Seth had all the members of the SAMBA team brainstorm 111 ideas each. Curious what the great minds came up with? We actually posted it out to our public blog for all the world to see. The (cleaned up) e-book version will be coming soon as well. That's 999 sometimes brilliant, sometimes odd, sometimes cool business ideas open for anyone to try.

And remember, not a single one of those ideas is valuable unless someone does something with it. Let me know if you do. (And send us cookies to celebrate!)