Reboot Your Life

Today didn't start off that well.  After eating some cereal for breakfast, I decided to take the garbage out.  I pulled the bag out of the trash can and carefully leaned it against a leg of the kitchen table.  Then I turned around  and  walked the few steps back to the trash can to pick up an empty cereal box that was sitting beside it.  I picked up the cereal box, turned back around and headed the few steps back towards the trash bag.  At just that moment the trash bag slumped to the side, dumping about one third of its contents onto the floor.  Crap.  It wasn't just cans and boxes and paper plates, it was almost all produce, discarded pieces of meat, and what appeared to be salad dressing slopped all over it all.  It was a rotting, slimy, disgusting mess. 

That's just how my life feels sometimes these days.  It's a big mess, and I really don't feel like cleaning it up.  But cleaning up the mess is part of life.  So I picked up the gooey pieces of garbage, put them back in the bag, added the empty cereal box, and took the trash up to the dumpster in the car.  As I tossed the bag into the dumpster, it caught the metal edges on both sides and ripped open.  Luckily, this time it all went into the dumpster.  I headed home and went out for my morning walk.  Every day I possibly can, I walk a mile and a half to the library.  I read for a bit and cool off.  Then I gulp down some water and walk a mile and a half back.  But today my mom left me a note saying  I shouldn't walk today because it's supposed to be the hottest day since 2012.  The weatherman predicted 97 degrees out today.  I walked anyway, because that's what I'm doing to starting cleaning up the mess that is my life, lose weight, and get healthy again. 

This leads to the library book in the photo above, Ctrl Alt Delete by Mitch Joel.   I found this bright orange book in the library last year, and I just finished reading the book for the third time.  The book is about this crazy time we find ourselves in where the internet, social media, and mobile devices have completely changed society and business.  Mitch Joel heads up a digital agency, which is what advertising agencies are turning into these days.  He's been blogging on the subject since 2003, and he really understands how new media are changing the way we communicate and how we interact with businesses. 

But I don't own a business (at the moment).  I came to this book after delving into internet marketing as I tried to figure out how technology has changed the writing industry.  I had three blogs that were hits in their little niches, but I had no idea how to make money with a blog.  So I dove in and started learning. 

I read websites, blogs, and free ebooks on the subject, and watched lots of You Tube videos about blogging, internet marketing, and today's writing industry.  I also started reading traditional books about blogging and internet marketing.  Ctrl Alt Delete is one of my favorites.  The subtitle of the book is, "Reboot your business.  Reboot your life.  Your future depends on it."  Joel describes this present time as "purgatory," a time when new media channels are changing society so fast that many people feel overwhelmed by it all.  Whether you're a business owner, a marketer, or simply an employee, Joel says we need to reboot our lives and to embrace the tsunami of change washing over us right now. 

I spent most of the internet age avoiding technology.  I was waiting to see how it would all shake out in the long run.  I was working as a taxi driver most of that time.  As I've mentioned before, technology came to the taxi industry in the form of computer dispatching, and it changed everything... for the worse.  When I finally had a computer to starting learning about the internet, it was 2008, and everyone seemed to have a huge head start on me.  I started blogging about my BMX days as a creative outlet, and without realizing it, I started a new direction in my life.  But six and a half years later, I'm still not making a living with my writing.

I'm still working on rebooting my life.  I'm still struggling to find a niche in this world where I can make a decent living again.  Oddly, all my studying has led me back to an idea I had about 25 years ago.  I hope to get that idea off the ground soon.  Like so many other people in today's world, I'm struggling with the reboot.  I'm working to re-invent myself in a world that has changed dramatically from my childhood, when I was told to do good in school and then get a job that I'd hold my entire life.  Those days are gone, and like with the spilled garbage this morning, I'm cleaning up the mess so I can make a new start.  Anybody else feel the same way?