Conversational Media Marketing

The only tense is future

Years ago, following some personal tragedies, I went to a  counselor. A couple of things he told me were life changing. "The only tense is future," he said.

By that he meant the past is passed. There is nothing we can do about it. To describe the present tense, he used the illustration of an arrow in flight. You see it, but if you reach up and attempt to grab it, the arrow is already gone. Therefore, the only tense is future.

He went on to say there are two ways one can face the future. We can either passively sit back and allow the future to come to us and do with us what it will or we can reach out and seek to shape it. Those words inspired me to do just that.

Looking for flowers

My good friend, Yvonne DiVita, wrote a post today entitled Looking for Flowers. In it she recounts speaking to a group recently about blogging. She said, "As I stood at the front of the table and looked around at all those eager faces - faces of women my own age, faces of women much younger, faces of eager learners with bright eyes and shining smiles - I thought of flowers."

She added, "That essence of joy isn't for diamonds or pearls. Not cashmere or lace. Not gold or silver. It's in the  flowers - a tangible fragrance that fills us with wonder. In that room, surrounding those women and men, the laughter, the joy of congregating together to share stories, and learn something new, was like standing still in a garden, on a Sunday evening, listening to the flowers whisper to each other."

An "auntie" makes her dreams come true

Yesterday, I learned about a new social network called SavvyAunties.com  and had a chance to tweeter back and forth with its founder, . I was impressed by something she said in response to one of my tweets, "Managing your dreams-come-true is hard work."

Her's is the obverse of the lives so many experience, the kind Teddy Roosevelt described as a"gray twilight."

He said, "Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."

What matters most

I'm sure you would agree what matters most in life is not the net worth of our stock portfolio, how many friends we have on Twitter or whether we own the latest tech gadget, but the joy that can come from, like Tony Snow, living our lives to the fullest, taking time to invest in others and smelling the fragrance of the flowers that comes from that "pollination" and, as Melanie has experienced, making our dreams come true.

I don't know about you, but I'd rather burn out than rust out, taking chances to try and shape my future, even if I fail mightily, than sit idly by and watch the future bring to me what it will. I'd rather go after my dreams and expend my life helping others achieve theirs than live in the "gray twilight" where no difference is made.

So, thank you Tony, my counselor friend, Yvonne and Melanie for reminding me of what really matters. Let's go look for (and smell) some flowers!