chequered flag, by tharrin on Flickr One of the few television shows I catch on a regular basis is The Biggest Loser. Yeah yeah, laugh it up. IT’S GOOD.

The main reason I enjoy it is because it’s not just about a house full of obese Americans competing with one another to lose weight. It’s about motivation. And about developing yourself into a better person. And about changing the path of your life and sticking with it.

Around the gym they show on tv there are quotes from trainer’s Bob and Jillian. One I caught during the last episode was:

“Stand up and finish what you started.” -Bob

In business, it’s the folks who finish what they started that even have a chance at winning. Those that finish fast and finish strong have an even better chance. But no chances are given to the ideas. To the half-baked projects.

That might be ok if you specifically planned to not finish. But there’s a difference between confidently and calculatedly reviewing and deciding not to move forward and, just…not finishing. You see?

Finish what you started. Consider not starting if you think you’re at risk of not finishing. Wins are not guaranteed, but at least give yourself a chance to jump into the ring.

You in?

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Annie Sorensen - 30 Things You Didn't Know About Me A couple years ago I filled one of these things out on Facebook and, much to my dismay surprise, it was kind of fun. I thought I didn’t enjoy them, yet I smile every time I read one from someone else, so I guess I do like them? Ugh. Anyway, here’s an unsolicited list of a few things you probably didn’t know about ‘lil ole me:

1. I have popcorn for lunch or dinner at least once a week. It’s the food item I crave most often, and the first thing I want to eat upon returning home from out of town.

2. When I was 19, my boyfriend at the time handed me a copy of Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad. I devoured the book and it monumentally shifted my thinking forever. That was the beginning of my personal development journey and of “thinking bigger.” That boyfriend’s name was Dave, and I would absolutely not be where I am today without him. I think about it all the time.

3. I rarely watch tv, but love to watch movies.

4. I’m a big visualizer. I have strong visualizations sometimes, often that end up so on the mark that it freaks me out. Call them daydreams, I don’t care. Many of them come true, and it’s for this reason that I am a huge believer in dream boards.

5. I drink a cup of coffee, a Verve, and a glass of wine practically every day.

6. My biggest fear is dying and no one remembering me. Not me, personally, but the mark I made on the community/country/world or the people I inspired…that it wasn’t substantial enough or meaningful enough to have made a difference after I was gone. This drives almost everything I do.

7. In junior high I wanted to be an architect. In high school, a physical therapist. My freshman year in college I wanted to be an orthodontist. Sophomore year I realized I loved business, so I switched to the biz school and graduated with a degree in MIS. I then took a design job with a healthcare software company that I cared nothing about. If I were to do everything all over again, I’d go into the book publishing industry. Which reminds me…

8. There are few things in life I love to do more than read.

9. I’m a naturally-quiet homebody. Networking is a constant growth area for me, every minute of it is work. I like to think that my willingness to push through that part of my personality is a differentiating factor between my level of success and others.

10. I don’t eat dairy because I’ve read too much about it and it grosses me out.

11. I love the smell of cigars, rain, wet dog, and that fishy/watery scent that hits you when you’re near a lake.

12. In July my dermatologist found a mole on my stomach that had developed into melanoma (skin cancer). It had not yet metastasized, which means we caught it in time. I had to have surgery to remove a giant chunk of skin and now have a 5 inch-long scar on my stomach to prove it. Because of this, all the hubbub in October around Breast Cancer has really annoyed me this year. Yes, breast cancer deserves awareness, but don’t other cancers deserve that much publicity too?

13. I got married two years ago to a man who makes me laugh every day and is a spitting image personality-wise of my father.

14. I admire bits and pieces of Richard Branson, Oprah Winfrey, Justin Timberlake, LeBron James, Chris Brogan, Bear Grylls, Dean Karnazes, Steven Spielberg, Tim Ferriss, and Melinda Gates.

15. Unless I’m the one who initiates it, I hate talking on the phone. The Ignore button on my phone gets a lot of use. I KNOW I KNOW, I’m terrible. Move along.

16. I suck at cooking. I rock at baking.

17. I’m going to live to be 129 years old. Hey-oo!

18. I don’t care about politics, even though I know I should.

19. I went to Las Vegas senior year in college with three roommates. A drunk guy playing blackjack at a $100 minimum table at Mandalay Bay recruited us as his good luck charms. He would hand each of us a chip whenever he won a hand. When the guy started getting up from the table an hour later, the pit boss gave us a nod indicating we were actually ok to walk away with the chips, and we ran away as fast as our high-heeled feet could go. We raked in over $1000. Each.

20. That same Las Vegas trip, I begged everyone to spend an entire day traveling out to see the Hoover Dam. Early proof of how much of a geek I would turn out to be, and how amazing my friends were (and still are).

21. I could people watch all day long, especially at a state fair or in an airport.

22. During the fall and spring I never leave the house without either a hat or a scarf. Accessories, FTW!

23. 9 out of 10 times I shake a man’s hand during an introduction, he comments on my “strong” handshake. I mean, come on, girls. A gal with a normal handshake is considered extraordinary by comparison’s sake only because your handshakes lack confidence and suck. It think it’s pathetic.

24. I consider myself decently well-traveled, but have never been to New York City or Washington, DC and feel kind of embarrassed about it.

25. I will be an author someday. Fact.

26. I have one sibling, a younger sister, who lives in Minneapolis. I used to shove her into the turtle sandbox when we were kids and sit on the lid. She’s ten times cooler, more stylish, and more fun that I will ever be.

27. My family has called me Annie my entire life, yet I was Ann to every one else until I graduated college and accidentally wrote Annie on a demographics form my new boss sent me before I started work. I have to think twice when signing my name on messages between old friends on Facebook.

28. I am open-minded to learn just about anything. It saddens me when others aren’t open-minded to learn about anything other than what they already know.

29. Angel food cake is my favoritest.

30. Being outdoors energizes me.

31. (30 Things? Wha?) It saddens me when people aren’t willing to take personal responsibility for their lives; to take even one, tiny step towards improving it, that they’re always the victim. Inspiring people to even open up their minds to the possibility that they can do something – anything – is what drives me day in and day out with all of my businesses. It is the central passion around which everything I do rotates. I want to grab people by the shoulders that think they have no say in their own lives, shake them and say, “you can do it, IF YOU JUST EFFING DECIDE TO.”

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AnnieSorensen.com So…yeah. This is my first blog post in two and a half weeks. Helloooo there!

What better topic to tackle then, than motivation. Specifically, how to stay motivated when it comes to blogging.

How I Do It

My key to keeping my motivation when it comes to creating content for this blog is that I don’t have a key.

I mean, I do. But I don’t. Meaning, yes I always have an open mind when it comes to post topics, and yes it’s ingrained into the background of my everyday thoughts, and yes I do whatever it takes to record a post topic the moment it pops into my head. However, I don’t push it.

On Not Pushing It

I tweeted yesterday that if you have to sit down in front of Twitter.com and “think” of something to tweet, you’re doing it wrong. You’re pushing it. You’re manufacturing it. Blogging, for most of us, is the result of a passion. And you can’t force passion.

There’s a fine line between forcing passion, yet still building your blog and providing content and expanding your business behind the blog by continuing to do it even when you don’t feel like it. Yes, keep your business going (if you have turned the passion of your blog into a business), but shy away from forcing it.

So when my passion shifts focus outside of my blog for a period of time? I let it.

Take Advantage of the High-Passion Moments

Focus intently on creating habits to keep your blog in the back of your mind at all times. Look at your every day experiences in a new light; how could they be valuable to your audience? Record them immediately for later use. Record them so you don’t forget them later, and so you can promptly forget them in the now. This is the efficient, business part.

The business part wouldn’t exist without the passion part, though.

When your passion is overflowing, add the business piece and record those topics like you’ve never recorded topics before. Write out full posts until your heart’s content.

When the passion wanes, don’t force it for business’ sake. If you have to choose, pick quality over quantity. Both are preferable, but quality wins by a hair.

Let what’s important take the lead. When you’re letting the passion drive you, manufactured motivation takes a back seat, you see?

The Short Version

How do you stay motivated to blog? Find your line between passion and business, and go with the flow. The motivation will come along with the rest.

(Thank you, James H, for suggesting I finally record how I “stay motivated.”)

Agree? Disagree? Let me hear it in the comments.

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A Lonely Cardboard Box, on Flickr by Alyssa Miller

Molds. Everywhere you go it seems people want to compare you to others.

Ohh, you’ve been dating 3 years and aren’t engaged? Well, Joe and Jane over there only dated for 2 years before they got married.

You’re 29 and retiring from your corporate job? [weird, twisted face] Umm, I don’t get it. [shaking head] That’s not possible.

You’re on Twitter, therefore you have to live and breathe Twitter and post every five minutes or else you won’t be successful.

People that live in this neighborhood stay until their kids are school-aged. That’s the way it works. No one moves until then.

I’m starting a business, so I have to get funding before I begin.

Be You

Molds scare me. And not just the kind that tends to grow on the walls of our dungeon-like basement.

You are who you are, and no else but you knows the full story about your situation. Your relationships, your finances, your business, your life. Learn from the mistakes of others, yes. Follow in the footsteps of the successful, yes, but still use your head. Be yourself. Be TRUE to yourself.

See the difference?

Compare yourself to others for the sake of learning and adjusting your course of action. Compare yourself to others to inspire and motivate and perhaps even instill a sense of urgency. Be careful, however, when comparing yourself to others as a determination of success or failure. Be careful when assuming you have to fit into the mold.

Don’t Get Sucked Into Assumptions

Some entrepreneurs credit their ability to work from home as the key to their success. Does that mean other entrepreneurs who choose to work from an office or a coffee shop will never find that success? Of course not.

With some examples, it almost sounds silly that people would force themselves into a mold like that.

Be very hesitant to box yourself into ideals. Or, taking it further, boxing yourself into assumptions. Assuming that one way is the only way does nothing for you but close doors.

Keep An Open Mind

I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but thinking outside of the box is such a popular, cliche phrase because it’s (mostly) true. Thinking outside of your assumptions, allowing your mind to be open to “different” ways of doing things can do no harm.

Do you have to take actions on all of the crazy, out-of-box ideas that you run across? Of course not. But don’t box your mind into the normal assumptions of how things are “supposed” to work, or what’s expected. (Which brings up another thought – who sets the expectations on us, anyway? Who is They?)

Vemma & Twitter

In my Vemma business we follow a system. This is how you build the business, a b c d… Why is this successful? Because it’s duplicatable. The business is all about building a network, and networks support their own growth by easily being able to grow, and around and around. It’s duplicatable because it eliminates everything NOT to do.

You follow the system, yes. But while you’re working on step 2 does it matter if you’re doing it from your porch or your office or a cruise ship? No. Does it matter if you work 1 minute a day or 10 hours a day? Nope. Who says you have to move fast if moving slowly but surely is the way you roll?

With Twitter, many will argue the benefits of auto-following those who follow you. Others will argue that the reason for their success is NOT auto-following and making every interaction personal. Some say you have to use a third-party application like TweetDeck, others swear on Twitter.com.

Are we all still using Twitter? And taking advantage of building our businesses and our brands by sending concise 140 character messages to our audience? And listening and conversing? Yup, yup, and yup.

The moral? Follow the system, use the tools – but do it your own way.

Consider It

Be a continual bigger thinker. Step back and identify what assumptions about the way things “have to be” can be removed from your situation. Follow in the footsteps of the successes before you, but do it your own way. Be wary of comparisons for comparisons sake.

Get good at thinking about Why something has to be a certain way. You don’t have to take action away from the mold. Just don’t completely close your mind to the possibilities. Just…consider it.

What say you?

8 comments

a million little pieces, on Flickr by marya

Dear Oprah,

Could ya make a girl happy and actually consider putting a nonfiction book into your book club? Do you always have to be promoting the masses of your (mostly) female followers to read nothing but novels? Good novels, ok, arguably, yes. However, with the magical ability you hold to make an impact and guarantee millions of listening ears, would it kill you to include a personal development book? Or, considering the state of the US economy, maybe a financial basics book from David Bach or Robert Kiyosaki?

Do you realize the change you could inspire?

Unless you plan to continue the club after your retirement in September 2011, you don’t have much time left. You love books. I know you love helping people. Let’s do something about this, mmmk?

Love,
Annie

—–

Your thoughts?

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Apple Keyboard, on Flickr by Declan Jewell Wowie zowie. Sometimes the blogosphere (or at least the teeny tiny piece of it that I monitor) seems to blow up about the same topic all at once. Perhaps it’s like some blogger, mind-reading thing? Or maybe they get together in secret and plan it out? Who knows.

What I do know, though, is that a couple weeks ago several high-profile business/blogging/social media bloggers all published on the same topic:

Guest Posts.

Many of you know how much of a fan I am of guest posts. I think, hands down, that they are the #1 way to increase traffic, reach new audiences, and build your brand. Both for the blogger hosting the post and the blogger contributing the post.

Which reminds me, who wants free content? Contact me here if you’re up for it. :)

Side note: yes, I do have a project in the works, a web-app of sorts, that relates specifically to guest-posting. (Coming soon.) Because of this I am probably more sensitive and observant to catching discussions about it. So, in the spirit of full disclosure, am I writing about this topic now because I felt strongly about guest posting before or because it relates to one of my new projects? Probably a bit of both.

Scan the following posts and form your own opinions on the topic, whatever they might be. Promise me, though, that you will at least educate yourself by reading the viewpoints of some of the uber-successful.

Yup, it’s that important.

Escape Your Blog To Grow It, by Chris Garrett blogger & internet marketing consultant, co-author of ProBlogger

Guest Posts and Traffic, by Chris Brogan President of New Marketing Labs, #2 ranked blogger from AdAge’s Power 150

Diary of a Wimpy Blogger, by Stanford Smith VP of Marketing at Fluency Media, blogger at Pushing Social

Thoughts?

7 comments

The Social Network, www.500millionfriends.com I caught the trailer for the unofficial Facebook movie for the first time on tv today. (I don’t watch much television, has it been playing for a while?)

The Social Network, starring Justin Timberlake and Jesse Eisenberg, releases early October.

Considering this is a movie about one of the centers of the entire social media universe, I haven’t heard too much buzz. Have you? Are they even using social media to promote it? If they’re not, that strikes me as…odd? Weird? Ironic?

Hmm.

Anyway, I hated the book that this movie is quasi-based on, but I think I’ll still see it, if for nothing else than discussion’s sake.

So what do you think about the movie? Have you heard anything? Are you intrigued? Do you even care?

12 comments

Everyday Reminders

September 19, 2010

Something Upon This Stairs, on Flickr by The Other View

It’s no secret that I am a fan of goal-setting. In fact, you might even go so far to say that I’m a bit bonkers for it. (Let’s see, I talked about it here and here. And it’s also related to this and this.) Nate and I set goals every January, writing down in our journals what we’d like to accomplish for the year. Personal goals, professional goals, everything. We’re even pretty good at reviewing them two to three times throughout the year, discussing how we’ve measured up.

I am aware of the power of setting goals,
I am aware of the importance of actually writing them down,
and I am even aware of how big of a differentiating factor reviewing them regularly can be to their accomplishment.

However, it could be better. We could do better.

I was reminded this weekend of several successful entrepreneurs who review their goals every day. EVERY.SINGLE.DAY.

Yikes!

Goal-setting, beyond actually defining the goals themselves, is all about putting into motion the actions necessary to accomplish things you already believe, things you already KNOW will come true. Things that WILL BE true. We review ours about every quarter. But the rest of the year? They sit in a closed journal buried within a pile of paperwork on my desk.

The biggest successes get their goals out in the open. They’re taped up above the monitor on their desk or they’re attached to the back of the medicine cabinet in their bathroom that they open two times a day or they’re smack in the middle of the door to the fridge.

So I guess this is my accountability. Me to you. I’m going to be better.

Let’s set them and write them and review them every day. Several times a day.

I can’t wait to see what we accomplish.

You with me?

7 comments