Post 1000. For Better Or Worse.

Before it was called that, or anything remotely medical sounding, I was possessed by the affliction now known as OCD. A kissing cousin to my other affliction, Tic Syndrome, it was a very mild form and mostly a benign condition.
However, this ‘OCD Lite’ accounts for things like why my desk is always neat as a pin, why I have to check the barbecue twice to make sure I have turned off the propane tank and why I religiously make sure the bike shed and car are locked every night before I hit the sack and a whole bunch of other things that I take completely for granted.
It also explains why I can’t get into my pool until there is absolutely nothing floating on the surface but me and or other peeps.
On the business side, it’s actually a benefit, because I can easily get at every work sample I have ever bothered to keep, as well as every business card I have ever collected. So that’s kind of handy.
The inside of my computer is also as well organized as the rest of my world, and as a result, it came to my attention this week that this post right here is, I am pretty certain, the 1000th long form post I have written since I started writing in this format in 1998.
The Better Part Of 20 Years

The first post I wrote, which was the beginning of a run of exactly 450 posts in my Couch Potato Chronicles series, was a review of the movie, The Blair Witch Project. Subsequent post included many reviews, entertainment and sports op-ed. And a few choice rants.
After about 10 years, the Couch Potato Chronicles morphed into a series I called Jim Murray’s Journal on WordPress, which lasted for exactly100 episodes.
This morphed again into my unmonikered posts LinkedIn, Wordpress and beBee posts, which have totalled, as of today, another 450.
Ergo 1000. I know this because my OCD Lite condition would never allow me to end a number like 447. That would just not be acceptable.
I am not including memes and miscellaneous assorted short rants, mostly done on Facebook, nor am I including the 30 posts I have done with my brother-in-arms Phil Friedman, or the several I have done for my new partnership with Charlene Norman (Bullet Proof Consulting)
These are just my instructional and op-ed original long format posts

So What, Jim?

The only reason that I even bother to bring it up at all is that there are very few milestones that we actually hit in our lives. There are meaningful birthdays and anniversaries, which gets confusing the older you get.There are the deaths of friends and relatives, which alwasy sucks. And for writers who are keeping tabs of this sort of thing, there are quantitative milestones like this one.
I suppose I could, and likely will, use the fact of this milestone, in some of the various bios and profiles I have floating around the Interweb. I guess it could add a little heft to my reputation, although, how much heft does one person actually need? LOL.
Mostly it’s personal thing, and I believe it that if nothing else, speaks to my ability to stick with stuff, all ‘Lite’ afflictions not withstanding.
I am the same way about my my marketing work. I will bang away at an idea until it feels right. Because only then does it pass the ‘ Do you really believe in this?” test that my old friend, creative director and mentor, Pete Langmuir, used to lay on us until it became second nature.

What Has All This Been About?

Writers need to write. It’s not a choice. It’s an obsession and a passion. Sometimes an affliction. But in order to keep from burning out, one always needs to keep the long game in mind.
My long game wasn’t to get to 1000 posts. My long game is nowhere near completing itself. Because I can do this shit for as long as I still have a couple brain cells to rub together.

For the most part I have been trying to make my various blogs both entertaining and informative to varying degrees.

As you move along through any process that you are suited to, things naturally get easier. I no longer labour over these posts, nor any of the marketing work I have to do. But the modus operandi is always the same:

Analyze the situation…Get an idea...Think…Think some more…Organize your thoughts…Then write…Then clean it up as best you can…Then publish.

Paying Attention Helps

Charlene said something to me the other day about wanting to reach the human side of people in business. It was just a passing thought, but I have learned that girl is full of zingers, and paying close attention to everything she says is a smart thing to do.
I thought about that particular zinger for a whole day. Then yesterday afternoon I sat down and wrote the post that elaborated on it. I will publish it tomorrow on the Bullet Proof site.
Char's comment:
“That is fucking brilliant. Just fucking awesome. You have captured every damn thing we want to do. Drive carefully puhlease. (Going to Toronto to pick up my wife and sister) I can't afford to lose your brain.”
As you can see, Charlene was very excited about this, so this method does have its advantages in terms of making people happy and getting them to react. Not everybody reacts like Charlene does, but some do, and it’s always fun to deal with the agreements and disagreements. Because that’s all part of the process too.

So Where Do I Go From Here?

Nowhere in particular. I will just keep writing about things that interest me and hopefully do that in a way that will be interesting to other people.
Lord knows I have enough experience.
Along the way, I have written a few posts that were a little on the esoteric side about writing, and what it means to me.
This sums it all up pretty accurately:

"The definitive answer to the question of why I write is because I am selfish.
I am addicted to the satisfaction of creating work and knowing that it will have a useful purpose in the world.
I am devoted to helping people succeed, which I have gotten to do many times over the years. And it’s pure joy for me.
And I am dedicated to making sure that every day I will get to spend time in the world of my own mind, and always feel I’m right where I belong.
Everybody has something they love to do. Not everybody gets to make a career, a hobby or a life’s work out of it. So I consider myself very fortunate in that regard.
But even if there was no commercial reason to do it, I would still be a writer.
Because you are what you are and you really can’t change that."

Peace out…jim

Jim Murray is a marketer, communication strategist, writer, art director & blogger. His partner, Charlene Norman is a business systems and operational analyst. Their collaboration is called Bullet Proof Consulting, headquartered in St Catharines, Ontario. Bullet Proof is designed to help companies change their thinking for the better, to become more productive and efficient, better branded and successful in today’s highly competitive business world. You can get a very clear impression of how we think at www.bulletproofconsulting.ca

All content & graphics Copyright 2017 Onwords & Upwords Inc. All rights reserved

""""