elysa says

Tag: reverb10

  • … on finding your people | #reverb10

    Have you ever been in a relationship that you weren’t sure about? It isn’t terrible but it also isn’t great. How about a job? Ever had a job that you felt like you should like but for some reason something is off.

    I firmly believe once you find the right fit in any area of your life you realize how truly wrong your previous option was.

    I’ve had several jobs in my 20-some-odd years. In fact I started working at the age of 12. I’ve had jobs I was good at, short lived jobs (hello waiting tables for 3 weeks), jobs that I stayed in because I thought that’s what you were supposed to do, jobs I was great at but wasn’t sure what was missing… that was all until I found my people. Seriously? The group of people I work with now might very well be my long lost cousins. Geeky. Nerdy. Mega intelligent. Hilarious. did I mention nerdy. Brilliant Innovators. Game changers. Creative. Thoughtful. again funny. Connected. Inspiring.

    And so this year, I can truly say… I heart by job! And I found my people.

    This post is dedicated to the awesomesauce team of Bizzy! Wanna join our party? you’re invited go to Bizzy.com and sign up you’ll get to see the magic of magicians behind Bizzy. I promise you’ll thank me.

    Sidenote: I also find community offline and online with the fabulous people of Social Media Club of Dallas. And online with rockstars at Brazen Careerists. Online with fellow 20something bloggers at 20sb. AND app loving geeks at Appolicious.

    Can you tell I’m a community lovin’ kind?!

    {in participation with reverb10: Community Prompt: Community. Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010?}

  • Creativity. Digital Edition | #Reverb10

    When I was in college I discovered that I am at my most creative at 3am. If I’m awake at that time, which happens randomly I often find myself wanting to write or doodle or design something. If I’m not awake I may experience a brief spark of an idea that either presents itself as a dream or wakes me up briefly. Some time in October I had one of these moments. There are so many bright people that interact with online that I’m constantly inspired by. I’d consider myself a connector and social media and the blogging world has made that easier for me. The idea that came to was that I need a way to share the insights of all the creative minds I knew with all of the other people I engage in conversation with. A so began the hamster ball in my head…

    the result…

    I reached out to about 50 bloggers/writers/friends/strangers to ask them if they wanted to participate in a series I was planning to run. The series pitch – I’m want to close out 2010 with a series of top 10 lists, you can write on ten things you should, ten things not to, ten must try, ten anything you can think of as long as you tell me your topic ahead of time. The catch… I wanted to post the series as an ABC set so December 1st would be A, December 2nd B, and so on. Keeping in mind that there’s a pretty major holiday, or two, that fall in that time frame.

    the responses…

    a great number of yeses! Within a few days I had every letter of the alphabet filled, topics from dating to resumes, skydiving to yoga. The more responses I got back the more excited I was about how this was going to turn out.

    and so, I made…

    a month long blog series with 37(ish) writers that is received a great response from the writers and the blogging community. From this series I’ve already heard, one of the contributors has decided to write a book on the topic that she decided to add to my top 10 series, 2 existing authors get a new audience to share their book with, a few newbie writers get a platform to practice their creativity, and existing bloggers get to stretch their legs on new sand for a bit.

    in the planning and in the execution throughout the month of December I made: Connectivity.

    The posts in the series that are up so far:

    {in participation with reverb10: What was the last thing you made?}

  • Heaven Got a Good One | #Reverb10

    … that’s the text message I sent her the day her mom died after a 2 year battle with cancer. I knew it was coming soon but even still I was Not Ready.

    {in participation with reverb10. today’s prompt: Let Go. What (or whom) did you let go of this year?}

  • Glitter in the Air | #Reverb10

    Sometimes a song says it all.

    Have you ever … Closed your eyes and trusted, just trusted?
    Have you ever thrown a fist full of glitter in the air?
    Have you ever looked fear in the face and said, “I just don’t care”?

    It’s only half past the point of no return
    The tip of the iceberg
    The sun before the burn
    The thunder before the lightning
    The breath before the phrase
    Have you ever felt this way?

    … the prompt for today reminds me why I’m not a personal blogger.

    I like to be the question asker. My parents attempted a limit of number of questions I could ask when I was a small child. Known for being a firing squad of “ok but why” at a very young age. I don’t think I ever out grew that. When I meet new people there’s always a wonder of where they came from and why/how they got to be the way they are. Staying in the question is the best way to stumble across the best answers. And even when you think you’ve found an answer go back to the state of wonder and you might be surprised what’s after that…

    {in participation with reverb10. today’s prompt: Wonder. How did you cultivate a sense of wonder in your life this year?}

  • Some Things Are Meant to Be | #Reverb10

    {in participation with reverb10: Moment. Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year.}

  • Scattered Life | #Reverb10

    I’ve just recently started reading fiction books. The start of this hobby, funny enough, came when I got my iPad and thus the Kindle app. I started by reading a few of the Kindle books available for free or less than $5. I figured if I was going to test out jumping into fiction books I wasn’t ready to invest much in the event that I was just a fan of “learning” while reading.

    One of the books I picked up (errr downloaded) was called A Scattered Life. They (whoever “they” are) say you’re not supposed to judge a book by it’s cover but being someone with a design background I most certainly pick books based on the aesthetics of the cover in addition to the title. The one sentence description certainly helped in the deciding factor –

    “Most people have everything they need to be happy.” The words latched onto some part of Skyla’s brain. She repeated the phrase to herself while she rang up books and stocked shelves. It had a certain resonance to it, but she doubted it was true.

    I tend to be a person with about 47 things going at once. When I read a blog post that recommends 3 books, I’m the type to stop mid sentence on the blog post, jump over to amazon and save that book to my to-read list, then head back to the blog to finish reading. At any given moment, twitter, yammer, and various email accounts may be dinging at me looking for attention while I’m working on something else. Pandora is usually playing in the background from my TV. This works for me most of the time. But sometimes it’s necessary to shut off all the noise, to disconnect from the world. As I write this I’m being serenaded by the dishwasher and Taylor Swift. How’s that for writing inspiration?

    I picked up A Scattered Life because I’ve had people ask me, how do you keep up with all those things? blogs. apps. friends. music. social media. family. texts. emails. news. you name it. To an outsider my life may seem scattered. BUT to me it’s not. Everything works together. Having lunch with a friend can be blog inspiration, spark an idea for work or result in wanting to look up a recipe for the food we’ve had. I believe that everything in life has the stone in a pond effect.

    When I read the reverb prompt for today: “Writing. What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it?”, I almost just posted “nothing and everything“. That is my short answer there isn’t anything that DOESN’T contribute to my writing but everything that isn’t writing takes time that could be allotted for writing. I however, don’t hold myself to a strict deadline of must write X number of posts a week. I write when something interests me, I share writing of others that inspires me and sometimes I choose nothing.

    {in participate with reverb10}

  • One Word: Discovery | #Reverb10

    In addition the the month long guest post series I’m running on GenPink, today is the first day of REVERB10, a month of reflection. While I’ll be managing posts from writers all over providing their insight into various categories of life, love and work, I will also be reflecting on my life and path I’ve traveled in 2010.

    Reverb 10 is an annual event and online initiative to reflect on your year and manifest what’s next. The end of the year is an opportunity to reflect on what’s happened, and to send out reverberations for the year ahead. With Reverb 10, we’ll do both.

    sunrise

    Today’s prompt: One Word

    Encapsulate the year 2010 in one word. Explain why you’re choosing that word. Now, imagine it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2011 for you?

    2010: Discovery

    In 2010 I…

    • began a new relationship
    • turned 28
    • spoke in 4 conferences
    • was published in a magazine
    • traveled 17,784 miles
    • published 200ish blog posts (personal and professional combined)
    • heard 20 some odd inspiring speakers/authors present
    • read fiction books for the first time since high school
    • sat by my mother for 3 different surgeries
    • stood by a long time friend as she began a new life with her husband
    • left a job I was excelling in
    • started a new job, in a new industry, working for people I’d never met
    • moved to a new apartment
    • cried happy tears when my friends adopted their precious daughter
    • hired a personal trainer
    • lost someone important to cancer
    • decided to write some people out of the current chapter in my life
    • paid off 2 credit cards
    • discovered what’s important

    2011: Development

    • 2011 will be the time for things to flourish from the seeds that have been planned in 2010
    • things that were new can move to a different classification
    • things that are yet to happen can begin to develop