This Poor Fellow's Legs Don't Work....

Yeah. I dare you to watch this video and say this guy is crippled.

Dergin Tokmak was born in 1973 and contracted polio when he was one year old. He's been on crutches since then.

He dances with Cirque de Soleil.

His home page is here.

Makes all my excuses sound pretty hollow....

Make it a great day!
Scott

We All Need to Be Heard

Progress report: I was out of town for three days this week, but I managed to make some progress: two evenings in a row I went down to the hotel fitness room and walked for thirty minutes. Not much in the grand scheme, I guess, but better than I've done in a year or more. Small steps.

I've been thinking lately about the subject line for this post. A couple of weeks ago I was walking across a parking lot to my car and I heard music; a car was behind me, waiting to turn up one of the aisles, windows closed, hip-hop playing where I could hear it from twenty yards away or so. But it wasn't the thumping bass boom you usually hear--this music was clear enough I could understand the lyrics. The car turned up the aisle, the music faded, and I realized it wasn't blaring inside the car. It was playing outside. Someone had attached a speaker to the front of his car so he could share his music with the world.

I can't say I enjoyed the music coming from that car, but it made me think. The driver of that car had a need to be heard. He needed people to know he was there, talk about him, notice him. He didn't even need them to talk to him--in fact, I'd bet he'd rather they didn't--just about him. Like I'm doing right now. He needed to know his presence made a difference. He needed people to hear what he had to say, even if he didn't know the message himself.

A few days later, M.I.A. shot the bird to millions of football fans during the Superbowl halftime show. And last weekend, Nicki Minaj showed up to the Grammys as Red Riding Hood on the arm of the Pope. I have to admit I didn't watch closely enough to figure out what it was about, nor do I really care. These examples further my point: these are people who need to be heard, noticed, talked about. They don't really seem to know what they want to say, but they aren't about to let a little thing like that stop them from talking. Success comes from our reaction--the fact of it, not the substance.

Are the rest of us really so different? Here I sit, writing in one of my two blogs, hoping my words will touch someone who will tell a friend and drive my page-views up. This week I published two tweets, then allowed myself a little bit of excitement when my two tweets earned me three or four new followers. They weren't historical, and they weren't about self-improvement, but people read them and liked them enough to want more.

I find that thrilling, because I need to be heard, too. Why else would I be here? Why else write books, share stories, publish blogs? Money would be nice--but I'll do this whether or not I ever get paid. At least until something better comes along. Because it's more important to be heard and talked about than it is to be rich.

So how do you like to be heard?

Make it a great day!
Scott

Here I Go--Getting Younger!

I'm younger today than I was a year ago. Younger than two months ago, when I had my last birthday. Oh, my body isn't any younger; I've got all the aches and pains a man my age is supposed to have, and a few extra to remind me I'm still not quite recovered from my back surgery. I can't drink as much as I used to, music in clubs is way too loud, and if the speed limit is seventy, I do about seventy-five.

So I don't act the way twenty-something me thought young folks are supposed to act. In fact, I'm pretty sure nobody will ever mistake me for a twenty-something again.

But I know something twenty-something me never knew. A lot, in fact. But one thing is particularly clear:

My best days are ahead of me, not behind.

I am happier, more content, wiser, more focused than I ever was in my twenties. And I can't see it getting anything but better. So I'm making plans to make it better.

See, I've set some pretty ambitious goals for this year, goals that are going to help me get better every day. Younger. Closer to the kind of life I dream about for myself and my family. Goals like these:

- Finish the book I've been working on for three years now. Polish it, make it great, and get it out there as an ebook so people can read it.
- Outline and complete the first draft of the sequel.
- Post twenty-five original blog entries.
- Publish twenty-five episodes of a podcast that's been nothing but a dream for more than a year now.
- Take my wife out on thirty dates. That's at least three times (probably more) the number of dates I took her on last year, and maybe half what she deserves.
- Run the White Rock Marathon in December. I've done some long walking, but I've never run more than about six miles.
- Publish twelve pieces for pay.
- Earn my PMP (Project Management Professional) Certification.

Plenty of folks will do a lot more than I will this year. But if I accomplish these, I'll have made more of myself this year than I did last year. Heck--if I accomplish three quarters of these the year will be a success.

At any rate, I'm all set to make this the best year ever. The youngest year. Until next year, at least. And I'll be tracking my progress here.

Anybody want to join me? Post your goals, or a link to them, in a comment and let's chase victory together!

Make it a great day!
Scott