Fall in Love with what you like to do, and do it. Make sure you start now! Now is yours!

A new year is there and although I am not a particular person taking too much notice to public holidays or dates i decided that I will focus in what I love to do and will make sure I will do it. I have come to the conclusion that the happiest people I have met and the professionals I have been working with are the ones that put their heart in the things they do. And they are both enthusiasts in their personal and professional lives.

And if you give it some thinking, it is not so hard. To do what you love you just need to start focus what is really relevant for your life. In one way or the other alll of us have to do things that are not sometimes our favorites. In this exercise I want to focus in the things that you like to do. Yes everyone has their passions.

A way to start is to make a list of the top things that really have magic and start by do it, one (or few) of them at the time. You cannot do it all at the same time. Independent of the challenges you have in your life there are things that make us feel alive and open new perspectives. These things should be easy and coming from a genuine pleasure in doing it. Though in order to achieve that, in most of the cases it requires focus and time. In my case, one of them is writing. The way for me to do it, now is to manage better my time to one of my preferred passions: blogging.

One thing that has been on the top of my thoughts is that independent of your problems or questions sometimes you simply ought to remember to fall in love with what you do, the simple things that in the end of the day make you feel realised and make sure you do it! Blogging is one of these things I particularly, passionately like to do!

Some questions to answer if you do not know still your passion. Did you really have been stopping for a while to think what makes you really happy? What kicks you?

In my case I have been thinking for a while and I know quiet well how to answer to these questions. Mostly one of the many things that make me happy is to make things and projects happen. Writing and blogging are a part of that. With its sensual way of making that visualisation in keywords of my thinking I do fall in love when I am blogging. Ultimately blogging is a celebration of thinking and is something that is real in its reach. Also it is a great way of communicating with other people and peers I respect from all over the world and trust me surprises can happen when you do it with love and dedication. And don’t forget when you have fun doing it.

Make sure you delete procrastination of your daily vocabulary!

Most of the successful people I admire are successful because they truly love to do their work and focus on that. And they have determination doing it almost as if they are not working but having fun. One thing all of them have in common is that they hate procrastination. They deleted completely procrastination from their vocabulary. They make sure they do not replace high-priority actions or tasks with low-priority actions, and thus putting off what really counts. This is probably one of the most negative things everyone has to manage. Thus the lack of time to what really is important.

Also they don’t loose time with small negative and useless talk. They focus in what they love an care and go for it. All of us are products of given society and cultures where the central paradigm most of the time is put in the less important and on everything that ultimately is useless. And people are afraid of doing their stuff. Thus most of people loose time in anything that is not productive instead of what really drives self development results. The delete of procrastination is the first step in order to start being full filled and start engaging with what is really key. And the irony is that in most of the cases it is really simple. Just start now. What do you real like to do that is valid, that gives you value? Think for a while are you doing it? What are you doing instead?

In here another keyword is keystone – discipline:

Nothing is more harmful to the service, than the neglect of discipline; for that discipline, more than numbers, gives one army superiority over another.
George Washington

Another quote worth reflecting and reading regulary:

“Control is not leadership; management is not leadership; leadership is leadership is leadership. If you seek to lead, invest at least 50% of your time leading yourself—your own purpose, ethics, principles, motivation, conduct. Invest at least 20% leading those with authority over you and 15% leading your peers. If you don’t understand that you work for your mislabeled ‘subordinates,’ then you know nothing of leadership. You know only tyranny.”
Dee Hock, Founder and CEO Emeritus, VISA International

How do you manage to get what you want and learn how to do it well? For me the simpler way is to follow and sometimes do the same as the people I admire are doing. Start imitating. They will be flattered by you following them! And make sure you thank, refer to them once in a while, by the way!

Some of my Resources, Peers and Magic Voices I follow with dedication and admiration:

To do that you simple research. Who are the people you admire. See what they are doing. Do the same. Yes the same. You will not get all your answers but you will get somethings and these small things will open new ways, doors of perception to your doing.

I have a particular passion to research and discover new peers, writers, authors and bloggers that bring their magic voice to the big wide web. I have been opening my perspectives through blogging and with tools / websites such as Twitter, Listorius and Facebook my reach of information is getting richer than ever. I use Hootsuite mostly to moderate my research and the way I interact with data, keyword research, peers and people in the reachable community. Interesting how Google is now omnipresent as a second level with its still for now powerful search queries. But not anymore as the central part of the web but as an underlined instrument of data query.

Here is a small list of some of the voices I admire, follow and respect:

Peter Cashmore, founder and heart of Mashable:
Peter Cashmore is the example of will power. From his place in Scotland he created one of the bigger and most influential websites in the world. If you want to know what is going on the media, web, social landscape just be tuned with him and his army of great infromation and with a bonus plenty of resources and education always useful. One of his last articles worth reading:
How Facebook eclipsed Google in 2010

Brian Solis, Future Works
My social media “friend”, proactive guru and the author of among other seminal social media and powerful guides of the contemporary media landscape: Engage. Brian has a magic of his own and an energy as few I have seen. And waht I admire mostly is that he has the passion for what he is doing. You see it when he talks, when he writes! You will find his influence in all the spectres of Social Media as one the authors that needs more attention. In his own words: “digital analyst, sociologist, and futurist, Solis has influenced the effects of emerging media on the convergence of marketing, communications, and publishing. He is principal of FutureWork. Just follow him in his wealthy Briansolis.com website. Have a look at this article:
Best of 2010: Katie Couric on the Importance of Social Media

Mitch Joel, Six Pixels of Separation
With one of the most busy and influencial blogs and podcasters in the world of media and Tech. Mitch Joel is a passionated guru, author, speaker requested by the biggest companies in the world to explain what is going on and trust me he does that making it look easy and with a passion as few. You will find in his busy blog everything about marketing and personal branding. In 2006 he was named one of the most influential authorities on Blog Marketing in the world. He prefers to be called a Media Hacker. I advice you to read this post and will understand why and sure you will become a fan as I do:
What Moved You In 2010

Greg Satell, Digital Tonto
Greg is one of the most solid bloggers and web and sometimes social / cultural media thinkers I have been reading with increasing admiration. He has a sober and deep way of writing with facts and not just falling the fashions. What I like amongst other things is that Greg is not a Sillicon Valley or even American native, he comes from post-Soviet Europe that was being transformed from a forgotten place behind the Iron Curtain. Here is one of his last articles worth reading and tinking about:
2010 – The Year Everything Was Supposedly Dead; 2011 – The Year of Scale and Synergy

Rand Fiskin, SEOMoz:
Rand Fiskin is one of the master priests of SEO and as few he is on the top of technology and all SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) complexities and tools as few worldwide. He manages to inform, educate and offer solid business ideas in everything regarding Search Engine Optimisation and Social Media and how to optimise web for search, social and everything else, video, widgets… Have a look at one of his last presentation worth reading:
10 SEO Lessons from 2010

Tim Wu, Net Neutrality:
Tim Wu was one of my recent discoveries and I am addictive to his powerful writing and academic research. An author and professor at Columbia Law School. I like the way he states his passion in his blog: “I am lucky to have such a fun job and great colleagues”. Tim is an ultimate authority in what refers to copyright and communications. He was the person that coined the term net neutrality and has been researching the advances of media and internet as few. Worth following his website: timwu.org. A video with a presentation worth listen:
Tim Wu on Communication, Chaos, and Control

Related articles

• 40 Bloggers to Watch in 2011 (problogger.net)
• Little Book of Procrastination Remedies (zenhabits.net)
• Deepak Chopra On Enlightened Leadership (blogs.forbes.com)