Social Dilemna

So I'm thinking a lot recently about how to manage all of these, my, social outlets. For me it's Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, and then of course this blog. And my quandary is largely around the blurring of lines between business and personal posting.

A while back I realized that all the parts of my big rich life inform all the other parts. So the fact that I'm a dad, a sensitive man, a meditator, and of course all of my other artistic pursuits informed my work and moreover who I am as a creative. So Ive been ok with the blurring of these lines. However it doesn't sit quite right with me. I still ponder whether I ought to separate them out somehow. A few of the areas where I'm not clear about it include:

• Facebook. I have a Facebook page for my "business". Business FB pages don't allow you to be friends with individuals though, and so I have a bunch of friends (on my "personal" FB page) who are business related. 
• Instagram/Flickr/Facebook. Before IG I used Flickr a lot. Now I hardly use it at all. Though they technically serve different purposes and aren't actually synonymous. Theoretically I'd use Flickr when I have a whole album of pictures to share from an event or particular time and Instagram for more social one-off kinds of things I shot with my phone. Now FB is a place people share photos much the way you used to only on Flickr or Picasa. And I use IG and FB similarly, though I don't post everything I post to IG to FB. And occasionally I'll photograph something for work, like a work in progress, and post it to the business FB page. So IG ends up being both. 
• I use Google+ largely for work related things, though every time I open it on my phone it asks me if I want to post the most recent photos and sometimes I say yes so it ends up having images from my personal life as well as work in progress and other business related posts and reposts. Is that ok? 
• I barely use Pinterest, though this is a little clearer to me what I'd use it for. 
• Same with Twitter, though I use Twitter a fair amount. Not really with any images any more, and a definite blend of work and personal, though lately heavily weighted towards business related posts. 

So, what am I getting at? I guess I want to know what people think about this mix of business and personal. Is it ok to mix the two as much as I do, as I'm describing? How do you do it? I know I'm not the only one with this kind of questioning going on. Leave a comment. Give me your thoughts. 

Good Morning!

5 minutes of mindful breathing and focused prayer.

Water on the face.

RE pad mind dump.

To-Do Today plan for the day.

1 song freak out/let go/booty shake and pull on the Love of God (Hard!).

I feel ready to conquer this.

How do you start the day?

Lessons

Here are a few lessons I learned this morning.

1. When hiking for the first time in, well, months, set expectations carefully. Also, wear less than you would need if you were say, going for a walk. Wish I had a picture of how beautiful the sun was rising over Boulder though. 
2. When AT&T says that they are going to turn your phone off, you should probably go over there right away. I thought they had made a mistake on my billing cycle, turns out they had, and I had also. So we were both "wrong". My phone didn't work today though and so I lost an hour to sorting it out. Good news, the nice man helping me figured out a way to save $60 a month across the whole plan. Problems coming with silver linings. 
3. If you are planning on getting up at 6 to begin your spiritual practice of austerities and mind clearing meditation, you should probably go to sleep more than 3 hours before you are going to wake up. Otherwise you'll wake up at 7:15 and have to rush to do everything. 
4. Everything is as it should be. It's all about your perspective. Despite all of that, I managed to have a good hike (the first in too long), I got everything I needed to accomplished, I got $60 a month knocked off my mobile bill and I probably lost a little extra weight from all the extra sweating I did during said hike. 

I'm very happy with the way twentythirteen is shaping up already. I'm feeling inspired to write (amongst other things) and I can feel that it's going t take some time to get used to this. I'll keep slugging away at it. Meanwhile I'm more connected to Fiona, I have some very interesting work opportunities popping up, I have more to do than I have time for and that's the right problem to have. Thank God for my meditation practice which helps me clear my mind and focus my energy in the right next area. 

Short one this time. I'll probably try and get to it again this week. Thanks for listening. Pictures next time.

Here. I. Go.

Well, like so many others I'm sure I'm starting off the year with lots of intentions, one of which is to keep coming forward, and one way for me to do that is to get this ol' blog restarted. I feel totally new to it again, and it's a bit awkward, so bear with me as I get my feet under me again and get going.

So, twenty thirteen. I'm declaring this:

The Year of Responsibility and Prosperity
(With a Helping of Abundance)

My intentions for the year fall into several basic categories. 

FOR MYSELF

• Be more responsible in the following areas: Work, As a Father, As a Partner and as a spiritual seeker. 
• This also means to become MUCH more financially responsible. 
• This includes becoming D E B T  F R E E. Big goal. More on that later. 
• As I mentioned before, I have come forward in my life considerably in the last few years, and there has been some time this last year or so that I've been more focused within. It's time to start coming out again. This blog will be one of the vehicles I'll use to do that. 
• Create More. I want to spend more time in my creativity than in management or suffering avoidance. 
• Along with the creating, I want to play more. Really play, like a child. With a child. 
• With the two above, I want to stay loose. I tend to bear down and get all uptight. Less of that. More flexibility. 
• Exercise more. Eat less. 

WITH MY DAUGHTER

• Meditate play dance cry laugh cook connect. 
• Play More. As above, I tend to be a taxi driver, cook, helper, motivator or shepherd, and I want to spend more time being with her. Playing with her. Exploring with her. 
• The focus of my energy with her is to raise her up. Not to come down on her or be an overbearing force in her life. I want to help her find the wind beneath her wings and see her take flight. 
• And I really need to watch my reactions with her. I am finding when I tune in to her, with her, etc. that she often, or more often than it's actually true, she thinks I'm upset with her. That's my responsibility. 
• And similarly, I am pondering what my actions say to her. This is a new level of awareness I'm trying to develop. More on that below. 

IN MY RELATIONSHIP

• Be more playful and less serious. It's so easy to get wrapped up in things and to forget to play. 
• We're setting off this year intending to meditate together at least once a week. And with the kids a few times a month or as it feels right. 
• Take our kids into consideration in a whole new way.  
• Be more vulnerable. 
• Exercise more, eat at home, read and talk. 

SPIRITUALLY

• Get back to my daily practice. I'll write more about this in the coming weeks. Chiefly, begin and end the day intentionally and with God. 
• Meditate. Every. Day. 
• Keep DJing and participating in classes. 
• Keep bringing the tools and teachings of the path I'm on out to the world. 

IN MY CAREER

• This is the year of getting my career completely back on track. 
• This is an area where I desire to become much more responsible. This will include being more proactive about communications, timing, setting expectations, tracking time, etc. 
• It's time to get my social presence out there, finish the web site, and begin networking in a much more aggressive way here in Boulder. 
• This is the obvious area for me to really engage my creativity, and get myself out there as an artist, as a thinker, as a creative person. 

One of the key points I've been getting to after going over this list for the last week or so and sharing with a few people is this notion of being responsible to others. Considering others. This is a rich topic, which I'd like to write more about later, and what I want to say here is that it is by considering others that we find our own true work. If I make other people's well being and interests more important than my own, or at the very least be willing to truly consider them, then that is the work I want to be doing in my heart. It is not easy, at least for me. I am finding as I lean into this that it often leads to sacrifice. Mostly of what my preferences are. And that is where the really good stuff starts to happen.