It seems to be the sauna at my health club where the thinking process occurs; this time when a random chap begins talking (like hello, this isn’t the place to make chit chat pal, im nearly naked).

Anyway, we were talking about what fields we are in; this guy is apparently a semi-pro Rugby player, struggling to reach the next level and not sure if this is the life he actually wants.

He spoke of not being given opportunities by his coach and the feeling like he was being neglected. He said he never had the urge to go beyond what was asked of him because he wondered why he should seeing as no-one would notice.

This got me thinking (as always).

What is it that motivates us to go that little bit further? Beyond what is being asked of us or what is the necessary and strive to make things happen that are not in front of our faces.

Motivation is a funny thing; it acts as an ever lurking energy within the spirit, cropping up in every decision we make. It creates reason, and with reason we create actions.

Getting out of bed for example, especially when you know you could fall back to sleep on the touch of the snooze button. Is that a form of motivation we can consider a positive, or is it based primarily on fear? Fear from our employers, fear of letting people down or even fear of failure.

As humans we are very different and a persons motivation will no doubt vary from the events in our past, the thoughts in our present and by the aspirations in our future.

To reach that goal, to strive for that next level and to achieve beyond what is considered the norm, we have to dig deep; understand what our motivation is, and transform the thought in our brains to an action in our lives.

It is within our journey for self fulfilment (call me Socrates) that we find the key to our minds and unlock the truth (or Sigmund Freud) behind what truly motivates us to achieve.

Call To Action

It is incredibly easy to just coast and float along, but being labelled average is far worse than being labelled a failure, in my opinion anyway.

The call to action from this post… What is your motivation? What is your tipping point and at what stage do you get up out of bed with the mentality that today is going to be the day that you make things happen?

Don’t answer the above… Just do it!

In the past few months i’ve changed a lot and my outlook on both projects i am/was involved in has also changed. This is due to a flip in career direction and also meeting someone who has made a large impact on my life. Now im feeling good about things, but im questioning my reasoning for all this in the first place.

I’ve written on Urban Music on my previous Music Blog and transferred the learnings to this site where my career is in football as a Digital Analyst (It’s ironic that my job is to be the guy that thinks too much and explains the what, where, why and how).

My other persona lives on a gaming site named The Urban Gamer, again created to use influences from Urban Music merged with Video Games. There isn’t really a huge business model here, just playing games and writing about them. My team are brilliant though! Big up the UG crew!

As for this site, i’m currently brainstorming to figure out a niche area to focus on. Im buggered if im gonna continue on this path scouring the net for Digital recycled content to put my own thoughts on like a bootleg version of Mashable.

Thinking back, one of the first posts i wrote for this site was about the benefits of a Performance Appraisal.

This is a key exert from that post:

The 4 main reasons for Appraisal are:

Motivation and Satisfaction – Performance appraisal can have a profound effect on levels of employee motivation and satisfaction – for better as well as for worse.

Training and Development – Performance appraisal offers an excellent opportunity – perhaps the best that will ever occur – for a supervisor and subordinate to recognize and agree upon individual training and development needs.

Recruitment and Induction – Appraisal data can be used to monitor the success of the organization’s recruitment and induction practices.

Evaluation – At its most basic level, performance appraisal is the process of examining and evaluating the performance of an individual.

So within these four values, i was set a specific set of questions on how to construct this task.

- What is my Ultimate Vision?
- Why am I Doing This?
- 3 areas to strive for?
- Define a set of goals that i want to achieve.

It’s been over six months since that post and somewhere along the journey of being an unemployed depressed bum to an entrepreneurial freelancing mastermind to an employed Digital Whiz Kid, i have let go of the fundamentals.

I’m going back to basics and back to the drawing board to figure out where i went wrong/right.

I’ll be back soon chappies! In the mean time, you can follow me on twitter.com/iamluca if you aren’t already.

Love!

So often, we disregard the basics because we think they are the obvious. We think that it’s common sense and we don’t need to waste our time discussing common sense do we?

Fair enough, but in Social Media, common sense isn’t so common.

With a gazillion people trying to learn something about something; a billion brands trying to learn something about people and a million agencies trying to make money out of brands. (Hang on, i’m lost already, can you repeat that…)

Today I Tweeted a very simple Social Media model that I put together off the back of some research a few months ago. It’s simple model based around some core fundamentals that any serious marketers should follow. By serious, i mean the ones that actually care.

Let me break it down for you…

Create
Short for creative, as in ‘originality’. Content is King remember and if your content is good, why wouldn’t people share it? Give your audience something exciting to deal with and package it with a nice colourful message.

Stimulate
The message… How do you grab the attention of the audience without showing them Megan Fox in a hula outfit?
Think carefully about your content; has it been created with the audience in mind and is it what they are expecting?

Listen
Social Media = Communication. So why are brands still going at this in a Direct Marketing one way traffic fashion. Your audience are talking, shouting, screaming, begging for you to listen to them. If you want to get them on side and eventually sign-up/spend with your business, you have to listen to their needs.

Curate
After you have listened, you need to be the Curator. By definition a content Curator… is someone who continually finds, groups, organises and shares the best and most relevant content on a specific issue online.
Got it? It is up to you to source those networks, build those tribes and share your content to the masses!

Acknowledge
As a content aggregator you must understand and acknowledge the audience. It goes hand in hand with listening to them. Acknowledge that the audience has the power, word of mouth spreads faster than your email campaign ever will and these chaps that apparently are interested in your brand or product have the power to dictate your companies’ future.

Feedback
Ultimately any time questions are asked or discussions are raised; feedback needs to be addressed. Whether it’s feedback to your audience or to your team, for you to understand the campaign process you need to utilise the opinions from everyone involved. Develop and grow your structures as a unit and begin to create again.

The topic of relying on people is a general discussion and it amazes me how the consensus is that you have to rely on people in life. But do you really?

To be perfectly honest, i find Bruce Wayne/Batman to be much more of a role model when it comes to proving that with determination, self belief and being proactive, you can achieve without having to rely on anyone else.

It was a quote within ‘Batman Begins’ that really made me think that dismiss the obvious fictional creation; Batman and Bruce Wayne stand for a whole lot more.

“It’s not who i am underneath, but what i do that defines me.”

With this in mind, i wrote a post about relying on people, and whether it is within yourself or others that defines what you stand for. Cos Who Can We ‘Rely On’ Really?

The Government? Please…

At the time of writing this, the General Election is the main topic taking over the minds of the general public, and while i did not vote, i won’t comment on the current situation.

But why i chose not to vote points back to the title of this post and it is simple.
I do not rely on the Government, i do not believe their sales pitches and to be honest my mum talks about it more than enough for me to spend my time watching the news or reading about it.

Should i pay more attention to the Government and their policies? Maybe. But give them one chance to let you down and you’ll be forever cursing them so i’ll leave you to decide if politics has much of a point and whether your vote/voice/opinion actually makes a difference.

Don’t Sell Yourself For Cheap

It’s the same with everything in life. Leave your fate in someone else’s hands and its like being put on eBay at a starting price of 99p. The risk is always there and you could get sold short.

Take control of your decisions and have 100% belief in yourself over anything else and you will find that you are less likely to face a problem. Simple outlook right? Kinda…

But at some point you will reach a stage where you may need to rely on someone to get you to the next step. Whether it may be a contact to introduce you to someone, looking for work and relying on either the recruiter or the employer to believe in you or even maybe just waiting for someone to arrive before you can crack on.

Bruce Wayne Gets It!

Relying on people is just a part of life and where you will always face rejection in one way or another, you overcome it by knowing where you are heading and having enough belief in yourself to just brush aside any doubts.

The message i portray on this site has always been and will continue to be that to succeed, you must rely on yourself.
You must rely on your own knowledge, power, experience and resources.

You must be self-determining like Bruce Wayne! No, I’m not saying to hibernate into a cave but i suppose if you had Bruce Wayne money things would be different. I’m saying be resourceful, be appreciative of life and be proactive.

Know that there is no absolute security in anything, and push the boundaries without relying on anyone!

That being the case, get in the thick of it and fight! Create the life you would choose to have, and whether you achieve it exactly or not, just an effort is noble. Failure is not an option!

I Am Batman

What is so significant about a comic book film that simplifies determination and discipline, is that regardless of who you are, you will be judged. It is your actions; it is my actions that will tell the final story.

With this in mind, i have put myself in the position i am in and my future relies 100% on the decisions i make and the opportunities i present myself.

For example, while i created this blog to assist and help people with easy-read articles about development, it is also my personal platform to leverage me to the next step. I rely on my determination to stay active, current and informative with articles and entertaining pieces.

Bare in mind, i am no journalist and it is not in my general skill set to write articles or stories; so ask yourself why you think that i do this and maybe you can figure out what it is that you really want to achieve and also how you will go about reaching that goal.

I am Batman and Bruce Wayne together, minus the bad ass suit and the millions, i have the discipline and the determination to overcome any hurdle that may stand in my way.

Final Thought

Rely on yourself, be proactive and don’t leave your career, your future, your life in anyone’s hands but your own!

Music Makes the Blogs Go Round

“My life is deep, everyday’s like constant grief, And all I wanna do is breathe, so I choose to rely on me, I’ll never let me down.” @TinchyStryder

Tinchy Stryder – Rely On Me
Tinchy Stryder – Rely On Me (Prod. By Dirty Danger)