I’ve been wondering what to do with a certain project for a long time. A really long time.
I’ve considered a variety of options, ranging from killing the project altogether to returning to it “as-is” starting next month. But neither of those sat well with me, nor did any of the options I looked at. Because of that, I was stuck in limbo about the whole thing – which is exactly where I didn’t want to be.
Then I had my morning coffee with my good friend Jim Henshaw…and I knew where to go with it.1
I met Jim online via Dyscultured, and soon afterward we started having coffee pretty much every Wednesday or Thursday for the past several months. We have tremendous conversations; these coffee mornings give us both a much-needed break from our work (and the Internet), and fosters our friendship to boot. We share ideas with each other, discuss current events, creative pursuits and much more. I spoke of my dilemma with this project, and we talked it out. And Jim helped me get over the block I’d been having – and a wellspring of ideas came from that.
I met Jim online. We’ve carried that over to the offline world. We shared things both online and offline. And it is through that sharing that a project has been saved – and will have new life breathed into it that it so desperately needs. And not just for the project itself, but for my enthusiasm for the project.
That offline sharing of conversations and ideas all over a weekly cup of coffee came to be because of social media and the online realm. While it all started online, by taking it offline we have forged a much stronger bond.
Have you taken some of your online friendships offline? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this – regardless of whether you have or have not done so – because I think there’s value on both sides of the equation.
Photo credit: Daniel Go (CC BY-NC 2.0)
1 What project, you ask? All will be revealed…eventually.
