This week is the first time in a while that I haven’t provided daily posts here. After having a great time at this year’s New Media Expo, I needed to not only recharge the batteries – I needed to achieve clearance.
Clearance isn’t the same as clarity. Since I spend January as a month of rest and rejuvenation, I have time to get clear (or gain clarity) on several fronts. Things like projects I want to undertake, the direction I want to go in with my work, and fostering new ideas. But without clearance, I can’t get close to clarity on anything, let alone some things.
I’d go as far to suggest that clearance is an absolute must before you can hope to even approach clarity. That’s why capture is so essential. It is one of the habits that brings you closer to achieving clearance. Then it’s the curation of what you capture that brings you even closer to that clearance. But capture and curation don’t bring you closer to clarity on their own; they need to be done in succession – and consistently at that.
What really brings you closest to clarity is taking the time to look at what’s best, not just what’s next. Sometimes what’s best might be next, but what’s next isn’t always what’s best. Clarity helps you make more of the next things the best things. But to get there, you have to have clearance first.
NMX was great. I spent a lot of time in the New Media Lounge, on the exhibit floor, and talking with fellow speakers and attendees. I didn’t take in too many sessions – I find that much of the best moments at events like these take place in between sessions– but I do have the “virtual ticket” and will be taking the time to look at many of the ones I missed. But I won’t be doing that next, because that’s not best for me right now. After all, going to events like this also can play havoc with routine, which definitely clutters up the view ahead for a little while.
With that in mind, you can probably guess that what’s next for me is to achieve clearance. That way the next thing will be the best thing.
