Sunday, December 29, 2013

As 2013 closes, a look back at 360 Convos


In looking back through the five years of writing for 360 Convos, a couple of things stuck out -- one, there's not a lot of blogging during the first month of the year.

This January post, though, I thought had a good suggestion:
Unlocking better habits is like winding a watch. You have to do it everyday. If you don't, your watch or your good habits stop. There is no battery for life to keep you on track and ticking, except your own desire. January 2011

February is a lot about social media, including this scary sounding Social Media Policy from February 2010.

March is usually a focus on business and business contacts, and one of my favorites was a conversation with an ex-newspaperman: Convo with former journalist Steve Woodward from March 2010.

April normally presents an opportunity for personal appearances: Writer and website wrangler Carol Doane to appear... from April 2012.

Best May ever for 360 Convos was 2010. That was the year the Social Media Awards of the Pacific Northwest called to say "top finalist!" No trophy came home, but the night was huge and included the Big Boys and Girls in Social Media and Me.

June includes bittersweet memories, Business smoked out, books destroyed but not the heart and demonstrates how a small business can rise through crisis like a phoenix and teach us to never give up.

July cannot slip by without a tad of humor, my favorite: More people spoke positively about kittens this week.

Never fails, but sometime during the year aggravation accumulates with the churls who think that the only way to measure the success of anything is by the numbers, how high, how big, how many, how much. You can catch an August rant in: Is spending more the only way to measure America?

September reminds us, be fully present from a blog titled Mental Cruise Control.

October presented itself with a moment in which I was humbled by my daughter's kindness to a stranger. On her personal blog she wrote a poem about her experience taking a bottle of water and a granola bar to a street beggar that was recapped in a post she called Adventure Hour and 360 Convos called, How Deep is Your Social Community.

Back in the beginning of 360 Convos, November 2009 in fact, I posted my bio. On the first go round, I did it without sharing my name. I've since overcome my Internet shyness and added About Carol Doane to the navigation bar.

December? At the moment I'm organizing the storage area and uncovering a plethora of holiday decorating items I had long forgotten. Blowing off dust sent pieces of nostalgia through the stale air of the basement and made me wish we could have Christmas all over again.

We can't.

We can only go forward, and that is the best part of a new year -- the forward momentum it gives us, the challenges we give ourselves, the need to be better than we've been and do more than we ever thought possible.

Have a magical year,