Day 7 #7DaysOfSocialMediaVulnerabilityChallenge2017

What did I learn about myself?: I am easily wooed by the “likes” “Loves” and comments. The dopamine high is real, and when one day I get 89 and the next only 15, I feel the crash of disappointment. My logical brain says it could be a million other factors (the time of the post, the day, or any of the other reasons that I did not appear at the top of my Facebook friends news feed) but the crash is felt none the less.

What feelings did I have?: There have been many moments of self doubt, nervousness and uncertainty as from idea inception to just before hitting post. My commitment to follow through persevered over all other feelings. I am glad that I pre-wrote the first 6 days (Today's post is being written in real time). I manage social media accounts at work and on a few days posting on my personal feed just felt like work, and I was glad that I had pre -developed content to fall back on.

Do I have any next steps?: Not yet, I do have a nice long drive tomorrow so another idea might present itself.

Day 6 #7DaysOfSocialMediaVulnerabilityChallenge2017

I spent so many years with just enough income to be OK. It has only been in the past few years that we have started to have enough that we are in a place to give back. As I shared yesterday I love to plan. This past year we had a charitable giving focus on non profits that were doing positive work in water system clean up and preservation. See my blog post from last year if you want to learn more http://surrealvolunteering.blogspot.com/2017/01/middle-class-donation-2017-guide.html

In 2018 I think our society needs to foster places of honesty and dissent. Telling stories that are not click generators but hold truth. This year I have selected the following four places that we will donate to. 

National Public Radio-  a big player in the media space. . https://www.npr.org/ I listen to them almost daily and while they lean left, I hear voices from both sides and stories that are followed because they are important not because they have funding tied to them.

The Stillwater Current - a small voice in the media space.  http://www.stillwatercurrent.com/ Local independent news is going away. Helping keep locally owned voices is important. I grew up in Minnesota and am excited to support news in my home state.

AIDS quilt: http://www.aidsquilt.org/ AIDS remains taboo across our society while it continues to impact those we love. This project helps raise awareness and helps keep the conversation moving forward.

Fourth this year is going to be helping fund high school art teacher projects via Donors Choose. The first project we will be supporting is this one: https://www.donorschoose.org/project/block-printmaking-art-ernative/2773345/ Art is a path to understanding, conversation and expression. Giving students resources to help explore their thoughts is critical as we see our freedom of expression being questioned.

We have at this point established a few ongoing charities that we support

Goodwill industries – The method of used items to create employment opportunity model gives so many a chance for employment who would otherwise fall through the cracks. We support them through routine donation of used items.

Big Brothers Big Sisters – I have been volunteering with them for over a year and expect to continue that into 2018. I support their various fundraising events (5k’s and restaurant give back nights) 

The United Way -  This is an opportunity to touch many non-profits in a collective community approach. 

The American Red Cross - This cornerstone of the American nonprofit landscape needs our support year round.

Rotary - I am active with the local Rotary, my club has a monthly monetary donation in support of the local food bank, thus through my rotary contributions I will be supporting both Rotary and the Food Bank.

A few things to note about this strategy.

1.    While this sounds like a lot, we break it down where different organizations get donations on different months helping keep to our budget. – I set calendar reminders to help me remember who I have slated to donate to each month (Did I mention I love to plan).

2.    The total that we plane to give across these is less than $2,000.

3.    I attempt to amplify my gift by following social media accounts and sharing twitter updates when I donate.

4.    We rarely if ever give to spontaneous asks such as at the supermarket or our workplace, this helps keep us focused and on budget while we donate to causes that help our society. 

Day 5 #7DaysOfSocialMediaVulnerabilityChallenge2017

I can easily over plan and over think things.

The idea for this #7DaysOfSocialMediaVulnerabilityChallenge2017 was planted by the book ‘Never Eat Alone’ by Keith Ferrazzi.

 I thought about how to take some of his lessons about social connecting and his discussion of social media and turn it into action. I came up with this idea and proceeded to ponder and think about doing this for three days before I decided I wanted to give it a try. 

I than spent the 5 days leading up to the start of this pre-writing each days bit of honesty, worried that I would not have something interesting or properly honest to share for seven days in a row.

Day 4 #7DaysOfSocialMediaVulnerabilityChallenge2017

Today I'm struggling with the balance of having a demanding career, taking care of routine life things (like getting my car registered) and spending time of my spouse who works overnights and weekends so our schedules are not fully in line. Today's balance was to get up at 6 a.m. and have breakfast with my spouse (His dinner). I worked until 5 p.m. but easily had another 2 hours of things to do however decided to put those on the back burner so that I could come home and spend the evening with my spouse opting to completely ignore my car registration putting it off for another day.

Day 3 #7DaysOfSocialMediaVulnerabilityChallenge2017

I meditated today for the second time this week I'm really enjoying from the five to ten-minute guided breathing that you can find when you search meditation videos on You Tube. 

10 min or less is my ideal amount of time, when I was living in India I went (Three times a week) to a 90 min Tibetan reflection teachings, 45 min at the start was always silent meditation and I hated it, felt anything but relaxed. 

I think 10 min of guided breathing based meditation really slows me down and help me keep life in perspective. Especially as perfectly mundane and normal things can become easily over-analyzed by me and start to stress me out. Focusing on breathing allows my mind to stop and reset. Its really been wonderful. 

Day 2 #7DaysOfSocialMediaVulnerabilityChallenge2017

As I've moved further into adulthood I found that it's difficult to build deeper relationship connections with casual acquaintances. This social challenge that we face is widespread and expected as we become a more mobile and urban society. This social reality is part of what prompted me to put myself on the 7-Day to end 2017 social media sharing challenge. Putting myself out of my comfort zone by putting honest parts of me out there for all of you to see.

Day 1 #7DaysOfSocialMediaVulnerabilityChallenge2017

I'm a passionate day hiker nothing makes me happier than getting out and doing 6 to 11 miles on a trail, where I feel relatively alone, guided by a path created years before. When hiking the slight elements of risk exist and my success is ruled by my actions. When hiking alone I can easily get lost in my own thoughts. When lost in thought I pass hours and miles without consciously processing what's happening in the world around me. When I look up the physical space I'm in is lovely and alive and something very few have access to, it’s a moment of bliss unlike anything I can re-create.

7 days of social media vulnerability challenge 2017

As I've navigated my way into a world where social media relationships are built on sharing personal As I've navigated my way into a world where social media relationships are built on sharing personal information I've stayed relatively quiet.

I want to challenge myself; for the next 7 days as I close out 2017 to move into 2018, to every day share with, you, my online connections something personal that's happening in my life.

I am calling this the 7 days of social media vulnerability challenge 2017.
I am nervous and excited to see how the next seven days will impact me and what impacts it might have on those who I am connected with in the social space. I will be posting on Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, Pinterest and Snapchat.


Check back tomorrow for my first post.