I have never been a fan of Twitter, and I’m not really sure why so many other people are. I do have a Twitter account (far be it from me not to have the latest toys!), but I have hardly ever used it.
The Twitter CONCEPT, however, might be about to turn into something that people can actually put to some good use, and I am working with Gary Evans from Positivity Space on a project that just might turn into something very, very cool.
In essence, we are considering building an interface that would allow people who were on the road to success to be able to stay in touch with each other as a means of keeping each other accountable, reminding each other about critical success processes, and just generally partnering up for success.
The “new” part of this idea comes in when this entire process is accomplished over short messages, rather than emails, telephone calls, message boards, etc. It will be more like quick wake up calls or reminders, and less like philosophical debates about personal growth and development.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that! 🙂
Anyway, I put a write up about what Gary and I are considering over at Personal Development Partners, and we are inviting everyone and anyone who is interested in sharing their thoughts to join in the conversation and let yourself be heard.
If you are a PDP member then you can just click the link to head over there and join the discussion. Non-members can also read the post, and they can either sign up at the site for free in order to participate and share their thoughts, or, just drop your ideas into the comment box below this post.
When Gary first approached me about this, my first thought was I’M SO BUSY!! However, Gary is a great guy with great ideas, and I realized something in that moment of considering how busy I was:
I am ALWAYS busy, and it often causes me to forget to do things that I SHOULD be doing to create the life that I want to be living. The site that Gary and I are proposing would lessen or even eliminate that obstacle.
Definitely worth checking out:
Great Discussion to start Aaron
I have a love Hate relationship with twitter,
I love seeing what my blogging friends are up to, ad when you live Down under , the time zones make for fun.
Will head over to PDP to see what you are up to.
I do pick up good tips
The other side of the coin is that it can be so distracting and a time waster.
I have thought of using twitter to reach my Big Hairy Goal that I wrote about last week. Could be an interesting experiment
In abundance
Suzie
Suzie,
That has been my general idea with Twitter, as well. I could see SOME redeeming value, but I’ve never seen enough to pursue it since return on my time investment is always part of my thought process.
The site that Gary and I are proposing would be strictly for people who want to use the interface to network/partner up for accountability, so each message would actually have a purpose, rather than just saying, “OK, I’m doing my laundry now!” 😉
I am with you that accountability is the key to success. The potential drawback of this kind of “quick” catchup system, however, is it can become a quick fix that just psyches up each other. When someone is stuck, there are reasons — some obvious, and some not so obvious ones. Usually, it’s not that the person is lazy. And not because he doesn’t know the tips and principles of personal development. Often, the reasons are covered up from himself, and he would push and push — the slipping wheel.
So how do the participants of this system listen to each other deeply to the point to uncover the hidden reasons and excuses?
Hi, Akemi.
Gary actually brought that up in the discussion about this project over at PDP. In a nutshell, he said – and I agreed – that the site would not be that in-depth.
The training and instruction about how to bring success into your life would be left to other websites and products, while the site we are proposing would just be a means for people to keep each other accountable for the tasks involved in their success processes.
Everyone is going to have different tasks based on who/where they are, and what their goals are, so this site will not try to address that side of the coin, but rather just the action items that each person has declared that they are going to be doing.
Hi Aaron,
Hey I got your email about the project and headed over here to check it out. It sounds great, definitely on a path to success there.
“Putting your goals or things you want to manifest into your life on a public website.” from the Thread. I love the idea of this. I think that a lot of people underestimate the power of manifestation or the whole “set your mind to it and you can achieve anything” mentality.
I am not very familiar with Twitter, I see little benefit to using it, but this is a whole other level of, I guess you could say accomplishment? I was thinking about some functionality that I would like to see, so here it is:
A diary/log that can be a quick post of the biggest thing you did that day to get closer to your goal(s). Almost like a forum thread if you will, so that friends or visitors can follow that thread and get a visual idea of what steps you are/have taken to reach your goals. Maybe even giving them the ability to reply to one specific post/action that you took to leave their praise or suggestions on how it could have been more beneficial.
Next would be having the ability to post your daily “twits” by email. Sometimes I just don’t have the time to go to a site, login and make a post, but if I can just shoot a quick email to “myposts@site.com”, I would be more inclined to make a post on those busy days or when I am away from my office by mobile maybe.
Another idea would be having a widget that could easily be installed in my blogs sidebar, which would show my main goal and the daily actions I am taking towards achieving that. That would allow my readers to follow what I am doing(good for me) and promote your service across the web(good for you). I am thinking something like the MyBlogLog widget.
Another idea would be automated reminders. Lets say that it is 5pm and I haven’t made my daily update, the service would automatically send me a reminder email(or text message) to work on my goals that day. This would be another helpful attribute for those busy days. Plus it would somewhat drive me to work towards my goal each day.
These were kind of rolling off my head so hopefully it all makes sense. I can probably give you even more if you want them just let me know and we will talk. 🙂
Patric
Patric,
Wow – what an awesome bunch on suggestions!!
Gary had already talked about doing some sort of a widget, and I thought that was a great idea, so that will very likely be a part of it eventually.
The email reminders, the ability to follow/respond to a thread, and the ability to send messages via email – those are all awesome. I will get with Gary to see what is possible, since he is the coding genius behind this.
Thanks again for the great suggestions, Patric – awesome value added!
Aaron – fantastic write-up on PDP. Well done my friend and thank you.
Patric – You bring some brilliant ideas. I love the “automated reminders” idea too. I think the daily email would need to have a different subject line everyday though… maybe include a daily quote or something – the reason I say this is because have you ever noticed how putting up an affirmation somewhere in your home soon merges into the background. You get used to it… and soon don’t even notice its there. If the same email is sent every day, its far too easy to hit that delete button on an automated boring email.
Thank you for taking the time to formulate these ideas 🙂 I sure appreciate it very much.
Gary
Gary,
That is a really good point about the reminder emails having a different subject line. Even a 3 foot x 2 foot vision board can blend into the background as you get used to it being there.
I have Patric’s suggestions as well as the other suggestions I’ve seen all in one pile so we can keep track and take action as needed.
Awesome stuff, Gary – thanks for working with me on this!