Unfortunately, Nothing Happens

Last weekend was interesting times for us WordPress bloggers, because the old WordPress blogs were “under attack”. I read the post from Lorelle on WP and made a quick post of my own about it.

I wanted that my blog post and tweets would reach at least one person who hadn’t heard the news and could prevent unnecessary hassle by updating her WordPress blog. Everything was fine until that point, I was trying to help and hopefully managed to do that.

But his is not a story about news. Or WordPress security.

This is a story about dreams, goals and expectations.

A story about the moment when the reality hits and drops you off the sky.

I Wish I Had a Thousand Re-Tweets

I noticed myself wishing that my “WordPress attack” post would pick up and be spread around the blogosphere. I hopped on the train and tried to make the most out of the moment.

I tried to break the news.

I started wishing for results that were not part of my strategy, not in my goals.

I hoped my post would pick up and be re-tweeted all over the world and WordPress bloggers who just saved their blog from hack attack would be forever grateful. — I know, silly, but I couldn’t help myself.

Well, of course that didn’t happen.

Mashable made a post about the WP attack and it was tweeted about 1000 times in matter of minutes.

My post? Try zero.

And that’s cool.

It’s OK to wish. It’s OK to daydream.

But I wasn’t happy about myself getting depressed when my “wish” didn’t come true.

Well, not depressed, but disappointed at least, even that I really shouldn’t.

Dreams Are Not Goals

Goals are very important and goals are what drive me forward. I’m working towards the goals, I’m working to reach my dreamlines.

I don’t like wishing that something would happen that much. I like to make it happen.

That’s where it sometimes gets twisted. Dreams become goals and goals become dreams.

I start to wish for things. I have to snap myself out of it, but it isn’t that easy.

Every now and then I get carried away. I get a great idea and think that if I do this, I will win for sure.

Wrong.

No Expectations

If I believe in something, if I am sure that it’s bound to happen. It will happen if I work on it — eventually. It won’t happen by wishing for the best.

  • I can do my best to make what I want into reality.
  • I can do my best to maximize the potential of everything I do.
  • I can work hard to reach my goals

But I cannot make something happen just because I wish for it to happen. I have to do something.

And I have to it right and at the right time.

I can do different things and see what sticks. But I cannot get depressed when something doesn’t stick.

If it just wasn’t meant to be, I move on and do the next thing, or make it better and do it again.

If I made some mistakes, I learn from them.

If I happen to get / win / find something I didn’t expect — great.

But I am even more happy when I almost reach the goal I worked hard on.

-Antti

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Topic: General
Tags: Dreamlining, Goals, Opinion
| Antti Kokkonen | View Comments

Comment policy: We're gonna be like little Fonzies here. And what's Fonzie like? Cool. Correctamundo, and that's how we roll here -- cool. Critical is OK, but if you're rude, spam or otherwise misuse the blog comments, I will delete your comment. Do not put your URL in the comment text. Use your PERSONAL name (yourname@example is cool, example.com without your name is not). Have fun, be excellent to each other and thanks for adding to the conversation!

  • Yeah, I guess the thing is that there are 10's of thousands of followers of Mashable. so really 1000 tweets is but a small percentage.
    I guess it takes a long time to build up to that.
    So if you have say 1000 followers and say about 1% tweeted, could we then compare that to mashable.

    But then I suppose if a A-list blogger picks up on your post, it could go viral.
    We live in Hope.
    .-= Robert Bravery's last blog ..7 Tips on How to write effective blog titles that solicit traffic =-.
  • It's a funny thing - it's never the post you expect that gets the massive retweets. When I wrote this one, I had no great plans for it, but @mashable picked it up and it went mad.In the end the post had more than 20,000 reads in 24 hours. Here's what happened: http://www.mikeslife.org/content/when-mashable-...
    .-= Mike CJ's last blog ..Setting a budget for your blog =-.
  • Very interesting story Mike, somehow I had missed that on your blog before!

    And having no plans is the way to go -- as you can't plan these things, you do your best and it might happen.
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