It's a beautiful Sunday afternoon and everyone's taking a nap. Figured it's the perfect time to write.

This morning I just finished loading my truck with boxes of toys, clothing and variety of household items. Tomorrow we're headed out first thing in the morning to donate it.

It makes the process of downsizing a lot easier knowing that the things we had is going straight to the hands of people who need it.

The actual act of paring everything down has been an eye-opener. It's not as easy as I thought it was going to be. I never realized I can get so attached to something I barely used. We actually have had a couple of fights because of it. I'm talking about temper tantrums, like taking something away from a child.

The baby steps towards a minimalist mindset is:

Emotional. Like I said, we get attached to things. We become very sentimental about stuff that hold no sentimental value whatsoever. Toughest things for me to get rid of? My game table and my 3 piece entertainment bar set. (It was one of the first things we purchased when we bought our first house.) I decided to get rid of both because it's silly to put the game table in storage when some kid can be enjoying it instead. The bar has no place in our smaller NYC apartment.

There's no shame in owning up around my blog so here goes...

You know what really ate me up? I was pretty pissed off that people were buying great pieces of furniture from us for a great price when I paid full sticker price for it. That's my fault for paying $$$.  So I'm really pissed off at myself. Do you smell a sucker? Then it must be me! Zing! Never again though. Live and learn.
 
Enlightening. It forces you to think about things you usually don't have to deal with. Like, "How the hell did I end up with this much shit?" I swear I didn't get them wet & didn't feed them after midnight so I don't see how they could've multiplied  and turned evil on me (I always insert random movie references whenever I get a chance) And it's not over yet kids!

Exhausting. Uh, yes, yes. Actually I should be taking a nap but I had to get this post off my chest. Between last week's yard sale, putting stuff up on craigslist, boxing things up for the move and donation - we're both pretty wiped out.

I just realized each one of those points started with E. That was completely unintentional.


What I learned.

This is the beginning of a process. Not just of eliminating unnecessary objects either acquired or given to us, but understanding how we ended up having so much but only using and needing very little.

It takes a lot of work and effort to make conscious and wise decisions as a consumer. Do I really need this or do I just want it? How is this going to help me/us with our current goals?

How to be a better consumer. We won't have any large furniture when we get to NY which means we'll end up purchasing some basics. We're looking for multifunctional pieces and going for more of a utilitarian route. Space is limited so it needs to have a purpose for being there.

It gets easier as you go along, or it feels like it anyway. You know the term "unloading the baggage?" It literally feels like you're doing that. It's easier to think that someone else is enjoying that guitar that you barely play, that shirt that still had it's tags on, etc.

This doesn't mean I'm giving up everything and just living with 100 things (Amazon Affiliate link).

We're just creating new habits that in the long run will enable us to save money, appreciate the things we do have, concentrate on the stuff that matters, be smarter consumers and focus on building and creating our ideal reality which will hopefully lead to making a lasting difference.

Update: Dropped off all the goods at SafePlace today. It was a longer drive than anticipated but it was completely worth it.

About the title? For me, minimalism is gangster because it's a full-on hard core commitment to undoing the way you live, the way you consume (or not consume) and becoming a more conscious human. It's not just about getting rid of stuff, it's about dealing with lifelong habits and inner demons. So yeah. That's my answer and I'm sticking to it.

P.S. I was torn as to which photo I was gonna use for this post so here's the alternate one.

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I covered a lot of bases on my last post and there's some very important points there that deserve its own dedicated post. So today I'll be chatting a bit about why choosing a topic is detrimental to not only your site but also keeping your own sanity.

So let's flip this around. Say you're wasting time surfing the web, cruising the Twitter highway. A Tweet buddy puts up a link and you click on it. It takes you to the destination page - a landing page. You quickly give it a once over, scanning it like most people do. After a few seconds you realize you have absolutely no idea what kind of site it is you're looking at. If you're a patient kind of person you'd probably look around for some kind of clue as to what the site is about but most people would probably exit the site, never to return again.

Why choosing a "unique badge" will help people remember you and keep your brain from exploding.

Choosing a topic or a focus for your blog doesn't mean that's all you'll ever talk about. But your audience needs to be able to identify what your site is about without having them hunt down for it.

Areas you can place your unique badge
Banner.
For example -
 - Author of YA zombie novels
 - The funny chef: cooking and telling jokes since 1995
 - The beer brigade: We drink beer. Then we review it.

If you can't decide what your "thing" is just yet or if you can't peg it down to one, you can whittle it down to a select few  Kinda like what I did.

Sidebar.
In your about me or Welcome section. Just a few words to describe your site. Don't be vague, be as specific as you can.
For example -
 - Welcome to my blog. This is where I write about what I'm doing to get back in shape. I'll be sharing my recipes, work-out regimen and daily progress.
 - Hello and welcome. This site will chronicle my life as I build an urban homestead.

Title tags.
Keep his short and to the point. Try to use keywords that will help you be found. These are things that get you indexed in search engines. Don't just put your URL either. And you shouldn't leave it blank at all.

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Benefits from selecting your unique badge:
It helps people identify and associate you with it. Retention improves with repetition.

You want them to say "Hey, you're that guy who blogs about cupcakes." or "You're the B-movie blogger", or "You run that site about being an urban minimalist." You get the point.

It helps you keep your focus on the content.

If you're like me you get to be scatterbrained and want to blog about everything under the sun that strikes your fancy. Brain explosion!!! But trying to be everything all at once will make you an expert at nothing. Concentrate on a few things you're really excited about and build on your strengths.

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Questions to ask when you're trying to decide what your blog focus should be about.
 - What is the one thing you want this site to be known for?
 - Who are you trying to reach?
 - How do you plan on getting people to notice?
 - What topics get you excited enough that you can talk about the subject and keep the level of intensity up?

*******
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3. Send me a quickie e-mail to say hello - let me know what your unique badge is for your site. Would love to check it out.

is something I don't do. It just happens to be on TV right now. Not Twister (with the flying cows) but a reality show with storm chasers. I know, lame intro to a blog post but I'm trying to be all spontaneous here.

The topic for this post is not tornadoes but transitions (stress, how it relates to new media and blogging, and a few tips for noobs).

Living life in transition is a bitch. Anytime there's some kind of major change going on - the daily routine falls by the wayside and you're left kinda winging it from one thing to another. On top of that the anxiety levels skyrocket. As I'm typing this I've got a tight knot on my shoulder.

My transition? The final push to get rid of stuff and move to NYC for about a year/year and a half, going back to school, elevate my blogging goals, starting a business.

But hey, life's all about transitions right? Some are more significant than others but the point is to adapt and embrace change. Learn from it - good and bad. Keep striving and trying until you get things just the way you like it.

Like Tom Petty's song says - The waiting is the hardest part.

During this "in-between" stage everything's awkward and you sometimes question decisions, second-guess yourself, maybe even start back-pedaling.

New job? Moving? Starting over? New relationship? New project?

Scary? Hell Yeah.

The first instinct when dealing with something that forces you outside of your comfort zone is to resist. You fight against it  because you're afraid - what if you look like a complete ass, what if you're rejected, what if you get a bad review, afraid that nobody will visit you blog, afraid to let people in.

Give perfection the middle finger.
Let that illusion go because it'll get you nowhere. All you'll end up doing is make excuses. Before you know it, you would have talked yourself out of doing something new.

The thing about transitions is the unpredictability factor. Sure, we're all creatures of habit but not all habits are good.

I say screw all that. Once you've committed to doing something, just get it done. Try it out. Launch that site, try a new design, a new style of writing, record that demo...whatever it is. Then quantify the results later.
Great ideas without execution is nothing but pipe dreams.

I can cover all the bases here but since one of my missions is to help you build sites/blogs that don't hate you - I'll deal with that today.

Making a transition from non-blogger to noob blogger or elevate your noob blogger status to something more is tricky.
I've put my noob goggles on to break down the basics for a smoother transition. So here goes.

Where's your focus, man? Pick a topic any topic.
Choose a main topic that you want to be known for and write content around that. You like juggling? Then your blog should be mainly about that and not about pancakes. Unless you can find a link between the two that is. I kinda cheat on this - look at the title - it says "dark fiction writer, new media tips, elevate your passion." Those three are actually interconnected for me and is very relevant to what I'm doing here so at the moment those are my key topics. There's also more to the selection process but I think I'm gonna explain that in a future blog post.

You need some discipline.
No, not like some weird kinky bondage thing. More like a work-flow thing. Set an editorial calendar. Decide how many posts you want and can do in a week and when you want it posted. Then as you brainstorm topics you can assign it to specific days. Before you know it, you'll have a month's worth of content roughly assigned. You can even break each weekly post down to specific topics (i.e., Monday - is movie review, Wednesday - spotlight on gadget, Thursday - fav website, Friday - weekly roundup)

I've actually experimented with the themed post - it's fun but feels forced. I'm on a schedule right now and I just recently started the monthly pre-planning of posts, and it's reduced the amount of chaos and anxiety that comes with writing a consistent stream of content.

You can use Google Calendar.

Me? I have a techy-crush on Teux Deux.

Deadlines. Stick to it.
I hate to say this but be brutal about this part. Do your best to stick to a schedule. Pretend you have a boss and your boss is an asshole, you better get it done or else he'll eat your lunch, pour honey all over your keyboard or slash your tires. If for some reason you know you'll be MIA then let your audience know (even if you have a very small audience). It's like missing a dinner date, you gotta let 'em know somehow why you you can't make it. Don't leave them hanging. It's just the nice and classy thing to do.


Write the way you would talk to someone.
Seriously, show off your personality. This is like a pet peeve for me - I'm always looking for new blogs to read and sometimes I come across one that has a gorgeous visual layout, everything's perfect and shiny, until I start reading the posts...then what a let-down. Nothing is more of a buzz kill  than reading stuff that sounds generic, boring, and using words that sounds like it came from a refrigerator manual or a prescription label.


Don't delay. Put the darn thing up and tweak later.
Remember what I said earlier about executing an idea?
There's a lot of elements that can be improved on but just get your idea out there and take action. You can worry about SEO, SERP, social media, keywords, design, functionality, marketing, etc. as you go along. Start bare-bones and learn as you go. Also, you don't need to wear all the hats in your operation. Again that's another post in itself.


Very important. Once you're comfortable with the technology and how it works you can turn around and make it work for you. Then you can actually reverse the process - research, test then launch.
And it's ok if you don't know anything about half the stuff I just mentioned because it's overwhelming.

As Joss Whedon said - There are no rules, so let's all get out there and play.

P.S. - As I was finishing up this post I just realized there's a lot of info that I can further elaborate on so I'll be taking it apart and breaking it down so I can get to the specifics. That should be fun.

So this Thursday - I'll be talking about your blog's focal point and choosing your topics. See ya then. Same bat time. Same bat channel.


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1. Share this post and site with others - email, tweet, FB, stumble, digg. (I've turned off comments for now so you can focus on sharing)
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Way to go Van Saint. You just called your readers a candy-ass.

Not true. NOT all the readers. JUST the candy-asses.

Truth is, I should've posted this like several hours ago but decided to play hooky instead and hang out with the family this morning. Gorgeous weather, nice breeze, no stinking allergies, strong coffee - perfect morning for a walk and actually using that patio furniture outside. How can I pass that up?

So anyway, back to the current topic. Being stuck in a rut. What kind of rut? You name it - creative, personal, business, financial, mental, career, relationship. But for the sake of this post, I'm talking about career/financial/creative rut.

In choosing the direction for this blog, I've reflected quite a bit on my situation as well as the people around me (coworkers, family, friends, acquaintances). I would say there's 2 distinct patterns that emerged, better yet, 2 groups of people.

1) Those who currently live in a fulfilled and satisfied state and 2) those who are stuck in their comfort zone - in perpetual routine mode - not really going forward but not exactly falling back either. They're just there. In limbo land. Something's missing in their life which they've figured out but now they're unsure about what to do about it.

A quick side story to set up my point.
So I have this friend who's not happy with her job, her pay, misses doing creative stuff. She desperately wants to get back to making art and trying to make money on the side doing just that and knowing that I've spent a few years freelancing she asked me what I thought.

So I told her what I thought, probably not what she wanted to hear but it's the truth. Working at home had its perks especially doing something you enjoy and love, but that love turned into a chore I dreaded to do with very tight deadlines, extremely long hours, a few very unreasonably demanding clients and an income stream that was feast or famine at times. In saying that, I told her she can absolutely pull it off and I'm willing to lend her a hand with setting up online stuff, marketing, web and print graphics, etc. But it's gonna be a lot of long hours and she has to fully commit to it or not bother at all. Best time to start is while she has a job so there's no stress in creating income. Right now, she's keeping the job and making some noise on her down time. But she's doing something about it.

I think that's a main ingredient (if not THE main ingredient)  for any budding entrepreneurs. You better go all in and fully commit.

Sure, doing what you love is fine and dandy but guess what? That love dwindles after a client delays payment or you've been working 14 hours straight or your significant other is hating your guts cos he or she has seen you less since you've worked at home than when you worked a 9-5. Do what you love turns into what the fuck am I doing?

I'm all for doing what you love but be prepared because it's on!!!

Them's fighting words Van Saint. Step off before you get jacked up.

Settle down. I'm getting to the good stuff.

Death by slow kill -
is a phrase I use in describing that state of mind where a person just goes about their business because it's easy regardless of how much they would rather be doing something else. You can postpone it, deny it, make excuses for it, drown it with your TV - but if you'd rather be somewhere else, doing something else...there's no shaking that away. It's gonna stay there and keep you up at night and pester you throughout the day and the day after that and the day after that.

Don't be a placeholder for the person you really want to be.

There's a lot of self-evaluation involved in making difficult choices and that part is up to you really.

A few things to keep in mind when you make a career switch or decide to start your own business AKA lessons I've learned in the last couple of months.

Identify what's holding you back.  Can't remedy something if you don't know what the problem is.

You better go all in. That unwavering vision of your end goal and beyond will help fuel you during those difficult times when you start questioning your love for the game. Because at that point your love becomes a business and you have to treat it as such.

Plan of attack. You need to map out the necessary steps you need to take to get to the level you want to be in. For example - Keep your day job but dedicate an hour or two before and after work for your pursuit. Keep it simple, specific and give yourself a realistic deadline.

Know how much you can handle. Don't spread yourself thin. If you know you can only handle this much workload then don't take on twice as much your capacity. Just cos you're an amazing cook and a master of propaganda doesn't mean you should start that catering side hustle and go solo as a marketing consultant. Pick one and follow through. If you're some kind of genetically altered freak and/or have superhuman powers with the ability to get by on only 3 hours of sleep and juggle tasks like nobody's business then by all means, do it.

Create a work schedule. Yep, have a system that works. You may have to feel it out in the beginning but determine when and where you're most productive and work during those peak hours. (For me, it's very early in the morning or very late at night)

Get used to failing. It's trial and error. Learn as much as you can, test it out for yourself, and reassess your game plan. Chances are, you will fail. So fail and cope with it. Curl up in a corner and cry. Eat a pint of ice cream. Throw a bitch fit on the interwebs. Whatever. Learn to adapt, let it go and move on.

Have fun for fuck's sake. I choose to do things that are fun and enjoyable to me. If it's not fun, I just drop it. What's the point of creating sites or blogging or starting an online business if you're not getting any enjoyment out of it? I mean seriously, if you're gonna bitch and moan about it then just keep your current job and relax at night or weekends.

So there. My lessons learned, I'm passing it on to you. Apply and remix as needed.
Unless you want to be a candy-ass, that is.

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Nerd lair check-up
Things I've changed:
Banner - I've changed the banner for the site with my main focus included. It's something I've had trouble identifying in the past but is now in full-focus. Elevate your passion. In doing so, I've decided to place all my other posts (fiction, doodles, etc.) in The Hooligans section only. That way, my main blog (the one viewable by non-Hooligan members) is not cluttered and focused on my current goals. Any previous posts will stay there though. =)
Tags - This was a major pain the ass. And I'm still whittling it down.
Closed comments - If you like what you read, I'd much rather have you share it with others for now.

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This is what happens when you leave me with a Sharpie and a blank surface.
Me vs. Muse is completely hand drawn in a stripped down style I'm still trying to experiment with - I was going to digitally color it but that takes too much time. At this point my process is write script, sketch, ink, upload.

Copyright stuff: Don't steal, create your own. Full credits if you link to it in your blog or whatever.