Being Nowhere

Out of cell phone range, no WiFi, no battery left and … is that a woodpecker?

I’m not always online. I sometimes don’t check my emails for days. I think I have currently 738 unread emails in my various email inboxes. I like hiding away in the snow-covered mountains and walking with my dog and family around the block and watching him never catch the rabbit that lives up the hill. “Pepper, you’re just to slow!” It doesn’t seem to bother him. The next time the rabbit is up ahead, he’ll be just as fanatic and fast … but still too slow. He won’t stress about it. Neither will we.

This is, kind of, a response to Pat Flynn’s post on “Being Everywhere.” (SPI 028: Be Everywhere – Building a Profitable BRAND by Thinking Outside the Blog). Only “kind of” a response because I actually agree with what he’s saying about spreading your brand beyond your blog and moving to other media where other people hang out, e.g. podcasts, live events, YouTube, etc.

I’m only “Being Nowhere” for the other 7-or-so billion people of the world. I’m very much “there” for my boys, my wife and Pepper. I don’t wait for sabbaticals, weekends and weekdays are often interchangeable and I’m recently loving my “work” so much that I put it in quotes because, according to Tom Sawyer, “Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.” I’m just playing.

Mix a heaping tablespoon of “being everywhere” with a sprinkle of “being nowhere.”

Have you ever really left what you know? It usually happens during travel, but when you’re away from what you’re used to, you really get to know what you know. In other words, you can learn more about your own country (or city or family) by being away from it. You learn what you miss and what you look forward to. When you’re “nowhere” and out of touch with the world, you learn what you miss in the world and “where” in the “everywhere” you truly want to be.

Then you return to the “where” and you know where you are. But you have to go to nowhere to understand it. I’m sure this makes just about zero sense to anyone reading who’s ever not been to nowhere, but just stay with me, I’ll take you there.

I have 294 things to do on my To Do list. If I let it, the 294 things will overwhelm my poor little brain and I’ll get scattered and bewildered.

It’s Saturday, I’m pretty sure. We just left town, car packed, full tank … and then we turned around because there was just way too much traffic. We were leaving Saturday to avoid Sunday traffic. We made the executive decision and just turned around. I think there was a gravitational pull to return to nowhere here in the snow with the woodpecker and the rabbit and my dog who dances in the snow like a deer avoiding firecrackers.

I’m now nowhere. We’re right in the middle of it.

Monday. Monday will be a good time to return to everywhere. I think that’s where people are. I like people, they’re good for you.

It’s a balance. It’s all a balance, isn’t it? But have a holiday from everywhere and come join me in nowhere for a while. Well, not my nowhere, actually, but your own nowhere. Send me a postcard.

• Possible: be everywhere
• Impossible: hide
• Repossible: sneak away

P.S. It was a woodpecker. A white-headed beauty who was taking his time looking for insects for lunch outside my window.
P.P.S. If you’re still reading, please note that Pat Flynn is a rockstar and I think his post goes on to tell you how he got 2,000 followers from being everywhere. Please note that Pat Flynn knows solid business advice. The only follower I got from walking around the block was my dog, who would follow me even if I didn’t take him around the block. But then again, I know where nowhere is and it’s dear to my heart.