Minor Coincidence Related to My College Major

I majored in finance and never intended to use it beyond graduation for professional purposes. I didn't pursue a job on Wall Street after graduating eight years ago from college for two reasonable reasons. The first was based on my long-term goals of being a speaker and author. The second reason was because,"While I like numbers, I don't want to sit behind a computer all day."

Eight years later, I look back and realize how I ended up spending much of my time working in front of a computer anyway. If that's not enough, the current program I'm working on is for American Express and I recently realized that I'm using my major. So apparently - or coincidentally - I did "use my major" (finance) from UMaryland.

Why'd I keep my major? I thought I'd apply the knowledge to my personal life and thought it was a great idea to graduate with a strong major. Beyond graduation, I don't recall interviewing for one finance job. Maybe I didn't want an office job. Perhaps I didn't want to work for someone. After four years of structure in college, I wasn't enthusiastic about experiencing more of it.

During my senior year, I had just one job interview on the campus. It was with Unilever's Best Foods division regarding a logistics position. Was I a good candidate? Doubtful. I wasn't a logistics major fellas. Why'd I interview? I'll tell you why: I loved Lipton Iced Tea and the corporate office was located a few miles from my Dad's condo. Convenience and brand recognition motivated me to apply. Not the job. Nor the opportunity. Marketing motivated me.

This would have been my final marketing lesson while in college, which covered the power of brand loyalty. Beyond Lipton, after four years of living and learning at UM, I was about to leave campus branded for life as a Maryland Terrapin. I recognize this now because during my recent visit to the campus, there were UM logos everywhere - students and staff were plastered with them, buildings had logos, and even flags were branded. I realize that UM can be related to Google or Pepsi - huge marketing efforts lead to loyal consumers. Maybe that's why I've got eight years of "real world" marketing experience. They made me fall in love with marketing.

What about my finance major? Don't ask about my personal investments. When it comes to that, I definitely didn't use my major. I must have not showed up the day we learned about diversification and stop-loss orders. Now, I know when to say enough is enough. Go Terps!

EnTITLEment Issues

About ten months ago, I came up with what I felt was a unique idea that would make a nifty concept for my first book for adults. It was originally called: Occupation Nation: How to Treat Your Health Like It's a Full-Time Job. Over the past few months, the title has experienced the following changes:

(1) "Occupation Nation" was pulled because it confused people. Some thought it was a war book.
(2) "Treat" was erased because it may have been misconstrued as a fatty play on words.
(3) Corporations like management books, so "Managing Your Health..." could have worked, but unless they're requested to read a management book, Americans may be unlikely to buy one themselves.
(4) "Full-Time" was dropped as few people like working full-time and may have misunderstood the intent.
(5) "Job" needed to go, since few Americans truly love their jobs.
(6) The main title was replaced with "Body Work," but people hate work even more than their job.
(7) Replacing Job with "Money" was a brief idea, but for those with money issues, they may not be able to relate well to the book given their financial challenges given the economy. Then again, they wouldn't buy the book anyway...

So... that leaves me with Body ____: ____ Your Health Like It's _____.

If many Americans' health, money, and relationships are facing significant challenges, would they have the ability and interest to even buy a book? Too tired to read, no money to buy the book, and no time to read given their obligations to their loved ones sounds like three powerful barriers to entry to me.

Lately, I've been coming up with a lot of book concepts. I don't seem to be able to turn it off. That is, I haven't chosen to turn it off just yet. I'm almost done and yet I have just begun. What's an author to do?

What have I done?

It's been nearly five months since I've last written. Here's why:

Accountability - I assumed readership was low, I wasn't being compensated immediately for my efforts, and I was fulfilled (or distracted) by other activities.

Discipline - While I had built up a pretty nice flow of entries up until New Years Day, the traditional new year's "fresh start" may have been too fresh.

Perfectionism - I wasn't motivated to write because based on previous entries, I felt that my work had to be creative and exceptional compared to the relatively average journal entries I'd written in the past.

I once considered the idea of having daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly meetings with myself to maintain consistency with regard to my creativity, productivity, and career. Considering this is my first "meeting" of the year, what have I done? What have I done since New Years Eve?

Health Management - I've continued my commitment towards reaching optimal health since the new year. "Proper" nutrition, exercise, relaxation, and living life as though I felt I was on vacation has worked out well for me.

Travel & Trade Shows - I've been traveling the country, working for Ogilvy on behalf of American Express, sharing my book concept with people, and spending time with friends and family.

Volunteer Work - As founding president of the Leonia High School Alumni Association, I've contributed towards increasing membership from 40 to nearly 500 within two months. Today, we even received our first financial contribution that will go towards covering the costs of our web site.

Online Social Life - The plethora of web sites on which I've spent time connecting with people has led me to experience a bit of overload. The paralysis has mostly affected my work given that technology (or what I have recently been calling "Fatal Distraction") calls to me like a siren from mythology.

Moving forward...

I will... exercise daily - even if it means doing push-ups upon entering a new room.

I will... write daily - even if it means writing a short, uninspiring, mediocre entry about my day or life.

I will... limit the time and effort spent using technology for personal purposes.

I will... treat my career as if it's my job.

I will.... write again tomorrow.