This blog inspired by Steve Ray Vaughan’s “The Sky is Crying” and Louis Armstrong’s “When You’re Smiling the Whole World Smiles With You.”

OK…seriously…6 months since my last blog post?@?@?@? I’m surprised this thing even works anymore. Cause-based marketing keeps you hopping…that’s for sure.

But to be honest..the previous Grampa post just took a lot outta me. I looked at it every time I tried to write and didn’t have anything else nearly as relevant or heartfelt to really add after that.

That is until someone mentioned the book “The Secret.” I’d be lying if I said I read it, but I’ve gotten enough book reports from key advisers to get the central premise. You attract how you act. If you are a force for change and get white-hot pissed when people don’t follow, you attract a like-minded crew of malcontents and beehive bashers. So “The Secret” for me was to retire “Pessimism” and Evolve.

Evolved Thinking isn’t so much a measure of my evolution from troglodyte to upright warrior  to compassionate cogitator to Bubbly Brad Garrett as it is celebrating others for smelling the roses through the hot mess of sewer sludge all around us.

One thing I’ve tried to do during my busiest of moments is at least stay plugged in through Twitter, Google Buzz, Facebook and other key blogs to remain current.

Speaking of which, good God, can someone help a brother out on incorporating my Twitter feed into this blog through a sidebar! I’ve uploaded and downloaded Twitter plugins to the point of Supreme Twitdom and can’t for the life of me figure out how to make my Tweets  flow into my blog. HELP!

I hope the next 9 months of 2010 brings a little clarity and priority to my life and yours.

One point of clarity, priority and purpose so far has been my work on a new social media monitoring and content creation start-up EVolution Communications Group and two non-profits — Wish Upon A Wedding Portland and  Special Olympics Oregon. It’s been a whirlwind tour, but I remain fascinated by people who make  organizations move, raise money, cultivate legions of loyal consumers and  catalyze indefatigable volunteers or unsung (unpaid) helpers.

Whether it’s ensuing that a deserving couple gets their dying wish,  a uniquely able athlete gets the chance to compete and apply lessons to everyday life, or a corporation looking to build equity in doing the right thing and then using a content monitoring and creation practice to support it — I’m all in. Suffice it to say…I’ve found something that inspires me to get up in the morning, work harder than I ever have before, and still want to come back for more.

Where ever you are in life,  rest assured getting involved in something bigger than yourself and the day-to-day grind will sustain you and turn you from pessimist to at least a reluctant optimist.

Until then…here’s a person and a few organizations that through their big hearts, big brains or both that have blown me away.

  1. Chris Brogan — An early supporter of my work at Special Olympics Oregon, Chris continues to impress me personally by wearing his heart on his sleeve. This recent post on not fitting in a box of someone else’s creation, but building one of your own reinvigorated me at just the right time.
  2. Wish Upon a Wedding – Fulfilling someone’s dying wish to be together — or potentially empowering a miraculous recovery through the healing touch of love is a cause that tugs at the heartstrings. See it in action.
  3. Clothes Off Our Backs — This great nonprofit gets celebrities to literally give the shirts (and pants, and dresses, et al) off their backs for a rotating list of charities each year. Purely awesome concept.
  4. Mercy Corps — Anybody notice how this Portland, Oregon-based nonprofit raised bucketloads of money for relief in Haiti and hit the ground  in-country ready to help?  If you didn’t it’s because they’re not self-promoters. They’re doers. What an amazing group. Help them in anyway you can.

I’m watching, learning and will abscond with every great thing you are doing–giving you full credit, of course.

To an optimistic 2010 from here on out — from a newly invigorated,  rapidly evolving thinker and retired Cockeyed Pessimist.

Mark