#reverb10: Time for some action

Do you take action or sit back and wait for something to happen?

I’ve done a lot of the latter and very little of the former in recent years – something that would shock the folks that I went to college with. It’s something that’s got to change – and soon.

I’m hoping that it’ll go back to “normal” in the coming months. It’s time to jump back into the pool and try to swim again. Getting a #reverb10 prompt to force me to write about how is pretty helpful too:

When it comes to aspirations, it’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen. What’s your next step?

I spent a lot of 2010 waiting for people to help me move forward. The goal for 2011 is simple – stop waiting and push through – finding the help you need along the way.

Some next steps are already out in the open. Now the rest of them will be too:

• I submitted a proposal (albeit still in its early stages) for the Knight News Challenge. Here’s the PDF; it still needs to get rewritten and expanded on as I start to seek other funding sources to pull it off. It’d be great to have it ready to go for this fall’s municipal election cycle.
• I’ve stayed much quieter on The Terminal as I get ready to make it more of an urban issues website. There really won’t be much of a change seen at first if you’ve only known about the site in the last two years. Those who were around nearly four years ago though may notice a few things – including a few old voices returning to the site’s virtual pages.
• Taking part in #reverb10 has already helped me get back into writing on a daily basis (or at least thinking about doing it and taking notes again for pieces I want to do in the future). The plan is to also continue writing the monthly column for B-Metro while making a point to submit at least two queries a month to publications that focus on urban development issues (that’s a much broader umbrella than you may think).
• I’m hoping that some of the pieces I plan to start posting to Urban Conversations starting next week will give an idea of where I want to go writing-wise this year. I look forward to learning more about web design, but more because I want to know how it can help improve my writing. This isn’t to say that I won’t attempt a site or two next year, but I want to be known more for my work as a writer focused on urbanism.

The key will be making sure I focus on the day at hand and simply enjoy the moment – ironically the basis of my last #reverb10 post.

It’s time to make a bigger splash – I’m hoping a few folks don’t mind getting a little wet. I’m hoping a few of you may want to share your plans of action, but I understand if you don’t want to.

Cheers.

Photo: Action Park. Joe Shlabotnik/Flickr