How Google Maps reviews can earn you self respect

Sometimes, tasks that seem insignificant in the eyes of others can be a foundation to very useful skills. You can find real gold when you are drawn to do something to which others would say: “Why bother with that?”

In fact, us artists feel a lot of push back on our pursuit for excellence, sometimes from the voice that keeps telling us “you suck” or “I am tired… let’s give up”. Other times from outside individuals that will feel secure if you conform to themselves.

Everyone needs a support system, but you also need to rely on yourself.

One of the secrets in life, in my opinion, is to surround yourself with people that push you towards perfection in any activity, always with your well being in mind, regardless of how insignificant it is. They want to see you push your self for your own sake, and because it is a value they would like to see more in the world. They want also to feel inspired by seeing you fight against the resistance.

When you fail to understand this and resign to passivity and mediocrity, depression might start to creep in. I speak that out of my personal experience.

As Seth Godin said in one of his blogs on May 31, 2020:

“The current crisis is a vivid reminder of how empty a job focused on getting by really is. Because getting by is a lousy way to spend our days. Playwrights, painters, and committed professionals don’t ask, “how little can I get away with?” They view the work as a chance to make a difference instead.

Doing work we’re proud of is a fine alternative to being seen as less than human. And spending our days doing as much human work as we can is far more appealing than hoping to do as little as possible.”

But today's post is not about that! It’s about choosing a simply constructive activity to push yourself while developing skills that will serve you well in the world. While helping you build a stronger self-image. SOOOO…

Let’s write some Google maps reviews!

These are short Google maps reviews as an exercise to strengthen your writing skills, copywriting ability, while forcing yourself to be focused on a creative endeavour for a long stretch of time. (Not a bad thing to do in the middle of a pandemic.)

Besides, Google also makes it fun by turning it into a game by:

Giving you points and levels
Offering badges for your accomplishments
Possibility to gain clout in a growing social network for content creators
Build a profile that you can use to redirect people to your website and show your real work.

The ground rules are:

It needs to be places I have been.
Places that GM is suggesting to me based on the tracking they made. (Big Brother?).
It needs to be good writing, helpful, truthful, and insightful.
And finally, it needs to be 200 characters or more, to achieve maximum points by google. (21/review to be exact)

We need a plan and a method. I think 50 reviews in a single afternoon will boost me up to level 8. It seemed a big task and honestly I didn't think I was going to handle it. I was afraid to burn out after a few hours, so I decided to do a dash after every single review. Just like a prisoner counting days on the wall of a prison cell.

This method not only allows you to count your progress but also to keep you focused.

Let the games begin…

The first #32 reviews were really fast. Faster than I thought… surprisingly FAST!!! Interesting how productive we can be when we are truly committed right from the beginning. It grew slowly into a flow state, review after review when suddenly...

STOPPED!
Brain freeze… I couldn’t think of words or what to do next. uhhhh!!! I decided to stop completely and open a beer.

The beers are stored in the garage, away from the office and the fridge is was full of them. After opening it, I laid back up against the car and stared at the furniture holding my father’s old books. My mind kept wondering…

“How I will get rid of the small mouse that got here recently?” - It’s small but it might become a bigger pain if I don’t take care of it fast. Small problematic things tend to grow if we don’t pay attention to them, fast - I think Dr. Jordan Peterson said that.

Back on the desk

I jumped back into it, writing a few more. This time I had to stop at #46. I am getting tired… the resistance was increasing... and I saw it more as a stupid thing to do with my time… (shouldn’t I be studying scores instead???) The problem is: it isn’t stupid! It was a commitment I did to myself, and I had my mind playing tricks on me? Shame on me!

It’s a challenge, and there is no reason to back down. And just because I am losing steam? Can’t stop now!!!! Only 4 to go!”

“Challenges are always challenges, independently if these are big or small. On the other hand, the consequences of giving up are always the same: You lose self-respect.”

“Push forward!!!” - I said.

Having the 50 out of the way I finally felt I had accomplished something. That big marathon and behemoth of a task suddenly didn't look so daunting. I had grown past that!!! I was bigger than the concept of that task.

I accomplished what I had set myself to do. I kept a promise to myself. I showed myself how reliable I can be! Someone that doesn't’ give up, and also sees things through. I gained some damn self-respect.

That’s important!!! Self-respect is earned… by your self, to your self!

Where could we all be, if we did one hard thing every day?

“Feeling invincible is important to stand against any antagonistic force with calm and ease”

In the end, this was just me practicing self discipline, concentration, writing, and an afternoon down the memory lane. Some of the places Google suggested triggered memories I didn’t remember anymore. Old photographs sometimes have the same effect.

And cleaning out a 8000 email inbox as well… that will be my next dragon!