COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN MORE THAN A BURGER

A communication breakdown is a problem. It’s also a burger, which isn’t a problem.

The problem comes when a ‘failure to communicate’ gets your ticket punched like Cool Hand Luke.

But, instead of food and prison execution, let’s talk about online communication breakdown.

For example, take this blog. Please.

I’ve found a failure to communicate to the void through two sets of analytics.

WordPress stats, through Jetpack, show one thing; Google analytics shows another.

Who to believe? The one that shows the most engagement. Come on.

For vanity bloggers like me, reader stats matter more. It’s our way of justifying the time and energy spent on a personal writing platform that needs updated content every day.

Every day, or else what?

I searched for communication breakdown and found a post from 2010 about McMenamins’ menu.

When I clicked the blog title for the latest post? 2014.

It was sad to see, but people do burn out and go away.

When all the world is a stage, this is my quiet turn in the spot light. Yours too, anonymous reader.

A blogger who says readers don’t matter is a big old liar.

“But Dave, you don’t understand. It’s all about the act of creation, not nurturing an audience.”

What they don’t understand is the anticipation they build, the expectations of the next post, the demand for the next post.

Work with me here. Lol. (My donation button will be in the sidebar.)

BoomerPdx Change

My latest inspection tour of the back office shows current posts do not register in the WordPress reader count.

Another troubling development: When I upgrade the operating system some of my signature readers stop getting posts and have to sign up again. Thank you, Lisa.

I’m watching it.

More troubling: One of my millennial consultants reported that anything related to ‘Boomer’ draws a negative response.

“That’s not what you’re about, so why tag yourself?”

And he’s right. He’s often right.

You won’t find the latest vacation hotspots here.

No gushy reviews of hopeful actors giving their all for aging audiences.

Who am I kidding? I do all of that baby boomer stuff.

It just hits differently with me on this blog.

My emphasis, my goal, my selling point on Boomerpdx, is giving permission for you to find your better self.

“You now have permission to find your better self.”

Who Needs Permission?

A quick story:

I was high school senior at what looked like my last wrestling tournament.

That it was in the gym of my arch rival high school seemed sweet irony.

I was going out a loser in the gym of the high school that kicked my school’s butt in sports every year.

They had Olympic gold medalist Mel Counts and legendary runner Steve Prefontaine in their trophy case.

I’d lost my first match to a kid, a Grants Pass Caveman who looked like he could have been a caveman.

I fell on my back and he fell on top of me. It was a move I’d used before.

He didn’t pin me, so I had that in my favor.

Afterwards I went to the bracket room to see who I had next.

Who else but the guy who’d come in second in the high school wrestling tournament where he’d given the eventual champ a good run.

He was a finalist in my only state tournament and I lost every match, to which my mother said, “Why did I take time off work to watch you stand around and lose?”

Beating A Communication Breakdown

The next tournament was the Oregon Greco and Freestyle Tournament.

It was considered the real state wrestling championship because it was open with no school classifications.

Everyone had to wrestle everyone is their weight class.

After I lost my first match it looked like I’d lose my next.

I was ready to spend the rest of my life asking, like my momma asked, “why did I bother wrestling if I just stood around and lost?”

I’m looking at my loser bracket when the guy who showed me the back-flop move walked up.

Robin Richards was two years graduated and wrestling in college. In high school he’d placed second in the world in Greco.

“You can beat these guys. You’re better than them.”

“Not today. Not yesterday, either.”

“You can beat them if you stay away from back throws. You go flat and they land on you. Happened when you were a sophomore, too.”

“It happened on Senior Night.”

“I wasn’t going to mention it. No more front whizzers. Go with head and arm and side throws. Fake them one way and swing them the other. You can beat them on points if you do that.”

I got permission to win from the biggest winner my high school ever produced?

And that’s how I became the 1973 Oregon State High School Greco Roman Champion at one hundred ninety pounds.

North Bend had a lock on that gold medal the last two years with Brad Nyleen taking everyone out with his signature move in 1971-72.

Some of the best wrestlers in a storied program were Greco men.

It felt cool joining the tradition.

Instead of blaming a communication breakdown, give yourself permission to be who you want to be.

You already have mine.

The podium is ready.