FaceBook status is too simple for me. What I really want, is a dashboard for my life. Something that people can peer into and see how I’m doing in a bunch of areas, and so they can help keep me honest. If I decide to read War and Peace, yes, I want to tell people I’m reading the book, BUT, I also want to let them know how far I’m getting. I need a simple, social tool like that to help me track how I’m performing against my goals.

Further, I think in some cases I’m probably the worst person to judge that status. In fact, I may just fib a bit so that I don’t look like a slacker to people who may come take a peek at the dashboard. Partners should be able to tell me when they’re happy with the progress I’m making by updating my status. My friends should be able to update my dashboard and tell me how much of a killjoy I’ve been lately. If I make a commitment to be more faithful to church, perhaps I want to control the status of that. Inputs into the dashboard should be a social activity, because status really is something that is relative to your viewpoint.

If you notice the little widget on the upper right of the page, its just an idea, a starting point for what I really want to express. (Update: deleted the widget, I don’t want to convey a design just yet). There should be a detail link to another page so I can see all my status widgets for each of my goals. There should be a feed to show when friends update my status, and any messages anyone types. A feed item should appear when significant things happen, like goal dates changing, or if I’m getting particularly far behind in checkpoints.

I need this. Who’s building one of these?

I will ‘keep typing‘.
I will ‘read the manual‘ and ‘do the work‘.
I will avoid the zone of mediocrity.
I will put myself in a position where failure would be ‘public and humiliating‘.
I will put less value in ‘stuff‘
I will play the ‘game of inches‘, but keep looking for the gaps.
I will admit it when I’m clueless.
I will work on becoming a ‘double/triple/quadruple threat‘.
I will ‘dare greatly‘.

And I won’t be able to do this alone. If I make any headway at all, it’s to the credit of family and friends, partners and mentors who will support me and encourage me to keep going.

Google recently inked a deal with WildBlue, a broadband service provider. Presumably, this is part of a strategy to proliferate Google’s web office solution. But, I think they must have been confusing them for us. Translation error maybe?

Update: I rewrote this post completely, but I’m sure you can find the original rambling post somewhere. I either need more sleep or better editorial control