Why You Shouldn’t Blog so Go Away Now

I bet that title peaked your attention.

It’s not easy being a blogger and publishing content on a regular basis. If this is your dream, then I am here to tell you that it’s actually harder than it looks and, believe it or not, writers are often the people who have the hardest time understanding what a blog should be and how to use it to their full advantage.

Writing with a strict publishing deadline is very difficult for 80 percent of the writing population. I know –because I’ve watched writers who became bloggers miss so many publishing deadlines until their last piece of published writing online is dated 3 years ago — or longer.

It’s a discipline that can take years to reap its rewards.  It’s a lot of trial and error.

But blogging is more than just the writing, or the showcasing of your passion — it’s about building a connected community and caring about what you are offering up to the online world at large.

Blogging is a relationship practice.

It’s about practicing to improve your relationship with yourself and what your promises mean to you — and blogging is about the relationship you create with the people trying to incorporate your work into their busy lives. It’s about respect — respect for the commitments you make and the respect you give your audience.

You will be constantly striving to improve. You’ll care about feedback.  You’ll worry about your posts.

Novelists have long-said that being a writer can be a lonely, solitary existence.  However, since the invention of the Internet, sharing your words isn’t such an isolated venture anymore. Writing has become a community sport and blogging is the personal trainer.

You’d better love engaging with strangers.

Blogging plus social media will teach you the new art of publishing.  It will teach you how to market your work and connect with people you never imagined. Stick with a blog, work on getting better and watch opportunity run to you  — IF — and if say IF — you pay your dues and do it right.

Even, best-selling author and TED speaker, Elizabeth Gilbert gets that writing is about having a community —

Engaging on a blog offers many opportunities to meet fascinating people.  It allows you to test if your passion means anything to you. If blogging makes your dream feel dull and a burdensome, then I would argue that you have picked the wrong dream. It’s not your real passion.  It’s probably a hobby.

Your real dream is still buried deep inside you.

When you are passionate about what you are blogging about, it will light up across the Internet to spark interest from creative leaders and journalists in ways you can’t even imagine.

For example, 8 Women Dream blogger Sue Faith Levy received quite a bit of online attention for her last two blog posts from people and institutions that believe what Sue wrote mattered enough to share it:

1. Shark Girl Madison Stewart Shows the World How Dreaming Gets Done Right —

2. Thankful Thursday Means Being Grateful for Soul Pioneers —

And in these instances, Sue was writing about other people and their dreams instead of writing about her own. She unselfishly shares her online space with other women she finds successful and has been doing this on her own blog for years.

8 Women Dreamer, Iman Woods, gets how to be a blogger while showcasing your talents online better than any other dreamer that has ever dared to join this 8WD dreaming bunch.  She reaches out, she’s vulnerable and if you ever saw her emails to me you would see how much she cares for each and every thing she puts online.

A.L.W.A.Y.S.

She too, acknowledges artists she admires:

She too celebrates her fan base and makes them feel beautiful — and in return they rave about her online:

There’s 8 Women Dreamer, Kelly Swanson and her popularity among public speakers.  Through her blog posts she is always helping motivational speakers become better at their craft.  She doesn’t think of fellow public speakers as competition.  She’s passionate about everyone being good.

And those speakers she helps share her stories —

Heather, Natasha and the other 8 Women Dreamers who have stayed with their blogging  over time and have made their passions about their readers and not themselves are also enjoying the success that a community can bring.

They too give more to their blogging practice than they expect to get in return.  They stay up until 2:00 am on the eve of their blog deadline to tweak a story they’ve been working on for hours and hours on end just to make it right — FOR YOU.

They constantly worry whether their work is good enough for the audience.

They do this because they get what TED sensation and best-selling author Simon Sinek says –

The more you inspire other people the more people will inspire you.

It’s the secret to success.  It’s the secret to making your dreams come true.  They understand the principle of the Golden Circle – the what, the how and the why of doing what you love.

It’s the sign of a passionately, gifted blogger.

And a dreamer on the right path.

Otherwise, without the Golden Circle you are just faking it–and why spend your one blessed life faking being something you are not?  Instead, go out and do something you love so much that sharing it with the world makes you come alive.  It should be something you can’t live without.

It shouldn’t never feel like drudgery.  It should never get old.  If it does — you should stop.

Because sharing your passion should feel like the sun when it rises in the morning.

And who could ever get tired of seeing that?

Catherine

If you would like to learn more about the Golden Circle and test you are doing your dream for the right reasons, try  Simon Sinek’s exercise for discovering your “Why” by clicking here.