Simple Blogging Virtues

My friend Joshua Becker recently wrote about what he’s learned from blogging in a post called 11 Life Lessons Learned from Blogging. It’s wonderful and I agree with every thing he said. I’m pleased to share his post and borrow his idea.

I’d like to add a few virtues that you will develop and strengthen from blogging.

Patience
Writing may come naturally, but the behind the scenes technology of blogging does not. I’ve become more patient with every website crash and tumble.

Gratitude
With every reader click, email, tweet, and feedback, I am overwhelmed with gratitude. When I had 10 readers, I was grateful for each comment and amount of time that someone spent with my words. With thousands of readers, that hasn’t changed. If you think you are only capable of a certain amount of love and gratitude, I want to tell you that your capability is limitless.

Humility
I say “I don’t know” a lot. I laugh at myself. I trust others to help and am honored to be helpful.

Confidence
Before I send the note or a blog post into the world, I ask myself if it’s good enough. Sometimes I think it is, but I never really know until you tell me. Over time, I’ve become more and more confident that what I write will matter to someone and that makes it good enough for me.

Resilience
Writing for a growing blog and developing other projects for a sustainable business takes resilience. The words don’t always come easy, bad ideas get in the way. Limitations, excuses, fear and a host of other things will try to keep you distracted. You will fall and fail and then you get back up and go again.

Sharing
Writers ask me for permission to share a post that I’ve written and my answer is always the same. “Please feel free to use any of my work to share with your readers.” Sometimes people use my work and call it their own. That used to really bother me, but now, I know it doesn’t hurt me in any way and I’m glad the words are out there. I borrowed the idea for this post from Joshua Becker without asking. Sharing is good for the person sharing, the person borrowing, and everyone else involved.

Collaboration
Coming from a very competitive sales background, I was excited to embrace the collaborative spirit of blogging and entrepreneurship. With that, I’ve developed life long friendships and savvy business partners. I was raised up in the unfamiliar territory of blogging by people who in any other atmosphere would have been my competitors. Today they are my friends.

Openness
Before I decided that I would quit my job and run my own business, I had my work life well-defined. Now I don’t know what things will be like this time next year, or next month. I am open to opportunity, uncertainty, and giving things time and space to unfold.

If you have thought about starting a blog, I highly recommend it. Write about things that you care about, from your experience. With your unique perspective you will inspire, inform and entertain and learn more about yourself than you ever thought possible. If you have a blog, thank you. Thank you for sharing, thank you for writing, thank you for giving your gifts to the world.

In other simple news …

• Make Time, a lovely course to help you find time to do the things you love begins on Monday, May 7th. Registration is open.
• From only72.com - 18 Courses, 1 Hardcover Book (shipped anywhere in the world), valued at over $1000 for $100 available for 72 hours. I’ve read several of these books and paid much more buying them individually. Check it out.
• The Goodblog Project is open to 10 people, with 8 spots left. The course begins on May 21st and is a combination of video and written materials from me and guest experts + 1:1 consulting and collaborating. I want to help you use a good blog to develop or support a good business. Get in touch with me to see if this would be a good fit for your blog and business.

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