Successful Blog

The Secret to a Successful and Outstanding Blog

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How to Blog Series

Once upon a time in the real world, I started a blog. . . .

I thought it was going to be a writer’s project. I’ve been wrong before, plenty of times, but I don’t think I was ever quite so spectacularly off. I thought a blog would offer me a place to practice my writing and maybe allow me a chance to offer a thought. I thought a blog was a flat surface for communication. That’s not what I found.

I found the secret to a successful blog is more, and more touching than that.

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Readers come for the information in a blog post. There’s no question of that. Readers read what writers write and writers write to teach, inform, entertain, mystify, motivate, and inspire. Every word we write, every idea we construct to share, moves from our minds to others on a fine silver thread of digital thought.

Still the thoughts alone would be sad and lonely without a heart to back them up.

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It’s the heart and the passion that fuel the words, make the magnetic. It’s the heart that plays the beat that resonates to bring readers back. Even when our hearts find themselves in distant places, we still recognize our humanity and our relatedness. When we write with our heads and hearts together, people notice.

Heads engaged, hearts beating, a blog has power.

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A truly successful and outstanding blog also has meaning. Somehow, in some way to each individual, a successful and outstanding blog makes a difference by adding something of value to being one who visits. You might call that spirit. You might call that direction or focus. I call that soul.

The soul of a blog is carried by the person who writes it and the folks who come to read it too.

That’s what I found, a successful and outstanding blog is head, heart, and soul. It’s all of what makes us human and worth paying attention to. Bring it who you are and the folks you meet will help you become more.

I know. It happened to me. It happens again every day.

Be irresistible
Thank you to everyone who has made this our successful blog.

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Time and Dots

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Connecting dots with The Idea Dude

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This week marks the 2nd birthday of Successful Blog. So this post is about one very special dot, Liz. You can always tell if something is said from heart, like a fundamental truth, it usually stands the test of time. So I went on a time travel. Two years ago as she took over successful-blog, Liz asked, What do you think I should know about you? It was her way of making space for a conversation. Today, the tagline may have changed a little, You’re only a stranger once, but the fundamental nature of Liz remains the same… her perpetual curiosity about the world and all of us who live within it.

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It’s no wonder, one of her all-time favorite posts would be her invitation to all of us to please take the keys. Ask her why?because the conversation in the comments is a naked education in blogging and the beauty of community. In her own inimitable way, Liz has forever changed the way we blog and the way we read and interact with blogs.

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Pam tells us it’s important to celebrate, just take some time to celebrate you and all the wonderful things you bring to the table. Oh, and the nice thing, celebrating does not have to cost money, it does not have to take up too much time…. I think Liz would view this celebration as a celebration not of just Liz, nor just you, nor just me but of US. We should all celebrate successful-blog because we all helped define it in some small way. We were all part of the conversation and continue to be.

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Gidge received the most beautiful birthday note ever. It said I just can’t wait to see what you are going to look like tomorrow, next week, next year, in 50 years. But I’m pretty sure I already know. I can’t wait to see what this blog will look like tomorrow, next week and next year. I’d bet the farm that many of you feel the same way too.

Gidge also shared a wonderful quote from a silly ole bear

If you live to be 100, I hope I live to be 100 minus 1 day, so I never have to live without you – Winnie the Pooh

May the dots be with you!

Vern, The Idea Dude

Change the World: Find Forgiveness

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The Past Is Gone

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WE charge in . . .

We come into life screaming for air and, we fight to prove we belong here. Along the way, little and sometimes big hurts happen. Some were intentional. Some were accidental. Probably a number were entirely in our imagination. Yet, our need to stay meaningful almost leads us to find something meant to belittle where something else entirely might have been going on.

. . . armed with protection . . .

We go to the negative as a defense. A grandmother doesn’t to speak to a fully grown son. Her anger is about times before he was born. We lay the deeds of a villain who escaped at the door of a hero who stayed. The first wife lied. . . . The last boss was a fraud. . . . Deep inside we’re not just protecting, we’re waiting for the bad guys to return with the answer to Why?

. . . unconsciously waiting . . . deaf and unseeing.

And that unconscious waiting is a sort of self-harm.

What if we changed our ways? What if we changed how we see who we are?

from Find Forgiveness by Tommy Henriksen, Selected Songs For A New Beginning

. . .
Can you look into my eyes and tell me why?

Find forgiveness. The past is gone today.
Are you willing to learn and change?
I see myself changing all my ways.

Forgiveness

And the tears that fell are from you
Waters from my soul

Can you look into your eyes and tell yourself why?

Find forgiveness. The past is gone today.
Are you willing to learn and change?
Can you see yourself changing all your ways?

Forgiveness

I was wrong in your eyes.
You know God and I see.

Can we give it one last chance . . . for all of us?
. . .

We can change the world — just like that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

Are You Fragging Your Brain with a Multitasking Traffic Jam?

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I Need a Brain Defragger!!

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Does this sound familiar?

You’re working. You’re thinking, typing, planning, talking, and eating . . . all at the same time. A friend, a family member, a person you care about deeply, comes to where you are and says,

“I’ve just cut off my finger! I’m bleeding all over the carpet!”

A full-two minutes later, you actually hear what was said. You stare blankly into space as you try to process the message.

“Um. Oh. Did you just say something about the carpet?”

The message had to fight through the traffic jam on the neuropathways of your multitasking brain.

Multitasking is on its way out for me. I’ve suspected for sometime it was a major source of what made me tired and cranky.

“What?!!! Who cares what we’re having for dinner?!!”

Every new and stressful detail made me wish I had a defragmenter for my brain.

Multitasking didn’t get any more done. I was just doing more at the same time. I knew that doing many things at once is not efficient. Somehow I got sucked into the multitasking vortex, anyway.

Soon enough I thought I was developing an attention deficit. Truth is I was just fragmenting my brain.

Continuous Partial Attention

That’s what it’s called, Continuous Partial Attention — CPA. Keeping our eyes and ears alert to everything, always scanning the environment in case something we need might pop onto our radar — we use multiple screens. We check for multiple priorities.

Scanning is great when what we’re doing is routine. It’s disastrous when a task requires reflection, concentration, or humanity.

“Why do you interrupt?!!! You take your life too seriously.”

We scan because of anxiety . . . we can’t miss anything. Linda Stone described it in a Newsweek interview with Stephen Levy.

. . . there’s a problem in the workplace when the interruptions intrude on tasks that require real concentration or quiet reflection. And there’s an even bigger problem when our bubble of connectedness stretches to ensnare us no matter where we are. A live BlackBerry or even a switched-on mobile phone is an admission that your commitment to your current activity is as fickle as Renée Zellweger’s wedding vows. Your world turns into a never-ending cocktail party where you’re always looking over your virtual shoulder for a better conversation partner. The anxiety is contagious . . .

I read that and I decided to make a change.

I cleared the traffic on the neuropathways of my brain. I became my own defragger. I do one thing at a time, and I get more things done and with fewer errors.

I’m breathing slower and liking myself better.

And now, when someone talks to me, they often get a human answer. I’m pretty proud of that.

Do you need to defragment your brain?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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A Question of Conflict

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In Business and in Life

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When I find myself in a conflict, it’s easy for me to see both sides — my own and the other guy’s. My natural response is to be biased to the benefit of the other side. I still seem to have this a natural instinct to want to fix things in their favor.

My mind knows that’s not a great idea. To set my own position aside for theirs is wrong for me, wrong for the other guy, and wrong for the relationship.

Still my heart says, “Have some forgiveness. Take the hit. Help the guy. You know how to make things right.”

Is that generosity, arrogance, or self-defeating behavior? I’m beginning to think it might be as simple as wanting to have the conflict quickly resolved and put away.

The problem is some folks learn to rely on that response and then, I’m caught in my own bind. Every teacher knows it’s not a good thing to reinforce bad behavior. Yet, my sense of fairness says, “Why should this person act otherwise when I’ve basically taught him or her this is who I am?”

When is the “giveness” of forgiveness too valuable to “give away”?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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Creating Chemistry

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parrot friends
Can we talk about . . .

chemistry?

I think six degrees of separation really should be many paths of connection.

Every person connects to the next one. Every person I meet connects to you and to me. Each person brings a path to what we all have in common. Those paths connect us in network of humanity. Every path goes to who we’ve been and who we might be.

I look for high roads we’ve strayed from and backyards where we chase clouds and stars. I see weight of crowds with heavy loads that need setting down. It’s hard not to respond to one person’s journey. Every journey is about how alike we all are.

Humanity is brains and hearts seeking each other out. One human thought, one human feeling jumps a synapse of air to bridge the gap between two human beings. We call that chemistry.

I can’t help but wonder . . . if we valued our paths more, could we create more positive chemistry?

Liz's Signature