Successful Blog

Seeing and Imagining

by

Beach Notes by Guest Writer Suzie Cheel

I have been working on getting clarity about various aspects of my life and find my morning beach walk a good place to reflect.

Today I am following Liz’s 25 word writing exercise for this weeks beach notes:

There are times when the sea

is so clear

you can see

the shoals of fish

twist and turn

other times you

must imagine them.

-Suzie Cheel

Are there times when something is crystal clear one day and the next day the clarity is a little foggy?

Picture1 : http://www.flickr.com/photos/devos/2865358754/

Thanks to Week 155 SOBs

by

muddy teal strip A

Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,

and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.

I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.

muddy teal strip A

They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.

I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.

Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award carries a “Liz said so” guarantee, is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and is backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.

deep purple strip

Want to become an SOB?

If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame– A-Z Directory . Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Can You Be Brave and Vulnerable?

by

Be Brave and Vulnerable

Some folks are brave as knights in shining armor. Some folks are vulnerable — they are damsels in distress. Most are only one or the other. They list. They lean. They need things to stand complete.

The brave ones need an audience to know their strength. They need dragons to slay. They don’t understand why folks don’t thank them when they save the kingdom. I was brave in that way once.

The vulnerable need an audience to know they’re alive. They need to give until they’re all gone. They don’t understand why other folks have boundaries. I was that kind of vulnerable once.

prague_castle

I took my brave and my vulnerable out of their separate jars. They’re not broken anymore. In that way, neither am I.

Brave and vulnerable belong together, like two sides of one coin.

Brave and vulnerable touch us, teach us, and change us, each brave and vulnerable, deep and wonderful breath we breathe. We touch the universe together in large and small ways that hardly anybody knows.

Brave and vulnerable, eating tea and cookies in a big leather chair, watching me write this on a dark night in Chicago with a light on faraway.

Brave and vulnerable heart, my mind, and purpose in the same direction.

They are memories. They are imagination. They are two kids playing, smiling in the sunshine at six years old.

Brave and vulnerable − they are me and you.

Please . . . don’t let go of that. People will tell you other things.

Brave and vulnerable are like bittersweet chocolate — a rare and valuable combination.

They’re dynamic tension like poetry in motion, visibly authentic, and irresistibly powerful.

Are you brave and vulnerable?

Of course you are.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

SOB Business Cafe 10-10-08

by

SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking–articles on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Copyblogger tells a story about connecting purposefully.
Why is it important to have a purpose for your blog writing?

Chris Brogan tells a story about how he learned 25 things.
Once something cool happens, I try to figure out ways to share, to get you involved, and to try and inform on what I learn as I learn it. Upon reaching some recent milestones, I thought it might be really interesting to share some thoughts with you on how I think this is what I’ve done. I’m not exactly sure.

Zoli’s Blog tells a story that isn’t the same as Little Red Hen’s.
Lot’s of noise today, RIP Good Times, IT’S OVER! POP GOES THE BUBBLE, Sorry, Startups: Party’s Over etc. I think the panic is overdone.

The Savvy Entrepreneur
I personally suffer from multiple strains of Someday Syndrome. And you?

Build a Solo Practice tells a story of survival.
There is an interesting phenomenon afoot. The tougher the times, the more people get up off the couch, break through their “I’m afraid” paralysis and finally start taking charge of their lives in a way they may not have in the past.

Bringing Brands to Life! tells a story about storytelling.
These days, being “real” and “authentic” seems to be on everybody’s mind.

Related ala carte selections include

confused of calcutta sends over a story that could be found in the news.

The Copywriter Underground sends over a rehab tool.

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

When You’re Imagining Disastrous Endings

by

Every Star Shines

Shine!

When I worked in an office, bigger problems seemed to happen when I was traveling. As a young manager, I used to look at every next trip with “what will happen this time?” anxiety.

My imagination could make anxiety into a motion picture with twists and turns and cinematic catastrophe.

Finally I caught on that the problems that happened when I was gone were the same incidents and mishaps that happened when I right there. I saw them with new proportions because I wasn’t there to manage them. I’d feel responsible for what went wrong. I’d be less effective. It wasn’t long before I was feeling anxious and imagining again.

I’m sure glad I gave up that anxiety habit. It threw my world view off balance.

It would happen, maybe for a reason, maybe without warning, I used to find myself feeling like I wasn’t up to a challenge. I’d get that creeping, anxious feeling that I wasn’t as good as the rest of the species.

It’s that thought that I wasn’t meant to be on the planet . . . and that soon everyone was gonna know . . .

Anxiety made the world all about me. It was years before I realized the answer was outside me.

The best results of anxious thoughts are positive actions they can cause.

When you’re imagining disastrous endings, pack that anxious adrenaline into positive experience. Move outside yourself. Move from where you are to where you’re wishing you might be.

Get curious. Get interested. Change your perspective.
Stop thinking, feeling, hiding. Start doing, being, believing. Experience yourself building, helping, teaching, creating, serving, giving, loving unconditionally.

You’re exceptional at some things, so no matter what one thing made you anxious . . . choose another and get going.
Start shining.
Shining heals better.
Shining calms worrying, whining, and regretting

Some say that it leads to smiling. Your results could vary.

But it’s fairly certain that it never leads to disastrous endings.

Whatcha’ waiting for? Make a weekend that shines.

Liz's Signature

–ME “Liz” Strauss

A Thinker’s Workaround to Conquering Writer’s Block

by

Start with the Big Picture or with the Details

Power Writing Series Logo

In my work with writers, being frozen at the blank screen seems to be the most common concern. We call it “writer’s block,” but it’s really “thinker’s block” — we can think of what we want to say. The worst is when we have an idea, but can’t think of how to get started.

To conquer writer’s block, start with how you arrange your thoughts.

Do you go from big picture to the details or do you use the details to build your big picture? Pick the one that’s you and then use it to work around to a new idea.

Starting with the Big Picture

Top-down thinkers think in big chunks. We don’t do well just writing to fill a page. Try this to defeat that white screen.

  • Start with a plan. Use a mindmap or a graphic organizer. It might be three stacked boxes that you organize like a menu –Appetizer — Entree — Dessert.
  • Fill in the main concept — the entree — first. Decide what you want to say. Write your concept in one sentence. Then record the main points you want to include about that concept. Look over what you have, give it some order, but don’t write yet.
  • Pick one compelling detail from the above step. Make that detail the appetizer. Decide how you’ll highlight that detail in the introduction. Will you describe the detail or tell a story about it? Use the detail to give readers a reason to read.
  • For dessert, think of how you will sum up what you’ve said. Will you circle back to how you started? Will you call readers to action? Will you repeat the main points of the article? The goal for the conclusion is reader satisfaction.

Finish off the blank screen like a three-course meal.

Building from the Detail

Bottom up thinkers build thought by thought. If you’re the kind who finds it easier to write an outline after the article is done, try this instead.

  • Relax. Reflect. Think of your concept and choose one detail. Start writing about it. Write for at least 10 minutes. Write longer if you can. Then print out what you’ve written.
  • Read over what you’ve got, group together details about the same idea. Describe each group of details with a sentence.
  • Choose one compelling detail that you find attention-getting. Write an introduction around that detail to get readers to want to keep reading.
  • Weave the most meaningful details of the piece together to make the main content. Then feature one detail — you might repeat the one you used to introduce the piece — by using it to ask a final question or make a final statement that will stay with readers long after they finish reading.

A writer’s goal is a thought that moves readers in some way.

We get there through our own process.

Do you go top-down, bottom-up, or do you have a way in of your own?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you think Liz can help with a problem you’re having with your writing, check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

Related
Why Dave Barry and Liz Don’t Get Writer’s Block
Don’t Hunt IDEAS — Be an Idea Magnet
10 Ways to Start a Blog Post — 01-29-07