Growth Through Blogging
In my accountability group this morning, I brought up the fact that I was blogging daily. I began this a few weeks ago based on a suggestion that Seth Godin once made that you should blog daily and have something to say about your business. I hasten to add that while I thought on it from Seth’s suggestion, the decision and reason are mine (which I will get into in a minute). You will never be at peace fulfilling someone else’s plan for you; it has to be your plan and your reasons.
My Reasons
One of the members of the group asked me why I was doing it, what was the purpose I hoped to accomplish. Had I attracted a lot of traffic for it? Did I hope to build traffic or clients through it? My response surprised them a bit. No, that is not my objective at this time. While I welcome people to the blog and while I do work some SEO features into it, building my list or traffic is not currently my primary objective of blogging daily. I had two big reasons for doing it:
- I had a goal and it was an ambitious one. I not only have to have something to say every day but I have to have a sufficient amount to say about it. If you think it is easy, try it sometime; although I will say once I get going have enough to say rarely is an issue. But it was important for me to set an ambitious short-term goal and accomplish it. So far, so good; haven’t missed a day yet.
- It gets me to put my thoughts on paper, as it were. Topics I think you might want to read about it because, quite frankly, they interest me as well. It forces me to think on what I have know and what I have learned about these subjects and organize them. It also forces me to explore a little more and see different perspectives and increase my knowledge. Who knows, perhaps all this may wind up in a book someday.
Both of these reasons have little or nothing to do with building lists, increasing traffic, making sales, or gaining clients. It has to do with growth; an intentional plan of growth to prepare myself to be able to add value to others more and serve better. Setting and reaching an ambitious goal is a growth initiative as it not only requires discipline to accomplish it but reinforces self-confidence when I achieve it. As Henry Thoreau wrote,
What you get by achieving your goal is not as important as what you become by achieving your goal!
So I am seeking to achieve more to become more and the reverse is also true, I become more to achieve more. It stretches me and makes me reach higher and deeper. In addition, putting my thoughts down helps me create and improve content that has garnered through years of experience and research. Getting it all down prepares me to turn around and share it with others. All the knowledge in the world is useless unless you can share it with someone else and help them grow. According to John Maxwell, the idea is to
be a river and not a reservoir.
And what I got into this business for is to Cultivate Growth. It is my primary purpose for all I do, to foster growth within others to become better leaders, better family members, better employees, and better citizens of their community. To do that best, I must also cultivate growth within myself.
Cultivating Growth
For growth to really work, your growth has to be like a weed. A weed grows daily and it grows regardless of what is going on around it. It takes whatever it can feed off of and keeps going. Your growth needs to be the same as the weed and more. It needs to be
- daily
- intentional
- undeterred by circumstance
- measurable
Every day, keep 1% in mind. Commit to grow yourself by 1% daily. I used to say that if you do that the after one year you will have grown by 365%. Actually, however, it is not additive, it is exponential. You get 1% on top of 1% on top of 1% and so on. Large amounts of growth through a daily commitment. Make that growth in measurable areas where you can see the changes; that builds confidence and reinforces the movement towards progress. The progress is key. Keep going, keep growing.
Be a 1%er!
Action Plan
- What are you doing specifically and intentionally to foster your own growth? If nothing, what are you willing to do?
- Track your progress on a daily basis.