One Small Step
About three months ago I decided to start blogging regularly. The thing that led me down this path was John Sonmez's talks about getting things done. The idea that if you just show up and do it, the creative juices will start flowing and you will write something meaningful.
Another writer that I listen to is Seth Godin. Seth claims that writer's block is simply a myth. Seth writes a blog post everyday. All of his posts are insightful and provoke quite a bit of thought. I really don't know how Seth does it. One thing is to blog regularly and a whole other story to write daily.
I admire what both of these authors do. I admire that they don't just talk the talk but they also walk it.
John is a very succesful entrepreneur that has made his niche out of mentoring other developers. Everything that flows out of him seems to flow so naturally. He is not only writing though. See John is the most published author at pluralsight.com. One day he decided that he was going to focus all of his energy into making pluralsight videos. After seeing a couple of his videos I must admit that they are quite good and he demonstrates not only the technical ability to teach but also the skill of a good teacher. When John accomplished his feat he was doing about one video every two weeks.
I don't know know how much John Sonmez makes for a living but according to him, he makes several times more than what he made as a good senior developer. That is quite impressive. As impressive as that is, the most impressive thing about him is that he gets to do what he loves. He sets his own schedule and he is not tied to a location. Just last month he returned from a three month just-for-fun tour of Europe, family and all. Now that is the American dream or at least a good version of it.
Seth on the other hand is extremely successful as an entrepreneur, author and marketer. His books have been best sellers in the business industry and his intelligent ideas come from a true genius. Seth advocates that we can all do and we all should. That's the same thing that John promotes. They both promote, in a way, that if we just show up we will accomplish things we could never have imagined.
I can only dream of accomplishing half of what these two promote. I can only dream of one day looking back on my journey and saying "wow, I did that?".
This week I had nothing to write about and thought "this is it. This is where my 15 week writing streak ends" but... I decided to write anyway.
Maybe I am just making noise or maybe I am showing up. Maybe I am taking one small step of my million step journey.
Comments
Excellent post. I can totally relate to your struggle.
I'm also a SP graduate and find it hard to post in my blog consistently.
I've followed John's suggestions such as: always a list of blog post ideas, set a schedule day, and just ship it.
Personally, I have an additional list which has a posting schedule of a topic set by date. This way I don't think of what I need to write about next. The plan is already set. (I think John refers to "resistance" which he talks about this consistently through his teachings.)
You are alone in the struggle on trying to keep up.
Feel free to drop me a line or stop by blog (shameless plug: www.mindbodysouldeveloper.com).
Maybe we can exchange some ideas and/or help motivate each other when the muse abandons us.
Good luck!