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<YAWN!> it’s SOOOOO nice to actually achieve a solid 8 hours of uninteruppted sleep.  Okay, that’s a lie, as my son came in at 1am to sleep on various/sundry pillows on the floor…but luckily he wandered back when he realized the Pokemon comforter was much more appealing than the parents’ room.  Ah well, these things happen.

But as I was sleep-walking to the Machine of Worship (ie, my coffeemaker), I was having an intense (as intense as you can achieve when you’re half-awake) discussion with myself about my work online.  Do I love it?  Do I do it only to make money?  Is it sustainable?  Will Luke marry Laura?  You know, those kinds of questions.

It reminded me of Steve Job’s commencement speech back in 2005.  This is required reading for all my kids; it moved me greatly.  Here’s a snippet (and below you’ll see the entire video clip):

….I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories. The first story is about connecting the dots. I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
…

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later…MORE….

I greatly urge you to read the rest of the text; it’s extraordinarily insightful.  I especially resonate with one of the closing sentences:

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Let’s now bring this back to you and your blogging. 

Why ARE you blogging?  More importantly, do you have a concrete plan in place on which to build your blogging?

I blog because it’s part of my long-term growth strategy.  It’s part of my definable business.  It spurs me to keep on the cutting edge of technology and always have critical knowledge at my fingertips.

But what about you? 

In 6 months from now, what benchmarks will you use to determine whether you’re a "success" or hopeless fool?

There are several resources that delve into this quiet well.  Consider:

• Wendy Wouldn’t Wait. Will You?
• Tips for measuring success for a blog
• How can you measure the success of your blog?
• How to measure your blog’s success
• How to measure your blog’s success Part II

Personally speaking, I view I’m a success when:

• I make enough money to support my family comfortably and have room for savings (check!)
• Enjoy my work (check!)
• Can step away from my work long enough to indulge in pastimes (check!)

Then again, I’m weird. 

Thus, read the above resources and really hammer down in your mind WHY you blog…and how you can make your blogging better.  Your future income will thank you for it.

ThankYouVeryMuch!

Owlbert

#BEGIN highlights of this blog writing post:

Beginners blogging tips:  Don’t blog because "everyone else is doing it."  Have a concrete reason instead.

Intermediate and/or Advanced blogging tips:  Write out your business PLAN for blogging…and then instill the self-discipline to follow it in the upcoming months.

#END highlights of this blog writing post

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pps - and speaking about Steve Jobs:

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(By the way, if you have any questions about the topics in this posting "What Steve Jobs can teach you about your personal blogging reasons", do comment below - I'll try to clarify any issues).

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