The first thing I have noticed today is that it has been quite a while since I sat down, dug in, and wrote a serious blog. The second thing I almost immediately noticed is that the word “blog” is identified as a misspelled word by my computer’s spell-check. Hmm . . . how old is this software?
As the author of a book titled The Noticer, I feel a certain responsibility to live up to the spirit of that name in my everyday life. Blogging is how I am supposed to communicate to you, my loyal friends a certain amount of reasoned wisdom so that you, my loyal friends, can lead happier, more productive lives. But this Twitter thing is getting in the way. Facebook, too.
The problem is, I like Twitter. Facebook, too. I have really enjoyed connecting with you in short, spur of the moment, bursts. Twitter has allowed me to quickly blurt out whatever thought was passing through my head at the moment. I look back at my tweets, however, and I look like a twit. There is very little continuity . . . Some tweets are serious and logical, others are reflective and from the heart, while many are simply the ridiculous observations of a person prone to ridiculous observations.
My overriding intent on Twitter, I suppose, is to avoid boring you. Boring Twitter fodder should be avoided and subject to capital punishment. There is simply no excuse for boring others. Or even being bored! In our home, we do not allow our children to say, “I’m bored”. Being bored, they are told, is for boring people.
Whoa! Just noticed that I was way off the subject! Sorry. What was the subject?
I think I was attempting to explain my recent absence from the blogosphere with the excuse, “I am twittering! I am on Facebook!” However, if you subscribe to the blogs of my publisher, Mike Hyatt, or follow him on Twitter, or on Facebook, or on MySpace, or on LinkedIn, or on ThumbsTextedToTheNub.com, or any one of a hundred pieces of social media he employs, you know just how hollow my excuse sounds.
But Mike is a genius, I would argue. How else to explain a man who can write twenty or thirty blogs a day with one hand while simultaneously twittering and Facebooking and MySpacing with the other? Sheesh, he probably flosses, too!
Okay, I know I need to blog more than every few weeks. I promise to be better at it. Maybe I should say it this way: I promise to be more prolific. How can I really promise to be better? Writing, for me, is work. Sorry if that disappoints you, but there it is.
I am often amused by people who seem impressed by the “New York Times Bestselling Author” part of my resume. These folks, often after telling me “I’ve always wanted to write a book . . .” go on to wonder aloud at someone like me who has such an obvious love for writing. Ha! You see . . . (drum roll . . . secret about to be revealed . . .) I don’t love to write. I don’t even like to write. I do, however, love having written!
You do understand the difference, right? I love being finished with a manuscript. I love giving books away. I love being “an author”. I love making a living this way. But love to write? Are you kidding? I mean, every time I sit down in front of the computer, there are only fifty things I can think of that I’d rather be doing!
Look…I’m not even particularly “gifted” in this way. Think about it . . . I wasn’t even the best writer in my Senior English class! To this day, I can’t diagram a sentence. Who knows what the predicate and the indirect object are or how the prepositional phrase aligns with the subject? (Dare I add, who cares?) That’s what editors are for and I never wanted to be one of those . . .
I always wanted to be a difference maker—a person who was able to work a little magic in the lives of other people with something I noticed . . .
And here is something I noticed a while back that has allowed me to succeed and even to guide people to success in areas other than writing . . . It’s basis is found in a very simple question. And the question is:
Can you make yourself do something you’d rather not do, in order to get a result you would like to have?
When you are able to answer this question affirmatively, you will experience a massive shift in your perception of the immediate future. This single concept can dramatically alter your relationships, your finances, and even your health!
The deeper question, of course, is:
What result would you like to have?
How healthy (or unhealthy) are you willing to be? What kind of marriage do you really want to experience? Does it really matter to you whether or not your family is debt-free?
Okay . . . So you want to be in peak physical shape . . . You desire a marriage filled with love, excitement, and laughter . . . You crave freedom from the stress and uncertainty of monthly bills . . . What activities must be done—with a single-minded focus—to achieve the life you long for?
And can you make yourself do those things?
I am betting that you can. Remember, I am a writer . . . yet even I know that writing is not hard and good writing is not rare. Truly, there are tens of thousands of people in the world with awesome stories who probably write better than I do. But the bottom line is that writing is just one of the many things most people don’t make themselves do . . .
There it is. No more sugarcoating or explanation needed. Do you truly want to succeed in your chosen endeavor? Then, can you make yourself do something you’d rather not do, in order to get a result you would like to have?
Yes or no?
