One of the most common questions people ask me, is in relation to blogging. Specifically, they want to know how I manage to push myself, to write and publish content as often as I do.
Here’s the answer.
Push or pull?
This quote from the late Steve Jobs answers that question beautifully:
If you are working on something exciting that you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed. The vision pulls you.
– Steve Jobs.
If your vision of blogging is that it’s a necessary evil, you will fail on every metric.
- You will fail to write as well as you can, because when you work through gritted teeth, it shows.
- You will fail to show up with new information, often enough.
- You will fail to engage people.
My blogging vision was different
I saw it as a professional and personal development opportunity. I knew that in order for me to share useful information regularly, I needed to feed my mind with useful information regularly. I quickly found another massive benefit to blogging, which is that writing regularly makes you a better communicator. That’s a huge asset for anyone.
So, even if I failed to attract a commercially valuable reader community, I’d still benefit. Firstly, I’d become far more informed. Secondly, I’d be better able to communicate my ideas than I would have been, had I not written all that content. This made it impossible for me to fail.
If you’re struggling to publish content regularly enough, don’t carry on working through gritted teeth. Change your vision. And then let that vision pull you.
Thankfully, Jobs’ concept works in every area of your life and isn’t limited to content creation.
Tip: If you found this useful, you can get my latest ideas delivered direct to your inbox, for free, right here.