As I reflect upon the times when I’ve felt most “effective” as a blogger (and perhaps as a human), I think it’s times when I’ve built these three things into life.
Space
Perhaps it’s just me and my personality, but I find that if I don’t create space…
- to reflect on life
- to consider how I’m feeling
- to analyze what I’ve experienced
- to ponder priorities.
then I tend to allow the busyness of my life determine what I do, rather than letting what is important determine my actions.
I find that if I don’t create space, blogging either doesn’t happen, or it happens in a very ad hoc way without me really thinking clearly about the journey I want to take readers on.
Silence
Image copyright Tyler Olson - Fotolia.com
I need to turn off what distracts me sometimes—Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, the Media, the iPhone—to truly hear what I need to hear.
I spend too much time broadcasting, and I need to learn to listen more. When I do listen, I find what I say is more useful to others.
Solitude
I spend a lot of time alone physically, but emotionally, in the work that I do online, I’m realizing that I’m not switching off from those around me.
This point is connected perhaps to the silence I mention above, but the realization that I’m having is that I need to build times of solitude into my life.
I need to learn how to disengage—if only for short periods of time—from the conversations, the requests, and the demands of readers, friends, and followers.
I need to do this not because these people are unimportant, but because if I don’t experience solitude, I’m not really in a position to be able to help anyone.
