Many of us started blogs to get out of the rat race, but I’m noticing more and more that there’s a blogging rat race all of it’s own. We fall onto this treadmill of needing to post, post, post, post. And it goes beyond writing posts. We fill our hours to the brim with answering emails, tweaking site design, replying to comments, reading posts from other bloggers in our niches, writing guest posts or editing guests post that people have submitted for our own blogs, and on and on and on and on.
But what are you doing, right now, that is truly remarkable?
Yesterday, Nathan Hangen tweeted something that made me extremely sad.
I’m desperate from something new, innovating, or fresh – what’s the most amazing piece of work you’ve seen lately?
Why did it make me sad? Because I honestly couldn’t think of anything to recommend to him off the top of my head. I know people who are running awesome blogs that I enjoy reading, but that’s part of the blogger rat race. I know people who are interesting on Twitter, but that’s part of the blogger rat race. I know people who have amazing ideas, but…well, you get the picture.
What project are you working on that’s going to change the world?
Perhaps that seems a bit intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be a plan to end world hunger or cure cancer. Your remarkable project could be something that starts much smaller, changing the lives of those around you in your niche. But if you create something remarkable, you will start to see that ripple effect.
And this all could start with an awesome blog post or interesting tweets or great ideas. Even the biggest forest fire starts with a single spark. The problem is, few people expand upon those remarkable sparks. If you’ve ever been a scout, like I was, you know – when you build a campfire, you have to baby those first few smoldering wisps of smoke. You nurture the flames until they grow and even though it gets easy, you can’t stop feeding that fire unless you want it to die.
Are you feeding the fire?
It’s easy to watch top names in any industry release products, create new blogs, start membership sites, and so forth, but you have remarkable ideas too. It might take you a little longer to complete, and it might take a little longer for you to see an outpouring of supporters, but if it’s something that you’re passionate about, something that you truly believe in, it’s worth doing. And worth promoting.
Today, I released a product at After Graduation that I think is remarkable. It isn’t relevant for everyone, but it is for writers. BlogWorld encouraged me to take the spark, that product idea that I was throwing around for over a year now, and develop it into not just a few pages of notes, but a real ebook. And I’m going to fan that fire, growing from this product to make more that help people in the freelance industry.
I’d like to invite you to share your remarkable products, ideas, and sparks. I was so sad at Nathan’s tweet not only because I think there’s a lack of remarkable things happening out there, but also because the things that are remarkable? I don’t know about them or realize people are working on them. And that’s partially my fault. I feel like lately I’ve been needing to slow down a bit and support others, rather than just plowing ahead with my own remarkable projects.
So… leave a comment! Tell me what you’re doing right now or planning in the future. Tell me what makes you remarkable. Tell me what you have for sale or for free that is going to change the world, or at least the lives of those in your niche. Or tell me what you’ve seen out there from other people. Link for me (and other readers) all of your glorious remarkable-ness!
(oops, missed a close tag last comment, resubmitting)
I know what you mean, Alli. Kyeli (my wife) and I had a long conversation about this exact same topic two years ago, and that’s when we decided to do something that would make a difference and change the world.
You know about it already (the Connection Revolution) but for those of you who don’t, our plan is to change the world by creating connection: with yourself, with others, with the world, and with Spirit. Yes, with a blog, though not just a blog. We’ve got the annual World-Changing Writing Workshop, we’re currently revamping our personal development course “52 Weeks to Awesome”, and we wrote a book on relationships and communication called The Usual Error. You can buy it on Amazon or read it online for free.
Other world-changers I can think of off the top of my head include Chris Guillebeau and Michael Bungay-Stanier. I find their ideas and products remarkable.
Looking forward to hearing what others think is worthy of comment here!
I’m really glad you left a comment here, Pace, because I think that what you and Kyeli are doing at Connection Revolution is exactly what I mean – a blog, but something remarkably more. A break from the blogger rat race!
Thank you, Alli. (:
I find this topic interesting, because it’s so much a matter of perception.
If you look at the Connection Revolution as simply a blog, and reduce it to “this is what tactics they use to get comments, this is what strategies they use to grow their readership” then it is just part of the blogger rat race.
It’s only when you look at the bigger picture that you see beyond the blogger rat race. Connection is not a tactic. Love is not a strategy. It’s easy for me and Kyeli to see, because we get the emails saying how we’ve made a difference, touched people, inspired people, changed lives. But it’s harder for people on the outside to see that. And I think that to a large extent, what you see is what you’re biased to see.
So a question I’d like to leave your readers with is:
What would happen if you stopped viewing your blog as “just a blog” and part of something bigger? A movement, a community, a force changing the world for good?
Well, I am getting my homesteading blog together. I am posting honest stories about my experiences and hoping others’ will benefit. In addition, I collect useful links of relevant information from other bloggers.
To me, it seems many bloggers focus on re-writing the same information found on other blogs. I try to have entirely original content, and of course, if someone has written about the subject better than I, I link to them. There’s so much to learn and information to post that I have no need to reinvent other bloggers’ articles.
I post resources, how-to’s, etc., and I am hoping that my site will be a directory of information for anyone wanting a more self-reliant lifestyle.
I think you make a good point, Amy – so many blogs aren’t saying anything new. I think that’s what I was trying to say in my post, but kept circling around the point without realizing it. You can run a great blog that covers the same old information that can be found elsewhere in the niche, or you can create something totally fresh. Cheers for your approach to blogging!
I think it can be dangerous to define “remarkable.” Sometimes a post that seems simple and/or basic can change someone’s entire approach to Social Media or business. However, your post falls neatly in line with post by Amber Naslund over at Brass Tack Thinking. She notes that Social Media gives us all a unique opportunity to have a voice – why not use it for good?
I’m definitely an Amber Naslund fan, so being compared to her in any way is definitely a huge compliment! I think this goes back to what Amy said better than I did. It isn’t that a blog can’t change the world, but rather that a blog that just rehashes old information might be a useful resource, but it isn’t remarkable.
I like the idea that your interaction with a Tweeter prompted you to explore your expectations, and made you take a look closer at the path you were walking. It seems you are back on track and headed on the journey intended. Sometimes the timing has to be right, or possibly one must grow into the place needed, in order to travel ahead. Good post! 😀
I do think this can be one of the pitfalls in attending a blogging convention–you feel compelled to fit into someone else’s strategy. I always come home from blogging events and remind myself that I am blogging first and foremost for community–everything else is second to that. That might mean that I don’t look as successful to others, but that’s OK as long as I continue to keep true to my own goals for the site.
Alli,
So glad that I found this post via Margie Clayman’s 30 Thursday list.
What you are blogging about is exactly the thing that we are trying to accomplish with SterlingHope.com – we want to make a difference, we want to engage, and we want a better world. Sounds so grandiose when I put it that way, but what it amounts to is one step at a time. One book, one dollar, one vote, one charity, one community, one world….(going to have to blog that now, I like the way it looks) – we want people to rethink their spend and their impact, when you connect the two, AMAZING things can happen.
I’ll be following you now on twitter. Thanks again for a great post.
Interesting post, Alli. Do you think that bloggers are in a rat race because they’re not doing something that’s “amazing”? How would you define amazing versus what the readers of blogs might think is amazing about a blog?
(This isn’t a criticism of this post, by the way – I like your question!)
An example is one of my favorite bloggers, Danny Brown (http://dannybrown.me). He has a blog that always seems to think away from the rest of the “rat race” you mention. But what I like about Danny is he’s used his blog (and the commmunity he’s built up, and which I’m proud to be a part of), to do some good and amazing things.
I don’t know if you have heard of his 12for12k project, but it’s a social media charity project that raised $100,000 in 2009. Everyone involved (I think) came via Danny’s blog.
I don’t know if that’s the kidn of example you meant? But I think it’s pretty amazing!
I’m not the judge of what is and is not amazing necessarily. The rat race I’m talking about is falling into this rut of keeping a blog running, but not really doing anything that incites passion in you or your readers. Are you making your readers think? Are you making your readers change for the better? Are you providing something that makes their lives better? Are you having an impact?
Or are you just posting, posting, posting to keep the blog active? Bloggers have the ability to change the world, one reader at a time, but do we all really take advantage of that?