“You were born an original. Don’t die a copy.”
John Mason, author & motivational speaker
Where does blogging really fit in your business? In your life? If you’re a regular blogger, you’ve probably grown to understand it as an important aspect of your personal and professional development for reasons you may not have anticipated.
If you don’t blog, I’d like to encourage you to take under two minutes (literally!) to watch this video from Seth Godin & Tom Peters on blogging:
Seth Godin & Tom Peters on blogging.
Godin touches on a number of good points here, but there’s one I’d like to home in on (paraphrased):
“It doesn’t matter if anyone reads your blog. What matters is the metacognition that comes with thinking about what you’re going to say.”
This is a powerful and often overlooked idea. We sometimes think we know our minds on an issue, but only when we come to have to articulate our beliefs to we really understand them in full light.
Expressing your perspective through your blog is a powerful way to help you engage your mind and find your voice. Famous essayist Joan Didion once said, “I write to discover what I think.” She’s not alone– authors, political figures, and great business minds have all relied on the challenge of expressing themselves to ultimately know themselves.
Even if you subscribe a helpful service such as My Real Helper, which provides you ghostwritten letters and blog posts to help your marketing, you should consider writing your own, original posts from time to time in order to find your voice and explore what’s unique about your perspective. You may be surprised how much clarity you find when you’re forced to sum up your thoughts on a topic in a few paragraphs.
Keeping a diary, while a great practice for your mental health, is not quite the same thing. When you have to present yourself in “public” by blogging, you engage a different sort of thought process. Don’t be afraid to share yourself. People are hungry for connection, and over time, you might just attract the very sort of people who become clients and friends.
I enjoy blogging and it’s good for business. I was interest in the idea that one of the values is to clarify our own thoughts and “find our voice.” Your articles are always useful.