You all know about the Ultimate Lifehack - Interventures. Interventures, or intermittent adventures, allow you to intermittently disengage from whatever you are working on and recover, allowing you to come back stronger and more passionate about the task at hand.
Well, there is a second lifehack that is just as powerful, or could perhaps be considered even more powerful since it can indeed influence the frequency with which you take interventures. The hack? Start a blog.
Yes, seriously, starting a blog is the second ultimate adventurous habit. How could that be!? Well, it can be chalked up to the Paradox of Technology.
Not Why, but Why Not?
Here’s the deal - when you create a blog, you are putting yourself out there to the world. That’s scary! It’s an adventure in itself; but the fact of the matter is that you are also putting yourself out there to the world with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, email, text messaging, etc. And, those platforms are probably not crafting an image of yourself that you like that much anyway, professionally speaking at least. So what gives?
Furthermore, a blog is different from these social platforms because it:
Creating a Personal Brand
Now, I am no expert in personal branding, but essentially you are asking the question - what comes up when someone out there Google's your name? By having a blog, you will be able to shape that personal brand a WHOLE lot more than whatever you are putting out there on Facebook.
Since I am not the personal branding expert, I will tell you that there are a whole host of resources out there... I would begin with Gary Vaynerchuck’s Crush It and Michael Hiatt's Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World. I would suggest at least listening to the audiobook version of one of these while cooking or on a long road trip!
It is important to note here that it doesn't matter if no one cares what you have to say - what's important is that you are saying something, because this will keep you doing, thinking, and learning and will take you down new paths to novel, exciting places.
Finding Out What You Care About
To paraphrase Tim Ferriss, the goal of life (for the New Rich) is not inactivity, but rather doing what excites them.
In terms of work, I like to use the phrase 'what do you care about'. Passion and excitement are used often, but at the end of the day you want to be working on something that you genuinely care about. Yet, I have talked to so many people who aren't quite sure what the care about. How do you find it?
Start a blog.
A blog is just a medium for self-expression, and whether or not people are reading your blog, it will help you to find out what it is you care about. However, as long as one or two people are reading, then you are going to be held accountable for doing epic things - and writing about it.
Helping Other People
Who doesn't want to help other people? A blog will allow you to analyze what unique skills you hold that will help other people. Who knows, you may even be able to monetize it at the end of the day. But, worst comes to worst, you will just make a lot of friends and score a lot of good Karma.
So what are you waiting for? Let's hear what you got!
Maybe your blog will get popular - maybe it won't. That's not really the point. The point is, at the end of the day, you will have learned a heck of a lot about yourself, met and helped awesome people, built a personal brand that you can forever leverage, and most importantly dared to be more than mediocre - you dared to be great.
Awesome resources for getting started can be found below:
Well, there is a second lifehack that is just as powerful, or could perhaps be considered even more powerful since it can indeed influence the frequency with which you take interventures. The hack? Start a blog.
Yes, seriously, starting a blog is the second ultimate adventurous habit. How could that be!? Well, it can be chalked up to the Paradox of Technology.
Not Why, but Why Not?
Here’s the deal - when you create a blog, you are putting yourself out there to the world. That’s scary! It’s an adventure in itself; but the fact of the matter is that you are also putting yourself out there to the world with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, email, text messaging, etc. And, those platforms are probably not crafting an image of yourself that you like that much anyway, professionally speaking at least. So what gives?
Furthermore, a blog is different from these social platforms because it:
- Gives you a platform from which you can build a personal brand, and
- Keeps you accountable to the world.
Creating a Personal Brand
Now, I am no expert in personal branding, but essentially you are asking the question - what comes up when someone out there Google's your name? By having a blog, you will be able to shape that personal brand a WHOLE lot more than whatever you are putting out there on Facebook.
Since I am not the personal branding expert, I will tell you that there are a whole host of resources out there... I would begin with Gary Vaynerchuck’s Crush It and Michael Hiatt's Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World. I would suggest at least listening to the audiobook version of one of these while cooking or on a long road trip!
It is important to note here that it doesn't matter if no one cares what you have to say - what's important is that you are saying something, because this will keep you doing, thinking, and learning and will take you down new paths to novel, exciting places.
Finding Out What You Care About
To paraphrase Tim Ferriss, the goal of life (for the New Rich) is not inactivity, but rather doing what excites them.
In terms of work, I like to use the phrase 'what do you care about'. Passion and excitement are used often, but at the end of the day you want to be working on something that you genuinely care about. Yet, I have talked to so many people who aren't quite sure what the care about. How do you find it?
Start a blog.
A blog is just a medium for self-expression, and whether or not people are reading your blog, it will help you to find out what it is you care about. However, as long as one or two people are reading, then you are going to be held accountable for doing epic things - and writing about it.
Helping Other People
Who doesn't want to help other people? A blog will allow you to analyze what unique skills you hold that will help other people. Who knows, you may even be able to monetize it at the end of the day. But, worst comes to worst, you will just make a lot of friends and score a lot of good Karma.
So what are you waiting for? Let's hear what you got!
Maybe your blog will get popular - maybe it won't. That's not really the point. The point is, at the end of the day, you will have learned a heck of a lot about yourself, met and helped awesome people, built a personal brand that you can forever leverage, and most importantly dared to be more than mediocre - you dared to be great.
Awesome resources for getting started can be found below:
- Pat Flynn's Niche Site Duel (adapt it to your goals if you are not looking to monetize)
- Scott Dinsmore's Experimenter's Delimma
- Corbett Barr's Start a Blog That Matters (A fee-based course)
