“No single thing in the last 15 years professionally has been more important to my life than blogging” – Tom Peters.
It was one year ago tomorrow that I wrote my first blog post – Just Do It, after I had come across a youtube video with Seth Godin and Tom Peters talking about blogging. I am a faithful follower of Seth’s blog and his books, they are truly inspiring. From leadership advice, decision making (just make one!) and encouraging me to just ship, he is full of seemingly common sense ideas that make major life changes sound so simple.
In part 1 of this post, almost a year ago, I spewed the technical details that got me going, and set some goals for myself. Looking back, I did not post as much as I would have liked, but I think I nailed the rest of the goals. My favourite post, Email Is Where Knowledge Goes To Die, has had hundreds of views, and I am getting comments from quite a variety of people on almost all of my posts. It is also a lot of fun to watch twitter and the re-tweeting going on to spread the word, and even more fun to get quoted in another person’s blog. That I was not expecting, but very appreciated! (Thanks @elsusa!!) By the way, Luis Suarez, is accomplishing what everyone else only dreams of – living in a world without email!! His blog and Seth’s Blog are always at the top of my list.
So, the last year has been busy and fun. I have a full time job and am a full time Dad, so taking time out to blog is hard to do, but I really enjoy it, so I make time to do it. If something is important enough to you, you will find time to do it, and if you don’t than you are succumbing to your lizard brain. Quite often I will be in a situation that that makes me think – “this would make a great blog post”. And at that exact moment, that is exactly when it would make a great blog post – not a week or two later when the passion is gone and the idea has lost it original momentum. (Lesson learned for me)
I want to improve on my current pace of once a month and set a goal of publishing twice a month. I also have other passions that I want to start sharing around Business Process Re-Engineering, Employee Engagement and Project Management, as I realize that there are opportunities everywhere to engage teams and facilitate process change using social media.
I also really enjoy blogging at work. I can get my thoughts across easier to the company, and for some reason it just feels more personal, and I can be more candid, as oppose to sending out official emails and presentations. But you have to know your audience. I have come to the conclusion that blogging and micro-blogging will not be adopted by everyone. But it is so powerful and rewarding to see the light bulb go off over someones head when they make the connection to twitter, blogging, or social networking, and how they can use it to their advantage to grow both personally and professionally.
I am looking forward to another great year, and don’t worry, there is still plenty of time. All of your competitors are not quite there yet (but are figuring out how to get there), and most of your employees are still old school (but engagement and knowledge is more important than ever), so their is no hurry to be there first – right?
Just do it.
Hi Jeremy! Happy bloggiversary, my friend! It surely has been quite a blast, indeed! Here’s to plenty more of them to come in good health and joy so that we all get to read some of the really cool stuff you have been doing and writing about! Thanks much for taking the time to participate in the Blogosphere and for sharing your thoughts. The quote you started the blog post with is just spot on! Blogging nowadays is probably as good as it gets for your own Personal Knowledge Sharing strategy! I wouldn’t be able to just drop it like that; it would be too bad! Happy you are not going to either! Really look forward to reading plenty more great articles!
Well done and happy bloggiversary once more! 😀