• The WHY Behind Blogging

    I may have met my book writing soulmate. In his book, Start with Why, Simon Sinek tells us that the businesses and people who make the greatest impact are those who begin by answering the question WHY.

    We have three primary questions to answer, and both how we answer them and in which order we answer them determines who we will be and how fulfilled we’ll be with our decision-making.

    WHAT: Every single company and organization on the planet knows WHAT they do… Everyone is easily able to describe the products or services a company sells or the job function they have within the system. WHATs are easy to identify.

    HOW: Some companies and people know HOW they do WHAT they do. Whether you call them a ‘differentiating value proposition,’ ‘proprietary process’ or ‘unique selling proposition,’ HOWs are often given to explain how something is different or better. Not as obvious as WHATs, many think these are the differentiating or motivating factors in a decision. It would be false to assume that’s all that is required. There is one missing detail:

    This knuckle sandwich between the eyes made me stop and ask several questions.

    Why Am I Blogging?

    1) I blog because I want to be known and respected. My wife can attest to the fact that this compulsive need to share doesn’t let up. I’ve met web developers before who are the exact opposite personality type as I am, and they think I’m a freakish person for sharing so much about myself.

    I get it. I share. It’s kind of my thing. I want to believe that I have something to share that is valuable and unique. And let’s be honest: If we dig deep down, we’ll find that I believe the world will be better off for knowing me if they will simply listen.

    2) I blog because I believe that I can bring clarity to a confusing world. To clarify, I see most of the problems in the world stem from a lack of understanding. People don’t want to suck at life. They just don’t understand all the principles governing cause and effect, or they don’t know that what God said is true. So they live based on a set of misunderstandings which directs their entire lives. It’s terrifyingly sad.

    3) I blog because it’s the most effective way I know to affect change in the world without an existing platform, reputation, or pedigree.

    Anyone can create consistent content through a blog.

    But, Daniel, you might argue, there are too many misunderstandings in the world for you to correct them all. That’s like the person who announces they are busy because “someone is wrong on the Internet!” It’s funny because it’s so true. We can lose ourselves in a never-ending struggle because our purpose is too loosely defined.

    So what misunderstandings or lack of understanding do you want to solve? It’s time to clarify that WHY and take it to the next level. Here are two of my big ones.

    Misunderstanding #1: Salvation is for the afterlife. The belief that faith is for the afterlife has permeated our culture these past 100 or more years. As a nation of semi-believers, we have missed the fact that Jesus died and rose from the dead and sits at the right hand of the Father so that we are authorized to usher in the Kingdom of God NOW and not sit in our emotional bunkers and wait out this wicked age.

    Misunderstanding #2: You can do MUCH more in your life and business than you think. I come from a community of people with minimal aspirations. I think it has to do with some unofficial church doctrines that encouraged people to put in their dues at crap jobs as a sort of ministerial proving ground. I was one of these people locked into waiting mode… waiting for permission and direction for my life’s calling to begin.

    Outside of a direct message from God commanding us to stay in an uninspiring crap job, I now consider myself a direct enemy to this line of thinking. I’m learning life lessons today that I could have encountered seven years ago if not for this type of mentality.

    Now I have my WHY for blogging. Next, we’ll discuss the HOW. Fee free to use this series as a template for your own question/answer series. What is YOUR WHY?