If you have to ask yourself this question, you might already be screwed. OR, you might be just like me. I don’t automatically know what I “love”. I don’t know what my passions are. There are things I love, but I don’t want to talk about them all the time. There are things I am passionate about, but I don’t think anyone else will appreciate my take on them.
To this point, blogging has served more as a resume builder than a dream lifestyle creator. I am very grateful for the position I have because it’s better than I expected for myself five years ago. But every step of success has led me to the inevitable conclusion: I must continue to grow. I cannot stop here.
So I’m reteaching myself as I share these principles with you. In order to “Crush It” and score big with your blog or website, you have to have or quickly develop the following 5 things:
#1 You have to have a passion.
#2 You have to be knowledgeable.
#3 You have to listen
#4 You have to work hard.
#5 You have to be consistently creative and interesting.
For tonight, let’s stick with #1. This should be the most automatic, right? What IS my passion? I like many things. I have several hobbies. But what do I LOVE? Let’s look at the immediate short list:
- I love observing and figuring out people
- I love discovering new thoughts and analyzing them
- I love journaling
- I love blogging
- I love playing basketball (when I’m not injured)
- I love drinking caffeine and feeling euphoric
- I love explaining complex ideas and principles
- I love being the voice of clarity that resolves misunderstandings
- I love helping people see new possibilities
- I love receiving revelation directly from God
- I love sharing revelation with other people and seeing them encouraged
- I love (some) challenges
- I love my wife
- I love my daughter
- I love being a mentor to young men
- I love sitting in Starbucks
- I love my Vibram FiveFingers shoes
- I love making truly good decisions that make me healthier
- I love Twitter
- I love the idea of my upcoming Motorola CLIQ (UPDATE: Had 6 CLIQs and all were faulty – now a Samsung Galaxy Note guy)
- I love brainstorming new ideas
- I love creating new strategies for others to implement
I can’t let myself worry about what combination of these passions might be “successful” topics. That’s the wrong way to go about this. It’s NOT about how to game the system. It’s not about what formula will resonate with people.
That won’t work here. Because if I don’t come from the heart, I AM GOING TO FAIL. So let’s not even go there. What I think about what will work or not work is out the window. Because what do I know, really? If I REALLY knew what people would like, wouldn’t I already be selling my soul to give it to them? It’s precisely the point. I don’t NEED to know what people want UNTIL I’VE ESTABLISHED MY CORE PASSIONS. The time for listening to what the people want will come. But people on the outside of me can’t tell me what I care most about. Instead, I’ll move on to answer Question #2:
What am I knowledgeable about?