Jeff Goins's Blog, page 79

Are You Interruptible? (You Should Be)

The mark of kindness — of a mature, compassionate person — is this: interruptibility. As it turns out, this is all it takes to begin making a difference right now, wherever you are.

Photo Credit: Fey Ilyas via Compfight cc

Are you interruptible? Do you let the noise of the world collide with the busyness of your life… in a good way?

If you want to be a true friend, a mentor, a difference-maker, then this characteristic — or rather, this discipline — is a must.

Ways to gauge interruptibility (or the lack thereof)

Here’s how you can tell if you’re living an interruptible life:

You don’t constantly look at your watch or get distracted when meeting someone.
You can easily sustain eye contact with another human being.
You make the conversation about them, not you (even if they’re seeking your advice or counsel).

I’m not great at this stuff, but I’m learning. And I’m realizing that my schedule and tasks and all-around busyness doesn’t make me nearly as important as I think it does.

Face it. You aren’t that big of a deal. Neither am I. Life, for the most part, is about people. So let’s make some room for them.

A quick note about interruptions

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be productive. It doesn’t mean you don’t focus on your work or priorities or have some vague notion of where you want to end up in life.

In fact, it means the opposite.

Being interruptible is the opposite of being distracted. Busyness creates stress, which requires you to escape (i.e. distractions). But a life focused on others requires a willingness to be interrupted.

Never assume what you’re doing is more important than what someone else needs from you. That’s the first rule to living a life that matters, that leaves an impact. You must be humble.

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather be known for being open to occasional interruptions than the guy who never veers off task. The latter is what we expect of a robot. The former, an actual human being.

Which would you rather be?

The secret to great stories

Guess what happens at the turning point of every great story? Something unexpected happens. Maybe it’s a setback or catastrophe. Maybe someone dies or gets pregnant. But something must happen. And when it does, people react.

The space in between that incident and people’s reaction is a sacred place we all can relate to. And in that space our character is tested.

Some people get mad, while others get depressed or go into denial. Even others press in and embrace the inconvenience for what it is: an opportunity. A chance to grow.

And those who choose to do so are the rare ones we remember. Some may even call them heroes.

So the question is: Are you interruptible? Share in the comments.

You just finished reading Are You Interruptible? (You Should Be)! Consider leaving a comment!

Pre-order my new book The In-Between and get $240 worth of bonus material! To find out more, click here.

Three Signs You’ve Found Your True Passion

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Nick Thacker. Nick recently finished his first thriller novel,  The Golden Crystal , and has launched a free course on how to write a novel.

One of the questions I get asked most often is: ”How do I know when I’ve found my true passion?” My usual response is something along the lines of, “Well, uh, I guess you just know when you know…”

Photo Credit: Camdiluv ♥ via Compfight cc

What a cop-out. I always feel bad answering like this. Of course, it’s not entirely untrue, just incomplete. I mean, I enjoy writing and blogging, and teaching, but is that enough?

I never truly deconstructed just what it was that made it a passion. Until now.

After spending some time soul-searching, I’ve narrowed it down to three signs that let you know you’ve arrived at your passion — that thing that makes you never give up, that keeps you up at night, that gets you excited about starting the next day.

Here’s the truth: Not everyone gets to do work they love. But we all have a shot at it, at discovering what we were born to do. And it’s our responsibility to seek such work out. It may seem distant and unattainable, but it’s your job to at least try to get closer to it.

As you endeavor to find your life’s work, here’s how to know whether it’s a true passion or just an impostor:

1. You’re excited about it

I’ve been so excited about things I’m passionate about that I actually lose sleep 0ver them. Although this isn’t a good thing, it’s a clear sign that whatever I’m working has my attention.

If you’re in the midst of something that might become a “true passion” for you, try to measure and assess your own excitement level:

Work on part of a task or project related to the passion.
See how easy it is to “compartmentalize” after you finish.
When you go back to your real life, is it to forget about the project?

If it keeps bugging you, then you’ve found your passion.

At one point, I wanted to be a full-time musician: playing gigs, selling CDs, and so on. But after years of practicing, rehearsing, and learning about the music business, I realized it didn’t excite me as much as it once did.

Once I discovered I was better at helping other musicians market themselves, a new passion took hold. And I spent the next few years building an indie record store, promoting the bands I loved.

2. You’re falling behind

For me, how far behind I am on a passion-related project is a great barometer of how passionate I am about it. Sound strange? Well, hang in there with me…

When I started writing, I had a great first run of success and then plateaued. I couldn’t figure out how to develop my characters, how to transition from one scene to the next, or how to create a believable story arc. I constantly felt behind, as if I was missing something important.

After sticking with the process, I now have a 110,000-word-long novel, ready to be released. And I’m even working on another. With the second novel, I keep thinking of things I should be doing, things I’ve learned from doing it the first time.

And the more I do this, the more behind I feel. Which could feel paralyzing, but instead it feels empowering. This feeling is important. Why? Because it tells me I care enough the project to worry about it.

When analyzing your own passion, you may discover this same sense. It’s a good thing, this behind-ness. It can be a boon to stave off procrastination and motivate you to be more productive.

Understanding how far we’ve come but still how far we have to go is the only way we get better.

3. You can’t easily define it

As a writer, I don’t see an end in sight. There’s no “sell a million books”-type goal that fuels me. Nor is there a specific genre I want to tie myself to or one day master. And frankly, I’m okay with that.

If you’re dealing with a true passion and not just a fleeting “side project,” you’re probably going to have a hard time defining it. When someone asks you what you do for a living, you might shrug and say something like, “Well, I, uh, blog, and create stuff, and uh…”

There’s nothing wrong with this. Feeling like you’re in a broad category of “creatives” or “artists” is totally fine. Keep your goal-setting and planning more to the project level. You can leave your core passion a little undefined.

I’ve often had more than one passion in life. Some were seasonal, while others stuck around for years. A few even took thousands of hours to pursue. What always happened, though, is that each effort eventually led to a better understanding of my purpose.

The same will be true for you. If you watch your excitement, keep striving to be better, and never give up (even when you aren’t quite sure what you’re doing), you’ll find your passion, as well.

How do you know you’ve found your passion? Share in the comments.

You just finished reading Three Signs You've Found Your True Passion! Consider leaving a comment!

Learning the Secret to Mastery: An Interview with Robert Greene

We were all born to do one important thing: to pursue our “life’s task” and master it. That’s what Robert Greene believes. In fact, he’s written a whole book about the subject, and it’s called Mastery.

Mastery by Robert Greene

Awhile back, I had a chance to sit down (virtually speaking) with Robert and interview him. We talked about the concept of calling, apprenticeship, and how to master your craft. Greene believes we all have something we intuitively know we were meant to do, and the path to that work — what he calls your “life’s task” — is less glamorous than we’ve been told.

Note: This a long blog post (nearly 3000 words). I’ve done my best to make it scannable and easy to read, but there’s no easy way to cut it down, and I believe all the material is quite good. If you need to, save or print it and come back to it when you get a chance. Or skip to the memorable quotes section if you just want the Cliff’s Notes version.

Included below is the following:

27-minute long audio (which you’re welcome to download and share with anyone)
Abridged Q&A (text only)
Full transcript (download)
Memorable quotes

Here’s my interview with Robert…

Interview with Robert Greene

Listen in a new window | Download

J: So, Mastery is a book about how you find your calling. Is that right?

R: Well, it’s a book about not just being good at what you do, but being great. I call it the ultimate form of power, the highest level of intelligence we can reach. And it’s generally the fruit of a lot of practice, and diligence, and persistence. It’s not the fact that you’re born a genius, or that you have a larger brain. It’s the level of dedication and persistence and patience.

But at the root of all that is what you correctly note is knowing what your life’s, what I call your life’s task. It’s choosing a career path that meshes with your deepest interests in life, what sparks your deepest levels of curiosity.

And if you do manage to follow a path like that, then you’re naturally going to be more patient. You’re naturally going to be more persistent. You’ll know how to deal with all of the crap that people throw at you. So, that’s really the key to the whole game.

The path to mastery

J: Can you just talk about the process of becoming a writer and where you’re at in your own craft?

R: Ever since I was a kid, I knew I wanted to write. I maintain in the book that usually people have a sense of these things when they’re very young. But I never really knew exactly what I should be writing.

So at first I thought I’d write a great novel. Then I got into journalism. And I didn’t really like journalism because what you wrote didn’t really last very long. It could be forgotten three days later.

Then I got into Hollywood, and film, and television. And that lasted longer, but you would write something, and then 20 other people would come on top it and change everything that you did. So you had no control.

I was in my mid-30s, and I knew I wanted to be a writer. But I hadn’t found where I fit in this world. And, then, just by sort of by coincidence, I suppose, I met this man who is a book packager. And he asked me if I had any ideas for books. I ended up kind of improvising that day what would turn out to be The 48 Laws of Power.

But the important thing was I could sense that this was like the perfect fit for me. I could write something that would last. I would have complete control of it. I could put in all of the research, my love of history that I had developed over many years. I could put into a nonfiction book but also really work to helping people.

The lesson for this — and I have other people in Mastery who follow a similar paradigm — is that it doesn’t matter. You don’t have to find exactly what you want early on in life. It can be a voyage, a journey that takes a few years, as long as you have a general sense of the direction you need to be headed. Which for me was writing.

If I had wasted my 20s and this man asked me for book ideas, it would have been useless. But I had spent my time learning how to write, writing under a deadline, gaining skill in the craft. And when the opportunity came I could exploit it. So, that to me was the lesson.

Now, some 17 years later, I feel like I’m in the best position I can be in. And I think I’ve honed my craft over these years. But the main thing was I was ready when that opportunity came.

The ideal apprenticeship

J: In Mastery, you talk about the ideal apprenticeship. Can you talk a little bit more about that? How did you apprentice?

R: Well, the first thing is to get my concept of the apprenticeship. You can pretty much throw out what you learedn from school, or your parents, once you enter the real world, because it’s a totally new environment with new rules, new ways of learning. And the problem is, we’re not prepared for that.

For me, personally, I made some mistakes, and I learned the hard way. Mostly, I was a bit naïve and didn’t understand that people out there can be sometimes manipulative and political. I have a chapter in the book that your apprenticeship really includes knowing how to work with people and not being so naïve.

But the main thing is, you want to be developing skill. That’s the key thing in the apprenticeship phase. Learning, learning, learning. Not making money. Not getting fame and attention. The more you learn in this apprenticeship phase, the more you’re prepared for those moments that will eventually come to you.

For me, it was just simply writing. I kept writing. And I had some success — I was published in Esquire and other magazines. And I developed the skills that I would later really need, which is to be able to write under a deadline, to be able to be professional and write in a professional manner, and skills in organizing.

From my parents’ perspective, I looked like I was lost. And they were ready to give up on me. But really, I was developing all the things that would later be very important for writing a big book.

Debunking the myth of genius

J: We have this idea that history’s greatest artists were crazy or intoxicated or incredibly inspired when they were creating their life’s best work. But in the book you say that it’s actually the opposite, that people don’t create their best work when they’re hooked on heroine. They don’t create their best work when they’re going crazy.

R: Well, it’s a terrible, ridiculous myth. And it’s also a great secret. If we looked behind the scenes and we saw Einstein spending hour after hour thinking about this one problem, or if we saw the hours of practice that Mozart put into his music, or John Coltrane into playing the saxophone, it would almost not seem so glorious, so mystical. We love the myth of the artist just creating out of nothing.

Also, it gets us off the hook. We can say, “Well, I wasn’t born a Mozart. How could I possibly do it?” Or with Coltrane: “It was just the heroine.” When, in fact, Coltrane said he did his worst music when he was on heroine.

What people don’t realize is that the greatest jazz artist ever, John Coltrane, in a medium known for its spontaneity was a practice freak. This man practiced harder than anyone ever had practiced before on the saxophone. This man practiced hours, and hours, and hours every conceivable genre of type of jazz music. And that’s what led him to be so wildly creative, and even spontaneous, in the end.

So, I set out in this book to debunk that ridiculous myth that it’s something someone’s born with, they’re just insane, or they take drugs. And I show it applies to Albert Einstein. It applies to dance and Martha Graham. It applies to sports and Michael Jordan or Bill Bradley. On and on down the line.

The effort and years of practice you put in will let you become much more creative and intuitive.

“I don’t know what I want to do with my life!”

J: A lot of people in their 20s and even 30s say, “I don’t know what I want to do with my life.” How do they find the one thing, that one craft they can discipline themselves in so they can start moving towards mastery? Do they just pick something?

R: Well, I’m maintaining that you do know it, that there is something in there.

Everybody is born unique, genetically. Your brain is wired differently than anybody else. And when you were a kid, it meant that you were drawn to certain subjects.

For me, it would have been history, and writing, and literature. For others, it’s going to be sports, or games of strategy and competitiveness. I maintain, like great athletes, it’s not just maybe basketball that interests them, but it’s winning. It’s the competitive angle that a Napoleon or a Michael Jordan has. For others, it could be music, or math.

When you’re a kid, it was there. And you felt it. It was before your parents infected you with, “No, you got to go to law school, or go to medical school.” And it’s before your peers started infecting you with, “This is a cool job. This is where you want to go.” And before you started thinking about money. It was there.

Also, in life as you get into your 20s, you discover things that you don’t like, which is a very important lesson. Seeing the negative side of what you don’t want can be very helpful.

You don’t want to give up what you’ve been doing for the past 10 years and suddenly say, “No, I’m going to be a rock star. That’s what I was meant to be.” You’ve got to build on what you been doing already.

You’ve got to take the skills that you’ve been acquiring and maybe something that wasn’t suited to you, and find a way to adapt them. And find your way towards a path that’s more in alignment with this life’s task.

What it takes to be great

J: What sort of distractions will we encounter as we’re heading towards our life’s task? What challenges do we face?

R: Well, oddly enough, it’s really your ego that becomes the biggest obstacle of all. And you’d think that’s counterintuitive. But even if you read Steve Jobs’s biography, you’d realize the guy isn’t motivated by attention, or fame, or money. He’s motivated by the love of his work— and to an obsessional level. That’s what made him sometimes kind of unpleasant to be around.

So the biggest obstacle you face when you enter the work world is you think the game is about getting attention, being liked, having other people pay attention to you, making money. And that’s going to really mess you up later in life. Because it’s going to prevent you from learning the skills that you need to learn.

It’s almost a Zen-type thing where you’re almost egoless. You’re really motivated by the love of this particular question, or subject, or problem that’s facing you. And it might sound cliché. It might sound touchy-feely or something. But I swear to you, all of the masters I interviewed, all the people I researched, they all share that quality.

What can happen to you is if you get success early on in your 20s you start thinking, “Well, it’s all about being in the limelight, getting people’s attention, repeating what I did before,” and you lose connection to the fact that it’s the work itself that matters.

And if you put that energy into the work, into learning, the money will come. The fame will come. You may not even want it, because you work so much. But I guarantee you that that kind of drive and persistence will bring much more money and fame than if that became your original motivation.

J: There’s a story about Bobby Fisher in the book where you talk about this “heightened awareness,” where all of these masters had this moment where they just saw the world differently. Is this what you’re talking about where they just beginning to focus more on the work than the fame, or the accolades, or money?

R: Well, they’ve always been focusing on the work. So if you take a Bobby Fisher, the great chess master, for example — this kid put in an insane number of hours as a young man, because he loved chess.

And at some point, he had this feel for the chess board that just surpassed anything anybody had. He could sense not just the moves that he needed to make, or what his opponent could make, but a whole feel for the game as it evolved. He could see in advance the whole dynamic and then make the killer move.

It’s the same thing that happened in warfare with a Rommel or Napoleon, the same thing that happened in business, or an invention with Thomas Edison, or Steve Jobs.

So all along, these people are absorbed in their work for its own sake. They don’t go at it saying, “I’ve got to be a master. I’ve got to become this great person.” Eventually, it happens to them.

When it feels like you’ve missed your shot…

J: Let’s talk about regret. For those who feel like they’ve missed the boat: how do they reclaim this pursuit of their life’s work?

R: You really have to have had some kind of skills that you acquired. If you are in your 40s, and you haven’t really gained any patience, or persistence, you haven’t learned skills, it’s not going to be very easy. This is not a book to sugar coat it, where I’m telling you things that you want to hear.

You need to have at least some level of skills in certain things, number one, just to develop the habits that you need in order to get your life back on track. But let’s say that you have developed skills to some extent, but they’re just not what you really wanted to do in life. You’ve got to go through this process. You’ve got to go back and look at yourself.

The problem that we have now is, a lot of people aren’t in touch with who they are. They’ve been on Facebook too much, too much social media. They listen to what other people are doing. Their attention is all outward focused on what others are doing. And they have no sense of who they are, or what they need to be doing.

So you need to take time, and step back, and look at yourself deeply and say, “This is actually what I loved when I was a kid. I know it. I knew it. I knew it when I came out of college, but I took a wrong step.” You’ve got to be honest with yourself. And, then, you’ve got to find a way to get back on that path, however late it is in life.

Let’s say, for instance, you’re in your 50s and you didn’t do what you wanted to do. You wanted to be a writer, and you didn’t actually do the writing. In your spare time, you’re going to go take classes.

At night — instead of wasting time playing video games — you’re going to practice writing. Getting back some skill level, and the ability to learn skill, just the sense that you’re going to do that, is going to make you feel so much better.

And you’ll slowly develop momentum, and it will feel right, and maybe if you do it for three or four years, maybe by the time you’re 55, you’ll be able to start writing things and make some money off of it and change the course of it.

It’s not a big, dramatic change. It’s small realistic steps in the right direction. And a realistic reassessment of who you are, and where you want to go.

* * *

You can find out more about Robert Greene and his writings on his website. His book, Mastery, is available on Amazon (affiliate link). You can download the full transcript of this interview here.

Memorable quotes

“It’s not the fact that you’re born a genius, or that you have a larger brain. It’s the level of dedication and persistence and patience.”
“The more you learn in this apprenticeship phase, the more you’re prepared for those moments that will eventually come to you.”
“You don’t have to find exactly what you want early on in life. It can be a voyage, a journey that takes a few years, as long as you have a general sense of the direction you need to be headed.”
“What people don’t realize is that the greatest jazz artist ever, John Coltrane, in a medium known for its spontaneity, was a practice freak.”
“The effort and years of practice you put in will let you become much more creative and intuitive.”

What would mastery look like for you? Share in the comments.

You just finished reading Learning the Secret to Mastery: An Interview with Robert Greene! Consider leaving a comment!

The Power of a Small Tribe

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Paul Angone, who is the creator of AllGroanUp.com and author of  101 Secrets for your Twenties . Follow him on Twitter @PaulAngone.

How do you justify all the hours spent alone working on your craft, when the rapidly slamming doors all seem to shout, “Keep your day job!”

For years, I’ve been plagued with this question.

Design by Paul Angone

I’m passionate about helping twentysomethings struggling with the question of, “What now?” And my debut book on that subject releases this week.

It’s the most honest and vulnerable book I could write about the ups-and-downs of a decade filled with unknowns. And it took me seven years to see it happen.

2,555 days filled with: book proposals, re-writes, dead-ends, do-overs, tears falling down my cheeks while reading seven pages of bullet points and everything target readers wouldn’t like, emails from publishers saying, “We really like your book and actually think it has the potential to be a bestseller, but we can’t risk on an unknown author.”

Cue the long walk on a pier, in the fog, to violin music.

You know you’re becoming a writer when you feel like your heart has been broken into pieces and sold on the black market. Time and time again.

As I sit on the verge of my real, live book entering the world and look back at my writing journey, I realize it wasn’t a literary agent or finely-crafted book proposal that finally opened the door for me. It was a passionate tribe of people who shared a message that resonated with them.

A small tribe can shout very loud. A small tribe can do more than any finely crafted book proposal, marketing plan or well-connected literary agent can ever do.

At least, that’s been my story.

When the way closes

Years ago, I was sure I’d made it. Planning out my speaking tour, third book, and crafting my humorous, yet authentic answers for my Conan O’Brien interview, I was read.

I’d snagged a prominent literary agent, and we worked for a year polishing my manuscript and proposal. Then I sat back, refreshing my email for that one “yes” that would change my life.

But that “yes” never came.

How do you continue believing you have a message worth telling, when no one seems to want to listen?

After pitching one publisher three separate times, and hearing the same response that they still loved the book but wouldn’t sign off for an unknown author like me, the writing was on the wall and smacking me in face.

I needed to find another way — or start selling insurance because this writing thing was obviously not working out.

The platform a small tribe built

I ended my contract with my literary agent and started a website. I finally stopped waiting for a publisher’s approval to share the message my audience needed to hear.

For a year, I wrote to a small, growing, passionate tribe. And I began connecting with my readers — young adults who felt like their twenties were caked in massive amounts of un-success.

My own professional failures were letting me speak into the meta-narrative of my generation. And here’s the lesson I started learning:

Sometimes, you have to go to the dark, dismal place of defeat if you’re going to show people the way out.

The tipping point

Entering a coffee shop on a Sunday for the 1,365th time — baristas and free refills being my best friends — I compiled a list called “21 Secrets for your 20s.” It was mainly a compilation of truths and ideas I’d been crafting over those seven years of frustration and heartbreak.

Three days after posting that article online, my website crashed due to tsunami waves of traffic. I didn’t know such a thing was possible.

Calling my web host, I pleaded with them to turn my site back on. Two days later, the site crashed again and lay shipwrecked on an island in the Philippines for five hours. Again, I didn’t know such a thing was possible.

Thousands of emails from twentysomethings have since poured into my inbox:

A senior in college from Indonesia
A 24-year-old gal from Kenya
A recent grad from Wyoming
A professional in New York.

People from all over the world, in all settings from all backgrounds, were communicating their gratitude and relief that they were not alone. All the stuff I’d been wading through for years was being redeemed and used with a purpose and a plan that I never could’ve planned myself.

Seven lessons in seven years

During this seven-year journey, I’ve learned some hard but valuable lessons about life, dreams, and writing:

If writing is solely about being published, you’ll eventually stop writing.
Writing isn’t about external accolades; it’s about how it changes you in the process.
A writer has simply mastered the art of staying in the game, no matter how lopsided the score.
A writer cares more about the message than a publisher’s approval.
Your insecurities as a writer don’t disappear with a book deal. No, they’re just as real and even harder to hide.
A true writer is someone who has consistently carried bucket after bucket of water to fill up a well. People celebrate you the moment it all spills over without realizing the 10,000 buckets you carried to make it happen.
The most formative and vital point of your writing career is when you’re forced to quit and start over. Because at that point you have to find the true reasons of why you do what you do and for whom you’re doing it. Finding your passion is more about failing forward than succeeding on the first try.

This road to getting published has been anything but easy. But I needed to learn how to stand on in spite of failure and rejection f I was going to lead people to do the same. Now, I’m honored to offer hope and encouragement to those making the same climb.

And here’s the last thing I’ve learned: As a writer, leader, or entrepreneur, you have to go first. I wrote this in my book, and it seems appropriate here:

The possibility for greatness and embarrassment both exist in the same space. If you’re not willing to be embarrassed, you’re probably not willing to be great.

Redemption doesn’t show up when planned. But it’s there, waiting for the right moment to turn your greatest failures into something the world is ready to hear. Will you be ready when it comes?

Note: Check out Paul’s debut book, 101 Secrets for Your Twenties, which releases this week.

What’s your story of struggling with rejection? How has a small tribe helped you succeed? Share in the comments.

You just finished reading The Power of a Small Tribe! Consider leaving a comment!

What the Web Needs (from You)

Note: This is Part 3 in a series on how to build a popular blog. In this post, I’ll share the third secret to successful blogging. You can read Part 1 here.

If I hear one more “expert” tell me social media is a “conversation,” I am going to scream. No, friends. Social media is a LOT more than that: it’s an opportunity to build something.

Photo Credit: an untrained eye via Compfight cc

The world is full of people who want to be heard. But how many are actually saying something? The Internet is crowded with those who are conversing, but who is creating stuff worth our time?

For years, I blogged in vain attempts at achieving popularity. I wanted people to like me and marvel at the profundity of my words. And I failed. It wasn’t until I built a resource of content that people began to take notice.

If you want to earn the attention your work deserves, you will have to prove you have something to say. That you’ve got something we can’t miss. And how do you do that? You build something.

So you’ve got connections… who cares?

We’ve all heard, “It’s not who you know, but who knows you.” But that’s not true.

Knowing the right people — even being known by them — is no longer enough. In a world where connection is cheap (more like free), it’s easier than ever to get in front of folks, to add their number to your Rolodex.

What’s hard is keeping people’s attention.

So how do you do that? How do you influence people for the long haul? You have to create something people care about, something worth talking about, something that will make a difference.

Let’s break down each of those…

Something people care about

You get people to notice you by adding value (we’ve already covered that here). But how do you get them to care? That’s another matter entirely.

One word: empathy.

My friend Marion Roach Smith, who has taught hundreds of writers how to tell their life’s story, says,

We have to trust you as the narrator.

How do we build this trust? By showing our scars. Sharing our insecurities. Exposing our weakness.

The only way you get people to trust you — and care about what you have to say — is by showing them you’re trustworthy. The best way to do that? Help them see you’re just like them.

Here are a few ways to do that:

Admit a recent screw-up.
Highlight a personal flaw.
Apologize for a mistake nobody caught.
Tell the story of your biggest failure.
Share a fear or challenge you still haven’t overcome.

When you, the writer, let yourself be human, we readers will do the same.

Something worth talking about

Marketing guru Seth Godin says is best when he explains what it means for a product, service, or business to be “remarkable.” Literally, it must be worth remarking on. People have to talk about it. Otherwise, it’s irrelevant.

Your best bet in getting your ideas to spread, your books read, and your influence to grow is to be remarkable. To do something truly epic.

How do you do that? Here are a few examples:

When Andy Traub gave away the audio version, email series, and online membership to everyone who bought his $7.99 eBook.
When Chris Guillebeau gave away $100,000 to a bunch of strangers, asking them to spend it well.
When my friend Kyle proposed to his girlfriend with a giant piece of parchment paper.

Remarkable is interesting. Remarkable is compelling. Remarkable is worth talking about.

Something that will make a difference

This is, perhaps, the most important reason we open our mouths or place our fingers on the keyboard. We want to make an impact, to leave a legacy.

But how do we know when we’re doing that, as opposed to just making noise? Simple. It has to do with multiplication.

If people hear what you have to say and tell you it was “nice” or that they enjoyed it, then you’re in trouble. That’s lip service, friends, and nothing more.

On the other hand, if you empower a tribe of people with an idea that they take, share, and spread, then you may have something special, indeed. If strangers email you, explaining how your message has literally changed their lives, then you are making a difference, after all.

Put it all together

Yes, these are nice ideas. But taken by themselves, that’s all they are — ideas. And this series has been about action, about creating something epic. So let’s apply everything we’ve learned so far:

Success begins with passion, not chasing results. If you love the work, you’ll do good work.
If you want attention, you need to add value. Help people. Solve problems. Connect.
Until you create something, you’re just making noise. You need a legacy, a resource, something that folks will remember.

All good so far? I admit that’s a big vague, so let’s break it down further:

First, you need to take all your passion and value-adding ideas and put them somewhere. In a book. On a website. Maybe even into a conference or event. Have a way to archive your best thoughts and share them over and over again.

Next, make sure this resource has a means of inviting people into an inner circle. For example, on a blog (which is my preferred medium, since it’s free), you could encourage people to subscribe via email so they don’t miss a post.

Lastly, with this thing you’ve built, you should be generous. Give things away for free or for less than they’re worth. Why? Because the point isn’t to make money, but to leave an impact. Get that right, and you won’t have to worry about income.

Dazzle and delight. Give people more than they ask for. Over deliver. And see what happens.

The irony, of course, is that by resisting the temptation to converse and creating something instead, you are giving people a reason to not stop talking about you.

So go. Create. And make it worth our while.

Note: If you’ve enjoyed this series, you might like Tribe Writers, my online course to help writers find the audience their words deserve. Click here to check it out (we just opened again for registration).

What’s something you’ve thought about building but haven’t? Share in the comments.

You just finished reading What the Web Needs (from You)! Consider leaving a comment!

What You Have to Do Before People Will Listen to You

Note: This is Part 2 in a series on how to build a popular blog. In this post, I’ll share the second secret to successful blogging. You can read Part 1 here.

This Family Guy video pretty much sums up the need we all have to be heard. Not necessarily because we have anything to say. Just because we’re human and want to be known. But unfortunately, that’s the best way to get ignored.

So how do you get people (other than your mom) to listen? How do you earn attention?

Photo Credit: Paulgi via Compfight cc

Everyone wants to believe what they’re doing is interesting and worth talking about. They want to think they’re special and unique. But the truth is that’s not your call.

I see this attitude most often exhibited amongst writers and artists. They think that just because they’re creative, the world owes them respect and attention.

Not true.

You don’t get to decide what “remarkable” is. Your audience does. [Tweet that]

And if nobody’s paying attention, you’ve got a problem.

Never worry about attention again

For years, I thought this way. As a blogger growing more frustrated by the minute that no one was listening to me, I failed to understand one essential concept:

Adding value.

I thought people would listen to me for my wit or humor. I thought they’d care about me, because I was interesting or a good writer or heck, I dunno, why can’t someone just love me for being me?

Here’s the truth: In a world full of noise, the way you get people to care about you is to care about them first.

No, we don’t care what you ate for breakfast or what stupid trick your cat can do — until you show interest in us. Once you’ve done that, you’ve earned our attention, and we may start to trust you.

Communication is a two-way relationship. It involves a sender and receiver and is held together by the glue of the message. Most writers don’t get this. They think of what they do as art, as something to be thrown into the ether, praying that it sticks.

But even art has an audience. Perhaps, especially so.

This doesn’t mean you have to pander to the masses or create mediocre work that contributes to the status quo. But you’d better find ways to add value. You better make it worth your audience’s while.

How I did this with my writing

When I began my blog, I knew sharing my random thoughts about inane things wasn’t enough to captivate and inspire. I knew nobody knew or cared about me (yet), and so I had to earn their attention.

So I started to think:

What problems do I have that others might have, too? How have I solved those problems?
What struggles have I overcome that I could share?
What interesting stories could I tell that would help people?

At first, I didn’t connect. In fact, it took months of trying different things before I found something that stuck: the topic of writing. Somehow, I’d overlooked the fact that for nearly a decade I’d been coaching writers in their craft.

So I began to share what I knew, what I’d learned, and what I was still learning. And immediately, people responded.

Whenever I blogged about writing (versus leadership or self-improvement), I saw a measurably better reaction (in terms of the number of comments, shares, or anyway I chose to measure it). I’d found my niche.

I decided to do a few things:

I started an email list, so that I could capture people’s attention for continued conversation.


I began guest posting on other blogs to build my audience even more.
I asked readers to share my articles (if they liked them) via social media.

From that point on, I continued searching for ways to help people, often asking questions and sharing thoughts along the way. The more this exchange happened, the more a community was established, and the better I got to know my readership.

This is what it means to add value: listen first, speak second. Such an understanding didn’t come to me intuitively; I had to learn it through failure.

But now I get it.

Our talents and skills are not intended only to be used for our own good. They’re meant to be shared as an offering to the world. A gift in the truest sense of the word.

Application: What you can do

If you have a message the world needs to hear — a book you want to write, a song you want to sing, or simply an idea worth spreading — the way you get others to care about it is to not just come out and share it.

First, you must engage, connect, and serve. Then people will listen. This doesn’t mean you can’t have convictions or that you need to wait for permission to speak.

It just means you appreciate the disruptive, media-driven nature of the world we all live in. And that you respect people’s time. After all, how many random strangers did you pay attention to today? (Get my drift?)

To break it down further, here’s what you can do:

Find a conversation. Spend some time listening to what people are already saying about a particularly topic. Subscribe to a few blogs, read a couple of books by industry leaders. Get informed.
Engage with others. Leave comments on blogs. Not so people see your name, but just to help. Send emails to industry experts (my favorite way is to subscribe to their email list and reply directly to them). If you don’t know what to say, ask a thoughtful question that only takes a minute or two to reply to (Tim Ferriss is a pro at this — read his thoughts here).
Make a contribution. If you’ve studied your niche, then you know what it’s lacking. This should be something you feel strongly about, something that really bothers you. It could be a grave injustice or mere ignorance. But if you can’t find anything wrong or something new to contribute, then you have no right speaking up.

Repeat the process until people start listening. Then you can start a blog or host an event to continue the conversation. But don’t believe that just because you build it, they will come. You need to earn people’s attention — and the way you do that is by caring first.

So that when you eventually speak, they’ll listen. Why? Because they know you’re going to add value.

(Bonus application: Don’t waste your time leaving meaningless comments on random blogs. Instead, make a meaningful personal connection, take the relationship deeper by helping someone, and then say something that matters.)

What have you done to get people to listen to you? What questions or struggles do you still have? Share in the comments.

You just finished reading What You Have to Do Before People Will Listen to You! Consider leaving a comment!

Success Starts with Passion: How to Build an Audience Doing What You Love

Note: This is Part 1 in a series on how to build a popular blog. In this post, I’ll share the first secret to successful blogging and a few tips I’ve learned. To find out more about this series, click here.

My writing journey began as a search for accolades and awards, recognition and fame. Instead, I found frustration and disillusionment, not realizing this search was actually keeping me from the very thing I sought.

Photo Credit: LeoLondon via Compfight cc

For years, I seethed with envy, watching other bloggers succeed while I stood still. As jealousy turned to resentment, I began to see the world through murky-colored glasses, finding fault with everything these people did.

And for awhile, this feeling consumed me. However, eventually I had to come to grips with reality: Being jaded was doing me absolutely no good.

I didn’t become a better writer.

I didn’t become famous.

I didn’t get a book published.

After years of feeling this way, I decided to make a change: Instead of letting external factors dictate my success, I would focus on what I could control: my attitude.

Tip #1: Focus on passion, not results.

What this changed (eventually)

At first, nothing changed. I was doing my work, the same as I ever was. But internally, I was changing. Instead of a pay check or pat on the back, passion was now my most important metric.

If I showed up to write — for love, not accolades — then I had done my job. At least for that day, I’d succeeded. And tomorrow was another day.

This released me up from the pressure to perform, gave me greater artistic freedom, and made the work a LOT more fun.

If nobody but me showed up to read my words, I would still write.

If I never won an award or got published, I would still write.

If I never earned a dime, I would still write.

Tip #2: Do your best work when nobody’s watching.

Isn’t it ironic?

Wait a second. I thought this was going to be a series on building a popular blog? Well, it is.

But there’s a paradox in the pursuit of fame: those who try the hardest to earn others’ attention rarely do. Conversely, those who scorn the limelight are often the ones dodging the paparazzi.

Of course, this isn’t always true. But with writing and other artistic crafts, I’ve found it to be undeniably true. Something interesting happens when you make passion your chief pursuit: People start to notice.

The world is desperate for, even envious of, people living purposeful lives that are free from fear. We are all inspired by those brave enough to shirk the trappings of fame and do work that matters.

What happens every time you see a film or read a book about some hero who risks it all to complete a quest that matters? You’re inspired. Captivated, even.

When I began to write for passion, at first nobody seemed to care. But I kept at it, kept doing the best work I could no matter how many (or how few) paid attention. And slowly over time, people took notice. Why? Because there is something attractive about passion.

Tip #3: The less you care about your audience’s affections, the more your audience will be affected by your work. [Tweet that]

Don’t do it for the money

I’ve talked to dozens of successful artists, authors, and entrepreneurs about why they do what they do. And they’ve all told me essentially the same thing: It’s not about the money.

Billionaire Donald Trump once said:

Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game.

If you’re setting out to master a craft, to play your own game, maybe you hope to some day become famous or rich. But if you were to dig a little deeper, you might find that such a goal isn’t what you’re really in search of.

Of course, there’s nothing inherently wrong with money or the acquisition of it. Nor is there anything immoral about wanting a large audience or a best-selling book. It’s just that those things aren’t enough to fulfill you.

Because what happens on the days when nobody shows up to read your words, watch your work, or experience your art? Do you still do your job? Not if it’s about the rewards.

Creativity is a process, not a product

Our work is more than what we do or make. It’s the entirety of effort that goes into each step of the process. In a sense, it’s what we don’t see.

So when you’re sweating and bleeding and loving every minute of it, remember: this is the reward.

What, do you do, then, when you create something you’re proud of and people don’t appreciate it? Quit? Give up because your work isn’t “relevant”? Or do you push forward, remembering that history’s greatest artists were often misunderstood by contemporaries?

The most memorable works are rarely comprehended by the masses — at first. This is what makes good art. It exceeds our expectations and sometimes offends our sensibilities.

Take heart, though. Some day, someone will get it. And they will be transformed. Until then, you must learn to love the work.

Tip #4: Respect the process, and results will come.

Isn’t it ironic?

You know, the Greeks didn’t write obituaries. They only asked one question after a man died: “Did he have passion?”

—Dean Kansky, Serendipity

When we set sail in search of our life’s work, this is what we must seek: passion. Not fame or rewards or riches, but a willingness to quietly do our work, trusting the sowing-and-reaping nature of life. Remembering that good things come in time if we do our jobs well.

So where does that leave us? Where, practically, can you go from here? Strive to do your work with gratitude and generosity. Because this part is not you paying your dues or delaying gratification until payday. This is the best it gets.

The grind is the reward. [Tweet that]

And if you aren’t okay with that, then quit now. Because it’s only once you’ve mastered this mindset that you’ll have any shot at making it, at getting rich and famous.

What this meant for me was admitting that writing was my passion, something I couldn’t not do. And truth be told, when I was doing it for the wrong reasons, I knew it. Constantly anxious and uneasy, I wrote with apprehension. It felt unnatural.

Only when I surrendered to the work, did I find peace — and my audience. Maybe as you chase your passion, you’ll make a similar discovery.

Next steps

Now, wouldn’t it be frustrating if I left you lingering there? But I won’t do that. If you’re ready to take the next step, here’s what I recommend you do:

Change your mind. Make a decision to consciously reject negative and envious thoughts, admitting these thoughts do nothing to move you closer to your goals. Dedicate yourself to passion, not the rewards.
Commit to a practice schedule. Just for a week, set aside at least 30 minutes per day to work on your craft. You may share your work, but stay diligent to the discipline of writing for passion.
Create something people disagree with. No, don’t be contentious for the sake of being contentious. But write with conviction, in such a way that can’t help but offend at least a few. This is an exercise in disabusing ourselves of constantly chasing others’ approval. Pick a fight. It doesn’t matter if you win or lose. Just take note of the thrill you feel when letting go of that “what will people think?” worry.

After you’ve done those three things, take a breath and thank God for the opportunity to do something you love. And tomorrow, get up and do it all over again.

What would truly chasing your passion look like for you? Share in the comments (include links to anything you write that’s inspired by this post).

You just finished reading Success Starts with Passion: How to Build an Audience Doing What You Love! Consider leaving a comment!

Now You Can Have Direct Access to Me — When You Preorder My Next Book

We all have to learn to live in the in-between moments of life. Whether you’re 17 or 71, you know what it means to have anxiety, to experience delays, to hope for things that never come. Which raises an important question:

What do we do with the waiting? Do we love or loathe it? Is it a necessary evil to get to the good stuff in life? Or is it the entire point of being alive?

I wrote my next book in an attempt to answer that question (read on to hear how I’m going to give you a ton of bonuses when you decide to preorder it and join me in the waiting).

Introducing: The In-Between

Instead of telling you what I think we should do with waiting, I’ve shown you through personal anecdotes and reflections that will hopefully lead you to consider similar moments in your own life.

The In-Between is part memoir, part advice book — full of heartfelt stories and practical takeaways. Some parts are extremely personal, while others are more abstract and universally applicable. And every few chapters, I include what one of my editors calls an “interstitial,” a brief instructional piece on how this all relates to you.

It feels like the riskiest thing I’ve written so far. And since I can’t wait for the book’s release in a couple of months, I thought it would be fun (and appropriate, given the topic) to not only encourage preorders, but reward them.

Why you should preorder the book

If you preorder my book between now and the release date (July 29, 2013), you will get six bonuses absolutely for free:

Membership to an exclusive online community, including a free newsletter and invitation-only Facebook group (a $99 value — and for my money’s worth, the best part of the whole deal). In this group, I’ll be sharing secret insights and lessons learned from the process of writing and publishing another book — and you’ll be the first to hear it.
Advanced digital copies of the manuscript in Kindle, iPad, PDF, and Nook formats (a $40 value). Instead of having to buy a different version of the book for different devices, you get them ALL for free.
Digital copies of my last book, Wrecked, in all file formats (a $40 value). Just like the above, but for my previous book, which was published last year. In many ways, this book is the prequel to The In-Between, so the two go well together.
Complimentary copy of the audiobook, read by me (a $30 value). Most audiobooks come out months after the print version of the book, but if you preorder this book, you’ll get the audio BEFORE the print.
Reader’s guide with exclusive content and discussion questions (a $10 value). This is an exclusive workbook I’m creating for groups and organizations who order the book in bulk, but all you have to do is order one.
30-minute writing workshop (MP3 + PDF) entitled, “How to Fall Back in Love with Writing” (a $20 value). This was one of my best speeches I’ve ever delivered on the writing process. The audio quality is excellent, and I include my slides, as well, for you to follow along.

If you’re keeping track of dollars (which isn’t really the point), that’s $240 worth of free stuff just for preordering a $10 paperback. Not bad, right?

My goal, though — and frankly, the real value in this offer — is the community we’ll form. Yes, you’ve got to pay a little to be a part of it, but it’ll be worth it.

Folks pay hundreds and sometimes even thousands of bucks to get this kind of access to me. And all you have to do is preorder my next book. I plan on working my butt off to serve this group of early adopters and make it every bit worth your while.

How to get the bonuses

So… if you’re in (and I hope you are), here’s what you need to do:

Preorder the book at your favorite bookstore (Amazon, B&N, BAM, CBD, Parable).
Submit the receipt to this email address: inbetweenbonuses (at) gmail (dot) com.
Confirm your email address (you’ll be added to a list that will allow you to collect your bonuses and stay in touch).
Download all your awesome bonuses and make sure you add the above email to your safe senders list.

Here’s why I’m doing this: bookstores tend to base how many copies of a book they order off of preorders. So if a book doesn’t get a lot of sales before it releases, then bookstores (like Amazon and Barnes & Noble) tend to be more conservative with their initial orders.

On the other hand, if we get a large number of preorders, more copies of the book will be on shelves when it releases. Plus, you get all that free stuff and my undying gratitude (I’ll even throw in a free hug).

So what do you say? Are you in? If you’re able (and I totally understand if you aren’t), I’d love your help. You can find out more about The In-Between and where to order it here.

What “in-between” moment are you dealing with right now? Share in the comments.

You just finished reading Now You Can Have Direct Access to Me — When You Preorder My Next Book! Consider leaving a comment!

Five Myths About Reading & How to Put Them to Death

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Robert Bruce. Robert is a web writer for Dave Ramsey and blogger at 101 Books. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbruce76.

In the nearly three years that I’ve been blogging through Time’s Top 100 English-Speaking Novels, I’ve had many a discussion about books and reading.

Photo Credit: Pensiero via Compfight cc

If I’ve learned one thing (other than the fact that 101 books is a lot of books!), it’s that readers have strong opinions. We’re extremely passionate about the books we like, the books we hate, and the reasons we choose to read, or not read. And we’ll argue with you to the death about these reasons.

Don’t believe me? Tell someone who’s reading an e-reader that they’re not really reading a book, and see what kind of response you get (protect your face from a blunt attack first).

Sometimes, though, those passionate opinions translate into widely circulated nonsense about reading. I call them myths because, well, they just aren’t true.

Here are five of the most prevalent myths about reading I’ve encountered:

1. I can’t learn anything from fiction

I hear this one all the time. It used to bother me. I’d get a little angry. But, now, I’ve grown so accustomed to hearing it that I usually just nod my head and think, Oh, bless your heart.

If you think you can’t learn anything from fiction, then you’re reading the wrong fiction.

Sure, the novel can serve as an escape. But to say you can’t learn anything from 1984 or To Kill A Mockingbird or Harry Potter, or thousands of other novels, just isn’t true.

Jesus taught in parables — in other words, a story, a form of fiction — because it’s an effective teaching method. So if Jesus thinks you can learn from a story, it’s safe to say that you can learn a lot from a novel.

2. I don’t have time to read

This statement will usually come from non-readers who are passive-aggressively judging you for spending so much time with your head in a book.

Truth is, everyone has time to read. It’s just a matter of priorities. If you have time to play golf, then you have time to read.

If you have time to watch American Idol (does anyone even watch that anymore?), then you have time to read. You’ve just given that time to something else.

3. Reading isn’t an activity

Of course it is. Sometimes, readers get labeled as lazy slackers who just sit around on their couch all day and read Star Wars fan fiction. (Not true — it’s actually Twilight on a rocking chair on the porch.)

In all seriousness, reading is as much an activity as taking a test or writing an article or giving a speech. Reading takes mental energy. Ideally, you’re reading books that you can learn from, and you’re even taking notes or writing in the margins.

Don’t buy into the myth that you aren’t “doing anything” if you’re reading. Your brain would definitely disagree.

4. My opinion about a book doesn’t matter

News alert: Your opinion counts! For some reason, many readers get hesitant about expressing their opinion on a book. I believe a lot of that stems from insecurity.

We think something like, If I tell them I believe that, in this passage, the sun is a metaphor for God, will they laugh at me? Will I be ostracized from my reading community for having such a terrible, uneducated, ridiculous opinion? Will I live alone the rest of my life?

But you know what? Everyone else is thinking the same thing, maybe just slightly less exaggerated. So be bold.

Whether it’s at a book group or a lunch discussion or reviewing a book on Amazon, be honest and confident. You don’t have to be a professional book reviewer or critic to have a legitimate opinion.

5. If you’re reading [insert genre], that’s not really reading

I call these people book snobs. And, believe me, I know. I’m a recovering book snob myself.

The book snobs might say your love of the vampire romance genre doesn’t count, or the fact that you have Snooki’s biography on your shelf is embarrassing (okay, maybe that’s true).

But you have to read what you’re passionate about. If you don’t like Faulkner or historical biographies, no amount of prodding by a book snob will change your mind.

Here’s the truth: If you’re reading anything, you’re reading. And that’s a lot more than many people can boast these days.

Bottom line: You can’t go wrong with reading

Our culture has reached the point that readers — no matter what they choose to read — should be commended for reading.

Instead of turning our nose up at what a friend chooses to read, we should just appreciate that they’re reading in the first place. After all, readers are a rare breed, nowadays.

You’ll always find someone who will mock what you’re reading or tell you that you’re wasting your time. Just smile and nod your head and go on your way. Just go read.

Any of these myths strike a chord with you? Would you add one to the list? Share in the comments.

You just finished reading Five Myths About Reading & How to Put Them to Death! Consider leaving a comment!

The Truth About Going Viral: What I Did After 1 Million People Stopped By My Blog

Everyone wants to be famous for something. We all want wants to do something epic, something worth remembering. But maybe fame isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. In fact, I have good reason to believe that it’s not.

An archived post of mine recently caught some traction and went viral, sending over a million people to my blog in a week. It’s causing me to rethink why I do this work and whether or not we as artists should chase our audiences.

Photo credit: SCA (Creative Commons)

Here’s what happened:

An article I wrote about traveling while you’re young was picked up randomly by a student leader in Singapore one year after it was published.
That person shared it on Facebook with a travel group he led on campus.
Each person in the group shared this with their respective networks, and it spread to similar student groups in the Philippines and Malaysia.
In about 24 hours, the post had made it all the way around the world, finishing its tour in Brazil.

The first time this happened, 0ver 150,000 people visited the blog. The second time, it was about half that amount. And then the third time, it reach over 1 million visitors and was shared via Facebook over 250,000 times — all in about a week.

Pretty crazy.

The craziest part: None of that matters

After the article when viral, I was confused and anxious. What did this mean, if anything?

Should I change what I write about, focusing more on this topic of travel? Should I try to keep as many of those visitors as possible? And what would I do when Monday rolled around, and I had to start blogging again?

The next week, I hit the old grindstone again, and the Internet had already forgotten about me. My traffic spike had mellowed out, and I was back to zero, forced to earn people’s attention all over again.

I tried to drag out the success, of course, tried to prolong that temporary feeling of fulfillment that fame brings. But for some reason, it wasn’t enough. And through the process, I learned something:

Every week I go back to zero. And so do you.

No single creative success can be sustained. That’s why you can’t create solely for profit or praise. In the end, the thrill never lasts. If you want to be an artist, there has to be something more than fame that sustains you.

Just ask Elizabeth Gilbert

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert was an inexplicable, runaway success. After she wrote the book and it raced up the bestsellers lists, people asked her a cruel question:

Aren’t you afraid you’re never going to be able to top that?

The answer, not surprisingly, was: Yes.

She worried she’d never be able to write another book that achieved such success. In an amazing TED Talk, she said, “It’s exceedingly likely that my greatest success is behind me.”

This worry held her back, caused her to hesitate and wait years before writing and publishing another book. But eventually she did. And how she did it was unique. Courageous, even.

She went to work, anyway. She treated her life’s work as just that — a job. She started believing in the idea of a Muse, a spirit that indwells artists. She resigned to a more mystical, creative process, and began to understand that “success” wasn’t up to her.

No. Her job was to show up.

We must do the same

No matter how amazing you are today, you have to get up and put the hours in tomorrow. And the next day. (And so on…)

Because that thing inside of you that causes you to create already forgot yesterday’s successes. It’s hungry. And if you don’t feed it something new, it will eat you alive.

That, my friends, is why artists kill themselves, why they get depressed after a monumental success and never create anything again. After going BIG with some huge, mega success that plummets them into instant stardom, they seemingly have nowhere left to go.

But that isn’t why they got into the game in the first place. And it’s not why you and I are in it, either. At least, I hope not.

Fame is not enough

Doing creative work for mass consumption is not fulfilling. Sure, it’s a nice byproduct, but it can’t be the focus.

This is why I write (and often) every day. Not for the fans and followers. But for me. Because if I do not, I feel like something is missing. The accolades never seem to completely satisfy.

Only creating can fulfill you after the fanfare fades.

So do something creative today. Scribble a note in your notebook. Snap a photo. Bang out a few chords on the guitar. Hit “publish” on that blog post you’ve been stalling to write.

Show up and do your work.

Whatever you do, please, don’t live in the past. And don’t wait for the future. Now is all you have. So, artist, create. It’s what you were made to do.

By the way, if you’ve never read my short eBook, The Writer’s Manifesto, you should check it out. It’ll only take you five minutes, and it’s completely free. Get your copy here.

Oh, and here’s that talk by Elizabeth Gilbert:

Do you struggle with this? Has your work ever achieved viral success? What did you do? Share your experiences in the comments.

You just finished reading The Truth About Going Viral: What I Did After 1 Million People Stopped By My Blog! Consider leaving a comment!