Focusing On What We Are Rather Than What We Are Not (My Confession)

Last night, I was paid a visit from my blogging gremlin who goes by the name of “You’ve-Been-Doing-This-For-How-Long-And-You’re-Still-Not-Semifamous” though I prefer call him Boris (as in Boris Badenov). He entered quietly through the back door and whispered very persuasively in my ear about all the things I’m not and all the things that the Alchemy of Soulful Work blog is not and all the things that Bailey WorkPlay is not. This dark little fiend can be extremely effective in sucking the joy and purpose from my work. As you can imagine he’s not a very welcome visitor but always manages to pop up and hang around longer than necessary.

Fortunately, I had some help from my friends on Twitter who helped me crank up the light and usher his black evil soul out the door (thank you tweeps!).

Once Boris and his joy-sucking presence was gone, I went in search of some help to at least address the still-lingering blogging doubts. When I need blog help, one of my favorite sources of inspiration and a good old kick in the pants is Darren Rowse and his Problogger blog. And once again, he came through for me with flying colors with a terrific and well-timed post called What You Say Is What You Are - The Problem of Blogger Inferiority Complex.

The three keys Darren listed are:

• Identify what you have.
• Build upon what you do have.
• Build upon what you’ve already built.

It’s that first bullet that really hit close to home for me. It’s built around the question: Are You Focusing More Upon What You’re Not than What You Are as a Blogger? Wow! I’m not sure I was prepared for the truth behind that question but the continuous learner in me recognizes that I’ve allowed myself to get pulled into a way of thinking that is focused more on deficiencies than strengths, failings rather than gifts. If this sounds familiar to you too, don’t worry…we have company (read the comments to both of Darren’s blogposts).

So, let’s figure this one out together. Let’s aim to get reacquainted with our greater self. Let’s commit to creating great work and a life where our passions burn bright. Let’s move forward in the knowledge that we’re never in this alone. Let’s start a dialogue and share what we need to be spectacular in who we are and what we do.

Three Years Of Blogging And What I’ve Learned Along The Way

Lorelle laid out another post in her series of blogging challenges that happens to coincide with my upcoming three year anniversary of blogging. Her writing challenge is: Blog about the path your blog took to get to now. Here’s the possibly boring and predictable chronology, but I’ll follow it up with some lessons I’ve learned about not only blogging but myself over the past three years.

Timeline
September 2004: The beginning…I started blogging because I just took the plunge to become a full-time career and leadership coach (back when this blog used to be called imaginactive musings and hosted through Blogger). I wanted a blog as a way to publish ideas as well as use it as a virtual business card and marketing vehicle.
Key post: It’s All Invented…So Have Fun With It

January 2005: When I started drowning after this plunge (the failure to build a viable coaching business is a whole other topic of learning) the blog typically took the form of someone writing about their often painful experiences trying to find work. Sort of blogging as self-therapy. This was about the time I first used The Alchemy of Soulful Work as my blog title.
Key post: The Career Change Blues (And Other Colors): The Beginning

March 2005: It didn’t take long for me to tire of Blogger’s inherent limitations. The blog transitioned to TypePad. Sadly, I lost all my comments from Blogger in the transition. Still trying to find work, though.
Key posts: Hello Typepad… and I Will Be Complacent No Longer

June 2005: I found a job and started to write more about my management and leadership experiences in the non-profit setting. I also started to write about some of the headaches and frustrations with my particular organization which would later get me in a bit of hot water. Oh the things you learn the hard way.
Key posts: Superabsorbant New Director and More On The First Month Of A New Job

June-October 2005: I also attempted to write a companion blog focused on the customer and non-profit association member experience and coined a rather idiotic term custo/member (though, I still can’t figure out a better way to describe these two different groups in the same word…Ben, any help?). I eventually dumped the second blog and integrated it into Alchemy. I now know more about the challenges of keeping more than one blog going.
Key post: The Focus On The Custo/Member

March 2006: With my annual TypePad service coming to a close, I decided to move to a self-hosted solution. I experimented with Joomla and Drupal before choosing WordPress as my blogging platform and baileyworkplay.com as my domain. The whole point was to stake out this online home so that whenever I decide to get my act together and hop back into the coaching/consulting world again I’m fairly well set up to do it.
Key post: A New (New) Beginning With Some More Changes

July-October 2006: I took a hiatus which was necessary due the the big “quickly move everything from Virginia to Texas” decision, but it was extremely hard to rediscover my blogging groove. There were times during this period when I almost closed the door on blogging…thankfully I didn’t.
Key posts: Giddyup Cowboy…We’re Moving To Texas and An Extended Hiatus

April 2007: For some silly reason, I decided to part ways with the blog title The Alchemy of Soulful Work and settled only on Bailey WorkPlay. I’ve recently returned to my senses and reverted back so that Alchemy again is the title of the blog and Bailey WorkPlay is the name of my sidework gig.

July-Today 2007: I think it’s only been in the past couple of months that I’ve gotten playfully serious about my online presence. I’ve challenged myself to be more outwardly focused rather than introspective in my approach to blogging and networking. So far, so good.

Learning
Lesson #1: Be prepared to take the long road
Blogging is not a “If I build it, they will come” type of thing. When I started, it took roughly three months to get my first comment (I’m still very appreciative, Curt). It came just when I needed to hear it and was just the type of encouragement that told me that I was on the right track. Then along came Rosa and an introduction to her growing Ho’ohana Community a couple of months after that. What would have happened if I ditched the whole thing after a couple of months of no comments and practically no readers? Even now, I go through stretches where comments are on the thin side. Fact is that blogging is a journey with several waypoints rather than one final destination.

Lesson #2: Don’t be a blogging shut-in…get out of your own house
Simply put, find like-minded souls and introduce yourself. Write meaningful comments that speak to what the fellow blogger actually has written. Send a personal email if you feel that’s appropriate. Join a multi-writer blog. Get hooked up in one or several of the many social networks out there like Facebook, LinkedIn, Shelfari, Twitter, etc. The important thing that I’m learning is that, while it does take some courage, don’t let shyness get in the way of connecting with others and building some dynamic relationships. I’ve come to realize that blogging is not so much an individual activity, it’s a community activity. Great blogging is knowing how to build relationships with fellow bloggers and readers.

Lesson #3: Know why you’re blogging right now
The times when I’ve struggled most are when I lost sight of my purpose for blogging. For me purpose and passion are intricately linked. I’m like an actor constantly asking the director, “So what’s my motivation?” My purpose can change, but it doesn’t happen that often or dramatically. I blog because I feel I have something unique to add to this world, a different way of viewing work and organizational life. So when you blog, what’s your purpose and motivation? Write it down and keep it in a cozy safe place so that when you get to a place where you lose sight of why you put yourself out there for all the world to see you can have a reminder.

Lesson #4: Don’t force the muse to appear, coax her out patiently
Blogging burn-out is unavoidable. Even if you love writing, there will be times in your life when it bumps against other things. For a three month period in 2006, I pretty much put this blog on ice while I settled into my new home in Texas. When I tried to come back after the hiatus, it was hell to get back into the swing of writing. It was as if I forgot how to put together words and sentences in a sensible way. It was almost painful at times. It was only when I consciously decided to be gentle on myself and not go back to blogging full force that I was able to ease myself out of the come-back funk.

Lesson #5: Mind the gaps
This is partly based on an assumption, but I’m finding that the more posts I write the more readers I get. Here’s the reason why: Have you ever found a blog through another link or Google search which looked promising but found the posting frequency to be infrequent? Or the last post was written a couple of months ago? What did you do? Did you subscribe or did you pass? If you’re like me, you tend to pass on since there’s little sense in tracking a blog that may not be maintained. What I’m trying to do now is not be such a damned perfectionist and simply write. Some of my posts I recognize as instant gold while some are merely okay. I’m not suggesting that you aim for quantity over quality…just be more comfortable with not aiming for perfection with each blog post.

Lesson #6: Evolve
This final lesson is be open to new ideas, techniques, and tools. Be open to learning something new. Even though I’ve been blogging for three years (which most people say is rather long in the blogging world), I’m by no means an expert at this. There are experts out there who haven’t even started blogging. If you’re one of these folks, think about what you might add to the world through your writing. If you feel you’re not a great writer, try your hand at podcasting. The beauty of this time in history is that there’s always something new around the next corner. Just keep your eyes, mind, and soul open to the possibilities that are always in front of you.

The Return Of The Alchemy Of Soulful Work

You’ll notice that I’m subtly reintegrating The Alchemy of Soulful Work into Bailey WorkPlay. I never really meant to sweep it aside, but somewhere over the course of the past year I did. Here’s how I see this playing out…

Bailey WorkPlay right now is a project, the foundation for my work and professional identity. It is and will be the home for writings, speaking gigs, coaching, and other business ideas that I continue to hold on to. It symbolizes all the exciting possibilities for what’s next.

The Alchemy of Soulful Work is the blog. Once upon a time, someone suggested that it could also be the title of a book…hmmm. It feels right to bring it back as an ideal to re-engage our thinking of what work can be. Let’s take just a little of that magic that the ancient alchemists pursued and change our perspective of work from a mundane J-O-B to something more meaningful and soulfully satisfying.

WorkPlay Update: August 20 2007

One thing that I sometimes struggle with here at WorkPlay is the direction of my writings. I’ll be honest, I’d really like to have more traffic roll through and some of that can be accomplished by me (metaphorically) stepping out my front door and building better relationships with fellow thinkers and bloggers. I’ve allowed my more introverted side to come through online and that’s changing. I only have to look at Phil Gerbyshak for a great model of how its done. To that end, I’ve been trying to be a more frequent commenter throughout the blogosphere. And here on WorkPlay, I’ve brought back a blogroll to the front page and inserted a MyBlogLog widget. All you RSS feed readers, click here and see how it all looks.

I also fully understand that attracting more readers and commenters is a result of writing great content and therein lies a bit of my quandary. As I attempt to approach my blogging from a new angle, I find the type of content that really drives traffic is the more applied, bulleted how-to lists - the type of posts that start off “Top 10 Ways to…” These are great and I love them myself. And yet they’re somewhat limiting when it comes to pitching big picture, reality-shifting ideas for redesigning the work experience. The simple answer is to do both except that I’m far more comfortable with the latter. However, I’ll try to bring a balance to the WorkPlay content.

As always, thanks to all you readers out there. If there’s something here that excites you or pisses you off, come and join the dialogue. It’s all welcome here.

New Work Redesigned Pagecast On PageFlakes

In terms of having an internet start page, I’ve been around the block a time or two. For the longest time, I used Google Personalized Page, then tried working briefly with Netvibes, only to return to Google when they recently incorporated all the widget functionality. Yet I was unsatisfied and found my eye wandering to PageFlakes. While it does have its comparative downsides, it more than makes up for it in quick performance and some pretty slick features. One thing that I really like is the easy creation and integration of Pagecasts. I’ve created a Pagecast called Work Redesigned.

If you’re not already set up with a PageFlakes page, go ahead and register…it takes just a minute. Then you’re ready to add the Work Redesigned Pagecast.

Step 1
Click on the large asterisk in the upper right corner (it’s orangy-yellow in the screenshot above). This opens the admin menu where you can select flakes, find Pagecasts, and edit your profile.

Step 2
In the left menu of admin area, select the option for Pagecasts. You’ll see some of the featured Pagecasts and you can click the button for Browse All Pagecasts.

Step 3
The easiest way to get the Work Redesigned Pagecast is to use the search feature. Type in ‘Work Redesigned’ and and then View Pagecast.

Step 4
In the top navigation bar, you should see an option called Watch this Pagecast. Click this option and it will add the Work Redesigned tab to your own PageFlakes page.

You’re finished. Now you can get your daily fill of some of the best thinking on how we can improve the work experience for ourselves and others.

Contents of Version 1 include:
Brazen Careerist
Career Hub
The Chief Happiness Officer
CareerJournal.com
Managing with Aloha Coaching
Interactions - Creative Strategies for Business
The Future of Work
Water Cooler Wisdom
The Occupational Adventure
The Servant Leadership Blog
Creative Careers Unleashed
Oh, and of course it includes WorkPlay