Sir Henry Cooper, the man who once had Muhammed Ali on the mat in the their controversial bout of 1963, was once in a conversation with the Baroness Edith Summerskill, about the brutalities of his sport.
The conversation went like this.
Baroness: “Mr. Cooper, have you looked in the mirror lately and seen the state of your nose?”
Cooper: “Well madam, have you looked in the mirror and seen the state of your nose? Boxing is my excuse. What’s yours?”
Well, there are periods when your blog hits the doldrums, when writing seems a chore, when the writer’s block looms large. This blog too has seen the winds fail the sails recently. I took a sabbatical. Embraced change with a slew of web development projects. Fell in love with catching up on some SEO experiments that I always wanted to do. Too much of time spent on client projects is my rationalized excuse. What’s yours?
Hey, wait a moment. This just does not sound right. Especially for Content Marketers and aspiring bloggers. Learned experience and borrowed wisdom all point to the fact that there is never an eureka moment; to shift gears, to let thoughts translate vision to reality. What is important is the need to partake the journey and keep the juices flowing. The key here is just get started. And once you have decided to get going in the mind, it is just a matter of time before you hit the sweet spot, the dream post that packs a punch literally.
Is it going to be that simple? It is not. If writing is an art, then blogging is not far behind. In fact it is both an art and a science. It becomes pristine art when you forget that you are the medium when you are writing. It becomes popular science when users linkbait your post to viral stardom. The way forward is just keep writing and making sure that readers find it useful all along.
It of course helps if you can accept that “orginality” can find its orgin in stimuli all around you, not always from within. Take time to do your homework on your chosen topic. Read everything under the sun. And sometimes ideas do fall in your lap. Especially when you go in search of them.
Please watch out for a spoiler in disguise. Procrastination can take any garb if you allow it a little leeway. Your feedreader will have zillion feeds rocking for attention. Read them all only if you can allow yourself the time to write. That is when you give yourself the best chance to blogging nirvana. Once you decide to say it, how you say it best can never be far behind.
Smart writing is about providing insights that can be spelt out in simple terms. Yet follow your unique style. Question the answers and understand the questions and keep it entertaining. Keep the faith till you find your voice.
As Muhammed Ali would say
“Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them-a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have the skill, and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.”
Very True. Floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee, is it not. Keep writing. Everyday.
Thanks so much for that whack-on-the-head-post… for procrastination is such a lovely indulgence.. taking a toll on my blog. Guess its time to get back to the keyboard.
That also makes me wonder if we are over-stimulated with so much going around and hence too tired to look at our own state of affairs!
No! thats not my excuse 🙂