Monday’s Writerly Quote

Have you ever considered why you’re blogging? Especially you writers out there. Why are you blogging? To build your platform, perhaps? But why?

Something I believe in strongly is the philosophy of karma. Those things you send out are returned to you. If you fill your world with negative energy, the negative energy returns. But if you fill your world with positive energy, it’s positive energy that will ultimately surround you.

I think for many of us, perhaps blogging begins as a way to build a platform, but then we realize (or at least I came to realize) it’s being a part of a community. And helping those you can along the way.

Which brings us to today’s quote, via your favorite green philosopher, Yoda:

Always pass on what you have learned.

Something I try to do with my blog is share all the experiences I’ve had on my writing journey. I want to impart all the knowledge I’ve gained, hoping it helps someone in a way I would have liked to be helped earlier in my journey. And the great thing is that because I’ve connected with a lot of you, I learn things I didn’t know or gain new perspectives I might not have otherwise thanks to you doing the same.

There’s room enough for us all in this industry, especially these days with our technology. We should always cheer when one of us reaches success and encourage each other as we strive for our own successes. Part of the way we do that is passing on what we’ve learned.

I encourage you, if you haven’t already, to look at your blog not just as a platform for yourself, but as a platform to help others. Help your fellow writers. Make it about what you can do for everyone else, and focus less on what everyone else can do for you.

We can typically tell when a writer’s blog is meant solely for us to admire them. The blogs I tend to check regularly are the ones where the author interacts with their followers. Many of you have become pals and are a big part of the reason I keep going with this blog.

Those are the kinds of bloggers we should be—ones that encourage each other to be our best selves in every way.

Be those bloggers, my friends. And I’ll do my best to be that kind of blogger to you.

How are you passing on those things that you have learned? Why do you blog? Do you benefit from being a part of this writing community? What do you like about this writing community?

Snooze Ad Nauseum

Hello. My name is Jae Dansie, and I’m a snooze button pusher.

Don’t think that’s a big deal? Oh, I push the snooze button almost mechanically, as though my sole purpose of every morning was to wake up briefly to push buttons before drifting back off to sleep.

At first I thought it was just my own laziness. And that might still be a big chunk of it, but it’s a big problem. Fortunately I have a flexible job. Basically as long as I get the 40 hours in every week, the time I arrive at work doesn’t matter to an extent. Before 10 is preferable. Anything post 10:30 is pushing it.

This has been a problem for a long time. During jobs that required a specific time I usually experienced panicked get-ready-quick mornings because I just had to press that snooze button. One. More. Time.

I know for most of the world the easy solution is to just get up. And once I finally got out of bed, I gave myself a strict scolding for sleeping in so long and wasting so much time and being late.

And then the next morning.

Sometimes the problem is I set my alarm for way too early when I’ve gone to bed way too late. I’m the type that needs 7-8 hours—leaning toward the 8. So if it’s midnight and I think I can get up at 6 to do a little writing before work…well, chances are slim to not happening.

I even tried repeating in my head over and over again before falling asleep, I will get up when my alarm goes off. I will get up when my alarm goes off. Oh crap! I didn’t get up when my alarm went off!

What’s a person to do?