Tag Archives: Writing

On being happy.

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I was originally going to title this post “On following your passion,” but that wasn’t entirely correct. That’s because this post was inspired by a new blog I stumbled across, Study Hacks, written by Cal Newport. The post was “Can I Be Happy as an Investment Banker? The Difference Between Pursuing a Lifestyle and Following Your Passion.” I know. Long title, but it’s a good article.

The fact is that most of us do pursue a lifestyle rather than following our passions. I did it without even realizing it. Of course, my lifestyle choice was stability for my family. But along the way that also included a big house, two cars, big screen TVs, game systems, and all the usual trappings of a modern, 21st century American lifestyle. And I sought out jobs that afforded me those comforts.

I’ve always said that I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. But that might be a lie I’ve told myself for the last twenty years. That’s a hard truth, isn’t it? That you’ve been lying to yourself for two decades.

I love writing. And I love comedy. I enjoy design and, to a lesser extent, programming. I crave learning new things. It’s that craving that’s let me park my career in idle for the whole of my 30s because my jobs have required me to constantly learn new things. I’ve reached a point though where that’s just not enough anymore.

What does that mean? I don’t know. Addiction to a lifestyle is like any other addiction. The first step is to admit that you have a problem. That’s all this is. Me admitting that I have a problem. I don’t know what comes next.

I’m Sorry, What Did You Just Say?

Let’s kick off a new section, Quick Tips, with one about blogging since, well, guess what I’m doing right now?

Tips will feature short snippets on a wide variety of topics. By keeping them short, hopefully I’ll be able to update several times a week as things come up during my day-to-day work. I’m easily in front of a computer 12 hours a day and this is a way to integrate blogging into my day, provide useful content and meet one of my goals for this year. (This does not absolve me from writing longer posts.)

Moleskin: My Awesome Story

Quick Tip: Figure out what you want to say.

One of the biggest reasons why blogs fail is because the author doesn’t know what he wants to say. He’ll flounder about and write a variety of posts on a variety of topics. He has no goals for his blog and, consequently, finds it easy to post with random and ever decreasing frequency.

Before deciding to create a blog figure out what you want to write about and who you want to write it for. Be specific. Is there a topic where you have something meaningful to contribute? In my case, web design was too broad and other areas were already too well covered. I didn’t feel I could make enough of a contribution. In my case, it ended up being less about the topic and more about the audience.

Two great sites that helped me figure this out (and that I now follow) are ReadWriteWeb and Copyblogger.