This is something that I have been thinking about over the last couple of days.

Do you remember when you first started blogging?
Maybe it was before you realised that you could actually make money from your thoughts, when the reason you wrote was just to clear your mind, or to share the things that you have been thinking about. The time when writing was about passion and not paycheck.

But…

Have you noticed that as you continue blogging and you start to learn about monetisation and traffic strategies – that the focus starts to shift, and your content becomes more of a tool than a creation. Something that is written following a ’special formula’ – to maximise traffic, instead of an idea that is birthed in our hearts and chewed over in our minds. Where the focus turns from content into keywords.

I have recently noticed…

that I myself over the last couple of months had been making the change. I started this blog because I was passionate about blogging, but as it grew, my focus shifted from providing content that was unique and based on my current thoughts, to content that I knew would get comments and included the right keywords for the search engines. From networking with other bloggers, to ‘drop and run’ commenting.

However…

I noticed as my focus shifted from quality to quantity, that even though I was getting the result that I wanted (more subscribers, more comments and more traffic) that the satisfaction wasn’t there. The passion was gone – and I felt like a sell out.

In a way I felt like an elite athlete…

(not that I’m anything like one). But how the they are now doing what they always loved – and getting paid for it. However, constantly we see it usually just becomes a job, with all the training and expectations - I am sure a lot of them lose the passion and joy that they first had when they were kicking the ball around with their dad at the park, or surfing at the local beach at 5am with their friends.

But it doesn’t have to be like that, so I just wanted to give you a few quick tips on how to bring the fun back into blogging:

1. Re-find The Passion
   Start reading your blogs archives and find the time when you loved writing your new posts and starting reading. Inspire yourself!
2. Keep Blogging Fun
   Sure write with your readers in mind, but if that is causing you to lose your passion – then maybe you are in the wrong niche. First and foremost you need to enjoy writing your posts, because if you don’t enjoy writing them then your readers probably wont enjoy reading them!
3. Mix It Up
   If you are finding yourself getting bored with your blog, then maybe it is time for a change. This doesn’t mean ditching your blog and starting a new one, instead look at ways to ‘mix things up a bit’. Try video blogging or have a question and answer post – sure it mightn’t work as you planned – but what if it does? If you are doing the same thing day in/day out, then of course you are going to get bored. So what are you doing to keep the blogging passion?

I hope that if any of you have started to see the fire in your blog starting to go out, then this post has inspired you to keep at it and to refind your passion for your blog!

People always seem to think that only a select few people are able to constantly unleash a steady flow of creative thoughts and ideas – but that is not true at all. The reality is that creativity is just like a muscle that needs to be  consistently exercised in order to give out great results on a regular basis. If you do not practice harnessing creative thinking, this skill will fade away into inexistence. However, if keep working this skill you will find your self having creative thoughts all the time.

So how do you unleash your creative thinking? There are 5 steps to unleashing creativity – and they are:

1. Become A Human Leech
Well, the first thing is that you have to become a human leech. I’m not talking about sucking the life out of every living being available, but instead that you should be taking in as much knowledge and learning you can find. Read everything available — good and bad (this is why I read so many blog posts each day!), and always keep your mind open to to possiblities, because a closed mind stunts creativity. The more you know, the more you’ll want to know.

2. Exercise Creativity Daily
You need to focus on a creative activity everyday. I know it’s an effort. It doesn’t have to be anything massive, even doodling is a creative activity. But for people who are just starting out to unleash a little bit of creative thinking in their lives, it is helpful (and encouraging) to have concrete evidence, that, “hey, what I’m doing is getting somewhere.” So why don’t you try it. Practice drawing for a couple of minutes each day. Bring out your old camera and start snapping photos like crazy. Whatever it takes for you to be exercising your creativity!

Before you know it, you’ll have built yourself a tiny portfolio, and you’ll be amazed at the growth you’ve undertaken after amassing all those works of art. Who knows, you might actually take to liking those things you do everyday. Pretty soon those things will become a part of you and you’ll be addicted to these creative exercises.

3. Be An ‘INSIDE The Box’ Thinker
Think out of the box — or don’t. Sometimes, constraints are actually a good thing. Limitations discipline you to work within your means. It enables you to be more resourceful. Creative freedom is awesome, but limitations enforce discipline – and challenges you to work with the tools that you have.

4. Try Something New Everyday
Try something new everyday and let it broaden your perspective. Explore a new district in your neighborhood. Spend an afternoon in an art gallery or museum – go where you’ve never been before. Chat to someone on the bus. Open up to the people around you. As you take yourself out of your comfort zone more and more each day, your sense of adventure grows and so does your creativity. Think about it. When was the last time you did something for the first time? If it’s been a while, then I encourage you to step out and start living creatively!

5. Embrace Insanity
Embrace insanity. Not to the point where you are admitting yourself into the mental ward. John Russell once said, “Sanity calms, but madness is more interesting.” Every creative thought was once deemed insanity by other people at one time or another. Luckily, that didn’t stop the creative geniuses from standing by them. The thing is, sanity or being normal confines people to think normally. With their limits. It’s important that your creativity doesn’t get you detached from the real world completely.

I hope this inspires you to start thinking beyond your limits. Start living a life full of interesting adventures and unleash your creativity!

So I recently followed the latest social networking trend among bloggers and joined twitter (Follow Me :D). Not because I saw value in it but because I was told by a fellow blogger (Michael Dunlop) that I needed to join!

I currently follow 39 ‘twitters?’ and am followed by 29. I am starting to see a few benefits but would love to hear your thoughts and opinions.

Especially about the following points:

• Using blog name or personal name
• follow everyone or follow a select few
• only promote your new posts or ‘tweet’ about whatever you are thinking?
• How often should you ‘tweet’

Sorry if I got the terminology wrong, but I’m looking forward to hearing all your thoughts about twitter!

If you have been reading this blog for even a short period of time, then I am sure that you would have heard me say at least once that I get distracted VERY easily. In fact if procrastination were an olympic sport, I would have a very good shot at Gold!

Here are a few Procrastination Quotes for your entertainment!
(If you are disciplined in time-management just skip to the main points to save time.)

It is an undoubted truth, that the less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in. ~Earl of Chesterfield

There’s nothing to match curling up with a good book when there’s a repair job to be done around the house. ~Joe Ryan

You know you are getting old when it takes too much effort to procrastinate. ~Author Unknown

Ok, let’s get back on track, but for those of you who liked the procrastination quotes I have added one more to each of the blogs points.

One of the things (I don’t want to say New Years Resolutions, because everyone breaks them) that I have decided to work on in 2009 is to overcome procrastination. I want to finish things I start and get to the end of a day and be happy with all the work that I have done.

So I have come up with 4 easy steps that I will follow (and you can too) on:

How To Overcome Procrastination

1. Plan Your Day

   

The sooner I fall behind, the more time I have to catch up. ~ Author Unknown

This is something that I started to do a bit during December and I was getting great results.

At the beginning of each day (well the ones I remembered), I would write a list of all the things I wanted to get done with my blogs that day.

Here is a list from one of the days:



As you will see, I completed everything on that list, including 3 blog posts, dropping 300 entrecards and transferring a website. Obviously I got more than this done, but these were the things that I wanted to do (that I usually wouldn’t).

Obviously this is the first step on how to overcome procrastination!

The idea is to make a list of all the things that you NEED to get done, and then also create another list of the things that you would LIKE to get done.


2. Remove Distractions

   

Anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn’t the work he is supposed to be doing at that moment. ~ Robert Benchley

Some people may be able to multi-task and be able to work as well as have the TV on, listen to music, answer emails, chat on msn and play games – BUT for the serial procrastinator this is just not possible.

Too many colours. Too much noise. In other words – TOO MANY DISTRACTIONS that seem way to inviting compared to what we are supposed to be doing. So work now – play later. Something that I did was set myself some goals. Once I completed 3 of my goals I could stop and watch tv for 30 min, or after completing each task I could check my emails.

Not only did I get a lot more work done, I found myself becoming less addicted to my websites statistics and my emails! (Because we all know that way to many internet marketers check their email and website stats a little too often!)

3. Be Accountable

   

Procrastination is opportunity’s assassin. ~Victor Kiam

Procrastination is a problem that can sometimes be a bit to hard to break yourself. So if you struggle with getting things done even after you write a list then it might be a good idea to share your ‘to do list’ with someone.

This way they are able to hold you accountable for getting your work done by checking with you during the day to see how you are going.

I have never actually tried this method for myself but I know that if you have someone constantly checking up on you then you are more likely to get things done (think of when your mum kept bugging you about that homework you had due!)

4. Start Now

   

“The greatest amount of wasted time is the time not getting started.” ~ Dawson Trotman

One of the serial procrastinators most frequent sayings would most likely be: ‘I’ll do tomorrow!’

So kick the habit now, and start planning tomorrow – today! Go on, I dare you too!

So just wondering… who else is ready to kick procrastination?