On Growing the Growing Life

Photo by Pete Woodhead

The Growing Life’s biggest milestone didn’t come when I started receiving 50+ new subscribers daily.  It didn’t come when yesterday’s article hit Digg’s front page (thanks to John for the sub), or when Leo Babuta accepted my guest post.  The biggest milestone wasn’t crossed when Copyblogger hit publish on my stuff, or when I made the Zen Habits TumbleLog (although I was, and still am, very grateful for the link).  It didn’t even come when when Alltop added me to their top 15 lifehack websites (that was the second biggest milestone).

No.  The biggest milestone occurred after I wrote Quitting Things and Flakiness.  It’s a long, rambling article, and I was sure it’d piss people off and die on Stumble Upon.  The article did piss a few people off, but it also received more comments than any other post on TGL (StumbleUpon ate it up, by the way).  After publishing Quitting Things, my subscriber count increased more than it ever had (at that point) in a single day.

Quitting Things and Flakiness was a milestone because it was the first article written for myself and to myself.  It helped me find the beginnings of my voice, and the response to it confirmed that I could write to the beat of my own drummer without losing readership.

Other Milestones

I live in Wisconsin, but I wrote Quitting Things while visiting my parents and grandparents in California.  My grandfather’s at the very early stages of Alzheimer’s, and a couple of months ago I decided to drop everything and spend a month with my people.  The experience changed my life.  It reminded me that my 27-year-old self has been developing long before my birth; it reminded me of just how attached I get to land or a geography; and it demonstrated to me the importance of family and of learning from your elders. (Note: You can learn A LOT from the older generation.  In order to do so, however, it helps to remember this: the lessons that elders will teach you are often not the lessons they want to teach you.  The important lessons are usually learned by immersion, by just hanging around — they are lessons you have to pick up on your own.  It takes time and energy, but it’s well worth it).

Anyway, Quitting Things was written while choosing between an amazing and fully-funded opportunity to live on Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast (in this city), and a year in California during a very critical time.  California won.  I also made some serious decisions about how to proceed with this blog.  I’ve decided to engineer a life that’ll permit more time for this terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad, time-sucking vortex of a blog that I love to write for and just can’t put down (i.e. the blog you’re reading right now).

My plan starting this June: spend time with people I love, grow my business (which is not this blog), and write, listen, get back to my roots, and write some more.  This is one of the best times of my life and I hope you’ll stick around these parts.

Some Advice

I’m hesitant to give advice because I’m new to this blogging game and am basically small potatoes.  But over the past few weeks I’ve received a number of emails from fellow bloggers asking for advice.  I really don’t know what to say.  I’d like to think that content works in one’s favor, and in my view, Skellie’s the go-to person for that.  Dosh Dosh, along with Problogger and CopyBlogger, also provide invaluable marketing advice.

None of these website recommendations will be news to anyone.  And if you’re like me, you’ll want . . .

Secrets

I’ve long thought there were secrets to cracking this blogging game, getting on the front page of Digg, etc.  Stuff only a-list bloggers knew about, but wouldn’t tell anyone.  Anyway, if those secrets do exist, please email me pronto so I can pay you for them .

After the insanely long period of 8 weeks, I’ve come to believe that while there probably aren’t secrets (darn!), there are TONS of angles.  And if you pile up enough angles, what you’ll have, my friends, is a secret.  But here’s the thing about angles: that they have to be specific to you, because angles are the unique and targeted application of the best advice.  Here’s another thing about angles: the really good ones require time, energy and asking the right questions.  But even if you expend time and energy asking the right questions, it’ll do you little good if no one’s there to answer them.  I’ve lucked out in this regard largely because I’ve had the privilege of working with. . .

Naomi Dunford

She’s got short hair, a foul mouth, a great blog, and an adorable kid.  And she can probably kick your ass.  We talk on the phone for 30 minutes each week.  During this time the heavens open and the gods of blogging speak to me through her.  I’ve got questions, she’s got answers.  And angles.  I’m her friend and I’m also a tiny client of her tiny company (IttyBiz), but but the price is fair and the ROI is astronomical.  One way or another, Naomi’s has had a hand in nearly everything that’s gone right with this blog.  She’s been very generous, and for that I am grateful.  If you’re in need of a small business genius, then check her out.

Final Note

Apologies for the off-topic nature of this post.  I’m back on track tomorrow morning with the good stuff, and if you’re a new subscriber I hope you’ll stick around until then .

For an endless supply of alternative productivity articles, subscribe to The Growing Life.