2 major things happened to Life Coaches Blog last month, it got mentioned on Lifehacker twice; first on how to give good compliments, second on the Bruce Lee guide to getting things done.
My traffic exploded and my earnings quadrupled for those days alone, staying at triple the norm for a few days after.
It was a major step of my dream come true.
But here’s the secret: when it happened I couldn’t deal.
I froze up. My ideas went dry. When I realized that suddenly what I wrote was reaching out to a whole lot more people, I questioned what I had to say that deserved such attention.
A classic case of self-sabotage at work.
Hey, I guess I’m not perfect after all 
What helped was something a new friend of mine wrote in an email; do you wonder if you’ll pass the mark? she asked.
You’ll pass the mark when you reach the mark.
What Is The Heart of Personal Development Blogging?
2 years ago, Yezhong and I were going through another phase in our life coaching development. We realized how hypocritical it was to encourage people to walk the good walk, but not to do it ourselves.
We decided to cut back on the life coaching and focus on taking the powerful skills and techniques we’d learned and putting them to use on ourselves.
It didn’t mean that we had to be better, richer, happier, healthier or sexier than anyone else. It did mean that we had to lead lives congruent with our own goals and values. It meant we had to stay true to our own paths and be taking steps everyday down our consciously chosen paths.
It meant we had to walk the talk and lead the way.
When I started Life Coaches Blog, I still had lots of experiences to share from my life coaching history. In fact I was hungry to share everything I had learned and gained from my years of practicing NLP, hypnosis, life coaching and personal development.
Something interesting happened as the months went by. I began to run out of stuff to write about. Then I realized why.
A blog, if it’s to run with any success at all, is a continuing dialog between you and the world. If you stop growing, you stop that dialog, and you wind up with nothing new to say.
The heart of personal development blogging is to keep growing. Keep your own personal growth going and you’ll never run out of fun, interesting things to say.
Life complements blogging, not the other way around.
Why Most Personal Development Blogs Fail
I abhor hypocrisy. I abhor people telling other people how to lead their lives. I never do that here. I offer suggestions, ideas and experiences about skills and strategies that I’ve found useful and interesting, but I never tell anyone how to lead their life in a way I haven’t.
Which is a sad failing in a lot of personal development blogs. They tell people how to lead their lives, they lay down the law about how things should be…when it’s painfully obvious they’re leading where they haven’t gone.
Lessons Learned From The Life Coaches Blog Journey
This blog is 15 months old, with at least 1 to 3 posts almost every week. I can’t even believe I’ve written so much sometimes. I remember so many late nights spent writing when I should have been sleeping, writing when I could have been off relaxing (this is one of those nights - I gave up a movie gala for this).
But this is part of my mission; to use the power of words to help people.
Honestly, there are days when I’m tired and I feel like throwing the towel in. Especially now, with a new writing job and longer traveling hours, my free time has been cut short. And my focus this year on leading a fuller life has got me going out there leading and enjoying my life instead of staying in here and writing about it…and I’m loving it.
But that’s when I remember my mission, and that even though giving up Life Coaches Blog would be the easier thing to do, it would also be the smaller thing to do. I will always be growing, and I still love life coaching. I’ve shared this before, but the main reason I left was because I couldn’t make it financially sustainable, which doesn’t mean I’ll give up on doing it (I still consider special cases and do the occasional unofficial coaching session).
And I remember the real truth about this continuing dialog between me and the world; no matter how many people read these words, in the end I’m only writing for an audience of one: me.
March 5th, 2007 at 11:58 pm
Hey,
I really liked this post. It ties in well with motivation, which is what I’ve been looking at in my own life lately. You were writing and expressing yourself out of love of doing it, which is excellent imo.
And now you’re being financially rewarded for it with more revenues and hits. Congratulations! Steve Pavlina has been writing on how an outflow of energy leads to a return so I guess you’re getting your kharma back in a good way.
Colm
March 6th, 2007 at 1:35 am
“A blog, if it’s to run with any success at all, is a continuing dialog between you and the world. If you stop growing, you stop that dialog, and you wind up with nothing new to say.”
Alvin, very well said! as a long-time blogger myself, i can relate to what you’re trying to express. for me, my personal blog is a reflection of our thoughts and journey. my goal in blogging is to “swallow my blog in single gulp.”
good to know that you’re getting the traffic that you deserve. i found you via LifeHacker, and since then, i became an instant fan of your blog. i like your tone, and the valuable information you’re providing. love that NLP series
so yeah, just keep doing it. you’re blogger’s block will fade soon enough.
kick ass and be still.
~C
March 6th, 2007 at 2:16 am
Yoz Alvin, glad that you’ve recovered from the after-shock. i was wonder why the articles suddenly slowed down. I think that this blog that you had set up has definitely benefited a lot of people out there; it definitely helped me quite a bit. Continue the good work
March 6th, 2007 at 2:50 am
Good job with Lifehacker. I’ve pegged once by lifehacker.com and several times by lifehacker.org so I know how it feels to get a fresh surge of traffic, good to hear.
Words are cheap, lead by example. A personal value and it is good to see others leading it as well.
March 6th, 2007 at 3:05 am
Hi,
It’s important to remember that everything is constantly in flux. Sometimes we feel great, sometimes we feel not so great. There’s a beautiful saying “This too shall pass”. If we can remember to keep this perspective, it frees us from negativity.
March 6th, 2007 at 9:37 am
Great post. I really appreciate that you are not just offering theory but in fact it’s real life lessons.
March 6th, 2007 at 11:13 am
I really appreciate your mission and your willingness to continue this blog.
March 6th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Nice post, and keep up the great work!
March 7th, 2007 at 5:09 am
What a great post. I found a lot of great information here and will absolutely keep coming back for more. Using your skills to help others is wonderful. Keep it up!!!
March 7th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
I’ve been there too, and I suspect I’m kinda in that phase right now.
That’s now I’m loading up on my books and I’m set on another big learning spree, yet again!
Let’s continue our learning and be here to support each other Alvin. As usual, I have always loved what you wrote and am still lovin’ it! ;p
March 15th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
Hey Alvin:
“A blog, if it’s to run with any success at all, is a continuing dialog between you and the world. If you stop growing, you stop that dialog, and you wind up with nothing new to say.”
Take a look, and enjoy, this article on “learning goals”
http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2007/marapr/features/dweck.html
May 15th, 2007 at 5:31 am
Thank you for posting this. I started a blog nine days ago, and today Lifehacker put something I did on the site. The sudden popularity and flood of comments (and criticisms) is dizzying.
Wondering how long this lasts, I googled “surge in traffic from lifehacker” and found this lovely post. I’m already a subscriber, but hadn’t seen this blog post. (I discovered you in April, long after this was posted.)
Would that all productivity experts had such humility.
All the best,
CLKL
May 15th, 2007 at 11:21 pm
9 days and already you’re on Lifehacker! Congratulations, I’m sure this is a sign of more good things to come
The flood is pretty dizzying, but in the end you will come to terms with it and deal with it in your own best way. For me I’ve come to realize there is no one person better to blog for…than myself.
After all, I started this blog and I run it…so why not?