Staying Committed To Yourself
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Aug 24, 2012
Many people know that I write a newsletter on leadership topics. There's even a link to it over there to the left, and I get a few people here and there who subscribe to it. I've been writing it for almost 10 years now, and soon a compilation of my earliest newsletters and earliest blog posts from this blog on the topic of leadership will be coming out.
When I first started writing it, I was committed to a 2-week schedule. I did that mainly because I wasn't sure how it was going to go, and I wasn't sure if I would have enough to say to sustain it if I did it more often. Over the years, depending on what else was going on in my life, it sometimes stretched out anywhere from 3 to 5 weeks. I never got feedback from anyone on it, so I figured people didn't care when it came as long as it came or weren't reading it anyway; how depressing is that?
Two months ago I thought it was time to evaluate the newsletter to see where I stood with it. I wasn't really thinking about ending it, but I was wondering if the haphazard way it was coming out was working for me or anyone else. I'd have to say that the subscribers are a fairly quiet bunch. I only hear from them every once in awhile, and not all that many of them. That's probably the norm, since I subscribe to a few things here and there and rarely comment on them.
What I decided was that I needed to be more serious with it and make it a priority of my business model. It needed a slight revamping in process. Luckily, I like the format, so I didn't have to start from scratch.
What I decided was three things. One, I would write it weekly. Two, I would send it out Wednesday night/Thursday morning instead of Thursday night/Friday morning. Three, I would try to make them a little shorter and punchier.
Over the last 8 weeks I have been putting it out weekly, and in the time frame I said I was going to do it in. I haven't always stuck to the "shorter" thing, but that's okay because my style is to write until I've said my piece, and if it takes a few more words no one seems to mind.
Once I made that commitment, I noticed that I was hearing from a few more people. Not an overwhelming number still but comments were up around 75%; trust me, it didn't take a lot of people to do that. lol
However, that wasn't really the issue. I didn't do it for more comments. I did it because in February 2003 I made a commitment to myself that I was going to do a newsletter and that I was going to try to stick to a regular schedule.
When we decide to let things go because we prioritize something else first, we tend to start devaluing some of the things we do. At some point we all need to sit down and evaluate whether the deed is worth doing, and if it is renew the commitment to it. This goes for everything you do in life.
I've recommitted myself to my newsletter, and I'm enjoying writing it more these days. I wonder what will be next on my list. What's next on your list?
I am a little bit nervous at the moment as my next move would be to have my own blog, after a long period in which I’ve written for others. What makes me nervous is the same question if anybody would care for another blog in the air. Somehow I have to finish the battle with my little procrastination (an old behavior), to limit in time the writings for me and for the others, afraid of not being dried out by inspiration. And I become pathetic so I would stop now.
Saru, one shouldn’t let fear of anything stop them from a goal. If you try it and you can’t do it, at least you’ll know. That’s what making a commitment to oneself is all about.
Blogging is like any other job, it will fail without good planning. I recently wrote similar article regarding rules of blogging, actually after I filter everything, it seems that every fell back to 1 rule which repeats twice. Newsletter is a good weapon and probably the best way to keep loyal visitors and existing customers. Right now many people forget about newsletter as usually everything is shared on social networks, but I think this is is wrong approach. I need to send newsletter too, actually 2 newsletters as one went out of schedule previous week.
Carl, the idea is to stay committed to whatever it is you want to do because that’s the best way to become successful at it.
Being committed in all of your endeavors is definitely a must. Well, it is also important for me to stay focused and be dedicated to make things work. Asa result, success will easily come to you. Again, thank you Mitch. 🙂
No problem Deanne, and I’m sure you’ll see great success and good things come your way just by staying dedicated to your goals.