Why I Publish Bad Blog Posts
Yes, I’ve written bad blog posts and published them.
For any of you who follow me or read my blog, this shouldn’t be a surprise.They can’t all be “War and Peace.”
The thing that’s difficult isn’t writing good content and publishing it—it’s publishing work that’s not that amazing.
It hurts me sometimes if what I write doesn’t feel massively inspiring, insightful, unique, or actionable.
The goal is to get to a place of consistent, high-quality output.
That can’t happen without publishing the bad stuff along the way.This is not a cheap, disguised excuse to pump out crummy content—that would be deliberately cutting corners to reduce the effort required.That would be consistently low quality.Seneca said something like: “in order to know and understand good wine, one must drink a lot of bad, even terrible wine.”I think you get the point.If you want to be great, you have to forgive yourself for not being great right at this very second and understand that you’re going to have to be embarrassed for a little while as you figure it all out.
2 Minute Action
Publish something today.Perform the speech that’s not quite ready yet.Implement a new lesson plan that’s almost all the way there.Unless you’re a brain surgeon, the risk of failing isn’t that high.Go for the gusto, today.
A Secret I've Been Holding for 6 Months
Around this time last year, I was exercising almost every day.In fact, on Wednesdays, I was exercising twice per day.Plus, I was commuting on my bicycle--which meant I was putting up another 4-10 miles on the bike, each day, just to get around.But guess what?I took a contract last November and I was pulling 80+ hour weeks. I stopped working out. I got sick in January and spent an entire week in bed.When I finally got up, I didn't go back to the gym.What I'm trying to tell you is that I've been using my busy work week as an excuse for not exercising. It's bad. I'm probably in the worst shape I've ever been in (and I was a smoker for 9 years)!!The weird thing is that I'm turning 30 in February--and I just can't start my 30s like this.I've got about 7 months to get my act together, which means I'm getting back on my routine.Just wanted to share this moment of doubt, hope, and motivation with all of you.It's embarrassing and I hate these moments. We all want to appear strong and motivated all the time, right?Of course, we can never be strong and motivated all the time. What we CAN do, is create a strong habit of behavior that wakes our bodies up at the right time, gives our minds the right thought patterns, and pushes us past those moments where our willpower may fail us.Going to the gym every once in a while doesn't help. It's daily, consistent, relentless action that changes you.
"Every workout is like a brick you lay in a wall. Each day, you lay another brick. At the end, how strong will your wall be?"
-Chris' High School Track Coach
2 Minute Action
What do you feel is holding you back from daily, consistent, relentless action?My excuses have been: moving to a new place without a good gym, not wanting to pay for an expensive gym membership and my busy, 80-hour work week.What are your excuses? Are they excuses? What might you tell someone else if they gave you those excuses?