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.

The 3 Critical Stages To Conquer Any Upsetting Change

Here is the fastest route available to dealing with difficult change:

1 - Awareness

This is the stage where you realize the reality of what's happening around you. This is where you understand the impact and consequences that change has brought.

2 -  Acceptance

This is when you realize that what's real is real and thinking about it or wishing it wasn't true doesn't actually improve anything. You can't go back in time and this is the turning point when you adapt to reality and become ready to move on.

3 - Action

This is the stage where you are back in motion. You are moving with the waves and toward a new destination or vision. Even if you don't have a vision yet, you know you have to start somewhere and this is you in motion.It's these critical 3 steps that you must move through unpredictable or difficult change.That's it.Now that you know, it's up to you to figure out how to move faster through them.How to do that?Identify the phase in which you take the longest amount of time, and start there.

2 Minute Action

For me, it's the second step that takes the longest. I, like many others, tend to ruminate on what could be, what I could have done, or what I should have done. Reflecting and analyzing is helpful, but ruminating and dwelling is non-productive and time-consuming.What's your weak point out of these three?Reply, forward, comment, and let me know!The more we share these weaknesses, the better able we are to address and strengthen them.

Why I Love Haters

Let's talk about haters.Haters are the 2%-5% of people who just can't be pleased, entertained, soothed, or fixed.

There's nothing you can do about them.

Don't confuse this with feedback.People who complain are often offering you valuable feedback, even though they might not do it in a respectful way.It's your job to avoid taking things personally and listen objectively to what they're saying.

Sometimes you can't fix it and sometimes you can.

The point is, you'll know when you've got a hater because this is the person who just wants to complain or "get a rise" out of you.But you know better.If you focus your energy on haters, they will absorb all of it.If you focus on feedback, you will continuously improve.The punchline is that when you meet a new hater, you've given an opportunity to grow.When you meet a new hater, you're given an opportunity to choose to make the world better.

2 Minute Action

How about a random act of kindness, today?It only takes 2 minutes or less.Text someone. Leave a post-it note. Send a gift.You have everything you need to make the world just a little bit better.