Use words to source actions.
As an independent contractor/freelancer I’ve realized that selling plays a critical role in business. Like it or not, it’s a necessity, but it’s not my strength.
In an effort to learn more about sales I signed up for a sales-related email newsletter filled with quotes, inspiration and advice on sales productivity. Today’s quote applies to business as much as life in general.
One’s feelings waste themselves in words; they ought all to be distilled into actions which bring results.
Florence Nightingale (1820–1910), English pioneer of modern nursing
What if I created instead of tweeted the next time something inspired me?
I want to post more content on my blog, so I’ve created a new rule for myself. Before I post something on twitter I ask the following question:
Could this work as a blog post?
This idea started by accident when I installed a Twitter plugin on my website and it started creating posts from everything I tweeted. After several posts were out there in the open, I realized that I had broken through a mental block and transformed my publishing cycle.
My old publishing cycle
- Get an idea.
- Save a draft.
- Let it sit for a week, month… year.
- Review list of saved drafts every once in a while.
- Edit a draft.
- Save more drafts, pushing old saved drafts farther down the list.
- Edit a draft.
- Publish something not even saved as a draft.
New publishing cycle
- Get an idea.
- Publish it.
- Feel the pressure of something being exposed to the public.
- Reopen the editor, start tweaking things, adding more photos and editing text.
My goal isn’t to create a life-changing epic piece of literature every time a write a blog post. This new method is more of a personal development exercise. I’m still trying to find my “writing voice”, as they say. Part of that process involves simply writing more.
So lately, every time I feel a tweet coming on, I start writing about it. I get in a flow, and even if it’s not blowing your mind right now, it feels good.
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