My brain is on blogging overload today! I just returned from Megaphone Summit 2018 where I made a last minute decision to attend this local blogging conference. And boy did it pay off again! Last year was my very first Megaphone and I walked away with such a kick in the pants that really got this whole blog thing on track. They lit an even bigger fire in me this weekend and now I’m processing all the things. If you have ever wanted to blog, or maybe you’re wondering what does she do behind this computer screen all day, then your questions are about to be answered as you enter into my jumbled mind. Here are my Top 5 Megaphone Summit Take Away’s – Blogging Tips & Tricks.
There are few things that bore me more than email newsletters.
Seriously.
Unroll.me has saved my life from the tedium of having my inbox constantly interrupted with the inane announcements that fill most email newsletters. Just in case you don’t know about it, Unroll.me is a brilliant service that a) helps you efficiently unsubscribe from everything you don’t want and b) rolls up the rest of your subscriptions so that you only get them once a day.
When I read my Unroll.me roundup, I delete almost all of it at barely a glance. I don’t even bother opening most of the emails, and when I do open one, I am usually irritated that I bothered.
Because they are so boring.
15% off sales. Lists of things I MUST have. Articles that EVERYONE ELSE has read. Places that I MUST TRAVEL THIS YEAR.
DELETE. DELETE. DELETE.
So, friends, I ask you…
WHY should we even bother having an email newsletter for our blogs?
Do we just hope that everyone else is not like me and they read rather than delete most of their emails? (I doubt it.)
Even if only 2% of the people who receive it open it and read it, should we just be glad that those 2% are reading? (Maybe.)
Do some of us have the ability to convert an email newsletter into sales if we are using our blogs to sell products? (Perhaps.)
Do we continue to try to collect our blog readers’ email addresses in the hopes that one day we will write a book and when that happens we will be able to email them all and beg them to buy it? (Just me???)
Actually, I am not sure why we are supposed to have an email newsletter. I think that maybe the answer to that question is as individual as each of our blogs. When I asked myself this morning why I have an email newsletter, in addition to the above and rather unlikely scenario, this is what I came up with:
When someone subscribes to my blog via email, they are saying to me: Hey, I like what you do! Keep doing it. Oh, and I don’t want to miss it when you do some more.
And I like that kind of feedback. I am delighted if someone reads something I write, and likes it. And wants to read more. It feels good. And it encourages me to keep writing.
Sidenote: However, it doesn’t happen very often so I have to find other encouragement to keep writing. If I was relying on email subscriptions for my motivation to write, well, let’s just say I would never write anything. Ditto comments and social media likes/shares.
So, that’s my reason for having an email newsletter. It’s probably not the greatest, but for what it’s worth, it seems like a good enough reason to keep having one.
What’s your reason for having an email newsletter?
I think it’s a good idea to come up with an answer to that question before you go any further.
But I’ll move on.
How do I get more subscribers to my email newsletter?
Let’s talk about how to build that list. Get those subscribers.
Here’s what I have surmised are the best ways to get email subscribers.
Pop-ups and Opt-ins.
Personally I have not used either of these methods because I really, really want people to subscribe to me out of a sheer sense of delight in reading my blog. (I live in a fantasy world.) Not because I interrupt them with a pop-up or because I dupe them with a free PDF of Camping Menus or Travel Tips. In my head, I am afraid that if I dupe people with these methods into typing their email addresses into a box, that they will be inclined to quickly unsubscribe when they have the option the next time they receive an email from me. (Because again, Unroll.me.)
But people use these methods because they work. And depending on the goals you have for your newsletter, you might want to grow that email base, so you should probably use them too.
Pop-ups and Opt-ins are relatively easy to add to your blog via plugins. Of course, if you want to use an Opt-in (something you offer for free in exchange for someone subscribing to your blog), you have to write it first. But after you have your Opt-in material, you can easily distribute it with the help of a pop-up.
Sidenote: You can actually listen to a podcast where the man who invented the pop-up now apologizes for ruining the internet with this annoying feature. It’s pretty funny.
Ok, now that you have all those email subscribers, what do you do with them?
Of course, that depends on what your goals are in the first place. See again: Why should I have an email newsletter?
But, as far as your future email missives to your readers go, I have some suggestions. These are not proven to work. They are based solely on my personal preferences, so you can take them with a grain of salt. But if you’ve gone to the trouble of creating pop-ups and opt-ins and collecting email addresses, I feel that at this point, you don’t want to lose those same subscribers by having a boring email newsletter.
Also, I have been playing around with a newsletter for my blog for a couple of years now. I use Mailchimp to send a little hello out into about 90 inboxes about once a month, and I am just beginning to get a feel for what makes people decide to hit the eject button. I still only have a 50% open rate (Mailchimp’s fancy statistics are free), but I keep trying to hit my email stride.
So here are my top tips for keeping your newsletter NOT BORING.
Keep it short.
I am a fan of Longform. And I am a big believer in blog posts being as long as you want them. (OBVIOUSLY! As I drone on and on here…) But emails should be short. Very to. the. point. Lately, I have even been experimenting with leaving photos out of my emails. Just one less thing for people to have to wait to load. However, if I do use a photo, I use only one. Not a collage my last 18 Instagrams. Simple is best.
Be consistent, but don’t overload.
I vote for once a month. Or less. Be succinct. Choose the best of your blog posts to highlight and let your readers wander around to the rest of them once they are on your website. Don’t include a bunch of partial feeds. I don’t want to read the first paragraphs of four different articles. Just tell me about the best one. Oh, and maybe tell me a little bit about you. It’s been a minute since I subscribed and maybe I can’t remember who you are. But briefly. (Remember, keep it short.)
Keep it delightful.
Every time you land in someone’s inbox, they are giving you their attention, even if it is only for a second. I want to be the email that is a “Daymaker.” I know I am just one person writing my heart out in one little corner of the internet, but I still want to use my words to bring light and love and joy into the lives of whoever reads them.
So when I sit down to craft something that is going to land in someone’s inbox, I am going for delight. One thing that helps me is that sometimes I pretend I am just writing a quick email to a very dear friend. Of course, I don’t want to bore my friend!
So go forth and write email newsletters friends! (If you want to.)
Oh, and if you want to subscribe to my blog or email newsletter, well, you can do that right here.
(See what I did there? Tricksy.)
I think it would be super valuable for all of us if you were willing to share in the comments a few words about your experience with or questions about email newsletters. Do you have one? Does it work? What service do you use to write it? How do you get your followers? How do you keep your followers? Tell us all about it. Collectively, we probably know LOADS about email newsletters!
If you know me at all, you know that I am a big fan of giving time to dreaming.
The daydreaming kind of dreams.
(Not the sleeping kind – though I also am a big fan of sleep!)
Dreaming up magic takes time.
It takes a minute to take your brain from the litany of urgent thoughts to a space where you can think about what might be.
“What am I going to fix for dinner? Carpool at 3. Cupcakes for the party. Pick up a bottle of wine for dinner with friends. Don’t forget to order pictures by next Tuesday.”
Your brain is probably really full right now.
Mine too.
But a little date with yourself and your pen and a blank sheet of paper could breathe a lot of magic into your blog (and into your life) for the year ahead.
Who doesn’t want a little magic?
A little time to hope and dream.
Give yourself the gift of that time somewhere in the next week or two, before the kids are out of school or the relatives come in town or the Christmas travel starts.
Block it out on your calendar.
ONE HOUR FOR DREAMING.
When you sit down with your hour (or your half hour or whatever time you have), set a timer.
And then write these words at the top of your paper.
What would I like to see on my blog (or in my business or in my life) in the coming year?
Then just write.
Later, you can come back and circle the big ideas or the parts that are the most important to you. Later you can take the ideas and turn them into plans.
I think this season of advent is one for waiting and watching and wondering.
I’m taking some time this week to dream about what might be.
A few months ago I had the great pleasure of sitting down face to face (via Skype!) with one of my internet heroes, Alexandra Franzen.
We had no big agenda for our conversation.
Just chat + inspiration.
We covered a lot of topics.
From writing and creativity to time management and social media.
We talked about a few road blocks I was hitting in current projects and my summer long obsession with the Enneagram.
It was a delightful hour.
Here are a few things I learned from my time with Alex.
1. If you really want to have time for writing, you have to schedule it.
Like in your calendar with red ink that indicates to you and everyone else in your life that this block of time is not negotiable. If you schedule your writing hours, then the time is yours for writing.
2. You can run a successful business on the internet without maintaining a presence on social media.
Seriously.
Before I sat down with Alexandra, I had been wondering for a while if this was true. I had been experimenting for about a month with being off of social media and was trying to decide if I wanted to stay off. We talked about how there is a lot of fear mongering around making sure you keep your social media profiles constantly updated. And that it is a great tool for folks that love it.
But if like me, you have a little voice telling you that you really wish you could give it up, but you just need a little encouragement, Alexandra has got you covered.
3. Skype sessions with other creatives are a good idea.
Here’s why.
We need people to ask us the questions we don’t have to answer on a daily basis. You know, something besides, “What’s for dinner?”
We need someone to ask us the bigger dreamy kinds of questions.
And then we need that someone to hold space for us while we answer those questions.
Or to sit with us in the uncomfortable silence while we listen to our hearts long enough to answer those questions.
We see these questions all the time.
What are your biggest dreams?
What do you wish you could do?
What is holding you back?
What are you afraid of?
Methods for following your dreams and overcoming your fears are the topic of about 1008 blog posts. Weekly.
We skim those blog posts and save them and tweet them and file them away.
But often we don’t get around to saying anything out loud.
Because no one is listening.
Maybe the best Christmas gift you can give to one of your Arkansas Women Blogger Gals is an hour face to face.
Just for dreaming. And listening.
What if you gifted a creative soul in your life with these same words Alexandra sent to me the day before we sat down together?
We’ll just have a delightful conversation about words, stories, and how to make a positive difference in people’s lives, and hopefully… you’ll walk away feeling happy & inspired.
You might just make her day!
PS A big thank you to Alexandra Franzen for gifting me with an hour of her time after I did her online course Unstoppable, which I highly recommend. And also big love to Paige Ray for talking me into doing the course with her in the first place. Paige has started a podcast since we did the course and she is pretty dang Unstoppable herself!
I have been an intellectual property attorney for ten years, so I’m used to people asking me all sorts of questions about copyright. I’m also used to non-attorneys expressing opinions that are a little different than what the copyright laws say. This past weekend at AWBU was no different.
Let’s get one thing straight – the copyright laws in the United States allow the copyright owner to prevent anyone else from reproducing the copyrighted work, creating a derivative of the copyrighted work (think movies based upon books), distributing copies of the work, displaying the copyrighted work, or performing the work. Copyrighted works can include artwork at Crystal Bridges, advertising photos of food on a package of chicken, and cover art for books. Any photographs of these items or any other copyrighted work are potentially infringing of the copyright owner’s rights.
It is tempting as a blogger to take pictures to use for a blog. Pictures make blogs prettier. But there is a certain amount of risk in using pictures of anything that is copyright to use for a blog post. This risk is greater if it’s a sponsored post or if you’re receiving advertising revenue for your blog. The risk is even greater if you are using photographs that you didn’t take yourself. When it’s a sponsored post, you’re not the only one at risk – you’re putting your sponsor on the line as well.
Am I saying stop using pictures you take? No. I want you to be aware of the risk. Risk is a part of life and business. With some authors, using a picture of the book jacket for a positive review of the book is a good thing. But then there are some musicians that might request that the video of your kids decorating the Christmas tree be muted because their music is playing in the background.
Can you be sued for taking a photo of a copyrighted work? Yes. There’s that risk. But there’s also a risk that I will end up with diabetes from the amount of sugar I ingest from my three soda-a-day addiction. It’s a small risk, but it could happen. I try to minimize that risk by running. As a blogger, try to be mindful of the copyright risk and minimize the risk.
There are a few steps you can take as a blogger to minimize risk. Make a point to only use photos that you’ve taken or purchased from a reputable source. Consider only using photographs that have an impact for your post. Finally, limit the exposure of the shot to items that aren’t protected by copyright.
Meredith Lowry is an intellectual property attorney for Wright Lindsey Jennings, LLP. In addition to her soda addiction, she has a rampant social media addiction. She can be found at @meredithlowry on Twitter, @mklowry on Instagram and on Facebook.
Last year at AWBU, the conference for Arkansas Women Bloggers, I took a lot of notes. I had a lot of conversations. I laughed a lot. I cried a little (or a lot). I hugged a lot of ladies (and a couple of fellas). And I ate a lot of food.
But after the conference.
After I flew back to Scotland from Arkansas.
After the dust settled a few weeks later…
I still had this one thought or idea floating around from keynote speaker Alli Worthington.
Her talk was called Editing Life.
She told the story of how she had to let go of running a very successful blogging conference (BlissDom) in order to start the business that she is doing (and loving) now.
She asked us to think about all the commitments we have.
And then she said,
What can you let go of that feels like a relief?
The first thing that popped into my head was Social Media.
And I breathed a little sigh of relief even at the thought.
Phew.
Yes.
I thought,
If I could stop worrying about Social Media, I would be so relieved.
However, I did not immediately stop using Facebook, Twitter, Vine, Pinterest and Instagram.
I was afraid that my blog + writing would fall into oblivion.
It’s a bit of a Catch-22. The brain space that I need for writing is often taken up by social feeds, but if I leave the streams, will anyone know that I am writing? Will anyone read it?
But I had felt the cool breeze of possibility blow by when Alli asked her question,
the hope of the relief of letting go of something I no longer wanted to do.
So I decided to do some experimenting.
I got off of Facebook in November for #NaNoWriMo.
Then I went back on in December with limited access, giving myself fifteen minutes a day.
I tried to carry that into January.
By February I was back to checking All The Things All The Time.
So for the spring I tried to scale it back and return to a daily time limit, and I tried to keep myself to the same time every day, using alarms.
I learned some things from all of these experiments.
Here’s what I learned:
I deeply struggle with time limits.
A little bit of social media interaction is still a big distraction.
My blog readership does not vary greatly because of my social media activity or lack thereof.
In May and June, I did some work for a company and part of my agreement was to provide Social Media coverage. I worked hard to keep everything updated and even to create videos from the day. But then in July I was going on vacation with my family and nothing we were doing was sponsored by anyone. (Nor for a lack of trying + asking!)
I realized that I was under no obligation whatsoever to keep up the kind of Social Media coverage I had done in May or June.
I remembered again what it would feel like to give it up. Relief.
Before we left on July 3, I deleted all the social apps off of my phone. I went radio silent for the whole month.
I went on walks with my family without thinking about what would be the most perfect pic for the Instagram frame. I played cards in the evenings. I read six books. I wrote lengthy journal entries instead of my usual fragmented phrases to later jot my memory. I went out in the evenings without even carrying a phone or a camera. One night I felt so free I did cartwheels in a giant field with my daughter. Another night I watched the sunset without taking a single photo. I bought a new set of watercolors and a sketchbook.
On August 1st, I asked myself if I wanted those apps back on my phone.
And I was almost surprised to realize that I did not. It really was a relief.
I’m still not sure I’m done for good with Social Media. I may find I need it again for a project, but for certain I will approach it a new way if I decide to re-engage.
And at the moment, I am enjoying the benefits of silencing that social buzzing in my writing life. Uninterrupted, less distracted time to write my heart out.
Friends, a year ago at AWBU, I walked away with a notebook full of ideas and thoughts.
I later narrowed those down to one idea. I let that idea sit with me and turned it into a goal that took me almost a year to even seriously consider. This journey of blogging (and life) is slow progress for me, y’all.
Listening to and connecting with other bloggers in person has been a huge gift to my growth as a blogger and a writer! I’m grateful for a place to continue to try on new hats and experiment from my tiny corner of the internet!
Can you remember something you learned at AWBU last year? Share it with me in the comments!
What are you hoping to learn this year? Are you going? You can still sign up to attend AWBU this year!
PS If it’s your first time, here’s a little helpful post I wrote this time last year for first time attendees of AWBU.
A discussion I have been having a lot lately is about the different ways that bloggers work with brands.
There are so many ways to work with brands these days, but I think the most perfect brand partnerships are born out of a mutual love between the blogger and the brand.
Since Arkansas Women Bloggers has partnerships with some amazing Arkansas brands, I thought it would be fun to share a few ways I think bloggers do well at representing brands.
So here they are: 3 Great Ways Bloggers Represent Brands
1. Tell great social media stories.
This can be hard to do, and I don’t always succeed. But when I am working on a story or a project, I really love to be able to take the time to create anticipation before an event, to provide social media at the event and then to wrap the story up afterwards.
Of course, in my field (travel), this is easier to do than in others, but with a little creativity and planning, you can tell a story about anything and tie it all together with a little hashtag love.
Here’s an example of how it can be done for a recipe on Twitter:
Monday at the store: “Throwing some brown rice from @RicelandFoods in my shopping cart today. Looking for a new healthy recipe. #ChinosEatHappy”
Wednesday afternoon: “Think I’ll go ahead and chop all the veggies for my new @RicelandFoods brown rice paella. #ChinosEatHappy”
Wednesday at dinner: Tweet a gorgeous photo of your dinner, of course.
Wednesday after dinner: It was a hit! Kids loved the @RicelandFoods dish! #ChinosEatHappy
Friday morning: Blogging that new recipe today. Watch for it! #ChinosEatHappy
Friday afternoon: Here’s the link to my new recipe using @RicelandFoods brown rice. #ChinosEatHappy
This is just a made up example, but I think it illustrates that it is more interesting to create a story than it is to just tweet the same link four or five times, and I think it gives the brand more to work with. They can choose to turn it into a conversation, and your followers can engage with the process.
Obviously, Twitter is not the only channel you can use for this. Some people do a great job on Pinterest!
2. Create content for brands that they can use on their own website or social media channels.
Photos, videos, blog posts.
Most brands need all of these things for their website. In fact, for some brands I end up doing more content for their site than I do for my own. That can be a fun way to represent a brand without tiring out your own blog readership with talking about one particular brand too much.
This is also a great way to use or re-use content that you’ve already spent the time creating.
3. Write a blog post for a brand that tells a story only you can tell.
I love it when brands understand the value of the individual story. One of my favorite brands to work with in the last year has been a company called GowithOh. They are a vacation apartment rental company and they have provided apartments for a few of my family’s city breaks around Europe.
Per our arrangement beforehand, I have included links to and photos of the apartments I have stayed in, but my blog posts for them have been about our family’s adventures in the various cities. They are stories that are specific to our family and that only we can tell. I have so appreciated the freedom to create the kind of content that is a natural fit for my blog while still representing the brand.
I think this one is especially important when ten or fifteen bloggers are representing the same event or product. When I go on a tour and write about it for a brand, I don’t want my blog post to read like the tour description. I try to enter situations looking for a smaller story or a little detail that maybe not everyone would notice. This takes me back to those three small rules of writing any story:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.
– Mary Oliver
Ok, over to you.
What are some ways you think bloggers do a great job representin’?
PS. The photo for this post is from a recipe for Petit Jean Meats hot dogs that I put together a few years ago for my Mama’s birthday. It’s one of my favorites!
Do you ever get excited about writing something and then realize that it is not really a great fit for your blog?
Maybe you write a fashion blog, but you were inspired this month to do a piece on MLK Day?
Or maybe you write a blog about church, but you went to a restaurant you really loved and want the world to know about.
Maybe you have a food blog, but today you needed to record a story that came to you while you were walking the dog.
In the age of “branding” or trying to fit a “niche” in blogging, we sometimes limit ourselves to what we have determined our audience will appreciate.
But as writers, I think it’s important to allow ourselves time to write the stories that touch our hearts.
So I hope you hear me saying (shouting) out this word of permission (also for myself):
Allow yourself to give in to whatever muse strikes your fancy.
It’s invigorating.
And here are a few suggestions for what to do with a piece that doesn’t really fit on your blog.
Publish it on someone else’s blog.
Guest posting is a great way to introduce your blog to a new audience. So find a blog that your piece would be a great fit for and reach out to see if another blogger would be willing to publish it with a little bio and link back to your site.
Publish it on a news blog.
Would your post fit in a local or national new setting? Little Rock Family, Arkansas Outside, Babble or The Huffington Post? Find the contact pages on these sites and send a request to guest post. I find that people are more excited about accepting a guest blogger when the piece is already written.
Publish it on Medium.
If you don’t already have a Medium profile, well, you probably should go ahead and set one up. You can use your Twitter handle. Medium is a cross between a social media network and a blogging platform. Its simple format makes it a joy to compose on, and there are lots of users hanging out and reading over there that might not otherwise find your blog. I especially like to use Medium for long form writing. Medium readers are not scared off by a post being over 800 words.
Publish it on Arkansas Women Bloggers.
One of the reasons I started this monthly contribution to the AWB site is that I really enjoy writing about blogging. I was doing tons of research and reading about blogging, but I did not have a place to share what I had learned. This community is great place for sharing your writing about many different topics and Julie is always looking to fill up the editorial calendar, so give her a shout.
Publish it on your blog anyway.
Maybe you just can’t bear to let this piece of work go somewhere besides your own site. That’s ok. Sometimes your readers will surprise you and be enthusiastic about seeing a different side of your writing life. Last year in the middle of all my outdoorsy posts, I wrote a story about my sister that I just wanted to share for her birthday. It turned out to be one of my most read posts of the year.
Don’t publish it at all.
Sometimes I write something that I know I just need to sit on for a while. Usually this happens when I have written something I feel very passionate about. Or sometimes I find that I have recorded a memory that I just need to hold to myself. At least for the time being. Maybe a day will come later that I should release it to the world. Or maybe not. Either way, I think I will still be glad I took the time to write it down.
Sometimes I forget that the reason I started my blog is that I love to write.
And in order to keep blogging with joy, I have to keep being inspired to write.
I’m so curious!
What have you written about lately that has nothing to do with your blog?
Where else would you add to this list of places for publishing your work?
Grab yourself a cup of coffee and a piece of paper. If you have only ten minutes, you can still set yourself up for a successful new year of blogging!
Remember how for the lastthreemonths I have been unpacking my talk on Story Living for Story Telling? Well, now you get to dream about what stories you want to live and tell in 2015!
Come on, it will be fun, I promise!
Blog Dreaming
If you have 10 MINUTES:
Write this down:
In 2015,
I want to blog _______ (number of times) per ______ (week/month).
Be reasonable. But writing it down helps you make it happen!
My favorite blog posts to write are about ______________________ (food/my kids/travel/running).
This will help you remember to write about what you love, and more importantly, to DO what you love.
If you have 20 MINUTES:
Also (in addition to the above) write this down:
One thing I can do to make blogging fun this year is ____________ (go rock climbing for the first time, meet up with other bloggers, buy a new camera, bake a new kind of cupcake every week).
You might want to make a list of several things that come to mind, but then circle the ONE that you really want to make happen.
The steps towards making this happen are __________ (call rock climbing companies, create a Facebook group, ask my family for a camera for Christmas, buy a cupcake cookbook)
Get practical.
If you have 30 MINUTES:
(In addition to the above) write this down:
One way that I can be a better blogger this year is _____________ (use Twitter or Facebook more, comment on other blogs more, always blog/write on Thursday afternoons, find a sponsor to help me accomplish a goal)
One thing I can let go of that will help me to enjoy blogging more is ________________ (use Twitter or Facebook less, stop reading blogs that make me jealous, letting go of a sponsorship I don’t really believe in)
As you can see from the examples, what might make you a better blogger could be the thing that is holding me back. (Hello YouTube.)
I loved this quote from Alli Worthington at AWBU this year:
What you say NO to determines what you can say YES to.
It’s so true. So give yourself a minute to determine what you need to let go of.
Ok, now whether you spent 10 minutes or 30 minutes, take your piece of paper and tape it up somewhere where you will see it when January rolls around.
Now go and enjoy your Christmas season! I’ll see you back here in January to talk more about blogging in 2015!
But then there’s a third kind of story to live, and it’s what I like to call:
The Grand Adventure
A grand adventure is an epic you can climb inside of. It’s a story that takes some dreaming and some planning.
It’s a story that makes you excited to get out of bed in the morning. It’s something that heightens your senses. It makes you alive to life. It’s a story that makes you want to keep blogging.
It can take a lot of different shapes but it has to be something that is uniquely you.
By that I mean that you can’t compare your grand adventure to someone else’s. Or you get in trouble.
My current grand adventure is called #48walks, and it’s part of my attempt to embrace where I live and the fact that for the most part, we walk everywhere. All the walks I’ve done this year have been leading up to longer walks, and specifically, a long walk across England that I did in September.
The Coast to Coast Trail in England is 191 miles. It sounded pretty impressive to me. I was actually kind of scared I wouldn’t be able to finish.
To me, it sounded like a Grand Adventure.
But as soon as I said that my Grand Adventure was going to be walking from the west coast of England to the east, I found out that 10000 people walk it every year. Someone actually ran it in five days. In 1991, someone ran the entire route in just under 40 hours.
I know of someone else who is going to run across the entire USA. Another blogger is currently walking across the whole world.
So if I start comparing my adventure to others, pretty soon I feel like it is no big deal that I walked across England, and I start thinking that maybe I should find something more original.
That’s when I have to stop and remember:
This is my Grand Adventure. For me it’s a story worth living and a story worth telling.
Your Grand Adventure is going to be something that makes YOUR heart beat faster. Because we’re all different.
Even though all grand adventures are not the same, all Grand Adventures seem to have some of the same elements.
So besides the fact that it EXCITES YOU, here’s how you know you’re setting out on a Grand Adventure:
A Grand Adventure involves RISK, even the risk of FAILURE.
So your adventure should have some elements that stretch you. That push you to the limit of your strength or your skill set or your mental prowess.
It is going to stretch you and there will be hard work involved.
And there could be failure. And that’s OK.
In fact it’s best to acknowledge up front that you could completely fail at your Grand Adventure.
But that doesn’t mean the adventure wasn’t worth taking.
Your grand adventure is your story arc. It’s this beautiful design that shapes your life for a season. But the point of the arc is to give us something to live through. Not necessarily attain something.
It’s the journey not the destination.
We’ve all heard that before, but when you step back and look at someone’s story it’s all this bit in the middle of the story arc that is interesting, that keeps you engaged.
And living through the journey is what changes us. Molds us. Shapes us.
You cannot ever fully prepare for A Grand Adventure.
There are unpredictable elements for which there is no preparing.
No matter how much you prepare, you never feel ready to take it on. At some point, you just go for it. This is where a blog comes in really handy in living a big story, because at some point you put it out there that this is what you are going to do, and then there’s more pressure to actually do it.
I find that it helps if you have to commit to something. Again, put things on the calendar. Meetings. Tickets. Commitments.
So you have to start.
And then in the middle of the journey all kinds of things happen that you didn’t plan. Here are some quotes from Donald Miller that I used at AWBU this year about the harder bits of a Grand Adventure:
The negative turns in a story is what makes it interesting. Don’t be discouraged by negative turns. If you understand that this is what makes it interesting, then you don’t give up when you encounter a setback. Plus the pain makes the ending more beautiful.
Here’s the truth about telling great stories with your life. It’s going to sound like a great idea and you are going to get excited about it, and then when it comes time to do the work, you’re not going to want to do it. It’s like that with writing books, and it’s like that with life. People love to have lived a great story, but few people like the work it takes to make it happen. But joy costs pain.
Have you ever been in the middle of something hard and thought this: “I hate this moment but I’m going to love this memory.”
All Grand Adventures are like this. They are made up of moments you hate and moments you love. In fact, it is the mixture of the memories of both are what make the story brilliant.
So there you have it. Three Ways to Live and Tell Great Stories on your blog: The Sacred Everyday, Noteworthy Days and The Grand Adventure.
So friends, go live the story that you want to write about. Then come back and tell me all about it.
If you plan a Grand Adventure in 2015, I would LOVE to know about it. Leave me a link in the comments! Or tell me on Twitter.
Meredith Lowry is an intellectual property attorney for Wright Lindsey Jennings, LLP. In addition to her soda addiction, she has a rampant social media addiction. She can be found at @meredithlowry on Twitter, @mklowry on Instagram and on Facebook.
