Flackette

My friend Larry Chiang from duck9 mentioned me today in a post he wrote for Found|READ, linking to this blog. I read it, realized that people might actually be visiting my blog as a result, and scurried to put together this post.

Clearly, flackette has become woefully out-of-date. While I’ve been posting semi-regularly at my friend Chris Lynn’s blog, socialTNT, I’m sad that flackette isn’t getting any attention.

Sometimes it gets so hard to blog regularly, especially if you’re blogging professionally. Many of us are still trying to focus on honing our 9to5 career skills so that we actually HAVE the insight to speak from a position of experience about our professions. One thing I definitely don’t want to be is a lotta talk without anything to back it up.

How does the young professional balance blogging with career growth and maintaining that critical work/life balance? It’s no easy feat, as evidenced by the many young PR bloggers who started out strong and then leveled off in activity when the cubicle came a-callin’.

So I’m giving myself a pep talk, because I do think blogging’s important and I need to get on the ball. Here goes:

Remember that you started blogging because it’s fun! For most of us, blogging is a labor of love. Don’t forget it. If you let blogging become a chore, you’re that less likely to expend your energy doing it.

Don’t overthink. I admit it, I’m a perfectionist. I’ve got so many half-baked posts in my pipeline but finalizing them? A whole ‘nother story. I’m working on it because I know it holds me back. Penelope has some great tips on this.

Yes, you might get burned, but it’s worth the risk. It’s scary to put your ideas out there, but the odds are you’ll find more allies than critics.

Get inspired. Read blogs by the people that you admire, and use them as a fount of inspiration. Some of my favorite blog “mentors”? Shel Holtz, Penelope Trunk, Jeremy Pepper, Chris Lynn, Kami Huyse, Todd Defren, and of course, you too Larry.

Now wasn’t that cathartic? I think so. Now time to learn it, love it, live it.

[The above photo, “pep talk” by .suzanne, is used under Creative Commons]