Learning to Practice What I Preach

I wrote a post a couple of weeks ago about finding balance in your life, and since then, I’ve realized that I really haven’t been taking my own advice. Over the past few months, I’ve been trying so hard to keep my blog updated (to the tune of 5+ times per week) that I’ve been slacking off in some other crucial areas of my life:

1. Health/Fitness: I used writing as an excuse to avoid exercise.
2. Relationship with God: writing was just one of many excuses that I’ve used to avoid spending daily time with my Father.
3. Household: my apartment’s a mess (but that’s really just because I’m lazy).

What it really boils down to is this: I was trying so hard to have a cool blog that I was neglecting important areas of my life.

Re-Learning What I Used to Know

It was like when I was in elementary school – I wanted to be one of the “cool kids,” and I tried everything I knew to accomplish it. I did all of the cool activities, I had all of the cool toys, and I said all of the cool lines, but as I grew older, I realized that none of those things were really what made someone “cool.”

The people that I was trying to be like all had 3 things in common (and they happen to all start with the letter “C”):

1. They were confident in themselves: they didn’t have to prove their worth to anyone.
2. They challenged themselves to be better at the things they did.
3. They were comfortable with themselves: they knew they had flaws and weak areas, but they weren’t afraid to display them. They were able to laugh at themselves when they made mistakes.

So I have decided to take my own advice. I am going to strive for more balance in my life, and I am going to follow those 3 C’s.

Now, I hope I haven’t scared any of my faithful readers – I am certainly not giving up my blog, although I will be posting less frequently (probably no more than twice a week). I will still be discussing social media, digital strategy, user experience design and the like, although I may also throw in occasional posts that are more personal in nature.

My goal is that this will allow me to really focus on those two posts so I can make sure that they are truly insightful, high-quality posts that will stimulate real conversation. It will also free up a bit more time for me to focus on some of the other important things in my life.

So if you have any tips or recommendations for me as I move forward with this new direction, I would love to hear them, so let me know! You can either leave a comment or email me through the contact form – I promise I’ll respond!

Thanks for reading,

Randy