Postcards from the Funny Farm

To live life without learning is foolishness. In a world full of preachers and teachers, who should we listen to? I thought about it for awhile and I came up with this for myself: I listen and learn from people who are determined, dependable, and compassionate. Those three adjectives can exist independent of one another in a person and in those cases, I am only 1/3 interested.? It is the people who contain all 3 that fascinate and teach me the most in my life journey. Usually in my blog I like to post pictures to illustrate my point. In this case, instead, I can only write what each trait looks like since they are too abstract to produce picture results:

Determination looks like finishing a task before you start another. It’s the setting of short and long term goals and then determining to meet them whatever come what may.? If set goals end up being too much, then you are at least closer than you started. “Aim for the moon, land among the stars.”

Dependable looks like someone who stays with the same people year after year. Dependable takes care of loved ones. Dependable calls people back and dependable often makes the first call, without a reason. Dependable has little anxiety because the option to run away from things is not present.? There is no fear of failure, but rather fear of not fulfilling one’s cause or commitment in life.

Compassionate looks like letting other people fail. Compassionate will accept counter offers. Compassionate sees the world from a lower position when pride threatens proper judgment. Compassionate is the teacher in all of us that recognizes we are all students at some point.

In friends, co-workers, and even family members we should look to people with these three adjectives in their personality. In a world that is increasingly driven by cash, flash, and appearance, it’s easy to learn the wrong things from the wrong people. Do you want to go through life with the class of a pack mule or on the back of english saddles? With a little effort, the latter is possible. Determination, dependability, and compassion are in short supply in our world. Folks in my life who show these traits, whether they are my gardener or my superintendent, are the ones I learn the most from in my life journey.

I see the biggest challenge to blog authors today as keeping visitors on their site long enough to have an impact through their writing. I’ve seen and heard the effective traffic brought on by games and gimmicks for shiny items like designer jewelry. I wonder if that traffic really reads their stuff though. Readers that stay is what I am always thinking about when I create and innovate my blog.

Going down my reading list of blogs today, I found that a few blog titles really stood out and urged a comment out of me without me even reading the post. As I went on to read the post my idea changed a little, but the gist of my comment came from that initial reaction to … the title.

As a teacher of writing, I have told my students for years that what sets a good article apart from a great one is its creative, thought-provoking title. Now, as a blog writer, I see that is all the more true in electronic medium. There are two types of readers among many that visit your blog:

1. Quick hoppers: These folks are looking forsomething they don’t find at your blog, or they are just trying to get EC points for Entrecard. Whatever the reason, their intention is not to stay long. These people might be the ones to consider in a creative, innovative title. Even more so if you have a SUMMATIVE title. I’ll give an example shortly.
2. The second kind are people who are looking for something and found it through a search on your blog. There are more than these two types, but when talking about summative titles, you should consider these two. So, howabout that example … okay … patience my good friend:

Imagine you have two blogs to read that you have starred for later. You look at the title of the first one and it says:

“As if …”

Then you restar that because your are not quite ready to let it go and you come across one that says:

“Songs that Stay in Your Head.”

The first title requires guessing (brain strain) and curiousity (again, brain drain). Nowadays very few readers will bother with a post like this unless they are good friends of yours or extreme fans of your personality etc. The second title is suggestive. It doesn’t even require the reader to finish the post in order to leave a comment. As Entrecard and “blog hopping” becomes more of the social norm in blogging, you should do all you can to get a comment, if not just get hoppers to stop and read the words you worked so hard on.

I think titles are something I’m going to do a series on. They are scantly addressed in the blogosphere
To Entrecard hoppers and other speed-readers: “Would that be something you’d enjoy, and stay awhile for? Wait, don’t answer that, I know you’re in a big hurry ;)