Then, the year goes by. Perhaps there was a momentary burst in activity in January. The obligatory visits to the gym. Maybe write a few more blog posts than usual. But then it settles back into the status quo.

Come December and – oh hum – life looks pretty much the same as it did last year. But, dammit, next year…. next year is going to ROCK! This time you mean it!

Sound familiar?

The First Problem – Timing

It is completely unnecessary to wait until the calendar year changes over to make changes and do productive things in your life. So, why wait?

Time is just a continuous stream of arbitrary nothingness. Seriously, time is really in the eye of the beholder. It is not a fixed quantity. And it keeps going. The fact that the calendar flips from December to January means nothing except for the significance we ourselves assign to it.

With that in mind, why wait? If you want to accomplish things in life, for God sakes, don’t put it off until “next year”. Start now!

The Second Problem – Ourselves

When we make resolutions, it is just more shiznit on top of a pile of last year’s shiznit.

* Yes, “Shiznit” is a word. Snoop Dogg said so.

In other words, you made goals for yourself. Some of those goals may have failed, but they are still your goals. Here you come with a new year and more goals. Those new goals don’t overwrite the old goals. They just pile on. Yet, we know that those old goals failed. The new goals will probably fail too, right?

You know what we say about people who commit the same mistakes over and over again and expect different results, right?

That’s right – they’re crazy.

So, why do so many people do this every year?

Obviously, hoping isn’t enough. Something has to change.

In order to get something you’ve never had, you have to do something you’ve never done.

Most people are apathetic about New Years Resolutions because of their past failures. And for those people, new years resolutions kinda suck.

My viewpoint is that the answer to that is to change something. Do something you’ve never done. As Nike says, “Just Do It.”

The only person who can REALLY deny you something is yourself. Think about that for a moment. If somebody tells you you can’t do something, what power do they REALLY have? If you really think about it, you’ll find they have no power at all. The only power they have over you is that power you’ve GIVEN them.

So, don’t get reasonable. Take your power back. Do something different than you’ve ever done in order to get different results in 2010.

Next year, resolutions won’t suck. They’ll mean something.

Tomorrow, I’m going to share with you a practical strategy for goal accomplishment. This is something I want to share with you as we wrap up 2009 and head into a new year. So, I’ll see you tomorrow, right here on the blog.

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So, I’m going to spill 10 gripes of mine when it comes to social media and blogging. You know, just to get it off my chest.

1. Calling yourself a social media expert is like saying you’re an expert in talking. It is just human interaction like we’ve been doing since we rubbed two sticks together and made fire. I know “social media” is a buzzword these days, but let’s just be honest here, shall we?
2. Foursquare? Mafia Wars? I could not possibly give less of a sh*t.
3. People who tweet quotes all day bug me. It tells me you cannot come up with an original thought on your own.
4. I always get a little chuckle when I get an invite on Facebook to be a fan of the person who just invited me. OK, I understand why they’re doing it, but you gotta admit, it is ironic.
5. Facebook. Your interface is frickin UNGODLY. Were you spiked on weed when you thought up that interface? Why does stuff have to be so hard to find?
6. The people who fail to find value in Twitter are the ones who are socially inept in real life. Twitter is a platform. If you have nothing to offer on that platform, you’re hosed. You’re the problem, so stop saying that Twitter has jumped the shark. It hasn’t.
7. People who declare email dead or blogging dead are idiots. We go through this circular wave of people declaring various things dead. Lately, its been blogging and email. Yeah, right. It is a shallow ploy for attention. Or perhaps trying to explain failure.
8. To those bloggers who think that there is something wrong with making money as a blogger, that blogging is pure and that you are sacrificing your honesty to violate this pure medium with financial aims – bullshit.
9. People who think there is a difference between a blog and a website just crack me up.
10. People who say they don’t have time to tweet really don’t get it. How long does it take to type 140 characters? I mean, seriously.

So, do you agree with this? Disagree?

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I have been working on tightening up the funnel over on PCMech.com. My goal is to drive more readers onto the email list. This is, of course, always good for business.

One of the many things I did was create a simple squeeze page to drive people onto the list. I sent out a tweet about the squeeze page. In response I get this on Twitter:

Hope you’re not trying to turn into a gimmicky internet marketer! Saw your tweet yesterday about Product Launch Formula!

Yes, the day prior, I sent out a single tweet about Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula. I did not use an affiliate link. I just really like PLF. I consider PLF to be a must-have for any serious online businessperson.

So, the fact that I talked about PLF and made a squeeze page puts me into the same category as a “gimmicky internet marketer”, apparently.

Then, I got this tweet from the same person:

Well, I respect you as an expert of sorts, but not for using "internet marketing products"!

Huh? So the fact that I learn from those who came before me is a bad thing? A gimmick? By using “internet marketing products”, I have managed to almost double my business in the last 2 years. I’m on track to break the $200,000 mark in revenue for 2009 – as a BLOGGER.

Put more accurately, as a BLOG MARKETER.

The knowledge to do that doesn’t come through telepathy. That knowledge doesn’t spontaneously combust into my head while I sleep. Of course I study other people’s teachings!

What motivated me to write this post, however, was my strong belief that this attitude of natural distrust is one of the most concrete barriers to one’s success that you could ever have.

I have no idea if this person has an aim to build a business or not. But, the attitude exhibited is one of an employee. A person who will always be an employee.

That kind of knee-jerk reaction is one which keeps you from learning new things in life. It effectively bars an entire field of knowledge from you, which you know nothing about, all because you’ve concluded that it is all a big bunch of BS.

The Important Message

Always be willing to learn new things.

The moment you write off entire subjects that you have never personally inspected, you are just sealing your fate exactly where you are right now.

The moment you take somebody else’s judgment of a subject (one which they probably never inspected either), you’re just allowing THEIR stupidity to rub off on you.

The opportunities lost because you jumped to a conclusion rather than personally inspected something could be mind-boggling.

And that is why I decided to write this post. Small things lead me to a larger idea. And, like a good little blogger, I thought I’d share with you.

Peace out.

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I am a big believer in the idea that the only person capable of improving or messing up your life is you. Nobody else. You get what you expect to get.

This email I got was unfortunate. I don’t want to quote the whole thing (out of respect), but I want to point out a few things in the email.

This blog stuff is way over my head, I don’t have anything to talk about that anyone would be interesting in listening to.

If you have decided that that is true, then it is.

I am disabled and house bound, and am so sick most of the time I can just barely check my email….. I am just an old wore out jack of all trades and master of none. I live on Social Security Disability, and my Wife works Two different jobs most of the time.  We are just broke Christian simple people waiting to go to Heaven.

I have to be careful here. I understand that some people are in dire straights and that life can be an uphill fight. We all understand that. But, look at this from a standpoint of personal power. This statement is full of self invalidation.

Forgive me, if I am taking advantage of you by seeing your daily tips. If you would rather I unsubscribe, you just don’t hesitate to tell me.

This is the first time I’ve ever had anybody apologize for reading my blog and being a subscriber to my mailing list.

What stands out to me here is an apparent self-degradation. He is propitiating to me for no reason. Almost every statement in the email is a statement of weakness and invalidation of himself.

If you go around saying bad things about yourself, they’ll manifest in real life. You get what you put out there.

I fully believe that the only way that you can become the punching bag of life is if you make the decision to allow yourself to be a punching bag. Things don’t just happen. They’re made to happen.

Call it the Law of Attraction if you like, but you get what you put out there. And what really tugged my heart strings about this email was that he is bending over backwards to lessen his own personal power, to be smaller, and in his own words, just waiting to go to Heaven.

You get what you create. Your life is the result of your own self-determinism. I don’t believe in luck. Go out there and make the life you want.

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I had the opportunity to meet Chris Brogan at Izeafest in Orlando. Actually, he and I had met in the past in other cities, but didn’t have the opportunity to talk much at those times. On the first night of Izeafest, when most others took off to Busch Gardens in Tampa, I stayed behind and had the opportunity to have dinner with Chris Brogan, Liz Strauss, Warren Whitlock and his wife.

When I approached Chris, he greeted me by saying, “Hey handsome!”. Was he hitting on me? It became an ongoing joke, with both Chris and Warren referring to me as “handsome Dave” for the length of the conference.

In short, however, I was really impressed with Chris’s sincerity and truly caring about the people he talks to. Chris does a lot of traveling and speaking. I’m sure that he is used to getting barraged with people at conferences who want to talk to him and get their picture taken with him. It would be easy to get big-headed in such a position, but Chris is as real as it gets. The dude is FUNNY, too. Absolutely hilarious.

Chris has a lot to say, and you can also read his book Trust Agents for more on what he spoke about at Izeafest. That said, just by watching him, here are some takeaways:

• Be personal. People like you when you care about them.
• Be sincere. People hate fakers.
• Be real. People don’t like self-important dweebs. In fact, I recently booted a dude from my Tampa meetup group because he was an absolute ass.
• Be helpful. Chris has this nailed, and he does it in a truly funny way.

I enjoyed hanging out with Chris and that impression lasts a long time. Think about that when you deal with others, whether it be in person or even via your blog. After all, ultimately we are all in the people business.

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First, what is the law of attraction? From Wikipedia:

According to proponents of this law, thoughts have an energy which attracts whatever it is the person is thinking of. In order to control this energy to one’s advantage, proponents state that people must practice four things:

1. Know exactly what you want.
2. Ask the universe for it.
3. Feel, behave and know as if the object of your desire is already yours (visualize).
4. Be open to receive it and let go of (the attachment to) the outcome.

Thinking of what one does not have, they say, manifests itself in not having, while if one abides by these principles, and avoids “negative” thoughts, the universe will manifest a person’s desires.

No doubt there is truth in this. I am a big believer in the saying “Thought is boss”.

In short, you will get what you focus on. If you focus on scarcity, that’s what you’ll have. If you focus on success, you’ll have that. The Law of Attraction is very much like creating a mental postulate. A postulate is something which is assumed true, taken as self-evident. So, mentally, you are creating a postulate. It is true because you say it is true, and you operate as if it is self-evident.

The problem (as I see it) with this law of attraction as stated is that it seems a little too new-age. And what I mean by that is that it focuses on mental outlook. What is it leaving out?

ACTION.

It reminds me of the spoon-bending scene in The Matrix. All this effort is spent on bending the spoon with his mind. The kid says: “You’ll see that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.” That’s cool, but why not just grab the spoon in both hands and bend it?

It doesn’t make for good Hollywood movies. It doesn’t make for large audiences of people attracted to the mystics and the powers of the mind.

But, it is intensely more practical, don’t you think?

The mind – you – is a creator of intentions. It is a creator of new realities to your world and your life. You can either focus on the power of the mind and try to WILL things into existence, or you can use the full package of you, keep it simple, and take action.

In other words, stop focusing on new age mind tricks, get up off your ass and do something to make shit happen. You don’t THINK things into reality, you CAUSE them to become reality.

I guarantee you the universe will manifest your intentions when you do that.

You couple the Law of Attraction with the attitude of taking simple, effective action and you’ve got yourself the ingredients for anything you’d ever want in life.

Now, go get something done.

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Is it alarmist to say that there are people in our own government in the U.S. who would praise media control like we see in Venezuela, Iran and China?

And why would a blogger like me, a guy who doesn’t talk about politics, even bother to write a post like this one? It is certainly not ordinary for this blog.

There are some concerning movements within the Obama administration that I believe could be direct threats to free speech.

Free speech goes right to the very heart of what it is I talk about all the time – blogging. I believe that bloggers form an army of citizen reporters. Not all bloggers get it right. Some of them are downright nuts. But, in a country with free speech, that is par for the course.

A Sign Of Things To Come?

Today, on CNET News, a story came out about a proposed bill which will give the President control over private computer networks during a so-called cybersecurity emergency. From the CNET story:

The new version would allow the president to “declare a cybersecurity emergency” relating to “non-governmental” computer networks and do what’s necessary to respond to the threat. Other sections of the proposal include a federal certification program for “cybersecurity professionals,” and a requirement that certain computer systems and networks in the private sector be managed by people who have been awarded that license.

Some would argue that this is about protecting infrastructure. But, do you trust the government with authority over private networks? Remember, this is the same government who consistently gets failing grades on cybersecurity. Not only that, who defines what this “emergency” is? And what constitutes a “critical network”?

“A Senate source familiar with the bill compared the president’s power to take control of portions of the Internet to what President Bush did when grounding all aircraft on Sept. 11, 2001.”

What the hell?

Talk Radio – Is It a Precursor?

I also see a predictable increase in activity in the battle against talk radio now that we have, once again, a progressive President. They attempted the Fairness Doctrine before and it failed, but that legislation was most certainly unconstitutional and anti free speech.

Today, we see the FCC gearing up to use “diversity” as a sword to take on talk radio yet again. The new “diversity czar” at the FCC has said some damn alarming things for how he would like to silence the medium by using the FCC fees to take out local radio stations and fine them for lack of “diversity”. This is a man who works for the FCC, directly advises our President, and is one of the authors of “The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio.”

What happens to talk radio is a precursor to what happens to us online. After all, talk radio is just another form of media, where people have organized into private corporations to make a living through speech. There is no difference between that and a blogger who wishes to monetize his/her blog.

The left hates talk radio because of conservative commentary. Take talk radio out, those people take to the Internet. The Internet is a major conduit for information which the government does not control. Using a bill designed to “protect national security” to install government controls into private networks is just a way to open the door to government regulation of the medium we all love – the Internet.

All it would take is some event that the administration declares an “emergency”, they could then stir up public fears, and begin quickly taking new authorities in the name of the public security.

The First Amendment is part of our Constitution, the same document President Obama swore to protect and defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic. I sure hope that he didn’t flub up on his oath because he didn’t believe a lick of what he was saying. At the very least, Obama has people around him who most certainly don’t believe in that oath.

If saying these things makes me part of the mob, then so be it. Flag me, baby! The way I see it, though, I’m just a guy who loves blogging and loves citizen media, yet who sees some warning signs out there of a battle waging designed to make it less possible.

Let’s hope I’m wrong.

So, what do you think? I’ve love to hear from you.

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Lifestyle design is simply creating the life that you want and doing the things which are necessary to empower you to have the life you want.

For me (and many, I assume), the beauty of internet business is that is empowers lifestyle design.

We don’t live to work. We work to live.

The standard template of life looks something like this:

1. Grow up in suburbia.
2. Go to college.
3. Get a job.
4. Get married and have 2.5 kids.
5. Retire at 65.
6. Play a little.
7. Die.
   

   

This is, in effect, the 7-point checklist for normalcy. If you want to be normal, follow that checklist. Be at the mercy of circumstance. Hate your job. Have spousal problems. And generally be bored out of your ever-loving mind. But, take comfort in the fact that you’re normal.

Unfortunately, the very concept of lifestyle design in our society makes it a practice of the non-conformist. Lifestyle design means that you do what is necessary to CREATE the life you want. You actively take life by the reins and guide it to what you want it to be rather than becoming a mere reactive footnote to what life dictates for you.

For me, a big part of lifestyle design is having no J-O-B. It wasn’t something that just happened. I very consciously made the decision out of college to NOT look for a job. Up until that point, I was following the standard template. The moment I decided to not seek employment, I was on my own.

Do you remember the freedom you felt when you got out of school for the summer? It was as if freedom began at that point. And when the next school year began, it was like you were going back to prison. Similarly, when I find myself in Tampa on a workday, I watch all the 9-5’ers come out of their cage at noon for lunch. The restaurants all become really crowded. Then, at 1pm like clockwork, they are all back in their cubicle farms. Back in prison. It is as if they simply replaced one prison with another one.

When you’re normal, you can’t do whatever you want because you’ve got to work. You’ve got bills. You can’t retire until you’re 65 because you need to build up a retirement nest egg. Once you leave prison at 65, you’re supposed to be able to enjoy your life. But, by this point, you’re 65. 65 years of your life were spent in the rat race.

Why wait to live?

An Exercise in Lifestyle Design

Cutting that umbilical with the security of the J-O-B is often pretty hard for people. It is really hard to disagree with the template which our society imposes on us. B

ut, let’s put things in perspective and see how hard this really is.

Let’s say that you want to live on a tropical island. You do want to have a family because kids and your wife are important to you. You want to drive a decent little car. You don’t want to work all day. Maybe half a day works for you. You want a boat so you can go out and fish whenever you want. Alright, great. Let’s itemize the approximate costs associated with creating this lifestyle that you want. You want the island life. Great!

If you want a nice place in a gorgeous Caribbean island, lets throw out a number of $1 million to buy a home. You could go higher, but you could also go cheaper. At a 7% interest rate, a monthly payment might be in the neighborhood of $6,500/month. You could also rent an apartment. A decent size apartment in the Virgin Islands (big enough for a family) might run you around $3,000 per month. BTW, I’m looking at figures here from the Ultimate Resources for Moving To and Living in the Virgin Islands.

Rather than get specific on the costs, let’s estimate that it would cost you about $12,000 per month to have a decent lifestyle on St. Thomas, in the Virgin Islands. Divided by 30 days, we’re looking at $400 per day. This might be a high estimate, but let’s just assume it for now.

Let’s say you created and sold a product for $100 on the Internet. You would only need to make 4 sales per day.

Better yet, you build a continuity program (aka membership site). You price it at $20/month for members. If you get 600 members, you’ve hit your mark.

But, on the Internet, you usually are not a one trick pony. You’ll probably have a few small products out there. You’ll have several different revenue streams. Each one wouldn’t need to sell that much for you to add up to $12K per month.

These figures might be ballpark estimates, but do you see the process? Do you see how it really doesn’t take a superman to create the lifestyle that many dream of? There’s probably a lot of people who would think living on a tropical island in the Caribbean would be the ultimate dream life. It really isn’t that hard.

We’re talking 4 sales. 600 members. When talking about something as big as the Internet, these numbers aren’t huge. But, they’ll work for you.

It is about starting out with your ideal life, then working backwards to see what you have to do to put the money there to live that life.

By coupling this exercise with the action of not committing to things that would keep you from realizing that lifestyle, you’ve got yourself there. And you don’t need to wait until you’re 65.

More on that one tomorrow…

UPDATE: Here is Part Two.

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Darren is a stand-up guy. He knows his stuff and he is a super nice guy. I had the opportunity to meet him and talk to him for awhile at BlogWorld last year, and I expect I’ll see him again at BlogWorld this year. I believe he’ll be at Izeafest as well, so I’ll see him there for sure.

There is a fairly fundamental difference, though, between Darren and myself…

What got me thinking of this was a strange tweet that came out of nowhere from somebody I don’t know. The tweet stated:

@problogger is quite better than @davidrisley’s blog. I compare them because they both have the same purpose: to blog about blogging.

Interesting. And I wouldn’t even begin to disagree, actually. Problogger.Net is the flagship site in this market and I wouldn’t assume that I’m better than that. I’ll let my audience decide.

But, what it reminded me of is that my approach and Darren’s approach is different. While Darren has strong focus on blogging and the act of building a blog, my focus leans more toward the blog as a hub for business by employing MARKETING. I get into concepts of marketing that I don’t see Darren touch on.

What I try to do on this blog is bridge the gap between blogging and internet marketing. I believe STRONGLY that a competent blogger who understood how to market their own products can absolutely KILL IT on the Internet. Six figure incomes could be the norm.

ProBlogger is an awesome blog, but it is not a marketing blog. Darren Rowse just recently stepped into the field of marketing a bit when he launched his 31 Days To Build a Better Blog book. If Darren begins doing launches like that more often, he will make significantly more money due to his position in this market.

My guess, however, is that his approach will remain different than traditional internet marketing. I suspect it is against Darren’s nature to overtly market products to his audience. In his post about 13 lessons he learned while launching that product, he talks about how he was too shy to market this product aggressively.

That’s the primary difference between us. Every person who blogs about blogging brings their own style and approach. Darren, Yaro, John….we all do it our own way.

I look at myself as a blog marketer. I am a student of online marketing, and I use blogs as part of the overall strategy.

And I also have a pretty different style of going about it and communicating it to my readers.

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Dangers of Traditional News Media

One of the biggest pieces of advice I say a lot is to not watch the news. If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll see I sometimes rave against the news media. I believe they are in the business of propagating fear. The more freaked out you are, the better it is for them because you stay glued to the TV screen. They get to sell ads.

It baffles me why people willingly allow that into their minds. If we knew a person in our lives that you knew was always trying to scare you or create conflicts, you would most certainly cut ties with that person. If you got around a particular person and you always left feeling bad, you wouldn’t want to be around them. Yet, with the news media, people are used to sitting there in a borderline hypnotic state letting bad stuff enter their minds.

Bad stuff goes in and it leads to bad stuff coming out. The fact that it goes into a semi-hypnotized mind is probably even more dangerous because the person isn’t thinking about and analyzing what goes in. I believe the modern news media is an absolute cancer on our society.

A Worsening Condition

But, let’s go even deeper. What about the people around us? Have you ever spent time on your blog, on Twitter, or trying to develop an online business only to have a friend or a family member make fun of you for doing it? They’ll say you’re chasing a dream. They’ll tell you to go get a “real job”. This doesn’t necessarily make them bad people. They are victims of societal conditioning.

Our society is trained to follow the mold. When you try to break that mold, the others around you will seek to bash you back into compliance. It is group mentality.

And that mold is getting worse. Our standards are worsening, and the number of excuses for mediocrity grow by the day. Kids who aren’t earning the good grades are diagnosed with ADHD. So, a child who is simply bored is now diagnosed with a completely bullshit “disease” and then placed on a drug. They’re told “It’s not your fault, little Jimmy. You have a problem with your brain.” The parents are told its not their fault. It is a disorder. All is well. Place the child on a mind-altering drug (all while billing insurance heavily) and sit there and be happy in a drug-induced mediocre world.

When people get fat because they eat like hell, they’re told they have a disorder and they go off acting like little victims. When people fail to stop smoking, they proceed to blame the cigarette companies. When some clumsy idiot spills hot coffee on themselves, they blame McDonald’s. When somebody overcharges their credit cards and gets into massive debt, they blame the credit companies for “predatory lending”.

I can’t watch TV for even an hour at night without having to watch some person sit there and advertise 1-800-ASK-GARY. A lawyer referral service. Their lawyers don’t get paid unless they get money for you! Get the money you deserve! “Ask and you shall receive!” It is sickening.

We live in a society of mediocrity. And you know what? I’m CONVINCED it is being done on purpose. There are too many vested interests in having a dumb-downed, drugged, scared population.

We’re Not Normal

As we individually try to succeed, to build a business and achieve our goals, we have to deal with this stuff constantly. Face it – we’re not normal! If you are driven by an ambition to succeed, you are not normal. Most of the world isn’t like that.

Most people work in the prison which is the 9-5 job. Most likely they hate their job. They get home and they watch TV for the remainder of the day, drinking beers and eating too much. Then they wonder why they don’t have enough money. And they react to people who have more than them with disdain.

People who try to stop excellence, whether on purpose or reactively, are not destined to succeed. They will not succeed. They will wallow in a world of mediocrity and then they will die. I’m not going to pull any punches and try to make it rosy when it isn’t. All they do is get in the way of the people who actually get up and make shit happen.

Our Role As Bloggers

If you are reading this blog, then chances are you are a blogger yourself. You have readers. You might not have many, but you have a level of influence to some degree.

I want to raise the bar. Bloggers are in a position to be opinion leaders. Obviously, not all bloggers are thought leaders, but bloggers who build up an audience are in a position of having influence.

I consider it our JOB not to propagate mediocrity and fear. Be a force for good in this world. Do what’s right. Encourage excellence. If you have an audience, do what’s right for them. It doesn’t matter if you blog about business or blog about underwater basket weaving. If you have people paying attention to you, then you should play your part in raising the bar, encouraging excellence and suppressing fear-mongering.

But, aside from our influence, practice what we preach. Don’t allow negativity from others to penetrate your mind. You should surround yourself with success-minded people if you want to yourself succeed. Don’t go into agreement with just being normal. “Normal” is getting worse. Today’s “normal” isn’t what it once was.

We all have a sphere of influence. We should all act as forces for good within our own spheres. That includes in our personal lives as well as the lives of those we influence. Take responsibility for your role in the world.

As I step off my soapbox, just stop and think. Blogging is about a lot more than sharing knowledge. It is certainly about more than making money. Blogging is a form of communication and one in which “Joe blow” can potentially have influence with thousands of people from the confines of a back bedroom.

Use it wisely. Use it to make the world a little better.

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