Nothing. The simple answer is this absurdity does not happen. Why? Because we know that firemen put out fires. They do not make traffic stops, get in gun fights or eat donuts. Instead they focus on keeping people safe from fire.

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What happens when every day people start to write? An oddity occurs. The oddity of personal passion and public pursuit. The desire to share something but also the desire to be known for sharing something. It can quickly shift from personal to public. The oddity occurs when we start to downplay personal passion and focus on public pursuit.

Part of the problem with living in the information age is that we can watch videos, read books, and even see traffic stops in action, but it doesn’t make us a cop. We just become pretenders with no real authority.

The draw to take shortcuts to notoriety never works. It is an imitation that will quickly be found out. It requires starting every day and realizing that it is a slow burn, your motives start to shift and the pressure starts to cease.

Seth Godin was asked recently about this post and it’s origin. His answer was that it took him 20 hours to finish the post. What seemed to be something that he sat down one morning and scribbled out a list post of ideas to gain traffic in reality took him 20 hours total of writing, editing, and refining.

Julien Smith was asked about this post and said that it took him weeks to write and edit. Even to the point of stressing over which italics to use on certain words. What was a post that certain led to a lot of change for a lot of people was something meticulously crafted for weeks. Not something he wrote before he went to bed the night before.

Sometimes things are not always as they seem. 

The reason firefighters focus on putting out fires and not arresting people is because they do not have the time to focus on both. They have the task of knowing everything they can about fires and how to prevent them. You have the task of being faithful to your craft, letting it breathe, and being true to your calling. Realizing that just because it seems that the people you admire seem to put out great content overnight but really work hours to refine their craft is one of the first steps in this process.

Focus on your fire and do the work.

There is a hidden truth about blogging that seems to be hiding under the layers of the internet.

It dawned on me Sunday night as I realized I did not have a blog ready to go for Monday.

The truth is: the pressure of posting every day brings about the feeling of non-existence. Let me explain.

For most of us, the reason we are known online is for our blogging, twitter or facebook. Most likely you (ya the person reading this) have a day job that does not have much to do with the online world. You take part in social media on your free time and do your best to put your content out there for others to read. You haven’t written a book, spoken to thousands or made a killer album. That is okay. Because you are like everyone else. You take part in social media because you enjoy the conversation and sharing.

But sometimes we get caught up in this idea of worry. “What if I do not post? My traffic will go down for the day.” Or how about this, “my readers are expecting me to have a post ready for them. If I don’t post they will stop reading and never come back.” You ever felt that way? Ya me either :)

But if we are honest with ourselves we would realize our blogs, tweets and other social media aspects are just a small blip on the map. And if we really get honest with ourselves we would admit that we have let our identity creep into our stats and followers. If you do not want to get that honest, don’t worry, I will do it for you.

I realized this because sometimes I really do not want to write. It becomes such a choir that I just don’t feel like spending time writing. Somethings I would rather watch television, read a book, or go for a run.

But my thinking on this has shifted. My ideas, my identity, and my hustle is not caught up in my blog. My blog is a small piece of everything else. Because for a while my blog was all I had. I held onto it as my thing. It was what I was known for and what I took pride in. But the more I become honest with myself the more I realized that everyone has a blog, and that everyone wants their blog to be “the thing” in the blog world. I am slowly starting to let go of the idea that my blog is my identity and starting to grasp on to the thought that it is just one small thing that makes up a part of all the things I do. Once I started to think this way the pressure was released.

The most freeing thing in the world is realizing that you do not have to put all your chips on one thing. That all your eggs are not in one basket, and that simple you do not have to pick one thing and make it work.

Maybe the biggest thing that we need to do today is start letting go of our blog being our only identity and start looking at how we can take all of our ideas we talk about and start executing them. And then you can see your blog turn into just a piece of what you do.

Am I alone in this feeling?

*kyle

Yup, I am going to be that forthcoming with ya. I think we are on that level right?

Simply, I want to write a guest post on your site. Why? Mainly because I want to get to know your community. I want to interact with them. Talk with them. Hear from them. Stir emotion from them. I want to be apart of what you have going.

You might be wondering, “I have worked hard to get this community and now this guy wants in?” Yup, I do. Call me pushy, but the only way I know to be apart of what you are doing is to be where you are at. The only way I know how to do this is to be apart of your blog through the comments (Which I try to do the best I can) and through being on your blog.

So I am putting it out there…I want to guest post on your site, will you allow me the privilege?

Here is even more backstory in to why I want to guest post.
I have this dream that one day it will be impossible for someone to say “I cannot find anyone to mentor me” or “I cannot find anyone to mentor”. Yes it is bold, but I believe that mentoring could be the very thing that changes the world. On this site, Standing on Giants, I mainly talk about 20 somethings, mentoring, and life. But this site only goes so far. The only way I know to take it further is to talk to a bigger audience. That is where you come in.

If you would be so kind to share your platform with me I would love to write about the following stuff…

Here is a working list of titles to choose from:
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I was asked this question yesterday:

Do 20 somethings blog?

“Absolutely they do.” Then I paused and thought to myself, “do they?”

I know a hand full of 20 somethings that blogged but beyond a list that I follow on twitter, my google reader and a few others from twitter I didn’t know where to turn to find out exactly what 20 somethings were blogging.

Here is where we are going to provide that place. I need your help in putting together a list of 20 something bloggers. Put in yourself, your friends, your family, people you don’t even know. Just insert their site below and their twitter name so that we can start formulating a list.

Also, if you could tweet this out and add a personal message to your twitter followers asking them to add to the list that would be killer.

And if you are an old 30 something you can add your blog here

*kyle

Sport a 20 Something Bloggers badge on your site.

the Code:

<a href=”http://kreed.it/20somethingbloggers” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://thoughtsaboutnothing.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20somethingbloggers300x250.gif” width=”300″ height=”250″ alt=”20 Something Bloggers” /></a>

<a href=”http://kreed.it/20somethingbloggers” target=”_blank”><img src=”"http://thoughtsaboutnothing.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20somethingbloggers125x125.jpg” width=”125″ height=”125″ alt=”20 Something Bloggers” /></a>

I still remember where I was sitting when I found out that P Diddy’s (then Puff Daddy) version of Come With Me was not an original. It was the summer of 1998 and I was in a deep conversation with a friend about who was better, Puff Daddy or Mase (I think Puff won). I know, deep stuff. As he started to counter ever argument with “not an original song” I was quickly surprised to find out that most of Puff Daddy’s career was a fake. He either sang a cover or did a collaboration on a track, but never anything original. That was the day that rap music died for me. The day that I found out Puff Daddy was a fraud.

We can learn something from Puff Daddy when it comes to blogging: the art of the collaboration.

I wouldn’t say that puffy is a great rapper (not even mediocre would probably describe him) but he does know what sells and what has potential. Because of this skill he has been able to do a lot of amazing things. The art of collaboration is all about figuring out ow your strengths can interact with others strengths.

The same can be said about blogging.

A blog is a community of people that center around a subject and add in thoughts, ideas, and reflections. When a blog losses its blogginess (ya thats a word) it losses the art of the collaboration. Because blogging is is not about you, it is about sharing. Sure the ideas come from your head and out to the people, but it is about doing what you do well and then collaborating with others in conversation and discussion.

A great blog is one that can cause you to think then act.

Who can you start collaborating with to make a “hit”?

*kyle

Evernote continues to dominate the note taking, idea generating, book writing, resource saving world.

There have been several resources written about the expansive use of evernote.
Randy Elrod did a whole weeks series on the uses of Evernote.
Michael Hyatt shared his note taking methods using Evernote.
Alicia Rockmore wrote about 6 baby steps for getting started with Evernote.

As you can see, resources are abounding all over the web for the many uses of Evernote. But there is one aspect of Evernote that I have not seen anyone talking about.

How To Use Evernote To Learn Code

I am a self-taught coder and designer. My teacher has been the world wide web and any free resource blog out there I could find. I learned by trial and error, paying attention, and a lot of surfing for the newest way to use CSS3. A lot of the times I would stumble upon a great resource or tutorial and have to bookmark the page for future reference. Most of the time that future referencing never happened. I was missing out on a lot of new techniques and ideas because they were being stored away in a folder rather then being put in a working document that I could check regularly.

Evernote has truly helped me archive and remember pieces of code that I use every single day and I think it can help you do the same.

Here is how to use Evernote to teach you all the code (or any other resource) in the world.
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This post goes out to young people in general. Kyle has written some on the problems facing 20 somethings, I think this will fit right in with those posts.

“HUSTLE then…. Give it AWAY”

First off lets define “hustle”… this means work your but off… then work some more.

Nope, your still not working hard enough. Sure you need to have rest in your life, take time off, play with your kids. But I know for a fact that most young people of this generation are not working even close to their full potential, I’m know I’m not.

We (in general terms) are lazy. We always want, but hardly ever give (unless its sexy social causes, haha). We would rather play xbox for 3 hours than learn to be great at something, then complain we aren’t getting respect. Most of us are waiting for God to write in the sky to tell you to take that job, move away, go into the mission field, or marry that girl. Ummm, step up and man up, God can’t move a stationary object. Life is changing around us, and one thing we as young people have to do is work HARD.

Life is HARD, working hard is good. Working at what you love is great, but you have to work. You can do it! You just have to make some hard choices. But I believe you can! So get to it and HUSTLE!!!

Do something remarkable by working remarkably hard.

(“Just Do Something” by Kevin DeYoung is a GREAT read, go get it)

Second thing I want to define is “give it away” (This is something I’m currently learning and trying to do).

I am by nature a control freak, I’m good at a lot of things technical, or know enough to get into trouble, lol. I like to make sure everything is perfect, but thats not going to help me lead people. I have been learning that to lead people and build a tribe around me, one has to work hard, than hand it off to others.

This does two things, builds people around you so you can do even BIGGER things, and helps you not kill yourself! It allows you to spend time with your family, friends, even yourself, while growing your influence. For an example, Kyle asked me if I would like to write on his blog, this blog he built up. He has done most of the work and puts the time into it. I really haven’t done anything. But him allowing me to write has helped him, he now has some influence in my life, and his tribe is now a little larger. I also like to think another perspective has helped his blog. He worked than brought other people along.

So here is what I challenge you to do…..

Tell me what you are giving away?

*chris