Comments on: Be PROactive vs Reactive – Stay in Your Circle! Ten Habits Day 5

By: Ten Habits of Successful Blogging – Angela England

Ten Habits of Successful Blogging – Angela England — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 03:11:28 +0000

[...] 2. Be PROactive – You cannot control others. You cannot make them leave you nice comments. You cannot make someone take an action step you would like them to take. REacting is never the way to success. You must control the part that you can control – YOU. More: Proactive vs Reactive – Your Circle of Influence [...]

By: AngEngland

AngEngland — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 05:39:36 +0000

@Cheryl – it’s ok. This Ten Habits of Success is an ideal – not something you should be perfect at all the way through. Most is applicable to many areas of life beyond just blogging. Take your time, chew it well and get all the precious kernels out that you want. What doesn’t apply to you at this time, blow away like chaff.

By: Cheryl

Cheryl — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 02:20:16 +0000

I was having a hard time with this assignment. I always thought I was kinda laid back about my blogging, but once I really started thinking about it. I am really not! I am still working on my list. Thanks for making me really think!

By: AngEngland

AngEngland — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 18:23:51 +0000

Wow! These are amazing responses you guys! I’m glad this post spoke to you – and you’re right…it goes WAY beyond just blogging. For example, when I teach childbirth classes I cannot control how someone’s labor will progress, or the choices they will make for themselves. I can only present the information and allow them the right to make their OWN choices and decisions.

@Ginny – I love your comment about having a trusted friend give you feedback on a post. I often do this when it’s something I am either really excited about or really struggling to word properly.

@Dana – YES! The principle applies to EVERYTHING. “I wish I weren’t scared to speak in public” = living in the circle of concern. “I am going to join Toastmasters and learn to speak publically for only 30 seconds at a time until I am more comfortable” = living within the circle of influence. It applies to EVERY area….Steven Covey’s book is pretty fascinating but this is one of the principles that stuck out most to me.

@Lorie – I wrote a post recently about the potential BENEFITS of negative comments. http://angengland.com/five-potential-benefits-of-negative-blog-comments/ It really helped me a lot to get over my sensitivity to criticism to purpose to find the positive (if possible) in what was being said. Could I take that negative comment and turn it into another article, a networking opportunity, etc? Querying is half art, half science and half luck. Keep going!

By: Lorie Huston

Lorie Huston — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 03:37:10 +0000

I think there is great advice here, at least for me. I do tend to get hung up on things I can’t control. Here’s my list:

-I get defensive/feelings hurt when I get negative comments. So, cross off and change to: Don’t take negative comments personally. Use them to see another side of an argument, maybe even brainstorm additional article ideas/angles from them.

-I worry that not enough people open the emails and click through to article links from my newsletter. Cross off and change to: I will work to make newsletters more personable, work to make subject lines more irresistable/tempting.

-I take rejection personally, but know that some article queries are going to get rejected. So, change to: I will not take rejections personally, but work to learn what works and what doesn’t based on which queries are accepted and which are rejected. When rejected, I will repackage and send out to another venue for consideration.

-I tend to obsess over numbers and stats and waste time watching them. Change to: Will spend enough time with stats to evaluate which strategies are working but not waste time checking them every 15 minutes or so.

Okay, that’s my list for now. Perhaps it will grow as I think more about it.

By: Dana

Dana — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 19:56:27 +0000

I commented on your last post about how I reconstructed my blog to direct it in a new direction, by direction being that I was going to consentrate on my passion to write, rather than who was reading it. I was writting what people wanted to see which was out of my niche or atleast border line. I love to save and my friends wanted to know how I was doing it but I was not telling them how I did it, I was telling them how to do it based on research not personal experience. My writing skills flow from the heart not any text book I have read, so I beleive that I am on the right track this time.
I so love the circle diagram I can use that in other aspects of my life as well, Thanx!!

By: Ginny (MAD21)

Ginny (MAD21) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 16:01:43 +0000

My concerns probably all fall into the category of being out of my control. We all worry about things like:

- Will people like what I write?
- Do I look stupid?
- Am I making any sense?
- Is this useful information, or am I wasting my time?
- How can I get more legit people to follow my site?

But while I think about these things sometimes, I don’t dwell on it. Because as you said, it doesn’t do any good. So I talk to the people I know and participate in things like your series here so that I can learn more things that will help me get better at presenting/writing the content on my blog.

Things I can control:

- Seek out what information people want to read/learn about.
- Ask for help with things I don’t know how to do.
- Have people I trust read my posts and give me advice on how to make them better.
- Participate in other blog activities to help introduce my blog to a bigger community.