Some Notes on What is Coming

Yesterday I purchased a domain name for the new home of the blog, themighty.us. While there is nothing there yet, I am still working on setting up hosting and designing the site layout, it is a step. Up From the Ashes is growing up.

The reason for the name may require some explanation. First and foremost, I no longer feel like I am in the ashes. My attitude has changed. I am starting to work in the field I have chosen and I feel confident. That is not to say that everything is in place, but I do feel I have come up from the ashes. Second, I am the mighty Quinn. It is time to start acting like it. Third, we can all be mighty in our own way, me as the author and you as the reader are 'The Mighty Us.'

With that in mind I have a few questions and ideas to propose.

I am thinking of creating a wiki that can explore the concepts that get talked about here and in the future there. It would be a document that others could edit, add their insight and share their sorties. It would be sort of a netbook for the blog but made from more than just my own experience.

I would also like to open The Mighty Us to two or three other writers. We would each have our own blog hosted on the site and I would continue to write on a daily basis. The topics would be similar - personal growth, self understanding and living in the world to the best of our abilities. I have a few people in mind for this but if anyone out there is interested let me know. This would not be a paying position at this point but down the road? Who knows what could happen.

I am also open to other ideas and thoughts for how I can make the site something special. If you have ideas, please feel free to share.

An Example, a Commitment and a Plan

Cinder blocks dreaming of being apartment buildings.

I have talked time and time again about the importance of little blocks and working on one stage of a project at a time. Today I want to share an example of how it is working in my life.

Since I started “Up From The Ashes” I have been very concerned with producing a quantity of writing. Sticking to this posting schedule has been a little block. It is where my focus has been when writing. I create five posts a week and sometimes the quality has suffered.

Quality is the next little block I need to work on. This does not mean that I will be sacrificing quantity for quality but instead raise the bar of quality while maintaining the quantity I already have. This is how little blocks work, you keep the ones you have finished allowing them to be a foundation for the next row of little blocks.

This does raise the question “what does quality look like in a blog?”

Quality is different from one blog to the next based in part on what the author is trying to do. At Pen vs. Paper Jeffrey has gotten fed up with doing what he is told to do to be a good blogger and has really become almost a curator of interesting information and thought. Almost every time I check in there he has something to share that makes me stop and think, that inspires me or that makes me think, you know that is true but…. For him that is quality.

For “Up From The Ashes” that would not work since this is a discussion of my personal journey, my learning how to be successful and ultimately of my growing up. In my mind there are three things that make Up what it is: personal honesty, exploration of abstract concepts, and an understanding that we must grow in the world. The last one may not be as evident to my readers as it is to me, however, as I sit to write every day I do not want to find ways I can leave society behind but rather ways in which I can maintain my own identity while being successful in society.

To create quality here I need to cultivate these three things and make them the core of what I write about. To do that I need to change my approach to writing the blog; I should not think of this as fire and forget writing, throwing words into the data stream just to do it. Instead this must have the reason, the research and the work put into them that I do with my professional writing.

The pace will be hard to keep up but it can be done. To start I am going to shoot for longer, more well reasoned posts at least twice a week. As that gains traction I will push for three of these better crafted pieces. I will not say that on these days I will produce good writing and on the others slack off, but as topics that warrant more attention come up I will give it to them.

So there it is an example, a commitment and a plan. That is the way little blocks work: build one, finish it, set it in place and find the next one.

Reflections

Well here we are we have made it to the 100^th post. It is definitely a mile stone of sorts and a rather surprising achievement in how quickly it seems to have snuck up on me. I am going to take this opportunity to muse about the blog and its effect on my life so far.

Since I have committed to writing these five days a week the blog has been a source of structure in my life. It gives me a place to start each day and rededicate my commitment to my own growth. Even when the topics I choose to talk about do not seem to be personnel in nature the very act of writing them is a meditation for me. As I am writing this I feel the gears shifting as all this reflection on the blog makes me give some thought to reflection in general.

Why is it that it takes nice round numbers or obviously important incidents to make us reflect on our lives? Reflection is part of the growth process were we take the time to look back and see how we have changed and the struggles we have overcome. It is that top of the mountain moment were we look out at our lives and see all we have accomplished as well as looking at what comes next.

This is not looking back and dredging up old horrors, or dwelling on failures. Instead it should be an affirmation of accomplishments and a search for lessons in our recent actions. Whether we succeed or fail in what we set out to do it is important we understand why things happened the way they did and use that information to guide our journey back to the path we wish it to take.

Taking time to reflect on should be part of our daily lives and is something I need to work on. I think I will set aside a few minutes at the end of each day to take stock and reflect on what I could do better as well as what I did well. I will let you know how this goes. What are your thoughts on reflection? Let me know and have a great day.

The state of the blog

I just thought I would take a moment today to look at were Up from the ashes is going and where I want it to go. This is supposed to be a story of my life changing and while I have some irons in the fire I haven't talked much about my plans lately. I think next week when I know a little more about how things are coming together I will be able to share some of those plans with everyone here.

Also I want to talk to a few people about those plans in person and I won't get a chance to do that until thanksgiving. Once that is done you will see more accounts of what I am doing to change my life and how it is working. Until then I will continue to lay the foundation here.

A change you will be seeing next week is a reoccurring segment on Monday in which I will talk about my goals for the week and look back and review how last week’s goals went. I would love if some of you folks out there reading this would take the time to share some of your own goals for the week in the comments. So think of that as your homework for the weekend, come up with a few goals and be ready to share.

Another feature that I will be unveiling latter today is a list of interesting links and readings that I have come across in the last week. I will try to do this every Friday in addition to my regular posting. So if you have something you think I should be reading let me know and I will give it a look.

Looking over what I have just wrought I would have to say that the lesson for today boils down to this, I can't do this alone. We need other people in our lives to help us change, to give us guidance and to share their wisdom. We need heroes and mentors and role models and friends. Who are yours?

I hope everyone has a great weekend.