There was at time, I was so motivated to become this big shot blogger and make money. Then, I gave up on myself because I couldn’t figure how to get about blogging. Fortunately, fate was patient. I leveled up and kept plugging away. We will skip the money part… as I’m not there yet.

In today’s very noisy and competitive blogging space, one has to compete with oneself first before worrying about fame and glory. You’ve got to continually improve in order to be great one day. This does not mean you can’t learn from others to help yourself improve, but without doing the work…

There are days when the temptation to blame fate for not being a rich blogger rises and distracts. Sure, if I was an early adopter of the medium discussion a highly valuable topic and charging for access… by today… I probably could have been rich… but that’s so speculative and pointless an exercise.

So… really… I can’t blame fate at all. Fate offered a chance to blog way back in the day. I stalled. Now I have to fight the feeling of having the cards stacked against me (they really aren’t) and make moves now to have the success I want. Simply because success is still very much an option.

Can’t Blame Fate… but sure can optimize what fate gave

Fate saw fit to have me come of age in an era where lives are both digital and analogue. We live in and out of the digital space. So, blogging is just another natural extension of storytelling in the real world.

Unlike some, who have told me to give up because I didn’t start early enough, I’m pressing forward now before it gets even harder to blog. There is no time like the present. There is no time like now. Tomorrow may be better just like it may be worse. I can only affect now.

There is a quote that made me think with a smile. It’s from Les Brown. It’s part of the inspiration for today’s motivational moment.

”Just because Fate doesn’t deal you the right cards, it doesn’t mean you should give up. It just means you have to play the cards you get to their maximum potential” – Les Brown

The blogging cards

Years ago, not many were blogging. Getting in early would have almost guaranteed quick success. There just weren’t that many bloggers. Those who were good at their craft were easily spotted and quickly loved into fame. Those were the early days. Today, with nearly everyone able to micro-blog on social media, getting traction as a blogger is difficult if you’re going to rely on organic growth.

If you’re just going to rely on your writing skills alone to get a lot of attention, you’re going to be writing a long while. Today, it’s not an easy road to success or stardom. However, this doesn’t mean the cards handed to you are bad cards. They just need a bit of optimizing.

The other day, I was asked by a teen… “why do you think you’ll get any traction as a blogger at your age?”

I had to chuckle. I returned the favor by asking them if they had a blog of their own… and smiled when they said no. Of course, they got curious and wondered why I smiled. It’s simple, really. I have followers on this blog and they have none. I’m already ahead and much further along. Side by side, I’m winning.

But the point was not who was winning at all. The point was this… I started blogging at a time when a lot of bloggers are online. If the trend continues, there will be a lot more coming online soon in the near future.

The difference with me, I know that I can stick this out a while because my end goal is to convey a meaningful post that will motivate someone to push towards their objectives. I’m blogging a unique perspective for people to focus on. If your lens is aimed my way and my message is what you needed, then I did you a favor and helped you. I did what I set out to do.

Fate handed me a tough competitive environment. It’s noisy out there. However, fate left me with a lot of life experiences that I can tap into so that I can keep blogging independent of how many followers I have. I’m more worried about making an impact than having a ton of followers (which is nice to have nevertheless)

By constantly improving, by constantly competing with myself to get better than I was the day before, I will win the cards I’m given. By the way, as attrition takes inexperienced bloggers back offline, and I stay the course and continue to help people, my recognition will continue to grow. Plus, there are advance practices to learn that will give you more exposure and grow your audience, but that is for another day and another posts.

Same goes for any other aspects of life. We win when we do better today than we did yesterday. Sure, there will be losses. However, the war is not won just by one battle. It is won by a cumulative set of results. You’ve got to win more than you lose in order to have victory. Victory leaves clues. Learn the skills of being victorious, and in time, you’ll be.

Too many people give up before they optimize the cards they have. Few are willing to play their cards to their best of their abilities. Too many people look for other hands to play instead of the one they have. And time passes them all.

Fortunately for us all, we live in a time when the digital world is democratizing everything. Including success. It’s easier to get started. It’s easier to get in front of the right people. It’s easier to recover from failure and failures can be recovered from faster now than before. Meaning, you don’t have to invest millions to start a business (like a blog), you can sink $0 in a free account online and start. If it fails… well… you didn’t burn through millions.

In the words of another blogger… if your blog fails… how many people actually knew it failed if no one saw the blog? But, if you win… then look at all the lives you’ve changed.

When playing to win, you’ve got to do all you can to learn, grow, adapt, and play smarter as well as harder. Then, fate may wink and let you win… because it saw you were prepared to handle the win.

Motivational Monday

We can sit around and blame fate for what we can’t control or we can take control of what we can influence and optimize our lives. We can learn new marketing strategies, we can learn new writing techniques, we can learn how to deliver our writing. We can learn how to win. We can learn how to succeed.

Let’s not get too caught up about what fate has handed to us. There are people with far fewer options doing far greater results than us… simply because they decided to play their cards to their fullest potential.

Make a point of making this week great on purpose. Just because you can. If your idea of great is keeping the status quo in your life, then so be it until you have to change. If your idea of great is to incrementally improve, than so be it until you’ve optimized it all. Whatever you do, don’t sit around feeling sorry for the cards you got, because fate really doesn’t care… nor should you. Optimize your cards… let Karma handle fate. Then, you’ll be where you want to be… in due time.

Don’t give up on yourself. Optimize yourself.

Have a great week on purpose… fully optimized!