A little less than a year ago justinyourmind.com was born. It was to be my ‘real’ attempt at blogging, whatever that meant. In my head, I knew it would be a place where I could talk about things I loved, things that drove me nuts and of course the people that swim around me in this life. I should first say that none of that would have happened without the help of my friend, Shan Parker, who is a great designer and web developer.
With the venue built, I was ready to unleash a plethora of words upon the world, hoping that some would be inspiring, others would incite laughter, a few would be eye-opening and most, of course, would go unnoticed into the world.
First off – for anyone who says blogging isn’t a challenge unto itself, they haven’t done it. It is certainly requires more work than one would think. If your goal is to attain millions of hits, you must provide interesting and captivating new content on a consistent basis that can be devoured by the masses.
I never started blogging as a means to gain notoriety or anything like that. I was writing before the term ‘emo’ was ever even coined – from stream of consciousness style a la Virginia Woolf, to really shitty poetry, to songs with basic piano chord progressions and later with basic guitar progressions, to letters to publications or congressional representatives. No matter what the mode, writing has become a staple of my existence. It’s my way of working through any thought or emotion in my life.
Now over the last year I surely hosted my share of pity parties and emotional breakdowns in this space but have recently been more focused on providing a positive space for people to touch base with. To see the struggle pulled apart and turned into a path for victory.
As I started to recreate justinyourmind.com with Brandon Quigley, another friend who is also an insanely talented graphic designer and web guru, I knew I wanted to focus more on how I can utilize my ability and talent and skill to help others find success within their own lives and businesses.
But what did that mean for the blog? Well, what once were random diatribes with occasional videos and songs are now going to be more editorial in nature. Monthly essays or notes on relevant topics to my business, my life, my friends, my society – that’s what this space will contain.
Essentially I want to take the micro events of my life and see how those lessons are mirrored in the macro of the world at large. The thing about blogs is that they all point to one simple truth – we’re all more alike than we’ll ever really know. Anthropologists will look back on all these documented lives to paint a picture of what life was like as a whole during this time. I just hope that they’ll take into account that there was more going on than Lady Gaga’s hermaphroditic rumors, Miley’s Vanity Fair pics and the Jon & Kate Plus 8 debacle.
Hopefully those who look back to this time will see that each of us strives to be a success in our own way, that we’re all in a time where we’re given the power to have a voice and while I feel we’re caught up in the illusion that these platforms afford each of us a right to ‘celebrity’ status, hopefully they’ll see that we realized the power of our ‘I’m talking’ mentality was no match for our ‘I’m listening’ one.
Please feel free to share what’s on your mind. I’m listening.
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