Yes we need to learn what makes writing better, but simply by putting more words to paper, we will get better.

I have done a little research to how I can write more effectively, and also write more consistently.

First from Jeff Goins site here are seven tips for more effective writing:

1. Practice
2. Challenge Yourself
3. Be Yourself
4. Don’t write like an Idiot
5. Start Small
6. Don’t give up
7. Learn to pitch your pieces.

I think for me the ones I need to focus on are practicing, challenging myself with specific topics, and being myself.  The latter – leads into another article about finding your writing voice that I recently read.

Joy Tanksley writes that to find your voice you need to write what you know (or I believe do great research), then write like you talk, get into a flow of writing, and to start off with, forget conventions – just get the words down on paper.

My research on writing lead me to a great article about how to write daily.  Julie Isaac lists these five steps:

1. Make a commitment
2. Make a list of the top 10 reasons why you want to write daily.
3. Make writing top priority
4. Write first
5. Break your daily goal into smaller goals.

I believe I need to make that list of to 10 reasons and post it on my bulletin board.  Then I need to make writing a priority – as it now is not at the top of what I do.

Onward and Upward,
Jack

Linked Alberta is a group on LinkedIn.  But really Linked Alberta is more than that.  It does have a website, but again that is not its true essence.  Linked Alberta is a concept – that the citizens of Alberta business community should work together to grow and succeed.  And to that end Kim has used various social media to allow connections to take place.

Whether this will be primarily on LinkedIn, or whether it will grow in other directions is not the major factor – whether new and sustainable connections will develop and the idea of Linked Alberta will take hold is the key.

It discusses seven profitable ways to get more profits.

Here is a snapshot countdown in my FAVORITE order:

7 — Capitalize on your Unique and .. .
6 — You have a BRAIN – use it.
5 — Be like a 6 year old – Ask Ask Ask!
4 — Hide and Seek is only for kids – not business!
3 — Find a partner – a partner that works with you.
2 — Create – Duplicate – Share again and again.
1 — The BIG ONE!!

Go check it out now.

Two problems with whining

The first is that it doesn’t work. You can whine about the government or your friends or your job or your family, but nothing will happen except that you’ll waste time.

Worse… far worse… is that whining is a reverse placebo. When you get good at whining, you start noticing evidence that makes your whining more true. So you amplify that and immerse yourself in it, thus creating more evidence, more stuff worth complaining about.

If you spent the same time prattling on about how optimistic you are, you’d have to work hard to make that true…

Seth Godin