Maryland, USA
Last week I found myself sprinting through the airport in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Kelli and I had just arrived via a bumpy flight from San Jose, Costa Rica. Maintenance delayed the flight by a good 40 minutes. We previously had only a 2 hour layover window for our connecting flight.
After the delay, we had roughly 25 minutes to hustle at jet speed from the plane to our connecting Newark, New Jersey flight.
It doesn’t take a Rhodes Scholar to figure out: we broke a few airport etiquette rules – and perhaps a few others – to run through disembarking, immigration, security, customs and the gate to make the flight in time.
Ironically, the Newark flight became delayed by roughly 35 minutes. After stumbling onto the plane dripping in sweat, I enjoyed the relaxing, cool break as the air conditioning fired up before we taxied and flew to New Jersey.
I did not relish renting a car and driving 18 hours to New Jersey had we missed the flight. Threatening Tropical Storm Debby would most certainly ground flights over the next day or so. We even got pelted with her outer bands waiting in the queue for takeoff.
Either we broke some rules or risked missing a house sitting job booked in Maryland.
While constantly apologizing to fellow travelers with: “Sorry guys! I need to make a flight. Coming through!”….I cut off a few people in wheelchairs, bumped in to less aware individuals and pissed off a janitor who explicitly admonished me to walk around the wide spill he had been working on.
Some fellow travelers openly cheered for me. Others seemed annoyed by my less than delicate strategy for making the connecting flight. Some gazed at me like I had 3 heads.
I had zero emotional reaction to their reactions because none of it mattered. Everything was irrelevant to making the flight. Note; the people mattered to me. I went overboard in being polite and smiling gently and kindly as I explained my situation, however hurried. But their reactions did not because I am sane enough to know that I cannot control what others think, say or do.
The rule makers told me that I had to queue up in immigration and security lines like everyone else. But when fellow travelers ponderously trudged to the front in lock-step, Kelli and I apologized profusely and cut way in front of ’em. You simply do what you gotta do and politely break some rules when necessary to be free of the rules and stressors arising when you mindlessly follow rules and to get where you intend to be.
At the end of the day, it was up to Kelli and I to reach our goals; minus the few set rules consistent with immigration and security, everything else was irrelevant. Even the K-9 guy broke a rule for me. He saw my rush and waved me through in single file whereas everyone else had to walk in tandem to pass the sniffing dog.
Reaching your blogging goals is far more about you – aka your mind – and far less about mindlessly following popular, generally-accepted rules because success is in mindfulness not mindlessness.
It’s Your Mind (AKA You) Not the Rules
One precursory look at full time bloggers reveals that most go pro by following some similar but many different rules.
Some bloggers go pro largely based on building a list. Other bloggers go pro mainly by guest blogging. Some bloggers go pro by publishing long form content to drive Google traffic. Others go full time by mastering social media as a traffic source. Blog commenting leads to some full time careers.
Rules change according to the personal blogging journey but the mindset is constant among all bloggers.
Future pros think, feel and act like pros following different rules.
Everyone else struggles, fails and quits regardless of the rules this crowd follows.
Hold the Success Idea in Your Mind
As we waited to leave the plane, Kelli and I looked at each other with one firm idea in mind: “No matter what, we are making that plane.”
That decision, that idea, that mindset, influenced us to catch the connecting flight. Minus the essential immigration and security rules, all else became irrelevant.
We reached our goal successfully by breaking many rules along the way.
Successful bloggers hold a success consciousness in mind. Most follow a few essential rules like publishing long-form, targeted content and investing in their domain and hosting. From there, all break a fair amount or at least a few commonly held blogging rules to go pro because you need to experience that success is in mind not in mindlessly following commonly-held blogging rules like a robot.
Mindlessly following rules leads to struggles, failure and quitting because blogging is mindset, not doing things without thinking. Going pro hinges on mindfully thinking, feeling and acting abundantly, confidently, calmly and knowingly. Mindlessly plowing through blogging following typical rules yields almost a 100% failure rate since every human runs on an unconscious program dripping with fear, by default. Mindless bloggers think and feel from poverty, scarcity, loss, doubt, panic and an utter lack of posture. Struggles, failure and quitting follow.
If you need proof to test this theory…..look at your inboxes. Check your Gmail, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. Check your comments on these networks and via your WordPress Backoffice.
See what I mean?
What Rules Should You Follow and Break?
Listen to your intuition.
The intuition knows what’s best for everyone.
It will guide you to be most truly helpful for your readers by egging you on to follow some rules and to break others.
Look at the lead in to this post; no keyword or key phrase peppered the first few paragraphs. I broke a cardinal blogging rule by not optimizing this blog post for SEO. My intuition guided me away from optimizing all posts for SEO because I am most truly helpful for bloggers by publishing mindset-themed posts just like this one.
Sure I generate some Google traffic but only because of:
- my mindset
- me deciding to intuitively break a series of commonly followed blogging rules
Never break rules to look cool.
Follow certain rules intuitively. Organically, you will likely break a few or more generally accepted blogging rules because the intuition leads you away from the herd, not towards it.
What About Blogging From Paradise Rules?
Doesn’t this post seem counter intuitive for a guy building:
- a loyal following?
- course sales?
- eBook sales?
Nope.
Here’s why:
- a fair number of Blogging From Paradise rules are unorthodox
- while I advise you to follow pro blogger guidance closely I also frequently guide you to follow your personal intuition as well
- one of the cornerstones of my teaching is that you do not *need* me, my course, my eBooks or my blog posts but reading my content or investing money in my premium guidance can point you in the right direction towards peace of mind, freedom and success
A good teacher makes himself irrelevant to free the student to eventually succeed on their own.
Of course, the teacher teaches and the student needs to learn by consuming the teacher’s lessons.
If you resonate with my teaching, you will most certainly follow some BFP rules and break many others. Or you may follow most of my blogging rules. Or you may follow only a few of my blogging rules.
Whatever works for you…..run with it.
Conclusion
Before we wrap things up…..you can follow most commonly held blogging rules and succeed quite nicely.
But every blogger needs to break at least some here and there to prove that it is their mindset and not the rules which ultimately drive quality traffic and blogging income.
Becoming a successful blogger depends on how you think, feel and act.
Following blogging rules is a practical strategy to give you a sense of structure along the way.
