Palm Springs California
Clinton Connecticut to Fuquay Varina North Carolina.
Fuquay Varina North Carolina to:
- Nashville
- Oklahoma City
- Albuquerque
- Phoenix
- Palm Springs
Ballpark, I drove 3,064 miles across the USA.
Consider traveling from the northeast to the southwest within a few weeks.
Note; I stretched this trip out. I am not totally insane. Kelli and I broke up the journey to enjoy it.
3000 miles is still 3000 miles.
Most deem that number to be heady for a few weeks.
Anyway, I learned one invaluable blogging lesson during my journey.
How you handle unexpected events determines success or failure.
How You Handle Discomfort Matters
We planned everything beforehand.
Kelli handled the logistics skillfully.
Life proceeded to intervene.
We reached the destination by mindfully handling uncomfortable situations.
The Unexpected
- traffic along certain pockets of the I-95 corridor during off-peak hours
- cold snap digging into OK and TX during a highly unusual time (we neglected to fix the car heating system for always traveling during mild weather seasons in the States)
- rough-looking motel
- check engine light flashing
Alas…..we are here in Desert Hot Springs California currently.
We made it.
We completed the US road trip successfully.
Technically, we only have 108 miles to get to Los Angeles from here. I call that a success.
I will dissect 3 central unexpected events.
Cold Snap in Oklahoma
Temperatures dropped to 25 degrees F with high winds as we left from OKC in late November.
We embraced this highly rare event by:
- taking hot showers before the long drive to New Mexico
- dressing in layers
- chugging some coffee (me at least)
- taking a few extra rest stops to capitalize on rest stop heating
I did not mind the mild discomfort throughout my body. But for a few moments, my feet experienced strong pain. I worried about contracting frost bite but the anxiety and sensations passed. I type these words with 10 toes.
Rough Looking Motel
I gauged a few 1 star reviews and 5 star reviews for a motel in Albuquerque New Mexico.
We arrived to a colorful situation including tweaker zombies passed out by the dumpster in the parking lot.
The room was serviceable but rundown.
A neighbor taped a poster of a gun to the window with the words: “I do not call 911”
Kelli offered to book a different hotel. My intuition told me to stick around as a forgiveness lesson to look past.
Minus a 3 AM wake up call from yelling neighbors and barking dogs – someone’s dad caught an ambulance ride to the emergency room – the situation unfolded largely peacefully.
Check Engine Light
Shit.
After leaving that motel and hopping on I-40 the check engine light flashed.
I felt an initial surge of panic.
But breathing deeply guided Kelli and I to:
- exit I-40 before entering no man’s land
- turn the key thrice to read the error code
- discern that it was a temperature issue; the engine did not heat up amply
- know that it was OK to drive to Tempe before getting it fixed
Our fuel mileage improved after having the issue fixed. Warm engines never need to gobble up excess fuel to keep the engine hot, right?
The Ultimate Blogging Lesson
How you successfully handle:
- hosting issues
- Google algorithm updates
- cheap clients who stiff you
- social media algorithm updates
- corrupt plug-ins
- irritated customers
- overall negative feedback
- life intervening
determines your blogging trajectory.
Any success that I experienced originated in part from solving highly unexpected problems.
Going pro depends on solving blogging issues flying at you from left field.
Some blogging issues are utterly unpredictable.
For example, picture yourself writing 3rd person, generic, ho-hum blog posts from 5-10 years ago. Most perform well on Google, generating steady blogging income through various channels.
But this AI thingee emerges a few years ago. The AI deal makes your generic-sounding blog posts irrelevant; you did not see that coming.
How do you solve that unexpected problem?
Write posts from a first person perspective. Add intimately personal experiences. Make your blog AI proof. Succeed despite being cold-cocked by AI blogging.
Why Do Most Bloggers Fail?
Being shell-shocked and highly unconscious, most bloggers:
- victimize themselves to unexpected blogging problems
- air grievances
- quit
Fear is strong; facing, feeling and looking past fear is necessary but highly uncomfortable. Most unconsciously run from discomfort and quit. Blogging From Paradise – and our community – typically faces, feels and forgives our fears to solve blogging problems surfacing out of nowhere.
You WILL Be Blitzed
In a world of imperfection, every blogger eventually gets blitzed. Guaranteed.
How you mentally handle the fear means everything.
Allow fears to surface. Let frustrations arise. Feel anger. Hug panic.
From there, let go of fear, look past it then find solutions. Ask pros for blogging guidance; they know how to conquer every problem you experience plus 110 others. I’ve blogged since 2008. Good luck trying to surprise me. 🙂
In highly rare situations, pros refer you to others who guide you through blogging problems.
But guys with 15,000 hours of blogging experience known how to solve all the common blogging issues; even expected ones.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed my blogging discourse…..but I gotta hit the road!
