Why blogging is like jogging
If you are an avid reader of The Lean Marketer blog you may have noticed that there hasn’t been much to read lately.
Not only have I not been blogging lately, but I stopped exercising, too. It just got too cold to motivate myself to get dressed into exercise clothes and go running (ok, mostly walking) after a long day of work, dealing with kids, and all of my other obligations.
When I first thought of writing this post to ease myself back into the blogger seat, I thought about comparing blogging to teeth brushing (or maybe flossing), since they both start with b, and since it’s something you have to do often to stay healthy. But the better analogy is actually regular exercise.
Given the opportunity, I would choose to write a blog post over exercising any day. But the truth is, you have to do both of them. If you stop writing blog posts or exercising, it gets harder to re-start. There are always a million possible excuses.
When you stop exercising, you pay for it with your health. In the case of blogging, it’s your business that pays with its health. Exercise is the best way to keep your metabolism chugging along at a decent rate. Same for business blogging. You constantly need to think of new ideas, re-think old ideas, communicate with your target audience. Not every blog post has to be a Pulitzer Prize winner, just like not every exercise session has to be Olympics-worthy. But the entire body of work over weeks, months, years, comes together into something impressive, that accomplishes the goals you set out to do, whether it’s whittle down your waistline or share meaningful content with your customers and prospects.
Some people love to exercise, but most of the people I know exercise just because they have to; it keeps them healthy, slim, energetic. Some people love to write blog posts, but most of the executives I work with would rather go to the dentist than sit and write a blog post. Their in-house marketing teams also have dozens of other tasks on their plate, and when they get busy with product launches or other big events, the blog is usually the first thing to fall behind. That’s when they need to call in extra help to make sure their blog stays afloat while they are busy with other stuff.
Now is the time for New Year’s Resolutions… is more blogging (and jogging) one of yours? Both are on my list.
Image thanks to Flickr Fanboy30
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