5 unconventional motivational techniques for lazy bloggers
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5 unconventional motivational techniques to help bloggers when their motivation is gone.
Sometimes it just leaves you. Motivation, that is. The desire to continue onward, upward, forward! In the words of Andrew Carnegie, “People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.” Here’s some cynical, unconventional ways to to help regain that inner motivation when it slips away.1. Observe the least successful person in your life
The platitude goes something like, “You are who you associate with.” This is mostly true. However, sometimes it pays to watch failure in action. Find that one guy you know who always complains about being a loser (we all know one). Find the one person who treads water in a stagnant sea of mediocrity. Do you want to be that guy? Then get motivated, you lazy ass.
2. Tell everyone your unrealistic blogging goals
Whenever you talk to someone, even if it’s your regular liquor store clerk, always mention your grandiose blogging goals. “I will have the most popular blog about funny cat pictures ever!” for example. If you burn this thought into their minds, eventually they’ll ask you about your progress every time you see them. Nothing is a better motivator than fear of social shame, so you’ll be bound to achieve some of your goals.
3. Invest some money into your blog
Want to see the most motivated people on the planet? Look at an entrepreneur who has sunk his entire 401(k) into a business venture. An entrepreneur with a start-up company will make anyone look lazy by comparison. I’m not saying you should get a second mortgage just to promote your funny cat picture blog. However, if you’re serious about making money with a blog, isn’t it worth it to spend some money on it? At least you’ll be motivated to break even, and that’s more than most bloggers can say about themselves.
4. Stop judging yourself against the most successful bloggers
Ever wonder why blogs such as BoingBoing, ProBlogger, and the others are always highly ranked? It’s because they had first-mover advantage (sort of), which means that they claimed and branded a certain market space before anyone else could. Thus, they became the benchmark against which other blogs are judged. Don’t judge yourself by these market anomalies. It would be the same as complaining that your site is not as popular as MySpace (interesting side note: MySpace technically has second-mover advantage, after Friendster failed to utilize its first-mover advantage; now you know, and knowing is half the battle).
5. Think of all the time you’ve wasted doing useless activities
So, you started your blog with dreams of being the next John Chow. Instead, you find yourself looking at midget porn and checking for ProBlogger updates every 2 minutes (perhaps this is just my problem). In economics, there’s a concept called “opportunity cost,” which basically says you screw yourself out of a certain amount of economic benefit by passing up the best possible activity at the time. So, while you were wondering where they got all those midgets for that video, you could have been doing something more valuable, such as blogging.