Things have been a bit crazy over here at Illuminated Mind headquarters with launch madness. But, we did it!

Trailblazer is now LIVE and open for enrollment:

TrailblazerJourney.com

We’ve been hard at work over the last several months tearing things down and rebuilding Trailblazer from the ground up. We’ve improved all of the content. We’ve added case studies and checklists for every single training module, and revamped just about everything.

And last December we launched this video that created quite a stir in our little community:

And now we’re ready to let in a brand new group of Trailblazers into the member’s area (we have around 50 new recruits as of this writing).

They’re cultivating a community that stops at nothing to support each other in quitting their jobs and getting paid to be who they are.

I’m revealing all here and really opening the curtains in my own business, sharing with you everything that has worked for me, and how I built my first successful product and business.

If you want to make 2012 the year you finally take control of your work and freedom, this is for you. There’s no better program for you, period.

So go here to check it out, and learn more. And whatever you do, create something you’re proud of. Put your gifts out there into the world and unabashedly build something you’re proud of heralding.

To your success,

Choosing a niche and differentiating yourself is safe and comforting. And besides, isn’t that what all the experts tell you to do? Find your niche.

Well, that’s fine if you want to do something that’s already been done. But I’m guessing that you were brought here to do something bigger. Something more.

Maybe your vision is bigger than just following in someone else’s footsteps, or being #2 in a crowded market. That’s probably why you’re reading this.

Let me be straight up with you here. I’m not advocating blindly targeting everyone or not having clarity about your “unique value proposition.” That’s simply a prerequisite to any solid business strategy.

Verifying that the market wants and is interested in what you have to offer is smart. But it’s not everything, especially if you want to blaze your own trail and create your own market.

Because often times the areas ripe with the most opportunity are those that are uncharted. You can’t verify success in a field that hasn’t been created (Netflix couldn’t know for certain that people would really want DVDs in their mail, they had to try it out and find out). There’s going to be a certain amount of unavoidable risk involved no matter how much trend-watching and data-mining you do.

So if settling on an established, well-researched niche is too safe, what’s the alternative?

Create your own niche.

When you stop playing other people’s game and stop competing on other people’s terms, something incredible happens. You move from being left in the dust, to being the only one in the race.

When you make a conscious choice to be a pioneer, you move from a path of dead-ends and competition, to an infinite path that’s created on your own terms.

When you own your own niche, you dominate it. Competition becomes obsolete when you’re trailblazing.

Eventually others will follow and attempt to mimick you. (Example: Apple’s iPad in the tablet market.)

• Amazon dominated the market by creating the first eReader.
• Instead of playing the same as everyone else, Michael Jordan made other people play his game.
• Thomas Edison didn’t try to build a better lamp, he created the lightbulb.
• Muhammad Ali didn’t try to beat others at their own game, he brought people into his game.

Is trailblazing and creating your own niche easy? No, not by any means. It’s one of the challenging endeavors you can embark on in your life. It’s also one of the most enjoyable, and most fulfilling.

That’s because you’re leveraging your own genius. You are living at full expression, rather than trying to express yourself in a certain set of predetermined paramaters.

In essence, it’s the adventure of a lifetime.

But you don’t have to go at this solo, and be a lone renegade.

Join us next Tuesday for a free event on trailblazing and creating your own niche

Next week we’ll be hosting a free event on blazing your own trail, creating your own niche and saying good-bye to dead-end work forever.

Note: This is a follow up to this video on “the fastest path to getting paid to be you.”

If you’d like to join us, click here. It will be packed with great information on creating your own path to doing what you love, and will have some exciting surprises. :)

You don’t want to miss this.

Click here to register (gratis).

Please note that we are limited by our service provider to 500 people, so the sooner you register the better chances you have at securing a spot.

My team and I have been hard at work (except for our Shihtzu, Sofie, she’s mostly been barking in her sleep) on the new Trailblazer program.

We’ve been releasing a series of videos over the past few weeks, and shared the success stories of some of our awesome members. And last week we had everyone vote on a new emblem for the program (which generated nearly 200 comments).

In less than two weeks we’ll be opening the doors to the brand, shiny new program, but for now, there’s nothing to buy. So put away your wallet. :)

My heart has really been overjoyed by the flood of comments, emails and tweets about the videos we’ve been releasing. I’m really blown away and humbled by all of the kind words and support we’ve gotten from partners and past members sharing this message.

I think it’s important to get this message out there that you don’t have to play someone else’s game, and you really can get paid to be who you are. I feel like this message is starting to resonate on a bigger level.

How to win a free membership to Trailblazer

I want to give two highly inspired people a free membership to Trailblazer. It will be tough to pick the winners, but ideally they should be a good fit for the product and be diligent implementers.

We’ll be reviewing all of the entries and making a decision within the next week.

The deadline for entry is Tuesday, January 24th at 8pm EST.

Here’s how to enter:

1. Step 1: Leave a comment below on this post.
2. Step 2: In your comment tell us: Why you think Trailblazer can help you create a thriving lifestyle business, getting paid to be who you are..
3. Optional: record a video and upload to Youtube (bonus points).

We’ll choose the most compelling two responses and will announce the winners next Wednesday.

Also, please be as short and sweet as possible. It’ll make it easier on us to judge the entries.

If you like, you can also vote for someone else’s entry by leaving a comment on their entry.

Okay, that’s it! Leave a comment below to enter!

I’m looking forward to reading all of the responses. This should be really fun. :)

******UPDATE*****

Entries are now CLOSED, but I am leaving the  comments open since there has been so much amazing discussion and support. Thank you everyone for entering!

Winners!

Everyone had amazing entries and each of you are already one step closer by stepping up and putting yourself out there. It was extremely difficult to choose just two winners (which is why it took an extra day to make a decision) In the end there was a tie and we went 3 winners! The winners of the Free Passes to Trailblazer are (in no particular order):

1. Brett Henly

2. Benjamin Jenks

3. Megan Andrietti

Winners will be contacted shortly with more details. Thanks to everyone who entered. Keep following your dreams and blazing those paths.

photo courtesy of Orin Zebest

I commissioned Dustin Hoffman (not the Rain Man) to help me design an all new look. If you’re seeking someone to help you with your brand, logo or website, I highly recommend working with Dustin. He’s been incredibly professional and has really blown me away with his work (it speaks for itself, see below). He’s in high-demand, so get in touch with him soon while he’s still available if you can.

Anyway, I’m terrible at making design related decisions. I’ll agonize over them for weeks.

So I thought I’d enlist your help in choosing the new Trailblazer badge.

Here are the candidates:

Trailblazer Logo A

Trailblazer Logo B

Trailblazer Logo C

How to help:

Please leave a comment below and let me know which you like best: A, B, or C.

I really appreciate your help with this. I feel like they’re all so beautiful. I can’t decide. :)

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Jennifer Gresham of Everyday Bright.

Your soul dies a little every time you drive to work.

The solution sounds so easy: ”follow your bliss.”

But you don’t get far before you discover more questions than answers:  How do I know if something is really a passion? What if I don’t have a passion?  What if I have too many?  Am I dooming myself to a life of poverty if I follow my passion once I find it?

It’s not that you don’t want to live a life of passion, but you’re scared.  What if it doesn’t work out?

One of two things happen when people get really scared.  Either they become depressed and hopeless, deciding the whole passion idea is a crock.  Or they rashly quit their job and figure the rest will work itself out.

I hate to admit it, but I’ve actually done both.  Relatively early in my career, I gave up on doing something different than what I’d majored in.  I had a PhD in biochemistry and it felt like too much of a waste to do something else.  Besides, I was relatively good at it.

Later, as the urgency to live the life I wanted became too great to ignore, I quit my job before I had any idea what I wanted to do instead.  It was scary.  We suddenly had one sure salary and three mortgages to pay. Looking back, I see I made the whole process harder than I had to.

Most of the time we hear about the success stories, and while they might provide inspiration, they can also reinforce some romantic illusions about career change that aren’t helpful.  If you’re not careful, it’s quite possible to find yourself in yet another near miss of a job, wondering what went wrong.

We can’t let that happen to you.

Below I provide the nuance you need to make sense of the common advice to “follow your passion,” explaining the most common pitfalls and how to avoid them.

Pitfall #1: Much ado about passion

A lot of people worry they don’t have any passions because there’s nothing that occupies their every waking thought or makes them quiver with excitement.  But there’s no absolute level of emotion that everyone needs or is capable of experiencing.  It’s a little like dating.  Some people get consumed by their relationships, others may enjoy a sense a peace and contentment.  One is not better than the other.

Passion is just a popular (and more concise) way to refer to activities we’re intrinsically motivated to perform.  As Daniel Pink says, the things “that matter, that we like, and that are meaningful.”  Don’t make passion more complicated than it is.

Pitfall #2: Going in circles

Once you open up the definition of passion, you may worry you have too many and can’t choose among them.  There are two potential solutions:

• Find a way to creatively combine one or more of them
• Realize that intrinsic motivation to perform must also be accompanied by the motivation to master.  If you don’t like to read about it, talk about it, or learn about it in your free time, it’s probably better as a hobby.

But realize that passion isn’t the whole picture either.  Finding the right career is looking for the sweet spot between your passions, your personality, and your strengths.  If you’ve done the above and you’re still going in circles, you’re probably putting too much weight on one of the three, instead of looking at jobs that connect them.

Pitfall #3: Anti-passions

Most careers are made of more than one activity.  When considering whether a “passion” could become a dream job, break down your new career into all the activities that will be required, with some sense of how often they’re performed.

Artists need to enjoy marketing and sales if they’re going to make a living.  Lawyers need to be researchers and often skilled bureaucrats.  If a passion-turned-career involves too much time doing activities you despise (what I call “anti-passions”), it’s also likely to be the anti-heaven of what you were envisioning.

Pitfall #4: The “Do what you love and the money will follow” mantra

In many respects, I like this mantra.  I mean, too often we chase after jobs that pay a lot and hope we like them. I much prefer the idea of chasing after jobs we love and hope they pay a lot.

But the starving artist stereotype exists for a reason.  Many will follow their passion and earn a lot less than they did before, and many will do it nearly on purpose.  It’s easy to argue, when you do what you love, that you don’t really care if you get paid for it.  Believe me, I have said this to myself more than once since quitting, as bizarre as it sounds.

Don’t pity them (or me) for a minute.  Although we may not assign it a monetary value, happiness is worth something.  You just have to decide how much it’s worth to you.

Pitfall #5: Moving too fast

This pit is the widest and the deepest.  Many good dreams have gotten lost here.

Let’s go back to our dating analogy.  Few would advise you to marry someone you just met a couple of weeks ago.  It’s called the honeymoon phase, when you tend to see what you want to see instead of what’s really there.

And yet people do that with their careers all the time.   They translate a love of coffee into a dream of owning their own cafe.  Or a passion for organization into a wedding planning business.

Do – your – homework.

If I had just one message for those that would prefer their passion didn’t blow up in their face, this would be it.  Remember what we said about passion in the first place: if you’re not willing to talk about it, read about, and learn about, don’t turn it into your livelihood.

What does this mean practically?  You should read at least 3 books on the career you’re considering, talk to at least 5 people who are doing it now, and if you’re thinking of starting your own business, I recommend you have at least 3 paying customers before making the leap to full-time.

I realize that “practical passion” must sound pretty strange.  Foreign, even.

But when you wake up in the morning, excited at another day where you get paid to live your dream and change the world, all at the same time, I promise, it will feel pretty darn wonderful.

About the author: Jennifer Gresham is a PhD scientist turned writer and coach, author of the popular career blog Everyday Bright.  If you’d like to learn more about what it takes to follow your passion practically, check out her free videos on career change.

photo courtesy of aristocats-hat

They dare to blaze their own paths and follow their dreams.

I invite you to read through each of the stories, visit their sites, and subscribe to their lists. These folks are setting the world on fire and definitely Ones to watch in 2012.

Amber J. Adams – The Fab Life Project & Generation Innovation

After winning the “Offer To The World” contest I was super excited about creating something awesome. Well, I am co-producing a documentary about Generation Y’s experience with the recession, and how that has changed our views on work, careers, and entrepreneurship. We started filming in October, and we will host a Kickstarter for it in February. I also just launched a Facebook group, Generation Innovation, to serve as an online gathering space for the movement. I invite anyone who is determined to lead a purposeful and meaningful life to check it out.

Editors Note:  Amber’s Offer:” I help young adults see how to create the lives they want by showing them techniques for empowering themselves through the art of crafting their own life story” is a superb example of how Trailblazer will help get you clear on who your audience is and what your “super power” is for them.

Emily Rose – Emily Rose Artist & Emily Rose Co.

Having taken the Trailblazer course, in less then 2 months my mind-set shifted many times, I was able to wrap my head around charging what I am worth and got clients who value what I can do for them. I am really excited for what the new year has in store, and have been making plans for how to accomplish all my goals. I am also working on my BA in Business and am looking forward to starting a new semester in January.

I am an artist, both in traditional art and photography, plus I design WordPress sites. I started a blog this year (I linked to my latest post) and am re-launching my art site in the beginning of next year. Because of what I have learned while taking Trailblazer I have completely re-thought out how I am running my business, websites and have plans for a VIP Newsletter that will feature a little bit of everything I am working on each month.

Colby Ohlhausen – Colby Ohlhausen.com

The focus and strategies I learned in Trailblazer helped me to land clients and speaking opportunities even before I had a website. My biggest takeaway was a mindshift shift that shattered my self-limiting beliefs to become the anti-authority I need to be to take action. Without Trailblazer, I wouldn’t have the blueprint to map out where I want to go in business and how to build social proof from scratch.

My business helps self-made entrepreneurs master the art of teaching. If you run an information business, you’re a teacher. The underlying premise is that if you want to help people learn, it would be useful for you to know something about how learning works. The official launch will be on February 22, 2012 at http://colbyohlhausen.com/. Can’t wait to see you then

Cara Stein – 17,000 Days

When I started working with Jonathan, I had a dream, a blog with about 30 subscribers, and no clue how to make anything of it. Following the road map in Trailblazer, in less than a year, I’ve figured out what I’m doing, built a thriving blog, and quit my job. I’ve released three guides: my freebie, How to be Happy (No Fairy Dust or Moonbeams Required); The Less Hassle, More Harmony Relationship Guide; and Getting Unstuck.

I also pursued a few crazy ideas, like approaching Karol Gajda and Adam Baker about doing a huge sale on personal growth guides. That one become the Only 72 Rock Your Life sale and grossed over $100,000, raising over $5,500 for kidney research. Working on something so huge and coordinating all the contributors, affiliates, and customers was a major leap outside my comfort zone. What a rush!

Gregory Herron – Burning Bush HK

 Jonathan’s “out of the box” words and inspiration have done the trick for my launch into semi-super-stardom!

During & after Trailblazer I rented an old warehouse in an industrial building in Hong Kong, renovated it, and built a multi-purpose Training Center that will be used for seminars, discussions, workshops, think tanks, entrepreneur training, adventure-based personal growth, ESL classes, Maths Gym, Online FX Trading classes, and even free community seminars that are in the pipeline as we speak. Put succinctly, IT’S GO TIME.

Seth Leonard – Seth Leonard.com

My business and my brand have grown leaps and bounds since I started Trailblazer. I’m now guiding people through the process of creating dynamic, successful websites with my various projects at Sethleonard.com. I am able to work with a large number of creative and entrepreneurial individuals, but still create the personal and human connections necessary to build websites that change everything.

Working with Jonathan through Trailblazer put me on the path to bringing more authenticity to my work, and to building something much larger than myself. I’m now building a business from the ground up, on my terms, in a way that aligns with who I am and how I want to spend my days.

Ethan Waldman – Cloud Coach

I only started working with Jonathan Mead and Trailblazer in March of 2011, and since then I have launched a successful blog, my very first product (an online course), and have been featured on ProBlogger, Productive Flourishing, and more. My blog, Cloud Coach, helps people live and work in harmony with technology. I help small busine

I’m currently offering the Email Ninja Kit, a free resource kit for anyone who’s buried in email and needs a way out.

My business has clients as a direct result of what I’ve learned from Jonathan. In fact, it certainly would not exist if not for Jonathan Mead and the fantastic product that is Trailblazer.

Annie Disano – Taking Tokyo

At Taking Tokyo, I’m gathering the world’s most ambitious dreamers to create the ultimate space for freedom-seeking. I’ve gone from being suicidal and thinking the world should be handed to me on a silver platter to being crazy ambitious and working toward my ultimate adventure, six months abroad in Japan. Taking Tokyo not only documents my journey from where I was to where I want to be, it also provides tips, case studies, and step-by-step methods to creating that same freedom for yourself.

I’m Annie. I want to show the world what I’m capable of–and, consequently, what the world is capable of. So happy to be a Trailblazer.

Lachlan Cotter – Satori App

The best part is: I love what I do. My clients are some of the most generous and genuine folks on the planet. They’re making the world a better place and I’m obsessed with giving my them the best product I can possibly make. This work means something to me. I’m building something that matters. And I’m in control of my life.

It’s exciting to be alive and it’s a joy to be of service. Thanks for helping to open my eyes.

Lourenço de Azevedo - Devagar

I’ve always had many ideas and notebooks filled with projects. Fortunately lack of creativity is not my issue. My issue was how to put all together in a way that makes sense to me and be confident enough to value it and show it up. With Trailblazer I could focus into the essentials – create a program according to my deep beliefs, motivate my subscribers and launch a product that gave me real fun to design.

In the course sales page it was written -  Earn at least 1k in six months – thanks to Jonathan’s invaluable help and insights I made 4k in seven weeks. I had also the opportunity to meet other people on the same path as I am and realize that – I’m not alone, and there is amazing folks out there doing awesome things with they’re lives.

These are just a few of the many other stories. I wanted to highlight them here to show what our awesome community has accomplished together.

But is all growth and development good, or even necessary?

I’ve learned that there’s no guarantee that growth will make a difference in your business. You can have more people on your list, and no one actually buying. You can have more traffic, and only crickets in your comments section.

There’s a big difference between growth that’s meaningful and growth that’s hollow. The difference is depth.

A lot of people say you need 1,000 true fans. I think that’s a good, tangible goal to aim for.

For our purposes, “True Fans” are defined as: People that buy everything you create. When you announce the launch of a product, creation, or offer, they are actively waiting for you to release it. They refresh the “coming soon” page. They comment on every post. They tell everyone they can about what you do.

1,000 is good because it’s a number that we can wrap our minds around. It seems like a stretch, but it also seems doable. You can convert one true fan a day if you’re really on your game.

But the way most people go about trying to get fans is completely backwards. They target everyone they can (instead of using deliberate content marketing). They shoot for a certain amount of traffic, or try to increase their conversion rate to their email list. These numbers, however, aren’t worth much of anything without those people becoming true fans.

The truth about true fans

Not everyone is going to become a true fan. Even if you go out of your way to do something memorable for every person you come in contact with, not everyone is going to connect with what you do on an insatiable level. And that’s okay.

But the chances of getting 1,000 true fans by a “shotgun” approach is slim at best. I would venture that simply trying to add people to your list will get you about 1 true fan for every 100-500 people you sign up. That’s pretty poor. Not to mention it’s going to take you a long time (potentially 100,000-500,000 people on your list to get you to 1,000 true fans).

So how do you ensure that you don’t just collect a bunch of lukewarm dabblers? How do you find people that are willing to take up arms for your cause, that will vehemently support your work?

There are two keys:

1. Relevance
2. Context

In order to gain true fans you need to be highly relevant. Your work isn’t merely useful (that’s a baseline requirement), they also identify with it. They feel like it’s their work because they it’s something they believe in or feel strongly pulled to.

The die-hard fan

Have you ever seen a die-hard sports fan talk about their team? They don’t say “The Jets lost the superbowl.” They say “OUR team lost the superbowl.” When their team loses, they have lost. When their team wins, they win.

A lot of teams and athletes have this camaraderie built in, simply because that team or athlete comes from the same city or state the fan has. But you don’t need to rely on having “home-town status.” You can create a sense of belonging with your tribe by giving them a reason to rally together.

Here are some questions to think about:

• What is the cause your true fan feels strongly pulled to?
• What is the common enemy your tribe is railing against?
• What makes them feel different?
• What makes them feel united?
• What about their story, history or experiences makes them strongly identified with your cause?

The more you can tell a story that person identifies with, and keep your content relevant and useful, the greater the chances of that person becoming and staying a true fan are.

The importance of context (and some bad news)

The amount of messages, advertisements and marketing intrusions a person receives on a daily basis is massive. 250 billion emails are sent per day. 80% of them are spam.

As creators and artists, our battle is not to win the game of who can create the most stuff. Our challenge is to be at the top of the list of importance to our audience.

That ladder looks something like this:

1. Unmissable. Everything you create must be given attention.
2. Important. Relevant and important, but can be set aside to be looked at later (and potentially forgotten).
3. Relevant. Your content is useful, and relevant, but it’s not important enough to take priority.
4. Mildly interesting. Seems interesting, but there’s too much incoming to pay any attention.
5. Noise. Considered spam or is completely irrelevant. Might as well be invisible.

True fans view everything you create as unmissable. Missing is not an option. If they can’t get tickets (not likely, since they’ve been refreshing the web page), they will jump the fence to get in.

The bad news is, that these true fans are not created out of thin air. They require attention, and care, and to win them you must be memorable.

The case for high-touch

What used to be amazing and unexpected is simply a requirement now. Free shipping used to blow people’s minds. Now people won’t buy something online without free shipping in most cases.

If you want to gain true fans (life-long fans) you need to do something to be a pattern interrupt. You have to care about more than giving people just value. You have to create a memorable experience.

Here are some way you can do that (warning: they all require work):

• Personally call and thank every customer that buys your product.
• Create a short, personalized thank-you video for repeat customers.
• Spend time at an event personally shaking each person’s hand.
• Create an unexpected bonus for people that sign up to your email list.
• Answer every single email.
• Release a movie-style trailer for your product, or do something unexpected. (See how we did this with Trailblazer.)
• Reward your true fans with something memorable that relates to your message or product. Personalize it.
• Hold a contest with one winner, then surprise everyone by giving every entrant a prize.
• Spend a month giving revenue from every sale to a charity related to your message or cause.

Most importantly, do something different. There’s very little competition at the leading edge because everyone is afraid to do something that hasn’t been proven to work.

When it has been proven, it will no longer be effective. It will simply become a requirement to not failing.

This is a marathon

The path of creating a tribe of 1,000 true fans is more of a marathon than a sprint. It’s more like farming than hunting. Most people won’t do it because it’s laborious, time intensive and you don’t often see the results immediately.

But I’m guessing you’re not most people. I’m guessing you were brought here to do more than what’s already been done.

Question for you:

What’s your best tip for cultivating True Fans? Leave your comment below.

The person with the best advice will get a free coaching session with me. 

Note: Dan Andrews from Tropical MBA wrote another great post on this topic which you can read here.

I was in the Navy, working in Search And Rescue in 1990. This was during the first Gulf War. My supervisor gathered up the three of us and said that he had a dilemma. Because of the war, Naval Station Patuxent River, Maryland had a need for two Search And Rescue Medical Technicians to go there on temporary duty.

The Patuxent River Search And Rescue crews were regularly running live rescue operations and we all wanted to get in on the action.

Being stationed in the middle of the Mojave Desert, flying training missions, but rarely doing any actual Search And Rescue work, all three of us were ready to fight for the two slots.

We stood around, looking at each other. Waiting for someone to come up with some kind of solution, you could almost hear the theme from an old Western playing in the background. Each of us waiting for someone else to flinch.

Then it occurred to me. My supervisor had told us of the experiences that he had when he was stationed in Antarctica. So, I posed that the two other guys could take the Patuxent River slots if our supervisor would help me apply for the next Operation Deep Freeze cycle.

Everyone in the room was all smiles and high-fives. The dilemma was solved! Of course there was no guarantee that I would be accepted and actually get to go to Antarctica, but just the chance was good enough for me.

In the worst case, I would just stay at my current base and continue to do the work that I had available to me. Best case would have me going to the most remote continent in the world.

As you can imagine, we were successful in getting me accepted to Operation Deep Freeze.

By being willing to take the risk that I would miss out on a sure thing, I was able to do something that few people in the world ever have. I have lived in Antarctica. I’ve been to the South Pole. I’ve watched a Minke whale swim just a few feet away watching me as it went by. I’ve seen Killer Whales spy-hopping, looking for penguin-snacks on the ice.

Sometimes by taking the risk and letting go of the “sure thing” you can rocket past where you are and make huge gains. Now, this won’t always be the case. There will be times that you take the risk and things won’t pan out.

The more I think about it, the more I’m learning to appreciate the phrase, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” It’s when you’re willing to take a risk that you fully come alive.

What Is Risk Taking?

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool;
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental;
To reach out for another is to risk involvement;
To expose feelings is to risk exposing true self;
To place your ideas, your dreams before the crowd is to risk their loss;
To love is to risk not being loved in return;
To live is to risk dying;
To hope is to risk despair;
To try is to risk failure;
But risk must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing;
The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing and is nothing;
He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love and live;
Chained by his certitudes, he is a slave and has forfeited freedom’
Only a person who risks is free.
-William Arthur Ward

Do not be afraid to laugh, weep and reach out. Expose your feelings, place your ideas and dreams before you. Live. Love. Hope. Most of all, try.

Be alert to the possibilities that life presents to you. When you see them, exercise your freedom and take a risk. You never know where it might take you.

See how far you can go.

About the Author: Pilot and software developer by training, adventure junkie at heart, Mike Routen helps you find the path to your personal freedom at Route To Freedom

photo courtesy of Chantal Steyn

Click here to watch it.

PS: Anything you can do to help share this on your blog, Facebook, Twitter or wherever you hang out is much appreciated. We need to get this message spread!

And I confess, sometimes I stray from that vision.

Sometimes I lose track of what I really want to say, and start thinking about what might be popular instead. Rather than creating something I feel inspired by, I start thinking about what might be viral.

And then I slap myself.

Every time I’ve written something that matters, I’ve allowed my energy to be unrestrained. I’ve poured my heart out because I can’t contain it. I’ve released an idea because it couldn’t be caged.

Here’s the thing: None of those moments were the result of following a formula, a proven “system” or a set of ethics on what’s proven to work.

The secret is there’s no formula for creativity, or doing great work. Any success that’s formulaic is mediocre at best.

Question for you:

Has your greatest work been the result of a formula, or was the most popular thing you’ve created unexpected?

Curious to hear your thoughts,

PS: You might have seen the “on the roof” video (we got a lot of comments and emails about it). We’ll be releasing the thing we hinted at next Tuesday, and I’ll be needing your help.

photo courtesy of eriwst