Althouse

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Logic + Emotion

Philosophistry

Wishful Thinking

Visit the original post to read Roger’s comments on each blog.

I can’t pretend I’m not delighted to appear twice, for Lateral Action and my first blog Wishful Thinking.

But Roger has modestly declined to list his own blog, Creative Think, another essential creativity read.

What Are Your Favourite Creativity Blogs?

Which blogs in Roger’s list do you read and recommend?

Are there any creativity blogs you would add to the list?

About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.

Photo by dr_vaibhavahuja

It doesn’t matter how good you are.

If your face is unknown and your name doesn’t ring a bell, success will be a struggle for you.

Your work will be rejected by editors and gallery owners. Your best blog posts will go unread. You’ll have to work hard to generate leads for your business - and even harder to close the sale.

But if you’re a big name, everything is easier.

Instead of tossing your manuscript into the slush pile, editors vie for your signature. You’re invited to all the trendy gallery openings and schmoozed by the top people.

You’ve hardly hit ‘publish’ on your latest blog post before the comments and Tweets alight on it and the StumbleUpon traffic starts to pour in.

There are advance orders and waiting lists for every product you release. You can name your fee for consulting and cherry-pick the best jobs.

Is it fair? Maybe not. But it’s true - and here’s the proof.

At the height of his fame, the Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope became so intrigued by what he felt to be ‘an injustice in literary affairs’ that he decided to perform an unusual experiment:

It seemed to me that a name once earned carried with it too much favour … I felt that aspirants coming up below me might do work as good as mine, and probably much better work, and yet fail to have it appreciated. In order to test this, I determined to be such an aspirant myself, and to begin a course of novels anonymously, in order that I might see whether I could obtain a second identity.

(Anthony Trollope, An Autobiography, 1883)

In his book Art Worlds, Howard Becker describes how Trollope published two stories anonymously, to see how they were received compared to stories published under his name. As he expected, the stories received praise from the few people who read them, but they achieved ‘no real success’.

When Trollope wanted to publish a third story, his publisher lost patience and refused - it simply wasn’t worth the effort to publish and promote an unknown, compared to the rewards of publishing ‘a new Trollope’.

Trollope reflected that it would be possible to succeed under another name, but it would take an enormous amount of work:

Another 10 years of unpaid unflagging labour might have built up a second reputation. But this at any rate did seem clear to me, that with all the increased advantages which practice in any art must have given me, I could not at once induce English readers to read what I gave them, unless I gave it with my name.

Educated readers might pride themselves on their literary judgement, but their tastes were just as heavily influenced by brand names as shoppers buying pies:

It is a matter of course that in all things the public should trust to established reputation. It is natural that a novel reader wanting novels should send to a library for those by George Eliot or Wilkie Collins, as that a lady when she wants a pie should go to Fortnum and Mason.

Trollope concluded that ‘very much consideration is due to the bitter feelings of disappointed authors’ - since their lack of reputation meant that their work was unfairly overlooked.

But was it really so unfair?

For a famous author, Trollope showed an admirable sympathy for less well-known writers, but he also modestly overlooked the years of ‘unpaid unflagging labour’ that it took him to build his own reputation. We know from his autobiography that for most of his career he got up at 5:30 am to write his novels before starting his day job.

Trollope wasn’t given his reputation - he earned it. Just like Fortnum and Mason:

Fortnam and Mason can only make themselves Fortnum and Mason by dint of time and good pies combined.

In other words, there are no shortcuts to success. One pie doesn’t build a great brand, just as one good post doesn’t build a killer blog. And two excellent stories don’t make a great author. It takes time, effort and perseverance.

It also takes something else. Something many people are reluctant to do.

It takes changing your mindset, letting go of the idea that doing good (or even amazing) work is enough. ‘Build it and they will come’ may work in the movies, but in real life you can end up doing a lot of lonely building.

If you really want your work to be seen, heard and loved - and to bring you recognition and rewards - then you need to see ‘getting it out there’ as part of the job. It’s pretty simple when it comes down to it:

Making + Marketing = Success

Success doesn’t have to be all about money. If you’re doing something worthwhile, it will also involve the satisfaction of making a contribution to the wider world, being recognised for your achievements and creating new opportunities for yourself and others.

And marketing isn’t just about selling. It’s about building your reputation or personal brand, and expanding your sphere of influence.

The good news is that these days there are plenty of tools and opportunities for you to build a stellar reputation from scratch, without having to go cap-in-hand to an agent or spend a fortune on advertising. Things like blogs, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Behance, DeviantArt and other networks.

But none of that stuff means doodly squat until you answer yes to this question:

Am I prepared to put my creative energy into promoting my work as well as making it?

Who Can You Be Now?

How do you feel about devoting time and energy to promoting your work?

Have you ever made a conscious decision to work harder at marketing yourself or your business? What did you do? What happened as a result?

What kind of reputation would you like to earn?

About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.

Activity is not productivity - we all know that.

But why do we keep engaging in activities that are not productive?

One answer: Simply because it is easy to engage in activities that are not productive.

This is true especially when it comes to activities that are geared towards building engagement with the other person.

Sometimes, it is easy to think you are engaged when you are not even on the other person’s radar.

Here is the basic rule:

When you are engaging with your network (online or offline) who you are AND the nature and level of conversations you have will influence your level of your engagement with the other person.

The diagram above shows ONE framework that explains this relationship.

As you can see, the need for creativity goes up significantly when you need higher levels of engagement

Here are the levels:

• A. Mindless Chatter: This is basically saying whatever comes to your mind and sometimes you might get a reply (the other person may also be bored, right?) and you might think there is engagement.
• B. Inconsequential Topics: These are like ice-breakers. After you break the ice, you have to move on but many people are happy to continue those conversations forever and think they are engaged.
• C. Genuine, Caring and Thoughtful Conversations: You are genuine, caring and thoughtful about those topics you are discussing. That comes across and this is like the entry point to getting the other person engaged at a higher level. When I say this is an “entry ticket,” it means there is more work to be done. It’s not over.
• D. Immediate Relevance: From here on, you always include the previous section starting from C (Genuine, Caring and Thoughtful) as a given. You talk about things that are of immediate relevance to the other person. So you become a positive possibility for the other person right NOW.
• E. Future Relevance: You start engaging in conversations that are of immediate and future relevance to the other person. You show that you are a positive possibility for the other person now and in the future.
• F. Who You Are: This is where your personal brand kicks in. You not only show that you are a positive possibility in the immediate and future concerns of the other person in your conversations but also by showing “who you are.” The other person will make an assessment on the level of engagement based on both - what you are saying and who you are.

Think about all your conversations in the last thirty days. Where do you slot them? Are they in the right slot to elicit the right level of engagement?

If not, start unlocking your creativity to engage in higher-level conversations that will automatically lead to higher levels of engagement.

A quick note on Twitter: I included a reference to Twitter because you have an opportunity to initiate conversations with people that are loosely connected to you (meaning you are following them and they are not following you). It is easy to have a LOT of conversations on Twitter that are at best leading to moderate levels of engagement. You could, if you wish THINK and take these conversations to the next level by being thoughtful and creative. It’s your choice.

About the Author: Rajesh Setty is an entrepreneur, author and speaker based in Silicon Valley. Rajesh maintains a blog at Life Beyond Code. You can also find him on Twitter at @UpbeatNow.

Photo by Simon Blackley

A few months ago a psychologist and conductor collaborated on an unusual psychological experiment - using a full symphony orchestra.

In an article for Miller McCune Online Magazine, Tom Jacobs reports how members of the Arizona State University Orchestra were asked to play the Brahms’ First Symphony twice. The first time, they were given the following instructions:

Think about the finest performance of this piece that you can remember. Play it that way.

The second time, these were the instructions given to the orchestra:

Play this piece in the finest manner you can, offering subtle new nuances to your performance.

Before reading on, stop and think about the likely effect on performance of the two sets of instructions. Do you think there would be any significant difference between the two performances? Would you expect either performance to be better or worse than the other?

In the event, the performances were judged by an audience with considerable knowledge of classical music. When asked by the experimenters, the audience consistently rated the second performance as better than the first.

Why?

According to Dr. Ellen Langer, the psychologist in charge of the experiment, the critical difference was mindfulness:

Mindfulness is an effortless, simple process that consists of drawing novel distinctions, that is, noticing new things. The more we notice, the more we become aware of how things change depending on the context and perspective from which they are viewed. Mindfulness requires, however, that we give up the fixed ways in which we’ve learned to look at the world.

(Ellen J. Langer, On Becoming an Artist : Reinventing Yourself Through Mindful Creativity)

Langer has performed extensive research on the effects of mindfulness, including its impact on creativity and live performance. In the case of the orchestra, she argues that the first set of instructions led the orchestra to reproduce a ‘fixed’ past performance from memory, taking their attention away from the present moment.

The second performance however, the orchestra was invited to express ‘new nuances’ in their playing - which, according to Langer, meant they were mindfully aware in the present. This awareness and presence was what made the difference, eliciting the following comments from the audience:

“There was more energy.” “The dynamic range was wider.” “The louds and softs were more pronounced.”

(Reported in ‘The Marriage of Mozart and Mindfulness’ by Tom Jacobs)

Mindfulness - a Key to Top Performance

These findings will be no surprise to those of us who habitually perform in front of an audience - whether in a theatre, concert hall or conference room. Our best performances are invariably the ones where we feel most ‘awake’ and focused on the task in hand and the other people in the room.

As performers, we face a delicate balancing act. On the one hand we need to be properly prepared and rehearsed, but if we just stand up and regurgitate the material by rote then it becomes boring, for us as well as the audience. This can be particularly difficult when we are repeating the same performance over and over again, like the orchestra in Langer’s experiment.

I once read an interview with the American poet Billy Collins, talking about a long tour where he was reading many of the same poems night after night. Occasionally he would catch himself ‘drifting off’ in the middle of reading - his remedy for this was to open the book at random and read a poem he hadn’t rehearsed. This kept him on his toes and brought the reading to life again, as he was essentially rediscovering the poem alongside his audience.

On the other hand, if we are under-prepared or new to performing, our nerves can get the better of us, and we can get too caught up in trying to get it ‘right’ that we are not truly present. Which is why presentation guru Garr Reynolds highlights mindfulness as one of the keys to successful presenting:

Worries are the worst things of all because they are always about the past or about the future, two things that do not even exist in the present. In our daily lives and in our work lives, including presenting, we’ve got to clear our minds and be only one place: right here.

(Garr Reynolds - Presentation Zen)

Mindfulness in performance represents the ’sweet spot’ between too much novelty and arousal (anxiety) and too much familiarity and relaxation (boredom).

One Way to Be More Mindful

Mindfulness is a wonderful thing, but it’s not easy to cultivate - especially for those of us who habitually immerse ourselves in the digital distractions of the internet. Even secluded in a monastery, it can be extremely difficult to maintain mindfulness for any length of time.

The conductor’s instructions in the experiment illustrate one gateway to mindfulness - noticing novelty. Here’s another.

I invite you to follow the steps below in order to become more fully present right now.

1. Ask yourself ‘Where are my feet right now?’. Chances are they’ll be where you left them - at the end of your legs. And it’s equally likely that you weren’t aware of them until you read that question.
2. Focus all your attention on your feet. Notice how they feel - warm or cool, heavy or light, whatever. Don’t try to relax them. Just pay attention to the sensations in your feet right this moment.
3. Now widen your awareness to include your legs as well as your feet. As before, just notice the physical sensations in the area you’re focusing on.
4. Gradually expand your field of attention to include your whole body, from head to feet, so that you are fully aware of how your body feels right now.
5. Now pay attention to the sounds you can hear around you, as well as the physical sensations in your body.
6. Finally, look around and notice the colours and shapes you can see - while still listening and sensing your body. Look, listen, feel - right here, right now.

How do you feel?

Most people report that following these steps has the effect of calming and centring them, so that it’s easier to pay attention to the present moment. (Sometimes it can take a bit of practice, so hang in there if you found it difficult.)

The nice thing about this technique is that you can use it just about anywhere - during a meeting, driving on the highway, chatting to friends, walking along the street. The more you practice it, the easier it will get. Which means you’ll find it much easier to be mindful when it really matters - e.g. when you have a big presentation to give or a big performance to deliver.

(For the ‘Where are my feet?’ question, I have to thank my friend and colleague Kathleen Haden, a wonderful therapist who keeps everyone around her on their toes.)

Over to You

Do you ever struggle to be mindful and present when giving a public performance?

Any tips for cultivating mindfulness?

What difference does it make when you make a conscious effort to be more mindful?

About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.

Not a pseudo-celebrity social media rock star…

A real rock star.

I didn’t become a rock star because I didn’t try.

I told myself I couldn’t do it, or maybe I was simply afraid to fail.

Knowing what I know now, I know I could have done it.

Knowing what I know now, I know I can do anything I truly want to do.

Not that it’ll be easy… just that it’s doable.

Listen.

Skip directly to what you truly want to do.

Don’t substitute.

Don’t settle.

Do.

About the Author: Brian Clark is a new media entrepreneur and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.

Photo by jcoterhals

Imagine I could show you a simple technique that would take just 20 minutes out of your day and was scientifically proven to boost your productivity by 34%. Would you try it?

Sounds like a no-brainer, right?

Now supposing I told you you that this technique involved lying down to take a nap every day after lunch. How does that sound?

A nice idea? Too good to be true? Ready to try it today?

I know what you’re thinking. “That’s all very well - but what would the boss say?”

Come to think of it, what would your colleagues and clients have to say if they saw you fast asleep at your desk, or reclining in a hammock strung across the cubicle? What would that do for your reputation at work?

If you work from home, then logically none of these objections should stand. After all, who would notice if you lay down on the sofa for 20 minutes after lunch? Maybe the cat - but I don’t know many cats who disapprove of naps.

Oh yes. I know who. Your Inner Boss. You know, that little part of your mind that tells you Just because you work from home, it’s no excuse for being a slacker. You should be working just as hard as anyone in an office. You want to lie down and rest during working hours? Have you really got enough done to justify that…?

This kind of puritan work ethic seems to be deeply ingrained in our culture - at least in northern Europe, where I live. We associate naps and siestas with hot countries where they take very long lunches and do very little work as a consequence. It feels much more productive to steel ourselves for a long hard day of toil, pushing through the boundaries of sleepiness and laziness.

It may feel that way, but the scientific evidence contradicts it.

The Power of Naps

In his book Brain Rules molecular biologist John Medina takes a good look at our working and learning habits in the light of the latest research, and finds them seriously wanting. Here he is on the subject of naps, from a recent interview with the New York Post.

There’s a time in the afternoon when your brain wants to do a reset. And during that time it wants to take a 15- to 20-minute nap. We call it the nap zone. If you don’t allow yourself to take a nap during that time, you’ll fight being sleepy the rest of the afternoon, and productivity can suffer.

So gritting your teeth and working in spite of drowsiness isn’t even foolish productivity. It’s the illusion of productivity. I know the feeling well - on the days when I’m ‘too busy’ to take a break, I can feel my brain slowing down in the afternoon. The simplest mental operations start to feel like wading through treacle. Complex demanding work, like writing articles, can become almost impossible.

So I felt a twinge of recognition when I read Medina’s explanation that the brain “wants to do a reset”. That’s exactly the feeling I get after a nap - as if my brain were a laptop that becomes slow and glitchy after a few hours, but starts running smoothly again once it’s rebooted. If I make time for a 20 minute nap after lunch, I get a renewed sense of energy and focus in the afternoon. I invariably get a lot more done, to a higher standard.

It turns out this is one of the few things I have in common with NASA fighter pilots:

It was measured by NASA. They were able to show that by giving their fighter pilots a 20-minute nap in the nap zone, you’d find an increase of about 34 percent in their mean reaction time performances.

Mark Rosekind, the guy who did the study, goes, “Look, what other management technique can I do that, in 20 minutes, gives a 34 percent boost in productivity?”

John Medina, New York Post interview

As Brian pointed out a few weeks ago, sleep and daydreaming boost creativity as well as productivity. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been wrestling with a difficult problem or stuck on a piece of work - and found the answer easily after a quick nap.

How to Nap for Maximum Power

Notice when you want to nap. For most people this is during the first hour or two after lunch, but you may be different. Start to pay attention to your circadian rhythms - the rising and dipping of your energy levels throughout the day.

Once you’ve identified your ‘nap zone’, start to schedule meetings and intensive bursts of work around it. And when it comes to nap time, here’s the drill:

1. Switch off all your phones so you won’t be interrupted.
2. Lie down or recline in a comfortable chair. Take your shoes off and loosen any belts or ties.
3. Set an alarm to go off in 20 minutes’ time. It’s important not to nap longer than this - Medina tells us that if you sleep for an hour “you’ll actually get drowsier”.
4. If you find it difficult to doze off, try this simple technique. Focus your attention on your feet. Count to 10 in your mind, imagining your feet becoming more relaxed with each number. Then switch your attention your lower legs and do the same - gradually moving your attention over your whole body and relaxing each part in turn. Chances are you’ll be asleep by the time you’ve covered the whole body - but if not, start again from your feet up. The more you practice this, the easier it will get, to the point where you can power nap just about any time you need to.

Last but not least - pay attention to the results. Do you feel more or less alert and productive after a nap? For a few days, alternate ‘nap days’ with ‘no nap days’ and measure how much you actually get done. Once you’ve got some hard data, you can make an informed choice.

Are You Ready to Nap like a Pro?

Have I sold you on the idea of productive napping? Can you convince your (inner) boss that it won’t turn you into a lazy good-for-nothing overnight?

I’m sure you’re not a wimp like Lou, who’s so attached to his self-image as a ‘guy who gets things done’ that he would never be seen asleep at work.

In his mind, he’s a superhero, but if he took a good look at what’s really in the mirror, he’d see how feeble his daily efforts really are.

He’s so scared of looking ‘lazy’ that he’ll never be truly productive.

About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.

Hugh MacLeod’s book Ignore Everybody has just landed.

Not content with giving Lateral Action a terrific interview about his work, Hugh was kind enough to send me an advance copy of the book a few weeks ago - it arrived on Friday afternoon and I didn’t go to bed that night until I’d finished it (as well as an unspecified number of beers).

If you are serious about creativity and making a living from your passion, you need to get this book. It’s also the perfect present for the creative entrepreneur in your life.

It would be worth your while just for the advice it contains - a combination of inspiration and pragmatism, based on Hugh’s years of trial, error and persistence in honing his craft and following his dream.

Here are a few chapter headings, to give you a flavour of the world according to Hugh:

10. Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb.

11. The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props.

12. Don’t try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether.

13. If you accept the pain, it cannot hurt you.

14. Never compare your inside with somebody else’s outside.

15. Dying young is overrated.

16. The most important thing a creative person can learn professionally is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do, and what you are not.

The book would also be worth your while for the sharp and funny cartoons, like this one:

As you get the philosophy AND the cartoons, it’s a no-brainer.

If you don’t believe me, download the sample chapters for free and see for yourself.

As someone pointed out, the book does contain a bit of swearing. So I guess it’s not for the fainthearted.

But then neither is creativity.

In my professional opinion as a psychotherapist, you’d have to be a crazy deranged fool not to buy it.

Photo by JeffBelmonte

Some people say the recession means the end of business as usual. I disagree.

Of course, if your idea of business as usual was like Lou’s - a steady job, predictable market and rewards for hard work, keeping your head down and your nose clean - then it probably feels like the world has been turned upside down by recent events.

But as we said right at the start of Lateral Action, the rise of the creative economy is a long-term trend, and we’ve been living in a world where creativity is economic priority number one for some time.

And you know what? Creativity is unpredictable and risky. Sometimes it’s downright scary. Effects don’t always follow neatly from causes; hard work won’t necessarily be rewarded. On the contrary, it could just turn out to be foolish productivity. Rewards come from being curious, agile, aware of the market and willing to experiment to see what works.

So for me, the recession hasn’t brought anything radically new, just accelerated the rate of change and instability. It’s stripped away a lot of the fluff and complacency, and clarified what’s needed to survive and thrive in a world governed by the capricious laws of creativity.

Why Motivation Is Critical to Your Success

Motivation is vital for success in the creative economy. Not just because you need to be stubborn to succeed in any business venture. And not just because the economic storms we’re flying through are frightening enough to test anyone’s nerves. But also because, as I said in my e-book How to Motivate Creative People (Including Yourself), motivation has a huge influence on creative performance.

Human beings are driven by four basic types of motivation - some of which are particularly important when it comes to creative work:

1. Intrinsic motivation - the love of the work itself. Intrinsic motivations include: interest; challenge; learning; meaning; purpose; creative flow. Research has shown that high levels of intrinsic motivation are strongly linked to outstanding creative performance.
2. Extrinsic motivation - rewards for good work or punishments for poor work. Extrinsic motivations include: money; fame; awards; praise; status; opportunities; deadlines; commitments; bribes; threats. Research shows that too much focus on extrinsic motivation can block creativity.
3. Personal motivation - individual values, linked to personality. Examples include: power; harmony; achievement; generosity; public recognition; authenticity; knowledge; security; pleasure. Each of us prioritizes some values over others; understanding your own values and those of people around you is key to motivating yourself and influencing others.
4. Interpersonal motivation - influences from other people. Much of our behaviour is a response to people around us, such as: copying; rebellion; competition; collaboration; commitment; encouragement.

Put the four together, and you get a matrix containing four basic drivers. For a project or enterprise to be sustainable and successful, you need to tick all four boxes. Neglect any one of them, and it could be like the dodgy leg on a table that brings the whole thing crashing to the ground.

Four Motivators That Will Get You through the Recession

There are many different motivators in each of the four squares. In the diagram below, I’ve listed four that become critically important during a recession.

Photo by JeffBelmonte

• Challenge - depending on how you look at it, the economic crisis could be an overwhelming problem, an unmitigated disaster, or an inspiring challenge. Maybe even an opportunity. Take a moment to look at it through each of these lenses in turn - How do you feel? Which one is most motivating?
• Friends and Enemies - When things get tough, you find out who your real friends are. Stick together. As Seth Godin points out in Tribes, there are few things more powerful than mutual loyalty, support and encouragement. Who are your enemies? It could be the competition - or even the recession itself. Are you going to let it beat you? A common enemy will give you and your friends a common cause to fight for.
• Rewards - This is probably the weakest of the four drivers during a crisis, as the payoff for all the hard work can seem far off in the future, or even non-existent. So it’s essential to look at the big picture and remind yourself where you’re headed and what the rewards will be. You can also make use of non-monetary rewards. For example, I recently came across a company where people are being promoted without pay rises - the money will come later, but for now they are happy to take the status and other privileges of the position.
• Heroes - The recession is your chance to be a hero, to save your part of the world. Heroes don’t sit behind a desk shuffling paper (or e-mail). They get out there, roll up their sleeves, slay the dragons and rescue the princesses. What are you waiting for?

You’ve probably realised by now that you don’t need a recession to pay attention to these four factors. They are crucial to succeeding in any circumstances.

But faced with an economic crisis, it’s tempting to play it safe or go for shortcuts. To stop investing time, effort and energy in building for the long-term, adding real value and strengthening relationships with your partners, collaborators and customers.

Obviously you need to keep rewards on your radar and do everything you can to maximise them. But if you just focus on short-term rewards, it can feel like you’re making slow progress day-to-day. The big rewards are off in the future, and it sometimes feels like you’ll never get there.

This is where the other three squares can help you. Unlike rewards, these motivators are all available right now:

You can look at the difficulties you face and see them as a challenge - right now.

You can look around you and reach out to support and encourage your friends - right now.

You can confront your enemy - whether in the external forces ranked against you, or inside you, in the voice of your inner saboteur counselling a timid retreat - right now.

You can be a hero, working to fix things and build them up again - right now.

You can pick up the gauntlet - right now.

How Do You Meet a Challenge?

Has the recession changed the way you approach your work? If so, how?

How do you motivate yourself when things get tough?

Which of the motivators I describe works best for you? What others would you add?

About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.

Blogs and Twitter have almost eliminated any barrier to publishing. You have an idea and in a few minutes your thoughts can be online. Think about it – with every person thinking about more than 50,000 thoughts a day, producing online content can be simple.

Maybe. But simply churning out meaningless content does not guarantee that others will read what you write. Make this mistake and people will read what you write and write you off.

What’s the alternative?

Use your creativity to generate content that will inspire and transform the lives of the audience in a positive way. Remember that it costs time (and indirectly – money) for your audience to read what you write. And, they expect a good return for that investment.

You will know whether you are succeeding in influencing your audience in a positive way because the audience will tell you. No, maybe not directly but by the way they respond to your content.

So, here are the nine ways your audience will respond to your online content:

1. Spam: If your content does not provide a reasonable ROII (return-on-investment for an interaction) for the reader or is self-serving or simply useless, the reader will mark it as spam. Posting something that may be assessed, as “spam” is the fastest way to losing credibility.
2. Skip: The reader makes an assessment that he or she won’t lose much by reading it. In this case, the reader has not written you off yet but if you consistently create content that is worth “skipping,” the reader might write you off.
3. Scan: The reader thinks there are only a few parts that are of relevance and wants to get right to the core of the content and skip the rest.
4. Stop: The reader is touched by the article and stops to think about the article, it’s relevance and what it means to him or her personally and professionally.
5. Save: The content is so good that the reader might want to re-visit this multiple times.
6. Shift: The article is transformational. The reader is so deeply affected (in a positive way) by the article that it shifts some of their values and beliefs. In other words, this piece of writing will transform the reader and make him or her grow.
7. Send: The content is not only useful to the reader but also to one or more people in the reader’s network. The reader simply emails the article or a link to it to people that he or she cares.
8. Spread: The reader finds the article fascinating enough to spread it to anyone and everyone via a blog, twitter or the social networks that he or she belongs.
9. Subscribe: This is the ultimate expression of engagement and a vote of confidence that you will continue to provide great content. When the reader wants to continue listening to your thoughts, he or she will subscribe.

Finally, here are a few things to consider before you post your next online content:

1. Understand Your Audience

Unless you are writing something for your private consumption, your audience should be the center of the focus and not you. The more you know about your audience, the better you can connect with them. Think about:

• Who is your audience?
• Why are they reading what you are writing?
• What are their concerns in general and what are their concerns NOW?

2. Check Your Objective

Some questions to think about:

• What is the purpose of your article?
• What assessment do you want the reader to create by reading your article?

3. Unleash Your Creativity

You know the audience and you know the purpose of the article. Now the next step is to unleash your creativity and create something that will generate the kind of response that you are looking for.

Some questions to think about:

• What would be unique (content, point-of-view etc.) in this article that will make the audience do what I want them to do?
• How can you make this article “extremely relevant” to the current times?
• What can you include that will increase the “longevity” of the article?

4. Learn from Feedback

You already know the nine ways that people respond to your online content. When people act the way they do, they are providing you valuable feedback. Keeping your emotions aside, learn from the feedback and incorporate this learning into your next article.

Background: An earlier version of this article was titled Skip, Scan, Stop, Save and/or Spread. Thanks to several people especially Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki and Kathy Hendershot-Hurd who helped me enhance the initial concept through their comments.

About the Author: Rajesh Setty is an entrepreneur, author and speaker based in Silicon Valley. Rajesh maintains a blog at Life Beyond Code. You can also find him on Twitter at @UpbeatNow.

Image by Mr J. Doe

WARNING: Shawshank Redemption Movie Spoiler.

One of the most dramatic and effective flashback endings in cinema comes at the end of The Shawshank Redemption - so look away now if you’ve not seen the film and don’t want to know about it!

Andy Dufresne, convicted of the murder of his wife and her lover, is sentenced to two consecutive life sentences at Shawshank State Penitentiary in Maine. Faced with this situation, most of us would go for one of two alternatives: fight to clear our names through the legal system, or resign ourselves to serving our time. Andy did neither.

Instead, he devised an elaborate escape plan. He used his financial skills to set a trap for the prison warders, luring them in with their greed and tangling them up in a web of dodgy deals, hooked onto a fake identity - which was then ready and waiting for him to assume when he got out. Meanwhile, he was chipping away, night after night, at the wall of his prison cell with a rock hammer, covering the hole with posters of movie divas.

It took Andy nearly 20 years to tunnel through the wall - a superhuman effort by any standards. But the final leg of his journey was probably worse than anything he had to endure previously, crawling half a mile through a narrow sewage pipe full of human excrement. In the words of Andy’s friend Red:

Andy crawled to freedom through 500 yards of shit-smelling foulness I can’t even imagine - or maybe I just don’t want to.

Now make no mistake, Andy was a brilliant creative thinker. I could probably have spent a lifetime in Shawshank without coming up with a plan as clever as his. But as we’ve said before, creative thinking is not enough - you need to follow through with action. Red daydreamed about tunnelling through the wall, even trying to work out how long it would take - but he did nothing. By his own admission he didn’t want to even imagine the obstacles, let alone face them for real.

Andy’s plan also relied on his experience as a successful banker - without his financial knowledge, he would have had no honey to bait his trap for the wardens. And he needed a keen knowledge of human psychology and influence in order to home in on the guards’ weaknesses and lure them into the trap.

But Andy could have had all of these things and still failed. What set him apart from the other prisoners - those who daydreamed but did nothing, and those who started out but gave up - was his stubbornness.

It was his stubbornness that made him stand up to his tormentors among the prisoners. It was his stubbornness that helped him put up with abuse and humiliation from Warden Norton and the other prison staff, as he slaved away at the financial scheme.

And it was his stubbornness at chipping away at that prison wall with a hammer, night after lonely night, when everyone else had gone to bed, that brought him success.

On any given night, he could hardly have blamed himself if he had been ‘too tired’ to put in the night shift with the hammer. There must have been many, many nights when his progress seemed so slow, his achievements so miniscule, the task so difficult and risky, that he was tempted to give up. Any reasonable human being would have given up long before they made it through the wall. The only thing that kept him going was an irrational, unstoppable determination.

Had he decided to give up, Andy could have had all the excuses he wanted. But he didn’t want excuses. He wanted freedom - and he was prepared to pay the price.

From the outside, Andy’s stubbornness may have looked like foolhardiness. But Andy was no fool. Like Seth Godin, he understood the principle of The Dip. In his book of the same name, Seth points out that whenever you start a major undertaking you will inevitably run into difficulties (’the dip’). At that point you need to look ahead and ask yourself: Will persevering lead to a better life or more of the same difficulty? If more of the same, you should quit as fast as possible.

But if you can look ahead and see a time when your present efforts are rewarded, so that life becomes easier on the other side, then it would be foolish to quit. At this point, you need to be as stubborn and dogged as Andy, chipping away with his hammer.

Fortunately most of us will never find ourselves in Andy’s predicament. We won’t have to make the choices he did, and work against such overwhelming odds. But if you’ve ever felt constrained by your work or life situation, and dreamt of a better life, you’ll know something of what drove Andy to escape.

When you consider the sentences contracts, shackles and (golden) handcuffs that lock millions into corporate servitude, not to mention the drab uniforms and cell-like cubicles, it’s no wonder one of the most popular blogs for aspiring entrepreneurs is called Escape from Cubicle Nation.

Contrary to appearances, most entrepreneurs are not driven by money. Sure, they do their best to amass as much of it as they can - but the money is not as important as what it brings them: freedom.

If you’re one of those independent-minded souls who hates being told what to do and having to settle for mediocrity imposed by others, then being trapped in an unfulfilling job (or relationship, or any other limiting situation) can start to feel, without too much exaggeration, like a prison. And if you want to escape, then you’ll need to do as Andy did.

Like Andy, you’ll need to hatch a brilliant plan, looking at the same obstacles and constraints as everyone around you - yet seeing the opportunity no-one else has spotted.

Like Andy, you’ll need to draw on all your past experience and skills - and maybe develop some new ones, including talents you’d never have suspected in yourself.

Like Andy, you’ll need to look into the souls of people around you, note their desires and foibles, and influence them to play their part in your plan. (Though hopefully you’ll have a wider choice of associates, and can look for win-win outcomes - as Andy did when he helped his friend Red.)

Like Andy, you may well reach a point where any reasonable human being would give up - when your plans are thwarted time and again, things take longer than you expected (even after you’ve allowed for them taking longer than your expected), and obstacles keep appearing out of the blue. You may even have people around you advising you, with the best of intentions, to ‘quit while you’re behind’.

At that point, like Andy, you’ll have to rely on your stubbornness to succeed, pushing through the final barriers no matter how much pain or unpleasantness you have to endure.

And when you finally break through, just like Andy, you’ll know the sweet taste of freedom.

At this point, you may notice a difference in the attitudes of people around you. Instead of expressing concern about your naivety or pigheadedness, they start to express admiration for your determination and clarity of vision.

Others may forget or fail to notice the stubbornness and sacrifice, and tell you how ‘lucky’ you are to be doing what you’re doing, with all the opportunities that are now open to you.

You may be tempted to retort and tell them what it cost you. But it could be more fun to follow Andy’s example one more time - smile, assume your newfound identity, collect your reward and stroll out into the sunshine.

How Stubborn Are You?

Have you ever succeeded against apparently impossible odds? How did you do it?

How do you decide whether it’s worth persevering with something - or time to quit?

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received/given about the power of persistence?

About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.