Passion: The Missing Ingredient In Your Blog Soup
Courtesy of tastesasgoodasitlooks via Flickr
You remember the story of the stone soup, right? A stranger comes to a very poor village, but no one has enough food to spare for his dinner. So he gathers everyone in the town circle with a tale of his magic stone, capable of making the most delicious soup.
Of course, he eventually persuades the villagers to add little bits of their own. Someone adds a little celery, another some potatoes, another some pasta. Soon, a delicious soup is bubbling in the middle of the town. The stone that started it all may not have produced the soup, but it was surely the catalyst.
Blog Soup
People look at their various talents in the same way. Many just see one or two and think they could never make a delicious blog soup out of those tasty talents. But occasionally, an intrepid soul will get a large pot and toss in their expertise, experience, and skills to create blog soup.
Sometimes it tastes good. A lot of times, it doesn’t.
Some blog soup is just too concentrated – it’s got all the right soup parts, but nothing to help it go down your throat. Some blog soup is watery, a tasteless brine that is easily forgotten. Some blog soup assaults your senses until you think it must be the best blog soup ever, but either you run out or end up starving from malnutrition.
I think the reason a lot of blog soup doesn’t work is because it’s missing the magic stone of passion. Passion won’t fill your belly, but it does make a lot of yummy things happen.
Passion By Any Other Name…
Call it what you will – energy, love, joie de vivre (OK, you don’t have to call it that) – whatever it is, passion is what draws others to us. Passion has an addicting power of attraction. It’s the reason most of us know Robert Scoble, Guy Vaynerchuk, and Chris Brogan. Their love for what they do compels us.
But passion is difficult to harness. It requires loosening your tight grip on the status quo – something that most people are uncomfortable with.
You must let yourself go, take risks, go down uncharted paths, tell others about your missteps, and you have to do all this with a vigor, salivating for more. Be ready to embrace your inner dork. Per Sonia Simone of Remarkable Communication:
“When you write with passion, you’ll grab your reader’s attention and persuade her that you’ve got something worth getting excited about… The key to enthusiastic writing is to be an unabashed dork about what you’re promoting.”
So, dorks make the best soup? Sorta, yeah! But being a dork isn’t bad. What’s a dork besides a passionate individual who is obsessed with whatever it is they love?
Heck, some of most passionate social media/marketing folks are also rock musicians, motorcycle riders, and sky divers. If Jay, David, and Peter are any indication, being a dork can be pretty bad-ass, man.
What’s Cookin’?
Passion is inextricably linked to the self. Some would say that it’s passion that makes us who we are. So, what makes you passionate? What kind of blog soup do you have cooking?
In his recently published e-book, Chris Brogan talks about passion driving one’s personal brand:
“…Passion is what fuels the best of what we do. It’s that tireless drive to do something that we feel matter that will bring us forward in so many ways…A key to your success in life is to find and enhance this same passion.”
Chris speaks to the importance of passion. But if you read this post or his e-book and don’t turn that into action, then it’s wasted passion.
Later this week, I will give you a few tips for figuring out what exactly your passion is, along with practical ways to translate it into success. If this sounds interesting, I recommend subscribing so that you don’t miss it. (It’s free, you can cancel whenever you like, and I’ll never spam you. Pinky swear.)
Passion Into Action
I know the importance of passion and that these suggestions will work if you work at them. That’s why I devoted my 100th blog post to the subject. That’s a lot of blog soup to serve up, but it’s been a blast. My preference for blog soup is the kind that helps people in a practical way, that translates business into something more human.
But more importantly, I want to see what kind of blog soup you serve up. Are you a dork for something you love, as Sonia would say? Or like Chris, does it bring out the best in you?
Most people have some blog soup simmering inside them. But you know the funny thing about the stone soup story I told you at the beginning of this post? Stone soup requires that you share it. Blog soup works the same way.
Don’t let your blog soup scald the pot or go cold. Share it with others. Ignite it with your passion. Start today.
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Tags: blogging, blogs, careers, Chris Brogan, passion, writing
No matter what you’re cooking you have to be passionate about it. You can get away with a lack of passion and have things taste okay, but they never taste great.
One of the most important rules in blogging is to write about what you’re passionate about. If there’s no flare for writing about politics, don’t write about politics. Stick to what you’re good at and you’re bound to do great things.
I have recently been trying to teach my son about the essence of art — that more than having people approve of your work, it has to be authentic, it has to be “you,” whatever “you” may be. This is my favorite blog: http://blogs.courant.com/colin_mcenroe_to_wit/
It has one author — a Connecticut radio show host and newspaper columnist. I am actually bummed when he doesn’t post. It’s got a lot of great stuff, but what makes it great is that it’s him. It’s authentic. I think people who are passionate tend to be authentic — there’s simply no desire to be anything else.
I couldn’t agree more. I always find that my most commented-on and visited blog posts are the ones that were the easiest to write – because I was passionate about the topic.
It’s more than “important.” It makes all the difference in the world.
What a great blog post! I agree; you must be passionate about your topic. If you are, it will come through in your writing.
And Chris Brogan is passionate about social media. His name came to mind when I needed help with a project in this area so I contacted him. Social media=Chris Brogan
This is an awesome post DJ. I especially like the analogy about Stone Soup.
Passion is what I live for. I have a rule that if I’m not passionate about what I’m writing, I don’t write. Period.
Thanks for all the great comments! I’m glad you found this post useful.
Andy – Great comments about teaching your son about being himself. I’ve been thinking about my future fatherhood (not anytime soon, just theoretical) and this is a reminder of the important things to impart.
[...] recently wrote about the necessity of passion in your blog writing, and got some really positive feedback. It’s been great to hear about what you are passionate [...]