“Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash.” ~ Bruce Lee
You know I am a blogging mindset nut.
I am an energy guy.
Heck; I can only do as I do based on my being.
No way in Hades I could write and publish so many blog posts unless I worked diligently on my energy.
Recently, I have seen something neat occur with my blogging career: the more flexible I am, the more success I see. Financially, exposure-wise and traffic-wise too.
I used to be super rigid across my blogging campaign. Success found me but I always felt tension, or stress, in maintaining such a strong, tight posture.
When I developed energetic posture mixed with a healthy dose of flexibility, I saw increased success.
Martial arts legend and actor Bruce Lee shares a gem of a quote above.
In essence, he advises you to be like water, perhaps the most flexible element on the face of the earth.
Be Like Water
Water takes the shape of its vessel. It seems soft, or weak, too pliable, too flexible.
Yet water erodes granite. Imagine that? By persistently lapping away at rocks, over years, the seemingly soft or weak or fluid water is the most powerful element on earth in many regards.
Forget about the brute force of water. Look at the power inherent in going with the flow, in shaping yourself to your environment and in being flexible.
As a blogger, when you take the shape of any situation you can effortlessly glide through seeming blogging trials and tribulations with grace and ease, while rigid bloggers crash, struggle and fail.
If you want to see me walking my flexible talk, just read this blog post about deleting 3000 of my blog posts.
Flexible bloggers are open to bargaining, or bartering, in certain situations too, seeing money and relationships outcomes above just seeing money outcomes alone.
Being flexible grows your success exponentially throughout many aspects of your blogging campaign.
Flexible Bloggers Prosper
I have set pricing on my products. Courses, eBooks, audio books and paperbacks are fixed-price, non-negotiable offerings.
But most of my services are fairly flexible. I tend to have energetic posture if someone I do not know wants to barter but if a friend approaches me with a reduced rate, I think through both the money I’d receive and the strength of our long term bond before making a decision.
Why?
It is only money.
If I am flexible enough to receive $300 instead of $500, it is all good. Factor in helping a trusted buddy and you have a win-win scenario.
Rigid bloggers who never bend an inch often struggle to make a full time income because their rigidity is rooted in fear, tension, stress and anger.
Much of the time, your prices will stand. I get that. But sometimes, softening just a little bit to meet a buddy halfway or to publish something that benefits your audience is well worth the pay cut.
This advice seems counter-intuitive to my prior posturing stance across the board, in every situation, but as I grow, and gain experience, I see how it is easier to make more and more money when you are flexible, bendable and open to bartering, within reason of course.
The old me completely ignored anyone who attempted to barter or bargain. The new me still releases on strangers who attempt such tactics – if I don’t know them, or trust them, I cannot offer them lower rates with confidence – but shows flexibility in finding a price for services if I am helping trusted friends, in specific cases.
Why?
I realized that much of my old posturing stance was not grounded in love, but in a fear-based, angry energy that was not healthy for me, or my wallet.
Feel the Fear to Blog with Love
Blogging with love is the easiest way to be flexible.
But blogging with love almost always involves facing, embracing, and releasing deeply held fears so you dissolve the lower energies to make room for higher energies.
I often see bloggers on big Facebook Groups complaining about cheap clients, bargain-driving potential clients and tire-kicker readers, with anger and flat out rage seething through their being.
These folks are brimming with fear; fear of loss, fear of being unworthy and fear of running out of money. The fear manifests as false bravado, anger, sarcasm and rage.
The way to dissolve the fear – and anger – is to feel it, however unpleasant the process – so you can clear it out and blog from an energy of love and fun.
Flexible bloggers feel pretty detached from outcomes. If a trusted blogging buddy comes along and asks for a sponsored post in the $300 range versus your normal $500 asking price, the flexible, pliable, loving you sees the opportunity to make $300 and build an even stronger long term friendship.
Even better? When you work with trusted folks for a lesser rate or even better, when you release on strangers who just want the cheapest price, without any anger or sarcasm directed towards them (both of which are the fear of loss, manifest), but with gratitude for them connecting with you in the first place, more money flows to you through established and new sources, almost like a hire hose of cash opening up for you.
Be like water.
Be flexible.