I filmed a video today in New Zealand.
I dissected the lie: “Give until it hurts.”
This blogging concept changes your course. Forever.
If you struggle or fail this idea turns struggle into ease and failure into success. But you need to buy into the idea of giving freely actually increasing your success versus giving until it hurts.
Watch the video from Opotiki to see me break it down.
If you give and it hurts you are giving conditionally, with an eye on future gain or past lost. During lean days I went mad if after a week of freely giving through my blog and other online channels I spotted only 4 more opt ins, no business and no blogging business collaboration opportunities on the horizon. Giving seemed to hurt me because I gave with heavy expectations. If my getting did not align with my expectations, all hell broke loose in my mind, leading to fits, more struggle and more failure.
One day I chose a different tact; why not give freely and expect nothing? Successful bloggers seemed detached about their success, generously helping people for months even if they did not make a dime through their blogs. This lesson popped up frequently when I watched 4 blogging big dawgs delve into the concept of giving generously to build up your blogging real estate at Affiliate Summit East.
Rather than lament loss, I got busy helping people through:
- my blog
- guest posting
- genuine blog commenting
- Sound Cloud and iTunes podcasts
- YouTube
- Periscope
- products
- eBooks
- services
I devoted all my energies – or like 99% – to giving and expected nothing. I rarely checked my email. I have never checked my blog traffic so no issues on this regard. I stopped checking sales for eBooks and audio books. I trusted the process. I believed in me. I trusted in an idea bigger than me.
Within months, I became more detached and saw greater worldly success. But this only goaded me to care less about outcomes aka getting and to focus more on giving. Giving felt more and more fun. I developed my skills through the idea of practice. More folks learned of me, my blog, my brand and my products, eBooks and services.
The giving slowly but surely became the reward, the joy, the fun. All else was a bonus or extra, or cherry on top, or icing on the cake, with traffic and profits feeling like a pure bonus, not any type of driver.
The more you give the more you get; even if the getting takes months or years, the getting always builds over time. First the getting barely occurs. Then the trickles. Then the flood gates open as the dam bursts. All based on your generous giving and devotion to serving folks sans looking for anything in return.
Give Until It Doesn’t Hurt
Give until it doesn’t hurt. Purge conditional fears. Purge attachment to outcomes. Feel and let go fears of loss, failure and criticism, along with the blanket fear of wasting your time. Good things take time. Keep giving freely, develop your skills, establish a viral online presence and the good things you sow now through your generous service gradually grow into brilliant success.
As you keep giving, a few neat things happen:
- your blogging skills improve, allowing you to shine brightly in your niche
- you appear to be all over your niche because your prolific nature ensures your content pops up all over the place, through various channels
- you become a trusted resource in your niche
- you become pretty detached from outcomes
- your blog traffic and profits increase over months and years
All because you were generous, gave freely of your knowledge and gave until it felt amazing.