Thoughts on Sustainable Blogging: Passion is Not Enough

01.29.07 11:01AM by Amos

Introduction

I’m in the midst of evaluating this blog and its meaning. Partly to re-energize my creativity and partly to re-calibrate my compass. During this process I’ve been thinking about blogs in general, as filtered through my own experiences and observations. What follows are a few of these thoughts. I find converting thoughts to written words helps clear the mental dust. Sprinkle in some possible feedback and you’re got a tasty recipe for progress.

These thoughts are not canonical by any means and intended as much to orient me as to be debated. I do not profess to be a blogging expert. Such a declaration by anyone would be a little funny as I see it. Blogging doesn’t require a degree. It requires an internet connection, a computer and willingness. Experience and blogging expertise can be measured as much by time spent as one’s awareness of and insight into their blogging habits, weaknesses and strengths. In other words, I’ll take the advice of the insightful and reflective new blogger over the advice of a grizzled veteran “pro blogger” stuck in a ditch. Perhaps this goes for all things and I don’t claim to be either.

The Passion Question

As it relates to blogging I’ve come across the passion advice a lot, that in order to blog well, in order to sustain a blog you need passion. The advice goes something like this, “you need to have a passion for blogging.” That’s the general statement or, “you need to have a passion for [insert your niche topic here]“. I won’t totally disagree with the advice. However, I feel it is misleading because it doesn’t address the transitory nature of emotion. I feel the passion advice is incomplete and doesn’t tell a realistic story of what it takes to maintain a sustainable blog.

The Contextual and Impermanent Nature of Emotion

Passion is simply a strong and compelling emotion. Nothing revelatory there. It’s in any dictionary for the taking. As I see it passion is neither a good thing or a bad thing. It just is. How you use an emotion is what gives it its meaning and purpose. Two archetypal examples demonstrate this. Jesus used his passion for good. Hitler for bad. Each felt passion and each defined their passion in different ways. Jesus’ passion was inclusive. Hitler’s exclusive. Emotion is a contextual beast and the same feeling can be used in polar opposite ways. Passion can sustain something as easily as it can grind it to a halt.

Not only is passion contextual it is also impermanent. Passion doesn’t last and nor it should. Even Jesus had his moment of doubt and flagging devotion to his passion which incidentally inspired him to greater heights. In order to feel an emotion the absence of that emotion is also required, whether via direct experience or by remembrance. In order to feel happy you need to know what it feels like to not be happy. One cannot exist without the other. Wishing for eternal bliss would be a curse of sorts, to be happy for all eternity is to not experience happiness.

An Alternative Orienting Question

The contextual and impermanent being of emotion relegates the passion advice to a good start but nothing on which to build a sustainable blog. Yeah, I’m passionate now but I can be assured of a future point in time when I will not be. Indeed, I’d argue passion is besides the point and dependent on other questions entirely namely “can you be committed to your vision and are you willing to devote yourself to your ideals and passion?” I think these questions get to the heart of sustainable blogging better than “do you have passion.”

Courageous Commitment

Humans may seem illogical at times, lord knows I continually do curious things in-spite of my knowing better, but we’re also predictable. We won’t often do things that do not add value to our lives. Granted sometimes the value is murky and may seem negative but we’ll tend to drop activities and stay committed to others based on value derived. In others words, passion is often predicated on commitment. We stay engaged and committed to people, places or things in-spite of flagging passion, which in turn often helps us re-create our initial enthusiasm. Courageous commitment is the engine of passion.

Can you stay committed to your vision during the times passion is absent? Brimming with abundant passion it’s easy to create the time and space needed to blog effectively, to do anything effectively. It’s something we’re happy to do. However, when the passion has passed can you muster the time and inclination to continue, to find the strength and resources to re-create the passion? I think this is a better starting question than simply asking if you have a passion. Who’s gonna answer that question negatively?

I find it hard to believe someone who starts a personal blog would say to themselves, you know, actually I’m not that passionate about my opinions and thoughts. I find it hard to believe someone would start any type of blog that they’re not passionate about. People don’t willingly engage in activities they think suck. Yeah, I’ve got to visit Grandmother again but I sure as shit ain’t’ gonna spend my time blogging about the mating habits of insects or Microsoft Windows. I assume passion is a given at the beginning of any blogging project.

More useful orienting questions would be are you willing to invest time and energy into a new commitment? Are you the type of person who can stay committed to a new project when it’s a pain in the ass to keep going? Have you done it before? Can you stay committed to your vision and ideals in the absence of comments on your blog? When you get three unique hits a week? When your mother is the only person who responds to your posts? When your mother responds sarcastically to your posts? When you think you are sucking? When you know you are sucking?

Concluding

As I see it courageous commitment is the spine of sustainable blogging. Being devoted to your thoughts and words even when it seems no one else may be. Of course, it is an organic question, not a disposal one. Courageous commitment requires continual evaluation and monitoring and can be especially hard when it seems you’re writing in a vacuum, when no one else is listening. Which brings up the point, blogs are social creations and if you’re not going to be social then what’s the point in having one?

Using The Blog as megaphone, in the absence of mutual social interaction, will result in the demise of passion and commitment. It seems to me blogs are shared, personal hives of communication. The medium of one’s communication can be anything, words, photos, video, all of the above, but the key word is shared. Blogs are about sharing. There exist many traditional avenues or pipelines for sharing one’s communication but how one goes about it doesn’t seem as important as why you’re sharing it in the first place. Broadcasting communication is easy today but why do it in the first place? The Democratization of Voice makes it easier to join meta-conversations. It doesn’t make it a more enriching experience.

I don”t know this feels like another post altogether though so maybe I’ll save the digression for another place and time and come to an abrupt halt here.

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