Anyone who has followed my blog from the beginning knows that the content has changed over the last couple months.  Originally there was a little poetry and a promise to post photography.  Recently I have found a fondness for writing.

I started a couple of weeks ago taking Jeff Goins’ free course on Intentional Blogging.  This has not been a task that has in anyway improved this blog.  It’s not Goins’ fault.  It’s mine.  I’m looking at a once a week blogger when I had intended to ramp it up a bit.  The struggle from Lesson 2 was trying to find the focus of this blog.  I thought I knew what I wanted to do until Goins’ challenged me to find a focus.  That part of me that runs and hides when I start to get good at something came out again. Fear of being good at this and gaining or attention or fear of not being as good as I thought I was came out to shut me down.

Today I am back to give this a shot.  I plan on using this space as a worksheet to help me find my focus and answer some of Goins’ questions:

SUBJECT

First, what am I passionate about?  Here there are the answers that I should give and the answers that I want to give.  When it really boils down to it I am passionate about helping people to get the most out of life.  To stand up and be heard.  To find the greatness within them.  There are other things I could say:  education, my kids, politics, the Pittsburgh Steelers but in the end, with the exception of the Steelers, I want to affect these things in a positive way.  I want to tell my stories and use my voice to affect change.

Second, In what topic do I have expertise or desire to learn?  This is a tough one too.  I don’t know if I have expertise in too many areas.  I think of myself as a generalist.  I know a little about a lot.  Working through this in my mind, I find I am definitely and expert in what has happened to me in my 40phor years.  I know the lesson that I have learned and I can expertly share them with others.  I also have a desire to delve into politics and how that impacts the world, the US and my backyard.  Especially I am interested in politics and public education.

Finally, what can I write about for a whole year without running out of ideas or energy?  Life.  I have a lot of catching up to do if I want to write about all of the lesson that I have already learned.  New lessons come up all the time so I’ll never run out of copy.

THEME

How can I break this subject down into its various components?  General life lessons, beliefs about leadership, beliefs about education, politics in my life

What do I want to concentrate on?  I want to share the lessons that I’ve learned and continue to learn.

What will my voice be?  Anyone who is a regular reader knows that I am generally anecdotal.  Sometimes I am angry and/or radical but I am going to focus from here on out on what I have learned based on what has happened to me in my 40phor.

OBJECTIVE

What do I want to accomplish with my writing?  I want to share my stories that have built up over the last four plus decades.  I want those stories to impact people.

What impression do I want to leave?  I want to leave the impression that I have something to offer.  I want people to come back and see what I’m talking about today and tomorrow and the next day.

What is my goal?  My goal is to post 100 times before I turn 45 (this is #43 I think).  I have a little over six months to go.  I also want to increase the number of followers I have.  Right now I have about ten people who read my blog regularly.  I’m going to shoot for 50 followers by September 12, 2012.  That will be the date that I become 45.

FOCUS

Using the blog 40phor to share the lessons I have learned in my 40phor years with the intention of impacting people to be the best they can be!