This post was most recently updated on July 31st, 2016
What’s the nature of your blog?
OK, now don’t think I lost it here, but I promise this analogy will help you see that your blog isn’t something dangling in space, but rather part of you, and a part of nature.
Humans are part of nature.
Everything we do and express becomes part of nature and so do our blogs.
I love observing nature.
It fascinates me how it mirrors life in so many ways.
So here is an analogy that hit me about the nature of your blog.
Beneath The Surface
I was looking at the grand old oak tree that lives in front of my home and it occurred to me that it is just like the nature of
my blog.
Now this grand old oak tree has a very distinctive look and feel.
It is very tall, with a perfect straight trunk and long elegant branches. It makes me feel uplifted and protected when I look
at it.
But that’s just its appearance.
The fact is, as much of the tree as appears to me, the same amount is simultaneously hidden.
As tall as it is, as thick as its trunk, as outreaching its branches are, is the same size, thickness and breadth that it possesses under the ground.
If a tree is 30 feet above the ground, it is also 30 feet below the ground. What I see above the ground gives me clues as to what lies beneath, but since I can’t see it, I’m not really sure what its “hidden nature” is.
The roots of the tree are really what determine its beauty, stature and appearance as I observe it.
I see the trunk, branches and leaves.
But not the roots.
So, too, with your blog.
I can read it’s content, but what lies beneath?
What exactly, is the full nature of your blog… including the part that nobody sees.
Exploring Your Roots
Another way of asking the question is, what are the roots of your blog?
While your blog may well reflect where your mind is at, its roots reflect your mindset.
Your sense of purpose, your belief system, and your attitudes about yourself and others is what roots you.
It’s important to be in touch with your core beliefs and attitudes, and how your blog is rooted in them.
Now sometimes there may be some root rot going on.
You might need to tend to the root causes and then make the necessary steps to improve the health of your blog.
So, my dear friends, sometimes your mindset needs to be addressed as you grow your “inner Self.”
Facing Your Self
Some times you need to take time out from your “work” and focus more on your “self.” This process is so good for the soul, and will renew the health of the “root system” underlying your work.
I have written several articles about taking this time to develop your inner self, the root of your blog. You might like to read an older one called “Taking Time” as well as the more recent update to that concept.
Introspection often induces change.
I recently shared a personal experience of my encounter with my own “Inner Silent Voice” which did, indeed, lead me to make some changes with my blog.
Which ever way your path leads, you will find that of utmost importance, is the need to take care of YOU.
Remember, the entire nature of your blog is YOU… and not just in the sense of “You-Inc” which is the sense that your blog reflects your brand, but also in the sense that your blog IS you, at its deepest roots.
Think Of Your Blog Like The Mighty Oak
The Trunk
Let’s get to the trunk of the tree.
That is your blog.
This is where you set everything up and give good content… the best you can to others.
It is your own private real estate on the internet, and the place that your readers will come to learn from you and engage with
you.
You design your blog with a variety of “categories.”
Each of these refers to an aspect of your blog that you want to share with people.
One step at a time, post by post, category by category, you pull your readers into the full scope of what you have to offer
them.
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What you offer can be knowledge, inspiration, insight, entertainment or empowerment.
Your blog gives you the opportunity to reach so many people with the value tht you have to give them.
It is like the trunk of the mighty oak tree.
It’s the vessel through which all the life sustaining fluids flow, giving life to the branches and the leaves… sustaining the entire organism.
If you envision your blog in that way, you will realize that you, dear blogger, can stand strong and tall just like that trunk of the mighty oak tree.
In that capacity, you can support many in their quests for personal growth, empowerment, education and understanding.
The Branches
Now here is what really got to me.
While we share our incredible views and information on our blog, the deeper nature of it is expressed mostly in its branches.
Gosh, I was trying to count the branches on my tree and lost count.
As I was focusing carefully on each individual branch, I came to realize that while many were strong and healthy, others were dead and rotting.
Should I count the dead ones, too?
I thought of each branch as a blog post.
Oh, so strong and healthy with good content, extending outward in all directions for all to see.
Each leaf represents a visitor to your blog.
I was reminded how each blog guest is introduced to your “brand” first, then to the substance of your content.
The dead branches, meanwhile, reminded me of the many promising things we have done in the past that just didn’t pan out.
Maybe we have written about the latest and greatest network marketing company we joined, but lost interest somehow.
Don’t remove that old post.
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Leave it there so others can follow you along, even down a dead end.
We all have encountered some things that didn’t work for us, and we need to know that others have, too.
Even the great and might oak has many dead branches.
But they play an important role.
I’ve noticed that for one thing, the wood peckers love the dead branches.
They have a glorious beauty while eating away at whatever little critters live off the decaying bark.
Each dead branch reached out to them, and offered the spoils of a once hard fought battle to survive. Now, though dead, it helped sustain them.
To me, it represents the nature of our blog and the nature of the blogger… how sometimes things don’t work out, but it sure is good for others to know and learn from that hard fought experience.
The Nature of Your Blog
Sweet springtime shows off the essential nature of your blog.
That old oak tree drops acorns.
So many that little chipmunks are around eating them… feeding on them.
The other acorns that the chipmunks didn’t get to sprout almost spontaneously into more little oak trees.
My gosh.
Imagine those blog posts you have written being like these acorns.
Some of them get passed around and go viral, taking on a whole new life.
People have read them and are using them to improve themselves.
Sometimes, you see a casual guest to your blog go from a sprout to a grand tree, displaying their glorious branches reaching into the lives of their own readers and followers.
We are feeding our readers great information as well as inspiration that comes from the roots of our deepest selves.
That is the nature of your blog.
Does this analogy hit home with you?
Can you see where I went with this?
The true nature of your blog lies in it’s power to nurture your readers.
How can we add even more to the value we give, with each passing day… just like the grand old oak tree that keeps on growing higher toward the sky, and deeper into the soil?
I would love to know your thoughts about this and how you have perceived this little metaphor of mine.
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