Blogging has been a great blessing for me. It has ignited a long lost passion for writing and has released a tremendous amount of pent up creative pressure. By acting on my ideas, I am no longer repressing them and myself (for having them and leaving them unshared).
I am also using my computer time for something productive. Can you relate? Before, I spent way too much time using the internet surveying news stories about people in other cities doing outlandish or provocative deeds - things that would stimulate the brain. Now I am writing two blogs and I've created a website for Tim's Strategy. I am also reading blogs - something I did only occasionally in the past - more when I needed help with a technical question.
Now I read blogs like Illuminated Mind. Written by Jonathan Mead (a self described husband, proud father of a two year old Shih Tzu, vegetarian, graphic designer, musician, seeker of truth, and basic dork), this blog is one that speaks to me. While the purpose of Jonathan's blog is personal development, his scope is broader. According to Jonathan: "The purpose of Illuminated Mind is to bring clarity. When your mind is illuminated you are able to pull the weeds from your mental garden." If you've enjoyed my posts that lean more philosophical, you will love Illuminated Mind.
But it's not all wine and roses. Yep, there are sacrifices to being a blogger. They include family time, ESPN time and sleep.
Another sacrifice that I recently discovered was that I am not reading many book chapters anymore. You see, I absolutely love to read books. Classics like Don Quixote, biographies like Ty Cobb and short inspirational novels like Siddhartha.
You see, I was complaining to my wife the other night. I said, "I feel like I have been reading this book for seven months!". She said: "That's because you aren't reading anymore". She was right, but I hadn't noticed it yet. I'd only seen the symptom.
So I ask you. What's the proper balance out there? What if I stopped reading all together? If I were a producer not a consumer. What would happen to my brain?
Would the ideas still come? Would I still have a meandering mind? I would be very bummed if my balance of reading, having shifted, left me without the same curiosity for life.
Or is that something you are born with?
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