Well, it’s still really the Networker-10 theme underneath, but I’ve stripped away a lot of the CSS that made my site look heavy, moved things around, added some quick links along the top, and finally got around to making sure wp-cache worked. The site should be nice and zippy again. Check it out at sachachua.com!
A post by Edward Mahoney led me to a post by Gia Lyons where she had shared the results of one of those Net quizzes. Here’s my result:
Here are my answers:
I’d say that these are signs of blogging being part of your way of life, not addiction. I don’t use blogging to escape important things I need to do, but rather to enhance what I’m already doing… =)
Blog for FREE on wordpress.com or blogger.com! Make a habit of writing at least once a week, and your blog will help you develop your passion, improve your skills, and build your network. Here are some ideas to help you get started:
COMING SOON: The presentation and recording from the event
Check this page on March 7 (Friday) for more news, or leave a comment below so that I can e-mail you when new tips are up!
Connect with other people who attended this talk by leaving a comment! Put in your name, your e-mail address, and the address of your blog (ex: http://example.blogspot.com). Tell us what you thought about the presentation, and what you’d like to learn more about. Your e-mail address will not be shared or sold with anyone, and your name will be automatically linked to your blog. Check out other people’s comments and blogs to find out more. Good luck and have fun!
I don’t remember where I got the book recommendation to read this book, but it’s a fascinating read, and I aspire to this kind of life. (Although not in medicine - I couldn’t bear the responsibility!).
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Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance by Atul Gawande |
Here’s a quote for all you writers, bloggers, and other aspiring communicators, from the afterword on how to become a positive deviant [p.249]
My fourth suggestion was: write something. I don’t mean this to be an intimidating suggestion. It makes no difference whether you write five paragraphs or a blog, a paper for a professional journal, or a poem for reading group. Just write. What you write need not achieve perfection. It need only add some small observation about your world.
You should also not underestimate the power of the act of writing itself. I did not write until I became a doctor. But once I became a doctor, I found I needed to write. For all its complexity, medicine is more physically than intellectually taxing. Because medicine is a retail enterprise, because doctors provide their services to one person after another, it can be a grind. You can lose your larger sense of purpose. But writing lets you step back and think through a problem. Even the angriest rant forces the writer to achieve a degree of thoughtfulness.
… Most of all, by offering your reflections to an audience, even a small one, you make yourself part of a larger world. Put a few thoughts on a topic in just a newsletter, and you find yourself wondering nervously: Will people notice it? What will they think? Did I say something dumb? An audience is a community. The published word is a declaration of membership in that community and also the willingness to contribute something meaningful to it.
So choose your audience. Write something.
Atul Gawande, Better
My blog anchors my participation in the larger world, resulting in not only online interaction but real-world as was well. It makes me part of the conversation.
When I talk to people who don’t blog. I feel a strange disconnect as if the conversation we have stops there: stops at the e-mail exchange with each other, stops at the meeting, is confined within the boundaries of our encounters. When I talk to people who blog, the conversation is wide open and embraces the world.
It’s hard to explain that to the people who are afraid that they might have nothing to say. The truth is that you won’t discover what you have to say until you say it. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that not everyone has discovered the use of writing in reflecting and connecting with others. People have other priorities. They have no time. And perhaps at the core of it, they are shy as I was shy, as I still am shy. But I can overcome my shyness because I want to be part of that larger conversation with them. With you.
Write, and join the conversation.
My proposal was accepted at an IBM conference on best practices! I’m thrilled to have all these opportunities to share what I’m learning and to learn even more from other people. It’s a little mindboggling dealing with all of this as an early-career employee with less than half a year on the job, but I know from personal experience just how wonderful public speaking is when it comes to networking and connecting with people.
I’ll need to work extra hard to balance all these conferences with paying work, and to show the business value of all of that. It’s a bit of a challenge in the consulting world where we’re supposed to maximize our utilization, but maybe it will work out well.
To help keep track of all the conferences, articles, and other significant events on my horizon, I’ve added an upcoming events widget below the calendar on my blog. I used MagpieRSS and PHP to read the XML file from Google Calendar, and I did a little regular expression magic to get just the dates and locations. Maybe you’ll find it useful too!
Business responsibilities come first. If my clients aren’t happy, I may just have to pull out of some of the conferences. I think everything will work out, though, and the conferences will help me bring even more value to my client work!
