I honestly don’t really want to use this blog for blog challenges, but I am. This is from Day 2 of 10 Days to a Better Blog. I like John Saddington. An increasingly salty style over what appears to be a very compassionate, authentic heart. He is a smart kid who has created a bunch of stuff – a bunch of stuff. He’s more than worth a follow. I have no reason to brown-nose here unless he needs insurance for his various ventures. Then I’m his huckleberry. 

Today’s Challenge: Connect with why you write… 

I have no clue whether I write well or not. I have enough grammar sense at least to say ‘write well’ vs. ‘write good.’ But that doesn’t make me a good writer.

I love to read. I love words. I like to toss around ideas. I like to think.

Writing provides a way to get thoughts out and play with them.

Since words mean  lot to me, writing has become a method for me to offer up a bit of myself to others.

Again, no statement on the quality here, but I write because it is a way I can give something to others.  Writing has become one of my chief methods of telling individuals that I love them, respect them, and appreciate them.

Writing also provides a way for me to learn. If I simply think about something, I forget it. But if I mull over the idea and write it down, then it becomes much more real and more likely to become something I act on.

Writing provides a history. Journal after journal and a growing number of blog entries create a pretty clear picture of my life since high school. Probably too much navel-gazing, but that’s fine.

Hopefully, my writing will be something I can leave behind for my kids that might at least make them laugh even if I don’t teach them anything.

What Does Any of This Have To Do With Sales?

I was not supposed to go into sales. My English major self (with a graduate degree in ministry) never had selling on the radar. Luckily, we’re not always correct at 22 with all of our assumptions. It’s crazy how we feel like life has passed us by if we didn’t have the solid job, marriage, and family by 25 or 28 years old. I was an idiot back then (and might only now be crawling out of idiot-hood).

So sales… I’ve learned that selling isn’t about getting people to buy something. It’s about creating value.

I sell because it teaches me, over time, the importance of creating value. And this idea from selling has been ridiculously important for any of my attempts at writing. Writing isn’t only about any ability I might have to turn a phrase.

Writing (for me) is about taking what little value I can provide and putting it out into the world. It’s something that I think I have to offer, and I’d be a horrible steward if I didn’t practice and make a habit of taking the little that’s in my cup and pouring it out on the off chance it’s exactly what someone needs.

So I write because I want to give what little bit of experience and even wisdom I might have to others. If it helps you… wonderful! If it doesn’t… just chalk me up to one of the other billions of people who take up space on the interwebs.

In the meantime, I’ll continue to write, sell, and do other stuff in feeble attempts to make others’ lives just a bit better (and perhaps mine will improve in the process).