“If people aren’t moved by what you’re creating,” asks digital marketing expert Mitch Joel (author of Six Pixels of Separation), “what does that say to you?
“If more and more people aren’t moved by what you’re doing,” he continues, “what does that say to you?”
“If you’re constantly and consistently putting out your best work and it’s not connecting/finding an audience, what does that say to you?”
For most of us, blogging is a means to an end. Whilst those ends are not the same for everyone, we all have something to say, and we all have an audience to reach.
Mitch Joel assures us: “No, this isn’t about creating something and quantifying the success of it based on how many people are moved by it, but it is one of the ways to keep score.” Which, for me, dovetails perfectly with the principles of mindfulness.
Let me be even more blunt: What is your relationship to results?
Mitch Joel’s blog post, titled Moving People Creates Movements, is worth a read.
cross-ties 
“If you’re constantly and consistently putting out your best work and it’s not connecting/finding an audience, what does that say to you?”
That I’m marching to a different drummer.
Just like Thoreau said —
But I CAN only march to my own drummer. Anything else is phony, puts me out of step with myself. Lack of results has made me, by turns, sorrowful, wistful, lonely, angry, in despair. After so many years at it, though, I’ve let go of a lot of yearning for results. My task is to shoot the arrows; where they land — another matter entirely.
Obviously I don’t have commercial ends set up for my means — that would call for a different approach altogether.
No, all I’m looking for is — people who speak my language, if that makes sense.
Question for you: How does this dovetail with the principle of mindfulness?
Thinking about how I might respond to your question, I began looking into the topic of mindfulness — so look out for my next post.
In the meantime, let me offer this little snip from Wikipedia: “Mindfulness, which is an attentive awareness of the reality of things (especially of the present moment) is an antidote to delusion … This faculty becomes a power in particular when it is coupled with clear comprehension of whatever is taking place.”
There is, however, an implicit paradox here: “If you try to aim for it, you are turning away from it.” (Zen proverb)