Adam Kayce

Out with the old, in with the new.

That’s my motto right now. I reserve the right to change it, if/when it suits me, but that seems to be the flavor of my thinking lately.

Ever have the feeling your business could use an emema? I did/do, and I’ve been laying down on that table for quite some time now.

To help steer me away from expanding on that metaphor, and to give you some context, let me give you some background. This will be especially helpful for those of you who haven’t known me all that long, all that well, or just are curious about the path I’ve come to tread and where this blog is going. I’ll try to be succinct…

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If you’ve heard of me, then you’ve heard of Merlin Mann. Please tell me you’ve heard of Merlin.

Whereas I am but a small drop in a large ocean, Merlin is a pretty good-sized pebble, to put it mildly. Owner of 43folders, Merlin’s humor and helpful wisdom have spared many thousands of people from the bowels of a boring, monotonous, unproductive worklife, not to mention the all-too-common attempts of the “I’m the new productivity guru on the block!”, please-let-this-blogging-thing-make-me-money crowd.

So, if you haven’t seen what Merlin has been writing lately, and if you’re wondering why I haven’t posted in so long, you really have to go take a look. Seriously.

Now, I’m not about to pawn the explanation of my silence off on Merlin’s shoulders, but he so eloquently puts into words a whole bunch of my feelings about blogging, attention, and the social-media-crack that’s running rampant these days, that it just wouldn’t make sense for me to try to do it any better than he has.

Read it? Good.

Now, on to my side of the story.

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Beep. A beacon’s signal is sent out. Beep. The beacon’s light shines for all to see. Beep. The beacon’s call summons the people looking for it.

If the beacon had no signal — no light, no sound, nothing to announce its presence — it would have no usefulness. A hidden beacon does no one any good.

You’ve been given light. You’ve been given a voice. Are you doing the most with it, or trying to hide the fact that you’re here?

Of course, the logical answer is that you want to shine your light for all to see. And yet, I’ve seen plenty of people (myself included) shy away from standing clearly in who they are, because of stories in their past.

If you’ve been given the message in your life that you don’t count, or that you should just be quiet (the old “seen, not heard” dogma), or that people don’t want to know what you have to say, then you’ve most likely got old stories playing in your psyche that tell you it’s best if you don’t take up space.

But taking up space is what you’re here to do; in fact, you can’t be of much use to others if you don’t.

Let’s take a trip down memory lane…

Here’s a word you probably haven’t heard since high school: sovereignty. To be sovereign can mean two things: “autonomous”, like a country is when it sets its own borders (thank you Mr. Kaplan, my high school geography teacher), and “ruler”, as in a nation’s head of state, the one with the highest power or status within the country.

To be successful— purposeful, peaceful, and working at your potential—you’ve got to have both angles of sovereignty covered.

• When you’re autonomous, it means you make your own decisions. Naturally, you’d like to think you make your own decisions already. On the most basic level, you do. And then again… how often are you set to do something, and then a comment by a friend, colleague, or so-called expert has you throwing away your choice in favor of their idea?
• When you’re the sovereign, or ruler, it means you’re in charge, and you call the shots. As someone in charge of your own business, you have that by default… but, do you really? How willing are you to concede control to someone you think knows better? Do you trust your sense of where you should steer your business more than you listen to criticisms and popular trends?

Sovereignty is a process, not a concept that you grasp and then the conversation ends. Living with sovereignty means growing beyond the voices of your past that tell you it’s best not to be noticed, to be in charge, or to speak up for yourself.

Whether it’s running a business with sovereignty, owning your half of a relationship, or being taken seriously as a parent, sovereignty happens when you recognize that you deserve to occupy the space you occupy. That you have just as much a right to be heard as anyone else does. And that independent of anything else, your work, your contribution, your voice, has value.

Can you say that about your message? Your business? Yourself?

When you can, not only will you have much more peace in your heart as you work, but you’ll also be much more attractive to the patrons out there who need your work. Because deep down, we all want to feel sovereign in our own way. When you stand as a beacon of sovereignty in your life, it provides a strength of conviction that’s attractive to others, and people will come to you to learn your secret.

Image by wetsun.

There are at least 80 million blogs out there in the world today. Sure, many of them are “spam-blogs” (splogs), and many are blogs created to chronicle an event in a person’s life (like a move across the country, or a new exercise routine), and then get discarded once the event—or the novelty—is done.

With all these gazillions of blogs out there, it sure can seem like a lot of noise.

So, does the world need your blog?

If it’s a spam blog, the answer is clearly no.
If it’s a blog about your cat, well, good for you — but sharing with it anyone but your cat isn’t really necessary.
But if you write because of something that you have a passion about, then I’d say yes — the world needs your blog. Very much.

Why?

Because you are a shining star in the firmament of the universe.
You are a jewel like none other.
You are a rose in bloom, honeyed and resplendent.

Let me ask you something, honestly: Did you read that last bit, or did you skip over it? Did you really take it in, as if I was writing to you (yes, you), or did you brush it off as banality?

As Horton said, “I meant what I said, and I said what I meant; an elephant (ahem, monk) is faithful one hundred percent.” I really do mean it when I say that you are special, precious, and unique.

How can I say that, when I don’t even know who’s reading this?

Because I believe — not as an airy-fairy dream, but because I’ve seen it in everyone I’ve ever met — that you have a special purpose inside of you. You have a light burning inside you to share with the world. It’s your contribution, your precious gift, your offering to the world.

And the world needs that. We need your gift. We need your voice. When you share your passion and your purpose, letting yourself be moved by the stirrings of your deepest yearnings for life, joy, connectedness, and expression, then the world benefits from your contribution.

Just as a symphony wouldn’t be complete without the contribution of the violins, the world around you hasn’t experienced fullness until you’ve given what you have to give.

So, does the world need your blog?

If you’re just adding to the noise, then no, probably not.
But if you’re sharing the music inside you, then yes. A resounding, full, and overwhelming yes.

Image by MyklR.

And thanks to all those who commented on the two previous posts so far: Pixelhead, Wendy Piersall, Joanna Young, Dawud Miracle, EM Sky