Annie Anderson | Blog

What inspires you? Makes you want to write? And when you get that inspired writing urge, how do you satisfy it?

As much as I love computers and all the cool tools available, sometimes what inspires me to write most and what satisfies that familiar burn, is a good ol’ paper and pen!

Give me a notebook, a good writing pen, mug of hot coffee and shove me in a quiet room with a radio and I’m good. I could sit there for hours on end just writing and thinking. Making lists. Creating little jingles and rhymes. Coming up with titles and slogans and stuff. And whole books, even.

But I don’t get that time or freedom nearly often enough. Mostly, I seem to be all but chained to my desk and my laptop. Now, don’t get me wrong - I enjoy working on my Mac. It’s just that sometimes I long for those days when I could sit cross-legged on the bed, lost in a world that only existed on the page.

Actually, I think part of what I miss is the uninterrupted time! LOL. It seems that nowadays, even if I had the gumption to go sit on the bed with my pad and pen, someone would invariably interrupt me. Whether that be a kid or a cat or my husband. I would not be alone. Nor in solitude.

Nope. Not going to happen in this house anytime soon!

So, tell me . . . What inspires you to write? And how do you make it happen? If the world were a perfect place, what would be your special “writing zen?”

I think mine would be in a nice little cabin tucked close in, yet far away, somewhere along an ocean with a cozy nook and gorgeous view. I would sit there in a big, comfy chair with my notebooks and my pens and pencils and a radio playing all my favorites. No phones. No televisions. Maybe my trusty laptop, though. Just me and my writing.

Yeah. That would work.

I haven’t had too much opportunity to surf the web and find new and interesting sites recently, but I did happen upon a rather cool website in the past few days. Generally, I like to share a variety of pages or articles that I’ve come across because there is so much great stuff out there. It can be daunting sometimes, finding useful info and I think a lot of valuable content goes unnoticed.

On my incredibly short list this week (if you can even call it a list), is the Reader Appreciation Project. It’s a website dedicated to blog readers, basically, and according to their “About” page, their purpose is to show readers “that they are one of the most important assets a blogger can have.” And they give bloggers tips and advice on how to “implement and spread the concept of reader appreciation.” So go check it out. There’s lots of good stuff over there to peruse.

Sometimes I find it hard to be consistent every week with this blog. And I don’t know if this blog warrants consistency or not, really. It doesn’t have a particular theme, after all. But I do like to keep up here, if not for my own thought process and to keep track of the bits and pieces of my various endeavors, then at least, for you because I know every once in a while you find something useful.

So, where was I?

Well, kind of an unplanned vacation of sorts. The kids were out on Spring Break the week before last and we had intended to actually take a family vacation. But it didn’t happen. We wanted to go down to Seaside, Oregon - about a 6 hour drive from our home near Seattle but nearly everything was already booked. We could have changed hotels every night but that just didn’t sound fun to me for some reason. (How far out to people plan vacations?)

And I had intended to write some posts and schedule them ahead. That, too, didn’t happen. I did, however, make some serious headway on several projects which I’ll update later this week, time permitting.

Oh! And you know what? We had SNOW. Yes, snow. In Seattle. Last Friday. And then most of the weekend. It’s the latest it’s snowed in the Seattle area since something like 1972. Of course, it also rained for most of Spring Break. We had one nice day of 70 degree weather. Then snow a week later. Weird.

I don’t know if global warming or any of those other politically correct environmental issues has anything at all to do with our increasingly weird weather patterns but I’m becoming more inclined to move elsewhere. You know, somewhere warmer and with more sun. Snow belongs in the mountains. And places like Colorado. And Alaska. Not Seattle.

In any case, I hope you enjoyed yourself the past few weeks and got loads of stuff done. Fortunately, I did manage to get a lot of stuff done on various projects as well as on the home front . . . NW Stone Guide should be going live by weeks end, the yard no longer looks like a jungle and the inside of the house is nearly sparkling clean. All except my office, that is. LOL! It is still piled with well-organized, strategic heaps of stuff!
The thing I can hardly imagine, though, is that it’s nearly May! Seems like yesterday was January. My 10 year old son informed me this morning that there’s only 8 weeks left of school this year. Yikes! When did that happen?? Shouldn’t there be another 8 months? At least?

Well, enough of my rambling for now. I promise I’ll post something more interesting one day this week. I do plan to post the Reading List tomorrow. Not sure what’s going to be on yet as I haven’t gotten anything new for a few weeks. Perhaps I’ll dig out the gardening books.

See you again soon,

Sometimes being an entrepreneur has its drawbacks. Like accountability, for example. Who do you have to be accountable to? At times there’s no one but yourself. And this is the downfall of many well-intentioned new businesses.

I think this is part of the reason social networks have taken off so well in the past year or two. It gives people a simple way to not only network with others and meet new people, but also to be accountable. If you tell a friend on facebook or twitter that you’re going to do x, y and z this week, you start feeling guilty when you put it off. Plus it’s fun to see what others are doing - it provides a sort of healthy competition.

The same is true for weight loss. And I think this is why there are so many weight loss blogs out there today (mine included). Because it gives us someone besides ourselves to be accountable to. Being accountable to other people helps us be accountable to ourselves. In the end, we get more done, we complete our goals and benchmarks and we feel better about ourselves. Maybe our businesses grow too.

That is why I share what I do about my projects with you. I hope you find some motivation in them and maybe even some ideas for your own life or business. Having a support network is essential to success. In Napolean Hill’s classic “Think and Grow Rich,” he devotes an entire chapter to the mastermind group. I think social networks are like mastermind groups - they allow members to share and explore ideas and this helps other members grow and succeed too.

When we help enough other people get what they want, we ultimately get what we want in the process as well. What social networks are you on? You can find me on several. A list of them is here.

Speak soon,

I’ve been blogging for quite a few years now and have changed blogs, hosts, and platforms on several occasions. But it’s never really been about making money for me. I know there are many blogs out there with that exact aim and they are great blogs. I enjoy reading a variety of them and some have taught me some interesting things with regard to promotion and marketing. Likewise, I’ve also learned some of what NOT to do. Still, it isn’t about money, although I do share some affiliate links and things I support with you in the sidebar and other posts - I share only what I enjoy and believe in.

So, what does blogging mean to me and why do I do it?

Good question. Let me answer the second half first. I do it because I love writing. Plain and simple. No other reason. I love writing. I cannot imagine NOT writing. In fact, there’s a period of my life where I didn’t write at all and that is probably the darkest time of my life. I felt like I was living someone else’s life, like the real me was hiding somewhere. When I started writing again, I felt like a whole new person. Like I was doing what I came to this earth to do.

Now, to answer the first half of the question.

Blogging to me is a release. Things I don’t really say in the rest of my writing that for whatever reason want to come out. It also means sharing, teaching and learning. Some of my other passions. When I was a child, my first love was writing and my second was teaching. I still love it also. And that’s my aim - to share what I know and what I’ve learned with those who would like to listen.

Sometimes what I post here will be serious in nature - things about writing, real estate, marketing and such. Others will be more fun - like music or what is currently on my reading bookshelf. I hope most of it will hold some value for you. I know not everyone will always like what I post and I’m ok with that. Once in a while, I might get a few who unsubscribe and really, that’s ok too.

See, what I write here is as much for me as it is for you. And the bottom line is that I write for you too. Because maybe what I write will help with some aspect of your life or your business. Or maybe it’s that you just need a little breather one day. It could be just one small thing that for whatever reason is just what you need at that given moment.

I don’t believe in coincidence. However, I do believe everything happens for a reason. You landed here for a reason today or yesterday or last week or maybe last year. And I’m grateful you’re here. This blog is a journey for me just as my other writings and blogs are. It’s my sincere pleasure that you’re here whether for 1 minute or a day, a year or a lifetime.

Thank you for sharing this journey with me.

Til tomorrow,

On the Reading List this week is:

• What a Great Idea 2.0 by Chic Thompson
• Double Your Income Doing What You Love by Raymond Aaron
• Brag! The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn by Peggy Klaus
• Awakening the Entrepreneur Within by Michael E. Gerber
• Rules for Renegades by Christine Comford Lynch
• CSS: The Missing Manual by David Sawyer McFarland

What are you reading? Post on your blog with a link back here if you’d like or feel free to comment below.