What changed things

It is possible to do one thing that changes how you perceive things, and that then leads on to other changes in your career and life.

Yesterday I retweeted a link to an article about Austin Kleon:

The 15-Minute Daily Habit That Will Change Your Career http://t.co/iizOnNQGnb [hear, hear – changed mine]

— Constance Wiebrands (@flexnib) April 1, 2014

To which @librarykris asked:

@flexnib I tautoko this idea. (Do you have a blog that explains how it changed your career?)

— kris (@librarykris) April 1, 2014

My short answer:

@librarykris in <140 chars: I became outward looking & gained confidence = changed my life 🙂

— Constance Wiebrands (@flexnib) April 1, 2014

I did initially think that perhaps that answer was enough. But then again I don’t know that many people saw it, and in any case it might be of interest to other people, so perhaps an answer longer than 140 characters might be worth writing.

Do take a look at the article in the link at the top of this post, if you haven’t already. There’s a short video in the article which you could watch instead of reading the article, if you prefer. Both are short, in any case. In summary, Austin Kleon recommends taking a bit of time every day (15 minutes) to “put your work out there”, to share, engage, basically “following and interacting with people who are established in whatever field you’re interested in”. I really related to what Kleon said about using technology to connect with others.

I’m not an artist/creative type like Kleon, but I started my version of the 15-minute daily habit he recommends, way back in 2005, when I started this blog.

I have to admit that when I began, I thought that blogs were a mere fad. We didn’t have “social media” back then. I had a work project that required me to look at blogs and figure out if MPOW could use one. Despite all my reservations, I started investigating (well, I had to deliver on my project), and very soon became tired of merely reading articles about blogs. I wanted to work out what all the fuss was about, and so I had to try it for myself.

That’s how this blog started – one dark and stormy night (it was a winter night, if I remember correctly), almost nine years ago now.

Little did I know then that starting a blog would give me an “in” into a most amazing place: the blogosphere. (Gosh that term sounds so dated now!)

Back then much of the communication and chatter people did was via their blogs and by leaving comments on others’ blogs. You could write about anything, really, even if it wasn’t strictly “professional”, but it didn’t matter – you were part of this large (well it felt large), amorphous community, and you could really connect with people all over the world.

I can’t quantify – and find it hard to qualify – the changes this had on me as a person.

Right from the start my horizons were broadened – to use a cliche. I could learn from so many people. Not just as a professional librarian, but I could learn about things that interested me personally.

The difference here was that it wasn’t a passive process with me just sitting in a darkened room staring at my computer monitor. Sure, I was reading, but I also started commenting, and writing my own stuff. I was contributing, even in a tiny way. I could hear from and interact with people whose work I was reading, thinking about, and commenting on.

It had a snowball effect. Suddenly I not only understood what blogging was all about, I had become an expert. I really cannot describe what it’s like to become The Expert. It was such a boost to my confidence. It opened up many doors for me, too:  “Oh, Con, can you come and talk about blogging?”

Blogging was a bit of a gateway drug for me, I think, because I then started learning ALL THIS STUFF. It lead me to develop another habit, of reading for my job, so I keep learning all the time.

And the confidence thing? Well, when I realised how much I could just go ahead and DO, it just lead me to do and try more things. More writing. Developing more skills. And so on.

So you can see why I really related to Austin Kleon. I can’t think of anything else that helped me more, than just developing this little habit of putting myself out there.

You ought to try it too.