Monday, April 6, 2015

It’s All About Heart.



Billy Joel wrote It’s all about soul, which is one of my favorite songs, and the last chorus says: 

It's all about soul
It's all about joy that comes out of sorrow
It's all about soul
Who's standing now and who's standing tomorrow
You've got to be hard
Hard as the rock in that old rock 'n' roll song
But that's only part, you know in your heart
It's all about soul

I don't want to argue with one of the greats, and I think Billy Joel is one of the greats, but I believe it is all about heart.

Stripping yourself bare and standing in the spotlight and showing all of your faults - It’s all about heart. Creating a picture with words; holding what you know to be true and being not only true to yourself, but true to your readers as well - It’s all about heart.

In my previous blogs before I started this blog, I was concerned with only two things: 1) I wanted to make money; I was money driven and I was trying everything to get a paycheck from writing. 2) I wanted notoriety - I wanted people to flock to my sight, but they weren't coming, why? Because, I seemed to have forgotten it’s all about heart.

Looking back on that time, I can see I didn't have heart. My writing was so flat it only had one side. Sometimes when the motives are not right, it can seem fake and forced. When writing from your heart, it should be free and unrestrained.

“Who’s Standing Now and Who’s Standing Tomorrow”

I watched a lot of television when I was growing up, and we loved watching the TV show M*A*S*H. There was this one episode where Corporal Klinger was starting a newspaper. and he was able to get people to subscribe to his paper. One day, Colonel Potter asked Klinger where his paper was, and Klinger - excited - put the paper under the door. Colonel Potter used it to wipe his paint brush.

Klinger was not accepted as a writer and he folded up his newspaper enterprise and went back to being a corporal (this happened after his drag days).

I have noticed, some of the people I follow, especially the ones who needed some extra encouragement for their writing, no longer post in their blogs - this makes me sad.

It is sad, because these individuals took the time to explore the field of writing - they thought they loved writing and they really tried, but either it wasn't for them, or they became so discouraged that they folded up their tent in shame and walked into obscurity. 

How do we make it so we are standing tomorrow?

We need to write engaging articles from the heart. We need to dig in and hold on, because there is a story to be told. If you believe in your heart what you are writing - you have something special.

The point was that Klinger was not doing it out of heart, he wasn't even doing it out of duty; Klinger was doing it to be a “newspaper man.” If he poured his heart into his newspaper, and really had engaging articles, he would have been the newspaper man he wanted to be. What kind of blogger do you want to be? 

Write with heart, and you will be here on tomorrow’s tomorrow. 

6 comments:

  1. Dude! That was beautiful. I'm like you. I spend a lot of time encouraging those that need it. It's good for the soul :) but if their heart isn't in it they leave. Sometimes their heart is in it, but that little voice standing on their shoulder telling them that they can't do it is louder than we are. I really hate to see someone go, when I think they have what it takes, and as I said I am glad I am not alone.

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    1. I think, when we encourage people, we get better. Here's to getting better. Thanks for having by back! :)

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  2. interesting and encouraging article, the outside of our life matters in the heart, please check out my blog for my articles.http://247relationshiphelp.blogspot.com

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  3. Great advice. I will work on being more of an encourager and try to notice when someone is starting to feel discouraged. Thank you. Check out my blog http://growingupin70s.com

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  4. I took a look at your article, I will enjoy watching it unfold.

    ReplyDelete