Let’s be honest. What this post is really about is what blogs this leadership blog writer reads, simply because they may be of benefit to you.
Like you, I skim read a number of blogs and newsletters. But there are only three writers who consistently offer me compelling reading.
First up is modern day marketing guru Seth Godin. You can find his blog here. If you have any interest in business at all, Godin delivers a constant barrage of ideas that will keep you thinking. Not only is he a prolific author of marketing books, he can also post on his blog up to three times a day.
Want some thoughts on marketing; try his post ‘Getting to Scale’. Want ideas on managing your business or your team; try his post ‘Is Everything Perfect?’ What I value the most from Godin is the intellectual rigour of his ideas. I often finding myself thinking, “Oh yes, that’s so true.”
At the other end of the scale is Conversations with God author Neale Donald Walsch. You might describe Walsch as a non-religious spiritual writer. Of course there are many people who fit that description. However his spiritual messages have resonated with me for almost exactly nine years, since I was diagnosed with cancer.
Walsch doesn’t blog, but he does write a weekly newsletter and he sends out a daily email called, ‘I Believe that God Wants You to Know’. Aside from his many books, what I most value from Walsch is this daily email. His work doesn’t resonate with me in an intellectual sense, but more with an intuition that what he says about life is true – at least for me. Since you can’t click a link to view his daily messages, here’s an example:
“On this day of your life, dear friend, I believe God wants you to know that all you have to do is know where you’re going. The answers will come to you of their own accord. Earl Nightingale said that, and he was right. Set your sights, and do it now. Do not wait until ‘conditions are right’ or you have all the money saved or until whatever else you think needs to be ‘in place’ is finally in place. Set your sights now. It is the setting of sights that creates the outcome. Life proceeds out of your intentions for it.”
If you’re interested you can sign-up for his daily emails here.
My third and final favourite writer is Bicycling magazine executive editor Bill Strickland. His blog, Sitting In’, is updated fortnightly. Since he writes for a cycling magazine, you’d reasonably expect him to write about cycling. Which is true, and it’s not. He does write about cycling, but in the context of his observations on life and humanity.
While Seth Godin’s work interests me intellectually, and Neale Donald Walsch helps me to keep putting one foot in front of the other, Strickland uplifts me with both his writing and his humanity. He is one of the very few blog writers whose work can bring a smile to my face, tears to my eyes and have me blurt out, “Man, this guy can write!”
You can find his humanity reflected in his post, “The Struggle” and his observations of life in “Another Unremarkable Moment”. Even if you’re not a cyclist I’m sure that you’ll admire his work.
These three writers reach out and touch me. In some way they all make me a better person. Perhaps one or two of them will reach out and touch you too.
Image by Brian Lary