I’ve been battling a painful business for weeks.

Did I say painful business?  Oh, I meant a painful neck.

That’s called a Freudian slip – you know, a verbal mistake that’s thought to reveal an unconscious belief, thought, or emotion.

Or to put it another way…

“A Freudian slip is when you mean one thing, but you say your mother.”

Back to my neck. It’s something that becomes an issue every so often. I’ve sought non-bone-cracking chiropractic care for it in the past with good result. But this time I resisted calling the good doc and have been toughing it out.

Not that I’m a hardcore tough guy (Ha! quite the opposite).  My first career was in medicine and I’ve never quite gotten over it. Motrin and Alieve are my two best friends.

But recently, it’s been bad. Nothing has been working. It hurts to sit, to stand, to lie down. There isn’t a comfortable position it seems. Ice isn’t working and heat never does. My two best friends (mentioned above) have also been ineffective.

Then…two days ago…it totally disappeared.

I woke up expecting to feel the usual stiffness and soreness that extends into my right trapezium and was overjoyed to not feel any…well, anything. It was kind of like appreciating the absence of pain after you get or strep.

I couldn’t believe it.  This is has never happened before and I’m absolutely walking on air!

So What Gives?

• What made the difference?
• Was it a new treatment?
• A new chiropractor?
• Aromatherapy?

None of the above.  Instead it was…

A Radical Change in Attitude Around my Business

Time to come clean. As anyone who reads this blog can figure out, there was about a 3 month gap between the May 18th post and the one August 23rd.  BlogAsReligion was in an unannounced hiatus.

I walked away to regroup, rethink, and reevaluate everything: my blogs, my parenting (I’m a single dad with a 13 year old son in the house), my goals.

It was a real Come-To-Buddha time with my inner-most thoughts and dreams.  Nothing I read was getting through.  Nothing I wrote on this blog or on Solo-Dad seemed to solicit many comments.

It felt like my blogging life was in the crapper. (Sorry, that’s a technical term.)

Then I Woke Up

It’s said that after being questioned as to whether he was a God or spirit,  Siddhattha Gotama, The Buddha, responded by saying, “I am not a God. I am not a spirit. I’m just waking up.”

My ‘awakening’ was similar to this.  After thinking and meditating (not as much as I probably should have) on why my life seemed so blah, it hit me like a satori moment – an instantaneous awakening to the truth:

I wasn’t in service.

I looked around my business and my life and saw immediately what had happened. I’d allowed my intent, my purpose for writing this blog to stray away from helping others  (like you) succeed and instead focused on how much money I could be making.

That was it, plain and simple. I was out of service to others and into serving myself.

What This Means for You

For readers and clients of BlogAsReligion this means that going forward, some things are going to change.

1. More blog posts that talk about what matters to you. I’ve written extensively about the basic strategy and structure for building a blog-religion.  That’s cool – they’re for educational purposes.  But a blog, to be really effective, should be a dialogue.  Posts that promote dialogue is something you’ll see more of.
2. Training tools that you can download and use. If you’re a  newsletter subscriber, you’ll receive a 50% discount on these.
3. More outreach to readers, online and off. For a long time, I’ve sent a brief not to new subscribers to the newsletter. Usually something  like, “Welcome aboard!” or “Glad to have you with us.”  I often receive a reply and that lets me know people like individual attention in addition to blog updates and newsletters. (Duh, kind of a no-brainer, Baz – I mean, who doesn’t like attention?)
4. A more consistent demonstration in practice of the principles I preach. Preaching only what I practice is a principle I like and a commitment I adopt. If I don’t do it, you won’t hear me talking about it.
5. The Upper Room Community Forum. For newer readers, the Upper Room Forum was originally featured as a benefit for subscribing.  If there is a renewal of interest in bring the forum back, I will do that.  Right now registration is disabled, but I’ll leave that to readers to decide.  It’s already set up and BAR member Trisha Cupra of Blue Owl Web Design Makeover made it a beautiful thing. But again, I’ll leave that to readers to decide. (Hint: that’s what the comment section is for. )

Requesting Your Reaction

I’m going to close this post but, before I do, I want to make a request.  I want you to think about what I’ve said here and give me some feedback.

What kind of feedback? Whatever you think is appropriate. Maybe you have an opinion on the status of the forum?  Or maybe you have some suggestions for services or courses that would sole your specific problems such as blog traffic generation, blog post structure and strategy, etc.

Whatever happens to be on your mind is fine with me.  That’s what this site is all about anyway.  It’s purpose is to allow you a voice in determining what kind of assistance you need to succeed.  My job is to simply make it available.

Please contribute the discussion by leaving a comment below.