Happy Birthday! Sunday Night With John: My how you have grown!

Just about one year ago today I made the commitment to write a blog each week to connect with my audience in a new and exciting way. Any reader of my early writing might notice that my wording might have been a little off, my grammar not quite perfect and my vocabulary might not have been the most intriguing.  In a nutshell, I was not on my A game.  As a public speaker, I’m high energy.  I use gestures and body movement to help me communicate and words seem to flow like water.  But, sit me in a chair to focus on writing and my mind begins to space. I would be one of those people who benefit from a stand-up desk. I took on a task to better myself and deliver a more complete message of my mantra, Share Emotions, Emotions Matter, by sharing my emotions about life with all of you on a weekly basis.

This week I want to share my feelings on how I have grown as a writer and blogger over the past year.  When this little blog started, I didn’t know on Sunday morning what I was going to write.  I had difficulty finding my writing voice, which was mildly frustrating since I know my speaking voice so well.  At times I wanted to say, maybe the blog can wait until next week. Other times I couldn’t wait to sit down and begin to type.  There were other Sunday mornings were my hands couldn’t keep up with my head as I typed away and then there were Sundays where I drug my feet to almost 6 pm before I would start typing because I was scared of the mish mash of words I was about type on a computer screen.

What I came to find was just like everything else, the energy and emotion I put into tackling the blog directly related to how well it turned out. The weeks I prepared and built my blog in head during the week, I noticed started to turn out better. The weeks I allowed my self-doubts to creep in the blog suffered because I wasn’t doing the hard work.  Just like a baby stumbling and bumbling it’s way to walking during its first year, my blog has stumbled it’s way to walking.  I think I’ve begun to find my writing process.

But one of my biggest sources of motivation to continue to grow as a writer is the feedback I received from all of you.  Whether it was in person where you went out of your way to say, “I look forward to your blog every Sunday.” Or whether you have sent an email, left a comment, or liked my blog. A number of you have helped to spurn on this creation of mine and after a year I can say I didn’t expect the great response and feedback. It has been a great surprise that my written message has hit home with so many of you. A number of times your comments and kind words have spurred me onto the next blog.  I have grown to just under 1300 facebooks likes and traffic on my website has tripled since it’s launch a year ago. That’s the thing about starting or expanding projects; it comes with a whole other round of emotional input for us to digest but also creates opportunities to connect with others.  My dad used to always tell me, “John we are either getting better or worse, no one stays the same.”  I didn’t yield to my doubts about putting something new in the public. I moved through all the emotions, settled my nerves, asked for feedback, got help with spelling and grammar and found a new way to connect to you, my audience, on a weekly basis.

Thank you all for allowing me the time to grow for this year.  A number of you stayed patient with me while I became competent in a skill that is in its infancy and I will continue to refine my message and words to better communicate. After all, “Sunday Night With John” is only one year old today. It has a long life to live and it’s full of potential if I do say so myself. I hope this is another example for how we should do things in our life. If you are wavering on whether to start a new hobby, looking into bettering yourself, or want to master a new skill, it’s best to start doing, because a year from now you will be that much further along.

There will be no blog next week as I’m hiking the Superior Hiking Trial in northern Minnesota with friends and won’t return until late Monday Night. Sunday Night With John will return August 3rd. Please continue to read, like and share my blog with others.  Please continue to direct people to my website and my public speaking engagements as I’m still booking for the fall.  If your school, community organizations, college, or non-profit, are in need of a speaker please send them my way for an impactful, well planned event that can leave a lasting impression on your community.