Explore Your Options If You’re Not Sure What to Write About

Hello everyone. If you’ve been following the blog, my apologies for the long absence, almost 5 months since I posted an article.

I encourage you to explore your options if you’re not sure what business to do, or what to write about for your blog. In a sense, that’s what I’ve been doing. But first:

A Little About What I’ve Been Up To

I just want to say a few words about what I’ve been doing during the last 4 1/2 months since I posted here. A little, so as not to be boring.

 

First of all, I was not idle. If you want to see what I’ve been working on, I highly recommend you use the Social Media widget and follow me on all of my platforms.

I am most active on Facebook but after some recent training I will be using Instagram on a regular basis. I also have big plans for YouTube and LinkedIn, possibly Twitter and Pinterest.

I have joined several new businesses, you’ll hear about some of them in future posts. I also have been learning more about the best ways to be more friendly on social media and a lot of personal development.

I read the entire book “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill. I am now working through a workbook to help apply the better mindset and Hill’s 13 Principles of Success. I expect to post about that in the near future too.

I have been working on various things but I have learned the importance of focusing on one thing at a time and also applying what I wrote about having a daily routine. My routines changed when I hired a couple of coaches to help me gain more confidence and learn the skill of what to say in marketing.

Why I Care About This Topic

I want to get into this topic, Ways to Explore Your Options.

It’s something I’ve often regretted, that I didn’t have access to a career exploration course when I was in high school. I graduated in 1993 and there was no Internet then.

Now you can explore in various ways that were not available then. Of course, I could have done more once I was in college and the Internet came along (about the late 90’s, perhaps 98 that I remember it really becoming popular). I graduated from college in ’99 and settled for a temporary job that became permanent.

There are So Many Ways to Explore Your Options

One of the best ways to explore different options remains, watching videos on YouTube and similar sites about the topic you are considering. I have posted about this before so I will not spend much space on it here. I will say, that there are alternative video sites such as Vimeo, Gab and LBRY that are also worth considering, depending on your genre.

Social Media is a great way to explore. You can search hashtags on Facebook and Instagram. You can look at other people’s boards on Pinterest, or search by occupation on LinkedIn. Of course, there’s the old searching standby of Google.

Of course there is a great danger of getting distracted. All the social media sites have algorithms designed to make you spend more time there, and they reward the users for creating content that does that. I recommend you write down your specific purpose and set a time period before pulling up the site.

Block out the time and put on blinders, that’s what my business coach keeps telling me.

The Best Way to Explore Your Options Is Doing

If there’s one best way to explore your options and find out what you love doing, what you love writing about, it’s actually doing the thing. Sometimes it may surprise you.

I need to do more outdoor activities, for instance. I’ve always thought of myself as an indoor sort of guy but I could be totally mistaken.

I do like to take pictures, in digital format of course. Not that most of the pictures here are ones I took. Just the one of me in my car.

 

I have worked to overcome a lot of fears. You may be afraid to do something but that is not a sign that you should not do it. More on that in a moment.

What are some things you want to explore?

 

Here are some things I tried researching in the past.

I’ve always wondered what my life would have been like if I had gone into different careers that I considered, here are a few.

I took a course in accounting, but found it a little boring. It would have run in the family though, both of my grandfathers were accountants, one for most of his career.

However, I never tried doing it as either a business or a job. It was something that I found challenging, and I kept on with my “temporary” low-paying job.

I bought a kit of tools and book to learn how to be a piano tuner. I may still get into that at some point, because I play the piano and that is one of my passions. There is a certification course but I only got the first lesson.

I have several books on learning the skills to be an actuary. If you don’t know that word, they do the math and statistical analysis of risk for insurance companies. Lots of advanced math, so much it intimidates me, and math was my best subject in high school and I majored in it college.

I also considered engineering, and music therapy as occupations. Ultimately, I didn’t stick with any of my research when I found a challenge or something that was difficult.

I also studied computer programming in college but found a major obstacle in that I started getting headaches when looking at the screen, and was not able to finish some of my programming assignments. I only got top grades because of the tests and other in-class work.

So I did a lot of studying, reading, but not much doing.

Please don’t repeat my mistake. Take action!

I believe my future and career remain in marketing and eventually my music business, all using the power of the Internet and social media to get the word out.

I will be exploring these more. I also have had some practice in leadership in recent months. More on that in other posts.

The Best Way to Overcome Fears is Also Action

I overcame my fear of doing videos. Although I am recording myself, unlike this photo.

 

You can see my videos on my Facebook and YouTube profiles. I posted about overcoming my fear of being in videos previously.

I am now working to overcome a fear of messaging people with questions, with the intent being to help them solve a problem. That is scary for me but I am overcoming it with practice. And the accountability of having a weekly call with my coach who I know will ask about it.

Fear is often described, in motivational posts, as an acronym for False Evidence Appearing Real.

This is true in my experience. At least for most of my fears.

The danger is only in my mind. The problem is in my attitude and mindset.

If you want to try something, go ahead and do it.

If you are afraid, be honest about it. Reach out to a friend, or write about your fear, but then go ahead and do it in spite of your fear.

I encourage you. You got this!

You Don’t Have to Explore Alone

There are so many ways to do this with others now, even with a worldwide pandemic, because of the technology we have now.

There are teams in many businesses.

There are so many groups on Facebook for any imaginable topic. You can ask questions and there will be a whole bunch of people ready and willing to answer you.

Or there’s Quora. The website all about asking and answering questions. Another great resource.

Teamwork is crucial to becoming your best self. It is also a lot of fun, even for someone who is a bit anti-social such as myself. Perhaps un-social would be a better term. I’m not opposed to socializing, I just didn’t do a lot as a kid and acquired this belief that I was bad at it. Finding out otherwise now!

Exploring Your Options Is Necessary in Becoming a Better Version of Yourself

I am now learning from one of my coaches to become Bryce 2.0. He helps me with spiritual and emotional healing, and mindset. He has me cleaning my apartment, including getting rid of stuff I haven’t used in 8 years.

Think of that! I kept stuff for 8 years and never looked at it once! Why?

By exploring your options, trying different hobbies and career interests you will find out what you like doing and get to know yourself better.

My Better Version

Be proud of who you are, be yourself, but also be your best self.

 

I already know from using social media that I love to chat with people when it is a casual conversation. I have also gotten back in touch with my love of reading, although I am now more focused on nonfiction, where it was fiction for most of my life.

I also love to help people, that may lead me into offering coaching services in the near future.

Recommendations for Things to Explore

You may find that the best business or career you enjoy the most is something you never even thought to try in the past. You can now find out so many things on the Internet and of course careers are changing. Jobs are changing. Businesses are changing, and some are now shut down.

 

If you can identify a service or product that you love to use or know a lot about, you can launch an online business, perhaps in affiliate or network marketing, that takes advantage of that passion.

 

If you want to learn more about either of these, reach out to me on social media or search this site for other posts.

You can also get a free Starter account at Wealthy Affiliate if you want to learn how to use a blog in affiliate marketing. I recommend you read my review of the site.

Feedback

I would love to know what topics you want to hear more about in the future? Also tell me how useful you found this discussion of exploring options.

I really want to help you know how to work from home and do what you love. I want to help you have the time freedom that comes from the “laptop lifestyle”.

It is my own dream to be able to travel anywhere and work from my laptop.

 

Besides blogging, affiliate marketing, network marketing, and social media, what other ways do you want to know more about?

Let me know in the comments.