Jul
Blogiversary and Review
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Today’s my blogiversary. It’s been 1 year, 210 posts, and 844 comments. It’s brought me great joy and insights. Writing about spirituality forced me to walk my own talk. Principles that I knew about in theory my entire life finally came alive for me. I thank all of you for calling me to task, even if you never really say so.
To the personal development community and Positive Blog Network, I extended a deep sense of gratitude for your support and presence. In particular, I would like to thank Lyman Reed for the Personal Development Carnival and cheerleading, Leo Babauta for giving practical, free, effective advice, and Phil Gerbyshak for being my first interview, .
I’m going take this time to solicit feedback for the year to come. This year was about just taking the plunge and doing it. Next year, I want to make the concerted effort to make a big splash with the site. To be honest, I do have material reasons for wanting that to happen, but more than that I want to step into my life purpose of helping people find the Divinity within themselves. I want to help my readers discover the God of their being, and I’m not really helping anyone by playing small.
So, I have a few questions for you, my wonderful readers. In return, I will do a drawing from the comments for the book Open Secrets, on which I ran a six-week series. If that does not meet the winner’s fancy, I will purchase any (1) book of your choice that Amazon sells and have it shipped to you.
To keep it simple, I have 5 questions. You can answer any or all of them in the comments to qualify.
- Would you fanatically recommend this site to a friend?
- If yes, what would you tell them about Balanced Life Center?
- If no, what would need to happen for you to do so?
- What is your favorite post on this site?
- Which post on this site was most useful to you?
Thank you all for a rollicking year and for helping me to cater Balanced Life Center to your needs.
In Spirit,
Nneka
July 17th, 2007 at 8:13 am
Happy Blogiversary, Nneka! You’ve done a lot in the past year. Give yourself a birthday present!
In answer to your questions
1. Would I recommend your site - Yes. That’s why you’re in my blogroll.
2. What I tell them - The Balanced Life Center helps achieve personal growth by becoming aware of the center that lies within you.
4 & 5. What are my favorite and most useful posts - I have no one favorite. The Season of Gratitude series is what first drew me to the Balanced Life Center, and I found it most useful in my own life. Thank you for it.
May you have another year of change, development, and fulfillment.
July 17th, 2007 at 8:33 am
Hi Rick, thanks for the words of advice and best wishes.
I need to revive my blogroll. Thanks for the reminder. I’m also looking forward to another Season of Gratitude this year. I want it to travel to several blogs.
July 17th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
Hi Nneka!
1.) Absolutely.
2.) Your writing is clear, honest, and heartfelt. You write about solid principles, not just the current blogging and self improvement fads.
4.) I’ll have to echo Rick’s comment on the Season of Gratitude series. It’s one of main things that sucked me in as well.
5.) While I’m not sure how to separate a favorite post from a most useful, after revisiting your archives, your post Serving Others Serves You really struck a chord with me.
Happy Blogiversary. I look forward to many more years to come - no pressure or anything.
July 17th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
No pressure Lyman. I won’t make any promises, but for today I’m in it for the long haul. I really enjoy this medium.
Don’t mean to pry, but was there anything in particular about the Service post that did the plucking?
July 17th, 2007 at 11:34 pm
Nneka - Happy blogiversary! Your authenticity and love shine through in all you do.
It seems like so long ago we did our fun interview. Thanks for making me your first. Hope to see many more great interviews up in the coming year!
Here’s my thoughts on your questions:
1) Yes, especially to look through the archives. I hope you keep writing more stuff, because for a while there, I was worried you’d succumbed to blogger burnout. You posted about why you were away, and I hope that is past you so you can move forward with the next phase of your life and continue to inspire us to be more spiritually aware of themselves.
2) Balanced Life Center is a place where you can learn something new about spirituality, about life, and about how to become more aware of our own spirituality.
3) Keep writing often, and find ways to feature your best stuff so newbies can dig in right away. I’m working on this for my site too, a “first time visitors” section.
4 and 5) The Season of Gratitude post was what still resonates with me, and I think of all the thought that went into that from everyone who contributed, and most of all, from you. WOW!
Perhaps you could do more group writing projects like that in the next year, with a topic that’s near and dear to your heart, and that you could facilitate in fantastic fashion?
Keep being you Nneka! I am glad to be in your world, and to have you in mine!
July 18th, 2007 at 4:21 am
Aww, you can always pry with me, Nneka.
I know that one of the biggest things was the “right words at the right time” aspect. I was really trying to work the whole “we are all one” thing out in my brain (not that I’ve got it down pat now or anything) at that time, and the post gave me some much needed clarity on the subject. After re-reading it just now, it also strikes me that it’s not a “serve others so that they will serve you” idea (which seems to be the real subject of similar articles I’ve come across), but a simple, elegant explanation of a universal principle that is always working.
July 18th, 2007 at 10:15 pm
Wow, I didn’t know that the Season of Gratitude was such a draw.
Hi Phil, there was a bit of burnout, but I had so much going on in my personal life that I needed to focus on it for some time. I won’t be coming back full force (posting daily), but I am back and I am clearer and I am renewed. I feel like I have excess and best of all, all of the things that I talk about are at work in my life and I am reaping huge benefits.
Lyman, thanks for the extra info. “We are all one” shows itself in layers to me. The recent post I Am In Love, is yet another layer or understanding of it. Sometimes I feel what all the chasing for, it’s all out there. Just relax, I am already one with it. That’s another layer. I hesitate to write like that on the site because I know that when people used to say that to me I would poo, poo it. But alas, it’s true!
July 21st, 2007 at 6:38 pm
BTW, Phil, would you highlight any particular posts in the first timers section.
Thanks,
Nneka
September 9th, 2007 at 1:55 am
[...] I’ll say it again - this was for doing something that I would normally do - I participated in Balanced Life Center’s one year birthday celebration by providing Nneka with some feedback on her blog. And she chose to send myself, Rick Cockrum of Shards of Consciouness, and Phil Gerbyshak of Make It Great! a copy of the book. [...]