The 7 Links Challenge

Dragos Roua from over at DragosRoua.com challenged many site-writers including myself to his 7 links challenge, where I choose posts of mine or others that fit in to the categories he had set forth.  I am glad to take part in this, and would also recommend checking out Dragos’ material on his site.  I will now get into the list:

1. Your First Post

In fact, I have some interesting material to point out about the first few posts on this site.  I had a Blogspot site that I wrote on for about a month, and then about five months later, I started this site.  I transferred the six articles I had written on the Blogspot site to this site.

My first posts were quite short.  There were basically paragraphs.  My first post of all was Surroundings, which is short enough for me to present here.

It is vital that one notices the presence of that which is around him. A cluttered room will keep an individual from taking action as it is detrimental to positive thought processes. It is useful to put one’s room together in a rush since momentum is a powerful force.

I certainly still agree with the material there.  I always put out a solid amount of effort to adjust my surroundings so that they match what I want to do.  Since I might have a cluttered mind when writing, I don’t want the area around me to be too cluttered, and having fresh air or being able to see plants is always a plus.  Having water around and proper music and good lighting all comes in handy.  Our surroundings have a huge impact on how we feel and perform.  This is why a small house in a good neighborhood costs as much as a huge house in a bad neighborhood.  The importance of location and surroundings is easily evident in looking at housing prices of different areas.

2. A Post You Enjoyed Writing The Most

I have to say that I got quite into the Timeless Information 2009 Review post.  I sure liked adding all those nice photos, including the various flowers and the wonderful introductory photo of the snowy tree scene.  Doing that review, I searched through and was reminded of some of the greatest material I wrote during that year, and I got to categorize it for future reflection.  I got to mention many things about other writers, and link to some of their articles, so that was a great way to get out the items on my mind.  I also added a cool audio of me playing a piano piece at the end.  I was very satisfied with that post.

3. A Post Which Has Great Discussion

I am starting to realize how many posts I have put out as I go through this 7 links challenge.  One post that had some good discussion in my view was Where You Are Is Where You Succeed, where I pointed out that the place where you are located or the category in which you are putting out effort is where you will succeed.  If you are spending time and effort trying and researching gardening methods, you will soon have a blooming garden, and this occurs wherever else you put your time and attention.

There were some cool responses to the article, like one about how the message tied in with David Deida’s message of being “on your purpose”, or the one by Vonzel that mentions allowing a child to find their place of success and give them opportunity to lean towards their angle of interest.

4. A Post On Someone Else’s Blog That You Wish You’d Written

Although I don’t have any wishes of this type, as I would have written the post if I had the desire, one post I would select for this choice is Glen Allsopp’s Visualization: 4 Mind Tricks to Change Your Life, because it talks about the neon green wavy line that we can imagine connects us all as people.  When one neighbor does something, everyone on the street feels it.  When one person in a group of friends makes a change, the whole group feels it.  We are all connected, more than most would like to think or admit, and so we must act accordingly, not ignoring others when we make changes.  Glen symbolized this concept well with his neon green line.

5. A Post With A Title You’re Proud Of

This would have to go to the post titled “Much Of What You See Is Engineered“.  I sure still feel that this post sends a strong message, and the use of ‘engineered’ in the title frames the message well.  Not only is much of what we see in public and in the media and said by others and in written documents and wherever else not as innocent as it appears, much of it is engineered specifically to evoke a certain reaction or response, or to cause a certain outcome.  Many product sales are engineered as though the product isn’t actually $199, or even $149, but instead, is $99.  You’ve saved $100, supposedly.  The show America’s Got Talent often has some dramatic story for some singer, leading up to their big singing debut as an innocent regular person, and then the audience is amazed.  So much of what we see is engineered that I could see myself writing this post again with different examples.

6. A Post That You Wish More People Had Read

One post that comes to mind of this type would be my Quote Analysis – Stages post, where I broke down a famous quote into four parts, with a fitting picture composed of four sets of stairs.  The quote says a lot about the process of success and what comes before it, and so I would always like people to see what the early stages are like.  People are ignored at first, in hopes that they quit, and then they are ridiculed, once again in hopes that they quit, and then they are fought, in hopes that they are defeated, up until the point where they win, and then they can no longer be ignored or ridiculed or easily defeated.  Humans are cruel to each other in this way, but the good news is that the intelligent know that ignoring or ridiculing someone to cancel out their efforts is worthless, and so they don’t do it.  The intelligent conserve their energy to focus on their own success, instead of trying to detract from that of someone else.

7. Your Most Visited Post Ever

This would easily have to be my 100 Ways To Show Boldness post, which got retweeted and passed around all over the place.  I still do remember the ~2 hour period where I was in a very focused mode as I create each item for this post.  I pulled everything out of my mind that fit the post properly, and it was a struggle at some points, but I continued and ended up with a very cool creation.  Boldness is important to me because I see very little of it in public, and would like to see more from all, so I wanted to discuss it.  The opportunities for boldness in communication and actions with friends and random strangers are immense, but they are mostly left untouched.  A small act of boldness can also cause a string of bold actions from others.

In Closing

I am appreciative that Dragos did challenge me to write such a post, and it allowed me to mention multiple items I wanted to mention.  Reflecting is sometimes just as important as thinking of the next item to perform, because depth and understanding comes from this reflection, and this is useful when moving forward.

Tagged as: Boldness, dragos, first post, links, reflection, title