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Get Up, Stand Up, I’m Blogging This – Blog Unite, Empowering People with Disabilities

This post is going to be a bit personal so don’t be alarm by it’s nature and it might shock you too. But it’s best that I share it with you now since it’s something I’ve been meaning to touch upon for the last decade. And because of it’s relevancy to today’s topic to support Bloggers Unite, I want to embrace the beauty of Empowering People with Disabilities.

So in encouragement to those who are currently disabled and those who were, this post is for you. It’s told from my own experience but it goes to show that disability is not something that should limit you. It’s something that should empower you to get up, stand up and fight for your right as Bob Marley says. I hope you get something out of today’s post and I would appreciate it if you support the cause and pass it on! Without further ado, here’s my contribution.

Uncertainty

When I was in college I had frequent episodes of insomnia. I just couldn’t sleep no matter what I was doing. Who knows what was going through my head. Worries. Anxiety. Identity. It was my college phase and being that it is a crucial point in any young adult who questions their future, success was also part of the mix. Perhaps I wanted too much of everything but not much of anything was ever accomplished. For that, sleep didn’t exist.

During the last day of class and towards my Associate’s degree, a tragic thing happened. I broke down. Uncontrollably, I found myself in the ladies room unable to hold back the tears which resulted from liberating my thoughts. You see I had just written a play for Drama and it was so personal, I fell into the throngs of the pain. But I didn’t want anyone to find me that way. However, word did go out.

The next thing I knew, I sat with some counselors, still dazed by the overwhelming thoughts of coming undone, my head spun and I spoke in tongues. I began to mumbled and then suddenly, my body went into shock. The ambulance came to take me to their psychiatric center while I was still out of it. That day, my parents must have found themselves in the devil’s crutch because I don’t remember how it all happened. I only remembered I was tired, relieved and overburdened with having to deal with what’s going to happen next.

From that point on, I began to break down my life through living with minimal worries, burdens and strife. I decided to go M.I.A. with my journey towards graduating from college and take a dip towards me. Strangely, the only way I could have been through that point was to go on disability. However, here’s the upside. I was happy. I was so happy for being blissful even though it wasn’t real, it began to manifest itself each day more and more for over a decade.

The stigma of dis_ability

I found myself deep in the trenches of psychology for awhile even though I knew I wasn’t disabled, but the system which enabled me to get better consisted of it. So, rehabilitation as they said became effective. With my consent, I choked myself with psychotropic drugs to sleep better. For years it helped. Then suddenly, I didn’t want them anymore.

You can debate on how one can best determine a life but I’ve seen bodies so disabled through massive use of drugs, I learned first hand, that wasn’t going to be me. So I wanted out. I wanted nothing but pure breaths of fresh air and genuine mental candy to sustain me. Not some chemical high.

For the last 7 years I have taken control of my life and truly made a place for what I believe has allowed me to become free. I’m happily married and those uncertain thoughts no longer bother me. In fact, it has enabled me to live life beyond the stigma.

In the beginning, as I face the harsh realities that came with being disabled, I found myself resorting to the mental trap of thinking I’m on disability. While that may be true, breaking the barriers beyond the scope of your mind was harder, but I decided I wanted to break out. I wanted to fly over the cuckoo’s nest.

This is because I have seen enough to know that that’s not what I want to grow old as. There is more to life than the four walls and red chair I’ve frequently sat in. With that, I’ve learned to laugh stronger and be apart of what truly is worth living, life.

I’m no longer disabled today. However, the things I saw from that part of me I cannot forget. In part, it has a lot to do with opening yourself up to understanding the world and where you want to be. I’ve learned as humans, we are stronger than our weaknesses. Thus, you just have to be aware and find out as you’re experiencing it. For me, that was to write and that was how I got hungry.

Hunger
(12.17.1998)
I want to feed my soul, my body and my mind
With the beauty of life waiting just outside
I want to look at the world and think of the future
Cause I'll be around and I'll get hungry again

For nostalgia purpose, this is now over a decade and a half but I want to share it with you today so that you can see how my initial voice towards freedom shaped itself. Listen as I sang about the urge to break out.

 

Restoring hopes and dreams

There’s a certain power with words. I catapulted myself into music and wrote to empty out all the fears, anxiety and life of which made sense. It helped me put into perspective living for the moment. Thus, I was in bliss.

This monkish era resulted in the age of my enlightenment. I became one with the universe and decided to go back into the throngs of working hell. There is something about falling back down to earth and feeling the pain which makes us all human and acknowledge it’s beauty instead of the usual dread.

Even to this day, I can’t recall that blurry journey because it’s beyond me. It’s not apart of my life anymore and it’s not something I believe in. But this much is true, I’ve survived and live to tell that disability is something that is not you. You cannot take defects and define yourself on the grounds of handicapping your life. You can only take what it is you have mold and have blind faith in the spirit of being strong. Thus, you have to rise.

Wiping the dust off my shoulders

For the last half a decade, my life has shifted for the better. It’s a new day everyday and the internet has made it possible to reach out in more ways than ever. And it is in this age of mass information that anyone can put on multiple suits. So the opportunities to reach out are tremendous.

I don’t want to limit myself to any one way unless it works for me. You should consider that too. Be aware that there are many possibilities which awaits for you. All you have to do is take action and stand up, rise to wipe off those cobwebs.

Disability is not a way of life but it can be if you want it to. What you should do is put life first and immerse yourself in the beauty of the human condition. Let’s support each other for growth, community and outreach. Thanks for reading and remember we all have the power to empower the disability inside ourselves to get up and fight for what it is that makes us happy in life.

To your empowerment,
Thu Nguyen

What are your thoughts on disability and empowering life through illness or someone you know who’s disabled?

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Hey Freshman, Get A Grip and Learn to Have Fun

Pardon the disappearance the last few days. It actually gave me enough time to think about blogging on a less serious note. While it was accidental in nature, I’ve had to prioritize the direction with which I wanted to take this blog towards.

With the last post on Why I’m Changing the Way I’m Blogging, I stated who might benefit more towards reading this blog. However, I can’t be sure unless I throw it out there and see what sticks. So without getting so worked up on the process behind building a readership, I’m just going to have faith that whatever it is that I’m going to talk about has at least some eyeballs reading through.

Now that the guilty conscious is out of the way, what’s new?

The blog underwent a new theme design … once again. It’s the second time this month since the minor changes I’ve implemented. What prompted me to think so much on these changes was not the content, it was more or less the experience. You see, I started off blogging believing that it required hard work and persistence. I made the mistake of taking my content too serious that when it came down to having fun, well you can guess it, no fun. That’s something that’s going to be more relevant soon. Right now the overall impression may not seem professional and that might sway some readers elsewhere but it’s more down to earth and humane.

So in the spirit of blogging, I want to lean towards the overall experience. The monetizing and ranking can start later. It’s about throwing topics out into the blogosphere now and just having fun. During the process, continuing the active participation in other blogs is a surefire way to know what will stick and what won’t.

Think of it this way, it’s freshman year all over again. There’s going to be connections to build. You might want to look for parties or social clubs to hang out with. It doesn’t have to be so technical. While the grades will require a bit of digging to perfect, the overall experience will throw you out more smarter, more confident and more stronger.

This is a crucial phase which all beginning bloggers will become involved in. Nobody really has the answers for you. You just got to go out there and try it for yourself. That’s the advice I’m going to stick with and the part which I’m going to embrace is having fun. After all, who’s going to fail you when it’s really you yourself giving up?

What are some of your grips with blogging? Did you set out what you wanted to accomplish? How has that plan changed?

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Finding Better Content – A Journey to the Book Store and Back

In the city, Borders and Barnes & Nobles are the closest you’ll get to the most stock-shelved titles. As for small shops, you’ll find them more precedent in suburbia. So I went to Borders.

What happened was there was a pivotal point in my journey last night. One which all self-starters, especially for entrepreneurs working from home may experience. It didn’t take much but a little fatigue only gave me fuel for finding purpose today.

I won’t go into detail about that but it involves dreams. Now there’s just a little indifference with dreams when you’re talking to the wrong person. In a monetary aspect, no profit is ever found in thin air. What you’ll experience instead is a euphoria which much like a hypnotism draws you in.

Let me explain.

I don’t want to sell my soul. Nor do I want to sell my body for that matter. There’s a difference. With personal branding becoming predominant nowadays in social marketing, that’s fine for some folks but from my perspective, the self is limited.

Do What You Love … Wrong?

If there’s anything worth of value, in regards to a human being, it’s only 20% of your productive life. For me this is because we can only do so much to invest long-term in ourselves. 80% of the rest, as the Pareto principle describes it, is a total waste. That’s where the pleasure resides.

Now from another point of view, the pleasure is where the money is coming nowadays. This shift in thinking in regards to old paradigms, doing what you love is the new revolution of working. So why do marketers promote the Pareto concept so vastly that when all the outsourcing is done, isn’t 80% of your time doing what you love work too?

I probably am getting confused but this self-branding is what perplexes me and thus putting another perspective in view of what’s really unlimited is … ideas.

I use to think of the self that if it was successful everything else follows. That is a wrong misconception which to this day I believe has given me a many if not unrealistic sense of purpose. I’ve leaned on the self for too long that it did me more harm than good. Worse it lead to the misunderstanding of who my sense of self is. Consequently, all this has given me much to ponder on that I will take most of it as tokens of enlightenment in tiny steps.

Hey, at least I tried. I know I definitely did.

So while I continue to read and write to understand as a career what is profitable in terms of my lifestyle choice, I come full circle to a form once again, which to most is valuable, called money. Now if you have read Money, Broken Dreams and Learning to Bark, you’ll remember that there was a time when it played a deceptive role in my life. I have lost all faith in it and have disregard it as an irrelevance to my living standards.

I was satisfied with where I was. Comfortable with the choices I made regarding lifestyle design and positioning. Life was good. There was no need to invite unnecessary stress to a wanton stature. It was already great. No need to buff the marble.

So as life carried on, the only constant seems to be bills. This I believed was a factor that upset all my balances. It led to the addiction of work. Non-socialite positioning. Shadows of the night.

Stretch-marks.

Insomnia is the result of exhaustion which comes from stress related to bills. I wish somebody would have told me sooner than later that I should have gone into business while I was in college. Whoever came up with the idea that you can do what you like anyway?

You know that didn’t work for me but I’m not bitter because of it. In fact, I’m better because of knowing that what I like to do is my meditation. It brought me back to life when I overworked myself. That’s entirely my fault. I accept.

We all have our own flaws and to a general standard, work was something which I did to impress my teachers with. That was college thinking.

Today.

Who cares.

If it’s not making money to pay my bills.

Who cares.

If it’s not making a sell.

Who cares.

I have to tell myself that because I care too much. I like too much. I do too much and sleep too little. If there’s anything else I have to do from now on, it’s little of nothing.

Enjoy the moment.

Be good to myself.

Someone told me that once.

So what, it’s my soapbox and I’m going to make some bubbles.

Light Finally Gives

So while I was in the bookstore, I thought of all this. It eventually did me some good. I came back with a clearer vision of what I wanted to carry forth in my studies online. It didn’t involve all the noise which makes the success of marketing online work. In fact it’s a little bit which nobody really talks about in depth. They just give you a bunch of how-to. Like that is going to give you a call to action and create better content.

I want exercises, implementations, proof. Art. Did I mention before that science was cold?

Something besides the templates we’ve all become accustomed to. There’s got to be a shift here. Someone’s got to start it. It’s not me. I’ll kum-ba-ya for a bit but that’s how most of us are anyway. We’re good supporters of liked causes. Good tribe members. And the urgency of wanting more is going to push the blogosphere because that’s what makes us work to create more content.

This leads me to really narrow down my focus and I’m sure that’s what I’ll stick my guns to. Better content.

What does better content mean to you? Who is a good example of great content writers?

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Sometimes Knowing What YOU Want Takes Time

The first thing I wanted to do was start a blog within a niche that I’m passionate about. That was blogging. General but true.

So I went about it and took action and did some research within affiliated areas. Still no topic found.

This gave me some ideas of product relevancy but it was mostly researching.

The beautiful thing is sometimes knowing what YOU want takes time. And that’s OK.

I’m not rushing myself anywhere for the time being. There’s lots of room to learn and more for improvement. So give yourself enough ample time to find out what it is that you want to blog about. Even if your topic is waxing and waning, eventually you’ll find something worth blogging towards.

Believe!

Now this is common and overused but it’s true. Without believing in what it is that you’re doing you’re going to burn it all the way to the ground. It takes a little effort and some guts to go out there. It’s not easy some days because there isn’t credibility to what it is that you’re doing. But I’m sure the pros, gurus or whatever you like to call the minority of successes online are saying that they were just like us somewhere down the line. They wanted to add value to what it is that they’re doing as well.

I was watching Joel Comm’s 7 Keys to Success today and even though it was simple, it got me.

He is a pretty likable guy. His funny flying monkey trailer got me cracking up to pieces. What I really got when I finished was an assurance that everybody has to start somewhere. We all have a dream which won’t go away. So no matter how small or BIG, when it does become large enough for you to act on it, you have to believe. Then you have to prepare yourself for what it is that you’re going to do through reading books and getting familiar with your topic.

We all start somewhere.

But the most important thing which Joel mentions and which I’m guilty of forever not doing is acting on my dream. You don’t have to know everything about what it is that you’re doing. Just take action and put yourself out there. Go towards it.

Fail fast!

You’ll learn as you’re swimming through finding what it is that you’re doing and you’ll find people which will relate to you.

The flying monkey trailer is a token to have fun. You got to love what you’re doing and be passionate about it. Finally continue to grow in your pursuit. There’s so much advancement in life whether it’s finding a business partner to venture with, a new idea for a book, outsourcing work, continue to fuel the passion for your niche.

I’m inspired by these simple keys and I’m going to keep them next to my table as I blog each day. I want to remind myself that it’s the little things that count and it’s OK to take my time in knowing what it is that I want to blog about.

Here are my notes on the the video. Go ahead and download it, hopefully it’ll help you think about success in a new way as well. :)

Enjoy!

Download 7 Keys to Success Notes

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Finding A Topic Shouldn’t Be Complex

As I’m listening to Yaro’s interview with Darren Rowse (Roal-se), I’m struck by how topics can lose it’s simplicity. All the technicalities towards analyzing and jargon associated with blogging has become teed down to a science which makes it stand on its own.

I’m inspired but at the same time downtrodden by the organic nature of our actions. Should I even take it personal? This is going to bother me but I’m sure through blogging about it, I’ll find a path towards deciphering the code.

This makes me wonder why we flock to dollar signs instead of the exponential design and technical constructs? Why should our topic even be considered worthy? Thus, I’m following along with my teacher’s advice, do what you’re passionate about. Forgive me if I’m frustrated today but I think this is something worth blogging about.

As I continue to adjust my mindset towards blogging, the thing that always seem to boggle me down is the topic.

What makes a topic valuable?

Is it a rant? A meaning of which we all need an answer to? A description of our work?

So I go through the pillars of writing which my teacher stresses upon and I cannot for the life of me have a topic shoot out. What I did next was moped and it led me to change the URL of this site to bloggingfor.info.

I read in past articles that with an .info site most are spammers, marketers and worse banned from Google’s search engine. Well I want to fall right in and be an early adopter without crossing the thresholds. Did you know that they’re cheap now?

With prices like that I understood the meaning of your own website.

It’s so easy to make your own website now and put up a splash page to sell products. This leads me to my next topic which struck me in the middle of the night. I’m going to focus more on affiliate marketing. What better way to learn the market than to learn to sell someone else’s?

So while the analysis is manifesting itself poorly in my mind into paralysis, I’m going to take action in whichever way I can. Finding a topic shouldn’t be complex, especially when there’s so many people out there wanting to sell you something. I want to sell you a part of my belief too but it’s going to take some time.

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