A leap of faith
Oh hey, come on in. I'll be with you shortly, I'm just watching the last few minutes of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Henry Jones Snr lies bleeding, helpless – depending on the smarts of his son to solve the clues and find the Holy Grail.
The final clue is The Path of God.
“Only in a leap from the lion's head will he prove his worth.”
Indiana Jones takes a leap of faith from inside the sculpted head of a lion and puts one foot forward across a giant chasm. His foot lands on a path that is painted to blend in with the depth of the chasm and all is well.
Jones passes this test and moves on to the film's finale – identifying the one true Holy Grail from a room filled with imposters. With the keen eye of a trained archaeologist who's done his homework, he can spot the real deal with ease.
Thanks for bearing with me. I always have to stop and watch that scene. It has so many childhood memories for me. And it always makes me think about Indiana Jones' faith as he moves through these clues and scenarios.
Now I'm thinking about faith and the role it can play in elevating us from thinking like mere mortals to feeling like superheroes.
I'm not especially talking about religious faith, more about faith in ourselves (which can often be one and the same thing).
Faith in our ability to leap from the lion's head and stride victoriously across the longest chasm. Sometimes we attribute that to whatever God or superpower we believe in. Sometimes we go, yeah – we know it's us, not some external force – and the repayment of that faith in ourselves makes us feel electric.
We often need faith in our lives. As children, we get it regularly from our parents, but as adults, we're most likely to get it from our peers and colleagues.
We need to know we're doing the right thing, at the right time, and following the right path. We look for signs that we're doing those things, but often, the only sign we need is acceptance from ourselves.
You gotta have faith
There have been lots of things happening that might shake our faith recently. Faith in whichever government guides us through the pandemic, faith in our fellow man to do the right thing to protect themselves and others – but today I'm focused on more first world problems.
Today – I'm thinking specifically about my fellow bloggers and content creators.
I want you to have faith in yourselves about what you create.
You embarked on your blogging adventure with an idea. And a goal. That idea may have been to talk about your kids, your family life, XRP, technology, gaming tutorials, the latest movie you've seen.
Whatever.
Everything and anything goes, my friends. All ideas are valid.
Your goal may be to interact with a person on Twitter! Or it might be to get 500 followers on Coil! Or it might be to get on the Coil Boost program! Your goal is your goal – and you need to own it. And you need to consider how you're going to achieve it.
You should be prepared to accept that your idea might preclude your goal. Your idea and goal can, without you realising, be mutually exclusive. To do this properly requires thought.
And your ideas and goals can be fluid. They can shift and move around as time goes by. I had no idea I'd have over 100 followers on Coil by now – so my next goal changes.
I'm looking at how I develop the next 100. Am I just waiting for the next 100 Coil subscribers to drop onto Twitter?
No chance! I'm looking at the audiences on Twitter I might appeal to – my target demographic – and inviting them to come and see what particular brand of cola I'm selling.
Hopefully they'll swallow it down. And hopefully they'll think it tastes good and come back for more.
If they're content creators, they might bite and join me here on Coil. If they're consumers, and they feel it's worth it, they might just subscribe.
Either way – I want my audience to be more than the circle of supporters I have currently. We owe it to ourselves to branch out and go and find the audience that our content is made for.
Faith no more
I've seen people try and make their blogging dreams a reality, and fail. They've had a go – not really given it long enough – and not committed to the ideas that they've wanted to talk about. They've branched out too early, diversified across topics. Consumers haven't been able to work out who they are and it hasn't worked out for them.
A warning to all who pitch their blog content at the wrong audience
If you've stuck to this post so far, I want you to really commit to your idea. Find your thing – what's your niche? What's your category? What are you about?
What's your raison d'etre?
It's terrific getting to know a creator. We all want to understand more about the person whose viewpoint we're buying into. But ultimately, what's more important – the creator or the content?
I would argue it's the content everytime.
I aspire to create content that reaches beyond the same 16-24 ish people who upvote me most weeks.
I aspire to bring people here who only know about Coil because of MY content. I have faith in myself that I can do that.
Martin Luther King once said “ Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.”
I challenge each and everyone of you to follow that – believe in what you're doing – and get outside of your comfort zone. Go and get people from Twitter, or Reddit or wherever, to come and see your content.
Step out from the lion's head – cross that gaping chasm – and start bringing new people to come and see what we're all doing.
Find your personal Holy Grail
The Holy Grail is your thing, whatever it means to you. There are a room full of fake topics looking to pull you off track. They look so flashy and golden. You could pick any of them up. Any of them could be 'the right one'.
But when you pick it up, it doesn't feel quite right. The water in it tastes odd. You're suddenly meddling with things you don't understand.
You're in deeper than you ever imagined, and now you're struggling for air.
If only you'd stuck to the path – found the cup that you knew was yours all along, and drank from it. The world would be yours.
You know where you should be, you know what you need. Don't deviate.
Drink from your cup.
Have faith, find your Grail. It may not keep you going for all eternity, but it's a sure-fire formula for personal harmony.
You'll stop comparing where you are with others on their paths.
You'll focus on yourself. And being the best that you can be.
You won't choose poorly. You've got the right content. Go and find the right people to appreciate it.
