We’re having an interesting conversation here in the office today…
Terry mentioned an article he read a few years ago about wearing a hard hat. The writer said you can go anywhere… and get access to anything, if you’re simply wearing a hard hat and carrying a clipboard.
And I bet he’s right. Restaurant kitchens, grocery store loading docks, employee lounges – I can see lots of people letting you slip right past them with the right uniform.
I laughed and thought this would be a good blog topic.
Christina then chimed in that this is what she’s often considered doing with a blog.
She doesn’t like the idea of committing to a topic that she’ll write about forever. Instead she’d like to base her blog on a social experiment — a topic where the outcome is uncertain and she’s under a deadline or obligation to get to the end so that she, too, can find out what happens.
I love this blog idea. In fact, looking back this year, I’d say some of my favorite blogs were social experiments like Christina is suggesting.
This guy, for instance, blogged about 100 days of rejection.
He hates rejection. So in an effort to figure out why rejection hurts so much and how to overcome it, he went out daily or weekly LOOKING for it. To get rejected he requested the most ridiculous things – he once went into PetSmart and asked them to cut his hair like a German Sheppard. And one day he knocked on a random person’s door and asked if he could play soccer in their backyard.
The blog is comical and the outcome was somewhat surprising…
In his journey to find rejection, he also found crazy acceptance as some of even his most ridiculous requests got a Yes instead of a No.
And here’s another one…
This guy and girl were best friends who decided to date and blog about it. He blogged about his journey to see if they were a romantic match. She blogged about hers. And together, they’re hosted on the same blog so you can read their accounts side by side.
Did they end up together? You can go to their link to see.
In the end, it was their journey I liked reading about.
So if you’re having trouble picking your topic… you want to fund a new life but you’re not sure what to write about… or you’re simply scared of writing about something daily…
…perhaps you can try a social experiment.
Don’t steal these people’s ideas and wear a hard hat or search for rejection or blog about dating your best friend. But DO try thinking about an experiment.
100 days of dieting… 100 days of pitching travel articles… 100 days of never saying no… 50 spa treatments in 50 days (now that’s an idea I can get on board with ).
Make it interesting and make it fun. Pick something you’re passionate about and you’ll find that the writing is much easier. And you might even kill two birds with one stone if your little social experiment has a good outcome.
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