One of my favorite bloggers, Liz Strauss is having a special even today in honor of her blog’s birthday. Normally on Tuesday’s she has something called Open Comment Night.

But today she’s opened it up for a whole day long extended play event. Stop over and check it out and have some cake while you’re there!

Liz Strauss over at Successful-Blog is having a blog birthday tomorrow. In light of that she is having a little contest where entrants must describe her blog in 25 words or less.

Since I’ve started hanging out at the Open Comment Night that Liz hosts every Tuesday night I’ve gotten to know her and have come to consider her a friend. I nearly had the opportunity to meet her when my work sent me to her home town of Chicago, but an unfortunate change of flights by my company got in the way.

Liz is a passionate advocate for Net Neutrality and her Net Neutrality pages (page1 and page 2) are an invaluable resource where anyone can learn more about the controversy.

The Tuesday night Open Comment Nights are often a highlight of my week. There bloggers from all around the world hang out for a while, bounce ideas around, build friendships, and sometimes even get a little silly. The only real rule that Liz strictly enforces is that everyone must be nice.

Liz is a master at building community. We could all learn a thing or two from her example (especially us church folks!)

So without further ado, here is my entry for the contest:

Successful-Blog is a fun community where you can rub elbows and learn from successful business professionals, writers, bloggers, and even a code writing donkey.

You’ll have to check out Open Comment Night yourself some Tuesday to find out about the code writing donkey!

Happy Birthday Successful-Blog! May you have many more Successful-Years!

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The other day I posted a little rant about my frustration when people don’t plan. In the conversation that developed out of that Liz and I got to talking about being able to see when people are about to make some kind of mistake and when it’s appropriate to say something or not.

That is a whole big issue. When do you speak up? When is it none of your business?

These are tough questions with no single “right” answers. And for sure there are no easy answers. Me, I tend to be opinionated and outspoken. My track record includes an obnoxious streak so I try to be more careful these days and weigh out whether I should speak up or not.

Often it is a tough decision. Let me give you an example.

I had a roommate once. He was a really nice guy, grew up in the church. He was in his mid 20’s and volunteered helping out with the youth group at his church. I noticed there was one girl that he seemed to spend a lot of time with.

Now I didn’t grow up in church. I’ve been out there in the world and seen some stuff, if you know what I mean. I’ve learned a little about people. And I saw a potential problem developing for my roommate and his friend.

She was under 18 and to my perspective they seemed to be spending maybe too much time together. But who am I to judge, right? Besides I knew my track record (borderline obnoxious, hey?).

Well it bothered me enough that I went to two separate friends of mine I trusted and asked them discretely for advice. Both of them independently recommended that I not say anything. They said that I didn’t really know him all that well and maybe I was misreading the situation. He might not take to kindly to my view of things and it might ruin our friendship. Well, knowing who I am I decided to go against my own instincts and kept my piece.

You know what happened.

After I moved out of the house (actually I moved completely out of the state). She ended up getting pregnant and they got married. Now before you get all outraged at him remember he really is a nice guy who genuinely wants to do right by folks. He was however just as naive as she was. Should he have known better? Sure.

If that was where it ended, then all’s well, right? Well unfortunately their marriage didn’t last. I don’t know any of the details other than there were some more children involved before it was over. So now we have several lives that are more complicated than they needed to be.

Hindsight is 20/20 and I should have said something. I regret not speaking up. The whole thing was a powerful lesson to me on the importance of giving advice and I am now more inclined to speak up even when what I say may not be received well. And even when I might be totally wrong and misreading the situation entirely. I guess I’d rather look like a boob than see someone else get hurt.

Here’s a couple nuggets from Proverbs on the issue:

Wounds from a friend are better than many kisses from an enemy.

The heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense.

But there are definitely times when it is better to keep your peace. Some lessons are best learned by experience. Some of our relationships are just plain not close enough for it to be appropriate for us to speak up.

So here are some things to think about that might help you through this dilemma.

• How well you know the person versus how serious the issue at hand is. You can think of it as an equation or a scale. On one side put your relationship with the person, how well you know them, the likelihood you can speak to them about a tough subject without them misinterpreting your intentions. On the other side weigh out how serious the issue is. It truly is often better not to sweat the small stuff. If it is no big deal, then shut up!
• What are the implications and possible consequences of not speaking up? Think through what might happen. What’s the worst case? The best case? How many people might be affected?
• Is there a lesson that the person probably won’t learn without making the mistake at hand? As much as I prefer to learn from the mistakes of others, the reality is I learn best and fastest from my own mistakes. That’s just the way we’re wired
• Has the mistake already been made, or is there still time to avoid it. This may seem common sense to most folks. But there are some out there who feel it is their job to point out every single mistake people have made. Telling someone “you just screwed up” is a whole other deal from warning them that they might be about to make a mistake. More often than not, when people blow it, they know it. They probably don’t need you to pick that scab for them.

The bottom line is all our actions have consequences. That principle applies both to us and to them. We face consequences whether we speak up or stay quiet. They face consequences for whatever choices they make, good or bad.

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Gorgeous and I are having a bit of a rough week. I guess you could say we’re on a passion search.

Don’t get me wrong. We got no problem with our passion, if you know what I mean. But that’s not what I’m talking about. (Besides, this is not that kind of blog. Sheesh!)

We’ve been asking ourselves lots of questions.

• If money were no object what do you want to do?
• If you could set aside all the things you have to do and had all the time in the world, what would you want to do?
• What do you find yourself thinking about when your mind wanders?

Asking those sorts of questions helps refine what your passion really is.

Liz Strauss over at Successful-Blog some advice for folks who are searching to figure out what their passion really is

If you’re after an answer to that question, here’s how to spot something that’s your passion.You have a passion, if what you are thinking about is

1. a pastime or idea you’ve been interested in from the minute you encountered it.
2. a pastime or idea you talk about, read about, and write about even when you don’t have to.
3. a pastime or idea other people know that you know a lot about.
4. a pastime or idea you would miss sorely if you had to give it up.
5. a pastime or idea that energizes you when you get to share it with others.

What does it matter what your passion is? Why bother answering these tough questions?

Well it turns out you are likely to be more successful throughout life if you allow yourself to work at something you are passionate about. Curt Rosengren says passion will fuel your success and he tells us why.

Passion is a renewable resource. Doing work that comes from the heart of who you are and what you’re drawn to energizes you. And that is energy you can put into doing the hard work of success.Success in your career doesn’t come with a snap of the fingers. It takes time. It takes effort. It takes commitment. Above all, it takes the energy and inspiration to make it all happen.

Curt feels so strongly about the subject that he calls himself a Passion Catalyst and has made his own career out of helping others figure out their passions.

But here’s the best part about finding your passion and letting yourself focus there. Not only are you likely to make more money because passion pays, but you will be happier too.

Again Curt tells us that to Focus on Money, Prestige, Success is a Recipe for Unhappiness.

So there you have it. Finding your passion can make you rich and happy. And now you’ve even got some pointers on how to get started working out what your passion really is.

All and all a good day.

Enjoy!

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