How can I write articles that creat value (about my training)?

[Scipio]

So I'm following my dream.

I've dropped out (or at least took a break from college--where I was getting a 4.0) to pursue the training of martial arts around the world for the next several years. Right now I'm in Korea training Judo and wrestling, I'll spend a year or two in Thailand living at a Thai boxing camp, and want to go to Brazil for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for as long as I can afford too.

Ideally I'd have some sort of small, passive internet income to support my travels. I usually live really cheap, and most of those countries are cheap. But in order to do that I have to focus on creating value.

A lot of people have training blogs but I've noticed they don't really create any value for anyone else. They usually just list the workouts, the new techniques they learned that day, etc. It's more personal than for everyone else.

I'm looking for ideas on how I can give people information from my unique experience that will provide them value. At this point, I can't write instructional articles on the techniques of Judo or Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, there are many more qualified people out there already doing that.

One idea I thought of, was to write a book or ebook in the future that gives people contact, travel, and guide information for doing the exact same thing I'm doing. However, that is a long term project for the future and I also want to have a blog with articles or something that is more immediate. I just have no idea of a general theme to write on that I could write about 2-3 times per week.

Please help me brainstorm.

[Matt Willard]

Why not blog about your exploits and try to discover how your journey connects with your life and inspires it? You're following your dream, so a blog about living that dream is sure to inspire others. See if you can derive something from your experiences that you can pass onto others-something more than just pure technique.

[stevehjoseph]

Well, one of the things that I have really wanted for a while now is personal accounts of the mindset of someone who is physical. I really liked something that Steve talked about in his book, he mentioned something about finding out what a monk knows that you don't know that makes meditating on a daily basis easier. It makes me think of the question I always ask phd students: why? What is it hat has you so entranced that you are going to throw years of your life into the study of it. And when I ask it I Hope to manage to not be shaking their confidence, because what I mean is, I don't have that passion, clearly you know something that I do not know which makes this all so fascinating for you. So if you are on point with this martial arts stuff, then if you could convey the feeling place experience to me through words, I would read it every day! Because I want to be a little kid again; I want to be excited about things again, but no dang people seem to be excited about things anymore. I was watching a kid's show the other day and they were fighting hand to hand, and though it wasn't Power Rangers, it really made me think of them, because it was really corny, but at the same time, I could see why I got into it as a child. Martial arts in a kid's show isn't about bringing and end to your enemies, it wasn't about guns or torture or anything negative, it just got my juices going and made me feel like a Boy, something which didn't happen very often in my life. I normally just felt like a twirp being kicked around by my world. But when I look back, I got kindof fired up by watching this representation of the cool things that you could do with your body that gave you some leverage over your life. And if somebody out there could harness the passion they have themselves and are applying every day, and share some of the surplus excitement, I believe that person could do very well for themselves. I don't read Steve Pavlina because he solves my problems for me, although his ideas help. I read Steve Pavlina because he solves His problems, and I think that is infinitely cool. This juice feast thing he's doing? I thought it was totally lame and uninteresting until I read about all the discouragement he was getting from naysayers that it clearly looked unsafe and he should back down, and he talked about how people have told him that he can't do this or that his whole life, and bang I was totally back on board, moreso than I have been for years. So what I lack from all fitness and physical material that I see available to me is that it is about how to do it myself, but please man, I'm a smart kid, I can figure out the how to's myself and I don't care about the details right now. When I get started with something I like to start in a broad sense, and just get fired up about something that I previously thought was beyond me. To me, even though I'd like to say martial arts is something that I could learn, I clearly think it is beyond me because as much as I think that is an activity that would serve me immensely, I have some rooted beliefs that probably go something along the lines of You Can't Do That. But YOU ARE and your simple existence disproves that I can't do that and man, I Want to visit a website like that. When I read your post, I said to myself, man that is SO cool. I've never lived outside of my home country. I'm scared to. I wouldn't know the first place to start. I don't have anyone to model such a behavior after. You talked about making a blog. From my vantage point, I'd imagine you feel confident that that is a possible option for some people because this website is run by two Very successful bloggers, and you can follow their model. But their model isn't writing up a bunch of how to articles, instead it is a collection of their lives as people who are pushing the envelope and proving by their very way of life that we Really Can be doing more than we thought, and their work has the effect of breaking down limiting self image after a while because it is really hard to watch the two of them living their dream and not et a little pissed off that you weren't as fully living theirs. When Steve talked about how he wasn't going to back off right away on the juice feast just because he had hit a few road bumps, I thought, man that is so cool. And then like a minute later I felt SO BEHIND ON MY LIFE. Which could have been depressing in the past but now it just got me angry and got me back on track with raising my standards for myself. It booted me out of complacency. If you dropped out of school with a 4.0 and went around the world studying a physical discipline, than I have to imagine that you went through your own phases of kicking yourself out of complacency. And as far as I see it, you're doing it again. You are doing what you feel is right for you, and you say, well now I want it even better, now I want to do this and get payed for it. So why not share who you are becoming? Why not talk about the internal aspects of your work that are expressible and shareable. I did an experiment once. I watched a fitness video and intentionally did not do the exercises. And man, it was hard to not go pull the dang equipment out and get going once I had watched enough of it. Now I didn't make a habit of watching the videos because the videos were boring. But! I would imagine that if there were a better resource that was more aimed at my tendencies, then I might have a better chance at the physicality I secretly know I want and that I wish I felt that I deserved. So. Do you have stories of all the really cool bad ass things that you can do with your body that I can't? If you told me those stories you would be connecting with my human desire to read the story of another, and in the process, if you kept is fresh, I would have less and less ease arched over a computer when I know quite well that there are other people, and not just the idea of other people, but a specific guy, whom I am getting to know well as a real person because he is being so candid and frank about the life he is living, I know that he is out there doing flips and sparing and breaking wood and doing kicks or whatever it is that you are up to. And there's another thing. I really had to pause to think of what it is that you realistically would be learning and blogging about. I have no real idea. Because I'm raised on movies, I don't know what the Real stuff is like. You can be that bridge. You can take what you are actually doing, and show me how my life can be more like all the stories and shows I used to watch and you can prove to me that I don't need to have my recreation be limited to watching other people do cool things on a screen. I think that a resource that managed to convey that it is totally a possible life to have, the one that you currently do, I think that resource is damn worth its while, and if you make it, I hope you post the link.
So yeah. A long answer, but hopefully a useful one?

[Brutha]

Have you thought about using video as medium?
Training moves are very difficult to explain via the written word.

[Daniel Becerra]

If I wanted to learn martial arts online. I would want to see the following:

* Videos
* Blog about what YOU feel, not about the moves themselves, but rather, your emotions and how you got to where you're today or how do you plan to go where you want to go.

There are a variety of reasons for this, but the most important one is that it would help me feel very relate to you. It would make me feel as I did know you personally.

[Bleicke]

I don't really have to contribute anything.

But you're living a dream of mine. I'm currently training Muay Thai and would love to go to Thailand and live in a camp for at least a few months.

Just writing about your experience would be very inspiring to me. So maybe that's really enough while you don't have anything to teach yet. Write about the life as a fighter.