Every year at Life.Church, Senior Pastor Craig Groeschel preaches a message titled 30-Second Theology. This message plays off the Super Bowl and the commercials that Americans love to watch this time of year. In his message, Pastor Craig uses commercials to teach biblical truth. Each year Pastor Craig challenges viewers to pick one commercial which speaks to them. He calls it picking your one. Without fail every year one of the commercials speaks to me more than the others.
If you have never experienced 30-Second Theology, I have included a link to a YouTube video that explains it all.
This year there were 6 commercials, each covering a different topic. Each year there tends to be at least one or two that hit home with me. The relevant commercial topics can relate to my word of the year or something I am struggling with personally, while others relate to my professional focus that year. Even though there were several that resonated with me this year, there was one that was the clear winner.
6 Commercial Topics
- Unexpected
- Words
- How to be great
- Made New
- Grind
- Lifeline
My One
The one which best captures my focus for 2022 is Grind. I tried but could not find the commercial online. I am not sure what was being advertised in the commercial. Here’s an overview of the content of the grind.
"It’s the things that no one sees that bring the results everyone wants."
"Stop trying. Start training."
“Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.” 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 NLT
“Do not waste time arguing over godless ideas and old wives’ tales. Instead, train yourself to be godly.”
1 Timothy 4:7 NLT
Backstory
Over the past two years, I have been exploring writing. In 2020, I published a lot of articles on my website craigbooker.com. I truly thought I was gaining some momentum. While I published frequently, I did not have much of a plan as to where I was going. For a long time, writing has been fun, but it was not something I pursued with much intentionality. The idea of writing professionally was something of a surprise to me in many ways.
A Somewhat Embarrassing Confession
Another fun fact about me is that I come up with ideas for things at a crazy pace. These ideas can be anything from a business, to an app, but most frequently they center around writing. I can be listening to a podcast or an audiobook and I frequently stop to write ideas down. Now, these ideas are not me writing down what the speaker says like most might think, these are ideas sparked while I am listening.
While none of that is particularly embarrassing on its own, I used to quickly buy domain names (www.myidea.com) associated with these ideas. I did this until I had more domains than I could manage. Eventually, I developed guidelines around new ideas that allow me time to process the validity of the idea. This has greatly helped with my runaway domain problem.
Looking Back
Over the past 15+ years, I have written on various topics with little to no plan as to where I was headed. What I discovered looking back is that my writing falls into certain categories. These include faith, mental health, my story, personal growth, technology, software, business, and writing. Since I seem to collect website addresses, conveniently I already have brands that relate to many of the topics. I have included a list of my sites located towards the bottom of this post, along with their corresponding links.
Going Forward – Goals For 2022
In 2022, I will be writing content for each of these niches. My primary goal on most of these websites is to hone my craft, also known as my writing skills. Next, I hope to build an audience for each of these sites. Third, I plan on creating and publishing books that target these audiences. My fourth goal for these sites is to experiment with different types of monetization.
Goals For Each Site
- Hone my craft, AKA writing skills
- Build an audience
- Write and publish books for these audiences
- Experiment with different forms of monetization
Note: I understand that these goals are very broad and not very useful. I will be writing a follow-up post once I flesh out my smart goals. A SMART goal is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based.
Publishing My First Book
Big news!!! In 2022, I will be publishing a book that I have been working on for about 2 years. I’ve never published anything outside of articles or newsletters, so I won’t commit to a specific date just yet. If you would like to receive updates, sign up for my newsletter.
Follow My Writing
If you’d like to follow my writing, below is a list of my websites along with their corresponding topics. You can also sign up for my newsletter to receive updates directly in your inbox.
craigbooker.com – Faith, mental health
bookerandco.org – Business, content marketing, writing
mentorfreak.com – Mentoring, personal growth, leadership
itech.plus – Apple and related technology
craigbooker.com
This is my home base on the web. This is where I write on topics such as faith, mental health, and my story. I will share posts from my other sites on craigbooker.com, but the schedule is somewhat delayed from the original time they are published on my other sites.
bookerandco.org
Booker & Co is my professional writing website. Think of this as the business side of my writing. It will contain sample pieces of my work so that prospective employers can get a clear picture of my writing capabilities. On this site, I write about topics such as business, content marketing, and writing.
mentorfreak.com
MentorFreak is a place I write about topics such as mentoring, personal growth, and leadership.
itech.plus
Itech+ is a site about Apple and related technology.
Original Photo by Dave Adamson on Unsplash.
