Having this blog has helped me in a lot of ways. I have met and become friends with many people I would have never met before. It has opened a lot of doors for me that would not have been open otherwise.
While this is all great, at times it can be frustrating. Because I have this blog, and because I have met a lot of people and become friends with a lot of people, I have also received a lot of advice and opinions of what I should do with various decisions. Invariably, this advice always pertains to being careful of this person or that group because they have… an agenda.
I appreciate all the intent behind the advice and opinions I get, I truly do. But here is where I’m coming from: Due to this blog, I have learned a lot about many people and organizations within the upper cervical community, of which I’m a part of. The most important thing I have learned is that everyone and every organization has… an agenda.
Is that always a bad thing? I personally don’t think so.
The word agenda, at its most harmless, objective definition, means “a temporally organized plan for matters to be attended to” or “a list of matters to be taken up (as at a meeting)” according to the Free Online Dictionary.
I had an agenda with my e-book, Done By Hand: The Blueprint to Chiropractic Blogging Success. I wanted to monetize this blog somehow, but I didn’t want to stick Google ads on here and see advertisements for “Back Pain Relief” or “Non-Invasive Back Surgery” popping up during posts like “Chiropractic is Much More Than Back Pain and Neck Pain.” I thought that would make me look like a sell-out, which would be true.
My thought was that I knew a lot about the whole concept of blogging and that I could put my knowledge together in an e-book format and sell it.
So far people have enjoyed it and, dare I say, my agenda has been carried out.
Once again, I appreciate all the help and advice. I really do.
I am aware everyone has some sort of agenda. Some I agree with, some I don’t.
My only concern is doing things that will help me become the best I can at what I do, as long as it is the Lord’s will. If someone else has an agenda that I believe I can apply to my own life and become better because of it, then I’m all for it.
If they don’t, that doesn’t mean they are wrong or bad. It just means they aren’t in line with what I personally want to do.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Isn’t it funny the negative connotations that have become associated with the word “agenda”? (insert spooky music here)
Good post, Brandon, and a good reminder to many that everyone who voices an opinion and every organization on the planet has an “agenda” … the trick is in determining if the agenda has positive social intentions (which align with what your own personal agenda is), or if it is a primarily self-serving agenda (which virtually never aligns with your own personal agenda).
Set your 2010 goals today!
So funny that you have this post. In my interview with you, I talked about something similar in my advice to students (i.e. forming your own opinions).
This point should be focused on more. It gets tiring keeping up with what everyone else is doing. My life has enough details in it; I can’t find room for anyone else’s. Agenda or not, I say so be it. We all have the right to have one, and no one else has to approve of it.
Good post!