Do you ever feel frustrated by a sense of eternal restlessness, particularly when working on the Web?

There’s an endless ebbing, flowing ocean of content to navigate. It’s always raining and pouring more ones and zeroes, a downright deluge of data that never relents.

I know what it’s like to feel overcome by the flood of it all.

The streams and memes, the passwords and profiles, the alphas and betas, the announcements and contests and promotions.

Deadlines, deadlines.

Expectations and writer’s block and stat tracking and following the latest news from anywhere and everywhere all at once.

It’s miserable unless you force yourself to just calm down.

Oh, the unspeakable power of calm. Oh, the unspeakable power of it.

Can you do something for me? Just for a second?

I’ve had it.

No more.

I’ve had it.

The slope is too steep.

The wind is too fierce.

The pain is too great.

I could never reach the summit.

Why did I even bother?

Nobody cares.

Go on or go back – it won’t make a difference.

So scream the voices.

But I refuse to listen.

Because I can see.

And I can see …

… because I believe.

photo by Peter Gene

I was recently blessed with the opportunity to serve as the assistant event coordinator for Blog Action Day 2008, which persuaded thousands of bloggers to address the subject of poverty on October 15.

That event changed me forever.

May we never forget that we are all beggars.

5 things I learned from my BAD ‘08 work:

1. Scalability is crucial to virality.

If you can’t scale, you can’t spread. Your idea may spread somewhat on its own. But if you can’t handle huge spikes of incoming information, you won’t be able to give your meme the constant attention it needs in order to achieve maximum reach and effect.

Blog Action Day 2008 was highly scalable in structure. The organizing team did a fantastic job preparing this event to spread virally. We had a solid strategy for contacting high-profile blogs and non-profit organizations. We had a website that made it easy and appealing to register for the event. We had a viral video.

But we all wished we had a few more members on our team. Especially when the big day came and I found myself hosting a live 12-hour-long radio show, manning the event Twitter and email and social media accounts, and fielding last-minute phone calls.

Many people have asked me to help them make their blog more successful.

One of the most common questions I ask in reply is this: “What’s your overall vision for your blog? Where do you want it to take its target audience in the next 12-24 months?”

Once they answer that question, they’re ready to hear what I have to say about how to improve their blog and get the results they want. Here’s why the blog improvement process ultimately hangs from the feet of vision.

Welcome to Part 5 of a 5-part series on the elements of visionary blogging. This article will help you become a more diligent blogger so you can increase your blogging success.

• Part 1: Increase Your Awareness (the ability to see)
• Part 2: Sharpen Your Focus (the ability to look)
• Part 3: Hone Your Discernment (the ability to evaluate)
• Part 4: Excite Your Imagination (the ability to create)
• Part 5: Strengthen Your Diligence (the ability to endure)

Recognize this mountain?

Look closely at the colossal peak in the photo above. Can you name it?

• Hint: It’s bigger and taller than Mount Everest.
• Hint: It can be seen from two cities that are more than 350 miles (560 kilometers) apart by car.
• Hint: Its name in Athabaskan means “the Great One.”

I don’t matter.

Those are the three most despicable words you could ever say as a blogger. Or as a professional.

Or as a human being.

Vision can make the difference between victory and failure in blogging and business.

Vision polarizes. It has only allies and enemies. No fence-sitters.

Blogging too. You’re either improving your blog or making it worse. Never standing still.

For whom is your blog?

Who writes the blog posts?

Who typically leaves comments?

Who’s the target reader? The target buyer?

Who your blog?

Why your blog? Why did you create it?
Why your blog? Why is it special?
Why your blog? Why did you choose the blog format?
Can a new visitor tell me “why your blog” within 10 seconds?
Can you?
Why your blog?

Welcome to Part 3 of a 5-part series on the elements of the Visionary Blogging method, which will help you develop important skills that you need in order to become a more effective blogger and improve your blog more efficiently.

This article is about discernment. I’ll explain what discernment is, why you need discernment in order to be a successful blogger, and how you can improve your power of discernment.

I’ll give you some homework, too.