Using the Web to Change Your Life

This is a blog post that I'm going to do tomorrow morning or next week. It's all about making the change in your life that you want to make - it's easier than you think.

The majority of us are spectators that see the web as a primary communication tool for email and, in some cases chat.  Most of us have an email and Facebook account.  These are the two requisites that even your Grandmother may have.  I want to bring your attention to elements of the web that can change your life.

Fascinating Web Statistics

The number of Internet users is more than 3.2 billion

The number of Internet users has increased from 738 million in 2000 to 3.2 billion in 2015, according to a new report from the International Telecommunication Union. Time.com

The number of websites is greater than 1 billion

In the time it's taken you to read this sentence, at least four new websites have been registered. And according to figures from an internet tracker, the total number of websites now exceeds one billion. The Daily Mail, UK, Sep 17, 2014

The number of people creating content is 1% or 320,000

In Internet culture, the 1% rule is a rule of thumb pertaining to participation in an internet community, stating that only 1% of the users of a website actively create new content, while the other 99% of the participants only lurk. Wikipedia

Continual Change

There will always be someone better than you are.  There will always be a better way of doing or saying something.  Wheels will continue to evolve and get better.  

Why don’t you do something to contribute to the internet?  

The chances are, that with consistent behavior, your life will change as a result of your contributions.

10 Things you can start today that could change your life.

Sell something

Gather up all the junk that you have in your house and either give it away for free or sell it.  You can do this for free on Kijiji.com.  We’ve been purging all year and there is still tons of crap everywhere.  It’s amazing how many useless things you can accumulate in life.  Purge, get rid of them.  A clean, open space to live in will change your life.

Connect to your friends

Join Facebook and Twitter and just connect with the people that you love to be with and that you want at your funeral.  Seriously, these are the people that you know that are important to you and you’re important to them.  Anyone else that’s on Facebook that you don’t love - give them the boot.  When you have people on your Facebook that you don’t want to share with then you don’t share with anyone. Open up your communication lines by cleaning up your friends.

Take a course

There are lots of free courses and there are thousands of paid courses.  If there’s something that you’ve always wanted to do: learn a new language, cook, project manage, whatever, there’s likely a course for it.  Join, pay up and have fun.  Achieving a lifelong goal is going to change your life.

Join a group

There are groups on the Internet that become communities within themselves.  Facebook has a great group app, Google+ also has one.  There’s a cool site called Meetup.com which I subscribe to and it’s fantastic.  There will be groups that you can join and then go and meet-up within your local community.  

Start a group

If you have a passion and want to meet with others that share your passion then start your own group. I recommend that you use Meetup.com for this.  Starting and organizing something associated with your passion will definitely change your life.  Starting groups is not everyone’s cup of tea but it’s lots of fun and appeals to the creative and organized parts of your brain.

Find a partner

Not together with anyone?  Then find a partner on the Internet.  Matchmaking websites are incredibly popular and I know a number of people that have met on the Internet and married.  There used to be a social stigma associated with finding love on the Internet but now it’s normal.  Find the love of your life and your life will definitely change. I won’t put a link to a particular website because there are so many variations so just Google “matchmaking websites”.

Skype someone

Video chat is so rewarding and fun.  If you have friends, kids or relatives in far flung places or even just in the next town, a video chat can help to keep you close.  Sign up for Skype, it's free for most of what you want to do.  All it really requires is a high-speed internet connection and if possible a headset and microphone.

Start a business

Tim Ferriss has popularized the concept of the four hour work week where the concept is that you create an online business, spend very little time managing it and travel around with the proceeds.  It’s a great idea that has received a lot of attention and has changed people's lives.  Create an online business.  Whether you work at it for four hours a week or not is up to you.

Write a blog

Blogging is awesome. Once you start writing about what brings you joy and learning to write well, then blogging itself will bring you joy.  It’ll become the vehicle for your creativity.  It can combine easily with starting a business as you can write a blog, and then use Google Adsense to publish advertising on it.  If your blog gets popular then you can start making money from Google! You can create your own blog for free at Blogger.com

Share a video

There are things that you do really well.  It may be cooking, coding, fixing, building, thinking, meditating, care-giving, anything.  You can share a video on this.  Start your own Youtube channel and start capturing video.  You can use your smartphone or you can really get into it by using a camcorder or digital SLR camera.  Tap into your TV personality and start sharing your life in video.

About John McDonald

I’ve been ghost blogging technical papers for companies for the last few years and now I’m actually doing more creative writing and I’m loving it.  I’m writing, blogging and doing web development full-time and supporting myself in my mobile business.  My company is called The Allan Wade Company and I’d love your support.