#PositiveVibes - Drill Down Deep

By John R. Nocero

Someone told me the other day that my writing was interesting. It is an amazing compliment. Moreso, because I value them and their professional opinion. They are an esteemed colleague. I had thought long and hard about blogging. I have not seen many quality assurance or compliance professionals that are regular bloggers. If you are out there, please send me some of your work, because I would love to read it and get better.

I always invite people to connect and chat compliance, because, who knows where it will lead? But most importantly, I always believe in giving back to the profession, and I also thought that blogging regularly would help me become a tighter writer. That helps with professional writing, such as SOPs. Many people can say what they want to say, so few can do it with a 400 word limit; fewer can do it and have people understand it without using “shall.”

The professional development is never done. So many people set goals, but they don’t work hard at achieving them, or they just quit before they are done. Now, if you want to quit because you found something else to pursue, I applaud it. But just don’t wake up seemingly by accident every day. Don’t muddle through without figuring out who you are and what you want to achieve. I always ask myself “what do you want” in all aspects of my life, with my marriage, how much money I want to make, what car I want to drive, what I want to be doing and who I want to spend my time with. From that point, when I know what I want, I am spending the rest of my life going after what I want. Clarity is an amazing thing. You have to work at it. If something is worth doing, you do it every day. If something is not worth doing, you should never do it. Be relentless about what you do. I always believe I can do more and I am never satisfied with what I do. I celebrate the good things but I am always looking to improve. That starts with me and my focus.

If you are starting to write, start and harness your focus as you go. Mine is professional development for the compliance professional. That’s my niche. If you see a need for an area out there that you can fill, then do it. Just have a focus. Don’t post about HIPAA one week, then the seven elements the next, then back to auditing, then HIPAA again. Know who you are and what you know and then tell the world about it. I don’t know about a lot of things, but I know a lot about a small number of things. I would rather drill down deep than drill down wide.