Sometimes people tell me they think I am blogging for the wrong reasons. It usually comes right after they hear me say I write first for me and then for you.
They say I ought to spend more time focusing on the needs of the reader because if I do that, if I entertain, educate and inform good things will happen.
Brands will hire and pay me to write about their products. People will read my words and praise my writing and I’ll become rich and famous.
Sometimes I just smile and wait to see if they give any indication that they are really listening to what I say or if they are just telling me about why they blog or think someone should.
It is no different from when people ask you ‘how are you are doing’ because it is a social nicety and not because they care if you are good, bad or indifferent.
You’re Blogging For The Wrong Reasons- In Pictures
Don’t mistake my words for not wanting to be paid to write or having no interest in brands hiring me.
Don’t mistake my words for not wanting to have people say they love my words and would pay money for me to put them out there on a bigger and larger platform.
Those things would be great but they aren’t what drive me. They aren’t what keeps me going.
So take this as 15 minute post with pictures that help illustrate why I do this. It won’t be the full and complete answer, but you need to start somewhere and this helps.
P.S. That headline is a bit link baity– you didn’t really think I am against doing things that will bring in traffic now did you.
If we are going to spend time on the planet we might as well do something with it.
I don’t want to go against the crowd just to be adversarial but I don’t want to go with it just because everyone else does.
I like thinking about things and asking questions. It is how we grow.
Blogging provides an easy way to do some of those things.
Life has taught me that possessions can be taken but education and experience can’t. I want to be a collector of both.
I want to experience life. The blog is a place to share some of those thoughts and chronicle some of those experiences.
I am not the only one who hopes, thinks or feels this way, why not provide a venue for discussing them.
I like to create. I like to build. I like to make things.
I am more skilled with doing it with words than with my hands, but I practice both.
The goal is to do something that is meaningful, maybe not every time, but hopefully more than once.
And if we keep pushing at it, maybe, just maybe we’ll contribute something that gives people something that helps them too.
What do you think?
Hi Josh! Great post, as always! You are spot on about this. I think we all worry so much about what other people think or how they might criticize something we do (or wear, or say, etc. etc.) and yet we have as a society always looked up to and praised those who dared to be different, to think and to do outside of the proverbial box. So what’s with the ambivalence?
We already do so many things for others and/or with anticipation of others’ opinions in mind; don’t you think it’s kind of nice once in a while to have or do something just for you and just for the sheer pleasure of it? And if what you are doing happens to be something others out there dig, hey, that’s cool too! I remember reading some little quote that said something to the effect of, “Be yourself, always, and your kindred will find you…” Not verbatim, of course, but the point is, if we compromise ourselves so much to fit into this or that, we will never know our true selves, and neither will anyone else–nor will we have much chance of finding those who are our true soul mates (not just in love, but also in friendship). So do what you love to do and what you are clearly very good at doing, and enjoy it fully. Write about whatever you want to write about. That’s one of the things that in my opinion make your blog appealing. When you are in your element, the rest should fall into place.
Hi T,
I suppose it is easier to laud those who do their own thing than to step out and do it. Less risk or something like that.
I think I know the quote you are talking about, don’t remember who said it but I have enough to get the gist.
I figure if we focus on being ourselves and doing our thing we’ll find our people as we go through the journey, might have to remember to look up from our phones but we’ll find them.
Hey there mate, exactly. It’s like life in general – sure, we can listen to the words or advice of those that have done something before us, but that doesn’t mean they’re instantly right because of it.
We all have our own ways and reasons for doing what we do. If others like that, great. If not – well, just as great. There’s always somewhere else.
There is always somewhere else is right. I never have understood why some people think it is cool to start telling people what and how they should be writing about.
Perhaps they need validation of some sort. Existence? Either way, meh.