I started my blog because I wanted to be helpful and write articles that others could learn from. While noble I guess, this mindset is holding me back from actually writing and publishing. I’ve put this pressure on myself that every article I write needs to be teaching or showing someone how to do something.
I can’t write to just write. To get my thoughts down on paper. Or when I do write a post like that, I never publish it. Because to me, writing that like feels very self-centered.
And yet, despite my belief, the opposite is likely true. I know I am most drawn to reading posts where the author is being raw, vulnerable, and honestly sharing their personal experience.
I need to accept that not everything I produce will be a hit. This is true with not just writing but creating products as well. I need to know that I am going to fail over and over again. Failing publicly is hard. Or at least it feels hard.
It’s easier, safer, to control how you’re seen. To never really put yourself out there or put your products out there. It’s disheartening to spend days and weeks putting all your energy into crafting something, only to find out the market doesn’t want it. That’s my fear I guess. That’s why I need to remove myself from being outcome dependent.
Write just to write. It may be helpful to someone, it may not.
Create because you love creating. Your product may be a success, it may be a flop.
The outcomes don’t matter as long as you keep going and learning.
In fact, 95% of what I do, and probably most people do, is average. But the 5% that is great, that is what they become known for. That is why you end up on their blog reading their top posts and not the posts they wrote that never gained traction or resonated. That is why you know someone for the successful company they built and not the 10 failures that they had before. That is why you have to stop caring about outcomes.
Do I think I should post this? Probably no. I wrote it just for myself. To get my thoughts out of my head.
But so what, maybe it’ll resonate with someone else, maybe it won’t. I’d rather default to posting and shipping than hiding and not sharing.
Guess I’ll hit publish.