This week is a very special one for my blog – today’s post marks my 200th blog post. I’ve been writing on this site for over three years now, and I’ve enjoyed every step in the journey so far. Thinking about the lessons I’ve learned since I first started writing back in February of 2017, a few lessons really stood out to me.
The only way to last is to write about your passions.
I’ve never mentioned this before, but before I started this blog I used to have another one that was all about business and careers for millennials. I started it because I thought it would be good for my personal brand, and because I felt I could speak confidently on the subject.
There was just one problem.
I was missing passion. I started that blog for the wrong reasons, and as a result I gave up on it just as it was starting to gain momentum. I just couldn’t find the motivation to keep writing. The icing on the cake was when I let the domain expire, and some guy from China picked it up and started selling knockoff shoes on my old domain.
On the other hand, I started this blog because of a worldview-changing trip to Indonesia, and my motivation was purely about chronicling my personal search for happiness in life. To this day, I don’t make a cent off this site, and while that may change in the future, it will never be the reason I write. This site is a way of documenting and understanding my life’s experiences and my passions first and foremost, and it always will be.
The same goes for finding your voice.
I started off by trying to copy other writers I admired. I would read other blogs and think, “Man, that girl is really funny, I want to be more like that.” Every time I tried to change up my writing style to be like someone else though, it felt forced. And of course it did – I’m not them, and it was silly for me to think I could write like someone else – or even that I needed to.
Oscar Wilde once said to “Be yourself; everyone else is taken.” When it comes to writing, that couldn’t be truer. Nobody can write exactly like you, and you can’t write exactly like anyone else. Trying to just leads to frustration and burnout.
Writing has helped me understand myself better.
Some people look to understand themselves by going camping. Others place their faith in meditation. For me, writing has been the tool that has helped me the most in this regard. I have to understand my thoughts and feelings pretty thoroughly in order to put them down on paper in a way that actually makes sense.
Choosing a topic to write about – especially a tough one like the passing of my nonna, for example – forces me to work through the swirling cloud of ideas and emotions in my head before I can ever get them down in a post like this.
Side note – it would have been my nonna’s birthday tomorrow. Love you nonna, and hope your garden is as green as ever up there.
I’ve gotten better, but I’ll never be “good enough.”
A while back, I wrote about impostor syndrome – that feeling like you’re never good enough, that people will one day out you as the fraud you are – and it’s a real thing. The voice in my head is usually one of self-doubt, especially when it comes to writing.
Here’s the thing though: being aware of that, I try more often to make sure I’m balancing it out with positive commentary as well. As much as I feel like I’ll never truly be a “good” writer, I can also confidently say that I’m a better writer now than I was when I first started this blog.
What this reminds me of is the fact that, no matter what it is you want to do, whether it’s playing the piano, running, training in martial arts or weight-lifting, everyone starts at “suck.” Sucking is table stakes for getting better. The people who are at the top of their game at anything are the ones who stuck through the suck.
I don’t know if I’ll write forever, or if I’ll move on to something else. But I do know that I’ll take this lesson with me to whatever comes next, and I won’t be afraid to suck at it; it’s just part of the process, man.
Beating writer’s block comes in two flavours for me.
One of the questions I get most often when people learn I’ve been writing week-in, week-out for over three years is “How do you keep coming up with stuff to write about?”
It’s a good question; there are definitely times where Friday rolls around and I’m like “Geeze, what the hell do I have for this week?” What I’ve learned over time, though, is that kicking writer’s block usually happens for me in one of two ways.
The first way comes in immersing yourself in the things you like to write about. For me, that means getting out and messing around with my photography, going on trips abroad, learning something new or refining myself in my martial arts, or polishing up on my personal finance chops.
The more you throw yourself in there, the more likely it is that something you read or experience will spark a great topic to write about. And what’s more, I find that, like any muscle, this is a skill that gets stronger and stronger the more you use it.
The second way I kick my writer’s block is by just focusing on where my attention has been lately. Honestly, I’m a simple guy, and it’s pretty rare that my mind isn’t on one of the topics I write about. Even if it seems like it isn’t, there’s usually a way for me to tie back into one of the main categories on my blog.
My attention doesn’t usually get split between the topics in a neat-and-tidy fashion, though. When I first started writing, I tried to balance all the categories of my site, writing posts in each category as evenly as I possibly could.
Then I realized something: I freakin’ hated it.
I didn’t always have something to say on travel, for example, because I’m not always traveling. When I do go somewhere though, I’m usually so fired up about it that I can write on the subject for weeks afterward. That doesn’t mean I publish nothing but travel posts for weeks on end, but it does mean that I can build up my travel posts to sprinkle in later.
I find it to be way more effective to just go with the flow, rather than try to swim against the current. For example, my wife and I are starting the process of buying a new house in the coming months; as a result, my mind is on homeownership and the home-buying process. This makes it really, really easy for me to come up with things to write about in that space, and surprise-surprise: personal finance is one of the topics of my blog.
When it comes to writer’s block, I find I get past it either by focusing my writing on where my attention already is, or getting out there and sinking my teeth into new experiences and material that forces my attention into that space. Either way, it’s worked wonders for me.
Wrapping it Up
Man, 200 blog posts went by just like that. If you’re reading this post and got this far, know that I’m grateful for you. You might be a friend or family member, or you might be reading this from the other side of the world. Either way, I appreciate you taking the time to read the ramblings of some guy who’s just chasing what we’re all after in this world: happiness. Here’s to 200 more posts to come 🙂
