Background
I have for a long-time wanted to start a blog and make outlet for my interests and hobbies. I’ve always considered myself a poor writer but feel I have many ideas to share and express.
I’ve always been a dabbler in personal development and tried many things in life.
Life sometimes is also about timing and feel I have time and interest to start this without a real purpose. Maybe it is because I turned 40 this year and this is my form of a mid-life crisis, had my first child, have gone insane from Covid lockdown in Canada, because I moved back to Canada from China, have had progressively unresolved and worsening lower back pain…I suppose it doesn’t really matter.
It is also daunting to start something without a clear plan and easy to end up putting pressure to make something great. It is easy to worry about something and create negative thoughts in your mind without actually doing anything in my experience. I can worry about what others think or worse yet, what I think.
So I realized for me the only way to fail with this or really anything in my life is to not make an attempt and have fun with it. I love doing things and working on tons of different projects.
I’m a part-time code-dabbler, gardener, online marketer, entrepreneur, Scientist, teacher, DIY home improvement enthusiast, brewmaster, athlete, father, husband…
The idea of “niching down” is a popular term in the marketing and online community and essentially means to narrow your focus and get a hyper clear area of expertise.
The problem for me is that I hate niching down and like to do many things. Hopefully a niche of a jack of all trades is some form of area that interests others because I sure enjoy attempting many different things. As a blog theme and business it may make less sense which is fine also.
Many blogs are started as a way to make money which I don’t want to be an end goal for this. I am happy to experiment with monetization as this is still fits in the jack-of-all-trades plan but won’t be the focus. Essentially in this niche everything fits in which I like.
Essentially to me in sounds more like a “classic” blog where I will just talk about anything.
I like revisiting old concepts and philosophies as well. I watched Seinfeld again recently after years and like the idea of “a show about nothing”. Of course it wasn’t about nothing really but it touched on many topics that are still relevant today.
Timeless or “evergreen” content and beliefs is something I also tend to gravitate towards.
Where does this fit in to something with clarity and purpose? Maybe it does or doesn’t. Does it have to?
So I will be taking an iterative approach to this project and have always really believed in this idea. I don’t need to worry about the outcome and can continuously try and improve.
I also believe for myself and others it can be scary to create any content for a variety of reasons. At times I certainly have beliefs and thoughts that are not exactly widely publicly accepted and maybe that’s ok.
This is one of the reasons maybe I think I shouldn’t make something. I don’t want to be offensive but at the same time I want to be authentic. So where will my content fit in?
I have spoken to friends who are PHD’s and professors of a variety of topics and they even feel fear of creating slightly edgy content as it could negatively impact future job prospects and their careers so they have opted at least to put on hold certain topics to at least share publicly.
I think it is a very sad state of affairs when people start to feel this way and a very oppressive direction for society in general.
Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
Mahatma Gandhi
So I will be taking a fun and light approach to this and working on it as I go.
I have also started this project earlier this year but got caught up with different things that have slowed down my progress. This isn’t about excuses either so will keep the original work and some dates on here so hopefully I can see the progress.
I am going to try and not feel bad for taking a break either. Maybe that was part of the process. As I write this I am feeling a bit disappointed in myself for having not progressed this project a little further by now.
My basement office/studio still isn’t quite done and this blog/website still doesn’t look the way I was hoping.
But I will say that I do have my shower installed and bathroom functioning at least in my basement. I see I did comment on this in my original podcast episode and articles on this website. I was supposed to be done earlier but I would say better later than never.
I will have more of a glass is half full approach as well and look at the positives.
Maybe this is a good enough start or maybe I’ll just edit or delete the whole thing later 🙂