Every now and then, we have all had the experience of a thought that bubbles up out of some quiet corner of our mind, seemingly out of nowhere, but which tidily summarizes a struggle or experience. All of a sudden, we have a new framework: a place to stand, a stick to put in the ground, a new leitmotif for life that we can revisit when wanted or needed.
A few among us choose to share the tidy takeaways of those private moments with others, with a conviction that our seemingly siloed musings might benefit another isolated soul in some far-flung corner of the Earth, trapped inside a cell of certainty that he is utterly alone with his challenges and insecurities.
Today, I join the ranks of those few. Some may consider the act of starting a blog philanthropic inside of the romantic narrative outlined above, but make no mistake: bloggers start blogs for themselves. Whether it be a subject we are trying to master, an image we are attempting to cultivate or convey, or a disciplined habit we would like to instill... you, dear reader, are simply along for the ride, participating in the self-actualization of another, with varying degrees of applicability to your own life.
Which begs the question: what is my motivation here? I will freely give it up in this inaugural post, at least to the extent that I understand it today. In short, there are 2 reasons.
First, I have thought about starting a blog for a long time... if memory serves, since ~1998. I have researched all the best blogging platforms, made comparison spreadsheets, and evaluated more design templates than I care to admit over countless evenings and weekends. An endless array of choices, leaving me completely paralyzed in a true Schwartzian tornado of indecision.
What will my "niche" be? Should I use my real name? Do I need a new headshot? Does this header background look better in R,G,B = 99, 143, 82 or 127, 143, 82? Let's learn ALL of CSS so that I can customize every pixel of my new homepage, thus rendering my thoughts worthy of being read...
An hour ago, I signed up for typepad on a whim (what's good enough for Seth Godin is good enough for me), picked the simplest theme I could find, and intentionally customized nothing at all about my site to expedite the process of getting to the "Compose" window on my first post. It's a complete departure from my standard, rabbit-hole method for attacking new projects. And that's the point.
Secondly, it takes a person of self-esteem to regard their own thoughts as noteworthy enough to even jot down, let-alone share out to an audience of billions. I didn't realize that I lacked such a basic regard for myself until a former romantic partner of mine started recording audio snippets of my conversations with him and taking notes on my behalf in what became a copious collection of Google Docs, after encouraging me to do so myself to no avail. This simple habit dramatically altered my self-assessment, but I have fallen out of practice again.
In sum, this blog will be a celebration of decisiveness in all of its imperfect glory, and self-worth as cultivated through the simple, tangible act of honoring the value of my thoughts by writing them down. I can only hope that my reflections offer up something approaching a fair trade for your time, but I would be remiss not to point out that a better return on investment would be to march on over to your platform of choice and start walking your own messy, crooked, courageous path of self-discovery.
So... subscribe to me?
