There are days when I have a lot to say and write about, but I don’t know where to start. I type and I type and I type, but I end up not writing anything that is blog-worthy. Though I am unsure if I know what that even is at this point.
I’m a recovering perfectionist, or rather some days I still am one, who reads all the blogs, books and articles I can to know how to be a better writer and blogger. And then boom the overwhelm creeps in. I can’t seem to keep all the advice straight. So I don’t post anything because it doesn’t have a theme or a point or isn’t well-written or doesn’t pass the length test or whatever reason the other people told me I needed to do in order to be great.
Too many times I have started blogs and then dropped them. I keep waiting to be perfect, and sometimes I think that will magically happen if I start over. Even though I know perfect is never going to happen, I still find myself thinking that I need to be as close to perfect as I can anyway.
Incompetency is not acceptable. Therefore, I collect and cling to as much advice as possible and then get overwhelmed by the amount of conflicting opinions and thoughts that I try to shove in my head all at once. Why am I doing that anyway? To be more readable, to be more likeable, to be better.
But you know what I realized? I don’t care about being the most read, the most liked, the most followed, or the most bestest ever. I don’t need to be.
It’s this desire to be perfect, with a steadily growing blog audience that paralyzes me, and makes me stop writing altogether. One can’t get better at something without first attempting (and often failing) first. Letting the fear of not doing something completely “right” hold me back is stealing from me learning and growing moments.
I guess that means that, for me, it doesn’t matter what my writing is like as long as I am writing. It doesn’t matter if someone is better at writing than me, if they know more than me, if they have a huge following, if they make money. All that matters is that I feel good about the thoughts I share on my blog, and if people want to read it? Great. If not? No problem.
What are some of the fears that are stopping you from doing the things that you want to?
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