Have you ever felt a strong, pulsating thought in your brain? The kind of thought that doesn’t let you sit or rest until you’ve addressed it- that’s what I’m talking about. A strange emotion swept over me this last week. It was after reflection that I realized I’ve been blogging – on and off- for 14 years now. And in all of that time, the one thing that has given me sheer and pure joy, without expectations is the art of writing and blogging.
It wasn’t my social media presence or my foray into videos on YouTube or even the launch of my podcast earlier this year. While all of those things have had their own value, I’ve always defined myself first and last as a blogger. It’s crazy because I know so many people who run in the opposite direction from that label. They much prefer content creators or influencers or authors, because, to them that carries significantly more weight and heft.
Me? I’ve always been a blogger and happily so.
Then this weekend, I read three things. One was the newsletter from John Weiss and this article of his that left me thinking deeply about the art of creation titled, ‘What are the beckoning hands that bring us to perfection?’ If you’ve ever created something after a lot of love and labour and found a breakthrough many months or years later, you’d be able to relate to what he says. He talks about the near-misses that are actually the key to success, except that we give up on them because they seem frustrating.
The second thing that I read (or re-read) was the idea of The Useletter and its coming to an end, written by Amy Lynn Andrews. For 7 and a half years, Amy wrote a weekly newsletter which she finally retired at the end of 2020. As to why she let it go, I’d recommend reading Amy’s thoughts to get the full impact of her decision and why she’s truly choosing digital minimalism.
The final article that gave me time to reflect deeply on my space in the online world was this one by Megan Holstein who quit social media – as in completely deleted her accounts – in February of 2019 and she hasn’t looked back since: Another Day passes, I Still don’t have Social Media, and it feels great.
There’s always been too much noise in the digital space and it’s only grown louder in the last decade. Every time we turn around there’s a new platform or a new feature and so many of us feel compelled to jump on the bandwagon and play around with it. In all of this cacophony, we’ve stopped doing what we’re really good at – blogging and writing, because that’s where true growth lies.
It’s time to return to blogging. It’s time to read, write, reflect and immerse ourselves in the sheer joy of creation. It’s time to involve ourselves in deliberate practice and mastery. And it’s time to do all of it without getting distracted by the different clarion calls that seek our attention.
At the moment, I have no major plan or process. I just know that I want to get back to doing something I am passionate about and which makes me feel alive every single day. That has always been blogging. How often I will blog or how long each post will be or what I will write about are all things I haven’t explored yet. I just know that it’s time for me to write again and blog regularly.
It’s time to begin again. Let’s see what happens.
Shailaja V
Hi, I’m Shailaja, a blogger who’s been writing since 2007. My interests include books of all kinds, digital minimalism, veganism, health, nutrition, fitness and staying open to learning all the time. Welcome! Click here if you’d like an email when I publish new posts