Passionate People Make Passionate Blogs [How to be an Original]
It’s Sunday, 6:17 AM. I’m running my first run in a long time, loving the freshness and quietness of early morning. After 5 minutes of relentless protest, my legs accepted that I’m not going to stop and have started cooperating.
My mind shifts into a rhythmic thinking mode, combining thoughts and ideas with a metronome like precision. Things are falling into place…
Holding Myself Back
I’ve been thinking a lot about blogging the past few days, and it’s been on my mind for several weeks now. I’m not really satisfied with how thing are going, and that’s not due to circumstances. It’s because of me.
I came to realize that I’m holding myself back. I’ve been trying to define my blog, to define “How to be an Original”. But I kept bumping into a barrier, something that stopped me from being satisfied with whatever definition I came up with. Until it hit me last Sunday (bear with me on this one).
I realize now that I started with the definition process months back already. The topics I blogged about were as the things on my mind, very diverse. And at the same time I was reading blogs about blogging, like ProBlogger, to learn more about blogging. One of the things I learned was that it’s best to choose a (niche) topic or a (niche) demographic and write specifically for them. Especially if you want to earn a buck from them.
I also received some feedback that it wasn’t all that clear what the blog was about. With this and the advice on blogging, I took a good look at my blog. And I limited the subjects somewhat, so it would fit more closely to productivity or self improvement.
Fast forward a little and I’m coming up with all kinds of topics that I’m interested in. I want to write about them and often even draft a post already. Only to decide later on that they don’t fit my blog. And I put them in storage, with a saddened heart.
Personal Blogs…Yuck (No More)
You know, I looked down upon personal blogs before last Sunday. There are a gazillion of them out there, with people writing about their <insert pet here> puking over the carpet, the recent visit a restaurant (and the <insert bad habit here> waitress) and their annoyance over <insert name of retail chain here>’s lack of customer service. B-O-R-I-N-G.
For years I thought about blogs as just that, boring accounts of empty lives. I couldn’t see the point of having one, let alone reading them. Until I discovered some niche blogs, wow! Okay, so blogging is great if you just ignore the personal blogs. Or so I thought.
Blogging Became Personal (Again?)
The insight crept up to me when I was thinking about the other blogs I want to start: a blog about WordPress and a blog about making money online. Both highly competitive markets, yet I feel I can add to them or at least have a fun time taking part.
“Both of them are niche blogs, rather tightly defined, and”, I thought: “a lot less about me…”
Then…only the sound of running shoes touching the ground in a steady cadence and the rhythmic sound of my panting breath.
An inner voice yelled out loud: “How to be an Original is about ME. It’s a personal blog!”
Adrenaline rushed through my body and I picked up pace, the thought was exciting. It wasn’t scary at all! It was actually liberating. I could be me, the boundaries were mine and I could just decide to let them go!
Meanwhile my legs were telling me that in spite of the adrenaline shot, my stamina wasn’t quite up to par with the new speed. So I slowed down a little.
Personal blogs aren’t bad or boring. After all Liz’s blog is personal too, as is the conversation that’s going on there. Brett’s blog is definitely personal. Come to think of it, so is Christine’s. Personal and entrepreneurial, but they are intertwined in the blog as much as in her I guess. Naomi’s blog is definitely personal, with a clear message and lessons, but she breathes those too! And Men with Pens write about writing, but is in essence a personal blog too! Sjeez, how could I not have seen this before?
Passionate People Make Passionate Blogs
People documenting the emptiness of their existence, that was my definition of a personal blog. I suspected that they hoped that blogging about their life would make a difference (probably not gonna happen), or would make it more relevant somehow (definitely not gonna happen). I realize that may sound harsh, but that’s genuinely how I felt.
But passionate people on the other hand make passionate blogs. They don’t just document their existence, they want to spread a message, they want to genuinely improve themselves, inspire and help others, in life, relationships or business, or whatever topic their passionate about. Maybe I should call them Passionate Blogs instead of personal blogs…
The New (And Original) Approach
Back home after the run, I sat down behind the computer and read the posts from the early days of How to be an Original. I read and I learned. I saw that I improved immensely on a lot of accounts since then, but I really learned from my early posts. I learned that I never started as a niche blog, I started with writing sidenotes to my quest for authenticity. I reread my post Not a copy or forgery and Martin Heidegger’s words resonated with me. Again.
How to be an Original is not a productivity blog, or a self improvement blog or a <insert topic here> blog. It’s a personal blog written by a passionate guy with original thoughts. I have an authentic desire to learn and share and am certainly not afraid to show my vulnerable side. My questions, my worries, my desires and my dreams probably aren’t unique. More people have them, yet I choose to write about them.
How to be an Original is a passionate personal blog. It is defined by who I am. And who I am is in turn defined by my thoughts and actions. When I grow it will reflect on the blog, when I change it will reflect on the blog. And that’s exactly what I want to blog about on How to be an Original. It’s a companion the my journey through life, why define it otherwise?
Photos by audreyjm529 and kees@eindhoven
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Yet another original post by How to be an Original.
Original post here: Lodewijk
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