Have you ever wondered if your ideas are worthless, even meaningless? If they’re not even worth sharing? If no one else would even care if you shared them? Then stick around because that’s the topic of today’s blog post.

"This above all: to thine own self be true…Thou canst not then be false to any man."

William Shakespeare

Polonius in Hamlet Act 1, scene 3, 78–82

It’s been forever since my last blog post (around 5 months, to be exact). I know this, yet I still can’t seem to find the words to say. As a result, I feel as I have nothing worth saying. However, I’ve recently looked over my blog stats for the past few months, and one thing remains consistent: People still seem to like the content I share here on the blog.

According to those stats, I average around 16 views a day. Not much when looked at from a daily standpoint, but when you consider the accumulation of those views over time that’s nearly 500 views per month! Although I’ve seen a steady drop in traffic, that’s definitely not a number to take lightly.

This begs the question: Why am I so worried about what I’ve got to say? Evidently, people like reading my thoughts and ideas or they wouldn’t be buying my books, reading my blog, subscribing to my newsletters, etc.

Granted, I share valuable, polished, and relevant content here on the blog—as shown by my most popular posts, including which planner I currently consider the best in the business—not just any old rantings and ravings. But this is to be expected if I hope to gather an audience of any magnitude, much less 500 views a month.

So what is it then? Am I afraid of ruining the quality content I’ve worked so hard to produce by just writing any old thing that comes to mind, simply for the sake of maintaining a regular posting schedule? To some extent, yes. Obviously, I don’t want to sabotage all my efforts (nearly 60 quality articles and counting).

With this attitude, though, another question comes to mind: Am I being true to myself when I hold back from writing even the (seemingly to me, anyway) smallest, most irrelevant of details? Does everything I write have to be of Pulitzer Prize worthy prose? Isn’t that bar much too high for me to jump over at this stage in my writing career? More importantly, would I set such a high bar if it were anyone else but me? I think not.

So what do you think? Would you like to hear from me more often, even if it were along the lines of, say, a journal entry instead of an “official” tips-oriented blog post, like so many of my articles already are? Leave a comment below. Believe it or not, I hardly ever get comments (as you can see from the bottom-right number in the image above), which is weird since, as I’ve already mentioned, my blog gets such a regular amount of views.

Regardless, I think it’s best to allow myself the privilege (and responsibility) of being true to my innermost feelings—my gut, in other words. And my gut’s telling me to write about the real me. Not the business side of me, which requires fancy SEO, keyword-rich titles and text, numbered lists or numbered tips (“5 Ways to…”, “10 Tips for…”, etc.), or any other such tactics.

Just writing, plain and simple. Is that so much to ask for?

So from this point forward, there’s got to be some changes if I’m to keep both my sanity (and my blog) in a healthy state. I can’t promise how frequently I’ll post on here, but from now on I want to make certain I’m staying true to myself as a writer and creator, staying true to the essence of this blog, which has been printed on its main header since the beginning: “Writing about Life, Learning, and Self-Discovery.”

That’s what I wanted for this blog from the very start: a place—my own place—to be me and write about the things I care about, be they business-tip-keyword-numbered posts or simple hey-here’s-what-I’m-doing-and-I-just-thought-I’d-let-you-know posts. Either way, the blog's url is www.EricBeaty.com; I think I should stay faithful to that name...my name. Don’t you?

Again, leave your thoughts below. Some encouragement and honest feedback would be appreciated if you value what I strive to do here. Many thanks.

Until next time,

E

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Question: What's your opinion of my new blogging strategy? Has this post helped you strengthen your resolve to trust your gut?

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