I haven't written much lately, and I can blame that on several reasons (I think reasons is a great synonym for excuses). First, a lot of my summer time has been spent in the pool rather than at the computer. And what time I have been spending at the computer, I have generally been devoting to working on a book about transforming IT departments in the new digital age.
Aside from that, I've also struggled with looking at some of my writing and wondering whether or not it is coming across as authentic as it should.
No, I don't mean that any of it is inauthentic in terms of I don't believe that it's true, but rather whether or not I'm falling into various traps that I've seen a lot of other bloggers fall into. By the way, choosing what appears to be the most fake diamond picture in the world for a post about authenticity was intentional. I promise.
Whether it's worrying about whether my headlines are clickbait worthy, fretting over fluctuations in Google analytics results, we're making sure I have that easy 1-2-3 solution for every problem that I address, I'd like to look for a better way. Maybe it means more informal posts like this, maybe it means gaps in time between posts.
Part of this feeling certainly comes from researching and writing the book. As I break down the steps that our organization went through (the book centers on organizational transformation), and spend some time researching what other organizations have done to make their transformation successful, I realize that that content is a lot better and more well-defined then a good number of my old blog posts. More importantly, it flows better in a lot of ways.
Some of that is obviously because I have more research behind it. Some of that is because I'm spending a little more time on the content and have lived through revision cycles on it before it finally finds a place in the book. But a lot of it is because it's really coming authentically from me and not from a self-imposed timeline of posting once a week, within a certain blog framework and a simple answer ("Three easy ways to hustle more").
So while I may switch back and forth between blog posts formatted with 3 subheadings and a great closing and one that just rambles on and on, I'm looking for a way to make sure that what I'm writing has value and purpose and is something I actually want to write instead of just putting something out there. We'll see how it goes. Hopefully I can focus on what makes sense to blog about.
Other times, I might just curate and edit old posts to make them better. Add to them what I've learned since then. Link things together that make sense to create a longer narrative.
I know lots of folks are stepping away from the traditional blog route these days. One guy I subscribe to has switched to a pure email format, no blog posts at all. I'll keep trying a few different things, and maybe some weeks you get giant articles, and some weeks you'll get a random thought from me. Some weeks you might get nothing at all. But I hope that what you do get adds value.
If you want to follow along and see where we go with all this, join my email list and interact with me to let me know what you'd like us to learn more about together. If you're already on the list, thanks, and feel free to reply and let me know what you think.
