Blog Challenge - Day 1 (Part 3)
Why I Will Succeed?
Why Do I Think I Can Successfully Write a Blog With Zero Professional Experience?
For whatever reason, I have never thought of myself as a confident person. That term was reserved for interview keyword dropping but it wouldn't be a defining characteristic that resonated with me. The archetypal confident person in my mind is someone who doesn't falter; someone who doesn't have doubts and speaks primarily in a matter-of-fact way.
Consider it done.
This is a time-sensitive matter that must be addressed immediately.
What you are asking cannot be done.
I don't think like that. Whether it's a personality trait, a preference for approaching decisions using the scientific method or an unhealthy dose of skepticism, I always like to go through a pros & cons list and consider the options. When considering taking on responsibility, new endeavours or challenges, I weigh out what aspects of the job hold an internal locus of control and what holds an external locus of control. In essence, I would think of myself as having a calm and logical trust in my own capabilities. As I have grown older, had more life experience and spoken to others about their own introspective views, I have come to recognize my self-belief as confidence and because it is broken down into such a logical way, it eliminates some of the uncertainty.
I know that long intro basically feels like I'm blowing smoke up my own ass or talking from some high horse but I think it is my truth in regards to self-esteem. I know my limits, I know what I can trust myself to do and witnessing the incompetence of others with higher credentials, higher salaries, & positions of power has ultimately instilled in me a quiet but resolute belief in myself to get the job done. Maybe in a future blog I can talk about the incompetencies of others...but we'll stick to why I think I'll successfully blog.
The way I've broken it down essentially falls into 2 camps.
My mentality and personality
My goal
Based on these two fundamental factors, I am aware of my reasons and responsibilities in this commitment and as a result, feel like I can responsibly and consistently meet those requirements.
My Mentality and Personality
I'm a straight shooter. I feel like I've learned to tamper or soften my bluntness but that filter doesn't need to exist for myself. I can talk shit to myself all I want and push my own buttons to light a fire under my ass.
I like getting things done.
I like crossing things off my to-do list.
I like having self-imposed deadlines to be accountable to myself.
I also understand and am confident in my work ethic, persistence and desire to accomplish this. The partial contradiction though is that I'm not the type to fervidly attack a project, I will forgive myself if my goals change, and I am under no delusions about the timeline or amount of work necessary.
My goal is a personal goal that is dependent on me. It's an internal locus of control to accomplish. Its success or failure falls solely on my actions. And that is a liberating thought.
I have also come to terms with the idea that I enjoy a skewed work-life balance. Whereas my coworkers generally communicate the need or want for breaks, rest, or relaxation, I seek out more learning, more work, or more challenge in other aspects of my life. I do know how to relax, but the overall trend is I want to put myself into more situations for monetary, professional or personal growth. I realized that my personal desire for work-life balance skews 70-80% to 20-30%, respectively.
So Why Blogging Specifically?
So why blogging? Although I would qualify myself as an introvert, I do like to communicate and writing tends to be my best or most strategic way to communicate. I'm a thinker, wouldn't say the latency of my witty responses is sufficient for speech and writing allows me to first evaluate my thoughts.
So Why Publicly Announce It?
Why even tell others about this goal? Why say it aloud?
Because I know myself and accountability requires something at stake. And what better way to have that accountability than strangers on the internet. The internet is great for calling out people's BS so why not put that out there for that purpose. I can honestly say I dropped the ball on my previous blogging efforts. I used to write weekly for my own private consulting business and then just one day stopped. I also previously podcasted once a week. I also stopped doing that. It sucks and my goal is to pick those efforts up again. I just know I haven't yet and it's frustrating on a daily basis to know that I haven't restarted it yet.
And so, with my pursuit of self-improvement, enjoyment of working and preference to think things through, the only question I had was what do I want to accomplish?
And that leads me to #2.
My Goal
What would be my goal for this blog?
Fame?
Fortune?
Those certainly are not my current aspirations. I enjoy my anonymity and am in the fortunate enough situation where I can comfortably sustain my current standard of living, while also investing into my future. I certainly wouldn't be opposed to more money and if that ever comes to fruition, then amazing! But that has nothing to do my reason for blogging.
So what is the reason for blogging?
It is purely an internal goal or challenge designed to bootstrap my internal ticks.
I want to work.
I enjoy having a chip on my shoulder and doing something people may think I cannot do.
I enjoy improving myself (even if random ways like creative writing, self-branding, & entertaining)
Ultimately, I'm doing this for just me and so if that is true, it absolutely doesn't matter what anyone else thinks and as long as I continue to hold these values as true, my perception of this goal will remain consistent and it'll remain important to me.
If I "fail", then that's a failure between me and myself - not you. If I no longer find it interesting, then again, that's a comment on where I am in my life based on my life experience and current desires/problems - again, nothing to do with you.
So if I know my goal is for self-development, I know how I tick and what will make me work consistently, and my driving force is not based on an external validation, then all it will take is time and patience because the routine was already established a couple blog posts earlier. Now it's just a matter of doing the workday in and day out.
So what's a goal you want to achieve? And why do you think you will succeed? I don't want to hear about all the reasons why you can't do something. We all know there are hundreds of reasons why something will fail - our inner monologue tells that to us on the daily. I challenge you to be introspective and honest about how you tick. Be logical about how and why you absolutely will achieve something and when you frame it that way, maybe you'll actually achieve that success.