“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” – a famous Chinese proverb that is often quoted by motivational speakers and frequently cited in self-help books. It is also one of my personal favorites and every single time I read or hear it, a strong sense of inspiration overcomes me that urges me to start doing the many things that I aspire to do in life. Unfortunately though, this rush of inspiration fades away as quickly as it arrives and I end up doing what I do best – maintain the status quo.
Writing – one such thing that I always aspired to do. It’s not that I do not write at all. In fact, I do write a lot (a lot) of notes, articles, summaries, guides and all sorts of other things for my personal reference but the focus key word here is “personal”. When I say writing in the context of this article, what I really mean is that I wanted to start writing a blog since a very long time (read ~12 years, since I was in high school) but never took the first step (or even if I did, could not continue for long). Through all those years, I did attempt it at least half a dozen of times, but owing to my OCD and perfectionism inflicted brain I failed at those attempts and kept pushing it further to a “right” time in the future or finding the “perfect” topic to write about which as I already knew, could never be found.
Nevertheless, here I am today – 27 years old, sitting comfortably on my bed, well past midnight, yet again taking that single step forward one more time. I believe over the last few years I have come to know my own self in a better way which in turn has helped me to develop the capability to control those obsessions of getting everything right. After all, like the greats have said, it’s about progression and not perfection. This time around I have decided to preserve this blog for life no matter if this ends up being the only article I ever post. I sincerely hope the last line doesn’t turn out to be true.
The What
Now after having taken the first step, getting trapped in the same loop of doing everything right is the last thing I want and so I have decided that I am going to write about random topics, about things that interest me, about subjects of my professional expertise and everything in general – nothing organized, nothing specific. As I write these words, I can sense a hint of uneasiness and anxiety creeping in as being unorganized and not knowing about things I am going to do triggers the wrong parts of my brain which makes it freeze and abandon the task at hand to restart it later when everything is under control. But that’s okay, I hope I’ll learn to deal with it slowly and steadily as I continue to write more in the future.
The Why
In my previous attempts at starting a blog, the reasons I had were diverse, ranging from earning money through monetizing the blog to being the next famous blogger to starting an internet publication company. Those reasons were based on the times and the situations I was in but now when I ask myself why I want to start writing a blog, the only reason I get is because above all, I love writing and I enjoy doing it. It helps me connect deeply with myself and with the things I care about. Going ahead, I have no plans to monetize this blog or write click-bait articles to drive in more traffic but instead write so as to articulate and share my thoughts with others.
Walking towards the thousand miles… 🙂