Hello. Welcome. This blog is for me to develop a writing habit. Fifteen minutes a day is what I would like to commit to. It’s okay if I go over.

I’m going to discuss how various aspects of my life are going because I don’t have, at least right now, conviction to commit to a particular topic that I want to preach. I know that probably goes against all blog advice, which would be to focus on a particular niche in which to build up an audience. Whatever.

First off – I need to manage my own expectations. I think I understand the rules of the game I’m entering.

There’s an extremely high likelihood that all these words disappear in a vast, empty void for all eternity, unseen and unheard. Part of the experience of starting this blog, rather than doing a journal, will be me dealing with that.

On the flip side, there’s an extremely low likelihood that someone sees this blog AND reads it. There’s an even smaller likelihood that they then find something within it that resonates with them, comforts them, makes them not feel alone, makes them reflect, makes them annoyed, makes them think I wouldn’t fucking do that, or I want to fucking do that, how do I do that? In my life I like to call these moments Jolts – moments of clarity, changes of perception. I’ve received thousands of Jolts from those who’ve picked up the writing habit before me. If I pass on a single Jolt myself, maybe to you, maybe to someone else, well then, I think that makes the whole exercise worthwhile.

With all that in mind, it will be for me to find joy in the act of writing, to throw the words into the wind, and leave it to the world to decide their fate.

Editted out

1. Fear, insecurity, self-doubt, shame (FISS). These are topics I really want to share.
2. At the moment, obviously it’s my first post so my mind is running wild with the success of the thing. I haven’t even written 100 words and my only previous writing experience is email and Whatsapp. At the same time, I feel shame in my gut at imagining myself looking at the 3 blog posts I’ve done in two months, having 0 views and calling it a wrap. Even worse, posting 100s of blog posts that no one has ever looked at. A public humiliation. It’s fine though. Life goes on and I shouldn’t feel ashamed for trying.
3. Rules of the game includes self-promotion. I’ll get the writing habit underway first and then consider it.
4. I wrote another ‘first blog’ post yesterday. It’s still in drafts and will be forever. I’m calling yesterday Day Zero.
5. Need to collect my thoughts on structure, format. This post has taken 1h30 to write and review. I think I will review tomorrow to take some heat out of the moment before hitting ‘Publish’. Update: I didn’t, it’s two days on that I’m reviewing. Don’t want to revise too much because it’s ‘of its time’ i.e. two days ago.
6. I don’t want to be giving out preachy advice at any point, saying something like ‘everyone should get 8 hours sleep’, ‘everyone should think this way’. No. If I do, call me out on it.