A new dawn - Why I started blogging

I have tried countless times to start blogging about my interest in data, software engineering and it’s application to the industry. Every time, I open a new tab and click on the google doc page that I have long bookmarked. I just stare for hours at the blank google doc document, waiting for the perfect ideas or words to suddenly appear. I will read medium for hours daily, looking for writing advice, inspiration, ideas, and more.

Whenever I thought I have the perfect idea or words to express my thought. I successfully talk myself out of it. Why? Well, these are some of my reasons: “What if I’m not good enough”, “This is not the right time to start blogging about my experience”, “No one will read your blog”, “It’s time-consuming, you won’t be able to make the time for it”, and finally “You don’t have a story to share”

I’m sure, I’m not the only blogger who’s ever had those thoughts — more times than we can admit. Perhaps you reading this right now, feel that way too.

Defining my terms & expectation

I always thought blogging was more about experts sharing their experience in their career or new challenges. But, when I came to realize that blogging is like any skill set and one of the keys to its success is defining what you want both in the long and short run. The moment, I arrived at an answer it made sense to want to write about everything.

What if I’m not just good enough to be a good blogger?

You will never be able to write anything until you define what “good” means — to you. Writing has different indicators to measure good write-ups, from “commercial success”, to “literary acclaim”, to “personal fulfillment”.

Why am I blogging?

Good questions: I am blogging because, I want to share some of my experience navigating the tech world and becoming a tech mogul in few years. This will be a way to keep track of my personal development and plans. I want to look back at some of my articles, project and smile, saying to myself - Dennis you have come a long way.

The beauty of doing so, is that I can also reach out to someone who need some career advice and share my thought on topic of interest.

Summary

There’s no right answer to what constitutes success, but it’s important to know what it looks like for you. To me, I’m writing for personal fulfillment, since I acknowledge this, I’m more concern with what’s personal fulfillment to me (Even if, along the way, I get a few negative reviews).

The definition of “good enough” is inextricably tied up with what a person sees as “good”. For instance, if I want to get my article featured in Havard Business Review (HBR), then I will probably need quite a different writing skills from someone who wants to make a living doing technical writing, or if, I’m a travel blogger.

More so, it can be hard to trust your own judgment, or that of people close to you, when you’re worrying about whether or not you’re good enough. There are a lot of writers who worry that they aren’t good enough, even when they’re perfectly competent — or potentially fantastic — writers. Not to mention, best-selling writers, who receive poor criticism and reviews about your write-ups. So, it’s not always going to be rosy. You just have to want it enough.

In the (host of This American Life), Ira Glass said: “ All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you”