100th. 200th. 300th. Before you go on wondering about what numbers I'm talking about here, let me burst the bubble here. This is approximately the number of times I've tried creating a blog, writing a few articles and then maintaining it for a while. And, boom! Tata to the blog.
You must be thinking around the lines - "oh, is she serious?". Yes, I am. As a proof, if you want to scroll down my LinkedIn/Facebook posts, you'll find a few of my old blogs that I had shared via social media. To be honest, social media is pretty much a validation that every one needs... don't we? That's something for you to ponder upon!
Before I get going about why I've not been able to keep up with a blog, I want to talk about my love for writing. I've been fond of writing for as long as I can remember. Being a single girl child and an introvert, I have spent most of my childhood either playing with a few friends or spending a lot of "me-time". Writing became part of my life a long ago. My love for linguistics knew no bounds back then; and thus, I used to love spending time learning English. Despite being an introvert, I used to make sure that I participate in essay-writing competitions or speech competitions. Sometimes I won, and the other times I lost - but I learnt every time.
With time, the love I had for writing increased manifolds. I never considered writing as a full-time career till date, because I felt it is something that I love to do for myself; and I was never sure whether I'd want to do it for others. Despite the love I have for writing, I've not been able to maintain a blog. A lot of people asked me to write and share articles. 2 years back, when I had just started on LinkedIn, a lot of appreciation from many acquaintances - now turned friends - overwhelmed me.
Unfortunately, the appreciation and the validation in terms of the likes, reach, and comments started to bother me. To get likes in hundreds, or thousands was never why I wrote. I wrote for myself, and for the mere reason of creating impact. But, the vision of why I started to write had certainly started to become diminished because of the so-called "number game".
Anyways, things have changed now. I post, write, share without being affected by how many people "like" it, or not. That said, I take criticism positively - just that it needs to be said in a affirming manner rather than in derogatory way. I'm all in for making people grow together than hiding away, so criticize all you want.
Before I end with this first blog, I want you all to learn what I leaned from my experience. So here's summarising my learnings in some points.
1) Don't take social media seriously.
2) Choose to acknowledge selective opinions - not everyone is a well-wisher.
3) Growth doesn't happen in a day; and mostly, it is discomforting.
4) Put your efforts; and the results will take care of itself. Don't put your energy into the outcomes; rather invest it in the process.
So, that's all I've for "my nth attempt". Likes or not; reach or not; comments or not - count on me for a wonderful journey ahead. I hope you've had a great read, and you'll come back again to laugh, cry, read, learn, relearn and unlearn with me.