A Time for Reflection and Looking Ahead

Before I overextend myself let’s talk about a few things and try to come up with a reasonable plan going forward.

If you’ve read my posts for any amount of time I’m sure that you’ll have deciphered a certain pattern by now. I write a few articles and post a few videos and then radio silence. Then I write about how I’ll do a better job and the pattern repeats.

You see, I am 100% afflicted with the “shiny object syndrome.” My patience for repetition is abysmal. Which makes it ironic that I WANT to write and I WANT to post videos. It’s not that the articles or the videos are repetitive, it’s just the act of getting started and doing the work.

Motivations

I’ve said time and time again, I want this blog to document our life. I want to look back someday and remember all of the details of the life we lived. All of the adventures, the failures, the projects – everything. Unfortunately, there won’t be anything to reflect upon if I’m not actually documenting it.

I also aspired to use this blog and our Youtube channel for some financial assistance. I understand that is much more challenging to achieve, but at this stage of our growth any help is a good thing.

I’m not going to get into my financial goals or the rationale or reasoning in this post, because I think doing so adds more pressure for me to meet those goals.

I get disheartened and stop working because of the constant feeling of disappointment. I get frustrated that I’m not meeting my goals and it’s just plain easier to stop.

That said, I’d like to be more vague about the specific financial goals and just say that I’d like for this blog and our Youtube channel to help us – at the very least to be self solvent in our projects.

Sometimes, Life Gets in the Way

Frustration is one thing; for that I have no excuse. However, sometimes life just gets in the way. And, that’s not always a bad thing. As an epitomal example, Bre and I got married this summer, and it was the single greatest day of my life.

The thing is, we got married on our land. While that provided the most meaningful day for us, it also required much more work than we had anticipated. A good portion of our spring and summer was spent preparing for the wedding.

Between my normal work days and time spent preparing for the wedding, I did not have a lot of motivation to work harder on this blog or in making videos. As a result, you can see the lapse in posts.

I am certainly not complaining about it. I think time spent away from this “side job” has its benefits and it allows me to come back refreshed. That said, I have no shot in reaching any of my goals if I’m not actually putting in the work.

Personal Limitations

On an extremely personal note, I have also spent the past few months dealing with more severe depression and anxiety than I am used to. What’s even more frustrating is that I’m not sure the cause. All I can say is that while I have battled with depression for most of my life, the past few months have been pretty rough.

The only reason I’m telling you all this is to provide context. I’m not looking for pity or sympathy or anything like that. I am merely stating the fact that I am fallible – I have weakness. I feel that admitting and communicating my weakness provides me strength.

Also, thank you mom for reminding me of my favorite verse; “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” – Philippians 4:13

So on top of my normal work days and time spent preparing for the wedding, I also had to get out of my own way before I felt any sort of ambition.

Looking Forward

So now that we’ve discussed the multitude of excuses I have for not doing what I set out to do, let’s talk about a plan going forward.

First of all, I want to have reasonable expectations. The last time I wrote an article like this I said something like, “I’m gonna put out a video every week and write an article every day, blah blah blah.” It’s not realistic. Not only that, it’s too much pressure.

That pressure leads to anxiety, the anxiety leads to frustration, and the frustration leads to depression.

So, let’s be general. I am going to write and post videos as much as I can. I’m not sure what that is at the moment. My hope is that by being less specific, I can also be more realistic. Perhaps the pressure won’t get to me which could lead to more consistency.

“You Need to Have a Niche!”

In all of the reading and studying I’ve done for how to have a successful Youtube channel or blog, this is the number one thing I’ve heard. You need to have a niche. I don’t have a niche. *hint: neither this blog, or our channel are very successful….coincidence?

You see, most channels or blogs are successful when they cater to a very specific audience. If I wrote and posted videos exclusively on cat pajamas I bet we would be wildly successful.

That’s because while the overall audience of people interested in cat pajamas is much less than the general population, that audience would be much more engaged with the topic.

The problem is, there’s no way I could consistently write and make videos about one topic. So here’s our niche: our lives, and everything we feel like doing.

Going Forward

On the blog we’ll document more about events, adventures, book reviews, etc. On our Youtube channel we’ll continue making videos on projects that we’re doing.

Those projects will range between gardening, self sufficiency, woodworking, blacksmithing, small engine repair, tractor restoration, and anything else we’re interested in.

As I said earlier, I am interested in a lot of topics, and I’d like to make videos on all of them. So I’m going to. If that makes us have a less successful channel, then so be it.

In the immediate future, I have had a few requests to continue the series documenting our daily housebuilding adventure. I kind of stopped doing that because no one seemed to read it, but that’s alright. Again, I need to document. I need to find my notes, but hopefully I’ll start that up again.

Also, I want to continue incorporating book and product reviews into our posts. We have had a few questions regarding tools we’d recommend and whatnot, so I’ll add articles of that nature sparingly.

That said, I’m leaning more towards book reviews at this point. Our library has gotten quite extensive and I’d like to share some good books when I come upon them.

I Know You’ve Heard This Before

So if you’ve made it through this whole post you must be thinking, “I’ve heard this story before.” And for that, I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I didn’t uphold my end of the bargain.

I hope that by having more reasonable expectations of myself and a little more free time, I might be able to have more consistency going forward.

For all of you that have stuck with me through these tribulations, thank you for your patience and support.

If you have any topics or ideas that you’d like me to talk about, please let me know in the comments below!

Leave a Reply