Amsterdam, the Netherlands
I had a nice blogging run over the prior few weeks.
I fired up my backoffice to write and publish one post each morning. Everything went swimmingly. I slowly built daily publishing momentum. I cannot lie; I felt a nice sense of accomplishment doing the daily posting bit.
Publishing daily posts to Blogging From Paradise felt smooth.
But resistance arose. Life intervened. We all know how it goes. People set out with ideal plans in mind. The world has different thoughts about your plans. Consider the joke of God laughing about your plans. Atheists refer to this as Murphy’s Law. Everything seems OK in one moment but falls apart in the following moment. Welcome to the ephemeral world, right?
Combine a busy travel day with less than optimal connectivity at the airport. I had been in transit since 5:10 AM. First we taxied to the airport. We flew from Antalya to Istanbul. Before leaving for Amsterdam I was not able to write a blog post to keep the streak alive.
No matter my best efforts, it was not happening. No matter my purest intent, this did not come together into form.
Oh well.
I broke my daily posting streak.
But I also hugged blogging resistance in the process.
I wrote these words 34,000 feet above Europe. Flying from Istanbul to Amsterdam offered me the opportunity to write, edit and save a blog post for publishing when we settled into Holland. Consider this to be the beauty of hugging blogging resistance. Being flexible lets you change gracefully. Perhaps my publishing schedule changed but I seized the opportunity to get back on the blogging horse by writing this post in flight.
Imagine if I bemoaned breaking my daily publishing streak even though an impossible situation arose? I physically could not get the work done in transit. Why would I beat myself up for what I could not possibly control? Doing this only robs bloggers of the opportunity to dive right back into the blogging game as resistance subsides.
Hug Blogging Resistance
Life intervenes.
Impossible situations arise. I mean that. Trying to change what is impossible to change leads to lunacy at best.
In case you didn’t notice, the world is a place of imperfection. Everything changes. Seeming ideal conditions morph more quickly than you realize. Stuff happens. Resistance arises. Unexpected events pop up on the horizon.
In moments of resistance, bloggers either complain to remain bound to the resistance or gracefully accept then move on from the resistance. I’ll let you figure out which blogger succeeds with peace of mind. I’ll also let you figure out which blogger complains as their struggles and failures mount.
Everyone seems entitled to air grievances. Bloggers can let off some steam as obstacles arise. But what good does complaining about what you cannot control do for you and your readers? What can you control? You can control your mind. You can control how to think about unforeseen resistance. Focus on that task. Change your perception. Think right side up in a largely upside down thinking world.
No blogger can change circumstances. But every blogger can perceive circumstances in a different light. I appeared to miss the opportunity to write this post in transit at the airport. But being open-minded offered me the opportunity to write this post during the flight. I never would have seen this if I bitched and moaned about not being able to write the post on terra firma earlier today. Even if I felt a tiny temptation to complain I know by now that complaining handcuffs the complainer.
How About You?
How do you handle blogging resistance?
How do you feel about Google updates? What about social media algorithm changes? Do you air grievances? Or do you grab opportunities to grow through the obstacles?
Identify critics not as the bad guy but those who offer you greater clarity. Would you have uncovered your own self-doubt like the critic did so skillfully? Eventually, I appreciate critics. Every seeming hater triggered doubts in my mind that I needed to face, feel and release to reach my next stage of blogging growth.
Blogging Resistance Is a Gift
Obstacles reveal what needs to go for you to grow.
Visualize blogging resistance popping up in the form of vicious haters picking you apart.
Perhaps you are the rare blogger who exudes a calm sense of confidence as trolls bedevil you. Good for you. But most of us feel heavy irritation as critics lambast us. Those feelings are fear sitting in your mind. The fear had been kicking around in your unconscious until that negative nelly came along and stirred it up. Never blame them. Look within to see what needs to go for you to grow.
Why on earth would you leverage when besieged with self-doubt? Newsflash; you don’t! But blogging resistance unearthed these emotions for facing, feeling and looking past, boosting your self-confidence in the process.
Consider blogging resistance to be a gift.
Learn from your fears.
Let go of these energetic anchors to thrive.
