Freedom Is Blogging
I’ve been blogging on and off since 2001 and without fail every month since late 2004. I’ve blogged my way through three international relocations and a complete career change of direction. Blogging helped me land my first professional photographic assignments and my first newspaper writing gig. Blogging has given me opportunities to speak at events […]
I’ve been blogging on and off since 2001 and without fail every month since late 2004. I’ve blogged my way through three international relocations and a complete career change of direction. Blogging helped me land my first professional photographic assignments and my first newspaper writing gig. Blogging has given me opportunities to speak at events and opened doors into the worlds of PR, Fashion and Food that would otherwise have stayed shut. And, blogging has brought scores of wonderful people into my life who have been friends, teachers, entertainers and role-models to me.
Freedom Is Blogging In Your Underwear
One of my all-time favourite bloggers, Hugh MacLeod has a new book coming out Freedom Is Blogging in Your Underwear
“Having a blog, a voice, having my own media, utterly changed my life. Suddenly my career as a cartoonist wasn’t dependent on other people: the “gatekeepers”?—?publishers, editors, Hollywood executives, etc., etc.
Suddenly I had direct contact with my audience. They had direct contact with me. I could just do my thing, without having to wait for somebody else to give me the “green light,” somebody else to write a check. I didn’t have to wait around for somebody else to deem me “worthy” …
This gave me the freedom I spent most of my adult life searching for, the same freedom I believe we’re ALL searching for, in one way or another.”
My Blogging Map
As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve recently gone through all 1642 posts on this blog, which is a body of writing that stretches back to October 2004. It was an amazing experience to go back and see the way my writing, my focus, my interests and my attitudes have changed and evolved over these years.
Four things have remained constant for me. They are the reasons I got into blogging and they still guide my blogging today.
Self-Publishing – When I created my first websites in the mid-nineties, my academic environment considered me crazy and, not in a good way. They really feared the internet. But, it became clear, over the next few years as blogs emerged, that a revolution had begun in publishing. Blogging is the freedom to express your own ideas and experiences in your own words and in your own way.
Education – Blogging is at the heart of a change in the way we learn. Not just academic or formal education, but the way we learn about everyday things, like cooking a meal, fixing a bike or being a better parent. Whenever a blog catches my eye (and I start reaching for the subscribe button), it’s because the blogger is sharing something they have learnt, or offering me the opportunity to learn.
Authenticity – Blogs are a great way to combine our work and love, or as Robert Frost put it, our vocation and our avocation. That’s one of the biggest struggles in life. To be authentic both to who we are and who we want to be. For me, blogging has been the road to finding my own voice, as a writer, photographer and musician.
Accountability – I started out in the company of a lot of bloggers who were writing about faith and spirituality. There was a sense of community, connected to a desire to become a better person. I see that sense of community all over the blogosphere in bloggers who encourage each other to become better photographers, cooks, musicians, marketers, entrepreneurs, designers or writers.
The Long Road
I often thought about giving up during 2008-09. But, blogging had given me so much in the early years and has given me even more in the years since.
A blog says so much more than a massaged LinkedIn page or thousands of frantic tweets could ever manage. A blog carries far more weight than a business card or the best introduction you’ve ever had.
Apart from comments and tweets, this blog brings me hundreds of emails a year. Those emails have brought me business opportunities, but, more importantly, they have helped me connect with and be inspired by countless stories of creativity and courage.
The Blogger’s Goal Gold
Blogging isn’t just about “having your say,” it is a way of being in the world. Blogging allows us to think in public, to inspire each other and to built up a public and recognisable identity through our words and our work.
I was kind of amazed looking over my old blog posts. There’s a lot of useful stuff. Easily enough for a book on creativity, a portfolio of film, theatre and concert reviews or an eBook on photographic techniques.
I look at this blog as a story; my life told my way. But it’s also a resource, a treasure of work and experiences. And, the blog sustains a community who help me remain positive, authentic and committed to being the best version of me I can be.
