“Sometimes, the advice you tell other people is the advice you need to follow.”
First off, if you have never visited this site before, what I am about to say might make zero sense to you. Feel free to stick along for the ride, but if not, that’s cool too.
Since launching PorQueNo?, one of the questions I have consistently asked myself is:
“So, just how full of shit are you?”
I do not mean to imply that my stories are made up or that my posts aren’t genuine. All of my stories are real and I believe very strongly in the ideas I share. My question focuses more on how often I actually follow the advice that I share. I write about volunteering but just went to volunteer for the first time in months. I wrote about the importance of beginning but still find myself hesitant to launch numerous projects.
I suppose the root of my question is: “Are you practicing what you preach?”
The entire premise of this website is to encourage people to adapt, change or approach their lives from a different angle. If I am unwilling to do the same, then just how full of shit am I?
Shouldn’t I be the first one to change? The first one to show anyone who reads my site that I am actually implementing what I write about?
To be honest, while I am very happy with the articles I have written and the content on the PorQueNo? site, using “Why Not” in the title of each post is a bit limiting. I have plenty of ideas for articles I would like to write but sometimes find it hard to incorporate that concept into a “Why Not?” headline.
Generally speaking, I hate rules. I think the majority of rules, when taken into the grand scheme of life, are silly. This is magnified even more when it comes to writing. I feel that writing something so that it fits within a pre-determined theme is silly. It is contrary to the very ideas that I share on the site.
And if I am being really honest, I think that the titles sometimes actually turn people away from reading my articles. They are vague and sometimes confusing. They do not hit many emotional triggers and present little intrigue. I am learning that a title is often the most important element to a blog post. It is what generates interest initially and gets people to click on the link. My Why Not Stop Giving Presents? piece might generate a lot more traffic to my site if the title was “Why I Stopped Giving Presents (And How It Brought My Mom to Medellin, Colombia).”
I would be lying if I said that I did not want a lot of people to visit my site and read my articles. I do. And if changing the titles for my posts can do that, then giddy-up cowboy.
So, going forward, I am going to begin releasing articles outside of the “Why Not?” format. The name of the site will stay the same and I will still write “Why Not?” articles from time to time, but I am also going to write some other stuff. I want to expand my writing chops and write about whatever I want, whenever I want.
I am aware that most of you reading this could really give a damn about what I write and the titles I choose to use. I get that. Thanks for sticking with me this long. I wouldn’t really care either if I were you. But there is a point to this all.
My primary reason for writing this particular post is to show that I, as much as anybody, can always find ways to improve. We all struggle. We can all do better and we all can do more to get more out of this life. The more open we are to change, the more likely we are to succeed.
Take a look at your life. What is something you could change but that you are resistant to changing? Why are you resistant to changing this? What is holding you back? Is it possible changing this thing would improve your life in some way? You may not like the answers to some of these questions, but they are the questions you need to be asking.
Big thanks to Troy Erstling for reminding me of this. If anyone reading this has the time, you should definitely check out Troy’s website – www.troyerstling.com. He is a freestylin’, writing, entrepreneurial whirling dirvish. I guarantee that his site will both educate and entertain you.
I want to close with a quote by Mark Twain, as I think it is the most appropriate encapsulation of what I am writing about.
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
Nathan
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