Ever since I was young, I have always loved having my photograph taken. I still do. Yet on embarking upon my second attempt at blogging it has left me questioning what is holding me back. What am I so worried about? Why don’t I want to offload what’s on my mind, or share with others my knowledge and wisdom. Surely it should be an easy process where I just write what’s going on in my life and add a few photos. But then there is the even bigger challenge: Youtube, podcasting & any other type of platform that can be seen or heard. Why don’t I want to be seen, or rather, what’s my problem with being seen?
Austin Kleon, a New York Times bestseller, has written a whole book about how we shouldn’t worry about showing our work. In his book, by the same title, he talks about sharing our creativity for others to enjoy. He advocates teaching what you know rather than trying to conjure up ‘stuff’ to become our content. He says we should all just document the things we do in our lives; your life then becomes your content, and your content then doesn’t need to be ‘made’.
Kleon’s philosophy is one which I agree with. He knows as well as I do that big things don’t happen over night. In chapter 3, titled ‘Share something small everyday’, he suggests just dealing with your goals day by day. He says, ‘Once a day, after you’ve done your day’s work, go back to your documentation and find one little piece of your process that you can share’ I like this. My life works like this. I call it ‘chunking’. It’s a mental health coping strategy for me – chunk every project into small bite size pieces, and then ‘eat’ one chunk at a time. This works for me and gives me the space not be overwhelmed by the bigger job. It’s your daily dispatch. (Kleon term!)
When I was thinking about starting a blog again, and going online with my content, I read Kleon’s book after it was recommended by Youtuber, Ali Abdal. It made me feel empowered to the point where I felt that I was perhaps being slightly irrational. If I followed my own advice of ‘chunking’ and coupled this with Kleon’s then there was a chance that I could show my work without worrying. If I am happy having my photo taken, what is so different about making a Youtube video. My rational self knows that they will be poor to start with, but will get better.
This post also supports my post from last week, that blogging is really tricky, and I am only just getting to grips with how to do this social media thing well. Blogging and social media is not easy and hats off to those who have learnt the art.
If you’re thinking about going online, I would highly recommend Autin Kleon’s book, ‘Show your work’. I’m going to certainly give it a go and by the time I write my weekly blog post next Monday, I will have published a video that actually contains me! Wish me luck.
Reference – ‘Show your work by Austin Kleon
Ali Abdaal -https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoOae5nYA7VqaXzerajD0lg