'Do it badly', a standout three words I read this week on a news article about moving into 2021. Sat on my laptop, another year behind me that I wish I'd done more with, I couldn't help but feel a little attacked. Thankfully, I've taken that attack personally, and so after years of being incredibly non-committal toward getting my voice and thoughts out there, I'm giving it a go.
It turns out there are a lot of worries that come with trying something new (like a blogging site). What if it turns out badly? What if everyone else is doing it already? What is everyone else is doing it better already? Do I really have anything to say? Well after collecting thoughts, ideas, and social media resources for over a year now (and doing nothing with them except dream about publishing them somewhere), I really hope that I can get something out there.
The goal for future blogs is to transmit my ideas about mental health, mindfulness, wellness, and self-development onto a website that I can hold onto for a while; like a diary, but less interesting! Having done two degrees in psychology, worked a range of interesting jobs, and now working in the NHS and occasionally as a motivational coach, I find myself hearing 1000 great ideas a week and remembering just one or two. By writing them down, maybe I'll remember... three?!
The beauty of managing my own blog is also that I can go off-piste and try to start genuine conversations with who ever is interested. Having spent four years regurgitating textbooks, I want to go off-piste, make things practical, and inject my personality into my psychology. Academic articles make life out to be a clinical maze, but in reality it is an even messier maze; psychological conversation should reflect that messiness rather than ignoring it.
With all of this in mind, one of my goals is to start listening to the imprecise psychological advice that exists, starting with 'do it badly'. We are animals. On a ball of dirt. In space... we can't navigate life perfectly, just like every other animal and organism on this ball of dirt! 2020 saw me shy away from relationships I was scared of 'getting wrong', reaching out to coaching opportunities I wasn't 10000% sure of, and shying away from publishing lots of articles and blogs that I felt passionate about. One day I'd love to teach, talk, and write to share my views, but I'd like to have had some practice before that. So this blog, along with many others, will be done badly, roughly, and imperfectly...
But that's no different to the rest of my life, so it shouldn't matter. A book half-read is better than an unread book, and a halfway decent blog is better than no blog at all!
All of the rough edges of my writing are coming with me into 2021, but with each article I can only hope they'll be honed. In the meantime, I'll keep on rambling about why I am a mindfulness convert, why we should all try parts of CBT on ourselves, and how we can manage the every-busy external world by taking care of our internal experiences first.
Love from JanTalksPsych!
Comments