Why I’m writing a blog

Almost every time I think about starting a new project I experience a few hours of excitement … and then a wave of internal resistance that internally tries to stop me from undertaking the project.

True to form, shortly after I started thinking about writing this blog, my mind became filled with thoughts about why this blog is a really bad idea. Here are my three favorite resistance-linked thoughts that are making their presence felt in this arena:

My Top Three Resistance-Linked Thoughts About Writing This Blog

• "I have nothing new to offer." The internal dialogue here is as follows: thousands of self-help books have been written, many by people who are far more enlightened than I am, and it’s very unlikely that I will have any ideas to offer about happiness or success that are either new or better stated than what others have put out.


• "This endeavor will be a failure." My fear here is that almost no one will read this blog, and that the few people who do will hate it. This thought is closely linked to an emotional experience where I feel ashamed in anticipation of my imagined failure. Believe it or not, I’m feeling that shame right now – even as I type this idea down.


• "I have nothing worthwhile to say." After all, what do I know about personal growth?

So, Why Am I Writing This Blog?

The bottom line is that I'm writing this blog because, deep in my heart - and despite the thoughts listed above, I know that I want to and that it excites me. I know that I want to put my own voice out into the world to share what I have learned ... and I also know that I want to touch and inspire other people with my voice.

Now, as for the resistant thoughts listed above, my life experience has taught me that the fact that I’m experiencing resistance to this idea is probably a clue that it’s a very good thing to do for me.

There's one final point to this story. After seven years of intensive therapy ... and spending hundreds of hours dispassionately observing my thoughts ... and meditating ... and yoga ... and all sorts of other growth activities, I have now nurtured and supported the development of a wholly different identity inside my head than the one that says all the mean things to me described above. And this other identity has a very different perspective on the value of my blog than what is described above. This evolving identity strongly disagrees with all of the bullshit that is listed above, and in fact, gets angry when it hears the above-listed thoughts in my head. This evolving identity looks at the facts - and knows that I do, at this point, have something worthwhile to say which will touch people ... and that I am not the kind of guy who fails at things when he takes them on ... and most importantly, that when my heart is strongly drawn to something, it’s usually a good idea for me to pursue … no matter what my mind may say. And that, my friends, is why I'm writing this blog.