Why a blog?
Why I really want to blog
Sometimes you think you know why you are doing something, but you really don’t know why.
You aren’t really lying to yourself. You’re just protecting yourself from the truth.
Last night I sat down to write this list of reasons of why I wanted to start writing. All of those reasons were true, but they aren’t right.
As I was writing, I realized the real reason I wanted to create an online place to share my thoughts.
I’m not doing super well.
While life as a whole is good, I’m not doing super well.
- I’ve been on autopilot for much of the last couple of years.
- My health has taken a back seat.
- My mental health has struggled even more than my physical health.
- I’m struggling to show up as the father, husband, leader, friend, and coworker I want to be consistently.
There are glimpses, but, to be honest, I’m struggling to be me.
I’m a verbal processor. I like to talk. I like to think. I like to talk about the things I’m thinking about. At any given time, there are a thousand thoughts racing through my head. And, even more challenging, there are a million emotions pumping through my heart.
- I need a place to wrestle with the things that are holding me back.
- I need a place to explore the things that inspire me.
- I need a place to create some accountability for how I want to live MY life.
So, that’s the answer. I want to write to help create a better Jimmy. A version of myself who shows up consistently, is becoming the person he wants to be, and is experiencing the type of life he wants to live.
If no one else ever reads this, that’s fine. If someone deos, and it helps them just a little bit…or it helps me connect with them just a little bit…then that’s a win-win.
My original “Why Blog?” list:
It’s less weird than talking to myself
I’m a verbal processor. If I can’t talk (or text) something out, it’s really hard for me to make sense of the thousands of thoughts that are constantly running through my head. I’m hoping just having somewhere to write down and then later revisit my thoughts will be helpful.
I’m still a pastor at heart
Just because I don’t currently serve as a pastor doesn’t mean I don’t still have tons of thoughts about life and faith. The only thing that’s different is I don’t get up and share those thoughts 3 or 4 times a month with a few hundred people. Hopefully this will give me a place to write about my faith.
Because my therapist told me to…
A few years ago, my therapist specifically recommended blogging - whether anyone read it or not. She said that the act of creating and working through my thoughts could be helpful. So, here goes!
a place to learn new ways to do familiar things
This blog is created utilizing Svelte + Sveltekit. It utilizes markdown files (like this post!) to create the blog entries. It’s okay if you have no idea what that means. Bottom line, I could build a wordpress blog in my sleep in about 5 minutes. This blog has given me the opportunity to learn something new, stretch my comfort zone, and experiment with different tech stacks.
a place to keep all of my random projects
Bullseye’s goofy turtle game I created for the Chamber Trade show? That weird but utseful extension I created for wordpress that I want to share? The fun stuff I make experimenting with my kid? I want to have a place for all of that to live. Who knows, there’s maybe even a podcast brewing down the line! Coming Soon..Well, maybe not soon.
a place to experiment
You’ll see alot of random animations, different designs, utilizing different componetns and different way of doing things on this website. I imagine it will change fairly often. I needed a place to experiment with the cool new things that are out there in the web dev world. So, here we are!
a place to connect
If one random person comes across a little bit of this blog and feel like they know me even just a little bit better, I would consider that to be a huge win. Whether you disagree or agree with my thoughts, I would love to connect about those things.