I like blogging, and I’ve always fancied myself a blogger, which I realise is so yesterday, and dates me terribly. I’m not particularly good at it, and definitely not consistent enough. For a long time, that meant beating myself up over how little I post.
But I’ve come to a realisation recently: it doesn’t really matter.
Here’s the truth of it. A full-time teacher with a side of Principal Teacher is a lot of work. There simply isn’t time for everything: blogging, creating content to help my wife, woodworking, gaming, time with my family. During term time, the job consumes me, and it consumes my time. This isn’t a complaint. It’s the deal we make as teachers, and I’m at peace with that.
But back to the blog and that said (about time being the enemy), I’m about to start two series. One on what it means to be human and how we can prepare our children for the future, and another on how parents can help their children become better readers. I want people to see these, of course I do. But in the past, my metric of success would have been how many people read it. I’m not sure that’s the only metric that matters any more.
Here’s what I’ve realised: I do try to write about things I’m interested in, and that I think people will find worthwhile or useful. But more than that, I use my blog to think things out. Writing them down helps clarify my thinking in a way that thinking alone never does. That clarity alone is reason enough to keep me writing, though it’s taken me a while to see it that way. In the past, I’d have liked big numbers, lots of people reading my posts. That never happened, and looking at it now, I can see it for what it was: vanity. Marcus Aurelius spent a lot of time writing to himself about how quickly praise fades and how meaningless external applause is. I’d rather have the clarity than the applause.
So if people read it, great. If nobody does, that’s fine too. The value is in the process. At the very least, it gives me a clear space to think. Everything else is just a bonus: the archives, the record of my own growth, and any readers along the way.