What it means to me
I came across this line while reading ‘The Way of the Kings – Stormlight Archive Book #1’ by Brandon Sanderson. It first came when one of the main characters was about to give up. This one simple line later became a mantra.
I never thought about this line after finishing the book. But lately, I have been thinking about it more and more. Basically about the sentiment of focusing on enjoying the journey instead of waiting for the destination.
This is not a new sentiment. I believe I had read so many books and articles and watched so many motivational videos with the exact same message. But sometimes the message becomes relevant only when I am ready to receive the message.
As this year is ending and I am looking back at everything I did and didn’t do, I am more receptive to life lessons.
So why exactly did this line – Journey Before Destination – come to my mind?
At the beginning of 2021, I was in full-on learning mode. I was doing everything I could to improve my blogging and writing skills in general. So, as per my lessons, I planned to have a consistent posting schedule. I managed to post twice a week for almost 4-5 months. But after that, I not just stopped posting, I even stopped writing altogether.
This is the first thing I am writing since June.
I over-thought and over-complicated everything. I came up with detailed plans and processes, which helped a little, but ultimately, those plans and processes killed my desire to write and have fun. Writing became a chore which is not a bad thing in itself but it becomes problematic when I started dreading writing itself.
Anyway, my desire to get better at blogging made me so anxious that I was reluctant to blog. I was in some sort of perfectionism paralysis. I forgot that I started this space to have fun. Focusing on abstract outputs, like the number of views and other matrices, was not as much fun as writing.
So what now?
Now my plan going into 2022 is to have no plan.
I came to a realization when I was going through the list of blogs I love to read. They all had one thing in common. They all had personal stories. It was like looking at the world through the writer’s eyes. This was even more prominent in the book review blogs I love. I do not love these blogs because of their headlines or keywords. Nor do I care much if there are no new posts for several years. I know I am going to read whenever they post again. This may not be good for SEO, but this is what I love as a reader. And I am sure I can’t be the only one.
So, in preparation for next year, I changed the theme of my blog. I removed the SEO and Stats plugins and made my blogging process extremely simple.
In 2022, I am going to write. I am not going to worry about things like niche and keywords and headlines and post length or any other fancy stuff I learn on the way. I am not going to keep refreshing the stats page.
Basically, I am not going to worry about any numbers – be it the number of views or the number of posts.
I am just going to do everything I can to make myself a little bit happier.
In 2022, I am going to focus on Journey Before Destination.