Being Authentic To Who YOU Are!!

Being authentic!!! Wow that is a hard one to pin down sometimes. I like to think at the age that I am I know how to be my authentic self as a person. I am talking about being authentic in a particular area of your life.  I am talking about being authentic on our blogs.

You know, what we write about, and how we write about it. When I posed the question, “Would you continue writing your blog if you never got any comments?” I got so many comments and opinions. One comment that came towards the end really struck a cord with me. My reader wrote this:

You posed a very interesting question about blogging and one that I often ask myself. I would continue blogging without comments as I started the blog to document my journey as a designer. I then got some mentions from other blogs which generated more readers which (perhaps weirdly) made me feel a lot of pressure to tailor my posts more to the people who were now visiting my blog, which felt inauthentic and however hard I tried my readership didn't increase which was disheartening. I now write for me, document my designs and the things that really inspire me and think less about what people may want and try to have a more authentic voice. Having said that I really enjoy comments that I do get and value each and every one.
Great post to make us think!

Here is a blogger that  was briefly caught in the trap of trying to figure out what her readers wanted. As she wrote more of what she thought they would like to read, she got further away from her authentic self. I was glad to hear that she went back to being a designer on a journey, and she is sharing her journey with her readers on her terms.

How many of us have been caught in the trappings of wanting more readership, and we try to tailor our blog post to what we think the readers out there want, or at least what we think they want. You know how uneasy you feel when you do that. That is because You and I are not being our authentic self.

We happen to read a blog post, and we see a great response so we think, maybe I should write a post like this? We try to write a post like the popular post and it falls flat. We don’t enjoy writing, or researching for it, and to our dismay there is very little response from our readers in the form of comments.

When I thought about writing this very post, I thought to myself, that this is probably not a post that my readers will enjoy, and yet I find myself writing it anyhow.

You see I am being my authentic self here. I love design! I love talking about design and reading about design. I also love fashion as you have read in my last couple of posts. I also love to know what makes people tick, including myself. So from time to time I will be writing a piece like this that will make me think, and hopefully will make, you, my reader think also.

After reading the comment that my reader left me. I had to be honest with myself, and realize that I am not always my authentic self when it comes to writing my blog. Sometimes I will put a post up that I feel is a bit lack luster and less inspiring than I would like it to be.

There have been other times I write about a subject that I think might be a bit controversial or that my readers might not accept. I have done this many times and I have hesitated, and when I finally write it  the response has always been a positive one.

I realize we as blog authors can not always write an inspiring post, but we must always be our authentic selves, even if it is just a few words describing something that inspired us.

Life is a gift and we each have our very own life to live and no one else can do that for us. Why would we rob ourselves of our own personal experience of this great life by being inauthentic or not genuine.

There was a lesson for me in this comment and I had to share it with you all. Whether I am writing a blog post or a comment on another blogger, I am going to try my hardest to be my authentic self.

I pose this question to myself and to you all:

Is my blog representing who I am. Am I using my own voice in what I am writing? Has my blog evolved into the blog that I hoped it would be?

Hard questions to answer, but I feel these are very important questions we should ask ourselves as we continue to spend the time and energy that it takes to write a blog.

Blogging has been a wonderful and sometimes mysterious journey for me, but I am always learning, and I am inspired by all of you. I am inspired by your creativity, your writing and your comments. I hope I can continue to be my authentic self, and you will allow me to be a part of your day by reading my blog.

Thank you for making this a wonderful journey 

Kathysue Is:

“Enjoying the Process of Blogging, very much!”