Hi friends,
Hope you are living it up, even if you are blowing through your savings.
This week has brought in some changes. My sister and co left back to their city after a three month stay with my parents. (Why havenât I left yet you ask? To that I say âgood questionâ and I also say âstfuâ.) I am missing my nephew alreadyâwho I scratched, pulled around and bit at least 23 times every day, throughout his stay here. (Youâre welcome m.) Iâm sure he has forgotten all about me and is busy chewing my sisterâs brains on their drive back. (Thatâs how we say âtalk oneâs head offâ around here. He might be omnivorous though.) It was fun.
Iâve no idea where I am going with this newsletter, giving all these personal updates to the world. Why would anyone care? Lol. Hey, itâs at the front of my head OK? Moving on.
Iâve been slacking off on my projectsâpfft!
My daily blog, my weekly screenwriting and
my vlog (which hasnât seen the light of the day since the
grand announcement two weeks ago). All of them.
This newsletter is one piece of âcontentâ I have kept at consistently from the start; I am told everything that is put online is filed under âcontentâ now. I am also given to understand that as soon as you use the word âcontentâ, you are supposed to instantly precede or succeed it with another wordâ'consistencyâ.
âConsistency is keyâ when it comes to âcontentâ apparently. I have no idea if it is. Everyone says so online. Who knew age-old truths would make their way into new-age technology. Hahahahahahahahahahaha.
These random people on the internetâwho could be real people or hired actors stuck at this acting gig for yearsâsay that you have to churn out content and keep at it consistently, if you want things to take off. (Shhh, I do.) I must add the caveatâ'take offâ can mean different things to different people. Some consider reaching a high round-figure of readers/viewers/listenersâwho are willing to part with a limb to get even so much as a glimpse of the bloggers/youtubers/podcastersâas the starting point. Others think it is beneath themselves to look at numbers when they consider every click of their mouse, tap on their keyboard and exhaled breathâas art. I think I want to be somewhere in the middle. Neither crunch numbers all day while checking âsuccess indicatorsâ nor gaze into the distance while scratching my forehead and call it performance art. Middle is good.
I know this journey to the middle even, is long and arduous: years of putting content online consistently. Besides, consistency is important for a host of other reasons.
But I also watched some videos about âburnoutâ. I could already relateâeven if a teeny bitâto some of the things they warned of. I realised âburnoutâ is a real possibility if I donât learn to enjoy most if not all aspects of these projects.
Sometimes itâs just difficult to keep going, without pausing, without reflecting, to keep getting vulnerable in order to put myself out there. A part of me sees the the clock and the calendar and feels impatient; dammit itâs been five months, why hasnât this gotten easier?
I need to keep asking and answering for myselfâwhat is it that Iâm trying to accomplish by doing these projects?
Now that the word âburnoutâ has descended into my conscious vocabulary, Iâm afraid my brain will reach out to use it, if I wait too long to write the next article or struggle to start the vlog.
Also, with covidâs second wave receding, my travel plans are slowly coming to the fore, which is great news by itself. With all those changes, it becomes difficult to have a clear focus in order to execute and be consistent every single day.
But Iâll admit, this is a good problem to have.
Have a bestest week,
Sumeru