Don't worry about what other people think

Today I am trying to decrease my #stress and #anxiety by being #happy about what I #amwriting and #love getting any response people might have to it, be it good or bad.

I find I worry about what other people think about my writing. I pondered the reason why today when I sat down to write this post. There are several reasons I might feel a little uncomfortable with people reading what I have to say. For one, they might disagree with me. They might disagree and then in turn, try to prove me wrong.

These readers might also laugh at what I might have to say. They may not take me seriously or find my writing thoughtless or insignificant. They might go to their friends and point and laugh. I just picture being on a elementary school kickball field, A group of kids standing together pointing and laughing because I had just missed the ball and landed on my rear end. Maybe that's what might happen if I put my writing out there. Maybe I will miss the point, land on my proverbial rear end, everybody in the world laughing at me.

I've come to realize over the last 10 years or so that most people are not even aware of what you're trying to do. They may read your writing, think about it for a brief moment and then continue on their way without a second thought. They might agree with you and send you a small note saying they do. They might disagree and let you know why they disagree. That's okay. Every person has their own opinions.

Most people are not out to get you. They're not interested in pointing and laughing. They have their own problems and their own concerns. They're probably worried about what they might be doing that you might laugh at.

If they do take the time to tell other people how bad your writing is or how wrong a specific point was, they just advertised your writing for you even though it was negatively. There'll be a percentage of people who will come read your writing just to see if their friend was right. They will want to make their own choice. That means more people will read your writing.

I don't know if anybody is actually reading my blog. I think a few people have come back on a regular basis whenever I post something new. I definitely don't have the largest reader base but that's not really why I write these posts. I write them to help myself write every day. This is the third day in a row I have written a blog post. I'm not really setting myself any goals as to how often or how long I will be writing, but I like the idea of writing every day even if it's only a paragraph or two. We will see if I can keep the interest of my readers and possibly draw new readers to the blog. If I can, that's awesome. If I don't, well, I can live with that too.

I am trying something different today on this post. I added a few hashtags to the beginning of the post to see if I can draw any readers from Twitter. When I post this blog entry, it automatically sends a tweet on Twitter with the first line or two of the post. If I can get it to show up on some of these popular hashtags then maybe more people will come read the blog. It's an experiment and I don't know if it will work. I will let you know what comes of it.