It’s Another Blog Post No One Reads

If the sole measure of success in blogging is based upon traffic I am in the midst of one of the most successful periods I have ever had during my career.

There is a significant bump in unique users and page views that began last Thursday and has continued throughout the entire weekend.

That is the kind of sustained increase that every writer/blogger hopes to enjoy because it seems to provide evidence that your work resonates with others but if you are like me you want confirmation.

It is not for lack of faith in your own ability but because confirmation provides both personal satisfaction and metrics you can use to justify whatever rate you choose to charge for your services.

It’s Another Blog Post No One Reads

I set out to find that proof by looking at engagement but didn’t find much in the way of comments so I took a look at unique users, pageviews and time spent on page.

Those numbers provided more support and evidence that people didn’t just point-and-click their way through here but something about it left me feeling a bit uncertain.

I wasn’t sure why so I sat down and thought about what bothered me.

Something about it reminded me of The Radical Honesty of a Life I Don’t Love.

When you have high standards and are hard on yourself it is easy to be irritated if you haven’t accomplished as much as you think you should have.

Those feelings might be exacerbated by feeling like you have been let down or betrayed by people you trust, not so much because of their actions but because you feel like you should have known better.

What is funny to me about it all is I have had conversations with my children about the need to remember we can’t control people and that some will come and go in our lives.

Call that proof that I am not always good at following my own advice.

Do as I say and not as I do.

How Blogging Provides Perspective

One of the most significant and practical aspects of blogging is the way in which it provides and shapes our perspective.

If you are honest in your writing it offers you an opportunity to gain a thorough understanding of what you really think and feel.

That is significant because the opportunity afforded by this isn’t limited to a single moment in time. It is magnified by allowing you to compare what you think/feel/did during a particular period of time against another.

Or in regard to my situation when I compare where I was when I wrote the post about the life I didn’t love against my current circumstances it is clear I have made enormous progress.

The net result is I recognize I am being unnecessarily hard on myself about my accomplishments.

That doesn’t negate my desire to have done more but it does remind me that I should give myself more credit and to recognize that how we measure progress/success has a significant impact on whether we think we have or have not made our mark.

The hardest part about Father’s Day 2015 is the uncertainty of my current circumstances.

A while back I decided one of the reasons I felt like I hadn’t accomplished enough was my failure to provide as many experiences for my children as I would like to.

It didn’t require any effort to recognize that money was the problem and solution.

I devised a fool proof plan for knocking over Fort Knox but decided against it because I didn’t want to be the fool whose  fool proof plan failed so I searched for alternatives.

The lottery people refuse to provide me with the numbers for winning the lotto and are unwilling to guarantee I will win so I can’t count on them to solve this financial conundrum.

There are no wealthy millionaires or billionaires in my family who plan on dying soon and are willing to name me as the recipient of their fortunes so inheritance is out.

For a short while I thought about making my fortune by buying property in cleveland and Detroit but no one with any sense wants to live there so I figured that would be a bust.

The net result of all this is the recognition I can either move to a place that has a lower cost of living or find a way to make more money where I am at.

Or even better is to take a job that pays more than I am currently earning in a place with a lower cost-of-living.

That would fall into the “work smarter, not harder” advice I give my children.

Take Control Of Your Life

The point of it all if you will is to remember that although we never have complete control of our lives we do have control over how we choose to respond.

We have the ability to use our blogs to understand our thoughts and to provide a more balanced perspective about whatever particular challenges we face.

And as I remind my children we should remember there will always be critics who tell us why we should or should not do something.

Don’t let people who don’t have to live with the consequences of your actions or lack thereof be the one who make important decisions for you.

Or at least, do your best not to.

Sometimes there is no way around it and you get stuck waiting for them to choose their path but that is a different situation altogether.

But what do I know, I am just another dad blogger trying to make a better life for his family.  I’d rather take a chance and fail than fail to take a chance.

You either try to live your dreams or just dream your life away.

• Saved: Children, Life