The Year of Experiments

So, it’s been a while. 

Here’s the thing: I’m busy. I work full-time. I spend anywhere between four and eight hours a week running. I have three cats, and also a husband. I recently moved nearly 500 miles. There are friendships to maintain, places to travel, and always, always, always, clothes to wash and fold.

And writing a blog (that admittedly has absolutely no content strategy behind it, since I refuse to pick a lane) feels a lot like screaming into the void. As you can tell from the lack of banner ads, this is not a monetized platform. 

So this little corner of the Internet has sat here, gathering dust. 

But now I want to see if I can’t breathe some life back into it.

See, I mentioned that I moved. People ask why, and honestly, I don’t have a great reason. Usually folks move for a specific opportunity, or to be closer to family, but mostly, I just wanted to live somewhere else…just to see what would happen. What would it be like? (Lots, lots happened, and most of it has been good, but more on that later.) 

And then, approaching a new year, I started wondering what else I could apply that type of thinking to. What else could I do…just to see what would happen? 

Of course, the thinking spiraled. Once I started thinking about my day-to-day life as a fun lil’ silly goose time, I started thinking of all the things I could experiment with. I could experiment with more proactive networking! I could try posting weekly updates on LinkedIn! (Primary objective: Do this without ending up featured on r/LinkedInLunatics.) And instead of duplicating screen time by scrolling my phone while watching TV, I could try doing an adult coloring book instead!

Oh, and…I could try updating my blog.

Not just “sometimes” or “when I feel like it.”

But weekly.

In the past, I’ve had vague goals to write posts once a month. Or, once a quarter. (Apparently not once a year. Sorry, 2023.) 

So experimenting with a weekly post is daunting, but I hope that framing it as an experiment will force me to overcome any preciousness about the content needing to be “good enough” or “worth it.”

When you cook up an experiment, you become a scientist. (If only an amateur one.) So here are the things I hope to discover as I run my experiment with weekly blog updates:

  1. Can I actually do it? Can I commit and be consistent? Can I get back on the wagon if I fall off?

  2. Are people reading? Who are they? Will I, six years in, discover that Squarespace has  decent analytics functionality? 

  3. Will I feel different? Will I feel better? More disciplined? More creative? More accomplished? 

  4. Is an “experimental” mindset helpful in this venture, and is it helpful more broadly? 

So, stay tuned. I’m still not ready to experiment with cohesive subject matter, so I don’t entirely know what I’ll be writing about on a weekly basis. Running, for sure. Books and TV, probably. Other experiments? Why not! (Follow me on LinkedIn but please don’t put me on blast on Reddit!)