Absence makes the heart grow fonder

Summary: Sometimes you have to step back to move forward.

At the end of last year, I realized that I’d stopped communicating authentically with my audience. In trying to give my audience more of what it wanted while not offending anyone, I was burning myself out.

Conventional social media wisdom says to watch your numbers (views, likes, comments, shares) and to give your audience more of what it wants. However, sometimes what it wanted more of, I felt that I had said my piece and that to expand on it was either flogging a dead horse or re-arranging the words to say the same thing differently.

Moreover, Canadian conventional wisdom says that you have to include everyone. What started out as wishing the public a happy holiday suddenly felt like I was leaving someone out. So I added more and more but making our own social media posts was becoming a full-time job.

My personal life took a hit as well. My social circle got smaller. The topics of conversation went stale. Friday night socializing became Friday night strategizing. It just wasn’t where I wanted to be.

I needed to step back. At first, I tried to maintain a smaller presence, but it quickly became apparent that I needed to quit cold turkey so that I could re-assess and re-orient.

"One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple." Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums

When I thought about it, what I wanted was genuine communication with enough room to enjoy life. Which brings us here – my blog. It’s a less complicated web presence, wordier, and published less frequently. However, it’s authentically mine, and I hope you’ll join me for the ride.