Who will remember you?
I wanted to write a post today about why I try to create everyday.
I was listening to a podcast the other day. The podcast was The Gary Vaynerchuk Audio Experience (surprise, surprise) featuring A$AP Ferg.
The discussion they were having was: Who will remember you? Not in the sense of your grandchildren per se, but your great-great-great-grandchildren. They were discussing the need to build your own legacy.
Blogging has been the outlet for me to begin to start leaving something behind, to do something that could last a lifetime and maybe even longer. I don’t think there would be anything cooler in my life than knowing that when I am gone someone, somewhere was still benefiting from content I had created. Or even better, a family member getting information from me when I am long gone.
This is the reason that drives me to do this and believe me, I am in it for the long game. The only alternative I ever had was coming home and sitting on the couch. I would binge watch Netflix or play hours of video games (I still LOVE both by the way) until I went to bed. The next morning, I would wake up and wonder why I was so miserable the next day. I was not doing anything for myself.
I am not saying I am going to leave behind some massive legacy with the content I am putting out. What I am saying is that every single day I choose to create over consume, I am one tiny step closer to making my dreams a reality. Other than having reality consume me and losing all hopes and dreams.
Why I Create Everyday:
Blogging (and now Vlogging) has been an outlet for me to get my thoughts and my aspirations down out in front of me.
I have been only doing this on the side for 2 months now. Like I said before, I am in this for the long game. No matter if one person sees it or a million, I will continue to create and document my life and my experiences. When I come home, I look forward to sitting down and documenting on the blog. I love writing about what inspired me recently or what I could have done better that day. It keeps me accountable.
Creating makes me go to sleep happy, knowing I produced something and put it out into the world. Something that wasn’t there the day before. The feeling of accomplishment carries over into the next day and makes me happier in my day-to-day activities.
My First (Anonymous) Blog:
The first blog I started was under a fake name. I didn’t want anyone close to me to know that I was writing. Two things worried me: people would laugh at me or people would think I was just looking for attention.
In the beginning of the year I was scrolling through my Facebook timeline. One of the people I am friends with was doing a video on Facebook Live. The video was this person discussing something that they had given up for the New Year. Seeing this person put themselves out there and just speaking to people really inspired me. The video in itself inspired me so much that, within an hour of watching it, I went public with my blog. I announced right there on Facebook that I had been blogging for a few weeks.
I decided that 2017 was going to be the year that I do stuff. By doing stuff, I mean blogging, creating video, and doing something for myself every single day.
The Reasons For Creating:
A couple of years ago, I was listening to the Joe Rogan Podcast. The guest that day was none other than Maynard James Keenan from Tool. He said the words that would stay in the back of my mind for years to come. Create Everyday!
As I said before, producing content every day gets your thoughts out of your head. You never know when someone could stumble upon your work and have it help them out. That same person could even read something you are going through and offer their own advice to you. Even if no one reads this I would be lying if I didn’t want to build a community of like-minded people who can have thoughtful discussions about the stuff I am writing about.
Another reason I love writing is because people other than myself will be able to see how I lived at that current moment in time. They will be able to see changes as I get older and see how much the world has changed. This is something I would love to have. A journal or diary from one of my great relatives so that I could see how they had lived. The greatest reward I could possibly get from all this is to help a stranger. To have someone that happened to stumble across some of my work and have it get them through something that was going on in their life.
The Long Game:
Once again, I am in this for the long haul. My current plan besides bloggin’ and vloggin’ is to one day write a novel. One of my biggest passions in life is horror novels. I love sitting down and devouring a great horror novel that left me looking over my shoulder to see if anyone (or anything) was behind me.
In my review of The Knowledge by Steven Pressfield, I talked about how when he was writing the book, he used 50% fiction and 50% non-fiction. Meaning, that not only did he use stuff he was going through in his own life at the time to tell the story, he also made up half of it to draw the reader in and keep them entertained. The book is half autobiographical and half crime noir.
I would like to do something like that down the road. Writing about me growing up and leading up to current time, but also throwing in horror elements. Creating a story of the things that scared me growing up or mixing in old urban legends we had in our town. My goal is to continue to produce content on here and on YouTube. After about a year, I will see how far my writing has come and maybe start my first novel. Exciting stuff to say the least!
I would like to wrap up with something inspiring. If you are thinking about doing something for yourself make sure you start as soon as possible.
THE BEST TIME TO PLANT A TREE WAS 20 YEARS AGO. THE SECOND BEST TIME IS NOW. –CHINESE PROVERB
Circumstances will never be perfect but by doing nothing, than we will always produce nothing. Start doing something for yourself that you are passionate about regardless of the outcome.
Will people read it? Will people see it? Will anyone care?
None of that matters because every single time you produce something you are that much closer to making your dreams into reality. Even if it’s 0.00000001% closer. Who gives a shit!
The year of 2017 was the year I decided to create everyday and I hope you enjoy everything I continue to put out.
Thank you for reading and don’t forget to leave your thoughts in the comments.
