Why I Keep Blogging When It Doesn’t Change Lives

I’ve been in the online writing and content creation space for going on 10 years now; and things have changed quite a bit in that time. When I started, it was for selfish reasons. I hoped mostly for attention and a place I could express myself.

Photo Credit: Garry Knight, Creative Commons

These days, I really hope my words help and change people.

The problem is people just don’t change from blog posts.

There are some exceptions, of course. But largely, people change slowly, over time—not all at once, after reading a 500 word article online. Even if, while reading, we have some sort of “aha” moment, chances are high that “aha” won’t stick.

We may think about something differently or have a new idea. But when it really comes down to executing it, we’ll be back to our old ways.

Or—we’ll argue with the blog post and it will leave us even more convinced we were always right.

Blog posts give us information, they rile us up about a topic, they might even offer new perspective. But they don’t change us.

What really changes us, I’m learning, is experiences.

For better or worse, we are more likely to be changed by something someone says to us, a near-death experience, a tragic loss, a new love, the gift of having a child, a weekend away, a beautiful vacation, etc.

Even very small experiences—like someone yelling at you in the grocery store, or the woman at the bank who lent you her pen—leave us changed.

Not so much a 500 word blog post.

Words do change us. It is possible. Especially when an author can take their words to invite you into an experience with them. This would be the kind of experience you have when you pick up a book from an author, start reading, and lose yourself.

You can’t put it down.

But how often do you have an experience like that while reading online? Virtually never, would be my guess.

So if blog posts can’t change us—why do we keep blogging?

This has been a question on my mind lately. Why do we keep blogging if the goal is to change people and people aren’t changing from blog posts?

One thing that I keep reminding myself is that it doesn’t stop with blog posts. The blog posts and Tweets and Facebook shares are just one part of the process to invite people into an experience.

They’re just one tiny, little piece. Just one step.

If you think of it like a dating relationship, a blog post or tweet is like that first meeting. You want to make an impression. You want to gain trust. You want to get someone thinking. You might even make a fool of yourself trying.

Later, you can build up the courage to ask for the date.

A blog post is not the end game. It’s just the start.

And if you can get someone’s attention, you can, later, invite them into a deeper experience—something that really does have the potential to change their life. An eBook that will take an hour or so to read, rather than five minutes. An online eCourse that might take a few days. A conference that will take a weekend.

It’s more than a blog post. It’s a little bit bigger step.

It is possible to curate an experience for someone that will change their life.

Even then, there’s no guarantee they’ll actually change. There are few guarantees of anything in this life.

But the reason I keep creating content on the Internet and keep writing books and pouring myself into conferences and webinars and eCourses I believe in is this: I really do believe experiences change people.

That’s how I’ve changed. It’s how I’ve worked to make progress with anxiety, it’s how I’ve changed my marriage… it’s how I’ve overcome my cynicism and depression.

Experiences are it.

So yes, it’s true. A blog post will rarely change your life. Maybe even never. But you never know what could come from a blog post. And even if it’s just a minuscule little step away from depression and toward happiness, away from chaos and toward order, it will be worth it.

I haven’t arrived. I don’t have all the answers. But I’m on a path and my experiences are changing me and life is getting better everyday.


I hope yours is too.

Why I Keep Blogging When It Doesn’t Change Lives is a post from: Storyline Blog