Announcement: This blog will be undergoing changes.
I’ve been contemplating on the purpose and direction
of this blog for a few weeks now.
It’s an enlightening experience, reading and
reflecting, researching and understanding, letting it all sink in, article
after article.
What
Happened?
It all started with this blog post and an
email from a friend who said that I sometimes sound like Leo Babauta,
and that she just wanted me to sound more like Raymund… to sound like myself.
With that, the awareness to find my own, unique blogging voice came.
Why do I want to do that?
For the love of blogging? No. I’ve realized through
this article that I’m not in love with blogging per se. What I love is
being able to inspire people, and blogging is just one of the many ways to do
that.
For my readers? May be. Of course, like all the
other bloggers I look up to, I want to make sure that you, dear readers, will
get some value in what you will find here. I don’t want my blog to be
just an angry rant about all my personal problems or a journal of my personal
experiences. I want this to be a blog that matters.
For myself? I think, yes. Because how can I give
something of value to my readers, when I don’t find value in myself and what
I’m going to have to say.
Some
Learnings
In the course of this journey, I’ve grasped many
things. And as I continue, I expect to have even more.
Here are some of my learnings, so far:
- I should stop worrying about trying to get everything right all at once, and not be afraid to fail. For failing is one way of learning.
- I should stop worrying about what other people think of me. I should stop worrying about my English, just be honest and write from the heart.
- I should be open to criticism, and be sensitive if I can use them to improve or if I just ignore.
- As it is off line, I learned that relationships also matter much on line.
As I learned more, I realized that there are still a
lot, lot more to learn.
With that came the decision to reinvent this blog, starting
out with this new writing approach and site design.
A
New Direction
Since this blog is called Raymund Tamayo, then I
should be writing more about who I am.
I’m a husband. A father. A writer. A minimalist.
Then I should be writing more about being a husband,
fatherhood, writing, and minimalism.
Action
Plan
- I will start telling my story. Real honest-to-goodness truth of where I was, how I got here, and who I am now.
- I previously disabled commenting in this blog. Now, I will open it again as I want to engage more with my readers. Another thing is to make life simpler for them because a lot are sending me emails for their comments.
- I will no longer preach here, or give advice. All the preaching, teaching, correcting, and rebuking will be at my other blog, Plain Haven.
- I will not try to NOT sound like Leo Babauta or Joshua Becker. If I do sound like them, then maybe I really do.
- Above all, I will just be myself and, again, write from the heart.
With all these, I only hope to find my own space in
the Internet, and not merely be a doppelganger of a popular blogger.
Will you help me achieve this?