Audacious
Two things I believe I can do.
I’ve set myself a challenge to become a Substack bestseller.
It’s a bit audacious for someone who isn’t famous, didn’t bring an already established list here and essentially just writes honestly about life and work and the joys, challenges and everything in between that come with it.
But I’m saying it out loud and therefore I mean it. Being a ‘bestseller’ means to have over 100 paid subscribers. I’m not so far away from that and I believe that it is possible for me.
Another reason I decided I was going to set myself this challenge was because it forces me to show up regularly.
I’m currently away on holiday in France. I’ve been here for a week and have another week before returning home. I’d worked super hard in the first two weeks of June in my interior design business in order to not have to work while away. I told all of my clients, put my out of office on and I’ve stuck to that so far.
But, I’m not one for being able to do nothing, so in between the reading and the rosé sipping, I’ve been writing. Morning pages every day before J wakes up, more ideas explored for my ever-evolving book, pieces for this Substack and the editing of a brand new podcast episode dropping tomorrow.
I’m staying in the same house we came to two years ago for a month-long ‘workliday’ and as soon as I walked through the door, I remembered that this was a place I wrote in. And I knew I must do that again.
So here I am, making time for writing and making myself accountable to show up by setting myself this goal to reach 100 paid subscribers.
Why should anybody care what I have to say?
This is a question I ask myself regularly when I’m writing. Why would anyone be interested in my relatively unexciting life? But then I think of what I’m most interested in reading - my favourite Substacks are those where the authors share the mundane as well as the exciting, but do it honestly and with integrity.
I can smell bullshit a mile away and as soon as I start thinking “well, hang on a minute, last week you said…” when I read something with a tinge of hypocrisy or sense some bending of the truth, I’m put off.
So, for my readers I write what I know to be true for me. I share the authentic highs and lows of launching a business after a long career in teaching, I share my interest in honing my writing and I share the things in life that light me up.
I also care deeply about creating a community of kind, thoughtful and like-minded people. That’s why I started hosting monthly online sessions for paid subscribers and through that I’ve made some wonderful friends. Sometimes I show up for those sessions and nobody else comes, but I don’t mind at all because I’m showing up for myself as much as anything. And being honest about the realities!
The more I think about it, the more I realise that art - be it visual, musical, written or otherwise - is all about documenting a moment. Moments are unique to us all and we are the only ones who can tell our story of a particular moment in time.
We live in a time where everything is photographed or videoed. Babies are literally born to a camera in their face and many people have forgotten what it is to really experience a moment, instead prioritising the filming of it in order to share it immediately on social media. Yet these very literally captured moments don’t really tell the story. And they certainly lose their sparkle when replayed. It’s a bit like making someone sit through your holiday photos.