Empiring my state of mind

Exploring the year of 2023 and me

It’s been a couple of years since I last wrote a newsletter here — I actually wanted to publish a few, more personal posts at the beginning of 2022, but chose not to. Then I decided to pivot to more factual, technical articles. I wrote 4000 words and then decided I was bored. Friends and family told me to pick an audience, a niche, but I felt too boxed in trying to write out of the box content on the same topics. Quotes I read talked about focus & positioning, but I had neither and didn’t want to develop either. Despite these hesitations, my biggest setback was just not putting my writing out there. I was too worried about what others would think of me.. which to be fair, is a valid concern — the last time I didn’t think twice about writing whatever I pleased, I ended a technical article with a Taylor Swift quote. Two weeks later, my interviewer asked me about it because he had read the post the night before. Awks.

The word I’m about to use next isn’t a thing — but I want to make it one. A lot of my past creative ventures have been about empiring. With my writing, I so badly wanted to build a brand & personal recognition, that I lost track of what kind of writing seemed fun to me. Writing has always been a creative outlet for me, but when I felt the pressure to pick a niche & select a target audience, I lost all interest to write freely. ‘THIS IS HARD WORK EVERYONE GOES THROUGH’ I would say to myself. And it’s true — if you’re looking to monetize your blog or build a brand, it is important to identify your audience and cater to them. But I don’t want to write for the sake of building a brand — I just want to put my thoughts out into this universe/vortex/DQ blizzard, or however you choose to define life. I don’t really have a unique selling proposition to my newsletter — I just want to put pen to paper (metaphorically, because my handwriting looks like a Pekinese dog). So often we set an outcome and work backwards to determine our inputs. But I have learned that we sometimes think we want an outcome, like the idea of the person who achieves this outcome, but when push comes to shove, don’t really care for it. Meh.

But I think it’s hard not to empire. We’re living in a society where work has changed — nobody expects to hold down the same job for 4o years. Employer - employee relations have changed dramatically. There have been huge jumps in our costs of living, not to mention job stability, that many often quote it’s smart to have multiple sources of income. We live in an age of social comparison. Sure the concept of The Joneses existed 50 years ago, but people didn’t have little digital bricks in their pockets constantly reminding them that they 1) weren’t the Joneses, but 2) could be the Joneses if they clicked on link below. In all of this, I think we’ve forgotten to have fun. To share parts of ourselves for the sake of it, and without expecting validation, recognition, or something in return.

So in all of this, I’ve come to the conclusion that I just want to write to clear my mind. To put my learnings down on paper. To build a collection of my reflections. And if some of these reflections help you along the way — I will be so glad.

And now to end this article, I must mention Taylor Swift. Every year, I ask my friends to define their year ahead through a TSwift album. Here are what I interpret some of them to resemble (in no particular order):

• Reputation: Done with the system, people have scorned me, but I survived and I am back with a vengeance

• Lover: I love love & cozy vibes

• 1989: I am here for the ups & downs, the drama & the excitement

• Red: I’m heartbroken but I’m using this force for good rather than evil

I’m actually not sure what TSwift album will define 2023 for me yet, but I hope this sparks a fun conversation among you and your friends.