Why You Should Share Your Work, Even if You Think it Sucks
The world needs your voice.
Far too often, the voice in our heads goes something like this, “who cares what I have to say, no one will listen to me,” or read my blog or my post or my newsletter.
But the truth is this: the world needs more positive influences right now.
Your voice matters. You may suck in the beginning — nearly everyone does — but get your ego out of the way and write already. Share something with the world and see what you get back.
Put something out there and allow it to suck. When you write and put in your best effort, that is good enough. When you give yourself permission to suck and share anyway, most likely, you’ll get feedback, and this will help you, in the long run, to write better.
You will never become great if you don’t put your version “good enough” out in the world. For the longest time, I was afraid of hitting publish on my first blog post on this platform. Now, 143 posts later, I’m not sure why I was so scared.
Put out something, something creative that feeds your soul, and, most likely, you will connect with somebody.
You Will Fail
If fail means only one person reads your work, yes, that may happen. It will for most, it did for most of the successful people on this platform and me.
You need to reframe what failure means. Posting something and hearing crickets is not failure. Failure is allowing your fear of people laughing at you, ridiculing you, or not reading your work from stopping you from sharing your creativity with the world.
Who cares if you have one reader. You shared anyway. Reframe having one reader as a success, because it is. It means you’ve started.
People will not remember that you posted, they will remember how you made them feel, how you cared, what you taught them.
Share something, and you will resonate with someone who needs your particular voice at this moment in their lives. And honestly, any feedback you get from those reading your writing is a gift worth getting.
Listen to your audience; what they loved and what they hated.
I’ve been fortunate to have had a few trolls; I value them because they clue me in on what to write about — what hits a nerve.
Have a Role Model Mindset
There are two ways to exert strength, pushing down and pulling up.
If you’re a writer, think about the intentionality of your writing. Are you writing to lift others or push them down? If it is the former, your voice is needed. Readers will place value on your words when you are intentional with your words, your mission, and your message.
Don’t write content for likes or claps
Care more about providing value than getting likes or claps.
You have something to share with the world, share it. Instead of being consumed with likes, share content that is serving your reader, because it isn’t about you, the writer, it’s about the reader.
Make your reader the hero or benefactor of the content you share — you are the guide. If you pay attention to your audience, they will tell you what to write.
Do not discount a small following
We are jockeying in the same overcrowded online world.
Everyone is competing for an audience — to gain followers, likes, claps — sometimes the message gets lost in chasing the metrics.
Even if you have 100 followers, heck, even if you have three followers, do not discount them. Those three people are your people, your tribe, your audience, and they matter. They are reading what you wrote, and that isn’t a small thing.
As writers, we don’t want to lose our humanity in the metrics.
In other words, we don’t want to focus so much on our stats, our numbers, that we lose our understanding, our creativity, and our mission as to why we got into writing in the first place — to help others.
If we lift one person or ten or 5 million with a positive message, a tool that makes their lives better, or a strategy we give that makes for an easier life, we are contributing positively.
Inspire people based on how you share your content, how you share your passions, and even how you share your products. As a content generator, allow your passion to mark out your path forward in the online world.
No matter how small it is, start something, create something.
Double down on the good that you put into the world, and you will be successful. Give people the tools to change their lives.
No one will ever care about your dreams as much as you do, so write and share already. It’s your job because it’s your dream.
Jessica is a writer, an online entrepreneur, and a recovering perfectionist. She lives in Los Angeles with her extrovert daughter, two dogs, and two cats.
