Reach for the Joy

Have a look at my intro post here.

I am not a fan of social media.

I have had stints of trying to post on Instagram regularly, but they have been short-lived (before yesterday, my last post was around Christmas). I have pondered my resistance from several different angles. There's the politics, there's the scraping of artists' posts to train AI models, there's its usefulness/not usefullness, there's its frustrating, ever-changing algorithm, and, of course, the general time-suckage. All valid reasons. And yet I still have an account, still scroll every so often, and still think about how I should be posting more regularly to market my business, on the off-chance someone happens to look for me there or, on the even more off-chance, the algorithm works in my favor.

You know what, though? Should is an incredibly uninspiring word!

Then, in early June, I started Tammie Bennett's business accountability club, where each of us had to make a list of things we wanted to accomplish in the 6 weeks we'd be together. On my list wasn't to post on Instagram every day or even regularly; instead, it was to create 3 posts I could pin at the top of my feed so that, if anyone did pop in, they'd have some idea who I was and what I do. That was going to be my solution. The happy medium to participating on Instagram without fully committing to it.

I made my first pinned post yesterday. A carousel introducing: Me.

Up until yesterday, I had so much resistance. But yesterday was the day I committed to composing one post, so I was in. Then something totally unexpected happened.

I found joy in the process!

Never had I ever really had fun posting. It always felt false or phony, even when I was trying not to be. I didn't know what I was trying to do. Yesterday started the same way: not very inspired, trying to put together something that some would think was "nice." But sometimes nice is boring, and this was starting to feel like another one of those times. Until something clicked in my brain and I asked, "Why are you trying so hard to fit into someone else's mold? Why can't you just be you?"

Things got fun then! I was suddenly enjoying myself. This was a post for me. A post that I hoped would connect with a like-minded community, but if not, that was okay. It brought joy to me.

I hit post, and then a crazy thing happened. I saw this post in my feed. And another with a very similar message! Both coming at me, confirming that I did exactly what I needed to do --> Put myself out there in a way only I can and reach for the joy!