Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of this blog, hanisarji.com.

I started blogging over a decade ago. At one point, I even blogged at Forbes.com at Estate of Confusion. But my return to blogging is worth celebrating as a personal victory.

I have yet to promote my writing at hanisarji.com in the way that I used to because my return to blogging isn’t about obtaining money, fame, accolades, likes, visits, or any other tangible or popular metrics.1

As I wrote one year ago, I’m blogging at hanisarji.com to share information that I find interesting or useful and that I hope may benefit others.

As I hinted, blogging at hanisarji.com is also an experiment with technology and a way to document my deepening knowledge of technology. I know how to blog using WordPress, but I wanted to blog using a flat file system.

One year ago, I wrote about my two motivations – sharing useful information and experimenting with technology. What I didn’t mention is my personal motivation to work through the barriers that I impose on myself.

Imagine this scenario: You’re given the opportunity to blog for Forbes.com. You’re given full control over the blog. You’re even invited to blog again after a hiatus. You’ve written several drafts of posts that are probably timely, interesting, and useful. The editor who is giving you the opportunity and is an inspiration to you expressed enthusiasm about a draft you shared. But you can’t press the publish button!

There were no barriers imposed by others. I was even allowed to blog about broader topics than my initial niche of wealth transfer taxes. But I was blocked.

It wasn’t writer’s block. I was writing. I am always writing, so that’s not an issue. It was something else. I couldn’t press the publish button! I couldn’t share what I’ve written.

I’m still working through the issues that caused such paralysis. I consider every blog post I publish on hanisarji.com a victory against the demons that I allow to silence me.

Bloggers sometimes share things when celebrating a blogiversary. I’m going to share a quote from Theodore Roosevelt’s speech “Citizenship in a Republic” (popularly known as “The Man in the Arena”), which was was delivered at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, on April 23, 1910:2

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again,

because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause;

who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly. . . .

Over the next year, my greatest wish is to continue daring greatly by sharing my best thoughts, my writing, with you. I will do this while fully accepting that I will not be without error or shortcoming.

In the coming months, I hope to:

  • Blog frequently by sharing what I find interesting, what I’m learning, and information about timely and relevant topics.
  • Package some of my writing into ebooks.
  • Create meaningful membership levels to serve two goals: Provide some readers with exclusive content, and allow readers to support my writing.
  • Build an audience, and connect with my readers.

Please reach out to me by commenting below or emailing me with thoughts and suggestions.

  1. I am grateful for such things, but they aren’t a necessary condition for my blogging. ↩

  2. I came across this quote from Brené Brown’s book, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead. I’m still working through this book and her book, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are. ↩