If You Were To Start Again, What Would You Change?
By Simonne on Nov 20, 2007.
Have you ever heard of the “butterfly effect“? Theory says that the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil can set off a tornado in Texas. Believe it or not, very small changes in the initial conditions (e.g. in your past) can lead to huge differences in the present.
These being said, I’ve always been thinking, if I were able to go back in time, what would I do differently, and the answer has always been “nothing”. If all so-considered failures are in fact life lessons, and past lessons shape us to our present personality, changing them into successes would prevent us from acquiring the learnings, thus making us be different today. I don’t want to be somebody else. But what about my blog?
How many times do we question ourselves about our blogs:
- What if I wrote one article per day, every day, over the past year? Where would my blog be now?
- What if I didn’t put those ads on the pages from the very beginning? Would I have 10 times more readers today?
- What if I didn’t sell text links, or if I didn’t write paid articles? Would my blog have a better Google PR today?
- What if I commented more on other blogs? Would my blog be more appreciated in my community?
This is only a small sample of questions you may ask yourself every now and then. At least I’m doing it. If you do it too, what is your answer? What would you change if you had the chance to start over?
My answer is the same as yours and I’m sure many people. If I could start over I wouldn’t change anything. I enjoy my life.
Comment by andrew — November 20, 2007 @ 1:40 pm
Thank you, Andrew. I know a bunch of people who would change a lot of things and who believe they will become much better if their past experience is different. Each time we meet, we argue a lot, with no conclusion.
Comment by Simonne — November 20, 2007 @ 2:08 pm
I ask myself the same question every time i don’t feel like writing. It makes me think that I chose the wrong niche to begin with….. but then I think…. wait, I don’t have a niche, I write about anything that comes to mind. I guess that’s my real problem.
I still enjoy it.
Comment by Alex — November 21, 2007 @ 7:14 pm
Hey Alex, but you don’t need to go back in past to change this. You can give your blog a direction towards a niche just by writing more and more focused articles. And I don’t know if not having a niche can be so harmful.
As long as you enjoy it, that’s fine
Comment by Simonne — November 21, 2007 @ 11:29 pm
those are interesting questions, Simonne. Regarding my life – I wouldn’t change anything – like you said – I’ve learned from the mistakes I did in my life.
As for my blog, there are many things that I would like to change, but I don’t have to go back in time to do that, I can do it anytime… anytime when I can find that time. That’s my problem – to find more time for my blog.
Comment by inspirationbit — November 26, 2007 @ 5:54 pm
Thank you, Vivien. Time is an issue for most of us, I suppose. Do you know I still get a lot of traffic from your Time Management group project?
Comment by Simonne — November 26, 2007 @ 11:23 pm
No, I didn’t know that. Really glad to hear that from you.
Comment by inspirationbit — November 26, 2007 @ 11:28 pm