I registered this domain name two years ago.

I revisit it every few months to tweak the appearance of the website but have never put anything substantial on it. I’ve always wanted to get the blog started, but never have. I always get stuck in a planning loop and spend more time trying to optimize the idea of having a blog instead of just putting in the time and writing something.

Researching the work of other journalists, I find myself on their personal pages often. Just having a place to read about their work and experiences, regardless of what it looks like, has been a great resource for me. My favorite personal websites don’t have anything profound in them, just the experiences of someone keeping their head down and doing good work.

I recently came across a blog post from Austin Kleon, one my favorite artists who writes about the creative process. He often has good, blunt pieces of advice for people who are stuck and this post has always stuck out to me.

Let go of the thing that you’re trying to be (the noun), and focus on the actual work you need to be doing (the verb).

Doing the verb will take you someplace further and far more interesting than just wanting the noun.

Over the past year or so, I’ve found myself drained from my 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. work and haven’t been doing my 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. work. But from here on out, I’m making a commitment to working on projects that matter to me, even it’s not my paying real job.

On this blog, I’ll share what I’m working on, researching and reading as I learn to become a better journalist. Let’s see what happens.