Why are you saying what you are saying?

As I write this blog title, I cautiously reflect on how this post could go if I allow it to take a different path.

I carefully examine how many times in my memory I’ve asked the question ‘Why are you saying what you are saying?”

There is the obvious times we make this statement such as during an argument with a loved one (or those not so loved!) but how often are we asking this question of ourselves online? How many of us are pausing to reflect on what we are putting out into the digital realm?

What are you saying? Why are you saying it? Is your life passion in what you are writing about or are you looking for ego-satisfaction, money, validation, job security, more clients? All of this is OK, we’re human…  but it’s important to be transparent to others with who you are and what you are seeking to gain.

Many of us are proclaiming to be ‘social media experts’, ‘thought leaders’ or ‘subject matter specialists but the truth is that now more than ever we are all experts, leaders and experts. The playing field is level and it couldn’t be more exciting than this.

Why am I saying this? Because it’s easy to get caught up in wanting to be a social media rockstar with a zillion ‘friends’ on Twitter, Facebook et al. It’s easy to feel that we don’t measure up in that our blog posts are boring, dumb or navel-gazing chatter.

I’ve been there…

The advice I give to myself is to not to get caught up in it all. Life is way to short and my epitaph isn’t going to be a digital feed of my past Twits/Facebook statuses or a recap of the number of friends I had on the various social networks. This isn’t the legacy we leave behind to our friends and family.