Well shoot! I was just getting over the fact that my regularity with posting has been well….not regular! I was just getting used to the bad feeling that I had over the fact that my blog seems to have lost a sense of direction.

Then today I get an instant message from a friend who says, “Congratulations on making Babble’s Top 50 Dad Blogs“. I’m like, “huh?”

I didn’t even know they had a Top 50 Dad List. Well apparently they never did and this was their first one. I try not to get too caught up on making lists like this. I’ve been fortunate enough to be called out on some other lists as well in the past. Some of them consisted of a “voting style” to rank bloggers. I really don’t like those as they not only can be fudged but tend to turn into a popularity contest or “let’s see who’s Mom can click vote for me the most times”. My mom could click really fast which is why I had some top 3 finishes! What’s different here is that the editors at Babble do the picking and it was all behind closed doors. Well I’m assuming the doors were closed. I suppose they could’ve been open but even if they were I didn’t see anything.

Anyway, I just barely squeaked into the list at #49 which I’m completely stoked and honored over. The problem is after the initial excitement wore off I started feeling really bummed out. I think what happened was I started revisiting all those things I was just starting to put aside (see 1st paragraph).

Honestly, this is really a good thing. I started my blog because I had something to say and I have a real passion for writing and more importantly for sharing. I haven’t been sharing lately and I really want to do more of that. I think what also might help is to not be so hard on myself. It’s my blog, I’m not making a living off of it, and I don’t need to put false expectations on myself or this blog.

Does the post have to have a certain amount of words?

Do I need amazing pictures to accompany my post?

Does it have to be the best post ever written?

Does the site have to be up and functioning? <— Okay, it kind of does

So no! It didn’t have to have any of these things (sans the last point). If sharing is really what I enjoy, which it is, then maybe I should stop asking myself so many questions and just share. Sometimes our hardest critics are ourselves and if what I share can resonate with just one person then I’ve done my job.

So here’s to me taking it easy on myself and going back to doing what I love to do which is sharing. Thanks Babble for helping me realize I don’t need to be on a list, I don’t need to meet someone else’s expectations, I just need to do what I love and that is sharing.