Authenticity vs. Discipline

A year ago I attended my very first blogging conference. I’m sure some out there are familiar with the BlogHer conference that usually pops up in New York every August or September.  To be honest, it was pretty cool and I had a good time. Would I go again though? Yeah probably.

One theme that kept on popping up during the two-day conference was authenticity. That word popped up SO much that I began to get a little bit sick of it. After the conference, I started seeing the word pretty much for the rest of the year all the way up until just before I started writing this post out. Basically, fellow bloggers and content creators have decided that being authentic is what is going to set you apart from other creators. To a certain extent, I agree, but I have a few reservations.

Of course, I agree every creator out there should be authentic, but I’m not sure that’s going to get us all to where we truly want to be. I am extremely authentic 99.9% of the time, especially on this platform. If I wasn’t, you all would be able to tell. It’s hard for me to even write if I know I’m not being true to myself – a mistake I made when I first started blogging years ago. If you ever get a chance to look at some of my Blogmas posts then you’ll see that some days I was just not that into it and that was inauthentic of me.

I could go on about how this sentiment bothers me in a way but I want to speak on what I think the real way to get where you want to be. The real magic word is discipline. This is all just my opinion of course. The reason I believe discipline is the real successor here is that it takes a great amount to be consistent with content creation and/or becoming an influencer. I’m pretty sure if you ask any successful entrepreneur how they made it, they’ll say something along the lines of “hard work” and “dedication” aka discipline. Of course, being authentic along the way plays a part but definitely not the whole play.

I think of how I participated in Inktber last month and only missed about three days of prompts. With two demanding jobs and minimal drawing skills, the only thing I can think of that got me through was my dedication to improve my drawing skills. Most of us are already pretty disciplined as it is…waking up for your 8am class every morning, commuting to and from work, picking up a new hobby, the list goes on. Even as I’m currently drafting this post up at 6 in the morning before I go into work took some amount of discipline.

So, maybe the next blogger’s conference I attend, the new buzzer word will be discipline instead of authenticity. Who knows. Either way, I know that all of it is important and it takes all the buzzer words to make especially unorthodox careers happen.

Leave a comment and tell me what you think it takes to be an influencer, content creator, writer, artist, etc. etc.

ChelsiKay