humour

What I’ve Learned From NOT Reaching My Goals

/ Stuart Danker / 209 Comments

Man flying face down on pavement with shoes off

I used to have lofty goals. For one, I thought I’d be a millionaire by the age of 30. And I wanted to buy a pub for my parents who used to love drinking with their friends.

But my mum has since passed on and my dad’s stopped drinking, so that’s one goal out the window. And I’m nearing 40, so the before-30 goal’s out of the question too.

That’s how we arrive at my first lesson: goals never stay the same, because life never stays the same. So you best err on the side of action before your opportunities pass you by.

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The Types Of Blog Posts You’ll See On WordPress, According To Me

/ Stuart Danker / 221 Comments

Type of blog posts - A group of divers standing on the beach

So I’ve never missed a day of browsing the Reader for at least two years now, and I’ve now profiled every type of blog post with utmost discrimination, much like the TSA.

What I’ve learned is that we all fall into certain categories—archetypes if you will—and today I’m going to share them with you.

But don’t feel offended if you belong in any of these groups, because it’s all just a bit of fun. Besides, if you don’t like it, you’ve already lumped yourself into the party-pooper group, and you wouldn’t want that, right?

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Don’t Tell Me You Don’t Think These Thoughts When You Write

/ Stuart Danker / 109 Comments

A woman with a beret lying down on a table

So you’re writing—which, if you’re me, means going down the YouTube rabbit hole for five hours—and you’re overcome by a bunch of emotions and thoughts that shouldn’t be part of the deal.

Sometimes, these thoughts discourage you from writing. Other times, they could even make you doubt your worth as a writer.

If you’re going through a similar thing right now, fret not because I have just the thing for you. Today we’re going to put these thoughts under the spotlight and help you realise that you’re not alone, and that it’s all just part of the process.

And perhaps we should start with the most common thought, which is…

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This Is Why I Don’t Click On Your Blog Posts

/ Stuart Danker / 245 Comments

dont-click-no-priscilla-du-preez

So the following post is based off my time spent in the WordPress Reader which, in the past couple of years, total up to 15,000 blogs visited (average of 20 blogs per day).

And through that time, I’ve since developed a taste for the type of posts I’d click on and enjoy.

Here’s a quick disclaimer though: I’m just one person in a very small niche, particularly in writing and self-improvement. So take the following points with a grain of salt.

But also know that if you can attract—or repel—one person, you would probably be able to do so for the rest of the WordPress community, so keep that in mind as you scroll through the list!

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Just Some Writerly Things The Writer In You Will Understand

/ Stuart Danker / 174 Comments

A redheaded woman at a cafe with her laptop

So you’ve chosen to be a writer.

That means getting to know procrastination on a more intimate level. That means learning to doubt your work. Also, that means checking the word count after every couple of sentences.

But there are many other things that bind us all. We writers don’t need to stick together. We already do, through the weird things that make us uniquely ‘us’.

So how many of these writerly things apply to you?

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