Reaching 100 posts is quite a milestone for the blog. I didn't know how it would go when I began blogging, but I knew I wanted to find out. My writing style has evolved and hopefully the content has remained relevant and interesting. Starting as my "Quest for Scratch" golf along with my random "Thoughts about...." life, it has morphed into "Golfing with Gratitude", "Thoughts about...." and "Poetry". I certainly never anticipated publishing poetry, but when the inspiration comes, I enjoy writing it! I particularly enjoy the rhythm and flow of poetry.
Throughout the blog, I have explored my interest in philosophy alongside my love of golf and tried to make connections between them. These posts constitute the core of the blog and when reviewing performance, they are the most popular amongst readers too. The best-performing posts are detailed below.
Some posts have been picked up and re-posted by readers on X or Facebook and the Tangent Golf review can also be found if you do a Google search for the Tangent App. I've also copied some posts into the MyGolfSpy Forum, and generated readership there, although forum rules don't allow me to provide a link to my blog. The L.A.B. DF3 review has been my most successful post on MGS, with over 21k views.
So where next for the blog?
The core will remain the same - my exploration of philosophy, how it impacts my life and how I see its practical application in golf. As readers, you are undoubtedly bombarded with other content and I don't want this to be another "me too" site. Keeping the content fresh is important if I want you to read it so the frequency of posts may slow down (certainly over the summer anyway). Also, while I don't want to be overly repetitive, there are topics I've read or thought more about since writing and want to re-explore.
Philosophy literally means the "love of wisdom". My exploration has been about finding guiding principles for life as I search for peace of mind, contentment and fulfilment. In particular, it has drawn me to Stoicism and the more I've looked into that, the more I believe I've unknowingly been a Stoic most of my life. The core virtues of Stoicism sit well with me and I like the concept of a compass to guide you through life rather than a map to lead you. The phrase Momento mori (remember you will die) encourages me to make the most of every day. Amor fati, to love and embrace your fate, reminds me that I can't change whats happened, but I can decide how to react. Philosophy doesn't improve my golf swing, but I hope it makes me a better person to spend time with on and off the course.
Within the blog, I've also tried to tackle some difficult and personal topics such as mental health and childhood cancer. I know these posts attract fewer readers, but I hope those who have read them were able to get some value from them. Thank you to those who contacted me (privately and publicly) about the content. I feel there is more to say about childhood cancer, but it remains an emotional subject and I still struggle to find the right words. Like the poetry, these more personal posts are less frequent, but I will keep them coming when I feel I have something to say.
As a golf geek, I would like to do more product and club fitting reviews, but I would need the help of a friendly retailer to let me try equipment with no intention of buying! It's also a crowded space and producing original content that can appeal to a wide audience is challenging. I've got a couple of ideas brewing there.
I self-fund the production of the blog and have never really thought about monetising the content. The only costs involved are WIX hosting charges and my time. There are other platforms out there (Substack and Medium) that would push me to a larger audience, but much of their content lies behind paywalls and subscriptions. I get a lot of content pushed at me from both platforms and haven't found much (any) that I want to pay for, so I'm happy to stay with WIX for the time being.
Thank You
Finally, a massive thank you to everyone who has read the blog and encouraged me to keep writing. If you've read all 100 posts then you are amazing and I really appreciate your support!
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