Working on that comfort zone


Ugh… yeah, *that* comfort zone. The one everyone accuses me of being so stuck in? There’s a reason why it’s a comfort zone – it’s ridiculously UNcomfortable stepping out of it!

I’ve been working on a project for several months now that forces me to step outside my comfort zone and be someone else entirely. The internet sure is a great playground for that, huh? It’s not working so well for me though. I keep losing interest in the project, my anxiety levels are through the roof, I don’t have courage enough to promote it, I keep second guessing myself, and I keep absolutely chickening out when people DO comment on what I post. The biggest problem is that I don’t seem to be attracting the kind of people I wanted to attract to the site. So far I’ve only been able to attract the kind of people I’m mocking with the site. I was hoping to at least have a few people that saw things from MY point of view as well. I know I’ll get there eventually, but it’s quite difficult and scary for the time being.

I don’t know WHY I thought I could work with something that I knew would raise my anxiety levels. I have to keep reminding myself that this is the internet and I can be anyone I want my readers to think I am – even if that’s not in line with my normal beliefs. I’m not “real” in that respect. This is supposed to be for “fun” and to vent a little. Venting isn’t working as well as I would like and the fun hasn’t happened yet. It would help if I put more work into the project and promoted it – I just don’t know WHERE to promote the project. There isn’t a niche for this subject and tweeting at major news outlets/commenting on relevant stories hasn’t yielded any results yet. I just can’t seem to figure out how to reach an audience. Is the internet too overloaded with crap already??

I simply *have* to get over the hangups I have with the negative comments. Hello!? That IS the point of the subject matter. 60 views on a post and the only comments are saying it was a waste of time or calling me a whiny bitch. What else can I do but sharpen up the snarkiness and reply in kind? 😀 Interaction will be what’s important with this project, positive or negative.

If I can only get over this uneasiness…