We often only see the finished product, not the messy journey behind it. That thought struck me while I was listening to an interview with the Swedish artist Per Gessle, best known for his work with the band Roxette. When asked about the key to success, he replied: “You have to dare, and you have to fail, and you have to make a fool of yourself, and you have to do terrible things to do good things.
We’ve all been there: the anticipation of something great, only to be met with disappointment. It’s easy to have high expectations in life. A much-anticipated sci-fi film, a dream trip promising fantastic experiences, a project we strongly believe in. Then reality doesn’t live up to those expectations. We become disappointed, and everything feels like a big failure. What if we lowered our expectations a bit? We can still look forward to things with joy and strive to realize our ideas, but our happiness and well-being don’t have to depend on the final result.
Lately, it’s struck me that I now prefer books, movies, and shows that feel real and take place more or less in modern times. I used to love animated films, fantasy, and stories with historical themes. But not so much anymore. Maybe it’s just a phase I’m going through. I don’t know. Still, I find it interesting. What shapes the different phases we go through in life? External circumstances? Inner insights?
I listened to an interview (it’s in English by a Swedish journalist) with the American songwriter and producer Desmond Child. He mentioned that he had used one of his creations in three different productions with three different artists: If You Were a Woman (And I Was a Man) – Bonnie Tyler You Give Love a Bad Name – Bon Jovi Kings & Queens – Ava Max Here’s a short audio clip with the intros back to back.
A while back, Ava kindly invited me to take part in her wonderful initiative, the Bear blog question challenge. You can read my answers here. Now that I’m on a new platform, I thought it would be fun and interesting to do a Micro.blog version of the same challenge. Below are Ava’s original questions, but with Bear swapped out for Micro.blog (and the tags part removed, since MB doesn’t use tags).
Today is Midsummer’s Day here in Sweden. Of all the holidays we celebrate, this might just be the biggest. Yes, even bigger than Christmas. This year, I spent it with my family in Åkersberga, the neighborhood where I grew up. It was a lovely day with great weather, lots of people, and of course, the iconic Midsummer pole. Part of the tradition involves decorating the pole with flowers and birch branches before raising it.
It’s been a couple of weeks since I moved my blog to Micro.blog, and it’s been a nice experience so far. I like the possibilities the platform provides without having to come up with half-baked workarounds. But, as with any platform, there are some things I miss. Here are some that first come to mind for me: Category Description I’d love to add some text to the categories I create. Nothing fancy, just a simple description with Markdown support.
My blogging workflow used to involve writing in Swedish and then translating it into English. I did it that way to make the writing process as smooth as possible. Today, I decided to try writing in English from scratch. It doesn’t feel natural, and it takes longer, but I want to give it a fair shot. Maybe it’ll help calm my recurring blogging overthinking (probably not). But the main reason for this change is that I think my writing will be more “true.
I’m dragging my feet when it comes to writing this post. Or rather, publishing it. Not because I find it embarrassing (well, okay, maybe a little). But mostly because I’ve touched on this topic so many times before that it’s starting to feel boringly repetitive. If you’ve followed my blogging for a while, you already know what it’s about: my ambivalence about blogging. On one hand, I love blogging. On the other hand, I never quite seem to figure out how I want to do it.
Today I spent the whole day working in the Swedish archipelago. A colleague and I traveled around by water taxi, visiting several fantastic islands of varying sizes. On days like this, it almost feels wrong to call it work. It feels more like a vacation. Beautiful weather, open water, stunning nature, and places that seem straight out of a fairytale. Of course, not every workday looks like this. There are only a handful like these each year, but I’m just as grateful every time.
One ongoing project for this new home of my blog is to move content over from my old platform—like I just did with the BlogBuddy shortcut. There’s quite a bit to go through, so it’ll probably take a while. I plan to bring over one or two posts every now and then; otherwise, it starts to feel unmanageable. This principle often applies to life in general. Some tasks feel overwhelming when we focus too much on the big picture.
I recently read the autobiography of one of Sweden’s most well-known actors, Mikael Persbrandt. Among other things, he talks about his deep interest in cars and motorcycles, and how he finds something meditative in tinkering with them. It’s his greatest passion in life, and he mentions that he believes having a hobby is important. I agree. Even if we have a job we love or think, “my work is my hobby,” I still believe it’s important to unwind with something entirely different.
There are many reasons why I love my job. One of them is all the amazing places I get to visit. I make up to seven customer visits a day, so that’s a lot of places – places I never would have set foot in if not for my job. Yesterday, I spent the entire day out in beautiful Värmdö. During lunch, I visited one of my favorite cafés there: Stavsnäs Hembageri.
You probably recognize the inspiration behind the title. Even though Voltaire coined the phrase, most people likely associate it with Spider-Man: With great power comes great responsibility. That quote came to mind as I was thinking about my new choice of platform for this blog. Micro.blog offers many useful and convenient features: photo albums, a book tracker, sharing bookmarks, a natural way to post status updates, and more…
I started the weekend with a visit to a burger joint in my neighborhood. I took a seat on the outdoor patio, feeling grateful that this time of year finally has arrived here in Sweden. It was almost full. When a group of friends couldn’t find a table, I offered them to sit at mine. Since I was alone, I couldn’t help but overhear their conversation. One of them told his friends he wasn’t feeling great.
There are so many things I love about my job inspecting houses. Getting to meet people in their homes every day, and visiting places I never could’ve dreamed of otherwise, is something I’m genuinely grateful for. Right now, as I’m writing this, I’m out in the beautiful archipelago, sitting at one of my favorite cafés—Stavsnäs Hembageri—enjoying a cup of coffee in between jobs. That kind of work bonus also aligns with one of my main interests: the web.
I visit up to seven places a day in my line of work. That adds up to a lot of driving. And with all that time on the road, there are plenty of moments when I think other people are driving like idiots. I’m sure plenty of drivers feel exactly the same way about me. It’s often said that people find it easier to list their flaws than their strengths. But so far, I’ve never heard anyone admit that driving might be one of their weak spots.
Those of you who’ve followed me for a while know that I like to collect useful links related to blogging and web design. Everything from handy guides and colorful patterns to inspiring articles and other reads that help spark creativity. I’ve now moved this extensive — and constantly growing — collection to my new blog here on Micro.blog. The page has also been updated with lots of fresh content. So without further ado, here’s the updated Blog Inspiration page.
The other day, I received an offer that sounded both fun and interesting. I started drafting a reply: “Absolutely, that sounds great! I’m looking forward…” Then I paused. Something didn’t feel quite right. I deleted the message and instead replied that I’d get back with an answer the next day. I let it go and slept on it. And when I woke up the next morning, I immediately knew what the right thing to do was: I politely turned down the offer.
We all feel disappointed, sad, hurt, or unfairly treated from time to time. When it’s something big, we speak up—if we can. We explain what we believe was wrong and why. Sometimes it gets resolved; other times, it doesn’t. Then there are the smaller things—the ones we don’t think are worth trying to change. These happen far more often than the big ones. A common “solution” is the age-old habit of talking behind people’s backs: