A year ago today I launched Down Write Honest. I had a specific goal in mind, a very unhealthy and specific goal: spew my garbage to all who would read (listen) under the auspicious that I was being “honest”. There was no format for what I was going to write except that I was going to be as honest as I could be. I was going to be down right honest even if it stepped on toes or offended people. . .
. . . That might just be the dumbest idea I ever had.
After two or three posts I had offended people, ruined relationships and almost lost my job. It was time to re-think what I wanted to do. But how can you be brutally honest without offending someone? Truth be told, you can’t. Does that mean I have to dumb down my honesty? No. It just means that I have to change the way that I approach things.
Here are a few steps I took:
1. Instead of posting out of emotion. I would write a post, sit on it for two days and then re-read it. If it was good to go, then I would hit publish.
2. Instead of attacking a person or problem I tried to offer solutions.
3. Instead of writing “whoa is me” I tried to write about the great things others were doing.
To be honest, I haven’t done a great job about writing honestly about the great things others are doing. I want to commit to doing that more in sophomore year of DWH. I know this blog has not followed the rules. I haven’t listened to the leadership of Michael Hyatt or the advice of Seth Godin. I have just been writing. Sometimes it connects with everyone and sometime it connects with no one. But when all is said and done I have written well over 150 posts but deleted or unpublished 50 of them. Sometimes it takes a while to find your identity. This blog is still searching for it’s own identity.
As I continue to fumble around and figure out what exactly it means to be down right honest I wanted to thank all of you. I am so grateful to the thousands of individuals who have stopped by this blog and read my various rantings and meanderings. It means a lot to me both personally and professionally to have you all commenting, listening, emailing and interacting. My prayer is that over the next year the DWH website will become more of a family and a community.
As a way of celebrating the first year of Down Write Honest I have some GIVEAWAYS: 3 books (I manage a bookstore what can I say!) I am going to be giving away:
Primal by Mark Batterson
Guerrilla Lovers by Vince Antonucci
A Million Miles in A Thousand Years by Donald Miller
How do you win? Leave a comment on any post in the archive or over the course of the next and you will be entered. Depending on the number of comments I will use a random generator to select five people to receive the books. If only 3 people comment well then 3 of you win! 
Here’s to a great freshmen year! I am excited to see what happens during the next 12 months!
