Read this before you delete that post.

Momentum over perfection.

Some weeks back, I wrote an article about limerence, and I poured out my heart. It felt good because people hide away this part of their lives from the public’s eye. After a few days, I opened my Substack and deleted the article; the article made me feel naked, like I had undone myself in public and was opening myself up to the criticism of everyone who would read the post. Let’s not even talk about the low engagement it got.

I forgot about the article until I was in a random conversation with my two friends from church, and one of them referenced my article, saying that she felt it deeply.

In that moment, I felt both gratitude and reassurance. Gratitude because, in uncovering myself through writing, someone felt seen, and reassurance because I felt seen in her compliment. The irony of the whole thing was that she didn’t even hit the like button on the post.

There’s something Salem King always says, and I paraphrase, “Never delete a post because of low engagement, you would never know who it might reach.”

I understand where Salem King is coming from, but I also understand that the internet is a very scary place where people can dig up tweets from 15 years ago that can destroy your career. The internet never forgets. And I see it almost every day when a cringy old video of a now-famous person starts recirculating again, and it’s still cringy.

I sometimes wonder why they didn’t delete the post before it went viral, but the truth is, it was probably the many cringy posts where people dared to be themselves that brought them the following and influence that they currently have.

Your craving for perfection might be the very thing stopping you from attaining visibility and influence. This is not to devalue excellence, but if you keep waiting till all your ducks are in a row, you might miss the wind. There are many people who started with what was in their hands, and God worked with what they had (at this point, this article is more for me than for anyone else).

I know many things could be obstacles, the post doesn’t have to be cringy. It could be the quality of the camera that you currently have, or the fact that you aren’t yet as articulate as you could be, or that you aren’t a master of your craft yet.

Whatever it might be that has you hovering your thumb over the delete button. Hold on, and think about the bigger picture. Ask yourself, in 5 years’ time, would this post be positively or negatively influential? If it were positively influential, let it be, let it be a part of your process. A track record that you kept pushing even if you only had a little to begin with.

So yes, don’t delete that post because of low engagement. Choose momentum over perfection.

Till next time,

Love and light.