A Reflection Piece For 2019, And A Newsflash

Happy New Year! That grabbed your attention, didn’t it? Newsflash! Yes indeed there will be one. But before that, I think it’s high time to put a reflection piece, as it’s been a while since I last wrote one. Since it’s a new year, I’ll put up a reflection because I’m not usually one for resolutions.

First up – let’s get the newsflash out of the way. In a sense its bad news, but it doesn’t have to be. Now, since 2015, we have been posting about three or four articles a week – that is our average. We have seen the support grown, both with the number of supporters as well as the analytics from Google.

While we are heartened by that, the reality of writing a blog and the place we are at life means that it is unsustainable to be posting that often – especially with posts that have original content. As such, we will be reducing the frequency of our posts. It will be a bit more sporadic, and we will try to have at least one per week. Fair?

Now, we’re not trying to be mean – really. We’re just keeping it real for everyone peoples. Maintaining a blog without the machinery of a corporation or marketing company takes a lot of time, effort and energy. If you are a blogger, you already know this. And time is of the essence.

Another major change is that we will go all out into our existing base, and tap into others, for more guest posts and articles. This will further ease the burden on us, since researching and writing articles can take ages. But what we will continue to do is a quality control of the articles we share. We will make sure we will source them ethically, and just as importantly – legally. And that the content will still be good and useful.

So why the sudden change? This is the time to be honest. Both of us have decided to focus on other online business pursuits – that’s why. One only has so many hours in the day, and neither one of us are doing this full-time. If might not be pleasant to break such news, but we have to be real about it. More on that later.

So what do we know from the blog now as it stands? Firstly, it already has many articles – yay! We do have a strong fanbase, and have seen a couple of people, especially those who grabbed a copy of our books, make the transition from initially being unfit, to be in reasonable shape. Of course, we don’t expect them to come out looking like ninja warriors, but at least be healthy. Same applies to our team too, truth be told!

Let’s move on to the actual reflection bit, where we pour our heart out with truth and transparency. The first thing we learnt throughout these four years is that following our passion is a great thing, but we have to be practical about it. As mentioned earlier, I (Mark) have a full-time job helping distressed students. And the other partner Atanas has a family to raise.

As such, we cannot devote all of our time to this operation. It has helped us financially, but all of it came from the heart – it is not sustainable as a full-time job. Are we saying that it is impossible to blog full-time? No, of course not! It’s a matter of “go hard or go home”. Both of us like fitness, but we don’t love it to the extent that we are riding everything off the adverts from this blog.

And this brings me to the next point – if you want to continue enjoying something, have it as a hobby unless you really really love it. Let it consume you and then the “follow your heart” mantra will have some truth to it.

The next thing we learnt was that we can’t please everyone. The basic info for a physically healthy life seems so simple and idiotproof – eat healthily, exercise enough, get enough rest, don’t be slave to drugs, alcohol, smoking etc. But apart from that, doctrine can really go into detail, as you have noticed in the blog.

Another sad truth, when it comes to doctrines, is that you really can’t please everyone. This is not only to do with fitness. Health is often part of a holistic system. This is why we have diversified, and this is why we have consulted others – because we simply aren’t experts at everything. That being said, it taught us how to approach and collaborate with experts in specific health issues.

Next up, we can’t hold our tongues in leash anymore and not expose this nugget of truth – the truth that there is a lot of “crap” out there, pardon my French. There are so many “fitness enthusiasts” out there who are only after your money. Their main objective is to squeeze as much money from readers as possible. We’ve had bad run-ins with them.

But there is a Chinese saying that “paper can’t cover fire”. The truth always comes out in the end. And we hope you are convinced that we are the “real McCoy” and aren’t doing this for the wrong reasons.

One last point – this project has made us more open-minded in some ways. We’ll cite one example. In the beginning, we were dead against Multi Level Marketing (MLM) products – period! We were convinced all of it are bad. We have now come to the position where we are still in condemnation of their lack of ethics and methods, but concede that some of their products are actually good and can be effective. So yes, we have eaten a piece of humble pie too.

Alrighty then, the final word is that both Atanas and I are proud of what the Granite Fitness Blog has become today. Thank you everyone for supporting us in this project, and for grabbing the products that we recommend at the end of each post. While we won’t be publishing as much content, we urge you to continue following us. Hope you enjoyed your New Year, and we’ll chat again soon.