Author: Karac Avalron

I was born on a holiday in February, ground hogs day ! What? Its on the calendar every year how is it not a holiday?
Dressing to feel good !

MY BLOGGING REALITY – PART 3

Posted on by Karac Avalron

So, it’s been months since I regularly updated this blog. Summer 2023 for me was a travel period. I went to Las Vegas, Virginia and an unexpected trip to Montreal. Two of these trips were family vacations and the rule we have is we leave our online lives behind. There was little opportunity to blog to be blunt and the trip to Montréal was to visit a friend and help them with a professional issue they were having. The first half of July I just kind of kept my head down.

So, my blogging reality has been mapped out for you in the last 2 blog posts prior. To be honest most of what I said there is still largely true. The months off haven’t provided me with any reset or refresh. Meaning I find myself in the same situation I did in May, after 5 years of blogging I am finding it hard not to repeat myself on subjects I have already covered. I would love to profess that I have some remarkable new angle or amazing new content to offer but I simply don’t.

My life for the most part is very much the same as it was 3 years ago when this blog was peaking. Now I want to shift to the positive for a bit, this break and reality check that I have done over the last few months doesn’t mean the end of the blog. It does mean that I will be posting less and its likely to mean that I will be posting on more topics. The one take away I have gotten from my time off is I can’t focus on one niche topic to propel the blog into a high subscription total.

The truth is, if you want a high subscription blog with lots of clicks and high traffic you have to find a niche to blog about. Kite’s, Mazda Miata’s, Civil War stories…. You really need to capture an audience that wants to consume your specific content. You aren’t as important as the content you produce a harsh reality for any new blogger. So, your choices are limited if you don’t focus on a niche. What you are left with is subscribers and traffic who are interested in what you have to say. They are here for YOU first, the content second.

This is perhaps the hardest type of blog to pull off. It is where I am at because there is not one subject that interests me more than another. I don’t have a niche; I suppose I am the niche and those who want to see what I have to say next are truly unique blog readers. I am not sure what else to say here other than there will be more blog posts coming. I don’t know what they will be about or if anyone will actually care but I have invested too much time into my blog to just let it die.

If you made it this far, thank you so much for supporting my blog and content. I really appreciate it and I will see you soon with a more targeted post that is not centered around the health and viability of the blog.

Karac.  

MY BLOGGING REALITY – PART 2

Posted on by Karac Avalron


So the last post I made I revealed that in my 5th year of blogging I am not achieving the goals I set for myself here. I want to be clear that the blog IS successful, just not by my personal measure. When you create content you have to evolve and or be very realistic about how your content sits with the customer (that is you reader). So what the analytics tell me is, once the pandemic ended less of you come here, and less of you engage with the content.


This happened in 2021, I saw the trend and shifted to a more broader content offering. That had some successes. Here is a list of the subjects I post on:
o Anxiety
o Over 50 exercise
o Advice for Men
o Finance
o Some politics
Anxiety tanked for me after the pandemic. I was getting great views and traffic through early 2021, then it fell off. Could be my content, could be people didn’t want to read anxiety pieces any more, could be people went back to work. I don’t know but that is the reality. Its never recovered


Over 50 exercise great interaction but its fitness, so to be candid I suspect a decent % of the interaction was botting. I know that’s not a term you should throw around lightly but I looked at some of the people who liked that content and in some cases it lead me down a rabbit hole, lets leave it at that. So yes it was popular but it’s a small part of my life. I cant devout a blog to it exclusively I just don’t have the content for it.


Advice for Men – This was hit or miss. Some pieces did very well others were utter disasters. This type of content can be divisive and to be blunt to really gain traction in this space you have to be vitriolic. That’s not where I am at mentally, I am not going to yell at men and Im not going to blame women. I found good middle ground on my advice for men but honestly people don’t want that. They want drama, MGTOW and cheating stories. Those get clicks, I don’t have those stories.


Finance and politics we can lump into one group here. They were mediocre given the time it takes to produce the pieces. Anyone can come on a blog and say “Buy this stock” but to have credibility you need to have citation and or good knowledge. I have degree’s in finance and accounting, I have been in finance for decades but saying that doesn’t make people believe you and I am unwilling to expose personal details.


So those categories comprise the main areas I wrote about. I excluded one HUGE area of my life and that is gaming. Yes I am a gamer, it’s a hobby I have had for decades and will continue until I die. I have a gaming channel on you tube that was started AFTER this blog. Each served a part of my creativity that was important to me and I kept them separated. I also did not post much about my family life. I have been married for 25 years, I have kids, dogs, houses I’ve got a lot going on.


So as I look to the next iteration of “A Gen X Point of View” I have some serious choices to make here. I cant sustain the posting cadence of 3 pieces a week, Im out of things to say frankly. This is more then writers block this is literally me looking back at 700 blog posts and wondering “have I already said this?”


In the next post I will explore some of the possibilities I see for the blog. I will also discuss the other posting category on my channel “Wisdom from the Past” which I didn’t cover here.


If you got this far, thanks again for supporting my blog as I work through these issues. I really appreciate it.

My Blogging Reality – Part 1

Posted on by Karac Avalron


To cut to the chase this blog has to evolve to its next iteration. I am in year 5 of this endeavor and to be blunt it has not gone as well as I had hoped. Now to be clear, what that means is I set goals for myself when I started this. I think it is important to have goals when you start an endeavor; it is a framework in which to operate. Don’t read this wrong, I have had many successes with this blog but in the end my objectives aren’t being met.
So when I started, I adopted the correct approach to creating online content – I focused on a niche – Anxiety. I have anxiety it is something that I am passionate about but I dedicated the blog exclusively to it and it did well, then the pandemic hit and it did even better. However, my interests were not exclusive to Anxiety and committing to creating 3 pieces a week, I needed to post about other things.


The second iteration of the blog came about, I started to post about things that interested ME, not necessarily the reader. This often only works if you have a large core audience, essentially you are asking people to become interested in you the creator not the content exclusively. This is a big ask, UNLESS you have tens of thousands of subs, at 300-500 meh.
Now in terms of metrics I scaled with other creators. As an example, I am subbed to some bloggers who have 30K subscribers but muster maybe 200 likes a post. At 600 subscribers, I muster 5 likes a post. In comparison my audience is more engaged but it’s not just about audience engagement. There are other factors at play here, 2 specifically.


FIRST: Are people actually reading the posts? SECOND: Do have the ability to continue to create at the pace I am. In both cases, the answer declined over time. Each year has seen less people actually reading this blog and me running out of things to post about. I mean 3 posts a week, how many times can I talk about my workouts or anxiety without this becoming a vlog?


So here we are in year 5 of the blog. The goal for the end of year 5 was a few thousand subs (I was hoping for 2500). A steady readership of 10% – 25% per post ( % of subscribers) and more interaction to inspire more posting. Its did not happen. This is not a plea or a criticism of those subscribed, it is a reality check. So now I find myself nearing the end of the 5 year plan. Had I achieved the goals I set out I was going to create a website and do much more branding and employ outside help to propel the blog further.


It appears that isn’t going to happen, so I am in the process of reimagining what I want to do here. That is the current journey of this blog and where I am at. May is a month where I will be traveling a lot, and it will bleed into June. The posts will likely be sporadic but by the end of June, the next iteration of the blog will be in place, whatever that is.


For those of you who read regularly I truly thank you. I will post another update soon.

Once more into the breach – U.S. Politics

Posted on by Karac Avalron

So I am going to try to keep this short but I want to be clear I will be ranting slightly. Biden has announced his bid for reelection and as many of you know Trump is running as well. So once again the U.S. voters have a choice between bad choice A or bad choice B. I am not interested in arguing the pros and cons of either, I have heard it all. From mean tweets to cognitive decline on and on and on and on. So we are going to get another round of this B.S. it’s been over a decade now.

In the U.S. the 2 party system has largely failed. We are in extreme debt, beholden to antiquated international organizations that have little to no benefit for the American people. The 2 parties have created a polarized citizenry that is at each other’s throats. There is no middle ground anymore and the fault for this isn’t exclusive to one party or the other they are both culpable.

You see this is how they stay in power. They pit you against the other side you are compelled to vote not because you believe in the candidate or that they will do a good job, but because you cannot allow the other side to win. U.S. voters go along with this decade after decade stuck in a fog of apathy that is undermining our social constructs and keeping us entangled in global institutions set up after WWII, nearly 80 years ago.

Vote
Regardless of who you vote for, please vote !

What we need is viable 3rd, 4th, 5th parties that consume parts of the voting bloc. As many of you know I am a libertarian but as the largest 3rd party in the U.S. we can, at best, command 3% of the vote in any given election cycle. My hope is that will change in my lifetime. I would like to see a viable green party, a constitutional party, a more robust libertarian party. This would finally break the strangle hold of the 2 party system that is driving the U.S. into the dirt.

Not in 2024 sadly, we get more of the same. Horrible choice A, or Horrible choice B and the loser here will be the American people. More division, more anger, more resentment and the hole we are in gets deeper. Maybe this will be the year you break the cycle? Maybe this year instead of voting for a democrat or republican you start supporting other candidates.

Thank you for coming by and supporting my blog I really appreciate it. Want to see another post like this one? Click here.

The concept of Hanlons razor

Posted on by Karac Avalron

“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.”  

hanlon’s razor is an aphorism that is very hard to remember but its so true. You could replace “stupidity” with “ignorance” but the net bottom line here is you can’t always assume the intentions of others are a result of I’ll intent.

Simply put, some people say things and do things that impact you negatively and they don’t understand they are doing it. As people with Anxiety this situation probably happens to us more so then others. I know I have had people say things to me that have really bothered me . I internalized it like so many of us do and it flavored how I interacted with those people and what I thought of them going forward.

Now there are cases, actually many, in which people do say things and do things from a place of malice. These are disturbed and or just extremely toxic people. I work tirelessly (as tirelessly as I can) to rid myself of such people. Sometimes though you can’t escape them. A toxic family member, a horrible boss they are everywhere.

However, most people are not tuned into mental health issues. Moreover, they are not in tune to the nuances, depths that vary person to person, and the current scope of the issue. This is where hanlon’s razor theory is very important. If we assume that people are coming from a place of malice, we eliminate opportunities to educate first, and perhaps gain allies.

Let me be clear, as many of us who suffer with mental health issues (regardless of scale) it is not our job to educate people. That said it should be our endeavor to not assume those who impact us negatively are doing so with malice. Remember halon’s razor, it may very well be that the person is unaware or suffering themselves. I don’t encourage anyone to go beyond their comfort levels but at the end of the day we all have to find away to exist and hopefully thrive in the world.

Sometimes extending the benefit of the doubt can net you positive outcomes. Hang in there, one day at a time, you are doing awesome.  

Finance Tip: The secret weapon to starting a new business.

Posted on by Karac Avalron

This isn’t going to be a long post but let me be clear there is a lot of nuance that goes into starting a business. There are a couple of key components though that you will not get from places like fidelity, Forbes, your financial advisor etc. Now this may seem like common sense but you would be surprised at how many small businesses fail because people follow their passions and do not think deeply about the concept highlighted below.

Do things for people who no longer want to do those things and have the money to pay someone else to do it.

A very simple example of this is cleaning the house. When many people get older or get to a point where they have disposable income, they seek to purchase time. Purchasing time simply means you pay people to do things that you no longer want to do so you can do something else. These are not complex financial concepts here. This isn’t something you need to pay a finance professional for either. It’s rather simple really and if you can do this the likelihood of you having a successful business is high.

If what you are selling gives people more time to do what they want = income.

Can you provide a good or a service for someone that they would have to do themselves but they no longer want to do it?

That is the secret weapon. If you start a business with that premise, you will likely find yourself in a situation where you can derive a good income. The jobs won’t be glamourous of course, from landscaping to house cleaning to dog walking to grocery shopping. This is a luxury purchase really but it can be scaled. Think about the businesses in your area and the services they need that they may not want to do. As an example that small house washing business who is doing something the homeowner doesn’t want to do, might not want to do their own booking keeping.

This is different from the old concept of “solving a problem” for people or businesses which is a good way to start as business as well but relies completely on the notion that the entity you want to work for can’t do it themselves. The secret I am giving you now is very lucrative, it’s doing something for other people they do not want to do.

You can make a nice living doing this, because let’s face it everyone has something in their life they simply don’t want to do.

Thank you for coming by and supporting my blog. Want to see another post like this one? Click here.  

How I stay in shape over 50: A new Spring Jump Start

Posted on by Karac Avalron

So spring is here, in my world in my small town in New England we are looking at mid 70’s today. It will be back in the 50’s this weekend which is par for the course but spring is here. So during the pandemic I got myself in very good shape, dropped nearly 30 pounds and refocused my training back to strength.

I’ve learned a few lessons along the way and one of the most important things I have learned in my now near 40 year fitness journey is changing workouts regularly is highly beneficial for making progress. Some say you never do the same work out twice, I don’t subscribe to that but I do stagger workouts. Meaning I will do a routine for 6-8 weeks then shift to something else. It’s worked well for me.

Now for many, spring is a time when you kick start your workouts. Some people walk more, some start taking yoga classes, work in the yard etc. If you want a quick jump-start to your fitness journey this spring I have a quick and easy plan for you to achieve it. You should continue to do more low impact movement (get your steps in) but the jump-start is every 48 hours do squats for the next 6 weeks.

Squats
Don’t Skip Leg Day !

Start with a lightweight and do 5 sets of 5 reps. If you complete the 25 reps, you increase the weight 10 pounds. Do this every 48 hours, if you are too sore one of the days skip that 48-hour cycle but you only get 2 of these so pick wisely. So you do this for 2 weeks and on the next 48 hour cycle you are too sore, sick whatever, you act as if you did the squats so you don’t work out again for another 48 hours. This gives you a 96 hour (4 day) recovery window should you need it.

Do this for six weeks, and do not start with a silly super lightweight either. Pick something you know you can handle but will be a moderate challenge. In 6 weeks, you should see some decent results. Your cardio should be better, your legs should look better and your confidence should be higher.

Squats when done with a moderate to heavy weight engage several of your “systems” and inspire great anabolic effects. Keep eating the best food you can and getting as much sleep as your lifestyle will allow. If you start this now you should be done by Memorial Day and you should feel great!

Thanks for coming by and supporting my blog I really appreciate it. Want to see another post like this one? Click here.

Someday isn’t on the calendar

Posted on by Karac Avalron

There are many holidays on the calendar. Most of them we just let pass without much fanfare. Groundhogs day, Flag Day, Super Tuesday, Evacuation day, Arbor day and many state and local holidays. One holiday “Someday” isn’t on the calendar.

How many times have you referred to “someday” in your life or your private thoughts? What day did you mean exactly? Next March? Two weeks from now? Someday is cop out really. The value of time cannot be measured. If you find yourself referring to “someday” more and more it might mean you aren’t doing the things you really want to.

The next time you say to yourself “someday” actually give it a date. “Someday I will go to Ireland”. When exactly? By putting a date to your “somedays” you begin to eliminate this mindset completely from your life. You begin to do the things you want to do, pushing out things that have lesser value, to you.

Remember, the most valuable commodity on the planet is time. It doesn’t care about your gender, race, religion, ethnicity or age. You have a limited amount of it and you should be tasked to do the things you want to do within the time you have.

Someday isn’t on your calendar, maybe it should be.

Interested in more posts like this one? Check out my blog post here

Oscar Wilde

Wisdom from the past:“Punctuality is the thief of time.” – Oscar Wilde, From -The Picture of Dorian Gray-

Posted on by Karac Avalron

Once again we harken back to the past to pull out some wisdom on the value of time. As I have said in posts before here Time is the most valuable commodity on the planet. No one knows how much time they have been allotted. Your race, religion, gender, sexuality, aren’t relevant to time, it doesn’t care. How you spend your time is of course the trick isn’t it? How do we spend more time doing what we want, instead of spending time doing things we would rather not be doing?

There are of course many avenues to pursue to achieve the aim of maximizing your time. No one can really tell you the path to take, only you know what it is you truly enjoy doing. The quote from Wilde above is a little misleading. It is after all Oscar Wilde so we have to take his wit in historical context. If you don’t know who Oscar Wilde is, check out this site

What I glean from his quote is that when you invest effort in someone else, like being punctual because someone is waiting for you, you sacrifice your own time that you could spend on doing something else. That something else can be anything really. Yes that includes dressing up as one of your favorite movie characters !

The point here is creating opportunities to spend your time the way you want to should never be taken for granted. Meetings, appointments, deadlines… Are they all necessary? Are you beholden to a regimen of time management that benefits other people?

Look at how you are choosing to allocate your time. Take a week and write out how many hours during that week did you exchange your time for someone else. Work, chores, you name it put it on the list. Of course if you do that, you’ll be exchanging your time to accommodate someone else’s request, mine.

Please be punctual….