Thoughts on overthinking my Substack
Trying to create without getting stuck in my head
Every three months I get this deep desire to change things. Maybe I should switch up my brand colors? Or go in a different direction with my content? Or why not just start something totally new?!
I never really realized how often this happened until recently. I was making a list of topic ideas for my Substack posts. Like any creator, I like to keep a backlog of ideas for when I’m not feeling very creative or nothing comes to mind when it’s time to write.
I started jotting down the ideas when my brain went like 💡!!! I thought, “how can I make my content stand out? How can I make it different? I need topics and content that is interesting, more introspective, exciting…”
As soon as my brain started down that path and I started adding topic ideas to the list that fit my new random guidelines I literally stopped and went, “huh, I do this all the time.”
I realized that a) I constantly come up with new ideas, new plans, new content, and so on that doesn’t actually help my overall goals (talk about self sabotage!!), and b) I’m super overthinking my Substack!!
But why though?
In the past I have compared myself to so many other people on social media. Especially Instagram. I’ve never been able to make anything of any Instagram account I’ve ever had. No matter what I did, what I posted, how much I posted… I just didn’t have whatever was needed for the Instagram Gods lol. So I would spend a lot of time looking at others who did have “it” and ask myself what I was missing.
To this day I still don’t really know but I have stopped caring. The part of me that felt like I needed to fit in and be a certain way online is gone.
Or, so I thought!
Those same feelings of comparison and my deep seated need to figure out what I’m missing has kind of come back since deciding I want to grow my Substack. I’ve spent too long comparing myself to successful creators and seeing what they post, when they post it, how often, and how they show up on notes. It’s taken that easy flow of just posting what feels right to overthinking everything and needing it to fit into a greater strategy.
And let me tell you, it’s a very easy mountain to fall down because Substack is full of great writers and interesting people. Looking around it’s not hard to feel like compared to these people, I have nothing to share and what I do share is not good enough. I don’t always write the perfect words or phrases, I’m not an English major, or doing something super cool that everyone wants to know about. I’m just a girl in my 30s who likes to write content that falls within the lifestyle/cozy living kind of category. Maybe thats kind of boring? Or over done? But that doesn’t change the fact that that is me.
I forced myself to take a step back and really think about what my goal is. I realized that my goal here doesn’t involve being the best writer out there. It doesn’t involve being the most interesting person in the room. I don’t need to have the deepest thoughts. I don’t even need to be totally different and unique.
I realized that I just need to be myself and be honest. Something I have noticed on Substack from my own personal experience is that people value honesty.
I realized that I am overthinking everything. When I look back at my Substack content some of my most popular posts are the ones I wrote for fun. A list, a thought that turned into a ramble, something I’m struggling with. It wasn’t the super curated content that people felt seen by. It was just the day to day, real life, real thoughts from a real person type of content.
And if I’m being even more honest, when I come onto Substack to read content I typically don’t go for the super deep and meaningful articles on the human experience. I don’t always click on the “how to” articles. I’m much more likely to read something like “things that happened at the grocery store that embarrassed me.” Super random but also, I want to know!!!
Some people want to escape for a bit and may not want to read something intellectual or highly involved. Those are my people!
So when August rolls around and I start getting that itch to change things or even change me, I will remind myself that I’m right where I belong and to stop overthinking it. Honesty is the best policy and that includes me being honest to myself!
For you, the reader, this is a reminder to do what you want to do and not let other people change you. The world wants to hear YOUR story. Not a recycled version of someone else’s. And ultimately, there isn’t a right or wrong way to do this. Just write and enjoy the process. I’ll be right there with you 💖
Until next time,
Deanna
👋🏼 P.S. you can also find me on: Life by Deanna, IG, Threads, + Facebook!
That “every few months I need to change everything” feeling? It’s usually not actually about your brand or your content. It’s more like this internal itch that says, “if I just tweak it enough, I’ll finally feel like I’m doing it right.” So you start rearranging instead of just… continuing.
But you already clocked something important: your best posts aren’t the ones you engineered. They’re the ones you just wrote. The grocery store thoughts, the rambles, the honest little life moments. Not the “perfect strategy post,” but the human one. And honestly, people don’t stick around for perfection anyway. They stick around for voice. Consistency of you, not consistency of format. From a Christian perspective, there’s something grounding here too. That constant urge to reinvent can sneak in as restlessness—like you’re always trying to “arrive” at the version of you that finally feels enough. But you’re not really meant to keep remaking yourself to be acceptable. You’re already allowed to just be faithful in what’s in front of you right now, even if it feels ordinary or not “optimized.”
Authenticity is the ticket!! This over thinking piece is perfectly paired with the lifestyle you are building for yourself !