Part of the journey that I’m on right now involves exploring and solidifying ideas I have around what’s really next in business. Not just the next shiny app, but the concepts and ideas that are going to be the watermarks of this seismic shift in the way we communicate and work.

I need to drive my writing into places it hasn’t been before, and head into more uncharted territory, at least for me. All these ideas aren’t fully baked yet, but I definitely know deep down that it’s the right direction for me to take.

It’s also forced me to make peace with something:

My blog might be a lot quieter.

Not because I’m going to stop writing – far from it. But perhaps because the things I want to write about might not be the same as they used to be.

Getting crunchier with posts, at least most of the time, will likely mean that they’re sometimes raw and unfinished. They’re not all going to be immediately actionable or instructive. Some might be really fluffy, some might end up dense as fruitcake. I’m hopeful that they’ll stir a bunch of thought for myself and for all of you that read, but they might not always be comment fodder. I suppose some of that depends on how they strike you, it’s certain not to be a rousing string of comments on the bane of Twitter auto DMs or the like.

I’m not likely to stay on the top rungs of the AdAge Power 150, or make a ton of awesome blog lists. I might not get thousands of retweets, or get interviewed on all the best blogs and podcasts, or grace the ranks in industry publications.

And I think I’m okay with all of this.

Once upon a time, I started writing this blog because I needed a place to think out loud as I’m wont to do.  And I want to do that again. I can honestly say that I never wrote for traffic or subscribers, because those simply weren’t my immediate goals, they were a happy by-product of putting effort into writing.

There is no question that the success of this blog helped me land work when I was a consultant, and secure speaking invitations, and the opportunity to write a book that was the start of a lot of the ideas I’m going to dig into more. All of these have impacted my career for the better without a doubt, and I am immensely grateful for all of them. I take none of that for granted.

But things have to change sometimes as our perspective does. And because I want to explore new and different things through my blogging, at least to me, there are bound to be tradeoffs. And only now, at this point in my career landscape, am I comfortable with what that might mean.

So, please forgive the very “me” focused tone of this post, but I’m writing it for a reason, because there’s something I want you to hear.

I am terrified.

I am at an exhilarating, overwhelming crossroads in my professional life – including this blog – that holds amazing opportunities of a thousand different kinds. I have no idea how I’ll fare with the vast new topics I want to tackle, or what voice I can lend to them. In my calmer moments, I am incredibly excited because I can feel the electricity around me, the sense that there are big shifts happening that I’ll look back on years from now and be able to point to as completely pivotal. In my weaker ones, I am petrified of failing.

And when you’re contemplating making a big change or taking on a bold new direction? It’s okay if you are too.

Change of any kind is scary. Staring it in the face takes courage, and choosing to do something different – whatever that means for you – takes more still, especially if that change might have consequences. But it’s important for me to tell you, as a very dear friend reminded me recently, that we’re all scared out here. We make like we aren’t. But we are, which means you’re not alone in that. Fear can tell you you’re onto something. And I know from experience that it can help to hear that fear isn’t something unique to you.

So, let’s take a deep breath. I know I might be trading some things in by taking my writing in some different directions, but I also know that something awesome and worthwhile is bound to come out the other side.

I hope you do, too.

Updated 1/3 for some clarity, since I had Mitch Joel thinking I wasn’t going to blog anymore. Whoops.