OK, deep breath. I knew it might have some ramifications, but didn’t expect THAT!

Photo By Vladimir Fedotov via StockPholio.com

How It Started

Last week I put together a blog post and had my lovely bride check it out before I scheduled it for publication. She does this often now, looking for obvious errors, confirming it makes sense and giving me feedback on the content. After she finished I asked her what she thought and her response was, “It’s a good post.”

What Happened Next

The post was actually released at 5 am (as is typical) on a Monday but between a combination of Buffer (my go to social media sharing tool) and a bit of manual work it went live in my usual locations just after 8 am Central. I checked the stats a bit later and an odd thing happened, it only showed one visitor but there were WAY too many views to be one person. Then it righted itself and the numbers started climbing for both views and visitors. I mean REALLY climbing. That single post became the most viewed post ever at HappierHusband.com. In fact that one post brought in more traffic than four of the previous five months worth of traffic combined. It was HUGE!

Why All of the Excitement?

In case you missed it the post was titled Why I Won’t Listen to this Song. Feel free to check it out if you like. Why was it such a big deal? I believe there were two reasons. 1)  The title was a strong draw and 2) It was a polarizing topic. I’m not going to go back over the details of the post, that’s why it is linked above.

I had no idea the amount of traffic the post would generate. But even more interesting were the comments. Some on my private Facebook page, others in Facebook groups where the link was posted and some directly on the blog itself. Although a few comments were middle of the road the rest were either very supportive or very against. VERY, VERY against.

What Went Wrong?

I still believe what I wrote in that post and I think comments on both sides have merit. But here is what went wrong. I became too engaged in trying to defend my position. I let myself get sucked into the debate. On what should have been a fantastic day for HappierHusband (due to the amazing traffic spike) I found myself battling other people of faith over a blog post. Far too much emotional energy was spent in trying to convince the detractors.

What are the Lessons?

1) When you declare your opinion (even when backed with Scripture) others will often differ with you. We all have our own thoughts…and that’s OK. If the difference is from strangers and shared via social media then just let it go. You don’t know them and they don’t know you. Save yourself the emotional anguish.

2) Sometimes the people who disagree are close friends. That’s OK too. If all of my friends always agreed with me then I’d lose an important avenue of growth.

3) If this is something you believe in then don’t back down! But in the same way don’t try to push your opinion on those who don’t share it. Everyone has value.

4) Be kind and loving with everyone, who knows, you may turn a detractor into a friend (which happened in one case :-)).

Love you all!

-Troy