There’s a line in the movie Legends of the Fall in which the Colonel’s companion Stab talks about how the Colonel wanted to “lose the madness over the mountains”. There’s always been something about those words that strikes a chord with me when they come to mind.

I think we all go through phases where we get hyper-focused on events or mentalities that aren’t necessarily good for us… like worrying too much about what others think, or what so-and-so is doing, etc. Losing the madness is something we all need to do from time to time, and that’s exactly why it’s been quiet on this blog the past two months or so.

Everyone has been rushing the premium theme set, and I think it overwhelmed me. Not that competition bothers me – in fact just the opposite. Competition normally spurs me to learn more, be better. I really admire some of the premiums that have come out recently, and even referred some readers to a few of them. But I fell into the trap of thinking my work couldn’t compare, or didn’t have value… and it sunk me.

I needed to mentally check out for a while. In doing so, something became very clear – I don’t really give a damn anymore who’s releasing a new theme, who’s starting a new endeavor, who’s the cleverest marketeer, the most talented developer, or who’s a “front-runner” in the WordPress community.

For a long time I’ve felt like I needed to watch what I said for fear of upsetting someone or burning a bridge, bla bla bla. I’m not going to subscribe to that that line of thinking anymore. Nor do I care if anyone thinks my themes don’t “fit the mold”. If every theme were structured the same way, with all the same components, we’d all only ever use one! Pass, thank you.

As for the state of the WP premium market – YAWN. The constant debates, questioning, predictions, and bickering (see comments) is exhausting and serves no purpose. For a community who’s supposedly so friendly, it’s become very cutthroat! For that reason I’ve refrained from commenting on any of it. If the market saturates or dies, there’s nothing any of us can do about it anyway!

Rather than try to keep up with the noise, I think I’ll draw my own conclusions and use my own reasoning when building themes – and I’ll have fun doing it. Isn’t that why most of us got involved to begin with? Because it was FUN!?

Sure earning money for the time and effort that goes into our craft is important (and shame on those who would begrudge it), but it’s not everything! Cornerstone has done well enough to satisfy me, and I’m my own worst critic. I don’t measure my success against someone else’s numbers. What’s more important to me is improving upon myself and my themes.

With that, it’s time to get back to good (from an old Matchbox Twenty song). For me, that means being productive and just feeling saftisfied with how I spend the hours. The idea for a new theme has stemmed, and  Solidarity is on the horizon. Cheers, rant concluded.