You've got to keep moving
The trap of standing still: and why your content can’t be a museum exhibit
Gary Bloomer | SHAKING THE TREE # 251
What’s the most dangerous place for any content creator?
It’s not obscurity, because obscurity is a motivator.
It’s not failure, because failure is a teacher.
No. The most dangerous place any content creator can find themselves in is being happy on the comfortable plateau of their past success.
I spent 28 years working in museums and by far and away the saddest thing I heard again and again in that filed was the refrain the nothing was going to change because “we’ve always done it this way”.
I get that a certain degree of comfort is nice to have. But it shouldn’t be at the expense of changing. Comfort is the spot where you found a formula that worked, where an idea stuck, and where you decided to pitch your tent of happiness because you’d made it. If you do this, you mistake a single victory for the end of the war.
This action … it’s the death of you as a content creator.
You see, the creation of content isn’t a static monument. No. Content is more like a shark. If it stops moving, it dies.
So here’s why you’ve got to keep moving.
1. Your audience is evolving (and leaving you behind)
The people who loved your LinkedIn strategy in 2021 are probably not the same people today. They’ve grown. Changed. They’ve been promoted. They’ve seen their industry get flipped upside down by COVID, by AI, and by tariffs. Their problems are more complex now than they’ve ever been and what worked in 2021 is now old news.
If you’re still serving up the same basic solutions to yesterday’s simple problems, you’re not a trusted guide anymore. You’re a nostalgia act.
You’re playing the greatest hits for a crowd that has already moved on to listen to new music.
Keeping moving means growing alongside your audience. It means having the conversations they’re having now, not the ones they were having two years ago. Your stagnation is a betrayal of their trust and belief.
2. The map expires the moment it’s drawn
That blog post that gets you a steady trickle of SEO traffic? The video format that went viral last year? They are not assets. They are liabilities, decaying assets.
The digital landscape is a tidal zone. What was solid ground yesterday is underwater today. Algorithms change. Trends shift. Interests peak and wane. New competitors emerge overnight, armed with new tools, fresh perspectives, and original voices. Clinging to a winning formula that’s old news is like navigating a modern city with a map from the 1985. You’ll probably recognize some of the landmarks, but you’ll be hopelessly lost.
Keeping moving means redrawing the map every single day. It means testing, experimenting, and accepting that what worked yesterday is merely data, not doctrine.
3. The person who wrote your best piece is already gone
This is the most personal reason. The you that wrote your most popular article—the one that put you on the map—is a previous version of you.
You’ve learned more. You’ve failed more. You’ve seen more. You’ve changed and grown. While it’s great to recycle your old material, it’s important to refresh it because to only create from the perspective of that past self is a form of creative death. It’s pretending you haven’t grown.
Your most valuable asset isn’t what you’ve already produced. No. That asset is your evolving, changing perspective. If you stop challenging your own beliefs, your content becomes a museum exhibit of your former thinking—interesting to tour once, but not a place anyone wants to live. I used to think i needed to post every day. Now I know that’s not necessary.
Keeping moving means honoring your current intelligence, not your past success. It means being willing to contradict your old self publicly because you’ve learned better.
What “keep moving” actually looks like
This isn’t about the frantic, burnout-inducing hustle. It’s about creating and sustaining intentional momentum. It’s about moving:
vertically: Don’t just write another “5 Tips” post. Go deeper. Write the “One Philosophical Reason the 5 Tips Actually Work.” Take your audience to a higher level of understanding.
laterally: Connect your niche to something unexpected. What does content strategy have to teach us about gardening? (Or vice versa) What does Robert Redford’s career teach us about personal branding? (Spoiler: a lot). New connections create new insights and new ways of looking at things.
inwardly: Share what you’re learning now, in real time. The struggle, the confusion, the half-formed hypothesis: it’s ALL valuable. It’s ALL worthy. This is where your vulnerability comes to the fore because it’s the antithesis of stagnant, polished content. It’s alive, real, and relatable.
upwardly: I believe it’s crucial to keep stretching, to keep reaching. It’s what defines us as human beings. It’s what drives us to want more. It’s what gets us up early and what keeps us up late at night.
The sooner you stop treating your content like a finished product and the sooner you begin treating it like a constant conversation, the more your voice will flow. The moment you stop adding your voice to it is the moment it becomes the drone of nonstop background noise.
The goal isn’t to find a spot and defend it.
The goal is to become and to remain interesting, relevant, and alive. And the only way to do that is to never, ever stop moving.
As always, thanks for reading.
—Gary
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P.S. If you found this useful, share it with another creator who needs an ego check (in a nice way). Want more unfiltered takes on content creation? Join my newsletter. No fluff, just the stuff that works.
Next time on Shaking the Tree: We’re all born to be creative
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Originally from the U.K., Gary Bloomer is a writer, branding advocate, marketing specialist, and an award-winning graphic designer.
His design work has been included in Creative Review (one of the UK’s largest design magazines). Since 2009, he has answered over 5,000 marketing and business questions in the Know-How Exchange of MarketingProfs.com, placing him among the top 3% of contributors. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.