I hope these honest lessons I've learned as new blogger may help some of you...
1. Blogging is more work than you may think
Okay, so maybe I was a little naive in
thinking I would be able to cope with the world of blogging overnight. I mean,
you set up a blog, upload some content and have a jolly old time- how hard
could it be?! Actually, really quite hard at times. I have regularly fought
with HTML, photoshop and my own mind.
I have extreme amounts of love and respect
for every single blogger out there. You are all incredible! The work that goes
into creating, maintaining and keeping up with yourself in the world of
blogging, let alone others, is amazingly commendable. Although the work is
hard, the hours can be long and the photographs don’t always come out right, and though I have only been blogging for a short amount of time- I can vouch that it
is hella worth it!
2. Striving for perfection is bad for your health
Personally, I spent literally months
fighting anxiety, collecting content, editing pictures and thinking nothing was
“good enough”, until I made the decision to stop beating myself up striving
for perfection. Honestly, I'm not sure it actually exists. If you have a mind like mine, you will always be extremely critical of your work. It has been an uphill battle to get where I am now. The first step is always the hardest, but my advise would be to absolutely go for it, even if you don't think your content is "perfect". Be patient. Maybe don't even tell anyone about your blog for a while, practise doing it for yourself because for me- the more I wrote and the more photographs I took, the better I felt. Because doing something, is better than doing nothing. The lesson here is that if you want to
blog, bloody do it. Do it for you. Do it for your inner blogger that is dying
to come out. There are an infinite amount of bloggers out there, you deserve
your space as much as the next and allowing yourself to think that "you aren't good enough", is selling yourself so short.
3. So is comparison
This includes your style, your blog ideas, your instagram, or anything else that
you may be comparing. Speaking from experience, just stop it- it’s holding you
back! Mostly I assume, unless you are super confident, comparing yourself will probably lead
to negative thought patterns which will set you back and make you feel rubbish.
Try to retrain that beautiful brain of yours and take a different path of
thought. A couple of examples...
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| Image sourced from Pinterest |
Comparative thought- That is the prettiest
effin post I have ever seen. It is perfect. Perfect lighting and colour scheme.
That watch is to die for. Why do my images never come out like that?!!
New thought path- That’s a really strong image, I am loving this colour scheme!
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| Image sourced from Pinterest |
Comparative thought- Whenever I shoot my
clothes, I can never get decent lighting. That arrangement is super slick. I’ll
never be able to do that, meh.
New thought path- I am loving this monochrome vibe, I am going to pin the sh*t out of that.
4. Do not pressure yourself to post, no matter
what your aims are
Okay, so who is guilty for putting pressure on themselves to post? I know I definitely am. Over my brief period of blogging, at more than one point I got pretty caught up and anxious that I hadn’t posted as regularly as I wanted. This was usually because I was just super busy with other things. I felt as a new blogger that I needed to blog more to perhaps catch up, or prove my status in calling myself a "blogger". This was making me feel really pressured. In the end I decided to take a moment out to have a calm down and a rethink. Even if your aim is to make a living out of being a full time blogger, or even if you want to post two – three times a week, make sure you are taking some time out to live your life away from your blog. At least for me, putting pressure on myself took away that excitement. I get much better posts and a much better blogging experience if I am enjoying it. After all, that is why we started blogging, right?
Okay, so who is guilty for putting pressure on themselves to post? I know I definitely am. Over my brief period of blogging, at more than one point I got pretty caught up and anxious that I hadn’t posted as regularly as I wanted. This was usually because I was just super busy with other things. I felt as a new blogger that I needed to blog more to perhaps catch up, or prove my status in calling myself a "blogger". This was making me feel really pressured. In the end I decided to take a moment out to have a calm down and a rethink. Even if your aim is to make a living out of being a full time blogger, or even if you want to post two – three times a week, make sure you are taking some time out to live your life away from your blog. At least for me, putting pressure on myself took away that excitement. I get much better posts and a much better blogging experience if I am enjoying it. After all, that is why we started blogging, right?
5. Love what you do, because blogging stardom doesn't happen overnight
Whilst I have learned lessons since I
have started my blog, I truly believe it is all a part of the process and I am still due to learn 1000 more (at least). Hundreds of followers may not have flocked to my blog over night, but that is
super okay. It is okay because I am enjoying it so much and I think that is the ultimate key to being blog-happy!
That sums up my 5 lessons that I have learned as a new blogger! What lessons or anxieties have you overcome
since starting your blog?
All these are so true! You really have to be mindful of these things because they can ruin your experience.
ReplyDeleteFor sure! I'm glad I am not the only one thinking these thoughts! Thanks for the reading! xx
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