Can you believe it’s been a year? I know I sound like a broken record by now. Between my one year anniversary, Winnie’s first birthday, and today marking my one year blogging anniversary it has been a year of firsts. Although they have all been great firsts it doesn’t change that they all came with lessons learned. They say you do better when you know better. That pretty much chalks up my year of firsts in one sentence.
Here are some of my biggest learnings:
- Have a ‘Why.’ I was going to make this learning “be yourself”, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. It’s too cliche, but also very, very relevant. If you aren’t setting an intention for what you’re putting out into the world then I can guarantee the world will not receive it well. Your mom will always read your blog, but unless you’re filling a need people have or sharing something unique that you bring to the table, there isn’t a point. You have to start with why what you’re sharing matters, then take action.
- Don’t keep up with the Jones’s. Set goals that are meaningful to you. If you look back at my blog cadence, I start off strong in the Spring, then completely let it go through July-September because I tried to keep up with the Jones’s. I wasn’t resonating with the work I was producing because it wasn’t my work. I was letting what everyone else did, affect me and my work.
- Focus on what you can control. I set unrealistic goals for myself and my blog and let my perceived failures paralyze me. Just because you get 20 views on your blog, doesn’t mean that you’re failing. You just need to fail smarter and smarter until you succeed. My biggest piece of advice is to set achievable, realistic goals and focus on how you get there (what you can control). Saying you want to be at 100,000 unique page views a month when you currently get 100 is un-realistic in the short term. Instead, focus on doubling that number to 200 a month by trying new ways to promote your blog. Then double that number and so forth and so on.
These 3 learnings are not just applicable to blogging. I use them as a filter for my professional career, my marriage, my friendships, and even my photography skills.