My Biggest Blogging Mistake – Celebrating My Blog’s 1st Birthday

Today marks the 1st birthday of this blog and I thought it was important to talk to you about my biggest mistake since blogging. One encase you are a blogger so you can avoid falling into this trap and secondly because even if you aren’t a blogger, this is something we can all learn from.

First off I think it’s fair to say I didn’t really start my blog with any hopes for it. Truthfully with my grammar struggles, I started with no expectations. After all, who’d wanna read the ramblings of a woman who can’t write properly?

The blog was simply just a platform to promote my YouTube videos (YouTube was the dream, but the blog became more successful).

It simply started as somewhere I could hope to write something that may be of use to someone, but really my focus was YouTube.

This was my mistake. I didn’t believe in myself and more importantly, I forgot to enjoy it half the time. I didn’t really believe I had what it took to make it a career. Fast forward to now and things are very different. YouTube has taken the back seat and the blog is looking like the obvious choice career-wise.

My point is, are we really successful if we aren’t having fun? To me, if you aren’t enjoying yourself then what’s the point? I wish I’d realised this sooner.

I spent so much time trying to prove myself because of my grammar struggles, believing I was stupid that I forgot to just embrace it all and have fun.

I  worried about my Instagram following, I felt insecure that I wasn’t the right look for a blogger and I fretted about my abilities as a blogger.  I doubted myself because I didn’t know it all or have all the talents of my fellow bloggers.

I wasted so much energy worrying my photos weren’t up to par and compared them to my blogger peers. I felt insecure that I wasn’t pretty enough, fit enough, entertaining enough and that my blog just didn’t look slick enough or at the very least professional.

I felt (more times than I care to admit) simply insignificant. That my blog just didn’t matter.  I felt that whether I wrote or didn’t write nobody would care. That I simply didn’t have what it takes to make a difference or be a successful blogger.

Now I feel very different. Now I’d love to grow my blog and make it a career. I feel so blessed to have grown a following (albeit a small following, but none the less I feel so grateful).

To be honest it’s a year in and it still surprises me that I  have people who come back time and time again to read my posts. To read the posts of a girl who always thought she was just a bit stupid.

The girl who gets herself muddled up and does stupid things.  A prime example was at the Fit Living event where I put the fire fighter’s helmet on the wrong way. Whilst I laughed it off inside I felt like a 1st prize idiot.

That’s why I wanted to write this post.  To say you don’t have to have all the skills and talent to go after what you want. You don’t even need to be confident. I wasn’t. It’s why I write posts on confidence so I can share what’s helped me, as I know first hand how a lack of confidence can affect us. All you really need is to be brave enough to try.

You don’t need to know it all to be successful and by successful I mean happy. What’s the point of anything else? If it doesn’t light you up then why are you bothering? Work hard yes, but don’t be miserable doing so. Don’t fall for the girl boss trap thinking that’s success, it’s not.

You don’t need to look a certain way. I don’t and yet here I am. One year later working with brands and looking to make this my full-time career by this time next year.

Can I do it, who knows? Does that matter? No, it really doesn’t. I don’t fear failure which is ironic since my very 1st post written a year ago today was about just that. That post was titled ‘Failure is Not Fatal’. It all feels very full circle now.

Besides, I’m pretty confident I can make it a career not because I have the best talent because clearly, I don’t. There are much better bloggers out there. People whose writing is truly inspiring, witty, motivating and just damn right amazing, but you know what, that doesn’t really matter.

I’m not trying to be the best blogger. All I really wanna do is show up and do my best. Give it my all and have no regrets. To have fun with it and laugh at myself when I stop having fun and start comparing myself to others.

I want to share what I know works for me in the hopes it might be useful for you. Or just an enjoyable read.

So if you’re ever doubting your abilities to do something or worry it will be a flop then give yourself a chance 1st, who knows where it will take you.

You don’t have to be the best to be great at something. You don’t even have to know how to do it all. I’m learning every day and I’ve written some terrible blog posts (I mean this post here written early on in my blogging journey could have just been a Facebook status but hey I didn’t know any better).

I’ve made many mistakes, wrote many crap posts but I feel like now I’m really starting to craft my writing abilities and put posts out there that makes me feel really proud. That didn’t come from having the best skills, but sheer practice and the willingness to show up and do the work.

You don’t have to know all the answers to get started doing whatever it is you wanna do. I certainly didn’t and I still don’t. I learn something new every single day.

So if there is anything you wanna give a go, take it from me, don’t overthink it, just go for it. If I’d thought about blogging for too long I wouldn’t have done it, I would have decided I wasn’t clever enough.

You know it’s true what they say, we regret the things we don’t do, so just do it.  Just remember the most important thing is to have fun and to not take it all too seriously. Stop wasting your time feeling insecure and that you have to be a certain way to be successful.

Success should be measured by how much fun we are having. The joy we feel. How much we are able to laugh at ourselves. Anything else is pointless. That was my biggest mistake, I didn’t measure my fun but my stats.

So go out there, be you and do your thing. Enjoy the moments. Wealth is health and all that.

Finally, I can’t end this post without saying if you’re a follower of mine, thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I’m so grateful to have you here. To everyone that follows me on social media and leaves me nice comments or likes my posts, I’m so grateful. I truly appreciate each and every one of you.

Much love now and always x