Two Fears I Had To Overcome To Start My Own Blog
October 5, 2018
I can’t remember how many times I was told: “You should write a blog!”
While I appreciated the compliment [ooh! Someone thinks I’m interesting!] I was terrified of that idea.
Why? I guess I could narrow it down to two main reasons:
What if I fail?
You will see more than one post about battling anxiety, insecurities, and fear – but here I am – telling you I was terrified!
Who will read it? Maybe my Mom and like 6 other people? Will my friends and family even take me seriously? I’ve had an idea or two before that completely fell through. What if it’s too hard? I have four kids, can I handle it? What if the TROLLS find me?
I’m a “highly sensitive” person – an empath if you will. So people’s feelings and what they think affect me, even when I try ignore them. The fear of failing or not being taken seriously looms over me like a dark cloud sometimes.
So, what if I fail?
I could deal with it. Realistically, it would be hard on me. But should I really let fear hold me back from trying? Nope.
Say it for the people in the back: NOPE!
There’s a terrific song on the radio right now by Zach Williams called Fear is a Liar.
Listen to it. Love it. Embrace it.
There’s so much truth to it.
Ok, so I kicked fear’s butt for now – but now what? What else is holding me back?
I have no idea what I’m doing!
The possibility of extra income. A platform to ramble about the things I’m passionate about. I wanted to do it. I loved the idea of contributing to our family’s income in between graphic design jobs. But where do I start? If you’re me, PINTEREST. I’m a very visual person, so it’s my Google. I love myself a pretty pin that brings me to great blog.
I dove in! I pinned ALL THE THINGS!
Blogging. Creating a brand. How to start. What not to do. How to make money. Affiliate links. Ads. Legal stuff. And my favorite: Making money by pinning [ooh!]
WOAH!
So, this whole time I was texting my husband about it off and on. He’s on a retreat, so I’m trying not to distract him too much. But I got a pretty clear “let’s make it happen” vibe from him, so I sent him a link.
I knew this one would get his attention. He’s a pretty concrete thinker. Unless something is for sure happening, he doesn’t really waste time on it. He wouldn’t even discuss names for our babies until we knew if they were boys or girls. I felt like this article would be easiest for him to paint a picture. Oh, and it mentions traveling. Yup, that hooked him.
I liked the article because it was about making money on PINTEREST! Are you noticing a trend here?
I love Pinterest.
I read about a million more blogs [I’m prone to exaggerating numbers when I’m not really keeping track] and my mind was going in so many directions! I’m a dreamer – the opposite of my husband. I can get lost in a daydream about digging up my backyard and building a pool by hand for hours while doing at least 6 other things. My brain ran with this idea all day .
So I chose my first action step: a list.
One of the things mentioned in several posts was to have 15-50 different blog posts ready to go when you launch [yeah, that’s a lot] so the brainstorming began.
Over several hours while trying to juggle Mom life [day three of my husband’s retreat] I managed to write out a list of 45 post ideas. Some were simple, some were random, some had funny click-bait-y titles that I texted to my husband to make him laugh.
I had taken my first step.
Then I started getting into trying to plan out my vision, my theme, what kind of blog I should write, how I was gonna make money, what I needed to buy, all the legal stuff.
Without realizing it, I had just started going for it and forgot “I have no idea what I’m doing”
These were only the first baby steps, I had so much more to learn. The information was overwhelming! But if my husband was even entertaining the idea – there was definitely some concrete in the mixer 😉
So here I am – jumping in. Figuring it all out as I go. I look forward to sharing this journey with you all. I’m currently working on several different articles, so keep checking back!
**UPDATE: IF YOU’RE STRUGGLING WITH THIS, I HIGHLY RECCOMEND CHECKING OUT THE BOOK/AUDIOBOOK Girl, Stop Apologizing by Rachel Hollis <<*My Affiliate Link
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