Many of you don’t know this, but today marks the 1st birthday of Hey Little J! That’s right, exactly one year ago today, I was sitting in my spare room and thought “If not now, when?” I went online and bought my domain name, and Hey Little J was born! For months I spent all my time working on this site; writing, creating, and making everything the way I wanted it for my launch date this past April. It’s safe to say that I’ve learned a ton about blogging, but I’ve also learned a lot about myself. I hope you can put these to use in your own dreams and creative endeavours. Here are my top five things you need to know:
1. You are capable.
How many of you have a dream of doing something but think “I can’t do that.” or “That’s too hard.”? Yeah, I feel you. Before I started my blog, I had spent the past two years trying to learn everything I could about it. Let me tell you, there was a lot of information and I was incredibly overwhelmed. I had so many moments of self-doubt, SO MANY! I also had times where I thought maybe blogging wasn’t for me. With all the thoughts of self-doubt, I also had three thoughts that consistently ran through my brain:
- You’ll never know if you don’t try.
- Take it one step at a time.
- Ask questions.
Once I started focusing on those thoughts, I was amazed at what I could achieve! Those three things helped me push myself and learn everything I could. I researched, enrolled in a boot camp, and even enrolled in a course! Don’t get me wrong, I still have so much to learn; but looking back at when I was first starting out, I can’t believe I had such little faith in myself. You have to believe you’re capable of learning, and you will!
2. It doesn’t matter what people think.
“What will people think?“
That one question has haunted me for years! I used to ask myself that question all the time and about everything, thanks to my anxiety, cheers! But since launching my blog, I can honestly say that I no longer care. It’s true; I don’t, I don’t care what you think. You know why? Because I realized that I’m not doing this for anyone else, I’m doing it for myself. This is what makes me happy, and if I’m not hurting anyone else, then I’m good to go! Luckily, I have lovely and supportive people around me!
“You should care! You should want people to read your blog.“
True, and I do care in a sense. I really do want people to like my content, but I also know that it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. When I launched my blog, I had to come to terms with the fact that not everyone will be interested. Let’s be honest here, I’m 99% sure my audience doesn’t consist of 40-year-old men, and you know what? That’s totally fine; I don’t care! I even have friends and family who don’t read my blog, and that’s cool too. You can’t make everyone like what you’re doing, and once you come to terms with that, you’re golden!
3. Inspiration is everywhere.
Now I know you can’t tell from my blog right now, because I don’t post enough, but the best thing about having a lifestyle blog is that inspiration is literally everywhere. Are you alive? Yes. Ok, cool, write about it. Every little thing can be turned into content. Don’t have a lifestyle blog? That’s fine; inspiration is still everywhere! All you have to do is be openminded. Take inspiration from nature, emotions, life events, culture, basically anything! Push yourself and experiment!
4. Supportive people are everywhere.
Usually, when you think about people supporting you, you tend to think about close friends and family, right? What I’m slowly learning is that people who don’t even know you can be incredibly supportive as well. When I first started blogging, I assumed everyone would be competitive, but I’m finding it to be the complete opposite. As I mentioned before, I enrolled in an online class. This class has a facebook group where people can chat and ask questions. I’m meeting so many lovely people who want to support and share other people’s content, who want to collaborate, and help you if you’re having any issues. I’ve even made some friends!
5. Being scared is good.
This is possibly one of the best pieces of advice:
“Do it scared” – Ruth Soukup
I mean, obviously, we’re not talking about the my-life-is-in-danger kind of scared. No, no, we don’t want that. We’re talking about the I-want-to-do-something-but-I’m-scared kind of feeling. When you do things scared, you not only dive head first outside of your comfort zone, but you come out of it feeling incredibly invigorated! This is what it was like for me on April 1st, 2018, the day I launched my blog. I was absolutely terrified! I planned to launch two other times before that but chickened out, so that day it HAD to happen.
The hours leading up to hitting that “publish” button, my mind was racing. Then I thought about the time I went ziplining. Long story short, I was terrified and almost puked on everyone around me. But you know what? I did it. I did it scared, and oh my god, it was amazing!
So it was time to go live, and I was sweating. I’m a nervous perspirer, don’t judge me, it’s common ok? Anyways, I’m sitting there sweating, and I hit publish. My site was live! I did it! Now that I was up and running, it was time to tell people. That’s when the real fear kicked in. I pushed through the fear, posted my site on two social media accounts, and put my phone away for over a couple hours. I couldn’t believe that I did it! A weight was lifted having that part over with. I felt so good that I wanted to cry. Actually, I did cry. I cried in the shower.
So there you have it, the five things I learned in the first year of blogging. Hopefully, you can take these things and apply them to your own life. Do you have anything you’ve always wanted to do but are too scared? Leave a comment down below and let’s help each other push past the fear!
xo Little J
