Holy Cow! I think I could write an entire thesis on the tortures of not having enough patience, but I’m going to just stick to the topic of “going with the flow” and learning from your “failures”. I’m an extremely driven individual who sets goals on a daily basis. I’m sure this is normally a healthy way of doing things, but when seemingly realistic goals aren’t met, your life can quickly be turned upside down, and mine was…over and over….and over again.
As a new blogger I was unaware of what it took to make a blog grow, how much time it takes to gain loyal readers, and how many hours it would take to create content. I set goals before I dove head first into this adventure and as time went on, my goals were not being met. What I realized later on is that that the goals I had set were unrealistic for this type of project and that I should have set benchmark style goals that I could track throughout the year. Since I was unfamiliar with all the details of blogging, my timelines and goals were created blindly and in turn just didn’t make since. I saw each passed timeline as a defeat and never really readjusted for the circumstances. Big mistake. It sure is hard to accept that your original plan is not going to happen and that you are going to be forced to reassess and create a new plan that is more manageable. Each time something doesn’t go the way you want it to, think about why it didn’t go the way you wanted it to and how you can adjust for the future. I am slowly (very slowly) learning how to go with the flow.
This blog is not making me money at the moment, people aren’t relying on me to get something turned in for final approval, and I am the only one who can set expectations. This means that I am 100% free to do things however I’d like to do them and it can take as long as it takes. Very refreshing 🙂
Insights from Kyla of Kyla Roma (blogging for several years now 🙂
“Blogging is such a fun, connected, rewarding thing- but it’s a marathon, not a sprint. There are so many technical & specific ways to measure how you’re doing – page views, twitter followers, comments – it can sometimes feel like every week and month is a contest against yourself and your online friends. My advice is this: don’t let yourself get carried away just because those aspects of what you do are easy to measure! The better things to check in on regularly are how much you enjoy the process of curating a post, how your style or a skill develops through blogging regularly, and the personal connections that you make through what you create. Work hard at what you love for a long time and eventually you’ll see the more tangible rewards that you might be hoping for, but focusing on what you can control (your day to day blogging experience) will give you more reward than focusing on what you hope might fall into your lap. ”
Read INRO to week-long series.
Read Part 1 // Staying Connected Socially
Read Part 2 // Blogging Regularly
*All photos in this series are from Marco Suarez Art Shop on Etsy and all type was typeset by myself.