My First Year of Blogging – 5 Lessons Learnt From Overcoming Perfectionism
Guys, I actually did it! I have officially completed my first year of blogging! Whoop whoop!
When I started The Valued Life, I knew I was in a much better headspace than all the other times I tried to start a blog. This time actually WAS different.
I thought now would be the perfect time to reflect on my experience and encourage new bloggers to keep going despite the changing landscape in the AI and Google Helpful Content Updates (HCU) blogging world.
Also, as a Mindset and Productivity Coach for perfectionists, I NEED to talk about the ways I’ve overcome perfectionism throughout the course of starting my blog.
The journey has been HARD but it’s been SO worth it!
So if you’re someone who has big goals but struggles with managing their perfectionism, read on.
Why did I start blogging?
I’ve always wanted to find a way to combine psychology and business but I just didn’t know how to do it.
However in July 2023, while sitting in my grandparent’s veranda in Jamaica, I had an epiphany. Why not start a blog about psychology and leverage it to build a business?
My two loves in one place.
Looking back, this idea didn’t come from nowhere. It emerged from a seed planted in my mind from these 3 books: The Psychology Of Money by Morgen Housel, Atomic Habits by James Clear and The Millionaire Fastlane by MJ DeMarco.
I needed a mindset shift to think about life, opportunities and money in a new way.
And so, The Valued Life was born – a safe space for high achievers who were FED UP with hustle culture and wanted to live a more values-based life (AKA me).
At the time, I was working as a Project Manager in the online education sector and was feeling quite bored after completing both Prince2 practitioner and APM project management qualifications. At a relatively young age, I was earning a good salary and had no real desire to climb further up the career ladder.
I wanted a change; I wanted something exciting and novel and this hobby project met the criteria.
Related Post: The truth about blogging for one month
Why all the other times didn’t work
I started my first blog in 2015. Then tried and failed to start new blogs and revive old blogs on and off every couple of years. Clearly, blogging was something that I was destined to do however I didn’t have the right internal or external resources to get the ball moving.
The truth is, I was emotionally immature, mentally ill, undisciplined and broke AF.
I was the high-achieving perfectionist who pushed myself to the brink of burnout every 6 months, I didn’t know how to regulate my emotions and sit with the discomfort of uncertainty or set boundaries with myself and others.
I NEEDED instant results. I NEEDED to feel like I was good enough but no matter how hard I tried I always felt like a failure so I’d quit.
Also, depression and anxiety are a bitch! Can I say that here – this is a safe space, right?
If you’ve ever struggled with mental illness, then you know the exact pit of despair I am talking about. It’s not really a conducive environment for success as an entrepreneur when you have to see/believe the positives first before they manifest in reality.
Benefits of blogging
But anyway, over the years, I worked on my anxiety and depression, untangled my self-worth from my achievements and started living a life in alignment with my values.
This led me right back to blogging.
This time, I stuck with it and here are some of the benefits I’ve noticed in my life:
- I am the most disciplined version of myself. I actually show up and write when I say I’m going to write.
- My creative juices are constantly flowing. EVERYTHING and ANYTHING can be an idea for a blog. I have a list of over 700 blog ideas in a spreadsheet
- It ignited a strong entrepreneurial spark in my soul. I KNOW my blogging business is going to be successful and I am willing to work hard without seeing any reward for many years on end until I achieve it
- I’ve become more inquisitive. I’ve always enjoyed researching new things and this blog has given me an avenue for sharing the things I have learnt
- The more I write, the more my clients trust me to deliver results. I literally have an evidence bank of ideas, theories and strategies that have worked.
- Helping others genuinely fills my heart up with joy. Every time I get an email or message from someone who felt motivated after reading my blog, my life gets a little brighter
Lessons learnt in my first year blogging
1. Consistency is key
As an ex-perfectionist, I used to believe in all-or-nothing thinking so I’d push myself to the point of burnout whenever I had a project or assignment to complete. Consistency was a myth as far as I was concerned.
Little and often? PFFTT, pedal to the metal is what I say to that!
Or is at least what I used to say. Now I am a BIG believer in starting small habits and building on to them slowly over time so that they become part of your lifestyle and not another fad.
My goal was to write a blog post once a week but at a minimum twice a month and for the most part I stuck to that while working full-time as a project manager. When I got made redundant, I was able to pick up the pace a bit without pushing myself too far.
Consistency is the MAIN REASON why I have been able to grow my blog.
2. It’s okay not to know everything – it evolves
When I started my blog, it was meant to be a safe space for high-achieving dreamers and a way for me to share experiences from my healing journey. In the back of my mind, I wanted it to form the basis of my future coaching and psychotherapy practice but I thought it would be YEARS away.
I didn’t know that I would leave my job as a project manager, qualify as a life coach and start my coaching business in the space of a year.
I also got accepted for a counselling and psychotherapy masters degree but I decided to defer it until 2025 so that I can focus on creating a solid foundation in my blog.
Also, my blog has specialised quite a lot. It went from a vague target audience of people interested in ‘self-development and values-based living’ to ‘perfectionists who are fed up with hustle culture and want to learn how to be productive without burning out’.
I would have felt completely overwhelmed and out of my depth if I started my blog with all these plans. Instead, I took things day by day and adapted as time went on.
Overcoming perfectionism means taking a step forward when you don’t know all the answers and having the confidence in yourself to know that you will still be fine.
3. Perfectionism is the enemy
I used to see my perfectionism as a strength – an amazing force that powers me to keep climbing, keep pushing and only give up when I am forced to (via burnout or my fear of failure causing an anxiety attack).
However, perfectionism will keep you STUCK.
Years will go by and you’ll have nothing but burnout and procrastination to show for it.
Imagine if I didn’t let my perfectionism win in 2015 and stayed consistent with my blog – I’d have a 9-year-old blog earning a tonne of money by now (probably).
So now, I try new things, make mistakes and then I LEARN FROM THEM. That’s it.
Your perfectionism tells you that you need to know everything and that mistakes mean you are not good enough or a failure.
But I’m here to tell you that your mistakes are a gateway to a new and improved version of yourself but only if you don’t let them define you. Every single successful person has failed in their lives but they didn’t give up and that is why they became successful.
If they can keep going despite ‘failing’ then so can you!
4. AI is not necessarily the enemy
I started this blog in 2023, the year ChatGPT blew up the world (metaphorically, of course) and I had some very STRONG opinions about AI.
I thought AI was going to ruin everything I loved about the creative industry, with people becoming more fake and dishonest. I actively avoided reading anything about ChatGPT and buried my head in the sand.
It wasn’t until I listened to a blogger talk about the benefits of ChatGPT on a podcast that I actually started to shift my mindset from automatically assuming the worst.
The times are changing and everyone and their mother is using AI in their blog posts in some form. Staying true to the old way of working is holding a lot of people back and actively ignoring a big shift in technology is not conducive to my values of being open-minded.
So I learnt a bit more about the uses of ChatGPT and researched bloggers who use it ethically.
Ultimately, I decided that I would use ChatGPT to help me with creating Pinterest descriptions/titles (this saves me so much time on such a boring task!) and brainstorming ideas for my blogging outlines.
I disagree with using AI to write blog posts because I feel like it takes the heart out of blogging. I want to make sure my blogs are ME if that makes sense.
Don’t get me wrong, I tried to use ChatGPT to tidy up a draft blog post and it rewrote the whole thing, completely stripping out my personality. I was devastated and it made me doubt my writing ability for a while.
However, I realise now, AI can’t write for me. It doesn’t know my brain, how I interpret the world, and what I find funny. It just looks at my writing and sees a tonne of grammatical mistakes and extra words used for no reason.
And I’m okay with that.
Related Post: How To Get ChatGPT To Create A Morning Routine For You
5. Stay true to your values NO MATTER WHAT
It is important to stay true to your values in your life, especially in your entrepreneurial journey.
Other people WILL tell you what to do and try to force you to do things that are out of alignment with your true self so it’s more important than ever to have a firm grasp on your values.
I knew my life was better without social media however every single person was telling me I was a fool for believing I could grow a business without relying on social media.
At first, I resisted the belief and was convinced that it was possible, however as time went on I slowly started to doubt myself and eventually I gave in.
Then I went all in.
Reels, Tiktoks, Shorts, Threads, etc… Posts, posts, posts. Never-ending content creation and scheduling. I tried. I really tried. I did what they all told me to do because I so desperately wanted my business to succeed.
But then, I remembered who TF I am. I am an introvert blogger. I like to BLOG. I’m not trying to be an influencer. I want to write and share my knowledge in long-form content, just me and my laptop.
So after that mini whirlwind, I mainly focus on writing content for Google and Pinterest SEO. I view Pinterest as a Search Engine rather than a social media because let’s be real, who socialises on Pinterest? We go there for style inspo and to read blog posts.
I feel so much happier and in alignment with myself. My productivity has significantly increased too since I’m not wasting time on social media.
My plans for the next 6 months
- Get to 150 blog posts – This is my 70th blog post currently
- Create more digital resources – I want to create an energy management tracker/matrix and social media detox workbook
- Start monetising my blog – I am currently writing for free, so it would be nice to be able to monetise via ads and affiliate marketing
- Be consistent with my email newsletter – I want to invest more time in my newsletter audience. Giving them as much value as I possibly can
- Set up a new travel blog – I love blogging so much, I bought a travel blog URL to start after I have successfully monetised this blog. I’m planning on solo traveling in 2025 so I’ll be able to document my journey on that new blog!
What lessons are you hoping to learn in your first year of blogging?
I hope you enjoyed my rambles about blogging for one year. It has been a life-changing experience and I can’t wait to share my growth in another 6/12 months.
Exciting times are ahead!
What is stopping you from creating the blog of your dreams?
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- How To Make Decisions as a Perfectionist – 10 EASY steps
- How To Deal With Mistakes as a Perfectionist – 9 Simple Ways!
- 7 Important Boundaries Perfectionists NEED To Set Without Guilt!
- 11 perfectionist productivity myths you NEED To Let Go
- STOP Saying These 7 Toxic Perfectionist Phrases To Be Successful