8 Interesting Things I Learned from Blogging

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8 Interesting Things I Learned by Blogging

Do you have any idea of what you could learn by starting a blog?

I’ve been blogging for almost a year and a half now and in this article I would like to share with you some interesting things I learned from blogging. Hopeful, I will inspire some of you to start blogging (I may also discourage some of you!)

As you keep reading, you will notice that, this article is not just about blogging, it is actually closely related to personal development.

So what the heck did I learn from blogging?

8 Interesting Things I Learned from Blogging

 

1. I learned to let go of expectations

We all have expectations and suffered when life is not as it “should” be. While working on my blog I became very aware of the way expectations create emotional pain. I had so many expectations each time I published a new article and was waiting for other people’s approvals. I guess I wanted them to tell me how great my article was.

Unfortunately, I didn’t publish articles on my blog as consistently as I wanted too. The main reason is because I needed to be inspired about what I was writing about, I needed to genuinely want to share something with my readers. So, because I believed in my articles, I also naively believed that people would love my articles, would be inspired and would share them with all their friends, but of course it never happened!

Other times, arrogantly, I thought that people needed to hear about what I had to say because it is life-changing stuff! However, in reality people don’t owe me anything, they don’t owe me their attention.

Yes, I definitely learned to let go of expectations.

2. I learned that (almost) nobody cares about what I do

Often, we are so focused on what we do, even obsessed about it, that we fail to realize that 99% of people simply don’t care about what we are doing. Do you believe your friends will read your articles? Most won’t. Do you believe your friends will read your book? No they won’t unless you ask them. Do you believe they will at least click on the like/share button on Facebook? Probably not. Actually, I would bet that if you asked a best-selling author, he would tell you that his family never read any of his book. There is nothing wrong here; I just had too many expectations.

I also realized how I tended to be so intensely focused on what I was doing that I forget that:

  • It wasn’t everything in life
  • I had time to get there and didn’t need to dramatize everything

3. I learned to persevere

When nobody seems to really care about what you do and you have no idea whether what you are doing is any good because of the lack of feedback, you often feel like giving up. Wouldn’t you? In that circumstance, a simple comment like “you article was very interesting” can make all the difference in the world! In that year and a half I’ve spent blogging I definitely learned to persevere.

4. I learned to reduce my ego

As you probably understand now, blogging can be a very humbling experience. For me, it was definitely a great lesson of personal development and, ironically, this blog may have been more beneficial to me than to most of my readers. It forces me to become more focus on others and less on myself, to love people more and to stop trying so hard to be loved. Yes, this blog is definitely a part of my personal development journey.

5. I learned that marketing is everything

It might sound evident but marketing is extremely important. Having a clear brand and a clear positioning is crucial. I’m still trying to find a way to different myself from other bloggers in the same niche. (If you thing there is something different about me leave a comment below to let me know!)

In addition to branding, engaging with the readers is also absolutely necessary. After postponing for a long time, I finally created a few emails to help new subscribers navigate throughout my website and get started. I want to keep improving the contents of these emails to be as helpful as possible to my subscribers. I want them to know that each of them matters. Your help is more than welcome.

From now on I will definitely spend more time on marketing.

6. I learned not to count on luck

I can write some articles, do some guest posting and hope that people will visit my blog or that some influencers will notice me, but if I keep doing that I can wait forever for people to come to my blog. I realized that I need to do more guest posting, to build relationship with as many bloggers as possible in my niche and to master SNS marketing, email marketing, copywriting and any other skills required to create a successful blog. There is no place for luck, only for massive action. Staying in my comfort zone won’t take me very far.

7. I learned that cooperation is more important that competition

Oftentimes, I would feel jealous when looking at other people’s blogs that are doing very well in my niche. I would hesitate to share some valuable information to other like-minded people by fear of competition. This made me realize to what extent I had a scarcity mindset and how it was holding me back in life.

My strong desire to do it on my own and to be totally free from other people’s help is also something I must work on since it prevents me for reaching out to more people in the personal development field and, eventually, will prevent me from creating a successful blog that can reach a large audience.

I’m less and less a believer in competition especially online. Interacting with like-minded groups of people with whom you can share information and spread the word about your blog is extremely important. Competition is based on fear and results from a scarcity mindset. On the other hand, cooperation is based on love and reflects an abundance mindset. I definitely want to lean more towards cooperation.

8. I learned to believe

I’m totally fascinated by the power of the mind and know that whether I will get where I want to be or not is entirely dependent of my ability to master my mind. The same goes for you. Most of us are far from using our mind to its full capacity. We have little focus, very limited self-discipline, weak beliefs and very few of us realize how much more we could do. This blog is as much part of my personal development journey that it is of you who are reading my blog. I don’t believe in my own limitations and I don’t believe in yours. In the end, it all comes down to beliefs so I won’t stop believing.

What about you? Do you feel like starting a blog now? Creating a successful blog is definitely not easy and requires a lot of effort, determination and focus, but there are a lot of lessons to be learned. Also, as more and more people are using internet, that’s very wise to start studying online marketing or any other skills related to the internet.

My final question for you is: What are you passionate about? Why not start a blog and test how strong your passion really is?

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Comments 6

  • Thought-provoking article Thibaut!
    I guess these lessons are very much applicable to not just blogging, but to our day-to-day social interactions such as Facebook & likes 🙂
    PS: I am passionate about coming across new things and people, but also tend to lose interest sometimes rather soon 😛 Is it normal, or there might be some underlying issue in that!?

    • Hello Dhruv. Thanks for your comment. Yes it is applicable pretty much everywhere. It’s nice that you enjoy discovering new things. Maybe you still haven’t found what you really love. Or maybe it is just how you are and that’s perfectly fine.

  • I’ve been a subscriber for a while Thibaut because I love the humility and self-honesty that marks your writing. You present well-formed analyses of key ideas in self-development in a charmingly humble and encouraging manner, as in the post I am replying to. I admire your passion for what you do, your clarity, and your perseverence. For even greater excellence I recommend that you invest in some proofreading services, especially for your books. Otherwise, bravo!

    • Thanks Ann for this very encouraging comment 🙂 It made me feel good and I had to ask myself why I’m feeling good (as I mentioned in my article on how to stop caring about what people think of you).
      I try my best to be as honest as possible and I’m happy to see that my writing is reflecting that aspect. Thanks

  • Thank you for sharing with honest self-reflection and humility the eight lessons. I wish you continued success and look forward to reading The Five Commandments of Personal Development. I have so far not received the link for downloading it and would very much appreciate your re-sending it.

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