Sometimes this doesn’t help!
This is a Guest Story by Eric Speir, a pastor and blogger who explores life and leadership by the book.
I started blogging about a year ago. I jumped in with both feet. I researched for a while and decided on purchasing a professional theme. After exhaustive research I landed with Standard Theme by the team over at 8BIT because the design was simple, easy to use and the content would be king. I even went ahead and paid for a full year’s worth of hosting.
I was in over my head and there was no turning back!
I blogged for months and slowly built a tribe and a few months into it my wife gave birth to our third child, my work schedule exploded and we ended up burying three close family members. Because of the tidal wave of confusion and busyness I had to shed anything that wasn’t necessary. I opted on keeping the family and gave up blogging.
Months later my hosting was up for renewal and the day before my hosting agreement would expire I had decided to give up. My dream of becoming a writer and digital scribe was dead. Before going to bed that night someone messaged me and said, “Don’t give up blogging. I really enjoy reading what you have to say.” They didn’t know what I was going through, but that is all I needed!
I’ve learned two essential principles since the night my dream almost died:
1. The right motivation will sustain you when life gets difficult.
When I first started blogging I wanted to be heard and gain a following. I saw blogging as a way to gain notoriety and to sell books and services. Now I write to simply encourage and help people. When I decided to make it about others, instead of myself, I was liberated.
I took the time to really question my motivation. Have you done this yet? What’s your motivation? Hint, it needs to more than just about you!
2. Learn to ride the wave of momentum when you have it.
I wasn’t prepared for success or had a real plan for where I wanted to go. Recently, I sat down and made a list of goals and strategies that would guide me in this process. It really helped when I took the time to write them down. Someone once said,
He who fails to plan, plans to fail.
One of the keys to building momentum is thinking next steps. You might ask yourself, “What should my next step be to go to the next level?”
Since that time my blog has taken off again. In fact, I’ve written guest posts for websites such as Relevant Magazine, Catalyst Space and a few others. I’m not where I want to be, but at least I’m headed in the right direction.
The key to not losing my dream was letting the wrong dream die. When life becomes just about us we quickly run out of stuff to say and do, but when we focus on others we never fail to have something to offer others.
Thanks Eric, I truly needed that today as work is currently exploding in my face after a much needed vacation!
You’re welcome! Everyone needs someone to cheer them on when life goes into overdrive.
That’s just about exactly what I needed today. Thanks for the inspiration!
That’s great Joe! I hope it helps others as well. We’re all on the same journey together.
SO needed to read this! Thanks so much. So great to know there are more out there…
Glad it helped. Keep working at your dream!
I have this one guy who checks my blog every single morning. Every. Single. Morning.
I try to post new content at least once a week, which I’m not always successful at, but nevertheless he looks for new content daily.
One person, in your case one text, can indeed be all the motivation needed to keep going.
Thanks for the encouragement this morning. It’s nice to know we don’t take this journey alone.
It’s always good to know we all struggle with the same things. I have a lady who reads my blog religiously. She’s been one of my best cheerleaders keep me going!
The feedback from followers is very motivating Chad. I got an email a few weeks ago and one of my followers was like “what happened after the summer?” Busy just didn’t go over well I’m sure, but it’s very nice to know when you have at least one engaged person…means there may be 2…or 3…I love the relationship building aspect
Life definitely gets in the way! I started my blog about 16 months ago. I had no idea what I was getting into. It was my son’s idea – he wanted to do a blog but couldn’t think of anything to write. So he talked me into starting one. I do all the writing and he takes care of all the tech stuff. But it was a LOT more work than I expected and I had so much to learn! And while I have been blogging daily, I have also been dealing with LIFE. It’s hard. But I love blogging and don’t want to give up. So I keep tweaking my schedule and looking for ways to make things better and easier.
All that to say, thanks for the encouragement. Nice to know I’m not the only one who struggles to get it done.
Part of the process is just doing something everyday. It’s always good to know that others struggle with the same things.
I have had a website in some form or another since I made my first webpage on Angelfire (remember that?). Thinking about how long I could have been writing instead of just playing around with code is depressing. I’ve never let the dream die, though. I’ve recently connected with a few other bloggers for support and I’m ready to take the plunge again… sink or swim!
Thanks for the words of wisdom!
A famous man (John aka tentblogger) once said, “Just start today!”
Lovely article. I never planned blogging actually. Was surfing the web on black friday (without even knowing what’s that) and I found discounts for WordPress themes. One of them I really liked, yes, the Standard theme. Bought it but still didn’t buy a domain or planned blogging. Few weeks after I started, and now after a year I’m slowly losing motivation due to, well mostly no income on my website. It’s not hard being passionate for a certain amount of time but doing it (well not that active) for a year without any income is hard. Any tips?
I’m not sure about the money making part, but I always ask people if they are passionate about something or just want to make money. It takes passion to stick something out when life gets hard and you’re not making money.
For me, it’s often been about dogheaded persistence. It’s realizing that the pain of giving up is worse than the pain of going through the challenges. And I certainly don’t want to just fade out, so that’s kept me motivated and hopefully regular with postings.
This comes in every blogger. I remember that days when i used to open my account daily and updates my blog daily. But from the day i think about money nothing works. Just blog with passion every thing will comes to you.
Amen. Good stuff. It’s ultimately about perseverance.
Thanks Jeff! Learned a lot from your writings.
Right on! My wife just gave birth to our 3rd kid last Thursday and I’ve struggled this week with adjusting to a new routine. I’ve been off from work this week and while I’ll miss being home w/ our new baby I think getting back in the rhythm of a “normal” routine will be good.
Thanks for the encouragement Eric, my blog is a sinking ship at the moment, but I’m determined to see if I can turn that around by starting with a nice, reasonable “rescue plan” and working to execute it