Learning How To Be Kind to Myself

In starting this blog, I underestimated how difficult it would be to correct myself, to catch problems and make changes so as to help myself progress. That is because I’m out of my depth.

I started this blog to challenge myself by doing something out of my comfort zone, so whilst I knew it wouldn’t be easy, I’ve found myself getting frustrated that my posts aren’t as polished as I would like them to be. I waited two weeks between my first two posts and my third because I was obsessed with making it ‘good’. I eventually gave in and posted it because I came to a realization.

It’s ok for a beginner blog to not be critically acclaimed.

A revolutionary concept right?

I’m not a blogger, English major, journalist or author. I hope to develop this into a blog worth reading, but for now I’m starting to appreciate that anything worth doing comes with trials and learning curves. Tons of learning curves.

My posts are a record of what is happening in my mind, and as such, they may not be for everyone. But that’s ok because they don’t have to be.

My blog may never be more than it is now, but as long as I keep challenging myself, and as long as I keep trying, it doesn’t matter.

In the short time I’ve been blogging, my posts have been viewed from people in countries I’ve not only never been, but places I would never have dreamed would take an interest in anything I had to say. I spent the entirety of yesterday grinning because I’d had views from places like China and Slovenia. That to me was just amazing. I couldn’t contain myself and spent 20 minutes looking up flight prices.

And that’s what it’s about. Not how many people I reach, just that the ones I do don’t regret giving me their time.

In researching blogs when I was naïvely obsessed with getting more likes after my first post, I was finding all this information about SEOs and their importance in the success of your blog. My obsession led to me being frustrated that not all my posts could hit that ‘optimal zone’ because I felt that I’d said all I wanted to say and yet was falling short.

But that’s ok.

It’s ok to admit that you aren’t there yet. And I’m not there yet. My blog doesn’t need to be optimized for SEOs because it’s for me and those who find it worthy enough to read and follow. I’m not at the point where optimization matters, because I’m still trying to find my voice. I’m in a place now where I’m trusting that people appreciate the attempts I’m making to communicate my thoughts in this blog, and whether they show it by clicking like or they appreciate it and move on; the numbers don’t matter.

Because I am not a number and my readers aren’t just numbers.

Tiff is taking the world, but she’s starting to realize it doesn’t have to be done in a day.

Or a post.

Lego Tiff makes a comeback