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I Waited a Year to Launch My Blog, But You Don’t Have to. This Article Will Show You Five Reasons Why.
There are a lot of different ways to pursue your passions and purpose that can make a difference in the world.
If you’re a writer or want to go the online business route, starting a blog might be the perfect vehicle for you.
A blog, or online information business, allows you to express yourself and share your knowledge or experience with others who would benefit from it.
Blog’s have low startup costs and give you a chance to develop your writing (and marketing) skills. Skills you’ll need if you decide you’d rather become a freelance writer, copywriter, or author.
Originally I’d planned to pursue freelance copywriting.
I studied everything I could get my hands on about the subject. Read tons of articles, took online courses, and even wrote out famous sales letters by hand…as recommended by Gary Halbert, one of the greatest copywriters of all time.
But none of that made me feel confident enough to write for clients.
Writing for clients meant putting other people’s money on the line … just to learn, experiment, and develop my writing and marketing skills.
That was too far outside of my comfort zone.
Especially since I wanted to write for (and help promote) businesses whose purpose and mission I believed in.
Businesses who wanted to make a difference in the world but didn’t know how to communicate what they had to offer or how to reach their target audience effectively.
In my opinion, they were businesses that didn’t have the “extra money” to risk.
In the end, even though I hadn’t planned to become a blogger … because I wanted to write persuasive sales pages like a rockstar! … blogging made more sense as a starting point.
Here’s why…
Benefits of Starting a Blog
With a blog you can:
- Hone your online writing skills
- Write about topics you already love reading about
- Practice copywriting and marketing techniques on your own website while you grow your own business, instead of someone else’s
- Build up a massive portfolio worth of writing samples to show potential clients in the future
- Gain REAL-WORLD EXPERIENCE at creating content and running an online business
With so many potential benefits, I’m glad I chose to blog, but guess what?
The beginning was extremely shaky … full of highs and lows. Like any new project, hobby, or venture almost always turns out to be.
The Fear of Starting Something New
Before I could get my blog off the ground, I had a few fears to confront and overcome. Chances are, you will too.
My fears centered around the dreaded “fear of failure” and fell into five main categories.
- Self-belief
- Procrastination
- Personal problems
- Asking for help
- Losing money
This article will explore how and why each fear creeps up and give you a few ways to overcome them. So you can apply them to your situation.
My hope is if you see them coming ahead of time, you won’t get hung up for months at a time as I did.
And with a little hard work, you’ll be able to launch your blog (or online business) within a month or two.
Let’s get started.
1) What is a Word for Not Believing in Yourself?
Whatever the word is, when I started working on my blog, I had it.
I didn’t believe in myself or that I could successfully get this blog off the ground. I had so much to learn and do, and it was all new to me.
But instead of seeing it as a challenge to overcome and approaching the process with confidence, I was:
- Overthinking
- Second-guessing every decision I made
- Being overly critical of every idea I had
- Battling anxiety every time I tried to write my web pages or welcome message
I also had to deal with a huge dose of imposter syndrome every time I worked on a blog post.
Do you know what imposter syndrome is?
Basically, imposter syndrome is the belief that you’re not qualified to do whatever it is you’re doing … mixed with the fear of getting exposed as a fake!
After all, I’m not a personal development expert or life coach, so what did I have of value to offer my readers?
Who would want to read what I wrote?
“Sometimes it’s easier not to start, not to try. Not trying becomes an easy out. It’s a lot less painful to think I failed because I didn’t try than it is to think I failed because I wasn’t good enough.”
Do you know the feeling?
If you’re just getting started and in a similar position now, just know it does get better. There is hope.
So stop being so hard on yourself. Self-belief is a learnable skill.
How to Develop a Powerful Belief in Yourself
Developing healthy self-belief takes time and practice.
You don’t just wake up one day feeling “super confident”.
Self-belief requires a positive mindset change. It’s an on-going process that you work on daily. There is no ‘there’ or finish line.
Empowering affirmations have helped. I either find them online and tweak them closer to my situation or I take my specific goals, problems, and limiting beliefs, re-frame them, and write positive affirmations of my own.
Here are a few empowering affirmations I’ve used to build my self-belief:
■ I express my purpose through my business. I create from feelings of love and a deep sense of purpose. I know I make a difference in the lives of the right people.
■ I easily replace habits that hold me back with habits that positively move my life forward.
■ I am important. What I have to say is important. What I write and share with the world is important.
■ With confidence and courage, I take action daily for my ideal life.
Affirmations help keep my mindset muscles in shape, but what has helped me the most has been consistently taking action towards my goals.
Every action I’ve taken has led to accomplishing something I didn’t believe I could accomplish when I started it. And each time, my confidence and self-belief have grown a little more.
So if you’re struggling with imposter-syndrome or lacking self-belief, just keep going. Do something you don’t think you can do.
There will always be another challenge and another chance to strengthen your self-belief.
Related Posts:
How to Stop Playing Small and Expand in Life
How to Write Positive Affirmations That Will Change Your Life
2) I Got Stuck in the Perfectionism, Procrastination, Paralysis Cycle
Even though I was new to blogging, I wanted everything to be perfect, right from start.
Mentally, I understood learning to write a decent blog post would take time and practice, however, emotionally I feared failure too much to accept that.
“Perfectionists engage in rigid, black-and-white thinking about their own performance. There are no gray areas: if it isn’t perfect, it’s horrible. They are always letting themselves down, disappointing themselves, or living with the fear that they are about to do so.”
I didn’t want to settle for average or “put something up” and have to come back and fix (or redo) it later.
First impressions are everything online aren’t they? So the thought of someone visiting my blog, hating my first few posts, and never returning because of that, was crippling.
So I researched obsessively and studied everything before making even the tiniest decisions about my blog.
I’m talking about:
- Deciding on a name
- Designing my site (colors, fonts, logo, structure)
- Which niche to choose
- Who my ‘ideal reader’ should be
- What my first few posts should be about
- Everything
And guess what that kind of “get it right the first time because one mistake will be the end of my blog” thinking leads to…
Nothing.
And by nothing I mean, nothing gets done. No forward progress.
I’m talking about freezing up while months pass by.
It leads to perfectionism, procrastination, paralysis.
Is Procrastination a Sign of Perfectionism?
I’ll let the Sherpas field this one…
“Procrastination is often a symptom of perfectionism. Because perfectionists fear being unable to complete a task perfectly, they put it off as long as possible.
This stems from the fear that not meeting the goal means that there is something bad, wrong, or unworthy inside of them.
Further, perfectionists fear that failure will invoke criticism or ridicule either from internal voices or external authorities and peers.”
In our society, we tend to fall into the belief that our work defines us. We think it determines how others see us and more tragically, we let it shape our self-image.
In other words, when you win, you’re a winner, but if you fail, others will see you as a failure.
So instead of risking (the seemingly inevitable) failure, you doubt your abilities, overthink your decisions, and procrastinate for as long as you can get away with.
“Never feeling satisfied with their work or performance causes perfectionists to continue delaying their project. Their expectations for themselves are so high that they are difficult to meet. And guess what happens?
They procrastinate.”
How Do You Overcome Perfectionism and Procrastination?
Breaking free from the perfectionism procrastination cycle requires self-awareness and mindfulness.
To overcome your self-defeating and self-critical thoughts, you must first become aware of them. And then develop the ability to observe the thoughts without getting paralyzed by them.
Here are a few tips to get you started.
■ Watch out for unrealistic expectations.
“After all, nobody’s perfect… but the goal of a perfectionist is to be perfect. In other words, the goal is to do the impossible! The perfectionist is caught in a trap – he or she can never be good enough.”
Analyze your expectations to see if they are realistic.
If you are just starting, it’s unrealistic to expect your website to look and function like the website of one of the leaders in your industry. Not just the design, but the amount of content, traffic, and subscribers.
Their success didn’t happen overnight either.
■ Stop worrying about what others will think.
They have their own stuff to worry about. And probably don’t pay attention to you half as much as you think they do.
Chances are, you also have more support than you think you do. You just need to talk to the right people or find a like-minded, encouraging community.
■ Think about what the task means to you, the bigger picture, how important it is to your overall goals.
Recommit to your “why” and remind yourself of the major benefits.
Related: Learn how to reframe situations so the upside outweighs the downside in this article.
Instead of letting the importance freeze you into paralysis, learn to let it motivate you to get it done because of how important it is to you and the people you plan to serve.
■ Focus on learning and growing, not one perfect moment.
This isn’t American Idol and you’re not alone on stage with one shot to stay out of the bottom three.
Give yourself the freedom to make mistakes as you learn and grow.
“The desire for perfection often leads to the awakening of the Procrasdemon. Allowing yourself to make mistakes is the single most effective way to get rid of it.”
-Neeraj Agnihotri
■ Accept that nothing is ever truly perfect.
Focus on good enough.
One of Natalie Bacon’s abundance mindset articles finally drilled this point home for me. She said if you want to become a successful entrepreneur, learn to be comfortable with B+ work.
Getting anything less than an A brought on self-criticism throughout my school years. And I had carried that negative mindset into adulthood.
Accepting “good enough” has led to an increase in my productivity and less anxiety.
I still give everything my best effort. But I don’t obsess over my mistakes as much and I keep moving forward.
If you keep getting stuck, procrastinating because of limiting beliefs and inner resistances, read How to Move Forward When You Feel Stuck in Life.
■ Don’t wait for perfect conditions to start.
Why?
Because conditions will NEVER be perfect. So you’ll never start. And if you never start, you’ll never get your blog (or business) off the ground.
Personal development author, Stephen James puts it this way:
“I’m more of a fan of the mindset of ready, fire, aim versus ready, aim, fire. I see a lot of people that only aim. They wait for everything to be perfect before they take action and fire. Why not fire and learn as you go? Those are the people that get further ahead in life.”
Of course, they do make more mistakes (cringe), but they learn and keep going.
3) What Do You Tell Yourself When Life Gets in the Way?
Starting an online business was something I’ve wanted to do since college. As an introvert, I saw it as the perfect way to fulfill my life’s purpose.
But here’s the thing… life (and unexpected circumstances) always seemed to get in the way.
I went through personal problems, setbacks, and obstacles that slowed me down and added to the doubts and fears.
Personal problems, obstacles, and setbacks came in the form of:
- Torn tendons – I had two injuries requiring surgery, two summers in a row. This came with a handful of physical and emotional problems and limitations.
- Sleeping problems/Lack of energy – Turns out I had sleep apnea for years and didn’t know it. Remember how you felt writing research papers and studying for finals on four hours of sleep. Well, multiply that by every day.
- Vision problems – I’m blind in my right eye and have pressure issues in the other. This leads to random “blurry vision” days where using a phone or laptop screen is extremely difficult (or impossible).
- Family schedule – I’m a stay-at-home Dad. I’m with my kids all day every day and try to be as present and available as possible. Dropping my “work” to help them, feed them, play with them, keep the house together has always been the norm.
As you can see, some of my obstacles were my fault, some were controllable, and some were unavoidable.
“Life doesn’t always see eye to eye with a person’s plans. Sometimes you have to let go if you want to experience the true beauty life is willing to offer you.”
-Ines Vieira
Life Happens to Us All
Setbacks in life happen and can get in the way of our goals.
But do you want to know the worst part?
The worst part, when it comes to life interfering with your goals, isn’t necessarily the setback itself. It’s the emotional baggage that tags along with it.
I’m talking about self-doubts and fears.
How many times can a person get interrupted (while doing work to help their family) before they begin to doubt themself?
Or before they start to question whether their work (and life’s purpose) are as important to the world as they originally thought…
If no one else sees it as important, maybe it isn’t necessary?
Self-doubt also had me wondering how many random, life-halting accidents can happen to a person while they’re feeling strong, confident, and making progress towards their dreams before they submit to the fear of it happening again?
And stop trying altogether.
Side note: I went blind in my eye in 2006 right after I originally started my “life purpose project”.
The emotional baggage begins to pile up and your positive mindset can become compromised as the fears, anxieties, and negative self-talk slips in.
When it feels like the world is against your blog ever happening, what do you do?
How to Stay Focused When Life Gets in the Way?
Once I was able to shake off the self-pity, the next thing I had to do was refocus my mindset and remember my purpose.
Remind yourself why you started down the path you’re on in the first place.
Recommit to your goals (or update them).
Reread old notes, articles, or books that motivated you in the past.
Remind yourself of your original “why”.
- Why you started
- Why you had to start
- How your path adds purpose and meaning to your life
- What life was like before you started
- What life will be like if you stop moving forward
Next, I had to keep that positive momentum going through affirmations and gratitude journaling.
Gratitude journaling helped me through the injuries and recovery periods.
When I started doing it using the Zest app, it was just an experiment. I didn’t do it every night. It was more like every other night or a few times a week. But to my surprise, my overall attitude towards life improved.
Reading affirmations (at night or in the morning), played a part in that as well.
A couple affirmations I used were:
■ My family gives me enough time each day to accomplish my blogging goals. And it doesn’t interfere with anyone’s schedules. Or make them feel neglected.
■ What I struggle with most I am capable of mastering/overcoming.
There’s Always Something You Can Do
I hope my experiences show you that when life gets in the way of your goals, you don’t have to give up or let everything fall apart.
For example, going off your diet, quitting your workouts or meditations, giving up on good habits (or falling back into bad habits), letting your passion project die.
Although giving up might be easier at the time, you’ll regret it later.
Instead, take time to heal, recover, and solve your personal problems.
Control what you can control. Some progress is better than no progress.
However, don’t force it. Meaning, don’t rush right back in and take on more than you can physically (or emotionally) handle.
…but don’t come to a complete stop either!
Accept your situation as your new normal and do your best to find a new routine that works for you.
“One day, I had decided to create a daily blogging routine in which I would spend an hour each day researching, writing, or editing blog posts. Once I began this routine, I found myself feeling the NEED to get my blogging tasks done. This was a great way to kickstart and create lasting productivity and time management skills.”
4) The Fear of Asking For Help
To start an online business, a new side hustle, a home-based business, or a blog, you have to put in a lot of work upfront.
You aren’t sliding the business neatly into a space in your life that’s open for it.
You wish!
Your life is already full. Probably too full.
Starting an online business is more like bringing home too many groceries from the frozen food section to an overstuffed freezer. Everything you try to squeeze in causes something else to fall on your foot.
Starting an online business is more like bringing home too many groceries from the frozen food section to an overstuffed freezer. Everything you try to squeeze in causes something else to fall on your foot. Click To Tweet
In other words, it’s messy, frustrating, and you’ll probably need help fitting all the pieces together.
A good idea would be asking your kids to help out a little more around the house so you can get work done or asking a friend if you can run a few business ideas by them for a second opinion.
But what usually happens instead?
Yup, you avoid asking for help at all costs!
Why is Asking for Help So Difficult?
As an introvert, my first instinct is to turn my energy inward and try to figure everything out myself.
With such a vivid inner world and a complicated, overthinking mind … attempting to explain my problems (in enough detail) to someone else is exhausting.
But needless to say, reaching out for support requires letting people in. And when you’re new to a hobby or business, you tend to hide it from the people around you.
There’s a societal stigma that goes along with entrepreneurship. Which brings up certain fears towards talking about it with non-entrepreneurs.
For instance, the fear of getting judged or rejected. You might be afraid they’ll criticize you for spending your time and money on something that might not work out.
Or worse … What will they say if you do fail?
If you fear failure and embarrassment you’ll want as few people to know as possible, right?
On the other hand, asking for help leaves you susceptible to:
- Criticism and rejection
- Looking emotionally weak or incompetent
- Feeling like a burden on others time and energy
And you may have convinced yourself no one cares about your problems or goals, nor would they be able to help you even if you did tell them.
So instead of asking for help balancing your home life and a business venture, you try to wear every hat and go at it alone.
For example, tending to all the usual housework, yard work, and other people’s needs all day … and then working on your business at night, when you’re too mentally, physically, and emotionally drained to do the work.
I planned and built most of my blog this way early on and it was frustrating. I’d put the kids to bed, go to the gym, get home 2 AM or later, and THEN try to summon the confidence to write website pages and blog posts.
Needless to say, I wasn’t in the best condition to handle the mental demands of deep thought or the frustration of learning new things.
I made progress, but it was extremely slow and demotivating. Something had to change.
No One Succeeds Alone
“First of all, you need to stop thinking that it will inconvenience others. Asking for someone’s help is a sign of respect.”
– Forbes
Independence is great, but we aren’t meant to do everything alone. No one who becomes successful in business (or any other area of life) does it all alone.
To overcome the fear of asking for help, I had to literally ask the people around me for help!
Crazy, I know!
It was a mindset shift, like the quote above said. I had to stop seeing it as an inconvenience to them and start seeing it as a win-win scenario.
As it turns out, people (in general) want to help, contribute, feel important and useful. So you can help them feel that way by asking them to help you.
I eased into asking for help by:
■ Being more transparent about what I was working on.
To combat my fear of embarrassment and criticism, I had to lower my expectations when it came to their reactions and level of interest … which were usually non-existent.
Oh, well.
I couldn’t expect them to understand it all or to be impressed by it. It was my dream, not theirs.
And as much as I wanted them to see how divinely important my “life purpose project” was to me, I couldn’t expect that either.
■ Telling them how important this project was to me and my reasons for doing it.
Even if they couldn’t see the importance of this blog through my eyes, I still tried to show them what I intended to accomplish and why.
- I want my sons to know that I’m following my purpose and chasing my dreams. Because I want them to believe they can do the same and know their parents will always support their dreams.
- By learning how to build an online business, I’ll be in a position to teach them how to do it too. If that’s the path they choose to take. My oldest son wants to be a YouTube star and will need to understand internet marketing.
- A bigger house and financial stability for my family. My kids deserve more space and a yard to play in. Plus, the Covid pandemic showed me that anything can happen. Health loss and job loss ruined people who thought they were well off and secure.
■ Asking for their input and suggestions.
Part of being transparent means including them in my blog work the way I included them in my photography back in the day.
So I ask their opinions on colors and designs for my blog graphics. If a message doesn’t make sense to them, it probably won’t make sense to my audience either.
■ Telling them ahead of time I’ll help them when I’m finished working.
My toddler is used to having me here to play, watch videos, or do something for him at any time of day. So I have to remind him that I’m doing something important.
Then I’ll offer to take a break to play when I’m finished with the section I’m working on.
■ Networking with other bloggers by joining Facebook groups.
This last one isn’t family-related, but accepting the help of the Facebook blogging community has been such a huge blessing to my blog’s progress.
“Networking” is another area I avoided as an introvert. But getting traffic to a new blog is complicated and I had a lot of questions.
The blogging groups are so much more than an information resource. I stopped feeling as alone when I saw how many bloggers were struggling with the same problems and frustrations as me.
On top of that, I’m eternally grateful to the group members for following my accounts and sharing my blog posts.
“In normal life, we hardly realize how much more we receive than we give, and life cannot be rich without such gratitude. It is so easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements compared with what we owe to the help of others.”
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer
5) I Was Afraid to Invest in Myself
The fear of spending money was another fear that kept me from launching my blog. I was uncomfortable with the thought of spending money on myself and my business.
It was a fear of investing in myself. But not only that.
I was afraid to “lose money I might never get back. And afraid to spend money that could (or should) be used for something else. Probably because I was afraid of what others would think if I failed.
The other problem was I knew I needed to spend money to make money, but at the same time, I didn’t know which products or platforms to trust.
There’s so much information about the best practices and right way to do things online …. and they all say something different! It’s confusing, frustrating, and can easily send someone into decision fatigue.
“In today’s information age, people are drowning in knowledge and suffering from analysis paralysis. They are learning a lot of great knowledge that has the potential to change their lives, but they aren’t applying any of it…”
-Stephen James
So I avoided spending money and stayed in my comfort zone.
I tried to get around spending money by:
- Trying to learn everything on my own to avoid paying for higher quality courses
- Trying to draft legal pages for my blog on my own, even though I didn’t have legal knowledge or business law experience
- Spending hours designing and coding my blog because I refused to pay for a theme that had all the features I needed to get the appearance and functionality I wanted
- Putting off starting an email list because I didn’t want to pay for an expensive email marketing service or rent a P.O. box until I absolutely had to
But in the end, what I saved in money, I spent back tenfold in time I’d never get back.
“I think a common misconception in the blogging community is that you can blog for a minimal amount of money and make a ton of money together. I just don’t think that’s realistic. I’m not saying you have to spend a fortune, but you do need to invest in your blogging business as if it were a real business – because it IS a real business!”
Accept That You Need to Spend Money to Make Money
Money is supposed to move. It only has value when it’s in motion. And it will only grow if it’s put to work in some way.
Also, it turns out that if we’re too cheap or afraid to invest in other people’s products, we’re putting out energy that will block people from buying OUR products in the future.
My realizations (and frustrations) forced me to accept that I had to spend money to move my life and business forward.
The most important decision I made was deciding my dreams were worth more to me than the money I was saving; which meant spending money on the products and services that would make my blogging business succeed.
Products and services that would give me and my blog the best chance to grow.
Starting a Blog On a Budget
I did have a blog up by this point. However, there wasn’t much to see. I had it in “Coming Soon” mode for months.
I’d kept everything as simple (and cheap) as possible so I could put the majority of my time into creating content.
■ I went with Namecheap for my domain name. And like the name says, you get a name for cheap!
I was advised to use a different company for my domain name than for web hosting. This is in case either company has problems.
■ I used Siteground for web hosting because of their low first-year price ($3.95/mo.), the positive reviews, and the fact that they back up your site automatically. You don’t have to buy a separate plug-in to do it.
Plus, I kept seeing stories on forums and Facebook entrepreneur groups from people who started with BlueHost, had problems, and switched to Siteground. So I took the hint and went straight to Siteground.
A year and a half later and I’m extremely happy with my decision. I haven’t had any problems with the service and would recommend them to anyone.
■ To build the blog itself, I used WordPress (.org NOT .com) with the GeneratePress theme to design the site. Both are free to start and easy to use. I designed a basic site without having any previous design (or programming) experience.
Once my blog was launched and I had time to do a redesign, I upgraded to Generatepress Premium. There were a few premium features and elements I needed to make my site look exactly the way I wanted it to, without coding.
The hero image header at the top of my page was one of them.
Luckily for me, the timing worked out and they were having a Black Friday discount at the time. A year later and I’m still discovering new features built into this lightweight theme I can use to improve my blog’s design.
Create and Grow with Create and Go
Remember how I mentioned my attempt to learn everything on my own but not being sure who’s information to trust?
Well, that’s where the higher quality paid courses come into play.
I’m no stranger to online courses. Ever since I had the idea of freelance copywriting, I’d been taking courses on Udemy and Entrepreneur.com. But the courses I took cost $30 at the most. And some were even free.
These types of courses gave me a nice overview of the topics, but most of them didn’t go into enough detail for me to “proceed with confidence”.
They left me with even more questions. Which led to more procrastination.
What I needed was a mentor!
I had been following the bloggers Alex and Lauren from Create and Go for some time. And reading their free material online. I loved their down to Earth, open and honest style of teaching.
So when I decided I couldn’t do it alone and needed a trustworthy beginner blogging course, I invested in Create and Go’s Launch Your Blog Biz course. And guess what happened?
They answered so many of the questions I couldn’t find answers to anywhere else.
Update: When I first bought the course, it was called Launch Your Blog. But since then, they’ve combined two of their courses to form an even more comprehensive beginner’s blog course. Launch Your Blog Biz.
…and yes, I bought that too!
Legally Protecting Your Blog
I couldn’t legally launch my blog until I had a privacy policy, terms of service, and a disclaimer page. Other forms of online businesses have the same requirements.
And like I said earlier in this article, I wasted a lot of time trying to learn to write my own. But in the end, I decided against that idea. It wasn’t worth the risk. I wanted peace of mind.
An internet business (or blog) that doesn’t have legal pages professionally written by a lawyer, can end up getting fined or sued.
So when I was ready to launch, I invested in
A Self Guru’s legal templates bundle for my blog’s legal pages.
The legal bundle includes:
- Disclaimer template
- Terms and Conditions template
- Privacy Policy template
The templates are way cheaper than hiring a lawyer to draft them and less risky than trying to do it yourself.
They’re all written by a lawyer turned six-figure blogger, named Amira. She created them to be both comprehensive and easy to use.
All you have to do is fill in a few lines of information on each document and then copy them onto your site.
She also makes a variety of legal templates and contracts for freelancers, interior designers, real estate businesses, and a bunch of other entrepreneurial purposes.
Money Mindset Affirmations
When it came to overcoming my fear of spending (and losing) money, money mindset affirmations also played a big part.
Here are a few affirmations I still use daily:
■ I have money. I have a great relationship with money. Money comes into my life freely and stays easily. I save, spend, invest, and give money away with gratitude.
■ My inner self always thinks and feels positive about money.
■ Money can come into my life in a lot of different ways. Work is only one of them. And I can do work that I find fun and enjoyable. I know because I’ve done it before.
■ Money can help me do more with the people who are important to me and do more of the things that are important to me.
Recommended articles:
What ‘Happy Money’ Author Ken Honda Taught Me About Changing My Relationship with Money
Conclusion – Not Taking Action is a Scarcity Mindset in Action
It took me a year to launch my blog because of the mindset I had going into it.
All of the fears that kept me from launching my blog were examples of a scarcity mindset. And it kept showing its ugly face in different areas of my blogging journey.
- I didn’t believe in myself because I lacked confidence in my abilities
- I was procrastinating because I believed one mistake would mean the end of the world
- I let life get in the way because I believed others needs and wants were more important than my dreams
- I was afraid to ask for help because I assumed they had better things to do and lacked the time or resources to help me
- I was afraid to spend money because I saw money as limited and feared losing it
If you address and overcome your scarcity beliefs from the start, you’ll be less likely to hold yourself back the way I did.
So, if you’ve been thinking about starting a blog (or online business), don’t wait for the right time, for the new year, or some perfect condition.
Just do it now.
It’s one of the most inexpensive (and rewarding) businesses to start.
You get to chase your goals and make a difference in the world while exploring your passions and fulfilling your purpose.
Create a plan, take a course, make some mistakes, and most importantly …
Believe in yourself!
Yes these are all reasons I had too! Thanks for breaking it down.
I’m glad you found it relatable. Thanks for commenting!
Thank you for writing this supportive, informative post! Personally and considering the time it takes to understand the tools and features chosen to run a blog, a year sounds about right to me. Diving in is important, though, because there are a lot of things that can’t be learned without going public.
You’re welcome! Glad you found it helpful.
And you make a good point, it can take a year just to understand everything it takes to get a blog up and running. There was so much more to it than I expected.
But I feel I could’ve gotten mine up so much faster if it wasn’t for all of my insecurities … and the procrastination and extra obstacles it led to.
Thanks for commenting!
Thank you for this! After much hemming and hawing, I finally launched my blog earlier this year—after putting it off over and over again. I still have to battle the need for perfection, but I was reminded that these fears that I sometimes face are just that…fears. And sometimes they’re exaggerated and nonsensical, but even if they aren’t, I should face them anyway. Thanks for the much-needed pep talk!
Congrats on getting your blog launched! I can definitely relate. The perfectionism and fears still creep up with every new blog post or new challenge. But you’re right, we just have to keep facing them and moving forward. Thanks for commenting!
Great post! I can relate to most of it! Imposter syndrome, overanalyzing, fear of making mistakes…it’s freeing to know that there are so many of us in the same boat…and yet so many who have overcome all of these! Thanks for sharing your tips. It definitely inspired me to keep going! 🙂
Yea. It seems like so many of us go through these issues but don’t really talk about it. I’m glad you found it relatable and inspiring. That’s the effect I was going for. Thanks for reading and commenting!