A little over a year ago, I decided to start my blog. After all, I was going to have loads of time to write. I was pregnant with my second child, a surprise, and because of it (her, really), I decided to take about a year off in order to deal with the pregnancy and to be present for the crucial first several months of her life. I decided to not work the entire time I was pregnant. Not only did I have a complication, but my normal, every day job is freelance and high stress with long, crazy hours. And I figured no one would want to hire a pregnant person anyways, because this is how it is in the good ol' USA.
What is it I do, you may be asking? I work in the entertainment industry as an accountant. Good thing is I can pick and choose when I want to work and with whom, and, luckily, I usually end up working with friends. TV and film are incredibly fun and insanely stressful to work in. I do love my industry but I have been toying with the idea to do something else, or at least something to supplement my time, something creative to do between gigs.
So getting back to the blog...
I travel quite a bit, both personally and for work. It's something I truly love, along with photography, and I decided a blog would be the best way to get my photography out there and to write. I love to write and have always kept a journal since I was a child. It's ingrained in my DNA somehow. So, why not start a blog, I thought.
With the help of my partner, I chose a domain and hired an old college friend to do the design. I went a step beyond and signed up for this site to be e-commerce down the line (and, yes, I am paying for it despite having nothing to show for it). I loved the design my friend did with my blog. And I was motivated, at least at first. Then I got nervous thinking no one would read it, and then I stopped writing for a while. Yes, I had a newborn a couple months after this blog was born, but was that really the reason I stopped writing?
What happened? Well, there are many excuses I could use...
I have two children.
I have a newborn.
I'm tired all the time.
I have a chronic illness (which is true and I'm on meds, so I'm really okay).
No one will read it.
I have writer's block.
There are too many travel bloggers out there. Why would people read mine over theirs?
The Wix blog app isn't that user friendly and I can't figure out how to categorize my posts. (This is actually a point of contention for me right now).
What will people think of my blog? How if they hate it?
I don't know what to write.
I'm not making any money, so why should I bother?
I should have started with a free blog site instead of investing all this money into this website I am not putting much effort in.
I have too many other things to do, like clean my house.
I'll get to it later.
I don't have time. (This is a really big one, and an excuse all of us use at one time or another).
Excuses, excuses! Amiright?
Well, I am done with the excuses, and not writing regularly as I should. And want to know something? I pretty much have hundreds of blog posts all written out already! Loads of content is just sitting in the travel journals I have been keeping over the years. I literally have to just pull one out and copy what I hand-wrote in the past. Yes, I need to edit and also locate the corresponding photos, but I have loads of content already down on paper!
And that is what's driving me crazy. What is my problem?
Maybe I am just a lazy blogger.
Maybe you're reading this and can relate.
Well, here's what we need to do. We need to JUST DO IT. Just write. Just post. Take action.
Over time, we will gain the readers for out blog.
Over time, we will generate more viable content.
And over time, we will be so happy we put in the effort to put our creativity, and ourselves, out there into the world!