On June 6th 2018 my blog will be turning a year old. I can’t believe it’s been that long. Time seems to be flying. A lot has happened since I started blogging that has shown me what a difference one year can make in your life. What started off as a way to inspire others has also helped me a lot on this journey called life.
Here’s what I’m learning and discovering from my first year of blogging:
It got me writing regularly so it became easier to write books, something I never saw myself doing anytime now. I know I would never have done that without starting with blogging first. It gave me the confidence to write more and gave me enough material to work from.
I have to be accountable. I have to be accountable to my readers. Every week I have to publish a post even on days I don’t feel like it because I’ve said I will do it and that one reader expects it. I have to live up to what I say. If I expect people to keep their word, I have to do it too. I have to be accountable to myself as well because I’ve also given myself guidelines and values to run this blog by so I have to live up to that.
To expect both highs and lows; as well as in-betweens. Some of my expectations haven’t been met and yet some have been exceeded. One post will resonate with people, whilst others not as much. For example a post that I wrote as a letter to someone feeling lost currently has 1539 views, whilst this post where I reflected on the past year has 452 views and yet another post about finding happiness in a not-so-great-at-the-moment country has 280 views. So now I write for one reader at a time, with the hope that each post gets read by someone who needs to hear what will help them in some way.
To be myself and reflect me, what I believe and what I value. It’s so easy as a blogger to look at what other bloggers are doing and how other blogs are doing and compare yourself to them. I’m one of those bloggers who know nothing about things like SEO and I’m fine with that. I’m not currently making any money from blogging itself and again that’s ok. I know why I started the blog and what I’m hoping it will lead to in the future. I just have to keep running my race and doing what I’m passionate about and hope it impacts people.
I’m running a marathon not a sprint so patience is very important. My aim is to impact people’s lives and with such an endeavor I can’t see immediate results. I just have to trust that someone somewhere is reading and what they have read will help them change their lives, dream big and follow their dreams. I have to believe that something I say or refer someone to will turn them into a believer and make them have faith that they can achieve anything they put their mind to.
Impact is not easy to measure in the short term so I have to keep going. Results may only start showing years from now. I have to remember why I started this blog in the first place and keep believing that in time lives will be transformed one person at a time.
I imagine 10, maybe 20 years from now someone is being interviewed for some great achievement and they’re asked “so what made you believe you could do this?” And he/she says “I read or heard something Sibo wrote and it made me believe anything is possible.”
To anyone considering starting blogging I say go for it. Write about what you’re passionate about so it doesn’t feel like a chore. Do it for the love of it and other benefits will come as a result. To you who’s been wondering if you should do something about that dream you’ve always had, just take the first step. Who knows what you could have achieved in a year. Take the risk rather than live with regret. Start small and build from there.
To everyone that’s ever read anything on this blog thank you for dropping by and for taking the time to read. I hope you got something from it. Feel free to drop by again for another year of transforming our lives, one day at a time, one year at a time.
