I SPENT YEARS TALKING ABOUT BLOGGING BEFORE LAUNCHING THE AGE GAP MAMA.
I’ve always been the person full of random knowledge that people come to for advice and questions. And even though I am hands down one of the greatest (self-proclaimed), google researchers on the planet and I’ve always known someone outside of my immediate friends could benefit from this hard work. It still took 3 different URLs, 5 years of drafting ideas, and a sh*t ton of false starts to get here, and every day I am still peddling through fear. Fear someone will make fun of me, fear of embarrassing my family, fear of not being authentic, and just absolutely sucking.
At some point, I chose to wrestle through my fear and figure out the WHY behind my excuses, and so can you.
Let’s start with: Identifying your excuse.
My favorite excuse is always father time. “I never have enough time to work on my blog.” Does this sound like your excuse? Or is it “no one will read my stuff” or “I don’t know what I’m doing!”
No matter how you frame them, ALL your excuses fall into one of these three categories prioritization, self-worth, or fear. Let’s be clear ALL these excuses are full of sh*t, and you know it.
I always default to father time because, well, he cannot be influenced by me; I have no control over him. THESE ARE All LIES! Well, sort of. Yes, You have no control over time, but you can control WHAT you spend your time on. I am not trying to use that horrible quote, “We all have the same hours in the day.” While on the surface, that might be true, I doubt Beyonce is trying to create a blog between cooking 3 meals, 2 snacks, doing dirty laundry, and cleaning up toys.
I got over that excuse, by reframing my statements and prioritizing.
Instead of saying “I don’t have the time,” I switched my statement to ” I chose to spend my time doing (insert any time-wasting activity yep I see you IG), instead of working on my dream of being a blogger.” Doing that made me feel stupid. Feeling stupid gave me that AH-HA moment I needed. I was prioritizing things that weren’t pushing me to my goal.
Look, unless you can pay someone to make time for you, HELLO PERSONAL CHEF, you’ll need to find snippets of time to make your dreams come true. 5 minutes here, 10 minutes there, that’s a good starting point. If your not willing to find the time, be honest with yourself, and stop blaming the clock.
Excuse 2- No one will read my stuff.
This is a huge fear of mine, but when I strip back the layers of that statement, what I’m really saying is, “I don’t think I’m good enough.” This one stings A LOT. The world we live in sells a dream of perfection, and for a long time, the faux lens of perfection messed with my worth. Every time I would try to launch my blog, it didn’t feel authentic; it felt sugarcoated and staged and just not real. It took years of an honest conversation with my support group with a therapist with myself to find my confidence, and until I was able to find that, I was never launching any damn blog, let’s be real.
I know for sure to start a blog; you don’t need to be an expert in anything; you need to be you.
I don’t read blogs to learn the science behind things. There are experts, research papers, and expensive college degrees that can teach me science. Like most people, I read blogs to learn tips from people like me on how to do things in my everyday life better.
What I’m saying is, people will look at your blog to learn your perspective, to hear your opinion. I won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but I know if I focus On being open and honest, I will attract my tribe, who knows that I’m worthy and loves my blog.
The vulnerability to be open and authentic will only come with confidence and knowing your self-worth. Take the time you need to get there.
I think you meant to say, “I’m terrified.” EVERYTHING NEW FEELS SCARY.
Repeat after me – EVERYTHING NEW FEELS SCARY. No one knows what they are doing when they start something new, even if you’ve read the manual, even if you have a mentor that gives you every exact detail the first time we do something, it is scary. Blogging is even scary. Being a blogger requires vulnerability, consistency, and accountability. It forces us to dig into our biggest insecurities and put them out there for everyone. There is no way to get over fear but to lean into it.
Suppose these excuses sound familiar start peeling back the layers of them. Strive to understand the meaning behind your excuses and commit to tackling them one bite at a time. Link your blog in the comments below so I can check out and praise your awesomeness.
