Blogging is like life – 14 lessons I learned from blogging
After travel blogging since September 2010 I have realized that blogging is like life in so many ways. Blogging itself teaches me about life, and vice versa. And you can never learn everything about life at once; nor about blogging either. I learned from blogging so many things that also help me to understand life better.
14 lessons I learned from blogging.
I put up a list of things why blogging is like life:
1. You never know what people will like and what they will not. You do something in life you thought was a great idea but you get only criticism as an answer. Or the other way round – doing something silly in your opinion, might look ridiculously awesome to the rest of people. Same thing happens with blogging and your posts. Everything you do is risky. You can never please everyone, but why would you even try to do so? Please yourself, it’s your life!
2. Interesting. Not boring things are usually the best ones! And it is very easy to make both your blog and life interesting, at least to you if not to others as well.
3. Both are completely unpredictable. Everything can seem perfect when you go to sleep, and then you wake up and find out it is far away from reality. Maybe there was a new plugin or WordPress update that messed up with your blog so much it makes you mad, or something weird happened when you were asleep and it affected your life.
4. There are bad moments and then there are good ones. Nothing is perfect. Perfectness might be one of the very few impossible things on Earth. There will always be days when you want to quit and think you can’t do it any more. Yes, both in blogging and life.
5. Hard to understand. There’s always something new to learn. Sometimes life is difficult to understand, so is blogging. Many people out there have no idea about hard life of bloggers and they think we do nothing but relaxing on the beach. Let me tell you, that’s not true!
6. You need patience. Things will not happen overnight, get ready for it! This has always been one of the most difficult things for me as patience is not one of my virtues. The word patience didn’t even exist in my dictionary before I’d started blogging. If I wanted something, I wanted it right now.
7. Discipline. To be successful in life or blogging, you need discipline. If you repeat things that do work and change those that don’t, you will eventually become good at what you are doing. Remember, great achievements take time. Rome was not build overnight.
8. Silly questions. We all hate them but you should prepare yourself for many silly questions about blogging and life. The worst thing is that it’s always the same questions over and over again. But well, it teaches us even more patience.
9. There’s always something to improve. You can never be done with blogging. Trust me, it is a never-ending journey full of improvements, changes, learning, efforts and hard work. Same applies to life.
10. There are lovers and haters in life and also in blogging. Some will love and support everything you do, while the others will always just criticize you no matter what you do.
11. Jealousy. There’s always someone who will be jealous of you, your life and your blogging. Get over it, period. It’s their problem, not yours. It just means you are doing something right ;)
12. Emotions evoke other emotions. If you write about emotional stuff on your blog, amazing or horrible, people will respond to it as it touches their feelings in a way. The same happens in life in general.
13. People think that what they see at first sight, must be true. They can’t be bothered to ask you about details, they don’t care what is true or false, what really happened, what you meant when you said this or that on your blog, or what was that thing in your life. People will make their own opinion about your blog and about your life no matter what. And it’s their right to do so but it does not mean what they think is true.
14. It is not easy to find balance, not in life, not in blogging. I learned from blogging that to manage time properly is always the biggest problem for many of us.
Crazy Sexy Fun Traveler
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Comment@ The Girl with the Suitcase:
I know you agree as you are a blogger too ;)
The Girl with the Suitcase
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So true!
Crazy sexy fun traveler
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Comment@ Lilian:
Oh yes, patience is difficult to learn :) Thanks for commenting Lilian and good luck with your new blog ;)
Lilian
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Love this post, especially because I’m new to blogging. There are a lot of lessons here that I’ll try to keep in mind, particularly the patience thing!
Crazy sexy fun traveler
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Comment@ Si:
Yep, it does! Too many silly questions asked on the road, I guess you got many of them too :D
Si
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Like what kinds of silly questions? Doh! That was probably one right now. Haha. I’ve been blogging nearly 12 months and I’d agree with everything this post. Like in life, though, the positives outweigh the negatives.
Crazy sexy fun traveler
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Comment@ Bjorn Karlman:
Bjorn, you see, emotions always work! :)
Bjorn Karlman
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Excellent post!! I really liked the point you made on emotions… there is a transparency in blogging that is so important. If you are not real, people can sniff it out… more than you realize.
Thanks, I really enjoyed the read…
Crazy Sexy Fun Traveler
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Comment@ Micamyx|Senyorita:
So my observations were right :)
Micamyx|Senyorita
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I just nod in every point you mentioned here!
Diana & Jose
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Great tips and observations. Can’t wait to live these on our own once we become nomads in a couple of months. Some of the points you mention I kind of see them coming and I really hope we can manage them properly.
Congrats on this great blog of yours!
Cheers!
Crazy Sexy Fun Traveler
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Good luck with it :)
Crazy Sexy Fun Traveler
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Comment@ Anita Mac:
Great people on the road always make it nicer and more memorable :) I find it very difficult to find a balance too.
Anita Mac
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Great lessons! They are true of everything, not just blogging! Still working on the balance one – never seem to be able to get that one quite right! Some days I absolutely love the unpredictable nature of it all – but mostly, I am loving the people I meet! When you meet some great people…the not so great ones just melt away!
Crazy sexy fun traveler
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Comment@ The Guy:
So sweet! When I find out how to be a successful blogger, I can let you know :)
The Guy
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Some great tips there and thanks for sharing your experiences. For newbies like me it is great to understand your experiences and how you’ve become as successful as you have. Keep it going.