Lessons From My 30 Day Blogging Challenge
This is my 30th post on my blog, finishing 30 days of writing a blog post every day. I’ve written about 28k words total in these published articles, which would take the average person around 2 hours to read. I won't continue to write an article every day, I may write an article tomorrow, but I definitely want to relax a bit. It’s been somewhat stressful but provided plenty of value in return — even if the blog wasn’t read by anyone else.
Challenges
Issue #1 was trying to come up with ideas for articles that I knew enough about to write a helpful article on, and that wouldn’t take too long to write. Sometimes I’d go through the day deliberating over what I would write about until finally making a decision at 11pm — spending way too much time and effort thinking about which topic I should write about. I was worried that if I were more decisive, then I might lock myself into writing an article on a topic that I haven’t thought through much. It turned out that just deciding early on gave me more time to research and write each piece, so I’ll definitely try and do that more in the future.A more general lesson can be taken from this: Quickly deciding is usually better than spending too much time deliberating if making the wrong decision has little consequence. The more decisions you make, the more mistakes you make, so you hone your intuition much more rapidly.
Issue #2 was trying to stay productive. Spending 2–5 hours on the blog each day during university term time would have been much easier if I hadn’t spent so much time watching educational videos on YouTube. Some days I’d spend 6+ hours on YouTube in the name of making me smarter and honing my ideas so I could write better articles.
I’m starting to label the time I spend reading and watching personal development material as a distraction, and not something properly productive. It definitely has its place, though I’ve totally overindulged, and I’ve paid the price by falling behind in my degree. Time for me to start to properly take control of my time and sort myself out.
The difficulty of this challenge started high and fell a bit after the first seven days, but it didn’t drop by much. The problem at the start was working out how to write effectively, then after the first week, the difficulty was in the creation of ideas that I knew enough about and wouldn’t take too long to write.
Issue #3 was fear of being judged negatively. It really hit me when I made a Facebook post about the site to share it after I’d written a few articles. I thought that people may think I’m weird, or I’ll write something that will alienate people I know. I eventually managed to categorise this problem as an irrational fear and managed to prevent my emotions taking control of my goals and aspirations. After getting through this initial period, my confidence felt stronger than ever — I think it may have improved it permanently.
Benefits
These problems haven’t really stressed me out, though it is creeping up on me. I’ve gotten so much better at regulating my emotions over the last month it’s been incredible.I want to say it’s partly because I consume so much personal development material that I’ve learned what you can do to manage your emotions really well.
Another part is writing about the topic of happiness. Writing articles forces you to research and think more in-depth into topics you think you know about, and challenges you to articulate it. If you can articulate your ideas clearly, then you understand the idea so much more than if you’d only read about it. A more robust understanding of a concept leads to finding it easier to apply.
It’s been an incredible learning experience for me, though it wasn’t my main intention for this project. My main plan for this website was for it to be a valuable resource for people wanting to learn about personal development, which I believe it is turning out to be. Not many people read the website currently, but it doesn’t matter to me too much. It would be great if more people would come to my website and learn about personal growth, though even if only a small number of people find value in it, then the investment I’ve made is worth it to me.
Writing for this blog is letting me both follow my passion and gives me a sense of meaning. That’s a pretty good combination, I don’t know of any other habits I have that have these traits. Perhaps I’ll start a YouTube channel in the next few months, I’m not sure if I want to wait until after my exams are finished in June. The time investment with the blog and revision is probably enough for me.
Noteworthy articles
Here, I’ll give a selection of 12 of the articles which I’ve written that are among the most noteworthy reads.Happiness
Attachment to Outcomes looks at what causes most negative emotion, and how we can move to feel less of it.Abundance Mindset vs Scarcity Mindset is an interesting article that will help you experience more happiness and share it with others.
Overcoming Negative Thinking explores how you can look at your current situation in life through a different perspective, to alleviate the stresses of the modern world.
Bring the Joy is another article which should help you make talking a more positive experience, and on how you can experience more joy in general.
News Addiction looks at how regularly reading the news has a lot of downsides, and one of the key issues is the media’s focus on negativity.
Personal Development
Chasing Dreams looks at dreams and aspirations; and is an encouragement to make changes in your life so that you can get closer to achieving those dreams.Limiting Beliefs is an article on realising that beliefs about the world can often be the thing holding you back in life.
Read a Book Every Week explores how reading lots of non-fiction books in the areas in which you need to improve will make you progress much faster in any area of life.
Strengths and Weaknesses looks at how to create a more well-rounded character to become better in all areas of life.
Enjoying the Process is a way of thinking that tries to make it much easier to move towards your goals and keep up good habits.
The Trial Period looks at a method of starting new habits, which I used when starting blogging.
Be a Role Model looks at how you may change your behaviour if others were looking up to you. If you were a role model to others, what would you do differently?
If you’ve read this article, I’d just like to say thank you for reading my blog, and I hope you learn something of value from it. Enjoy the rest of your day! 😊