My blog is my anchor point. It’s like when mothers get worried about their bachelor sons and say:
“Let’s get him married now. The bad habits will disappear once he has responsibility.”
Yes, I admit it. Without my blog, I’m a pod without an engine floating in outer space. I’d have no discipline and no routine, and my life would be completely topsy-turvy if it weren’t for my blog.
Over time, I’ve learned that it is one thing to have a blog, and it’s another thing to own a blog.
Owning a blog, akin to having a garden, is a beautiful meditative art. It helps you connect with yourself. You watch something grow before your eyes. You tend to it each day and wait (not desperately, but expectantly) for that flower to appear. When it does, you don’t scream with joy. You just feel a happy, contented smile come over your face.
For someone like me, running a blog isn’t just about realizing my dreams. It’s not just about sharing travel stories with those who care to read them. It’s not just an attempt to keep traveling for the rest of my life and call it a ‘career’. My blog is a way to find my way back to orbit and stay connected. It helps me live a happy life.
It might seem crazy, but here are five ways in which my blog is making me a better person by teaching me great life lessons.
5 Lessons learned from Blogging:
1.Perseverance:
Six months of research and execution has helped me understand the potential of blogging. The magnitude is only just dawning on me. The sky is really the limit.
I can take this blogging thing anywhere; make it as big as I can dream. The only thing that’s required of me is to keep at it.
Both dreaming and doing.
Even though our dreams can seem massive and scary, and our mortal selves too fragile, it’s not that bad. All we need to do is take it one day at a time and with baby steps. Every little action toward the right direction will eventually add up. Nothing goes to waste.
2.Determination:
To keep giving and giving and not getting anything back in return can be a bummer. It’s demotivating, frustrating, and leads to a lot of self-doubting.
To build up a blog from scratch, to create great content, to create a user-friendly interface for your readers to be able to navigate through your content better, AND to act as your blog’s PR agent by taking what you created out into the world – that’s a lot of work.
And as far as I know, our minds are our biggest enemies. We pull ourselves down when the going gets tough. But the biggest favor I can do for myself and my blog is to push through ‘just another day’.
The only meaningful thing in life is what I choose to do with my time. If I give up, then I have wasted all the time I had invested in the first place. That’s the worst. That means I’d have to go back to step one and start all over again. Things become meaningful only when you give them meaning.
3.Love Yourself:
Six months of blogging has made me feel that it doesn’t matter if the grass is greener on the other side. It doesn’t even matter if there is grass on the other side. Maybe there’s ice cream. Who knows?
All I care about is the blog I started and the hard work I have been putting into it. My blog is teaching me how to love what I do. And that’s the best thing to learn because that also means that I am learning to respect my dreams and am ready to do all that needs to be done.
There’s this perpetual sense of curiosity. We ask questions like, “Am I getting the best I could be getting right now?” And, “What’s my neighbor doing?” It’s because we love ourselves and we feel we deserve the best the world has to offer. But greed makes us stop loving what we have, and we focus on what others have instead. The ideal way is to remember that the best comes when you make something of any opportunity.
4.Patience:
Anyone who blogs professionally knows that this isn’t some kind of shortcut to success or money.
Blogging requires years of dedicated hard work. And the more I realize this, the more patient and calm I find myself becoming. Blogging has made me realize that there’s enough time for everything if you have patience.
I’ve learned that rushing through anything is a waste of time. Even in dire situations where there is a serious dearth of time, a patient mind achieves way more than a chaotic and rushed one. So just breathe. Relax. Take it easy. There’s enough time in life for work, for chilling, for spending time with friends and family, and for success. You’ve just got to spread it all out.
5.Commitment:
In sickness and in health, my blog is a piece of me.
I dreamed it up, and I started it.
If I don’t post, no one else will.
This is a part of the world that was born out of me, and it will die if I don’t stand by it.
Of course, my endeavors might not be up to everyone’s expectations. Some people might find it silly. Some might think it’s a waste of time. Well, I have two choices. I can agree with them and give up on what I started, or I can continue to believe in my ideas and carry on doing what I do because I enjoy doing it.
Commitment is simply the courage to stand by what you believe in. There will be contradictory voices all around you. Sometimes you will find your inner voice telling you all kinds of negative things. But that’s really sad. You have to learn how to enjoy a party alone before you can invite others to it.
LEARNING THROUGH BLOGGING:
I am grateful that I took those first steps down this path. Being a blogger has taught me a lot about myself and my life.
I’ve learned to be true to myself, and I’ve learned to always stay curious.
Above all, I’ve learned that life is the best teacher.
In what ways has blogging made you a better person? Let me know in the comments below!
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