I space off into the distance as blog post ideas run rampant in my brain. I’ve been doing this for about 3 years so why isn’t my blog started, thriving and established? Well, there’s a huge plethora of reasons that may sound extremely familiar to you as well!
“Clients come first!” I don’t know how many times I have used this brilliant excuse. I schedule myself time to write then conveniently decide to schedule a client consultation or even run behind on a deadline. I say, “Hey! I need to take care of the clients I already have first before I write to the ones I don’t have.” Valid. BUT couldn’t I have scheduled the client meeting another time? How much time did I spend doing less important tasks that caused me to run behind on the deadline? TIME BLOCK and make things happen!
“I don’t feel inspired!” Yeh. Those great ideas freeze and hide as soon as the blank page opens up on the screen. I start fidgeting and thinking of other things to do. I tell myself I can’t write well if words are not just pouring out of me. I read a great post by Lindsey Nadler on Instagram (check it out here) where she says “Content is a muscle that you train and flex. With intention, confidence and the courage to put yourself out there even when it’s not perfect.”
“I don’t have enough to say!” What? We are not writing a research paper or novel here. I’ve heard it said that people have an 8 second attention span nowadays, so get the idea on paper (checking facts where necessary of course) and PUT IT OUT THERE.
“It’s not perfect.” I just checked my “needs editing” folder and there are several completed blogs sitting in there that I decided weren’t perfect enough to post. They were created other times I got the blog posting inspiration or when I took a class. And so, they have sat in there, some nearly 3 years old. "Done is better than perfect" is one of my favorite mottos, so why haven’t I posted them? I dunno. No good reason other than the fact that I never went back to them and forgot they were there!
“I don’t have any ideas.” I know what you are saying right now; the first sentence in this post was “I space off into the distance as blog post ideas run rampant in my brain.” These moments are gold. Instead of just letting the ideas slide around in my brain, how ‘bout I write them down? Oh wait…. Yep, I’ve even done that before! Next to the folder that says, “needs editing” there’s of course an empty “completed” folder, but next to that there’s a document I made called “52 Blog Post Ideas.” One day last year I had been struck by the lightening bolt of ideas and I just started typing up titles. I then even made new Word documents and placed the title at the top so they would be ready for me to work on them. Uh huh, I forgot all about that, too. Had enough ideas to post once a week for the entire year.
“I’m not an expert.” Breathe. Call your coaches, Jon Royal and Sarah Sparks. What would they say? What would I say if I were my best friend? I’d say, “you are a 50-year-old woman with a lifetime of experience, education and intelligence. You have a special gift only you can give. Breathe. Listen to your divine guidance and let it speak.”
There’s a TON more reasons, but this just about covers the main ones. The point is there’s no reason I can’t do this. I’m a good writer that will only get better with practice. I am connected with my divine self and have much to share with you all. I can’t keep it to myself. I hope this gets you inspired to get started writing AND SHARING too!
PS. So I’m totally laughing! After writing this, I went to my website to figure out how to create my blog page and get this posted. I was surprised to see that I had already created it AND that there was a post sitting in it that I never hit “publish” on! I wrote a contributing post to FemCity, “How to Look Your Best on Zoom.” It’s been published elsewhere, but not on my own DANG PAGE! Sigh. It’s a process, ‘yall.
