In the world of content marketing and writing, blogs are often written to solve problems and providing solutions for an audience. But for me, this blog challenge has been more about personal branding. Not only have I learned a lot about my writing, I’ve also learned a lot about myself…
Why Did I Do This?
Yes, this blog challenge took me a lot longer than 31 days to complete. However, I still wrote 31 blogs, which is probably more than I would have written in an entire year. The first goal behind this challenge was to write more for me. And while some might find it controversial to post personal blogs on my professional website, I believe that my own personal branding “tells a story”, and says a lot about me as a professional writer and entrepreneur.
So in the last six weeks, you’ve learned a lot about me—who I am, what I like, what I dislike… But what you may not know is that I’m also a completely different person than when I started this blog challenge on April 11th. Life is constantly keeping us in check, testing our faith, and shaping us a person. Like the tornado I described in this blog here, life is a constant reminder that we are not in control—no matter how much we think we are.
What I Learned from Blogging
I received a lot of feedback—both positive and negative—throughout this challenge. Some people chose to only pick out what was wrong with the blogs; others thought my blogging was an inspiration. While in another life I would have taken this personally, I learned that as a professional writer, there’s always going to be someone in the crowd who is going to knock your hard work, or make it about them.
Again, I will reiterate that this challenge was for me. And it is through this challenge that I’ve learned to simply just not care what others think—something I should have learned a long time ago.
After reviewing my website’s analytics, it was interesting to discover which blogs were the most popular.
The top 5 most popular blogs were the following:
1. Day 23 – A Difficult Point in My Life
2. Day 25 – What Makes Me Feel Better, Always
3. Day 28 – 10 Things to Do Before I Die
4. Day 26 – The Last Time I Cried
5. Day 24 – My Best Physical Features
Regardless of what you thought or what didn’t think, thank you for reading and for your support.
What I Learned About Myself
In the last 6 months, even long before I began this challenge, I began to realize a few things that I needed to change:
· I care too much about what others think.
· I am not pushy enough.
· I can’t forget about myself, my dreams or my goals.
A New Life
Tomorrow is June 1st. For me this marks the beginning of a new life—or maybe one that I just lost sight of that was meant to be all this time. All in all, time will tell, and time heals all wounds—that is the only guarantee.
In regards to me as a person, I’m going to take what I’ve learned from this blogging challenge and make a few changes:
· I care too much about what others think: I am a very compassionate and sensitive person. This is just who I am, and it will NEVER change. I’m expected to accept other people for who they are, so they can accept me for who I am.
If I love you, whether you are my significant other, a family member or a friend, I will go above and beyond for you. I often find that I kill myself for others, constantly bending over backwards, and going out of my way to help people or make them feel special at my own expense, inconvenience, and sacrifice.
But you know what? I find that in most of these situations, I receive more complaints than “thank yous”. Somewhere a long the way it just became expected of me to just sacrifice what I want or what I need to do for others who don’t even appreciate it, recognize it or even take all the credit for something I helped with.
I’m not asking for a gold medal, but a simple “thank you” goes a long way…
· I am not pushy enough. This sort of goes along with the point above. And, no, I don’t mean “pushy” in a “I need to get my way all the time” kind of way. I always try to be a patient, understanding person, but most of the time this ends in me ending up with all of the burden or making sacrifices that I can’t afford to make just to make others happy.
Well, these days are over, too. I’m going to start pushing back, standing up for myself, and putting my needs first, especially over those who are unappreciative or who are just plain selfish.
· I can’t forget about myself. A long time ago someone gave me advice about the importance of loving myself. This is why they say you have to love yourself before you can love someone else. If you don’t take care of yourself, then you can’t truly show love for another.
In the last six months, I began to feel really “lost”, and now I think I have finally figured out why… Returning to a career that I truly loved, taking more time for myself, and really thinking about what I want are all back on the priority list.
In summary, this blog challenge has taught me a lot about personal branding, writing, and even a lot about myself, who I am, and where I want to be again.
I hope you have all enjoyed reading my blogs as much as I have enjoyed writing them, and I hope this has inspired you to take up your own challenge.
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