Starting a Personal Blog
I have always had the ambition to start a YouTube channel, but as someone who is incredible camera shy, and introverted, to build up the courage to finally record and upload a video felt like an unattainable goal. But life is finite and even if its dauting, to be successful in anything you have to try. Trying to take that first step is always the most difficult part and there being so many avenues of work the options are endless.
A few weeks ago, I watched Ali Abdaal's YouTube videos "How To Build A Website in 2023" and "How Writing Online Made me a Millionaire" which truly inspired me to start a blog. He mentions how he lost the fear of putting himself out onto the internet because he had already introduced himself through blogging. This really opened my mind up to the idea of writing online. A great way to start exploring the world through the Internet and eventually hopefully build the courage to move onto YouTube. Ali Abdaal mentions a few points of his original hesitation to open a blog, some of which are very similar to mine. I've organized my list of advantages/disadvantages to opening a blog below:
Advantage:
- Declutter my mind
- Working remotely = more free time
- Transitioning to YouTube
- Opening my world
Disadvantages:
- Feeling embarrassed/unqualified about what I write about
- Family or friends finding my site and disapproving
- Being undisciplined
- Not having enough to write about
An even number list of positive changes in my life against my fears.
Advantage
Decluttering the mind
With a millions influences from the internet, society, and just life in general, my thoughts bumble up throughout the days in an incohesive manner. With so many everchanging positions and information in our world, trying to organize my opinions becomes difficult. Meditation, journaling, and now even blogging 😊 are excellent ways to clear out the congestion of mindless thoughts into definitive recorded points in time.
I do believe that recording how you think on various issues helps be a reference for how you grow into your future.
A huge portion about being online is also establishing how you want to present yourself to the world. Writing out my ideas on various topics should hopefully help me find what my niche is or simply something I really care about.
Working remotely = more free time
Time is the most expensive currency in the world. Whatever we spend it towards projects what we believe in and is important to us. With the pandemic and increased opportunity for remote working, I have been able to avoid commuting to any work place. Living out on Long Island, my commute into NYC usually took an hour and half total to get to my work place... one way 😂. A massive improvement in time conservation and energy has presented a unique opportunity that I never thought I would have as an adult.. too much free time! So far have been spending that time disintegrating my mind through Netflix and k-dramas.
I am definitely someone who when I have too much free time, spends it thinking about all the worries and pain in life. Drama from younger years, shaky relationships with family boils up to the forefront, overshadowing my present. By putting all this energy into constructive work would be hugely advantageous to my mental health.
Transitioning to YouTube
Watching YouTube is a large part of my interaction with the internet and the world. Either through learning, work, or entertainment, YouTube has become a consistent website I visit for a wide range of reasons. To be a part of a space, showcasing my life or really anything I feel would be interesting to people has been a dauting endeavor to even start. But by creating content through a more "noninvasive" approach with blogging - I hope I can eventually build the courage to take step into creating videos.
Being a content creator requires a more entrepreneurial approach to work. Being an entrepreneur is probably one of the most stressful yet liberating positions you could have where everything is within your control. As someone who has worked in corporate America since graduating college, to be my own boss on my own schedule would be the true American dream.
Opening my world
Being an introvert and a homebody who works remotely, there aren't many incentives for me to try new things or go out of my comfort zone. But one of the disadvantages is the serious limitations of my small world. Being online means my entire sphere of influence from amazing people can dramatically increase. My involvement in a space where billions of people come to while still maintaining my innate personality is a great opportunity. One I hope I don't end up regretting passing up on due to my fears
Disadvantage
Feeling embarrassed/unqualified about what I write about
Public speaking or just voicing a thought that could be considered insensitive due to my lack of understanding on a situation is probably one of my greatest fears when attempting to speak with potentially billions of people. But how can anyone be right all the time. More often then not someone in the world will disagree with you and even if someone does criticize me, it would be growth for me in the end anyway.
As they say, "Practice does make perfect."
Everyone has opinions and I know I will try my best to speak on topics with consideration for others. That really is the best anyone can do on the internet. Nobody has all "this" figured out so trying your best is all anyone, most of all yourself can expect of you.
Family or friends finding my site and disapproving
What would my family think about me writing online about my life? The various stresses a 20-something year old has and what my ideology's are - how arrogant to presume people would want to read about that! Obviously an incredibly negative outlook on the worst thought I could have about the people who do care for me. They probably would support me fully and would actively encourage me to go for whatever my aspirations are. Although, some corner of my mind will always incite my greatest fear of judgement from those I care about - that will probably always exist, yet that ugly corner shouldn't stop me from still trying something new.
If anyone I do know is not in favor of my blogging then that person probably has too much free time on their hands anyway.
Being undisciplined
Working a 9-5 job, even if it is remote, is exhausting. Working as a DevOps Engineer (field within computer software engineering) work can pile up and never seem to come down. Finding the energy and motivation to keep going is definitely not resources within me that are consistent and do start to dwindle toward the end of the week. Knowing consistency in writing content is key to success, finding the discipline to keep going regardless of the million reasons not to is something to be learned.
Learning how to be disciplined is a skill that requires work and time put towards it everyday. Life can change completely if I establish routines and set aside dedicated time toward my goals.
Not having enough to write about
Inspiration can be hard to find, especially when you have started to run out of ideas. But this fear is pretty low on my list since when I've started writing this post I naturally started to find other topics to write about. So far what I have found with have a few draft posts is that the ideas will come to you... once you actually start of course!
Conclusion
There are always millions of reasons not to do something in life. Some reasons are completely valid while others can be considered excuses. In this post I have outlined what some of my concerns/fears are and immense benefits with personal blogging. Lets see how this goes.
