Reblog – Blogging Truths Be Told: You WILL Be Tested as a Blogger

You know what? Well, you probably don’t, so let me just come right out and say it — first thing. I totally apologize for not sticking with what I planned to do for today. But I have to deviate from my best-laid plan — the plan where I was to continue the discussion about the monetization strategy of tying your blog to what you love (or enjoy) doing. This post was supposed to be part 2 of Blogging Truths Be Told: One Way to Monetize Your Blog is to . . . , but I had a past acquaintance show up in its place. HINT . . . HINT . Look at today’s blog title.

Yes indeedie. I have a fresh reblog for you today. And it’s not just any ole reblog. Here’s how this “oldie but goodie” came into my vantage point for this “Blogging Truths Be Told”. It just so happened that “You WILL Be Tested as a Blogger” was the next blogging blog post that was on the schedule to be recorded for my podcast. (Yes, I do have moments where I stick with the regularly-scheduled programming.) And as I was reading and verbally recording this article of mine, I had to stop and reflect upon the fact that this particular post was exactly what I needed at that point in my timeline. Exactly what I needed!

Isn’t it funny how the perfect (or almost perfect) words can carry enough power to lift you up and motivate you at those moments when you need them the most? I ain’t gonna lie — I was having a moment this week where I was temporarily in my woe-is-me feelings because I didn’t reach a business goal that I was hoping to finally hit. The thing never materialized in any way, shape, or form. And here’s one of the aspects I love about having a home where my own inspirational content resides: not only are my words meant to inspire/encourage others who can use them, but this same content should also be a pick-me-up to the very one who writes it.

So, as I was reading through this previously-published post that I’m going to share again (highlighted below), the words reminded me that just because you don’t accomplish something you’ve set out to do right then and there doesn’t mean that it will never materialize. Sometimes the answer isn’t “NO!”; it may just be “not now.” And that’s the thing about blogging (and many other creative endeavors) — it’s a LOOOONNNNNNGGGGGGG game. You’ve got to be in it to win it for the full length of the marathon. Processes take time and your blogging prowess takes time to build up. Time AND patience to build up. Not to mention dedication and consistency. You’ll hear these commodities and/or attributes mentioned repeatedly in the discussion below.

As a matter of fact, why don’t I just stop this introduction right here and let this blog post (dated July 9, 2021) do the talking.

And here we go . . .

Every once in a blue moon, I’ll hear something about the “overnight” blogging success story. And because I don’t have first-hand experience with online overnight success or personally know someone who has, I can’t really identify with that particular blogging experience. I’m not saying that it doesn’t happen. I’m sure it can and has happened, I just don’t think it happens much.

Most bloggers out here will tell you that blogging is a major commitment that shouldn’t be entered into lightly — at least not where the career blogger is involved. You’ll never hear the career blogger . . .

• refer to his or her content creation as a hobby. (He or she views it as a profession.)
• state, “I’ll get to it when I can — when it’s most convenient for me.” (He or she creates time for it.)
• think of his or her work as an afterthought. (He or she considers it a priority.)

Serious bloggers, who are looking at this platform as either a way to draw attention to their online businesses or are making income directly from the platform, understand that blogging requires a whole lotta lotta. You’re on the platform daily (or almost daily), possibly multiple times throughout the day, and sometimes for long stretches of time. 

For these bloggers, the profession of blogging is not seen as something you just carry out on a whim. There’s a plan, a deliberate strategy of action that formulates, carrying the writer through his or her goal-oriented actions for the day. It’s all about being bloggingly purposeful with what he or she does, so the wheels don’t keep spinning with no destination in sight.

Let me just stop here for a moment and get deep into some blogging truth. 

You know those successful bloggers that you seem to hone in on and want to emulate (at least their level of success, anyway)? Well, those individuals had to pay their blogging dues just like everyone else. They went through their own content creation struggles during their journeys, similar to the variety you may be experiencing right now. And I bet they continue to have challenges as they travel along life’s way. Their current struggles may look very different than what they looked like when starting out, but they’re real just the same.

Time and patience are no respecters of persons. They’re required of each and everyone of us no matter where we fall on the content creation timeline.

When you look at these notable bloggers and the success that follows them, please note that they accumulated their achievements over time. And many of them built up their legacies over YEARS of time. Understand where I’m coming from? Yeeeeeeaaaaaarrrrrrssss! 

It took years before they saw any noticeable results from all the hard work they put into their blogging careers. Remember that, before you go off and start feeling sorry for yourself.

And while I can painfully relate to how newbie bloggers feel when they first come into the blogosphere, where they have all these high hopes of putting their first blog post out and it reaching the masses, I also know that reality checks are a thing and can put you in your creative space and place quickly.

There are many millions of blogs out here, so the chances of your content being found is somewhat of a miracle at best (at first). But that’s where hard work (with a whole lot of targeted strategy), dedication, patience, and consistency play a big part in gaining some traction over time.

So, my sympathy pains are a little dulled out when it comes to the instant gratification seeker, because I know that blogging requires most individuals to go through a series of growing pains, the blogging tests of will power, just like everyone else. You WILL be tried in this blogging space. My question is — are you true? Are you true to blogging as a career? Do you see it as your purpose-driven mission . . . your calling . . . your BIG WHY? And here’s the deal: if you don’t, you may not be equipped to take on the blogging test of time and patience.

As a matter of fact, I don’t recall there being any kind of “stamp of dismissal” that’s placed on bloggers, indicating that they’re exempt from gaining their successes through hard work, dedication, patience, consistency, and time.

Here comes a PIVOT in my discussion for a moment or two. I promise it’s relevant to this blog post, though. So, just bear with me.

I’m getting soooooooooooooo excited for the summer Olympics. I enjoy so many different types of sports and witnessing athletes perform at their highest skills levels. And it doesn’t take me being an athlete to appreciate one and draw inspiration from the process he or she goes through to get GOOD at what he or she does.

Although I’m not an athlete, I have a son who played basketball from the time he was 4 or 5 through most of high school, so I’ve experienced being the mom of a student athlete and have some awareness of the rigorous schedules, routines, activities, and mental and physical conditioning that’s involved in improving one’s athletic craft. From the outside looking in, it was a rough calling. And I can only imagine the kind of grueling rigors that are placed at the professional level to get those athletes’ bodies to do things that us mere mortals can’t do on our best physical day.

These special individuals give their everything to excel at their skills. They sacrifice A LOT. I won’t even go into all of that. But just know: when you’re putting your mind and body to the test daily, that’s plenty of YOU that’s being tried to see if you’re true. 

And those athletes who stood the test of time and patience went into their future areas of genius, knowing they were going to have to put in the hard work, dedication, and consistency to become the success stories that they are. If they didn’t know the sacrificial requirements going into it, they found out quickly thereafter. And, they stayed anyway.

They stuck it out.

They ran their races.

They finished their courses.

They excelled at their crafts.

And they did all of the above, knowing that they could only do so by being patient with the process and understanding that processes take time.

So my friend, what are you going to do? Are you going to stick it out, run your race, and finish your course so you can excel in your blogging career? Just remember: those who refuse to be tried to see if they’re true, get weeded out. Don’t get thrown among the weeds, grow patiently where you’re planted.

And I’ll leave you with this timely excerpt from my self-published book, Playground Instruction for the Growing Adult, which I think I might have used for a previous blog post. But, it also works for this one, so I’m going to freely use it again. 

. . . do yourself a huge favor by remembering the following quote any time you’re ready to call it quits on the process that leads to the achievement of your ultimate goal: “Grow where you are planted.”

“Grow where you are planted” immediately takes me to a place of acknowledging the positives in challenging situations that present themselves to you. There’s something empowering about the realization that there’s always a lesson to learn and opportunities to grow, even in the most difficult or uncomfortable of circumstances.