This might get personal, but by telling you my story I hope that I might be helping one of your and if that’s the case then I will be happy.
I’m not a motivational speaker or coach or anything like that. But I have been there. So here it goes.
I can say right from the start what was stopping me from starting blogging, but also from creating content on Youtube is this: Imposter syndrome. What is imposter syndrome? It is that voice in your head that is telling you “who do you thing you are that you want to write or talk about this and that?” and for that I have one answer:
Screw that voice. That voice is not you. That voice is the voices of all the insecure or scared people you have met in your life, that are full of negativity and don’t share your views.
Screw them.
You are not an imposter. You want to write or to vlog, or to be out there, because you want to. Because you have a need to do so, because you do have another voice inside you that tells you “do it, do it”. This is the voice you should listen to.
But I get it why you might be hesitant. I was like that.
I liked writing, even though I would never call myself a writer. At school I had bad grades in writing papers. My essays where at best mediocre graded.
However when blogging became a thing in the late 90s early 00s, I loved writing stuff. And in a different language than my mother tongue (I’m greek and I blog in english). Which is why you could find grammar mistakes here and there… sorry.
However, one good thing about blogging back then, is that it had a certain sense of anonymity. I could write behind a screen, behind a nickname. But still, I was always conscious of how other will see what I’m writing. I was shy.
Are you shy?
This is not the case now obviously, but I have gone back and forth in various platforms, different blog names, until I felt good using my actual name on my blog 🙂
But there have been many years where I was thinking if I should blog anonymously. I didn’t dare using my name, until recently.
And to be honest, going on YouTube helped me a lot to get over my imposter syndrome. I was watching a lot of youtubers that I wouldn’t call motivational speakers, but they did offer advice on how to get started.
Gary Vee is one of them. He is a businessman so he is creating content about various things. Not all of it applies to me. But his content about making content on Youtube or online in general, by telling to people don’t listen to the negativity, is really good advice and it’s what helped me. He uses this example of not letting “johnny342” or “karen653”, bring you down with their negative comments. They have a bad day, or a bad life. And what they leave as a comment is definitely not what defines you.
Now, I’m not telling you to go to YouTube to achieve, but search for other sources that might help you overcome your shyness or imposter syndrome. Or just keep reading here 🙂 But don’t wait, even if it feels scary. Start blogging now. If you haven’t set up a WordPress blog yet, just start writing content on google drive, on a doc, until you have your site up and running. It’s free!
Other reasons that might stop you from blogging
Perfection. If you are a perfectionist, you might be in trouble 🙂 and I say that just to help you but perfectionism is the enemy of execution. Don’t worry too much about the design of your blog, or if that pixel is not in its correct place. Just publish your work. You need to get going and it will get easier and better with time. Just let go and publish.
Fear. I get it. And it is connected with what I said above about imposter syndrome. Personally, it is highly connected with self confidence. And self confidence, or lack of it, can be – at least in my case – a result of my upbringing. I don’t mean that I grew up in a toxic or violent environment, but I can say that I see other friends who are more self confident and I understand now – since I became a mother – that a great deal has to do with how parents help kids build their character. But I won’t go deeper than that, because I’m not an expert. This is just my opinion and my personal experience. But my point is that, try and work around it. You are awesome and don’t let fear stopping you from doing what you want to do. Do you need encouragement? Let me know in the comments and I’ll encourage the sh*t out of you 😀
You are awesome and you can do it. Ignore the little voice telling you “who do you thing you are”. Instead say. I’m me and I’m awesome and I’m going to blog!
So go do that.
