My 1 Year of Blogging!

365 days later.

Exactly 365 days ago, I told the world about my blog. There was so much fear running through my mind, and I didn’t know how it was going to go. But the moment that I told people about it, there was no turning back.

Why I started my blog

Pretty much a very lame reason but… I loved blogs!

Over the years I’ve followed different blogs religiously. My free time was spent more on reading blogs than watching TV. Whenever I had the chance to get on the internet I would be reading a blog.

I loved reading blogs because I loved resonating with those who were writing it! They provided valuable tips and insights that I applied to my own life, and I just felt inspired in general.

So why not create my own? I tried making different websites before where I enjoyed writing stuff, so why not give this another shot?

Of course, getting from wanting to start a blog to actually starting a blog was one path to another. I’ve wanted to start a blog for TWO YEARS before I actually started it. I wanted to start my blog in November 2018, but I feared of other peoples’ opinions and my own self-doubt!

Then, in June 2020, that was when I decided to buy the domain for my blog! But of course, the perfectionism side got to me and it took me an additional five months to customize my website to “perfection”, write “perfect” blog posts so that there’s something to show when I launch it, and just wait for a “perfect” time.

Honestly, I don’t know what got me to decide to launch it and stop procrastinating on it. Let me just say that I finally told people about it November 1 2020, and there was no turning back. You can probably see that it took me two years to actually get from wanting to start a blog to actually starting a blog. Do I have any regrets for not starting earlier? To be honest, not really.

I’m glad I started when I did because I felt for some reason it was just a “perfect time”. And I knew deep down that the longer I delayed it, the less likely that I’ll ever do it.

Ups and Downs

My first year of blogging wasn’t smooth sailing, and I know that other experienced bloggers say the same as well (because I read their blog posts on their first year of blogging, what’s new).

If there was just one way I could describe my first year of blogging, it was this:

Trial & Error

My first year of blogging contained a lot of trial and error. It was for a lot of things! From the type of content I was creating, to my posting schedule, to the other platforms I was promoting my blog posts on… there was so many mistakes made along the way.

I wish I could say that by now, I have found something that had worked and I’m going to stick with. But the truth is, I still have a long way to go before I do that. I actually believe that I’m probably not going to get to a stage where I never need trial and error anymore… and that’s okay!

I think that life is just meant for trying things out, and see if they work or not. We’re going to go through changes in our lives whether we like it or not, and sometimes with those changes we have no choice but to change our strategy.

Many Lessons Learned Along the Way

If you’ve read my 100th blog post, I definitely recommend that you have a read! I listed down 10 self-improvement lessons that I have learned so far from my journey of blogging. I won’t expand on them anymore, but I’ll list them down here:

1. Consistency is Everything
2. It’s Okay to Have Unproductive Days Every Now and Then
3. It’s More About Managing Your Energy than Managing Your Time
4. Taking Care of Your Health (sleep, exercise) counts as being productive
5. Pursue passions for me, not for other people (otherwise it’s a waste of time)
6. Comparing myself to other people will not do me any good
7. One way to get over fear is to actually take action
8. Mistakes are not a bad thing when you learn from them
9. Motivation is not reliable
10. Celebrate small wins

If I could start over again…

There’s nothing that I’ve done for my blog that I would change if I were to start over again. It’s more of the mindset that I had going into this journey that I would change.

It would be the stress of other peoples’ opinions. I let that stress me so much, I was surprised that I didn’t delay my blog launch any longer.

I’ve learned that it doesn’t matter what people think of me or my blog. What matters more is if I love doing it. I’ve read many stories on creators who have given up when their audience never grew, and that just showed that they only created content for other people, and not because they enjoyed it themselves.

And that’s something I discovered about myself. For the first few months, my page views was low, quite disappointing if I were to be honest here. But I enjoyed creating content anyway. Even though I knew that not many people were reading my content, I was passionate about the process of doing it, and that is all that matters.

I also struggled with a lot of self-doubt. Self-doubt has usually been my number 1 obstacle when it came to anything I pursued. I didn’t think I was cut out to be a blogger, or to even write about anything self-improvement. But what matters most is that I don’t follow through on the self-doubt.

My Top 5 personal favourite blog posts

I’ve got a few favourite blog posts in mind! Last week, when I did my 100th blog post, I listed down my Top 10 popular blog posts based on social media engagement and page views! These are my personal favourites… the blog posts that I am personally the most proud of, and the ones that I really enjoyed writing!

1 – How to Actually Invest in Yourself

This blog post is actually my most viewed blog post and made #1 on my Top 10 most popular blog posts list!

I’m really glad it did because it’s actually my top favourite blog post that I loved writing and I am most proud of!

The reason why I wrote this blog post was because I felt that more people needed to know that investing in yourself is more than just investing money into investments or retirement. Investing in yourself involves countless other things for your future.

I enjoyed writing this blog post, there were many ideas there that had helped me, that could help someone else. That goes for all my blog posts. I enjoy writing about things that I had done and (sometimes had worked for me) because they have the potential to help someone else.

Click here to read how to invest in yourself!!

2 – 20 Things I Learned Before I Turned 20

This was another blog post that was in my Top 10 most popular blog posts!

This was another blog post that I am proud of as well. The inspiration behind writing this blog post was being a fan of reading posts such as “10 Things I Learned As a Teenager” or “30 Lessons Before 30” so why not create my own?

It was great timing too, because it was 2 weeks after my 20th birthday, and on my birthday I actually did an Instagram post on the 20 things I learned before 20. It made the blog post easier to write because all I had to do was just expand more on my Instagram caption.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed writing this blog post! I’ve decided that I’m going to do one for every birthday now! So stay tuned for that!

Click here to read the 20 Things I Learned Before 20

3 – Best Personal Development Practices that you can use NOW!

While this wasn’t on my Top 10 popular blog posts list, I am still very proud of this blog post! This blog post was based on one of my favourite books, Good Vibes, Good Life! It made writing this blog post enjoyable because I was so passionate about the concepts written there.

This goes for every blog post that has inspiration drawn from a book. Whenever I write a blog post that is based on one of my favourite books (or at least a book that I’ve read and enjoyed!), it’s so fun to write about.

I wanted to write this blog post because I believed that the concepts from Good Vibes, Good Life can be made into my own personal twist, based on what had worked for me. By putting my own spin into it, and even adding action steps, I felt that many people could benefit from it.

It’s so important for me to write blog posts that I believe would actually benefit people. Otherwise, they’re either scrapped or changed up. This was a blog post where I felt that it didn’t initially benefit people at first. But when I added my personal experience, and twist into those tips, I felt more sure to post it!

Have a read of this blog post to see what personal development practices you can implement!

4 – The Ultimate Personal Development Checklist || How to Grow Yourself

This is also not on my most popular blog posts list, but this is another blog post I am proud of as well!

This was fun to write because it was a compilation of all the little things I have done for my personal development. I wanted to write this blog post because I wanted people to benefit from those things that had helped me.

I also wanted people to have an easy way aka a “checklist” to help them get started if personal development is a new thing for them! I’m all about saving time doing trial and error, so I felt that a checklist was a way to go! By having a checklist to start off with, it’s easier to spend time on the more important things on a self-growth journey, rather than wasting time trying things out.

This checklist then became an inspiration for other streams of content… but I’ll reveal more of that later. 😉

Check out the checklist here!

5 – Our Diet is Not Just the Food We Eat

This was of my earlier blog posts! I’m not too surprised that it’s not in my Top 10 list because it was an older blog post where I didn’t have too many people reading my blog.

I simply wrote this blog post because I was so passionate about the idea of how our mind is just as important as our body! I give so much importance to making sure that my mind is fed properly just as much as my body, and I felt that many people needed to know that as well!

If there was one thing that had helped me in my self-growth journey, it was simply changing the “diet” of the content I consumed. I’ve learned to never underestimate the power of the things that you consume. I was proud of this blog post, not only because it was one of the first few that I’ve written, but because of how it was such a strong idea.

Even a year into blogging, I am still really proud of this blog post. It’s one of the blog posts that I don’t even want to change anything in it because I felt that I had explained properly what a content diet is.

And yes, I am exposing myself here. There are some blog posts that I would go back and change the way that I’ve explained things… but I guess that’s just the journey of learning and growing. ☺

If you want to see my Top 10 most popular blog posts, read my 100th blog post that I published last week!

What to Expect in the Next Year??

Well, of course, we could never exactly predict the future, but here are some of the things to expect over the next few months!

My Weekly Blog Posts!

Yeah I know, pretty much an obvious one! Throughout the year, I’ve gone from posting once a week, to twice a week, and now back to once a week again. (the reason for the change to once a week is so I can focus on other projects & also care for my mental health too!)

Just because I am working on other projects (which I will reveal a bit later), it doesn’t mean I’m going to forget about posting blog posts! I am so passionate about writing blog posts and I feel like there will be a time when the blog posts will go back to twice a week…

So you can continue to expect my weekly content! The blog posts alternate between:

• personal development
• productivity
• habits
• self-care
• routines

Maybe sometimes a combination of one or two of them! But you’ll get a blog post with a different topic each week. If you follow me on Instagram @laurenlbarri, you’ll also get to see the summarised version of the blog post that you can screenshot if you want to!

My First Paid Book to Be Released!

First, if you haven’t read my free book, Small Steps to Progression, you can download it for free on this link. It’s my first ever book which I made for free, and it’s all about improving every area of your life in small steps!

I didn’t think I’d enjoy writing a book, but as it turns out I LOVE the process of writing the book. I felt so inspired and I knew that I wanted to write another one.

That’s why I had wrote a second book, this time it’s going to be my first paid product! I am so excited for this!! It’s a much longer book than my free one, and I really do believe that it will add so much value to you! So stay tuned for this one over the next few months! (once you download my book, you’ll also get the email notification when my next book comes out!!)

Free Resource Library coming soon!

Then, I also have a free resource library that will be launched soon hopefully in the next few months! What’s going to be in this resource library? Well, let me give you a little preview:

• My Free Book, Small Steps to Progression
• Mini guides to help you with your personal development!
• Journal templates that will help you with your self-growth!
• Mini e-books to read!

I’m really excited for this to launch because all of the things on there will be free and easily accessible! If you’ve downloaded my book, you are already on my email list and will receive instant access to the resource library once in launches!

Before I Say See You Later…

If you have any goals that you want to accomplish (big or small), I encourage you to never give up on them. Whether it’s good or it’s challenging, don’t give up on them.

The journey is not meant to be perfect, but it is meant for progression. Take small steps if you need to, it’s better than staying in the same place.

Stay kind to yourself throughout the entire journey. Remember that goals are accomplished through progression, and can be completed in small steps.

You can do this, I believe in you!

Lauren 😊

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Related Articles:

Mentioned Articles:

My 100th Blog Post!

How to Actually Invest in Yourself

20 Things I Learned Before I Turned 20

Best Personal Development Practices to Start Using NOW!

The Ultimate Personal Development Checklist!

Our Diet is Not Just the Food We Eat

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@laurenlbarri (blog Instagram)

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