3 min read

It is my one year blog anniversary today! (Insert all the happy dance emojis here.)

One year ago today, I launched my blog: The Bright and Bold Life. I had many ideas, plans and goals and was bursting with excitement as I hit publish on that very first blog post.

However, even though I had thought about my blog a lot and had spend much time designing the way it looks, I didn’t really prepare for the day to day running of the blog. And due to this I ended up not reaching many of my goals.

 

Posting twice a week

Posting twice a week was unrealistic. It might not look like it –  but putting together a post, editing and formatting it and distributing it takes a surprising amount of time. Especially as I was just starting out I had to invest a lot of time before a post was ready to go live and this level of time commitment was just unsustainable.

 

Consistent content

I had some rather broad ideas about the things I wanted to write about and ended up not really following any sort of structure or sticking to certain topics. For a while this frustrated me, but now I am actually okay with this. This is a personal blog where I share what is important to me, what interests me and what I know. And this is a very fluid thing which changes over time. So, it is only natural for my content to reflect these changes and variabilities.

 

Building a community around my blog

As mentioned above, my over ambitious goals were to post every Monday and Thursday. When that did not work out I more or less stopped sticking to any time schedule and my posting became very sporadic. This made it very difficult to grow my blog and for people to know it.

 

Despite all these ‘failures’ I am so glad I started The Bright and Bold Life when I did.

 

My preparation was lacking, I didn’t manage to plan my time out very well and my writing was rusty. But what happened was that I came to rediscover how much I love writing. And how wonderful it is to not merely keep my writing to myself but to put it out there. Sharing my struggles and my joys. Declaring truth. Thinking ‘out loud’. Don’t get me wrong – it is scary. But it is so rewarding somehow.

Secondly, I have learned so much. For example, designing header images for my posts. I have learned about the difference between writing for print and writing for the web (even though I still err on the side of writing way too long sentences). My photography skills have improved and I have found my own style of editing pictures. I have learned about branding, social media and probably most importantly, about myself.

Finally, I am so grateful for the connections and conversations my blog has allowed me to have. Whether it is a quick exchange in the comments, on twitter or Instagram or face to face – the best thing about the internet is that it allows us to connect with people who face similar problems, have the same questions, interests and passions.

 

Take the jump

So, if you are thinking of starting a blog or any other creative project, my advice to you is: Just do it.

Set goals and aim to high and fail and then re-calibrate. Learn. Be creative. Express yourself. Life is so short. Do not waste it by overthinking it.

Here’s to many more years of creative explorations, connections and writing on and around The Bright and Bold Life!