Launching this blog took some thinking and sifting through much indecision. I have been meaning to launch this for a few months now. Apart from general busyness (including a full-time job working for and administering a business) indecision is mostly to blame.

I knew I wanted a blog that allowed me to be truly authentic. As a blogger and ghost writer I am privileged enough to get paid for writing and strategising content campaigns. Although I feel a connection and a degree of passion for every writing job I accept, sometimes I cannot be authentic and run wild enough with my inspiration. This is why I felt the need to have a blog to call my own; for my own un-compromised voice. Perhaps that’s what was so scary about it

The decision to shed the corporate skin and use blogging as a means of self-expression. To shed the business roles that I wear every day and be able to interact without feeling like I have to fit in the picture of people’s expectations.

Although I have been blogging for many years as part of my daily responsibilities at Defined Branding, it didn’t seem to make launching my own personal blog any easier. Perhaps because I felt all eyes would be on me due to my background as a web designer and online marketing consultant as well as the fact that I have access to a team of coders, designers and an audio-visual crew. “Expectations would be high”; was my excuse to procrastinate.

“We are so scared of being judged that we look for every excuse to procrastinate.”

― Erica Jong, Seducing the Demon: Writing for My Life

Planning long term content marketing strategies are my ‘forte’ so why was doing it for myself so difficult? Perhaps because it’s not business to business, I thought, not my core competence? Procrastination rears its ugly head and can really stop us on our way to starting a journey.

 

Some of the lines I repeat often during my coaching sessions are “Launch before you’re ready”, “don’t be a perfectionist” and “stop focusing on editing the details and focus on getting out there”.  As a third party from an objective angle, it is easy to see other people’s excuses and procrastination (or perfectionism – both born of fear) much more clearly. I understand that although I cannot see it because like most other people I can’t look at myself objectively, this effects me too. So I have now taken my own medicine and listened to my own advice. I’m in the water, I’ve jumped in.

Even the most respected bloggers had to start somewhere

Hesitation often comes from insecurity, fear of being judged and critiqued. However in truth every blogger, online influencer and author we respect started off as a less polished, less attractive, less focused version of their successful self. Do not forget this when you get your pre-launch jitters.

So I’ve launched and sure enough its not the best looking and best planned blog site I have produced but I’ve jumped in; moving forward from here, at any speed, is progress. Sure, I’ve broken most content marketing rules in the book, but it doesn’t matter because you can only swim once you’re in the water, any practice you do before you do is highly irrelevant and mostly unhelpful because its an ally to procrastination.

So if you’re thinking of starting your blog, whether its a personal journal or for business visibility, do it now! Sit down write a to do list and get onto it. Start the journey today. If you do nothing to get your dream out of your head and onto your to do list, it may stay just that forever. I’m not saying its easy, but it sure is worth it.

I’ll leave you to your thoughts with this quote from the great Picasso, one of the great artists who actually made a fair bit of money during his lifetime.

“Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone”

― Pablo Picasso