Happy birthday to my blog! (Thanks, WordPress for the reminder). It’s been a great year for blogging. I released thisishannahajala.com at a time where I felt quite isolated, and it’s honestly been one of the best decisions ever! Here are some things I’ve learned along the way:

Consistency is key. If you want to see the growth of something, you need to keep on going. Set yourself a target of how often you want to post, and try your best to stick to it. Stop apologising to people for ‘lack of posts’ – they don’t care! Get up and keep going.

 

 

Comparison is the thief of joy. The blogging community is HUGE and I am a big supporter of other blogs that I like to share on Twitter. the key thing here is to never compare your journey to someone else’s, but rather to admire their work and don’t hesitate to congratulate them on it! Support each other.

 

Stop forcing your content on people. Just because they’re your friends and family, doesn’t mean that they have to always read your work. Different topics appeal to different people. Promotion of your work should be organic. Also, stop DM’ing people to read your work – let the fruits of it speak for itself.

 

Feedback matters. When people personally approach me about their thoughts on some of my posts, I really appreciate it and am often quite surprised by their reactions. It then encouraged me to then ask for feedback so I could take on board people’s thoughts about my work.

 

 

If you don’t like it, don’t post it! If you don’t believe in your work and feel like it’s not yet ready – leave it! You have no idea how many drafts I have. What am I trying to say? Does it make sense? Is this a true reflection of me as a blogger?

 

Believe in your brand and be proud of it. It’s such a great feeling never having to shriek or hang my head in shame when someone openly tells me they read my blog. I’ve learnt to see it as a part of me and I’m proud of every part of it.

 

 

I’m super thankful for the journey and look forward to whatever else the future has in store for my special online hub! Long live blogging.

 

Love grows more tremendously full, swift, poignant, as the years multiply.