7 Blogging Myths That Need to be Debunked

by vanessa | Dec 5, 2019 | blogging, Entrepreneurs, Side-Hustles

7 blogging myths that need to be debunked

There are a lot of blogging myths out there, but these are the seven most common ones.

When I first started blogging, I read every article I could on blogging. I came across a lot of blogging myths. To say, I was obsessed doesn’t tell the whole story, but it is fine for now.

I wanted to cover all my areas so that I was prepared. Have you ever gone to a race without practicing? Of course not, the same was for me. It was going

to be a marathon. I knew that, but I wanted to know what kind of marathon it would be.

Boy, the articles didn’t give me much time and resources to prepare me. Blogging is something else. Over the years, it has evolved as a new medium. Not only changing with time but presenting it as a way for people to make money. Over the past ten years, blogging has made average people into millionaires.

Changed people who were struggling into financial gurus and yes, it has been ten years since popular became popular. It all started becoming the new normal in 2010 and now with a few days left into 2020, I just want to debunk a couple of blogging myths.

As you go through this list I want you to know this isn’t to discourage you or tell you that you shouldn’t do blogging. Blogging is great for many reasons. One of the reasons is it will give you a taste of freedom. Nowadays, YouTube is on the rise and so is Instagram, but sometimes all you need to do is start small and blogging can help you with that.

Myth #1 – It is easy to make money from blogging

I started making money from blogging in my fourth month into it and it was only $45. Sure, that $45 gave me a sense of hope that I could make money from

blogging. However, for most people they only make money from blogging after one to two to even three years. So, it all depends on a lot of factors. For example, it depends on your brand and the services you provide to clients.

I won’t say it is the easiest way to make money, but if I were to compare it to YouTube, I’d say that the learning curve is easier. With YouTube, there’s a learning curve. You need to know not only about SEO, traffic and lead magnets, but how to edit videos and take good videos. At least with blogging, there’s not a lot of things you need to learn in the beginning.

Another thing with blogging is you need to learn about marketing and funnels. In case, you have no idea what funnels are, you are not the only one. When I first started, I had to read whatever I could about funnels and even now it gives me anxiety thinking about it. Not as much as it used to. A funnel is a path that you need to take people down from your lead magnet to your paid offers.

Every business has a funnel from iTunes to McDonald’s to even Netflix. It depends on how big or small the business is. If all this is giving you a migraine, I understand. Blogging isn’t easy, but it definitely is worth it.

Myth #2 – You need to post every day

If you know more about blogging than you have heard the myth that you need to post every day. Unless you are doing a publication then yes, you need to

post every day. A run of the mill blog doesn’t need 30 posts per month to make it a blog. Not only is that difficult to do, but you will also run out of steam on day ten.

Publications are different because they tend to have dozens or more guest bloggers who want to put their name out there. They don’t mind doing that. Publications these days can look like blogs because in many ways they are. The difference is they are run differently and all have a different goal. Normal blogs are created to share usually one person’s perspective in the hope that will stir interest or discussion. Publications are created to share multiple perspectives about a specific topic.

Here are a few examples of publications that are also like blogs; Foundr, Addicted 2 Success, and Success Magazine. This blogging myth needs to be debunked because this prevents bloggers from becoming successful and giving up too quickly.

Myth #3 – You should know everything

This myth isn’t just a blogging one. Most people who are venturing out on their own have this belief that you need to know everything and can’t make mistakes.

The problem is that you are making it harder for you. Every successful person when they were first started out made a lot of mistakes despite what they thought they knew.

The first year is usually the hardest because you are trying to attract people to your website. It is easy to pay for products you don’t need only to realize you spent money on it and haven’t received anything back. This is the learning process. I am now into my second year of blogging and I can tell you that I made so many mistakes along the way.

I gave up too easily, I wasn’t consistent enough and made products no one wanted. Regardless of the pain, I wouldn’t go back because I learned more from making mistakes than I would have if I hadn’t made any.

If you want to be successful then you need to be alright with making mistakes. People who make mistakes are far more relatable than those who are perfect. So be okay with making a few mistakes along the way. You will be better for it. This blogging myth needs to be debunked so that people can realize that mistakes are what make us human.

Also Related: 12 Blogging Mistakes to Avoid

Myth #4 – You need to a lot of traffic to make money

I thought this as well, but then I had made money without even having any subscribers so this depends on a lot of factors. It isn’t luck. There’s no such thing as luck when it comes to business. We all enter into starting our own business for a reason. I did it because I wanted to define my own path, I wanted to be my own boss and that was the pull I need to go for it.

Some people choose to do it for other reasons. Financial freedom or wanting to spread a message. Whatever it is, that reason can help you attract the right clients.

Sometimes, all you need to do is look for clients within your group. I am not talking about offering a product and not delivering it. Your blog is real estate and you can use that to attract clients on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter.

When you have a blog you will be seen as a guru, even if you don’t feel like you are one, this gives you the ability to show people what you have to offer. You don’t need any traffic to do that. All you need is an idea of what you want to present and you go for it. Most believe this blogging myth, but my hope is that you realize that if I can do it then you can as well.

Myth #5 – Blogging is a competition

Blogging isn’t a competition. Successful people in any industry don’t see things the way everyone else does. To them it is all about a community, helping each other out rather than undermining each other. This is so important that you understand because often we can forget how important it is to have a community to support you.

This blogging myth has been around the block for some time. Not sure how it came about, because we all know that successful people don’t puff their chests out and try competing with other people who are successful. In fact, often, they promote each other. Here’s the thing with success, when you are willing to step out of your comfort zone and realize that you aren’t on an island, you’d be shocked at how genuine most bloggers are.

I interviewed a few bloggers who helped me understand what it takes to be a successful blogger. I learned a lot along the way, but it gave me a deeper understanding about blogging and how it can change your life when you allow it to.

Myth #6 – Blogging is expensive

Don’t know who you have been talking to, but that is so untrue. In fact, blogging is cheaper to start than most side-hustles. Unless you want to be an Instagram influencer, but even still unless you have great editing skills or good at taking photos you need to spend money.

Here’s a breakdown;

Instagram – camera, photo editing app, photographer (can spend anything from $100 to $250)

YouTube – camera, camera apps, tripod, microphone, videographer, web camera, video editor (it depends on what you want to spend on it, but can be anything from

$100 to $500)

Blogging – $10 per month to less than $100 a year (depends on the hosting company)

When I first started, I paid $10 for the month. That was it. Some companies can be $12 for the year when you are first starting out and then go up. All you need with blogging is a domain name, hosting and a theme. Most times, you can find a great free theme and most hosting companies give you a domain name for free. That is why blogging is so great, you don’t need a lot to start and you can learn so much about business when you do a blog.

Myth #7 – You need to be on all social media accounts

Many people when they first start out blogging, believe this myth because it is easy to believe it. After all, most established businesses are on all social media

platforms. What we don’t realize is that they are established so it makes sense for them to be on everything. After all, why would they stab themselves in the

foot by only being on one platform?

However, when you are first starting out, you will need to know a lot of things such as email marketing, networking, SEO and marketing tactics. You will be stabbing yourself in the foot by trying to be on everything all at once. Sometimes, we need to pace ourselves when first starting out. Rushing isn’t getting there and sure, it would be great having millions of fans, but if you are starting from scratch then you are wearing yourself thin.

This blogging myth needs to be nipped in the bud. Take your time. If you are more of a Facebook person then do that. If you prefer Instagram do that or if you love Pinterest then you can figure out how to use the darn thing. But just take your time to learn. The first and second year is all about figuring things out, you also need to be okay with doing that.

What blogging myths have you heard about? And is that what is preventing you from starting a blog? Comment below.

Keep Pushing

Vanessa

7 Life Skills To Skyrocket Your Success

by vanessa | Nov 20, 2019 | motivation, personal development

7 lifeskills to skyrocket your success

These seven life skills will help you skyrocket your success.

I was talking to one of my friends a few years ago about what it takes to be successful. For the longest time, I had always seen success as this none starter. You either would become successful or you wouldn’t. It was as if you could be granted magic success powers and instantly figure things out. At the mention of a word or saying you would become successful.

“What do you think makes a person successful?” I asked, genuinely curious.

“I think it must be dedication,” she had told me.

I was desperate to know what really were the building blocks that I decided to ask my father. He had run two businesses and was a pioneer in his day, so my mother and siblings would joke about it. He was in the kitchen, concentrating on preparing breakfast and at the time I was in my second year of college.

“Dad, I want to ask you a question,” I asked him.

He looked up and stared at me. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, I wanted to know, what makes a person successful.”

You think this is one of those blog posts where I tell you that the answer he gave me is the title of this blog post but that isn’t going to happen.

“That is a loaded gun question. It isn’t an easy answer, I do believe the difference is that successful people know what they want and they go for it.”

That was the answer, successful people know what they want and they go for it. Though, I wanted to know what it takes for them to go after what they want. I later discovered that successful people had better life skills than most of us. That was the answer I needed all along, successful people had better life skills and everything aligned and clicked. I knew that if I wanted to be successful I needed to have better life skills and I spent the next couple of years working on my life skills. These life skills will help you skyrocket success and it is important to understand what life skills will get you to the top a whole lot quicker. These seven life skills will skyrocket your success.

Dedication

Call it determination, resilience, persistence or devotion. Dedication is one of the life skills that will help skyrocket your success. People who don’t learn dedication tend to give up. Success is not an overnight thing, regardless of how many stories we hear of people who woke up and became successful. For the longest time that is what I thought.

I believed that these people were overnight success stories. How could one man make a million dollars in less than a year? If I could I’d pay top dollar to find out how he did that. The media wants us to eat these stories like cheese on a string. Why? Because they are in the business of selling stories and telling stories about wunderkinds or overnight success stories.

The truth is these people spent years developing on their skills, honing their craft and working on their dreams. There’s no secret ingredient to making someone successful. You can’t skip ahead. We all have to go through the steps required to become successful and dedication is the top life skill you need to skyrocket success.

Concentration

How many times have you found yourself staring into space or the walls? How many times have you daydreamed and wanted to shake yourself silly because you failed to follow-through. Life-skill number two to skyrocket your success is concentration.

For all those who struggle with concentration, I know the struggle is real. It doesn’t mean you can’t find a way to concentrate or focus on your tasks. This is the trick, you need to know yourself. I know we all hear that often, sometimes it feels as if it is slapped on a cheesy cereal box with motivational lines. “Know thy self,” it might say.

Though, it does work. You have to know the time you concentrate the best and that is when you use that time to work. I work best really early in the morning and when I start slacking, I drink a smoothie that helps me concentrate. But if I didn’t know what worked then I’d struggle. Life-skills can be learned and taught, but you need to be willing to put in the work and learn more about yourself.

Time management

When it comes to time management, most of us struggle to cope with it. The day, month or year goes by and we are furious we didn’t achieve as much as we

hoped we would. It all comes down to tracking your time and noticing how much time you spend on certain tasks.

It comes to being productive and using time wisely. If you master time management then this life skill will help you skyrocket your success. The reason why most people aren’t successful is because they don’t know how to use time wisely.

This is one of those life skills that we all know we should have, but we all suck at it in one way or the other. I have learned that sometimes we spend so much time thinking about what we want to do rather than actually doing it. That is why it is always important to know things in advance. For example, know what you want to work on you and work on it. Another thing is to know what you want to buy before you go into the shops.

Sometimes, wondering what we want to do takes so much energy and time from us. If you want to reduce that write a to-do list to help you do things at a

much faster rate than before.

Also Related: How To Make The Most Of Your Time?

Patience

Patience is one of those life skills necessary to skyrocket success, but many of us struggle with it. Human beings aren’t patient, it doesn’t come easily for us especially when compared to the animal kingdom.

Though, we need patience if we want to be successful. If you aren’t patient, it is so easy to make the wrong decisions because you want fast results. It is easy to give up when you are not getting the results you want.

It is frustrating working on something and you still haven’t made any money from doing what you love. it is annoying working night and day on your business and a zero balance is reflecting in your bank account. You need to know often at times you can’t see the milestones you achieved because we are so interested in seeing the bigger picture if it has been finished.

Patience is more important than you realize and it is alright if your success breakthrough is taking longer than you expected. Sometimes, you have to be a little patient and willing to wait for the results you desire.

Self-confidence

Self-confidence is a life skill that we talk about often as one of the best ways to skyrocket your success. The people who aren’t self-confident tend to doubt themselves more and make more mistakes. Making mistakes is part of life, but when you are self-confident even when you make those mistakes it doesn’t break you.

When my self-confidence was low, I made a ton of mistakes and I used to be so furious at myself for making them. It was as if every time I made a mistake, I thought I ruined an opportunity. That didn’t help with my self-esteem. I learned that mistakes are okay. Making them doesn’t mean you are a failure, but that you are learning.

Successful people learn from their mistakes all the time and that is how they grow. It is part of life to make blunders and then move on from it. How many times did your parents make mistakes when you were growing up? How many times does your boss or coworkers or friends make mistakes? You have to be okay with the the heartache of the learning process.

Leadership

Every successful person has mastered leadership to a certain extent, but not every leader is successful. The difference here is how a person leads. Successful people inspire others to follow their steps.

Whereas some leaders just follow the orders of their boss and can discourage instead of inspiring. It is still important to master leadership because when you learn leadership you inspire people and that creates a chain reaction. You also inspire people to look up to you and if you are seen as trustworthy they will want to learn from you.

This is what most people are missing. Most online marketers or entrepreneurs are great leaders and that is why they make as much money as they do. If they weren’t great leaders, no one would buy from them. They wouldn’t be successful. The same can be said for other entrepreneurs like Tai Lopez, Mark Zuckerberg or Karlie Kloss. If they weren’t great leaders then their companies wouldn’t be worth as much as it is. The two are linked. People don’t work hard for those who aren’t great leaders or who don’t inspire.

It also all comes down to your message and incorporating that message into everything you do.

Also Read: How To Develop Leadership Skills in 4 Steps

Be willing to learn

This life skill is important to master and it can skyrocket your success. All of the ones, I listed do that, but this one can cut the learning process in half. You need to be willing to learn. Successful people read more books and watch programs that help them grow. Think more Shark Tank and fewer of the Kardashians. You need to find something that will help you grow.

Watch YouTube videos on starting a business, growing one and how to be more productive. YouTube has so much free content that you can learn and grow from watching it. This is what most successful people do and because of that, they stay at the top of their game.

If they don’t know about the investment they learn about it and even if they fail, they keep trying. They keep learning new skills. This is a life skill you need to master if you want to be successful. This can also change your life in so many ways. When I became willing to learn I started learning more, I developed my skills.

This is the last life skill you need to master to skyrocket your success. There are far more life skills out there that you need to master, but these seven will get you to where you want to go a whole lot faster.

What lifeskills do you think are important to master to skyrocket your success? Comment below.

Keep Pushing

Vanessa

Why You Should Break out of The Comfort Zone

by vanessa | Nov 13, 2019 | Blog, motivation

Why you should break out of the comfort zone

Want to change your life then you should break out of the comfort zone.

The older we get the more we cling to our comfort. It keeps us warm at night and it makes us feel less weird and awkward than we already do. The problem with staying in our comfort zone is that we never step out of it. The more time we spend in our comfort zone, the harder it gets to step out of it. There are a lot of reasons why you should learn how to break out of your comfort zone.

The one thing I have realized is that fear often makes it seem impossible to step out of our comfort zone. Our insecurities play on our emotions and when the a thought occurs of stepping out of our comfort zone, we opt out of it. Growing up for me my comfort zone offered me reassurances, I knew that even if I failed, it didn’t matter as much as everything else because I was in my comfort zone.

The only people who would know about my failures were in my inner circle and even then they understood. They never pushed me outside of my comfort zone because they too enjoyed being in their comfort zone. We never required much from each other and when you are kids or young adults, it makes sense to remain there.

However, because we have trained ourselves to accept being in our comfort zone, it is a lot harder to break out of our comfort zone. It is a lot harder to see past the wall and break it. And most people believe that it is okay not to break out of their comfort zone. The problem is that staying there limits your potential and growth.

That is why you need to learn how to break out of your comfort zone. This is one of the best you can speed up your growth, learn new things and change your perspective. Sure, we are all terrified of things, but that should never stop us from breaking out of our comfort zone.

You let fear control you

Not breaking out of the comfort zone is a barrier of entry into the fear zone. You let fear control you and even though it doesn’t seem like that. The problem is when you are used to something, it is hard to break out of your comfort zone. To push yourself. What are you terrified? Has it stolen your joy? Taken away your blissful moments or stopped you from doing something?

Most of us never break out of our comfort zone because we are terrified of what people will think. We are afraid of how people will see us and then we never venture past the drawn line. Choosing to stay in the boxes of our so-called life, doing our best to keep our head buried in the sand and refusing to do anything, but the norm.

Not because we are incapable of doing it, but because fear is controlling us. Stopping us from fulfilling our destiny and following our dreams. Fear never just stops there, it will keep pushing to the back row until you break. It will silence you with doubt and rejection. Most of us don’t want to feel rejection so we choose not to break out of the comfort zone.

Fear has a way of pushing us back. Case in point, I had massive stage fright and because of it, for years I couldn’t go onto the stage and talk. My knees would shake and I’d lose my voice. It was so bad that I often choked on stage. I allowed fear to control me to the point where anything to do with speaking in front of large crowds of people terrified me. It didn’t matter if they were just ten or fifty, it was the same reaction.

I had to learn how to do public speaking. Once I mastered it, no longer was I terrified of it. That is the beauty of breaking out of the comfort zone, fear doesn’t control you.

Also Related: How Fear is Like A High School Bully?

You will learn to accept yourself

You need to be okay with failing and to accept yourself fully. The good and the bad. The ugly, the sweet and everything else in between. The truth is most of us don’t do this and as a result, we don’t fully accept yourself. When you break out of your comfort zone and put yourself into a situation that is foreign to yourself, you learn how to be more confident. You also learn how to accept yourself.

When we are used to be around the same people, we train ourselves to rely on them and therefore we understand our boundaries. We understand how to behave, how to act and what to say. However, when you are among new people, everything shifts and it is here that you learn how to accept yourself fully. Breaking out of your comfort zone builds character and it also makes you a lot stronger.

Most of us don’t accept ourselves. Our insecurities and our weaknesses. That is why many of us are terrified to break out of our comfort zone because we need to be vulnerable. Most of us don’t want to be vulnerable in front of strangers, but it is okay not to be good at everything. It is alright to struggle or to even take your time learning a new skill.

New experiences

Do you want to conquer your fear of public speaking? Interesting fact, public speaking has been voted as one of the most feared things. Strange. I know, but many people are terrified of speaking on stage. Those who have done it have said that the first time they did it they were terrified. They had to push themselves out of their comfort zone so they could do public speaking.

If you don’t break out of the comfort zone then you will miss out on new experiences and the people you meet along the way. You will miss out on all the benefits that come with breaking out of the comfort zone. This is something you need to experience for yourself. A perfect example is people who have done public speaking have gone on to become motivational speakers, write a book and appear on national television.

If they didn’t make that leap then they wouldn’t have realized how many doors can open if you are willing to break out of the comfort zone. They wouldn’t have achieved their goals and they certainly wouldn’t have changed their lives. Breaking out of the comfort zone is important because it opens so many doors and new opportunities come your way because you were open to it.

You grow as a person

One of the best reasons why you should break out of the comfort zone is so that you can grow as a person. Something happens when you take a stance and decide to break out of the comfort zone. You become bolder in your stance. You make decisions that push you outside of your comfort zone. No longer are you held captive by your comfort zone.

It is easier to move to a new country, learn a new language and start a new business. It all starts with one decision and that is to break out of the comfort zone. You meet people you never thought you would meet and that makes you far more confident. When you get used to making bold decisions and breaking out of the comfort zone, nothing can stop you.

I know how strange it is, but I have seen how much breaking out of the comfort zone has changed my life. For me, as an introvert, I was always terrified of going to places I didn’t know anyone. Now, it doesn’t bother me as much. I can stir conversation with complete strangers and even joke with them as if I have known them for years. The reason I can do that is I stepped out of my comfort zone and did something I never did before.

Growth is one of the most valuable things you can experience. As children, we are constantly growing and our personality shifts from the age of seven to seventeen. However, that changes when we get older and we become stagnant. We don’t want to change or to grow because it is terrifying. When you break out of the comfort zone, you have to grow. You are forced to grow as a person because now that you are out there, you can’t remain the same.

Why are you terrified of breaking out of your comfort zone. Comment below.

Keep Pushing

Vanessa

5 Reasons Why What You Want in Life Is Important

by vanessa | Nov 6, 2019 | motivation, personal development

5 reasons Why what you want in life is important

There are five reasons why it is important to know what you want in life.

Knowing what you want in life is important because once you do, everything lines up and you will achieve more at a faster pace than you anticipated. When we were children, we knew what we wanted and we weren’t ashamed to let anyone know. Our dreams were ridiculous, but that didn’t matter, what mattered was letting people know we what we wanted.

If we wanted cookies then we would take cookies. Sure, the whole I will take what-I-want-attitude is a little weird as an adult. But what I love about children is that they allow themselves to dream, to imagine the world as they want it to be and not as what it is. Knowing what you want can make the difference between a fruitful life or one where you have chosen to settle.

Everything is possible for eight, nine or twelve-year-old Johnny or Suzie. Every possibility is an opportunity for them to explore their surroundings. If they want to be Indiana Jones in the making then they imagine themselves becoming one. They say with so much conviction who they want to be and what they want to achieve.

Adulthood feels so far away from childhood as a kid. There’s so much time left to plan, to dream and escape. What we never anticipate is adulthood comes faster then we thought as a kid. One moment, you blink and you are eighteen then twenty-five then thirty and then forty. But the pleasure comes from dreaming, from escaping the sheer reality of life.

The thing with life is it is unpredictable nature because we don’t live in a bubble. Our hopes and dreams are squashed due to the opinions of others and we spend the next couple of years trying to figure things out. Hoping that we will have an idea of what will happen next and where we will go next. That is why it is important to know what you want. Sure, you might say there’s time, but time is an invaluable resource that runs out quicker than you could imagine. I understand that one day you didn’t think you would be the age you are right now.

I spent five years figuring things out when I could have used that time to build the life I wanted. Truth is I had no idea what I wanted and therefore it took me a while to figure it all out.

You can work on your goals

It is important to know what you want in life because then you can start working on your goals. So, you might not know what you want to achieve in five years, but once you write it down, it is so much clearer. You can then see yourself in two or three or even ten years. As children, the whole idea of writing down goals sounded a little dumb, but it is helpful to know what you want to achieve.

When I was nineteen, I wrote down an experiment of what I wanted to achieve that year and I kid you not, I achieved half of the list. At the time, I had no idea how I was going to achieve any of it, but I did and I understood then how powerful writing down goals are. But you can’t write down your goals if you don’t know what you want. It is like going to a restaurant and staring at the menu for minutes, trying to figure out what you want to order. Eventually, if you are pressured you pick something, not because you wanted it, but you settled.

Most of the choices we make are because we chose to settle. At the time, we think it is the best decision that we made, but sometimes the choices we make when we are unsure come to haunt us years later. That is why you need to know what you want so you never have to feel like you are settling.

Also Related: How to Set Great Goals in 2019

You will be much happier

Whenever I accomplished something I really wanted, it feels like I won the lottery. Sure, in the larger scheme of things, I didn’t win the lottery. But achieving

something can have a lot of rewards and benefits. That is why go-getters are so much happier than most people. You don’t live in regret and you don’t feel as if you are wasting away.

It is a great feeling knowing that you are making your dreams come true, by going for them. It all comes down to though, that you need to know what you want.

It is normal for human beings to what a lot of things in life, but knowing what you want to change in your life is different than knowing what you want for breakfast.

The decisions we make as I said before are so important. Vital even to whether we go forward or remain behind, holding the glass door, wishing that someone would change in our life.

You become a go-getter

Knowing what you want will turn you into a go-getter real fast. That is because you will keep asking yourself how to get what you want and then take action. This is why writing down your goals is an important step to figuring out what you want. The next step after that is, of course, to go after what you want in life.

Knowing what you want is only half the battle and the other half is going for it. However, at least knowing what you want puts you at an advantage because you aren’t decisive and know what will make you happy. When I was in high school, I went from wanting to be a reporter to a psychologist to a pilot. Every month, I settled on a new profession. My friend’s minds were set, it was either they wanted to be a lawyer, doctor or accountant or scientist,

I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and because of that, people made the choice for me. Often that is life when we don’t know what we want, decisions are taken out of our hands. We are not sure we want to be in a relationship or not, but we find ourselves in. We are not sure whether we want to travel to another country, the decision is made for us. Sometimes, we settle because we are not sure or take the easy road.

When I made the decision to become an entrepreneur, life got simpler for me. I found myself gravitating towards anything that could help me accomplish my dream a whole lot quicker.

Also Related: How to be Fearless by Doing it Anyway

You will kick anxiety out of the door

The future is scary, as I am writing this it is literally a couple of years left until the next year. That’s a terrifying thought especially if you have no idea what you want to do with your life. It can get a little dark when you start asking yourself what have you truly achieved. Humans are anxious beings because on a daily basis there’s so much to be worried about.

So much to concern ourselves with and the list goes on and on. But when you know what you want it is a lot easier to take a deep breath. You don’t have to feel like a failure if something isn’t in the cards for you yet. You don’t have to be pressured into doing something you don’t want to do because you feel as though that is the the choice you have to make.

This is a lot bigger than knowing what you want to achieve next year. There are so many times when I was pressured into doing something because I felt as if I had to. The older we get, even though we become adults, we still end up doing things either for convenience or to escape shame, but that just makes us more anxious. This is why if you know what you want, you won’t feel pressured to do anything that you don’t want to do.

You will learn so much from it

Life is full of so many lessons. It sounds weird, but the dedication you put into something when you know what you want is profound. Think about anytime you knew what you wanted. Where you relentless in your pursuit of it? Did you make sure you accomplished it? How much time did you put in working on it? I have a friend who knew that she wanted to start her own talk show and even though everyone said it was impossible, she worked hard at it.

Campaigned for it, found people who helped her get what she wanted and now she has her talk show. So, yes it is impossible to learn a lot from going after what you want. The secret here is you pick up skills that you never would have had if you didn’t know what you wanted. You learn so much from life because you understand what you want and are willing to break the barriers to get it.

Sure, it won’t be easy, but we all say that. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to go after what you want. You can use those skills to make a huge impact on your life and the connections you want will help you grow. It is a win-win situation either way. That’s what I have learned from knowing what I want. There are so many benefits to it.

Do you know what you want out of life? Loved to know. Comment below.

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Vanessa

7 Simple Ways to Stop Overthinking and To Start Doing

by vanessa | Oct 30, 2019 | Entrepreneurs

7 simple ways to stop overthinking and start doing

Use these simple strategies to be more productive and avoid burn out

Most of us struggle with the overthinking bug and that prevents us from going after our dreams, building a business or making changes in our lives. For the longest time, I was like that so wrapped up in my thoughts and it never seemed enough. I didn’t know enough and I had no idea what steps I should take to go in the right direction. It is hard to stop overthinking because there are so many doubts and negative emotions to deal with.

There’s so much that you don’t know and it is almost as if you have to deal with that, learn something new and handle the burden of coping with it all. So, yes it isn’t easy. But isn’t that the point of life, that it isn’t easy and yet the older we get we tend to allow our overthinking to stop us in our tracks. As kids, we just did something and overthinking didn’t stop us from going after what we want. If you want to change your life then you have to learn how to stop overthinking.

That in itself isn’t an easy feat, but it is important that you do learn how to stop overthinking because once you know how then everything becomes a whole lot easier. If you want to lose weight then you can go past the critics screaming at you, want to start a new project and you can do that. The more you get used to doing things you don’t like, the easier it is for you to get things done and to stop overthinking. Here’s a list of the 7 simple ways you can stop overthinking and start doing.

Awareness is key

It is hard to know how to change your life if you are unaware that you need to do that. Awareness is one of the simplest ways you can stop overthinking.

Because once you are aware that you are overthinking, stressed out and anxious, you can find ways to change this. At first, it might be complicated in getting

started. After all, it isn’t as if awareness is a door that you simply open.

You have to learn how you can become aware of your own thought pattern. There was a time when I was one of those people who didn’t know how to do reflection

and I struggled at it. In university, I had a compulsory subject I had to, in it, we had to learn how to do reflection. Once I got good at reflection, I became better at

becoming aware and I understood my thought patterns a whole lot better.

Awareness is key to stop overthinking and the easiest way to become aware is to practice reflection. This is simply taking note of your day, emotions and actions in

check. When it comes to reflection you have to ask yourself questions to get to the bottom of the decisions you made. For example, why did you do X and not A or

why did you feel threatened, angry, sad or depressed. This is an easy way to get a handle on awareness.

Stop thinking about what can wrong

When I was younger that is what I constantly thought about. What could possibly go wrong and you need to alter this to help you stop overthinking. Start thinking

about what could go right. And I know that isn’t easy, there are hundreds of ways that things could go wrong. When I was ten I had this book filled with short stories

and each one told a story about a day that went horribly wrong. From a girl being late for the bus to have a bad hair day or being fired.

For ten-year-old the book was bleak, I used to think that just walking out of the house could have dire consequences. That didn’t exactly stop me from having fun, but

when I got older I started overthinking to the extent that I was terrified to try anything new. I didn’t want to be embarrassed or to get so over my head that things

blew up in my face.

You need to turn your thinking on its head and stop worrying about what could possibly go wrong. Yes, there’s a chance that you will fail or that you feel ashamed.

There’s a likelihood that you will have to work on your goals time and time again to reach success. But you need to ask yourself what can go right. You could become

successful, make more money doing what you love, travel the world, build a business you love, become healthier and a better version of yourself. The list can go on

and on. There are a lot of reasons for how something can go right, so think of this so you can stop overthinking.

Put things into perspective

Like most kids I hated the whole don’t cry over spilled milk or don’t make a mountain out of a molehill. But it is true though when you are going through something,it does seem as if it is dire.

Start asking yourself will this matter in one, two or five years from now. Imagine yourself in the future and what is future your perspective.It is just the same as when you were in the last year of high school, it almost felt as if graduating from high school was one of the most important days in your life. Now, you might have had far better days and more important ones. Graduating high school is like every other milestone. When you use a time frame to put things into perspective this can help you to stop overthinking and start doing.

Stop trying to be perfect

You can never truly master something and the reason why most of us overthink is that we are trying to be perfect. But when you start doing something, you will suck at it. When you start thinking about all the things you have achieved, in the beginning, you might have been horrendous and that is okay. To stop overthinking,you need to realize that you won’t be good at something. At least, in the beginning, it will take some work and you need to start working on it on a consistent basis.

Most of us never do anything because we spend so much time perfecting the skill or worrying about us not getting it right. That is why most authors release their books, seven or ten years later because they were overthinking. Stop trying to be perfect and just embrace imperfection, you will achieve more if you do this.

Don’t let fear stop you

I get it you failed miserably in the past and you believe that you will do the same here. That is terrifying, you remember the fear clearly and that can prevent you

from pushing on. My fear has stopped me so many times because I always remember how it felt to fail and that makes me sick to my stomach. Failure is a normal

part of life.

I can give you a long list of all the people who have failed and struggled to achieve something. But that won’t help you stop overthinking, instead, you need to

change your perspective on fear. Whenever we do something, even when we fail, we learn something from it. Think about it, what did you learn about yourself

from failing? How did you improve after you failed? Sometimes we forget that everything in life teaches us something about ourselves even failing does that.

Accept your best

When you do your best that is all that matters in the long run. Often at times, we try to be someone we are not. Stressing yourself out won’t help you in any way,

instead, it will stop you from acting on your dreams. All you can do is your best and that is important because when you make an effort, doors open and more

opportunities come your way.

It is better to do your best and still struggle with the task at hand then to overthink and never get it done. To stop overthinking, just remember that your best can

change your life in so many ways. It can also help you improve, build your skills, give you confidence and push you in the right direction. Going forward, just

remember that your best matters more than you think it does. It matters because you are making an effort despite not knowing what you can do and I know

how terrifying it can be to do something without training wheels, but that is the only way you can learn.

Sure, you will have doubts, but we all have doubts and it shouldn’t stop us from going after what we want.

You can’t predict the future

You do not have the power to look into the future. You are a flesh and blood human, who has to deal with the in-between. Knowing full well that you won’t know what

tomorrow brings. So, you never know what can come out of this. Simply telling you to stop overthinking won’t help you, but need to realize that you can’t predict the

future.

You have no clue what is going to happen years from now, maybe what you imagined didn’t pan out, but maybe it did. Maybe, you allowed failure to stop you or

maybe you didn’t. There are a whole lot of possibilities when it comes to dealing with the future. But you are far better pushing yourself out of the box then staying

in it. You will be better off, by imagining a better future for yourself. One where you chased after your dreams and conquered your fears. One where you stopped

overthinking and started doing. Working on your dreams and found yourself. Don’t allow negative nancy to take your joy away and stop you from going after what

you want.

What risks are you willing to take to chase after your dreams? Loved to know. Comment below.

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Vanessa