When I read Rick’s post on the thrills new bloggers get to experience this morning, of course I laughed (I’m not really a margarita kind of guy). Rick’s post is great—I love it as an example of the way we can use humor to get a message across in a blog post.
And that message is loud and clear: celebrate every win.
Every advance you make as a blogger—whether you’re just beginning your blogging journey, or you’re a bit further along the path—is important.
It’s true that as you practice something and develop your skills in it, your expectations change about what you can achieve—or should be achieving. But this is a constantly growing and changing field, so I think somehow, we’re always learning—somewhere in our blogging, each of us is still a beginner. So I think it’s important to acknowledge each challenge we attain.
As an example, over the last few months I’ve been looking to change the email service I use. That has meant that I’ve had to research providers, ask for recommendations from others, and take baby steps to test different services.
Each time we try something new, we take a risk. As bloggers, we work hard to build our blogs and audiences, and we don’t want to upset the fine balances we’re working to maintain and build upon. When that risk turns out to be worth it, we should definitely celebrate it.
There are plenty of ways to do this:
- share your success on social media
- tell your blogging buddy (or buddies!) about it
- if it’s appropriate for your blog and audience, blog about it
- tell family or friends about it.
There’s another way to note your blogging wins—perhaps the ones you don’t feel comfortable sharing with others—and that’s simply to stop for a moment and give yourself a pat on the back. Whether you just pause to think consciously about what you’ve achieved, or you treat yourself to a coffee or an afternoon stroll (or whatever you do to relax), it’s important to recognize your achievements somehow.
We learn from our successes as well as the things that don’t go so well. The difference is that the experience is usually much more pleasurable. We should enjoy it!
I’m interested to hear about any thrills—big and small—you’ve experienced recently in your blogging. Let’s share them in the comments, either here, or on Rick’s post.
