My blogging experience.. 1 year on.

On the 28th November I reached my one year anniversary since my blog first started. I'll be very honest in saying, although I was proud of myself for sticking to it for a year and counting, I felt a sense of disappointment because I didn't really see any other big achievement, hence why I didn't post anything on that day to celebrate. I'm a little frustrated at myself for feeling like this because I don't think I give myself enough credit, I reached 10,000 views within less than a year and that is a big achievement in itself. I just want to take the time to share with you some things I've learned in the last year during my blogging experience.

Comparison kills the joy 

I can't tell you how much I've struggled with comparing myself to other bloggers since starting. It really hasn't been easy in that sense because you so badly want to get to a certain level like other bloggers you're inspired by but you forget that you're at a different place on your journey. You can't compare yourself to someone who's been blogging for 3 or 5 years when you've only just started. You're still new to it all, trying to perfect your craft in each post and putting yourself out there too, whereas someone who's been doing it for 2+ years may have already mastered it all. Don't get me wrong, you're always developing no matter how long you've been doing something but if you're new to the game, don't necessarily expect to have it all together.

Quality over quantity 

In the first couple months I found myself consistently posting twice a week and had so much content to put out. A few months in, I started to struggle to find content to put out there.. well, actually I had content to put out but I just didn't have the resources to post them at the time. I felt so guilty whenever I missed putting out a post but I just couldn't force myself to post something I didn't put enough effort in to. I would've rather posted less and had really good content, than to post rubbish consistently. As much as being in university has also been a factor to lack of posts, I'm trying to get back into the hang of posting regularly and pre-writting posts.

Don't be so hard on yourself

I never really used to be someone who was over critical of them self until I started blogging. I began to criticize my writing style, my photo's and just everything in general to the point where I didn't even want to post anything. I had to overcome this and just post things anyway, I've learnt to start giving myself more credit for the work I put into my posts, the time and effort that goes into writing each one and in knowing that someone out there, likes what I'm doing. It's important to give yourself some credit, people love to say blogging is an easy thing to do but it's really not once you start it, no matter how far you've come in your journey, be proud of yourself regardless!

Be patient

One of my goals when it comes to blogging is to have an audience that I can reach out too and I've come to the realization that building an audience for yourself is not easy at all. My social media following isn't big but since starting blogging, it's definitely increased, I can't say I've built an audience as of yet but I'm being patient in knowing that I'll get there one day. 

Support yourself first

When I say support yourself first, I mean that you should really be your biggest fan.. as sad as that may seem, it actually helps you to keep going at it. You have to see your own potential and believe in your craft, whether that is to become a full time blogger one day or just keep doing it as a hobby. I'm so grateful to have friends and family that have been supportive towards me, not everyone has been as supportive as I expected but that's the thing.. don't expect support from everyone. Sometimes you just have to make sure that the person supporting you the most is yourself. 

Keep at it! 

As I said, blogging isn't easy and you can become disheartened quite quickly but you have to remember the reason why you started. If it's something you love to do then it should be easy to still keep at it. I had to remind myself that this is my hobby and I was inspired by other bloggers to start doing this because I knew I'd love it but you can't get sucked into living that blogger lifestyle because so many people want that today and for the wrong reasons. As much as I've had moments where I felt like it would be easier to just quit, I really can't bring myself to do it because I know this what I love doing and I've come a long way to just up and quit so why should you?

So there you have it, blogging overall has been an amazing experience, I've made friends with some lovely other bloggers, I've gone to amazing events and the experiences just keep getting better. I can't wait to see what 2017 has in store for my blogging experience!

Outfit details -

Coat - Zara

Scarf - New Look

Top - Zara

Cardigan - H&M

Jeans - Primark

Boots - H&M

Love Sham x