My Voice, Success and Celebrating Growth - It's My 400th Post People!
When I started this blog in October 2011, I had no idea how it would turn out. I had no idea how My Year of TED would go, and whether I could sustain the blog throughout that period - let alone continue to blog for another four years. Of course, there have been times when I wasn't blogging consistently. That is true of many bloggers throughout their blogging life. But to have made it to 400 posts is quite shocking for me.I've been trying to think of how I mark this milestone - how I make number 400 a little special. That's been tempered with the thought that 400 is no more of a milestone than 399. After all, every blog post is special in its own way, and why do we put such value on these whole numbers anyway - yeah, being inside my head is a hoot! So, after much internal debate I decided that I would celebrate the milestone, but not in too huge a way.
I did record this as an audio if you would prefer to listen than read :-)
Is it even worth celebrating?
What does 400 even mean? It doesn't necessarily mean audience or market share - really it simply means I've sat down at a keyboard 400 times to publish a blog post. And the first 150 times I did that I wasn't even promoting the blog. So does it mean anything at all, apart from being a round number?To be totally honest with you, given the size of my current audience and pageviews, it's probably not a huge achievement. I often feel that if I stopped blogging tomorrow, there would only be a few people who would even notice. But that's not how I'm choosing to view this milestone - because that's not how I judge success. Would I like to have tens of thousands of people on my mailing list and reading the blog? Of course I would! But it would also terrify me.
So what is my success metric?
It's not money. Apart from the fact that I have now published books and trialled a course from My Year of TED, I haven't actively monetised this blog. I have done a few affiliate marketing activities with people on my mailing list, but I'm not even very active with that. That's because this blog started for one reason - to help keep me accountable during My Year of TED. Yes, it was also a writing activity for me, but largely it was an accountability tool.It morphed into a place for me to share the experience of My Year of TED, which became more significant by gathering a few hundred blog posts into a book (Do Share Inspire). This is the way the blog benefits you, dear reader. It shares my experiences and lessons; a large number of fantastic TED Talks; reviews on some books I think you should read; and the expanded knowledge I have developed from applying the wisdom of TED speakers into my life.Success for me is knowing that this blog has inspired people to take their own journey home. That it has introduced people to the incredible resource of TED Talks. That it has helped people make changes for themselves, and nudged them to give themselves permission to make changes. If it was only one person who benefited from this experience I would have deemed it a success. But it has been a lot more than one.
It gave me a voice, and the courage to use it
Mostly, what 400 blog posts has allowed me to achieve is the confidence to use this voice I've discovered. Would I like the voice to be louder and more influential? Of course I would! But that doesn't stop me from blogging now. It doesn't stop me from sharing my success and failure, or my fears and dreams. Even if only one person is reading this blog, I need to practice the courage to use this voice.
Four hundred is a milestone for no other reason than it has made me think about that voice, and what I need to do to extend its reach. It's time that I stop playing small, because I still continue to do that. It's time for me to embrace the fear of pushing myself further into the world. I did this when I launched Do Share Inspire, but then I pulled back pretty quickly as well. It's time for me to own this incredible experience, and the voice that it has allowed me to develop.
What about you?
Don't wait for a milestone to think about what you need to celebrate. What are you failing to acknowledge in your life? What are you downplaying in your life? What do you need to start owning? I know there is something, there is always something. You might think it's small or not worth celebrating - maybe all you see are the reasons that it isn't as great as you would like it to be. But I'm sure there is something about it that is special and should be celebrated.It's so easy to see how your achievements don't live up to your expectations of them - and I think it is important to strive for your desired outcome. But take some time today to celebrate how far you've come already, and what it means for you. You can acknowledge mid-points without having achieved the end goal. You can also define success that doesn't require you to reach the goal - after all, the journey is were you learn and grow.What are you going to celebrate today? What are you striving for that you can celebrate your progress on? Be kind to yourself and find a reason to give yourself credit for the growth you've achieved so far.And if you haven't signed up to get access to my free resources, I'd love you to consider doing that as a way of helping me celebrate my 400th post![activecampaign form=5]