One of the biggest lessons I learnt in 2018 was how to embrace being a beginner.

It can be really difficult when you start a new project that you’re really passionate about. You want others to get excited with you, you want to see the results straight away, you want your vision to appear in front of you exactly as you imagined it in your head. But as a lot of bloggers or other influences may know, the stats show very little in the beginning. The amount of time and effort that goes into learning the ropes is extremely frustrating.

Even after a year of blogging, there is still so much I am trying to figure out. What the F is SEO? How do I go self-hosted? What legal stuff should I be worried about? People keep talking about copywrite. Agh!

The only thing I know about is writing, and that’s all I want to do. Yet, having a blog requires so much more skill and knowledge that I just don’t have yet.

But like a lot of the situations in my life where I face huge challenges, I’ve learnt that the only way I’m going to get through it in order to see the results I’m craving is to acquire a particular mindset:

Challenges give us the chance to learn and being a beginner is a fantastic opportunity.

I know you may be thinking, Claudia, the eternal blind-optimism is getting a little old, don’t you think?

Na-uh! Listen up peeps!

There are many reasons why it’s important to embrace being a beginner so let’s get into it.

1. EVERYONE, I mean EVERYONE, was a beginner once.

This should be obvious, right? We had to learn as babies, we had to learn in school. We’ve all started a new hobby and had to practice perfecting our technique and skills. Even the experts were beginners once. If we weren’t all beginners, then we would never have any experts because nobody would have done anything. What a boring world that would be.

2. It’s about the journey, not the destination.

Ha-ha, you thought I would refrain from the cheesy quotes. Nah, I’m annoying like that. But It’s true and I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t believe it. We get more out of life when we are learning then out of where we end up or what we actually produce. Mistakes are part of the journey and they are the lessons that we learn along the way. if we got everything right and perfect the first time, we wouldn’t learn anything.

3. Fearing imperfection, means sitting around doing nothing.

Yep, you heard me. Mistakes are actually inevitable because the truth of the matter is, we can’t know everything about everything or anything. If you become so afraid of making mistakes that you chose not to try in the first place, well you will live a very boring and pretty unproductive life. Which may seem fine at first btw, but it will eventually drive you stir crazy.

4. Patience is key.

There is no such thing as an overnight sensation. All of those artists who appeared out of nowhere as “stars”, spent years perfecting their art. All of those bloggers who started making money and generating thousands of pageviews from day one, had to put in time money and effort. All of those “successful people” had to work their asses off and they had help along the way. Be patience, put in the effort. We are going to be here a while so make sure its something worthwhile.

5. Final piece of advice.

Just do it! Take a leap of faith, give whatever it is you’re struggling with, another go. If you fail, try again, and again, and again, and again. Until you nail it. And then… keep at it. Especially if it involves something you’re passionate about or something that you know is going to benefit you in the long run.

For me personally, the technical side of blogging is what I’m finding most challenging at the moment. Trying to design my site the way I want and all that involved. But I know that these things take time. The other great thing about being a beginner (in particular, as a blogger), is that while my pageviews might be low, it gives me the chance to work away quietly so that one day when everything looks the way I want it, it will be ready for the world to see. I won’t need to tell people my blog is awesome; my site will speak for itself.

To be honest, I’m already quite far along compared to this time last year which is a great sign. Progress, progress, progress!

Also, my love of writing and sharing that writing with the world is certainly worth all of it!

It’s easy to say to me right now that I can’t give advice like this because I don’t yet have the results myself, to prove it. To that I say, sure. You got me. So, I guess in that sense, it does take a little bit of blind-optimism in the beginning. But that’s why passion is so important. When its something you truly love doing, or you truly care about and can’t live without, you will do everything it takes to succeed.

In 5 or so years time, when my blog finally kicks off, I will link this post in my latest post with a winky face and and a: I told you so! Just you wait.