5 Life lessons I learnt from blogging

Hi all! I am Niraj from Niraj’s blogs, and I am delighted to do this collab with Shelly. In this blog post, I am going to talk about 5 things I have learnt from blogging. To give a bit of a background, I started blogging in March 2019 and have been regularly blogging since June of this year. Not only has it been my favourite hobby, I have also learnt some valuable life lessons during my blogging journey. I want to talk about the life lessons I learnt from blogging, and hopefully you will be able to relate to some of them.

Life lessons I learnt from blogging:

You are unique

If there is one thing that I want you to take away from blogging to the real world, it is that you are unique. Imagine if every blogger had the same style of writing and wrote about the same things? Things would be very, very boring. One thing that I love about blogging is the sheer diversity of blogs and writing styles and that I can contribute to this diversity by expressing my own unique voice. This links quite nicely to real life. No one is perfect, and everyone has things that they are good at and not so good at. But if everyone was the same, things would get boring. So therefore, you should embrace the fact that you are unique and different to others and use that to your advantage.

You won’t agree with others all the time but don’t be hurtful

There have been many times where I have read a blog post and not agreed with something that the blogger has mentioned, or my opinion has differed from theirs. That is fine and there is nothing wrong with not agreeing with something that someone has said. However, there is a big difference between not agreeing with what someone thas said and being outright hurtful. If I don’t agree with what someone has said in a blog post then I would never say hurtful comments to them.

Firstly, that person has put a lot of effort into writing that post and undermining that could dent their confidence. Secondly, you don’t know what someone is going through. Unfortunately, I have seen too many instances of comments made to other bloggers which are hurtful, which needs to change. In the real world, there will be viewpoints you won’t agree with. Examples that come into mind are people’s views on racism and working from home. But don’t be rude or hurtful to them just because they have a different view to you. Instead, respect their point of view, even if you don’t agree with it.

Not everyone will agree with you and that’s fine

This is very similar to the above point. My blog posts are sometimes on topics that are intended to start a debate where people will have different viewpoints to me, as I don’t always write blog posts with the intention for people to agree with me. This was something that took a while for me to be comfortable with, as it can be hard to be told that someone doesn’t agree with you at times. But what made me OK with that over time is realising that with certain topics, no matter what you blog about, there will be at least one person that won’t agree with everything you have written.

Writing blogs that not everyone will agree with has made me comfortable with accepting the fact that not everyone will agree with my viewpoints. And that is OK. If anything, diversity of viewpoints is a good thing, provided you are respectful of other viewpoints.

Never underestimate yourself, you are capable of a lot if you put your mind to it

When I started out my blog, I didn’t have very high expectations for it and I certainly didn’t think that many people would read it. However, fast forward to today, my blog has over 200 followers​ and has been viewed over 6,000 times. What I feel was the main thing that has contributed to this is putting my mind into blogging and writing more posts even though it was (and still is) something I consider a hobby. My blogging journey has therefore taught me that you shouldn’t underestimate yourself in anything. You are capable of achieving a lot if you put your mind to something. This applies in so many areas in life, from academics to careers to lifestyle. I have achieved a lot of things in life which I would never have backed myself to achieve. And I am sure you can do the same as well!

Enjoy the journey

Usually with blogging, there is no predefined destination in terms of where your blog should be at the end. What that means is that blogging is a continuous journey from the moment you plan your first blog post. If you offered me 1 million followers and views in a day, I wouldn’t take it. This is because one of my favourite things about blogging is the journey itself. And one of the most satisfying things is seeing my blog gradually grow from scratch.

When I reflect back on how far my blog has come, I always love thinking about the journey as a whole and I look forward to seeing my blogging journey continue! In the real world, although reaching and meeting your overall goals is important, you shouldn’t be 100% fixated on it 24/7. Enjoying the journey behind these goals, and embracing both the good and bad in that journey will make you happier. You will also learn a lot as well! I know for me, I get happy when I remember the moment I reached a goal or achievement. But I get even happier remembering the journey behind meeting that goal or achievement.

Related: 5 Ways my blog changed in the first 6 months

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I hope you enjoyed reading this post! Make sure to check out my post on Niraj’s blog where I talk about 5 things that 2020 taught me.

Until next time!

Can you relate to any of life lessons I learnt from blogging? What are some of yours?