I had another post planned for today but this idea came to me this morning as I was getting my kids ready for school.

June is my birthday month. I am going to be 36 years old. This will be the year that I have lived as long as a survivor as I did not as a survivor. That is a strange revelation for me. I am still trying to figure out how I actually feel about that information.

When I started blogging in 2014, I never saw it becoming my business. I went into blogging thinking that it was just going to be a fun side project. I had always loved writing and well, blogging was the perfect way to do that.

36 LESSONS I HAVE LEARNED IN MY 6+ YEARS OF BLOGGING

I thought that it would be fun to do some reflection and talk about some lessons that I learned along my blogging adventure.

1| You don’t need to know someone personally to make an impact. I have come to realize that women from all over the world come to my blog to read what I have to say. I am impacting women that I have never met before, some I will never meet and others that I have met because they read my blog.

2| Consistency is key in everything that you do. It just isn’t about being consistent in blogging. It is about being consistent and showing up in every part of my life. Whether that means for meditation, for my kids, for my relationships. The only way to improve and keep moving forward is by being willing to show up.

3| You can change the world through words. I remember being told that if I wanted to make an impact, I needed to do more than write. I disagree with that and I think that other women would also disagree with that statement.

4| Your past is powerful. I thought that I needed to ignore my past and focus on what my future was going to bring. But by not acknowledging my past, I was stuck in it. I needed to give it the love that it deserved. I needed to embrace it and not hide from it. When I was able to do that, I was able to heal and move forward with love for my past. Here is how you can begin to free yourself from your past.

5| Writing helps you to process your emotions. Writing gave me an outlet. Women tend to hold everything we feel inside until we explode with emotion. Blogging allowed me to examine my past, feel what I was currently going through and more easily work through what was coming up. Here I talk about where to even begin in your journey.

6| Writing helps you see how far that you have come. I believe that we don’t always realize how much we have healed until we start looking back. When I started sharing my story, I thought that I was completely broken. It wasn’t until this point that I realized that I was much further along than I even thought I was. I still had a long way to go BUT it gave me hope knowing that I was healing the entire time.

7| Sharing stories means that you are building a community around yourself. This was a big moment for me. As a survivor, you know that you are not the only woman (or man) that has ever been traumatized. That doesn’t matter though because it is still the loneliest club despite its size. When I started to share my story, the voices of women thanking me and telling me I was not alone helped me continue to move forward.

8| Organization is needed in every aspect of your life. As each year passes, I find that I get more stressed if I am not organized. This isn’t just about my blog. I need to be organized if every piece of my life or the disorganization carries over.

9| The older you get, the more comfortable you get in your story. I think this is one of the reasons I love getting older. The older I get, the more I realize that my story is just that. It is a piece of me. A piece that doesn’t make me any less unworthy or any less magical than who I am.

10| Imperfect action is better than perfection. I have been known to just jump in feet first and hope for the best. It is how I have started all of my businesses. Passion is what fuels me. Nothing is ever going to be perfect and real change begins when you just start doing. Be imperfect. It shows everyone around you that they can also be imperfect.

11| Learning every day is necessary. You will get nowhere in life if you do not learn something new every day. When you begin to live in the moment and begin to pay attention to your life, learning will come naturally.

12| Follow your passion because it is what matters. You are passionate about something for a reason. There have been times in my life that I have allowed the voices of others to be louder than my own. I had listened to the advice of business coaches, friends and family and shut out the voice that was inside. I always felt a disconnect when this happened.

13| Life can be too serious. You need to remember to play. My kids remind me of this every single day. As a grown-up, we think that we need to be serious. I mean, after all, there is so much that needs to be done in a day BUT that is just an excuse. Remember to take time every day to have fun even if it is just for five minutes, to begin with. Turn the music up loud and dance like no one is watching.

14| It is normal to change and flow. When I started my blog and my business, I thought that I would be a failure if I quit or lost my passion. I find that we are always evolving and sometimes our ideas, plans and life change. My passions have changed but the reason for those passions has always remained the same.

15| Put yourself out there and that is when things change. It is terrifying to put yourself out there. Twice in the past six months, I have written guest blog posts to other blogging bloggers. They were incredibly personal posts that I was sure they were going to laugh at and reject. The crazy thing is, they both accepted them. When you put yourself out there, you are giving yourself a chance to flourish.

16| Your passion can quickly take over your life. I am adding this because I often hear from my kids, “Mom all you ever do is work.” My blog and my business don’t feel like work to me. I can sometimes get lost and work the day away because I absolutely love what I do. I hope that someday you will find this kind of passion for yourself. Just remember to play.

17| Success is different for everyone. Growing up I had this image of success. I always thought that it meant a big house, huge bank accounts, celebrity status. When in reality, I am a Cancer and NONE of that is what I want. (Well except for maybe the big house.) Success to me is completely different and that doesn’t make it wrong. Find what success means for you and begin to chase it.

18| You get better at writing blog posts with practice. I hate the saying practice makes perfect. Because there is no such thing as perfection. But by doing the things you are going to get better. You are going to learn what works and what doesn’t. Keep moving forward.

19| We are all experts at something. The word expert is intimidating. I love the word expertise. It is giving power to ourselves in our own lives. We are all an expert in something. We have all lived through moments that have taught us things. We all have people in our life that come to us with the same questions. Start believing in your expertise. Here are 11 ways to showcase your expertise.

20| You can create a business based on your past. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this. Most of my clients starting blogging as a way to share their stories. They then began a coaching business with what they have learned through living their life and doing the healing work. This truly gives meaning to your past and it is the BEST way to create the business and life of your dreams.

21| Everyone will have an opinion on your story. This is an important lesson. We all see every situation differently. Not everyone will agree with what you experienced and that is not your problem. You are sharing YOUR experience, not there’s. Continue moving forward.

22| Blogging leads to lifelong friendships. I have met some of the most incredible women because I started blogging. I am truly lucky to have them in my life. They remind me every day of the power that we hold within ourselves to change the world.

23| I really love yoga pants. There is no denying this. I knew this going into blogging but even more so now that I blog full-time. There is nothing better than sitting at my desk in my coloured yoga pants. This also reminds me that I do wish that I had some style. HAHA!!

24| Success takes time. No matter how many times you see people promoting quick ways to get to 10K months or thousands of readers in 30 days, it is rare. They are discounting all of the hard work they put in before that. Don’t do that to yourself. Success takes time. Building your blog and building relationships take time. Embrace that.

25| Blogging is more than a numbers game. We get obsessed over the numbers. How many people are visiting our site? What is the bounce rate? Has our social media following grown? We tend to think that these numbers are the ONLY measurement of success. I am here to tell you that is not the case. Blogging is about more than numbers. It is about building relationships, building trust and teaching your audience what they are needing to know

26| Knowing how your readers talk is important. SEO is important but knowing how your readers talk is super important. It is going to help you connect to them and make it more possible for you to explain in their language what you are talking about.

27| You will never fully be healed. We all think that there is an endpoint when it comes to healing. I know that I did. What I have realized is that just isn’t the case. There is no endpoint. You will always be healing and moving forward.

28| Blogging is about more than blog posts. I went into blogging thinking that I just needed to write a blog post and people would show up. That just isn’t the case. The real work with blogging starts after you hit publish. It is about showing up on your social media platforms and building relationships and teaching your followers. It is about consistently bringing readers to your site.

29| People connect with real life. For the most part, people show their highlight reel on social media but we don’t truly connect with those who do that. I know for me, I want to see the hard days. I want to see the struggles. I don’t want to be made to feel as if I am the only one who has them. People connect with real-life so show them yours.

30| There is no right or wrong way to blog. There are things that you need to do as a blogger but the actual writing of the blog posts is unique. You will learn this as you go and continue to write. There is no right or wrong way to blog so get that out of your head right now.

31| Until you say yes, you are stuck right where you are. No matter what aspect we are talking about, this is true for every piece of our life. If you want things to change, you need to say yes. You need to look fear in the face and do it anyway. Showing up for yourself is the only way that you are going to advance.

32| You will have more supporters than haters. It is terrifying to put yourself out there and start a blog. You are worried about the judgement and the haters but I am here to tell you that you will have more supporters than haters. It doesn’t mean that you won’t have haters but it means that the love from your supporters will matter more than any hate spread from others.

33| You are making an impact no matter how many readers you have. Bloggers tend to think in numbers. They see success as how many readers they have BUT I want you to know that numbers have no importance on the impact you are creating. Be thankful even if you have 1 reader. You are impacting their life so appreciate them and show them that you notice.

34| Make friends with bloggers in your niche. I always had this thought that they were competition. I couldn’t make friends with those who are in the same niche as me. Throw that idea out the window. Make friends with bloggers in your niche is a great way to collaborate and support one another. Do this from the beginning and you will have an ally the whole time.

35| Write about what YOU are passionate about. Your readers are going to know when something is off. You can tell the difference between someone who is sharing their passion versus someone who is just writing to write. You are passionate about your niche for a reason. That passion makes you different from the rest.

36| You want to blog for a reason. Blogging is going to get hard and there is going to be a time (or many many times) when you just want to give up and move on. Remember why you started. Writing down your why in the beginning is going to help remind you when those hard times come.

Those are the 36 lessons that I have learned as a blogger. Some of them have to do with blogging and some do not. If you want to join my Planning Your Blog Launch masterclass, I would love to see you there. Learn everything that you need to about launching your own blog. Plus it is ONLY $11 for my birthday month. So let’s celebrate!!!