I've been blogging for around a year and some months, and when I first started fleshing out ideas for this blog, there were certain things I just didn't know that I wish I did back then.
That being said, had I known then what I know now, I still would have started my blog! It's been an amazing way to get my thoughts out there while discovering some amazing people at the same time and I love that my life decided to take me in this direction.
The first thing I wish I knew was how time consuming this whole thing would be. Back when I was living in England, I was on my gap year so I had all the time in the world. I only got to know how stressful it could get when I was busy that day and couldn't dedicate 100% of my time. Moving to Zambia, I had relatives to meet and places to see and this is when I was thrown in the deep end. Now I'm in uni, finding time to juggle everything is only possible by keeping myself organised.
If I manage to stay on top of everything, I'm able to breathe and not freak out but the amount of time it takes for writing, driving traffic to the blog, and other things is huge and I wish I had known that.
The next thing I wish I knew was how people you know in real life will be supportive about it! I was so scared to share this with people I knew in real life but once I shared it with a friend, I received such lovely feedback and I didn't know I would!
Now, my blog link is in all my personal Twitter and Instagram accounts and if anyone wants to have a look, they can! (Checking analytics, I can see that quite a few do, which just blows my mind). I've also had a few friends follow my blog Instagram and it's so heartwarming to get feedback and support from them.
Had I known this, I would have told people much sooner!
Thirdly, I wish I knew that photography is something to work hard at, again and again.
The standard for blog photos has me stumped because I just can't seem to take aesthetic enough photos for posts.
Now, I'm looking to improve my photography through Instagram, and this includes the type of photos and editing too. I take advantage of sunny days and free time to improve my photography.
I thought it'd be easy to snap a picture of anything and have it look good but that's not the case!
Another thing I wish I knew is how difficult and intimidating navigating through the blogging community is.
As a small blogger, attempting to talk to another blogger makes me so nervous and so many thoughts go through my head beforehand and I unfortunately talk myself out of it a lot of the time.
I've gotten better than I was before; I can shoot someone an Instagram DM or respond to their tweet without too much of a heart attack, but I definitely wish I was much better at it. It looked so easy from the outside looking in but now I'm in and I see how scary it is!
Finally, the last thing I wish I knew before I started blogging is that completion is better than perfection, and starting is better than nothing.
Sometimes I think about a post I've drafted so much I can talk myself out of publishing it. But, for something to improve, you have to first begin working on it otherwise it'll remain in that state you don't want it to be in anyway!
This fear of wanting everything to be perfect is something I'm working on because it can just leave you not growing and in the same position you were in weeks or months ago.
We've all heard "perfection doesn't exist" a million times, but it's true! Just get on with that thing that you're afraid of ending up less than perfect, whether it's starting a YouTube channel, writing an essay, or cooking a meal you've been really wanting to.
Those are 5 things I wish I knew before I started blogging, and like I said, even if I knew them all before, I still would have started my blog 100%.
What are some things you wish you knew before you started your blog?
