1st November 2020 wasn’t just any other regular Sunday. It was the launch date of this blog. I had spent the preceding two months building and tinkering with it. Finally, I was ready to roll it out.

I vividly remember the day the idea crystallized in my mind. It was late August of the same year, and my faculty at school made us attend a conference somewhere in town, which I wasn’t in the least interested in. So to fill up the time, I decided to finish through a book I was reading that month — Every Single Day (more about the book here).

Right at the end of the book, the author had a challenge for readers with writing interests. It was titled “Start a Blog Challenge“. Having previously considered the idea of having a blog and even going as far as experimenting with Facebook blogging back in 2018, I became curious about the challenge.

I followed the link in the book, and while scoping its content, I had my eureka moment and I remember thinking to myself, “This is it! I have to do this”. For the rest of the conference, I dug deeper into the details of the challenge, familiarizing myself with what it took to create a blog site.

From then on, and for the next month, I spent countless hours learning how to put a blog together from scratch. It wasn’t the easiest task, but it was an exciting experience. From several YouTube videos to blog sites to random Google searches, every step I managed to figure out motivated me to take on the next one.

It’s been a year since the blog launched, and it’s been beautiful. I have been through different seasons in the interval between then and now, and the blog has indeed been a journal to document these seasons. I’ve also picked up a few lessons while at it, and I’ll proceed to share a few of them.

You don’t have to figure it all out before you begin.

When I got the idea for the blog, I knew nothing about creating a blog site. WordPress was an unfamiliar field, and I had no idea how to use it. But I was determined to figure it out as I went. Every obstacle I encountered was an opportunity to learn something new.

It can be tempting to have everything figured out before you begin, but that can be overwhelming. Usually, the scope of the work required is much more than you estimate in your planning, and the more you work to figure it out, the more it seems to increase. Instead of trying to get everything figured out, focus on the step ahead of you.

Focus on the step in front of you, not the whole staircase

Anonymous

Consistency is a marathon, not a sprint.

The goal of every runner is the same — to win the race. However, the running pattern of a sprinter is quite different from that of a marathon runner. If you tried to apply the strategy of a sprinter in a marathon race (or vice versa), you’d most likely be setting yourself up for defeat.

In a sprint, you start off at high speed, accelerate real quick, and the race is over before you know it. On the other hand, a marathon runner isn’t so concerned about speed. He is more focused on his endurance. His ability to stay in the race until the end is hinged on how much he can endure, and that is usually at the expense of speed.

I launched the blog knowing it was a marathon and not a sprint, and this mindset guides how I manage it. I am not so particular about fast growth, even though that would be nice to have. More important is sustaining the consistency of showing up here as scheduled. When that is settled, then the growth pace becomes the next focus.

The power of Slow growth.

Youtuber, Matt D’Avella, runs an online learning platform by the name “Slow Growth Academy”. At first glance, this might seem like a contradictory tag for a learning platform. But when you take a closer look, it makes sense.

According to the information on the platform’s site, Matt says “We’ve been led to believe that success happens overnight. But embracing real growth is about committing to the journey. And it all begins with having the right mindset.” Couldn’t be any truer.

I have personally embraced slow growth in my blogging journey. There are days when I feel like I am not making as much progress as I probably anticipated, but each time I get such feelings, I remind myself that it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Focus on the 1%

I came across some mathematical formulas in the book Atomic Habits, which emphasized the power of small consistent progress. Even though it was focused on daily habits, I have also applied it in running my blog.

1% worse every day for one year: 0.99365 = 00.03

1% better every day for one year: 1.01365 = 37.78

In comparison to doing nothing at all: 1.00365 = 1.00

From the above expressions, it is clear that every little progress adds up exponentially to massive results over time. Focusing on improving by 1% per time might seem like little but with time, it begins to expand quickly.