Guess whose birthday it is today?!
Happily Ever Adventures turns 1 today!
Is it weird to celebrate a birthday for a blog? Well, I don’t care, I’m totally getting a cupcake WITH a candle and making a wish for HEA’s 1st birthday! Silly or not, part of everyday life adventures is taking the time to celebrate the small milestones and accomplishments. Making it to one full year of blogging is definitely a milestone! Can’t wait to see how HEA will grow and develop as it makes it’s way towards year 2!
As a birthday gift, we are raffling off a $50 Amazon gift card to one of our VIP readers. Make sure to sign up here if you aren’t one yet!
7 things we’ve learned after one year of blogging:
1. Blogging is really really hard!
Like really freaking hard. Every single little thing has been such a learning process for us and has involved some hair pulling {our own hairs, not each other’s} and maybe some tears. Okay, full disclosure. No tears for Bassam, LOTS of tears for me. It doesn’t even phase Bassam anymore when he hears me having a crying fit, it’s become expected with me setting up something new.
2. The hard stuff makes you realize how capable you are
Said hard things from above? Eventually we figure them out. Like setting up a newsletter, customizing our design, whatever thing we just deemed IMPOSSIBLE a week ago, we eventually figure it out! And you know what, that feels really really good. No joke. Sometimes after figuring something out, I do a little happy dance and feel like this blogging superwoman. Of course, that feeling doesn’t last long because soon I’m off to the next hard thing and again, I have NO idea how to do it. But for that one moment, I feel invincible.
3. Blogging forces you to face your fears
Guys. I can’t tell you how many fears I face on a daily basis doing this blogging thing. Hitting publish on a post? Scary as hell for me. I’m terrified people will read it and hate it or make fun of me. I’m terrified no one will read it. It’s like taking out a small piece of your heart and handing it out to the world to hold, step on, do whatever they like with. SCARY and vulnerable. Doing videos? That was my greatest fear forever! I couldn’t stand watching or listening to myself on video and was sure everyone was laughing at me. They probably are, but that hasn’t stopped me from getting over my fears and doing videos on an almost daily basis via Instagram Story. Often without makeup. How’s that for brave?
4. Blogging can take over your life- if you let it
Which we did. There are days that between my real job and the blog, I don’t get up from the computer. That’s not good for my mind, my body, or my brain. There are times when I don’t sleep or sleep very little because of the long hours I’m putting in after work. There are many weeks in which we skip date night to edit photos or write blog posts. There are times when we talk about nothing but the blog. And of course, don’t get us started on how often we Insta Story all of our experiences.
It’s hard sometimes when your blog revolves around your life and your everyday adventures, because you have to share that daily stuff. It’s become important for us to realize it’s okay to sometimes have times where we do things and don’t share.
Here are some goals we have to not let the blog take over our life this year:
- Get up every hour and do a quick stretch
- Workout or get some sort of movement in daily
- Have a weekly date night- no matter what!
- Don’t go more than two nights in a row of skipping sleep {this will be a major improvement}
- Occasionally do things that we don’t share {still need to figure out the frequency for this}
- *Set a routine* This will include our wake up time, work out times, date times, blog times, alone/me times, etc. Sounds boring, but it seems to be the only way to live a balanced life
5. Doing something you love still feels like work
All those people who say, “do something you love and you’ll never work a day in your life”, I call BS. Everything eventually feels like work and there are days that you will hate anything, no matter how passionate you are about it. There have been so many times where we just wanted to chill on the couch and watch a stupid TV show instead of working on the blog. There have been times I didn’t feel like writing a blog post or Instagram caption. The admin stuffs aren’t always fun. Meeting deadlines can sometimes be stressful. Just like with any job, it’s still work and work isn’t always fun. Just because you love it, doesn’t mean you will feel inspired and motivated everyday.
When we didn’t feel like doing something this year, we just didn’t do it. We were late on deadlines. We skipped posting Instagram or blog posts. We watched that TV show or went to bed early. That’s because it was still in the hobby phase. Recently we’ve transitioned over to treating our blog like a business. I upgraded my computer and set up organizational tools that I know I work well with and keep me productive. I started assigning myself deadlines and taking meeting them seriously. That means working on the blog this year will sometimes feel very much like work and not like fun. But I’m okay with that. Because at the end of the day, I love it more than I hate it and maybe that’s all that quote means.
6. It’s not about the numbers
No, really. Repeat after me. It’s not about the numbers. It’s about an engaged and loyal audience. Oh boy. This was and still is a hard one. Initially, our Instagram grew really well. It wasn’t rocket science, I was spending a lot of time on it. Then of course, the less time I spent, the slower we grew. Instead of celebrating or appreciating the milestones we had reached, I just kept thinking about the next ones. Same with the blog. Our numbers are nowhere near as great on the blog as they are on Instagram and I have a tendency to obsess over it. I’ll publish a new post and watch the Analytics like a hawk. But you know what? None of that matters. It’s not about a number. It’s about the people. Recently this is the mindset I’ve tried to adopt. To really focus on the people who were reading my stuff, who did care about what I posted, the people who showed up. I started caring more about them than this limitless number and I really can say, I feel so much happier now. It’s now back to the joy and the fun, rather than those pesky numbers. I’ve always been more of a words person than a numbers person anyway.
7. Above all, be true to yourself without caring what others think
I’ve always been a self-conscious person. I remember in Middle School trying to walk in a way that “looked cool”. I’d play a theme song in my head and try to walk confidently so I didn’t show how shy and self-conscious I was. In actuality, I stared at my shoes the entire time I was walking and probably looked really really painfully shy. I can’t believe how far I’ve come since then. I put myself out there on a daily basis now. Out there for the world to judge. And you know what? When people don’t like me, I really don’t give a crap. I’m not out here to please everyone. My stuff will resonate with some people and while I wish it would resonate with everyone, that’s just not realistic. So when people unfollow me or leave me weird/nasty/rude comments, it doesn’t even phase me. Because they are not my target audience. And there’s a blogger out there for them. But I’m not it. Maybe I am it for someone else and maybe I’m not. Learning to not give a you-know-what is probably my absolute favorite thing that blogging has taught me. All I can be is me. Either you like me or you don’t. But that’s all I know how to be and that’s all I care to be. Middle School me, are you listening?
Loved this post, Lena! You are so relatable and have such a way of expressing feelings we all deal with. I am in the hobby phase of my blog because I just can’t deal with saying no to that silly tv show, haha. But it’s encouraging to know that the hard work is always worth it in the end. Also, I hear it takes years for a blog to catch fire. Keep up the great posts, and new loyal fans will continue to find you. 😊
Aw Melissa, I always love seeing a comment from you so much. You are so incredibly sweet and supportive and I am so lucky that you care to read what I write. Haha, saying no to the silly tv show is surprisingly hard! I struggle with it every night!