I am writing these words from beautiful Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Many people think I am lucky.
I have circled the globe over the past 6 years as a pro blogger.
But I am not lucky. I learned a lesson from happy, loving, successful people: people who live their dreams learned how to effectively deal with setbacks.
If you are not living your blogging dream you simply quit after facing some setback.
On the blogging front, you will face setbacks. Either you stop, or go forward. It’s that simple.
Common Blogging Setbacks
- slamming into financial problems
- facing the white screen of death on your blog
- dealing with harsh critics
- dealing with broken web servers (See the recommended web hosting of 2017)
- LOT – Lack Of Traffic
- LOC – Lack Of Comments
- resistance from family and friends who feel you’re wasting your time with blogging
- any circumstance that appears to prevent you from living your blogging dreams
I’ve followed a few basic tips over the years to deal with the rich collection of blogging setbacks I’ve faced while being a full time blogger and traveler.
1: Embrace the Sting
The worst way to approach a blogging setback is to fight or resist the feelings associated with the setback because whatever you fight, fights back. Or whatever you resist, persists.
The best way to approach a disappointment is to embrace the sting. If you feel the negative emotions of suffering through failure you can clear the emotions quickly, helping you to feel better so you can take a fresh new perspective on the situation.
Embrace the sting. Feel the pain. Feel the suffering of appearing to lose all of your traffic, or of losing your top client. Feeling the pain for a few seconds or minutes helps you clearly see the solution to the situation. Feeling the sting also helps you see that setbacks are illusions. We are always moving forward.
2: Shift Toward Blogging with Love (Versus Fear)
If you slam into some obstacle, understand this: you allowed fear to dominate love in your being.
Example; during a recent trip to Myanmar I had no internet access for 9 days. If I feared not being able to get online I’d have moaned and complained and worried about this horrible blogging setback. Since I chose to blog with love – versus blogging with fear – the setback vanished. I seized an opportunity to write offline and to enjoy my travels.
Blog with love. Love never asks. Help people. Serve people. If you appear to face a setback, blogging with love dissolves the obstacle immediately.
3: Follow Your Fun Again
Slamming into disappointment proves you lost your way.
Like a sheep who wandered from his shepherd, you shifted from doing what felt fun toward drudge word, or toward some blogging actions you thought you needed to do.
If you blog mainly to have fun, the fun is the reward. Traffic is extra. Money is a bonus. If traffic or money doesn’t arrive, no big deal. They were just the icing on the cake, the cherry on top, not the cake itself.
Every single one of my blogging setbacks happened when I stopped blogging mainly for fun. All my blogging disappointments dissolve when I blog mainly for fun, and care not much about outcomes.
Blog for fun again. Purify your intent. Let go setbacks, disappointments and all those outcomes-based energies that make you feel crappy.
4: Learn Your Lesson
I see a setback as a push forward. If you learn a lesson from the opportunity.
Example; during some lean years online I only created content for my blog. Setback after setback besieged me, like a swarm of killer bees descending upon me. Traffic problems. Income problems.
I eventually learned this lesson from my struggles: creating offsite/off blog is as important as creating onsite/ on your blog. I began guest posting. I dove full bore into blog commenting. Things turned for me. Most of my blogging struggles dissolved because I learned:
- you cannot do everything on your own
- you cannot create only on your cyber real estate
- if you’re being abundant, you will help out other audiences by guest posting and by writing in-depth comments on other blogs, dissolving your struggles
Your Turn
How do you deal with blogging setbacks?
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