I don’t know about you, but I love the mindset and motivation part of blogging.
I have been studying personal growth and mindset for decades though, so I come by my love of it naturally.
I find that when a lot of people talk about mindset, they frequently overshadow mindset with splashy tips and techniques that are action and results oriented.
In fact, mindset may even be forgotten or unnoticed.
However, figuring out how to have an effective blogging mindset is actually quite important, especially for bloggers.
What kind of mindset is required for blogging?
Because most bloggers spend a lot of time working on their own, having a positive mindset is critical.
Optimism
Optimism is a particularly helpful mindset for bloggers, when it feels like it is taking longer than you prefer to see the results you are expecting.
Optimism will keep you hopeful while you wait for Google and/or Pinterest to catch on to your progress.
Positivity
Keeping a positive and productive frame of mind is even more important when you have less interaction from others. This can definitely affect bloggers. who often work independently.
Without a good thought pattern, a small issue can feel like a big problem.
Lisa Atkinson
Focus on Cumulative Results
The impact of one individual blog post is minimal. But a successful blogger will see the importance of having lots of quality content. If you get stuck on having one blog post perfect, it will keep you from the success that results from creating lots of pretty dang good content.
Proper mindset will help you see your role as content creator more clearly so you can be more effective. It will help you balance the “shoulds” and “musts” so you reach your goals.
Lisa Atkinson
Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
Small hiccups can frequently come up in your blogging. If you start to let them bother you, or as I say, start on the “negative Nellie” thought process, it gets harder to turn your thoughts into a more positive light. Mindset can help you remain positive.
Mindset as Protection
Newer bloggers in particular may struggle with mindset because when learning something new or doing something adventurous, the brain fights back to protect what it knows is the safe route.
Nowadays, we don’t have to worry about lions or bears eating us. Yet the privative parts of our brains still want to protect us.
We have evolved and generally don’t have to worry about starving to death because of making a wrong decision about what path to travel on or where and when to go to forage for food.
But we are hardwired for our safety anyway, so we can acknowledge the positives and negatives that these thought patterns provide and make a decision as to what we want to do about the thoughts.
By labeling and identifying our fears and doubts as observable thoughts, we can control the results of the thoughts and decide whether they should impact our decisions.
Fear, Self-Doubt and Imposter Syndrome for Bloggers
When you take a stand for the success of your future blog, and decide you want to start a blog or have a successful blog, you may start to hear your inner critic grumbling about what might go wrong or pointing out self doubts.
You may even feel like you aren’t as good as everyone else who is already doing it, commonly referred to as imposter syndrome.
This is totally normal. So just expect that these thoughts will come up for you.
That will help you prepare for the fear and doubts.
In fact, you can expect fear, self-doubt and imposter syndrome will happen each time you grow. Each time you make another big step forward with your blog.
We are hard wired as humans to seek safety and security. In historic times this might have protected you from starving to death or kept you from being eaten by a lion.
So don’t blame yourself when you feel like an imposter or you feel like some new step is risky. Just acknowledge that this is just your brain’s way of trying to protect you.
When you take a step back, you can acknowledge the fears and limited beliefs that are presenting themselves to you. Then you can make a decision about whether they are helpful or not. Whether the beliefs are serving you well or limiting you from growing.
How to Have a Successful Blog
I am always looking for ways to improve, tweak and pivot to reach greater success. One of the ways to do this is by setting goals.
So many bloggers don’t bother with setting goals, and yet it is one of the best things you can do to create success.
If you get in an airplane and don’t know where it is going, how do you know you want to be where it is headed? How can you excitedly anticipate where you are going? How can you plan for what you will do when you get there?
If you don’t know where the airplane is taking you, how do you know if it is worth the cost of the flight?
Or in your case, the question might be, are you happy working a regular job or do you want more control of your life, your schedule and your future income?
What are your goals for your future?
Would blogging help you reach your long term goals better?
You get to decide.
As a blogger, you are your own boss. You decide the growth rate, direction and speed of success for your blog.
Setting a goal will help you know the direction you need to head towards to accomplish your goals.
Without the critical destination information, without knowing where you are heading, will you be able to sustain the effort required to be successful?
You need to both love your topic (niche) and feel optimistic about the impact you can make with your blog to increase your odds of long term success.
Shiny Object Syndrome
If you aren’t intentional about setting your goals and your destination, you are letting life circumstances choose what happens.
I don’t know about you, but in my life that shiny “easy” button is sooo appealing, but it won’t get me where I want to go.
As a blogger it is easy to believe that this or that will fix all your problems.
More often than not, you probably just need to believe in yourself and keep putting in the work on your blog. Without practice it is hard to get better at blogging.
You are worthy of blogging success. Practice and focus will help you get there.
Goal Setting for Bloggers
If you are still here with me, likely you too want to be successful in your blogging, or you wouldn’t be here.
You are worthy of success, and setting goals will help move you in that direction.
So, what do bloggers need to do to set blogging goals? The first step is to give careful consideration to some crucial measurable elements.
There are several things you want to think about regarding goal setting for your blog. For example,
- How much traffic do you want?
- How many email signups would be ideal for you?
- What kind of income would you like to create each month?
You can set your goals now and focus on achieving those goals. With practice, effort, willpower and hard work, your numbers will increase each month until you accomplish your goal. It may not be immediately, as blogging does not provide overnight success.
As you practice and continue to work hard, you will get closer and closer to your goals..
What Are Your Blogging Goals?
As you think of your goals, think next of the steps necessary to make those goals a reality.
One way you can start with is a basic assessment.
How many posts a month will help you reach your goals?
What are Your Blogging Goals and your Mindset Struggles?
I would love to hear your blogging goals and mindset struggles. Let me know what big bodacious goals you have in mind for yourself and your blog. I would also like to know what you are doing to overcome any of your mindset struggles.
