Let’s be real: blogging is hard. Even the best bloggers sometimes struggle with a lack of motivation. These mindset hacks will help you to rewire your brain so you can become more productive, motivated, and positive!
Now, I am no expert in hacking your mind. Like many of us, I am a work in progress! There are still many things I struggle with, but equally as many things I feel I have a good grasp on.
One of those things is motivation. Motivation can be difficult especially as a beginner blogger when you are seeing little results. However, with the right mindset, you can trick or train your brain into performing to its best ability.
Many of the mindset hacks I will be discussing might seem like common sense, but make sure you read it all. You might think you know everything about it or get the gist, but you still might learn something new!
Additionally, I have found that just by reading positive and motivational strategies, I become more positive and motivated.
Think of it like this: when you read something, your brain is essentially telling it to you. You can almost hear the words in your own voice like you are telling yourself these things.
This helps you to actually believe in what you are reading or saying to yourself! Fill your brain with positive things, and you will start to notice a rewiring in your brain!
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.
Throw out your expectations
Expectations are the root of all evil. For real! Hear me out. If you never had any expectation of how something would turn out, you could never be disappointed, right?
When I first began my blog I, probably like many of you, thought it would be easy, not a lot of work, and easy money.
Let’s just all laugh for a minute and take a moment of silence for our old selves.
Read more about common blogging myths!
Of course, we all know now that this couldn’t be farther from the truth. And, I learned it the hard way! I thought that by this point in time, I would have X, Y, and Z, and my blog would be at a certain point.
However, life has its own plans: cue Coronavirus. That truly threw a wrench in my travel-related blog at the time, as you can imagine.
Thus, I began to feel discouraged because my expectations were not becoming my reality. So, how do we deal with this?
Well, I could say just don’t have expectations, but that isn’t exactly easy or even possible sometimes. And, expectations can be a good thing sometimes (if they make you work harder to reach a goal).
What we can do is learn to take the pressure off ourselves, give ourselves grace, and be loose and flexible with our expectations for ourselves.
When you start working on a goal, you just don’t know what is going to happen 6 months from now (like a pandemic, for example). Sometimes you truly have no control over factors like this and how they affect your goals.
If this happens, be flexible. Maybe you can shift your expectations a bit, change up the timeline, and just scratch it all together!
Whatever you do, don’t beat yourself up over an expectation that you were never going to achieve in the first place.
You are not your thoughts
So you decide to become a blogger, but begin to feel like you don’t actually know what you are doing (because let’s face it- no one does in the beginning). You start to think, should I even be doing this? Do I belong? Can I even call myself a real blogger?
Cue the imposter syndrome.
You might feel like you are a fraud, a faker, someone who doesn’t even know what they’re doing and doesn’t have the right to call themselves a blogger.
If you feel this way, consider reading The Middle Finger Project by Ash Ambirge. It is honestly SUCH a good book and I recommend it for any and all bloggers (she started out as a blogger too!)
If you are feeling like an imposter, one of my favorite mindset hacks you can try is this: You are not your thoughts.
Read that again, just for good measure.
You might think that you are no good, a fraud, or an imposter. You might think you suck and that your writing isn’t any good. Maybe you tell yourself you don’t have what it takes to be successful.
Here’s the good news: All those are, are thoughts. That’s it!
You can think these things all you want. But, that doesn’t make them true. You can think whatever you want, and still act a different way, and no one would ever know.
If you don’t want those thoughts to become reality, simple do not let them. There’s really no secret to this!
Read more: Habits of successful bloggers
Progress not perfection
I have recently learned to love this quote and use it as my mantra. As bloggers, we know it is a slow game. You aren’t going to become rich or famous overnight, or even a year later. You’ve got to truly love this to continue.
I personally struggle with waiting. I want to get things done NOW and do everything possible to get things done as quickly as possible.
Blogging surely challenges these beliefs. It is one of those things that will never be “done”. Every day you’ve got to chip away at it and take steps towards your goal.
One of my favorite mindset hacks to is focus on progress rather than perfection. This is similar to looking back at how far you’ve come and accessing your growth.
Even on the worst days, take time to look at where you were a month ago, a year ago, or even just last week. Certainly, there has been tons of progress made.
Even if it is just that you wrote 1 blog post, or you reached 1000 page views- celebrate each milestone. Admire yourself for your hard work and progress.
No one is perfect, but everyone can make progress. Stay in the here and now, and be proud of yourself for what you have achieved, instead of beating yourself up over what you’ve yet to achieve.
Failure means you're trying
As a blogger, you will fail. I know, this is supposed to be a motivating article. BUT, it is the truth!
You won’t always get everything right the first try. You won’t be successful with everything you do immediately. Sorry, but you might have to try 2, 3, 4, 5 times before you get it right!
But guess what? That’s ok. Not just ok, but GOOD.
Failure means you’re trying. Notice I didn’t say failure means you’ve tried. You are not done yet. Failure doesn’t mean it’s over. It just means you are learning and growing!
As long as you continue to try, you will fail. And as long as you continue to fail, you will learn. The more you learn, the better blogger you will be, and the better person you will be!
We as a society need to reframe failure to be more positive than looked at as something we should avoid. NO! Go out and intentionally make mistakes. Try things you know might not work.
Learn. Grow. Prosper!
Don't be sorry
In my experience, being a blogger has lead to many apologies and guilt:
- Sorry I can’t, I have to work on my business.
- I need to quit my job to work full time on my business, sorry!
- Feeling guilty of calling yourself a blogger because what even is a blogger? And what will people think?
- Feeling uncomfortable when someone asks what you do for a job.
- Not knowing when to quit your job and take the plunge out of fear of what people will think.
- Wondering if it is realistic to quit your job for what everyone calls your “passion project”
I’m sure you can relate to at least some of those. A blogger’s world is hard because most people don’t really understand it. It’s not one of those jobs like a teacher or a doctor where people are automatically praising you for your hard work and dedication.
Little do they know, bloggers make up about one-third of the entire internet.
Yea. That’s 1 in 3 websites. We are important and valuable!
If blogging is truly your passion, stop being sorry about it. Treat it like any other job. Sorry, you can’t go to that happy hour because you have work to do. Just because it is your blog, doesn’t make it any less validated.
Stop feeling sorry about quitting your job to pursue your passion. If anything, we should be idolizing and encouraging this behavior. Sorry you don’t want to spend your entire like working 9-5 for someone else (They’re just jealous!)
Own your choices. Be confident in your endeavor. Speak highly of it, and don’t just say, “I have this little blog I work on…”
Be bold, and the rest. of the world will learn to respect you!
Facts over emotions
Another one of my favorite mindset hacks is to listen to the facts rather than your emotions. Now, I am not telling you to just be a robot and feel nothing! However, emotions lead us to believe one thing, when reality shows us something different.
This is similar to the previous hack that you are not your thoughts. Your mind might be telling you, “I can’t do this” or “I’m not good enough” or “I’m not doing a good enough job”.
However, what is reality? Did you write 3 posts this week? I would say that means you are doing a good job.
Are you trying? That means you are doing this!
Your mind and body will always try to find the easy way out. That’s just how we are wired. When something gets tricky, we want to flee and find the easiest and most comfortable place to put ourselves in.
That is why your brain is telling you these things. You are challenging your status quo- making your brain work harder and in ways it is not used to, and making it uncomfortable!
Don’t listen to it! You are not your thoughts, and you are not what your emotions say you are.
Show your mind the hard cold facts. Show it that it is wrong!
Think in the present
Another one of my favorite mindset hacks is to think in the present. Most of the time, we think thoughts like this:
- I will be successful
- I will work hard
- Someday I will reach my goal
- I’m going to be a successful blogger
- I’m going to achieve my goals
Notice any similarities? What is wrong with those thoughts? What if I put them this way instead:
- Think, I am successful!
- I am working hard!
- I am reaching my goals!
- Say, I am a successful blogger!
- I am achieving my goals!
Which one sounds more positive and encouraging? The second list of course! By reframing your thoughts to the present, you give yourself recognition for the things you are already doing, rather than what you aren’t doing.
For example, “I will be successful” sounds like you aren’t doing a dang thing. But, “I am successful” sounds like you are proud of the work you have done!
Tell yourself you are already doing it. Whatever “it” is. Tell yourself you are already on your way to achieving it. If you say “I will…”, you are essentially buying time until you finally decide to get around to doing it.
Tell yourself you ARE. Your mind and body will follow suit.
You are already the success story you strive to become.
Need more motivation?
I mean, who doesn’t. Luckily for you, Queen Bee Bloggers has an amazing, supportive, and empowering group of women that would welcome you with open arms!
Have a question about blogging? Need some advice? Just need to connect with someone who actually understands you? We’ve got the place for you!
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I read this and it spoke to me. It was like I was reading my own thoughts lol. Great motivational post. I have to pin this.