Facing Fears, Chasing Dreams

Sometimes the hardest thing to do is chase your dreams. It’s not because you don’t want to reach them but rather, the fears that come with them. Sometimes the scary part is starting the journey and other times, you’re scared of the what ifs. Dreams are beautiful and worth chasing. We might not reach them all, but we won’t reach any of them if we don’t try. Remember, you can do anything if you try. Let me share how I got started with blogging. I’ll share what brought me to blogging, the fears and struggles I faced starting up, and where I am at right now. Let’s begin.

The Beginning

Let’s go back to how it all started. I love writing. Ever since I was young, I loved to write stories. As a Christian, I love the journaling aspect of my devotional time. I have wanted to write for a living for a few years now, but was never quite sure how to go about that. I thought that the only way I can make money while writing is if I become a journalist or an author. Being a journalist and writing what other people wanted me to write did not sound appealing at all, but writing stories is always fun, so I chased that path. That’s when I ran into my first obstacle. Finishing a whole novel. The ideas usually flowed for the first few weeks. I would spend hours writing, but then hit a block and quit. Another idea would come and I just never finished the last one.

So, I started to question if being an author was truly what I wanted to do. I would put the dream on a shelf, randomly be inspired to write, pick it up and then after a while drop it again. This went on for a few years and I was beginning to think that writing for a career was not in the plan for my life. I would have to give it up. Then blogging entered the picture.

I came across a resort that wrote blogs and thought, why does the hotel I work for not give it a try? I brought the idea of blogs to my boss and she told me to go for it. At first I was excited. I was finally going to get paid to write. That was when the first fear hit.

The Fears

What would I write? I had to think about this for a while. Going back to the resort where I found the blogs, I started reading through some of their blogs. I got some ideas, and even my coworkers gave me ideas of different blogs to write. So, I wrote the blog and passed it on to the coworker who managed our site and she did the finishing touches and published it. That’s when the next fear hit. What if my blog sucked?

Sometimes the biggest fear we face is the fear of failing before we have even started. I was so worried about the blog failing and getting no attention. I feared that my boss would take that away and tell me it was a waste of time and not something to be working on. The fear was so loud that it drowned out the hope for a while, the positive what ifs. What if people loved my blog and they became really popular? I doubted myself and my ability to write something that people would enjoy.

Starting on my own

The blogs I wrote for the hotel were doing good. I even got some feedback from people who read them and that encouraged me to keep going. Now we jump forward to the present and I find myself wanting to work from home and make some extra cash. I started to research on how to start my own blog and if I could actually make some money from it. I was surprised when I found out just how much I could be making. That’s when financial fear stepped in. It costs money to start blogging, and I was already on financial thin ice. Was it worth it?

As a Christian, I knew it was important to pray about it, so I did. I felt encouraged to move forward in it. I talked to friends and they encouraged me as well. After a month of humming and hawing I decided to dive in. I figured I would give it a year and see what happens. After launching my site, I reached out to Google Ads and wanted to partner with them for income. Fear told me that they wouldn’t partner with me because I’m a new blogger with too little traffic.

Facing my fears daily

Well, needless to say, I faced all those fears and more and I’m still facing them now. Every blog I post, I face the fear of it not doing well. I face the fear of my site failing and not being worth working on after this year is done. Our fears can be crippling if we let them. It’s not always easy to face our fears, but when we do, we might just surprise ourselves. Will my blog make me thousands of dollars by the end of the year? Probably not, but it won’t make me anything if I just give up. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I want blogging to be my full time career. Writing is my passion, and who doesn’t want to make money doing what they love.

What can you do

That’s my journey so far. I haven’t made any money yet, but that’s okay. After all, I only launched my site on January 25th of this year. I’m still new and figuring out everything. I do have social media accounts for the site now to hopefully get more traffic that way. If you would like to support this site and keep getting more blogs, here are some ways. Share them with friends and family, or on your social media so your followers can see them. Click on a few ads to help me get paid. Send your ideas for blogs to me. Perhaps I’ll look into adding a suggestion slot on my site for you. And for those who have sent suggestions through social media, I’m not ignoring them. They are coming. Thank you all for your support. Have a great day, and I hope you face your fears and chase your dreams.

If you want to read some of my other work, you can check those out here: https://roadhouse52.ca/about/blog