THIS IS THE ONE THING ALL SUCCESSFUL BLOGS HAVE IN COMMON
Be consistent and think small. That’s what all successful blogs have in common.
If I’m lucky enough to have child in the future, these are the words I will pass onto them if they ask me about how to be successful, or start a new project, or build a purposeful life.
I am honestly feeling so passionate as I begin to write these words. Partially, because I am overwhelmed with the simple, powerful truth I’m about to share.
You’ll probably have heard these words before. As you’ll have done with most words. But what matters in this case is the decision to embrace them and apply them.
Put your hand up if you are like me when it comes to ideas - you have a million of them...constantly. Swirling round your mind all the time.
They fill your mind, excite you, drive you, wake you up, prevent you from sleeping, and honestly...eventually overwhelm you.
Let me tell you that your ideas are great. Any one of them CAN work. Any one of them CAN be the thing that allows you to reach your next breakthrough. ANY single one of your ideas can do that. That’s probably what’s happened to some of the most successful blogs.
But they’re likely missing all the things that all of my ideas were missing a few years before I started my own brand.
CONSISTENCY AND SMALLNESS
Let’s say someone has asked: “What do all successful blogs have in common? What can I do to be successful? Even when all the odds are against me?”
This is how I would reply: “Be consistent, and be small. Every single day.”
BE CONSISTENT
Show up. Consistently.
Keep creating content. Always speak passionately even if you have a tribe of 0.
This is until you’re speaking passionately to a crowd of 3. That’s 3 whole people, with experiences and memories who have chosen to read your words. That’s an honour.
Create. Consistently.
When you’re on your lunch break.
When everyone else has stopped paying attention to your dreams.
When absolutely no one seems to be listening.
When someone has recommended to you that you stop or that you move onto something more logical (major eye roll emoji to them).
Love. Consistently.
Until your love finds the community of people it’s most needed by.
Until people can’t help but take your concern for them seriously.
Until someone, somewhere believes in themselves again.
Listen. Consistently.
Not just until you hear the one thing you choose to respond to.
Not just until it gets comfortable.
Not only for the sake of it.
Not only to focus on how someone else’s words make you feel. But also to focus on how they feel.
But also to understand what people need from you.
To know what to create consistently, where to show up consistently, and how to care consistently.
BE SMALL
In the way you approach an important goal.
Because if you only focus on the big picture…
And if you only focus on the outcome you’re hoping for…
And if you care most about the final destination…
Then you miss the opportunity to take the steps to get there and enjoy the journey.
Then you miss the stops along the way that were meaningful and beautiful for you and for others.
Then you miss the signs that were pointing in another direction - where more purpose and greatness were hiding.
Let the trolls and the bullies be big.
Yes, they’re hard to miss, but they’re also hard to miss. Get it?
Let the talkers and the fakers be big.
Take your small steps every single day and one day, you’ll have to look far, far, far back to even see a hint of the others on the horizon.
Don’t despise the small tasks you’ve been given. They are the things that form you.
Be small.
Because then, your consistent, loving, wise self can surprise everyone, even yourself, with your unmatched strength.
Be consistent.
Everything else is the easy choice. Everything else makes you feel good in the moment.
Consistency makes you do good and be good in the long run.
WAKE UP EVERY SINGLE DAY AND DO THE SMALL, CONSISTENT THINGS IF YOU WANT TO WIN. THAT’S HOW YOU BUILD SUCCESSFUL BLOGS.
That’s what I would tell my son or daughter. Because that’s the message I ignored for too long. It’s one my clients ignore too. And maybe you’ve been ignoring it. Maybe consistently creating, and showing up, and doing the small tasks, and giving without any expectation have gotten hard...tedious...boring...impossible.
Maybe publishing and creating for crickets and doing things that no one sees, ever, is the last thing you want to continue to do.
But it’s those consistent, tiny actions that add up. As you already know, but sometimes ignore.
Have you ever heard the phrase, “They may have won the battle, but we’ll win the war.”? Well, here’s the thing. That saying can be a little misleading. Because the fact is, you have to show up and fight all of those small battles, and then win a lot of those small battles to actually win the war.”
Where’s the war where someone lost all the battles but still won?
Don’t worry, my brother is the History buff so just roll with my point because it’s a good one.
WHAT’S THE POINT OF ALL THIS?
The reason I’m saying all of this is to ask you the same question I had to ask myself recently…
What’s the action you need to be consistently taking that you are not? For me, it was focusing on the activities that are going to produce the most results. Which meant creating content AKA showing up.
Do you have the patience to outline and understand the small steps that go into getting control over your:
Finances
Business
Relationships
House
Etc?
It might be a rough journey for you to even begin these things. It was for me. But I feel so much better than when I was just sitting on the sidelines of my own game feeling sorry for myself about how much work I had to do. Work I caused by not doing all the small things each day leading up to that day on the sidelines.
Are you able to save the small amount of time each week, or create the extra content for your business each day, or put in the 30 minutes at the gym each day…
All to see, not immediate improvements by any means, but instead to see the version of yourself in the future who is grateful to the past you for doing something that seemed insignificant?
Be consistent and think small. That’s how you win at life. That’s what successful blogs have in common.
As you might have gathered this is something a little different from me. I planned to write a blog post filled with tips and other logical points, like all my other posts, and this came out.
So I press publish, not because I think this is the best blog post ever in the history of blogging, but because maybe you needed to hear it.
Now go do something about it.