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| Taken from Outsmart! |
These are purely from my thoughts and opinion, and observation of lot of people's behavior, so mind you if i'm not accurate.
So why people are actually can't or "doesn't feel ease" to, hesitated much -edits- even they're actually wanted to blog?
1. Fail time management.
Problems: You love to write but have no time to even open a text editor. This occurs to many people including me. My daily routines are game developing, freelancing graphical arts, (a lot of) playing games, web developing (only this web) browsing and social media networking, composing music, body exercise, a little house chores. I don't work in office or anything have fixed time, so i should be having more freedom than others? Meh, i still struggled a lot. 24 hours won't be enough, i even have tried to be awake 36 hours to raise productivity. Did i succeed? NO, i get dumb and die faster instead. I have experimented on which hours are best for my productivity, that's between 4AM to 10AM, 7PM to 10 PM. Working half-asleep will lead to bad quality (i've done it very much so trust me).So what now? Start to tidy up your schedule and raise your discipline level. Haha, i cannot say much about this problem, since i am also still fail at this.
Tips:
- Make daily, weekly, monthly target to accomplish, have it visible.
- Fail targets get corrected and moved.
- Discipline, even in sleep time (it's hard to do though =_=a).
- Play at playing time, work at work time, don't do both.
2. Hate English.
Problems:For people who speaks non-native English this can be a big problem. We speak local language everyday and have no time exercising English, or maybe in some big country every information they need are available in local language without needing English, so they have no problem even if they don't understand English.
Not doing well in English can lead someone to confidence loss, but there are lot of people out there are still writing regardless how Engrish they are, but they persist because they want to share something important to others, this is FAR better than not trying at all.
I live in Indonesia and fortunately English has been taught to students ever since in kindegarten, but that's not the main point, my English skill improved a lot not by studying from school BUT playing video games, reading mangascans, chatting in MMO (massively multiplayer online) games, reading film's subtitles LOL, and last but not least is blogging exercise. Main point is : whether one needing or not needing English, then liking or hating English. The later one is your choice. For me is I need English so bad so i better like it.
I never say i myself good in English, but as long as i can communicate well, that's enough for me. XD but i won't stop to improve my English.
Tips:
- Play games, watch movies (ofc with English language) and read all of the words carefully, look for words you don't know at dictionary (my favorite is this), or sometimes you find English proverbs or urban words, i usually used this.
- Try to write a story or any writing (diary blog or such) in English, or translate some novel or writings you like to English, and let people read if they understand it, even better, ask if your phrasing is effective enough.
- Go in English chats, get to know more people talking English, if you're that bad, some generous people (A.K.A. grammar nazi) might correct your spelling or phrasing, don't forget to say thanks. :P
- Let others know that you need feedback about your English.
- Even better, read books, articles about grammars, example sentences, etc.
3. Lack of confidence.
Problems: I think this is the most popular reason of the (potential) bloggers out there. I never really have problem on this though, thanks to all supporting people around me :). But i can think some of thoughts. Some people might think like, "Who am I to speak?", "I'm just ordinary human", "I don't have anything interesting in life to share.","Whatever I write, no one will care anyway, so why bother.". You need to overcome of these mind trashes, i found this everywhere: if you don't even interested in your writings, who else will?Some people might even think "Hey this kind of information I want to write are not important at all, people wouldn't need it." Meh, sometimes what you think "not important" are so helpful to anyone else, just sometimes you don't notice how important is your knowledge.
This is also related to self-esteem, in past i don't have confidence to even talk to shop owners when i need to buy something in store, and my voice was weak, i was so afraid people don't like me or my works. But you know what, as i blog and write, express my interests (arts and other forms), my self-esteem grows without me noticing. You'll find it awesome, how people thankful of you, even makes you their inspiration, that's really enjoyable.
Tips:
- Try to express your interest, chase your aspirations.
- Share what other people don't, be helpful.
- Write honestly from yourself, don't ever fake something up to look good or cool.
- Read inspirational articles, you might come up with something you good at and share. (My writer inspiration was Steve Pavlina and elsevilla.)
- Get out of your comfort zone, i never say this is always work, but if so, this raises your self-esteem.
- Everything you do, write, NOTHING can satisfy ALL of the people in the world, there're always haters and likers, so don't bother too much that makes you unproductive.
- Always welcome good critiques and feedbacks, expect to get trolled as you get popular.
4. Insecurity.
Problems: Privacy huh? You don't feel safe enough to post your writings, why?I have a little of these problems myself, but i've been trying to overcome this and these are how do i deal with them.
Problem A: You're afraid people stealing your articles.
LOL, this is likely won't happen until you become an idol or something. Stealing is so bad and annoying, but they already paid for it, such as? Their self-esteem. Even people will adore them for their stolen works, but deep inside their mind, "It's not my work, and how I am supposed to let them keep believing me? If I posted something bad next, they'll be disappointed." This makes them even more stealing, or work hard to match people expectation toward him, the later one is kinda good actually, haha. Okay we're getting sidetracked lol, my point is: thieves won't advance as fast as the real one, they'll always be other's shadow, so what? Just focus at your own things.
Problem B: You're afraid people can know your inner too well from the way you write and express.
This might be another barrier for you to write freely. It's a choice though. For me, i don't care if people get to know me or not, if i have nice personality, some people might interested in myself or find me inspiring, that's a good thing, i might get fans. I have background at being a band member, i was looking at my favorite band's website, looking at their profile, biography and such, wow i want to be like them, haha. Those informations (likely trivial for ordinary people) are important for their fans (or they make it important because they 'brand' it) , as they want to know well who the hell you are. I think blogging is kind of the same, writing "too safe" is boring, like only share good news, formal things people share, formal style of writing, for me expressive and controversial blogs are more interesting to read, that's for me though. You choose what you like.
Problem C: You're not comfortable to share your private life as other's inspiration.
This is similar with B actually, honestly i have this problem but how to overcome this, first is to accept my condition, then build my courage to share so people won't fall into the same pit. You might think this is like "selling yourself like a slut". See it as different perspective; you're giving people important knowledge to learn, moreover if you're the only one having that experience in the world (or you're the only one brave enough to share). This is also your choice, you can still write anything non personal though, if you're not willing. :)
Problem D: You're being too critical (or even an a$$hole) to others that you're afraid people are being critical to you, or yourself are.
You reap what you sow. I think everyone have experienced this, let's say i complained on how your writing sucks, lacking this, that, or even swearing on that. Then i try to write an article, here comes the thought of myself about how should i write to not be sucks, lacking this, that, so not be sweared by anyone, those thoughts makes me hard to produce an even simple things. See my point? They're all backing to you. Mind that being an a$$hole is different from being a constructive critic, but remember, not everyone wants critique so don't judge or assume everyone will accept your good intentions.
In past i don't even want anyone to comment at my drawings nor writings, i felt something lack and i was progressing way to slow, i wonder why i was afraid of people's impressions toward my works... Then i realized i was cursing other's drawing and story, i even scribbled (SO BADLY) on their comic paper to make them ugly and made up the story of it (haha you can ask my cousin Yenie about that). What did i get from that? I couldn't make a single page of comic strip well, and i keep on wondering if this is already okay to let people look at, over and over. Some years later i realized i was totally jealous of the artist i cursed, and start to be open and publish my works at public, i get feedbacks, good, bad, and it was awesome and make me FAR more productive, and now i made funny of myself because i was being a fool haha. Sorry long story but i hope you get my points! XD
5. Too much expectation.
Problems:This is related to number 4 a lot, maybe you're expecting to be good at first try, this not happened to blogging only, but other forms like game development, drawing, composing, etc. You expected your works will be adored and awe-ed by people, but you're afraid they won't. You're afraid no one will come or even reading your post. Then you're keeping the work yourself, and leading to another barrier for your productivity. Some people might handle this problem themselves, but some will bail or even give up without trying because of this MADE UP expectations.
Tips:
- Start small, take a littler step is better than bigger but fail or nothing at all, you make progress little by little by lot of trial and errors.
- Don't presume too much, stay positive, do your best.
- Don't expect you'll get readers/ visitor instantly, but if you do, then awesome!
~Laz out!
