believing in yourself

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I recently signed up for Jess and Blair's Blogging for Keeps service (which, by the way, I love and if you're a blogger, definitely sign up). Every Friday, they send out a "coffee talk" email, discussing various subjects. Two weeks ago, it was on confidence in yourself and your blog, and y'all, did this hit close to home for me. I was reading it and thinking to myself "oh my gosh this is 100% me." I would say in general I'm a pretty confident person. But when it comes to my blog, that confidence just isn't there. I love this line of the email: "We hold ourselves back from accomplishing our own dreams because we tell ourselves we aren't good enough." Isn't that the sad truth?! If I am not my biggest cheerleader, how am I ever going to succeed in anything, especially this blog? 

I've had Love This Life for some odd 8 years and to be completely honest, I don't think I've ever really owned up to it. It's sad to say, but I have been almost embarrassed to say I have a blog. And why?! There are literally hundreds of thousands of bloggers out there who completely own what they do. I admire so many women in this space - successful, smart, talented women - many living off their blog, or in new careers because of it. It's a lot harder than it looks, honestly. Being a blogger requires so much - understanding SEO and coding, planning and keeping a content calendar and coming up with fresh, new ideas, writing, photography, etc. etc. That's so much, like literally four different careers rolled up into one! So if being a blogger is so bad-ass, why do I shy away from claiming to be one?

I think a lot of my hesitation comes from that evil comparison game - comparing my follower count and my content and my outfits and my posts to others. It's actually exhausting and does absolutely nothing for me and my confidence. The worst thing is, I'm comparing myself to women who have been blogging and running it as a business for years. I look at Julia from Gal Meets Glam and wow, has she established herself and her blog. But if you look at some of her earliest posts, they aren't anything special. They are actually a lot like my early posts. It's just that she has believed in herself and her blog and has taken that belief and created this beautiful, successful site, with a lot, a lot of hard work.

Bottom line: I need to be confident in what I'm doing with this blog. Sure, it is pretty weird explaining to others outside this space that I take photos of what I'm wearing, but ultimately I'm doing it because it's something I enjoy and love - along with sharing recipes and what I've found online shopping and my travel adventures. The only way this blog will ever succeed and grow to what I want it to be is for me to believe in myself, this creative space. Thank you to everyone who has stayed with me on this blogging journey. It's time for me to have complete confidence that I am good enough. :)