First steps in blogging. I am doing it!

There it is. My baby has just been born. It was a long way to make a decision (over 9 months), but it’s here.

I’m definitely talking about my FIRST BLOG.

SO what’s the topic? The topic is: HOW HARD IT IS TO FINALLY PUBLISH YOUR FIRST BLOG POST.

What a better topic for my first blog, ha?

I’ve been wanting this blog out BADLY. But it’s scary. And yes, I believe that if you’ve never considered starting a blog you might think that’s a very silly statement, but if you have, I believe that you believe me.

Why scary, though?

Where do I start…

·      You will be judged, and laughed at, and misunderstood.

·      You are not sure if you’re good enough. Self-doubt

·      You don’t know if you will be consistent

…and probably more but I’ll focus on those main 3

Yes of course you will be judged, laughed at and misunderstood, but it’s part of the game. There are some Android lovers that laugh at iOS advocates, there are some Facebook users that don’t understand LinkedIn and there are 7 billion people judging something somewhere for some reason. And so?

The last thing that should be stopping you is something that’s outside of your control. If you accept from the very beginning that there will be a lot of everything – encouragement, negativity, misinterpretation, like-mindedness and so on – the ‘bad’ side will never bother you again through your whole journey. Self doubt is there for everyone, but only the brave ones step out of the comfort zone and most often they are the ones that succeed.

Are you good enough though? If you want it wholeheartedly, you are!

I hope I haven’t lost you here, I’m not being extra positive, I’m extra realistic that’s why I’ll prove my words with an example. I started reading Matthew Syed’s book ‘Bounce’ and haven’t even got too far yet, but I already have my favourite chapter. It is called ‘Talent is overrated’. Here’s a very short resume of it:

In 1991 Anders Ericsson, a psychologist at Florida State University, and two colleagues conducted the most extensive investigation ever undertaken into the causes of outstanding performance. Their subjects – violinists at the renowned Music Academy of West Berlin in Germany – were divided into 3 groups:

1.Outstanding – expected to become international soloists – the youngsters supposedly lucky enough to be born with special musical genes.;

2. Extremely good – expected to end up playing in the world’s top orchestras, but not as soloists.;

3. Least able – studying to become music teachers.

After painstaking set of interviews, Ericsson found that the biographical histories of the three groups were remarkably similar. However, there was one difference between the groups that was dramatic – the number of hours devoted to serious practice. By the age of 20, the best violinists had practiced an average of 2 000 hours more than the good violinists and more than 6 000 hours more than the violinists hoping to become teachers. But that’s not all! Ericsson also found that there were no exceptions to this pattern: nobody who had reached the elite group copious practice, and nobody who had worked their socks off but failed to excel. Purposeful practice was the ONLY factordistinguishing the best from the rest. (M.Syed, 2010)

However, what I need to tell you and myself is, you are as good as you make yourself. If you have to learn from experience by doing what you want do to even without knowing how to, go for it. That’s what I do. Some people say that’s the hard way, because you can get punched in the face sometimes, but I personally believe that’s the short cut. As long as you are not afraid of failing, but rather willing to learn from it, it’s time to rise and shine. What matters is to START.

And, yes, aghrrrrr …. Consistency.

If there’s one skill I can instantly acquire that would be it (yes I would even prefer it more than running the fastest, jumping the highest, learning the quickest)

And yes, I believe consistency is a skill, which is also a good thing, because a human being is capable of learning any skill.

Consistency is crucial in every act and deed on the way to success (in anything). None of us want to start and then give up and embarrass themselves and lose confidence. But it’s still worth risking it than not even trying.

Failure will either discourage us, big time, or motivate us even more.

Being inert will keep us comfy …and stuck.

But how to be consistent? How to acquire that crucial skill?

Now is the time to quote one of my biggest influencers, one of most successful people biggest influencers – Napoleon Hill

‘The starting point of all achievement is desire. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desires bring weak results, just as small amount of fire makes a small amount of heat. If you find yourself lacking in persistence, this weakness may be remedied by building a stronger fire under your desires’ (N. Hill, 1937)

Start now and if this start was pushed by your strong desire you will stay true to it, you will keep it going and you will succeed. I will.

Massive thank you to all of you that spend the time reading my first blog. I hope I inspired at least one person on earth to go and pursue their dream. Now.

There is much more to come from me.Hope that you come back.

Love,

Maria