Two years ago, while deployed to Turkey, I started on a journey to become a writer and blogger. I started A Faithful Step with the goal of encouraging and equipping women to live a life well-lived. Although the posts have changed a little, the mission and vision are still the same.

I can't believe it’s been 2 years, yet here we are. That first year had a huge learning curve that you can read about here. Just as I got the hang of everything, I moved from the UK to the states, and then had my second child. The birth of my son, and then the deployment of my husband led to a break in blogging. Even though I took a longer than expected hiatus, I wanted to share a few lessons learned in hopes to encourage you on your future goals.

5 Things I learned in the Second Year of Blogging

1. Breaks are okay

I initially planned to take maternity leave for 3 months after my son Daniel was born. I scheduled posts and planned out when to reshare posts for those three months. But then, life happened. Daniel was born in June, my last post was published in October, and here we are in May. So what did I learn? Well, breaks are okay. The biggest lesson here is knowing when to press forward and when to step back. During the fall and winter, my family needed me. All of me. I have no guilt in putting them first. Which leads to the next point… Comparison will slow you down.

2. Comparison Will Slow You Down

Social media is a breeding ground for comparison. It doesn’t matter if you are a writer, blogger, photographer, mother, student, etc… Someone is always doing what you want to do. Someone is doing it better or making more money. Y’all, comparison will slow you down. It will make you think that what you are doing won’t matter. It will deceive you into believing that someone else has already done it. But listen, none of that matters. There is enough room for you and me at the table.

3. Doing All The Things Will Exhaust You

Comparison will also make you feel like you NEED to do everything, but you don’t. Most of the big influencers/authors all have a team. I recently learned that Michael Hyatt has a team of people who work on gathering the data for him so he can write the book. Y’all, this whole time I thought these authors were just churning out books left and right and had a team for marketing etc… But they also had a team for the content too. Mind blown. The lesson here - Doing all the things WILL exhaust you. If you can afford a team, great, hire one! If not, prioritize what needs to get done and let go of the rest.

4. Time Will Fly By, So Be Intentional

As I mentioned earlier, I planned on taking a small hiatus when my son was born. But here we are 11 months later, and I am just now starting back up….oops! It seems like the older we get, the faster time flies. Why does this matter? Because we only have 24 hours in a day, no more and no less. God designed it that way. So we need to be intentional with our time or else we will find ourselves reflecting on the year wondering where the heck all of our time went.

5. It Will Cost You

Have you ever heard the saying, nothing in life is free? Well, it’s true, blogging included. It will either cost you money or time or maybe both. From domains to branding, to editing, and more, blogging can get expensive. And if you don’t have the finances, then you will pay in time trying to figure out how to do it all yourself. ‘Tis life, my friend.

Encouragement For the Beginner

If you are starting out in the blogosphere, can I encourage you to hit publish and start? Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Don’t allow comparison to slow you down. Who cares if someone has already said it or done it, they haven’t done it or said it with your voice or experience. Take the chance, what do you have to lose?

If you have started blogging, what are some lessons you have learned?