The idea of setting up a personal blog has been swirling around in my head for quite a long time now, but I’ve never before managed to shake the fear of actually getting started, how the blog would do and what people would say about it.

Ever since my glory days at Muhoroni Success Primary School where I was regarded by many in my class, and even teachers, as a great writer and public orator, I have since not been able to write a single post publicly for the fear of negative responses or not making it big in the writing world.

However, in the past few months I have recently come across a productivity YouTuber known as Ali Abdaal, who has been, lemme say, my biggest inspiration to start this blog. He himself is not a blogger as such but a YouTuber and writer for his personal website that I’ve managed to check out and absolutely loved. Due to him and strong personal convictions, I’ve decided to kick this blog off with somewhat ‘personal journal’ concerns attempting to convince myself that blogging is a good idea, lol😅.

So let me address these concerns in turn, and attempt to come up with some kind of justification for why I still need to blog;

Concern 1: “No one will care what I have to say”💔

This concern naturally stems from the general insecurity that what we have to say isn’t interesting to anyone else. I mean, who would care what some random 19-year- old has to say about anything at all?

The ‘correct’ response to this concern is probably along the lines of ‘it doesn’t matter if no one else cares, because you should write for yourself!’. While this response has its merits, it wasn’t what personally convinced me. Instead, I read somewhere that you should ask yourself the question ‘will this be interesting/useful to at least 1 person in the world?’. If the answer is ‘yes’ or ‘maybe’, then you should share what you have to say. If the answer is ‘no’, then you’re probably more justified in holding back, or keeping the post private.

Let’s take this particular post as an example. Will it be useful/interesting to the majority of people? Not a chance. But will it be interesting/useful to at least one person in the world? Hopefully. I mean, there must be at least a few people who’ve been thinking of setting up their own blogs/newsletters or just writing their thoughts online in bigger platforms than Twitter or Facebook. And if this post goes even an inch towards convincing them to take the plunge at something they love, it’s worth it. And if absolutely nothing else, I imagine a few of my friends/family would be interested to read it. So that’s reason enough to write it.

Concern 2: “What is the point of blogging, anyway?”🚮

The quote above is from a book I read it’s short notes and highlights (also recommended by Ali Abdaal) and it was a great booster for my motivation to actually start this writing thing. I definitely want to learn on the way on how to be a great writer and to express my ideas and thoughts in the most articulate and beautiful way. I fully accept, to my friends and even family, that I’m a sucker for words and absolutely love when words are played around with to arouse feelings of joy and happiness. Just like painters to their art, and musicians to their notes, I delight in wonderful poetry and excellent usage of words.

Clearly put out, I want to write coz I love it and would like to see what it can do to and for me. I would also like to learn from my fanbase and even experts on how I can fully optimize my potential in writing. It is definitely a journey on the upward coz I’m currently at the very bottom and want to learn through the hardships as I grow.

Concern 3: “What will people think and say?”🗣

The first thing I say to myself about this is, of course, that the vast, vast majority of people don’t think about me at all, let alone think that I’m a nerd for starting a blog/newsletter😂. Eleanor Roosevelt has been quoted on this topic so often that, somewhat ironically, I almost feel bad about quoting her here:

A part of me is truly scared of people’s reaction to this and might discourage me. But the soul reason for this isn’t for people to like or hate. It is my love for writing about life as we all struggle to live through it that has pushed me to make this big step. My love for this blog overwrites the fears of people’s comments and reviews.

Expanding on this in another way, one might be inclined to comment “I’m not good enough at/experienced enough in/knowledgeable enough about x to be able to write about it publicly, let alone give others advice about it.” The simple response to this is that I am not yet an expert/professional to share work I’ve done, lessons I’ve learnt, experiences I’ve had etc. I am starting out this writing to grow and it would be better if I turn out to be an expert/professional in the field. Also, provided what someone has written is at all interesting/useful, why on earth would anyone think badly of them for writing it? I personally read many blogs about book reviews/spirituality/mental health/productivity and various other things, and not once have I thought ‘Wow, this writer is a self-obsessed, narcissistic for writing this!’ or any other thing. I imagine most readers feel the same way about the stuff they read.

Finally, for the sake of argument, let’s assume that a few people do end up thinking I’m terrible at this and wasting people’s time. The obvious response is ‘So what?’. A legion of books has been written on the topic of ‘Stop caring much about what others think’, so I won’t even try to continue expanding on this point – it’s an important one to make nonetheless🙂.

So there we have it. I’ve reflected aloud on 3 concerns that I needed to address in my own head before committing to this whole personal blogging thing. If you have any comments or advice feel free to <reply> to this issue below.