If you read my last post then you may already know that my blog has turned one year old. I wanted to do some reflection on the past year and everything I have learnt from the experience. I present to you what I learnt after a year of blogging.
1.My ideas come at the worst possible times
One of the weirdly annoying things I have learnt this year is that the vast majority of my post ideas, inspiration and motivation come to me at the most awkward of times. I’m either trying to get to sleep, relaxing by watching anime or I’m out and about walking the dog or sat in a lecture or something. Then when I can finally get some time to write I struggle to motivate myself and sometimes I just can’t formulate sentences properly due to writers block. If I’m away from the computer I’ll often end up thinking what I might write which is very well written in my head at the time. Then when I actually get to writing everything down it’s nothing like what I first thought up. As awkward as this is for me I’ve basically learnt to roll with it. When inspiration hits I grab my iPad and write whatever is going through my head at the time. It doesn’t matter whether it’s just a post idea which I’ll go back to later or the start of a full on essay I’ll jot whatever comes to mind down in my drafts. I’ve found this process really helps me as I can gather my thoughts over time and then go back and refine whatever it is I want to say at a later date. Plus if it’s written down then I can’t forget it.
2.It’s ok to take breaks
I’m the kind of person who is extremely hard on themselves. I never really give myself a break. Once I start something I don’t stop until I exhausted myself and collapse. It’s just how I work and I accept that it’s my work ethic. Having such a drive can be such a positive thing as it has allowed me to succeed in education. However, it’s not always the healthiest way of going about things and I’ve learnt that there is nothing wrong with taking a step back and letting myself breath. It’s often required so I won’t drive myself crazy. I have a habit of overwhelming myself, crying from the stress and then picking myself up and getting on with things. At these overwhelming times such as end of year university work I found that stepping away from hobbies such as blogging helped me not only with time management but also made me feel less pressure. I don’t get pressurised from anyone other than myself so telling myself I’ll go on a break helps to soften the guilt I place on myself. Taking a break also gives me something to look forward to. When I came home from Japan I was so excited to start blogging again after my break. It felt so good and I felt refreshed and ready with plenty of new content and ideas.
3.Having a niche is great but it’s not everything
Before I first started my blog I knew I had to create some kind of theme and find my own little niche to focus in on in order for my blog to run smoothly and coherently. I mean if my blog was all over the place in terms of content then it would make it much more difficult to draw in a audience. I doubt someone who wants to read about anime also wants to read about how finances work. Well, unless you have an interest in both in which case, great go ahead! But you get what I mean. I’m a very fussy person who likes to be organised with what I’m doing especially when it’s something I’m interested in. Having my “nerdy” niche was perfect for me as I’m a naturally nerdy person, that’s where the majority of my interests lie. The niche seemed perfect for me. When I first started I really didn’t want to box myself in which is where the “nerdy” theme comes into play. I didn’t want to just be an anime blog or just be a travel blog. I wanted to combine my main interests together under one umbrella.
I’ve found if I box myself in to one thing in particular I get frustrated and bored after a while. I, again will pressure myself into only doing that one thing and nothing else. I didn’t want that to be the case with my blog. So, whilst I think having a niche is still important and helps attract readers in, it’s not the be all and end all. Its good to branch off and try new things and keeps your content new and fresh for people. I hope to branch off and try new things in the future too.
4.People do care about me and my interests
I’ve struggled for a long time with trying to love myself and be proud of who I am and what I do. I always put down what I’m interested in as either being boring or I’ll be seen as bragging. In real life I tend to keep my interests to myself as I basically don’t want to bore people or piss them off. I’m a listener who puts other people’s interests before my own because in my mind I hold what they do far higher than what I do. I know it’s a bad way of thinking and I’m working on it but this blog has helped me in realising this isn’t exactly true. For a good chunk of this year as I have been blogging I have second guessed myself and nearly deleted content because I was so frightened of saying the wrong thing, being too boring or bragging too much. With my Nerdy Travels series I often thought “should I really post this? Does it give people the wrong impression of me? Will they be pissed at me for sharing this?” “Am I bragging?”. My asexual representation in anime post almost got sent to the trash because I feared what people might say. In simple terms, I’m an over thinker who needs to calm down.
It’s been a challenge to try to break this mindset but my travel posts in particular have proven me wrong with this way of thinking. Everyone who reads is genuinely interested and it’s made me realise it’s ok to share the cool things I do with people. People want to here my story and enjoy the stories and photos I share. That fact genuinely makes me so happy and has helped me work through part of this issue I have. My blog has shown me that having an opinion is ok too (who would have thought, eh?). There is nothing wrong with me expressing my opinions and ideas on something. It won’t cause world war three like my mind says it will and as long as I’m respectful there is nothing wrong with giving my take on subjects.
So these are a few things I’ve learnt of the past year. It’s been a wild ride with some steep learning curves but I have loved every moment of it so far!
Until next time thanks for reading and I hope you’re having a great day!
Keep up to date with me on:
A Nerdy Perspective 
Happy one year! My ideas come at weird times too. I’m always in the car for some reason.
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Thank you! 😄 Well, I’m glad it’s not just me that has this problem haha!
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This is a marvellous post. I also really overthink things and can be extremely critical of myself. I have some insecurities about my intelligence because my ex was very abusive and liked to belittle me a lot. I think that spills over in my blogging sometimes when I want to write something thought-provoking, but ultimately chicken out. I think you’re doing absolutely wonderful and the things you shared here are excellent insights to share with other bloggers, especially newbies. It’s also so nice to realise that bloggers are humans and normal people too. 🙂🙂🙂
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Thank you for being so supportive as always! 💜 I know the pain of that one all too well and it’s awful that your ex made you feel that way. 😔 No one should ever be made to feel that way about themselves! I’d love to tell your ex a thing or too! I know what you mean about chickening our because I struggle constantly with that. It’s really hard but I’ve found that pressing publish on those harder posts have always turned out so positive! Sometimes gaining that courage even if you regret it right after posting it can be so beneficial in the long run! Thank you so much it makes me so happy to know you think that! 😭💜 Yes I think trying to remember that does help especially with personal posts! It’s always such a relief to know others understand and relate even if they are thousands of miles away!
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Your supportiveness (it’s a word now, lol) and positive way of uplifting people is just so awesome and brilliant. I cherish that about you (amongst other great qualities too!) so much! ♥♥
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Awww you’re going to make me cry 😭 thank you so much! I cannot express how thankful I am to here that! 💜💜💜
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Happy anniversary! Another overthinker here, so I can relate to a lot of this.
Your point 4 resonated with me a great deal. Since I decided to make Japanese gaming and popular media such a major part of my life around about 2010 or so, I actually feel like I’ve lost an awful lot of friends that I used to enjoy discussing games and other stuff with, and this is a major bummer. The last thing I heard from pretty much all of them was something along the lines of “I don’t always agree with what you say, but I’m glad you’re doing what you’re doing”. Backhanded compliments are such fun.
What really frustrated and upset me as I saw that happening time after time was the fact that I *know* so many of these people would be into the things that I’m into, that they would enjoy the things I write, the videos I make, the podcasts I record… yet due to reasons *I* don’t really understand (because no-one has actually explained them to me!), they seem to have decided that they don’t feel they can associate with me or my work. I like what I like; I’m not going to change that just to fit in with a group. I’ve done that in the past, and it made me miserable, so it’s best in the long run to take ownership of who you are, what you like and why you enjoy it — even if it costs you in the short term.
And while this may all sound rather bleak, thankfully the (reasonably) happy ending to this story is that as a result of taking full ownership of who I am, what I like and why I enjoy it, I’ve made a lot of new friends. I haven’t known any of them nearly as long as the ones I lost over time, but I’m being truer to who I really am now, and that makes me feel a lot better, a lot more confident and a lot happier. Do I wish I still had the circle of friends I once had as well as these new friends? Sure. But if those people are going to abandon me over something so silly — or if there was something more fundamental that I’m missing, without them saying *what* the actual problem was — then I have to question if they were really friends in the first place.
That got a bit personal. But eh, hopefully it highlighted that you’re not the only one who has suffered anxiety about their interests for various reasons!
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Thank you!
Wow I didn’t think that point I made would resonate so much with you. Thank you for sharing your story with me on this. It’s a shame that you had to go through such a thing especially with people who share the same interests. Backhanded compliments are awful to deal with. It’s strange and sometimes with these things you cannot figure out what is going through other people’s head to do such things.
The fact that you chose to own who you are instead of trying to change is so admirable and is not easy! I’m happy that you have chosen to be you and you have made new friends! It’s not easy but it’s nice to know I’m not alone with this! 😊
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Happy blogaversary! Hopefully this comment posts, kept getting errors yesterday.
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Thank you! And yes this comment came through just fine! 😊
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I’m asexual too! It’s nice to know I’m not the only one here.
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Oh awesome! It’s always nice to meet a fellow ace! 😄
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So proud of you hun! I’m so happy you decided to create this blog and that you’ve written things you weren’t sure about but posted them anyway. You’re a fantastic writer and I enjoy reading your posts so much! Love you lots!! Xx
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Thank you so much as always hun! You’re support and encouragement mean everything to me! 💖 It makes me so happy to know that you enjoy what I write and support me like you do! Love you so much!! 😘💖 xx
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Am YemDeku and I approve this post 😂😂😂
It’s so true and happy one year
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Haha thank you!
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I totally get it about the ideas thing! Literally all my good blog post ideas came when I was sleeping. It was so annoying. Happy one year!
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