The main reason I didn’t want to showcase my writing was due to my lack of confidence. I am a natural introvert and like to keep many things to myself. I take to blogging so I can learn to properly express myself through writing and it also helps me to retain the information I learn by summarizing it with my own words.
Confidence
Confidence was always something I struggled with since childhood. People would always call me a mouse because of how quiet I was. I would always keep to myself and couldn’t speak out loud. Back In grade 4, I had this very strict teacher who always tried to get me to speak up and would constantly make me repeat myself over and over again and louder every time for all to hear. I despised her back then. I would cry but she wouldn’t stop pushing me. She was different from all of the other teachers I had.
But I no longer dislike her. In fact, I am forever grateful because it taught me to open up. If it weren’t for her, I probably wouldn’t be as open as I am today.
I always perceived my grade 4 experience as a trauma that was holding me back from progressing but as I got older I began to realize the significance of what she was trying to do. My grandparents loved her though because of how much she was pushing me. They too were constantly trying to get me out of my shell by putting me into summer camps, debating class (I know.. who goes to debating class in the summer?) and putting me into different extracurricular activities just so I can go out and meet new people.
What Helped Me
All of this did help me to grow but it didn’t help me to build up any confidence for myself. It was only until I began to read self-helps books about 3 years ago that I began to build on my strengths and develop my weaknesses.
I started to talk to people, opened up and experimented. And since this year is all about changes, I figured I should just take the leap. By publishing my blog on social media, this will help me to slowly build up my confidence. At the same time, maybe I can somehow add it to my asset portfolio later on as a side hustle if I actually get people tuned into my posts either through ads or affiliate marketing.
Who knows right ?
Affiliate Marketing
Obviously blogging is no ‘get rich quick’ scheme. But I was on Skillshare the other day and I stumbled across this very interesting course called, “Etsy Side Hustler: How to Make Money on Etsy Without “Making” Anything!” by Jules Tillman. I figured it would be something I would like to look further into. So I did, I created an account for AWIN (an affiliate program) and applied to join the Etsy affiliate program. The very next day I received a rejection notice from them saying that my “website does not complement the advertiser brand.” Not exactly sure what that means but I sent an email to them asking what I would need to do in order to get my application approved.
In the meantime, I decided to look into some other affiliate programs. I found out that Amazon has their own affiliate marketing program called Amazon Associates which I found pretty neat. Everyone buys off of Amazon so I figured it would probably be best to try out for that. I quickly signed up for both the CAD and US version. I was approved however the condition was that in order for me to continue staying in the program I would need to sell at least 3 products within 180 days. I figured this would be difficult but could also be a push for me to work on this website harder to possibly make it into something more in the long term.
Shifting Focus & What I Need To Work On
When I have no projects going on in my life I feel like I am wasting time doing nothing and then I begin to feel crappy with no real purpose. Hence, why I am constantly trying new projects left and right. Taking on new skills and changing my habits around to spice things up. I guess that’s just the type of person I am. One problem with me is I get bored easily. Sometimes I really feel like I have ADD. I switch things around a lot and always want to work on new things. As a result, things never really get done to the end before I decide to pivot to something else.
That’s one thing I really need to work on. I multi-task way too often and my focus easily shifts. People always say to focus only on one thing at a time but I often find myself touching on many things at once. Research has shown that multi-tasking is no longer considered a good thing because you are not giving your full attention to that one task resulting in more mistakes being done or lower quality work. In the end, you start to become inefficient.
That being said, I will try my best to fix this awful habit of mine. I’ll try to focus on what’s more important and attempt to take the time to work on something with my full undivided attention. Let’s see how that goes..
Does anyone else have this same problem? I’d love to know!
X.O.X.O.
– Fifster
