Have you been blogging and running your business for years but don’t seem to be getting anywhere?

Are you doing things that you really want to or are you following what other people tell you to do?

It might be time to stop listening to others and let your intuition guide you in your business. Read on!

When I first started blogging – oh boy that seems so long ago now – it felt so confusing and overwhelming, I had no idea how to do it.

I just did what everyone else was doing back then and signed up for various courses, ebooks and programs. I signed up to the lists of all these so-called “gurus” and wondered how I could ever be them.

I dreamt of doing what they did – earning a zillion bucks whilst doing what you love doing. Selling programs, courses, books, getting on speaking slots. The whole gig.

I wondered, how long would it take me to get that far? Most people said 3 years. Well, okay. I could wait.

In the meantime, I read up, researched, strategised, planned and bought even more courses and ebooks.

I spent hours writing notes from those courses, highlighting paragraphs and making tons of tweaks on my website.

Each time I read something new, I would log on and poke around my website. Deep down I was excited, I hoped that with each new change, great things would happen to my business.

None of it worked though. Not much at least.

Why? Was it something I was doing wrong?  Yeah a couple it turns out.

Blogging mistakes I made

#1 Listening to people who weren’t in my niche

Well, for one. The first mistake I made was that none of them were in the niche I was in. Lots were in the How to blog to make money sort of niche. I’m in the personal development niche.

Which is why I get pretty irritated when people try to sell me their courses and what not telling me how my blog will be as successful as theirs when we are in a completely different space altogether. Their methods just aren’t gonna work for me.

#2 TMI – Too Much Information

The second mistake? My naivete. I was new to this whole online thing and a bit of a noob. So I bought whatever was hawked to me and listened to whatever advice was thrown at me.

I did so much of research, read so many different newsletters and got my head spinning with all the different types of advice, tips, tricks etc.

I was constantly looking out for that one crucial tip that will tip me over into success, big-time blogger. Well, what it only served to do was made me even more confused and unsure of myself.

Different people said different things and I was constantly making tweaks and changes to my website that I never really got down to doing the important stuff.

Furthermore, the tips sometimes conflicted one another and I really wasn’t sure what I was doing was right anymore.

#3 Not listening to me

Third mistake and the biggest one? I wasn’t listening to myself at all.

I was listening to much to people and following their advice meant that I was not making space for listening to what I really wanted deep down.

It made me feel inauthentic as well. I was following someone else’s blue-print but it was not what I wanted for myself.

I was doing what someone else’s intuition or strategy was telling them was good to do. But that wasn’t the path I was supposed to be on.

#4 Efforting

In the past, blogging felt like it was a lot of hard work. It just didn’t feel right. Everything felt like it was something I should do because it was something other people were doing.

Everything felt like an absolute effort.

Writing a post took days. I didn’t even really enjoy what I was writing. I just took so much time to write and edit.

I spent so much time researching my work because I felt it “wasn’t enough”. I hated it. It didn’t feel like me.

#5 Getting clear on my purpose: Writing for myself and not others

Another reason I felt like I disliked what I was doing was that I was writing too much for others and not for myself.

Now, a lot of bloggers or writers will tell you to write for your audience!

“People don’t want to hear about you, they want to hear about themselves and how you can help them.”

Said every blogger & biz owner ever.

Well yeah, but people also connect to stories. The emotions. The feelings behind it.

People also connect with your experience, especially if it resonates with them and helps them solve their issues.

If you are able to tell a lovely story in your post whilst offering people advice and solutions – how great would that be?

I take this advice from writers Elizabeth Gilbert (Big Magic) and Anne Lamott (author of Bird to Bird). In Big Magic, Gilbert writes about following your curiosity.

She writes about not giving up your full time job to follow your dreams (contrary to what a lot of bloggers peddle, the quit your full time job to work on your blog thing).

She also writes about not writing solely for others, but for you. Because you need to enjoy what you are doing.

And the love can only show itself if you are enjoying your writing and really getting into that feeling. It’s not supposed to feel like a chore or a job.

If you are constantly pushing yourself to write just to bring in income or get speaking slots or whatever, then it’s gonna feel like a burden.

Writing becomes a means to an end. Write because you love it, you absolutely enjoy the process. And not because you want to do something with it.

I guess the advice won’t work for you if you see yourself more of a blogger or biz owner than a writer – yeah there’s a difference.

I see myself more as a writer though, because the whole point of starting a blog for me was to be creative and write more.

Of course I want to earn money – let’s be honest with that – but I know that it was never my sole purpose of starting this blog.

Blogging from an intuitive space

This is why it is important for me to blog from an intuitive, spiritually aligned, flowy place.

The decisions that I now make for my blog are very much based on what is aligned for me at the point in time.

It took me awhile to get to where I am now. But right now is where I want to be and I think I’ve found the niche that I want to be in.

I feel so much better when I write. Because now I write whenever I want and whatever I want.

I no longer write to please other people. Because when I do that, I end up silencing my own voice.

My writing flows, my thoughts come with ease and it isn’t an effort to finish a post. Heck, I typed this entire post up within 20 minutes. Everything just feels lighter and free.

I’ve also stopped doing the following

• Listening to other people’s advice on how to blog or how to be successful. I will carve out my own success the way I want it
• Having to research every single thing I wrote – which showed a lack of confidence in my skills and voice
• Reaching out to my email subscribers feeling like it’s a pain and already telling myself they won’t like what I’ve written. I now engage them as if I’m talking to friends.
• Following other people’s rules on what I should be doing on my blog, based off what they have been doing on theirs

We’ve all got our own paths. Someone else’s blog or business strategy might have worked for them, but it probably won’t work for you.

If you are a blogger or a writer or starting a business and wondering where it will all go or worrying about why others are so much more successful. Do take comfort that things will come into your experience at its own time.

And listen to your intuition, to that inner voice. Listen to what it is telling you about your business and about the strategies you are taking.

If you are doing something, and it feels like it’s a huge pain, then it’s probably not the path to be on now. If you are doing something and it feels like joyful and at ease, then you are on the right path.

Enjoy the intuitive process! And enjoy whatever you are doing with your business!

Your thoughts? Have you faced problems in your blogging or business journey?