Mount Cook New Zealand
I recall 18 years ago.
I bought my domain and hosting.
On day two of my blogging career I wanted to quit because I was completely overwhelmed.
My wife walked me off of the cyber ledge.
But something else happened.
I soon became envious of highly successful bloggers.
My jealousy told me this; they just got lucky. Everything worked out for them. Nothing worked out for me. I guess blogging wasn’t in the cards for me.
I continued to blog even though I thought this way. As you might imagine things did not go well. Consciously you work but your unconscious dictates the experience here. Nobody has learned how to outwork their unconscious mind.
I bring up this point because struggling bloggers make this mistake. Some cripple themselves with jealousy. This lot might even hate successful bloggers. But the wise decision would be to learn from successful bloggers.
Never envy this crowd.
Follow guidance from professionals who resonate with you.
I know of more than a few bloggers who became highly successful.
What’s the one common thread among these pros?
Most spent a decade or even decades doing truly helpful things day in and day out.
Everyone else quits. Some quit after 1 week. Some quit after 1 year. Some quit after 5 years.
Quitters may envy winners. Some worship highly successful bloggers.
But why wouldn’t you learn how to do what they do to be free like they are?
Learn from Top Bloggers to Succeed
Top bloggers guide you how to succeed. But why would you follow their guidance if you put them on a pedestal? Why would you trust them if you feel envious of their success? Organically, jealous bloggers run away from successful blogging strategies. You never follow who you hate. You never trust who you mock.
I’m not saying that all professional bloggers speak gospel every time each publishes a blog post. Some share advanced strategies only for highly experienced bloggers to follow. Others may engage in fear-based strategies best look beyond if you do not want to open a can of worms for yourself.
But on the whole, professionals stick to sound principles. Following their lead seems wise to me.
My Experience with Blogging Envy
I remember a high earner during my first year as a blogger.
I followed his blog closely but secretly envied the individual. I wrongly believed that everything came easy to him. Even after he shared his obstacles I still believed that he overcame these blocks easily. Even after he explained how he lost his home, lost most of his money and slammed into other difficult forms of domestic resistance (the negative nell fam and friends deal), I still believed it was comfortable and quite easy for him to overcome these obstacles.
Why was I jealous of the guy?
I refused to do what he did. I felt terrified to do what he did. I naturally criticized him for what I feared doing not for what he achieved.
He mirrored back to me all the stuff that I had to overcome but ran away from in order to become a professional blogger. I was completely unaware of this as a beginner blogger. I suffered from low emotional intelligence those days. I became aware of my predominant mindset years later after meditating consistently.
Over the years, I came across many successful bloggers who I envied deep down. Most blogged for a decade. Some blogged for two decades. Why did I envy their success? I resisted following the fundamentals for a decade or two decades. I did blog for a long time. But I quit on the fundamentals for some stretches. I certainly suffered for it but rather than learn from disciplined, value focused professionals I envied their traffic and income.
I turned things around a while back but I still had some clearing to do. I really turned things around dramatically more recently.
Hug Your Envy Then Let It Go
Embracing my jealousy influenced me to be increasingly humble. I decided to learn from blogging leaders. I studied their success closely.
Each of these high-level bloggers published detailed, practical content consistently for a decade or longer. At that moment, I decided to do the same thing. I chose not to just blog by hopping in and out of strategies. I told myself I would only publish truly helpful content consistently going forward.
I stopped envying the most successful bloggers. Learning from outstanding professionals became my only goal on the due diligence front.
Look at Your In Jealousy
For starters, looking at your jealousy is not easy. Nobody enjoys feeling the emotion of envy. Everyone considers the feeling awfully uncomfortable to embrace. But you cannot get over jealousy until you look at it in your mind. Otherwise the jealousy remains in your mind. Projection follows. Basically, until you feel and look past the unpleasant emotion you automatically project it onto successful bloggers.
Facing, feeling and looking past jealousy opens you up to be humble. You actually learn at this point because being successful matters more than picking others apart for what you wish you had deep down or even on a conscious level.
Note that most of this post is purely first person.
Why did I write it from this perspective?
Your experience will be highly personal with this topic too.
I don’t know who you’re jealous of. But you do. Doing the inner work is your responsibility. I can guide you with a post like this. But you do the mental leg work to work out who you need to let go.
Are You Jealous of Their Work Too?
Do you feel jealous of the workload executed by someone who’s blogged for 25 years?
Think about that one.
Perhaps you envy their success but do you envy 25 years of blogging?
What were you doing in 2001?
Imagine if you wrote and published blog posts consistently since then as your main venture?
Most would feel terrified by that workload.
Imagine how frequently you would have slammed up against writer’s block during the first few months or years.
Think about the critics you would have faced early on.
I know from personal experience that established bloggers usually conquer the fears of criticism and failure the first few years in. Or perhaps a decade in. Or maybe two decades in. I’m only putting it behind me for good as an 18-year blogging veteran so that should tell you something. I’m a little slow on this. But at least I’m getting there.
I love the blogging work now. But I experienced brutal stretches where my work was unclear. I appeared to get nothing through my blog. Nobody would have envied my workload and emotional state during those days even if they did envy my lifestyle.
But now you get to learn from my practical tips based on 18 years of applying experience.
I did the work for you to do successful things right now moving forward, versus struggling horribly for a year or longer.
The only thing you need to sacrifice on this journey is your ego.
Is that really a loss?
