I don’t talk about my anxiety a lot (read: ever) because I don’t want it defining me or becoming all consuming. And a big part of that anxiety comes in the form of this overwhelming fear of failure. Ever since I was little I have always avoided failure at all costs. I didn’t want to let my family down, my friends down, but really I just didn’t want to let myself down.
I feel like a fear of failure is a normal thing to have. That everyone has this voice in the back of their head constantly worrying about sucking. So how do I fight it? I embrace it.
Now I’m not about to say that you need to stroll hand in hand with your fear of failure and become best friends. But I know from years of failing at ignoring my fear of failure, that it’s just not going to work to pretend you’re above it. It’s better to just be honest with yourself (and others) that this fear exists, for good reason, but it isn’t going to paralyze progress.
It’s when I started talking about this fear and acknowledging that it exists with people close to me, that I started finding more comfort in, and help to fight against it. It’s definitely one of those “you’re not alone” types of situations. Everyone has this fear. Everyone. And if they think that they don’t, they just aren’t ready to face it yet.
I’m never going to feel 100% confident and secure in anything I do. It would be ignorant to believe a perfection like that exists. The fear of failure exists because there is failure in every single person’s life. There’s always something that doesn’t work out that makes you nervous to try again. Alex and I have started and failed at a handful of businesses before Oh, Hello. Who knows. Oh, Hello might still flop a year from now. But that fear of failure doesn’t stop us from giving our business our all every single day. That fear pushes us harder and makes us better business owners.
So yeah, I’m afraid of failure more now than ever before. There’s more at stake, more to lose. But I’m sure as hell not going to sit around and do nothing about it.
So fight on my friends.
Yours till the fortune cookies,
Kayla
Take it from someone who much rather be binge watching Gilmore Girls on Netflix for the thousandth time rather than working, being productive can be difficult. I find Wednesdays to be the worst of all the days of the week for a lack of productivity, so here are a few tips and tricks to really get the productive juices flowing.
- Keep the to do list concise and not too long. One of the biggest pitfalls to productivity is trying to tackle too much in a day. Pick the top 3-5 things you want to accomplish that day and stick to those. That way you aren’t feeling overwhelmed by a never ending to do list and can actually check things off rather than giving up and pushing everything to tomorrow.
- Give yourself breaks to recharge and refocus. I was definitely a strong believer in work till the project is done, but you’ll burn yourself out if you don’t take a break a couple of times a day. Plus you gotta eat right?
- Assign designated social media time so you don’t fall into the Facebook vortex. Is anything really happening on there anyway? Besides the Helloigan group that’s always poppin’, I find myself just staring at Facebook and realizing every single time that there’s literally nothing exciting going on. So give yourself certain times during the day to endlessly scroll through Instagram, but don’t let it eat up precious work time.
- Find out what time of day you work best and use it for all it’s worth. I find that I work best between nine and noon so I use that time to do all of the things I much rather not do, so the easier tasks are left for the afternoon when I’m sluggish.
- Look for productivity inspiration in things like this post or on social media. That way when you’re taking that much needed break or winding down on Instagram before bed, you’re interacting with people or content that sparks creativity and inspiration. I follow a lot of people that are constantly motivating me to do better work and it definitely helps get me out of bed in the morning.
- Love what you’re doing and then you won’t feel like it’s work. I have never been more productive than I have working with Oh, Hello. I enjoyed my desk job prior, but I still found myself not being as productive as I am doing something I’m incredibly passionate about. If you just can’t seem to find the motivation to get anything done, maybe it’s because you don’t want to be doing what you’re doing at all…
What are your tips and tricks to being more productive?
xoxo Kayla
Has blogging become uncool? Have I officially fallen back into the uncool crowd who blogs like I was an awkward member of back in 2007? Do people even read blogs anymore?
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. I personally love blogging and what it’s done for my life. It’s given me a voice, my own uncontrolled outlet to express myself, and it’s brought me a lot of new friends. Yet it just feels like the blogging days are over and most people are constantly coming back from “blogging breaks” and vanishing just as quickly as they returned.
So what is it about blogging these days that makes it not-so glamorous anymore? Everyone and their sister is hopping on YouTube, but I still find that my blog gets the most organic love and attention. I do love myself a good YouTube video, but there’s just something about rambling on, fingers to the keyboard, about the things that give us passion.
Maybe it died down because people weren’t getting the rise to fame like they expected. I don’t find blogging easy. Even after almost a decade of doing it on one platform or another, finding topics and motivation is hard. Yet I wouldn’t want to just stop and abandon something I put so much time and energy into. Blogging isn’t something you’re going to get rich doing. You aren’t going to gather tons of loyal brands to constantly send things to you. You aren’t going to get mountains of free things and money.
Bloggers seem to be dying off and with that the readers who tuned in. Hopefully I’m just being dramatic and that’s really not the case, but it just feels different these days. Less people sharing posts, engaging with content, and cursing the blogosphere for convincing them to buy yet another foundation. Although I fear that the lack of readership may be a fact and something that’s here to stay, I don’t want to quit. I started blogging because I loved it as a creative art form and I’ll probably continue doing it until it becomes like teaching cursive in schools. I just can’t give up on it.
Are you out there people? Are there people who still read blogs? You tell me.
xoxo Kayla
Although I’m such a strong advocate of blogging for yourself, it’s also nice when people read and experience what you put so much effort into. So here are some ways to keep people coming back to your blog time and time again.
- Write interesting content that’s fresh and exciting. People love advice and tutorials. Look at your post data and see which posts are the most popular. Take what information you find and write posts similar to those.
- Be consistent in posting. Nothing annoys me more than people coming back from a three month break, posting five posts within a week, and disappearing again. Even if you only post once a week, being consistent means readers know when to expect new content.
- Have good, bright photography throughout your blog to make it an enjoying viewing experience. Crappy, dark photos aren’t going to engage readers to keep coming back.
- Have your own voice rather than trying to do what everyone else is doing. There isn’t a clear recipe for blogging success so why bother copying what someone else has done. Just because it’s worked for them doesn’t guarantee that it’ll work for your blog. So just be yourself.
- Clearly organize your blog so readers can click into different categories to read more posts they’re interested in. No one is going to scroll twelve pages back to read old posts or hunt for posts on topics they like. But if you categorize them well it’s likely readers will scroll back a few pages within a category.
- Engage people on social media so they know when you’ve published a new post and also so they know you’re a real person. Obviously you are, but engaging with people on social media makes you that much more down to earth and relate-able. Plus you’re probably on social media anyway.
In the end if you write consistent, interesting content you’ll have no problem with keeping people coming back to your blog. Now get to posting!
xoxo Kayla
There really isn’t a good time to start a business. I’ve been thinking about that concept for a while now and I really do believe the stars just don’t align one day making it the best possible time and place to start that project or business idea you’ve been talking about for months or years. So why not just start now?
There are a lot of people in our lives who constantly come up to Alex or I and tell us about this “next great idea” they have. At first it was flattering because they were taking an interest in what we are doing, and sought us out for help on their ideas. But then we quickly realized after a few failed attempts at helping these people out, that they never actually wanted to start the business they so eagerly talked to us about. We jumped feet first into an idea and when they came face to face with the prospect of it actually happening, they chickened out. They were interested in the dream more than the actual doing it.
It got us thinking. Do people just like to talk about a better future full of nice things and a comfortable life once their idea takes off rather than just doing it? I mean I for one wouldn’t have taken the leap into Oh Hello if it wasn’t for Alex believing in me. Yet when we believe in their projects they believe even less than we do. Why is that? Why would people rather dream about their perfect life than go out and get it?
I guess I’m writing this as a plea that if you have an idea or a business you’ve always wanted to start then now’s the time to do it. You’ll never be in the perfect place in your life where you have mountains of unscheduled time to dedicate to it. It’s just not going to happen. But rather than being that person who always talks about opening a bakery one day, be the person who actually does it. Or at least come face to face with your dreams and decide if they’re really just dreams, or if you want to turn them into actual goals.
Trust me, there’s a lot of risk and scary parts to putting faith in yourself to take a chance. But at least at the end of the day you’ll know you tried when others just wistfully dream about it and never get off the couch to do something.
xoxo Kayla
