Even when the chips were down & when his face looked like a piece of raw steak, Rocky Balboa still persevered and fought until the end. In the end he would succeed. In the end he won the battle. Each Rocky movie followed the same process: He would be given a challenge, would rise to that challenge, start to fail at said challenge, and then eventually would overcome the challenge.
This type of dedication and inspiration can be applied to many different facets of one’s life. Today it applies to the wonderful world of Blogging. In the past few months I have spoken with so many people that were thinking of starting to write a blog, but for various reasons they chose not to rise to the challenge. Each person had different reasons to not start blogging, whether it was technical challenges, fear of being ridiculed by others, or not confident in their ability to write. In many cases the people I had spoken to had been in the consideration stage for 1-5 years.
Look into the Eye of the Tiger for the strength to get started.
When you get started with anything new, there is a really, really good chance that you will not be good at it. This is also the case with blogging. It’s a hard truth, but the fact is your blog may not be very good at the beginning. In the song “Eye of the Tiger” there are two lines that inspire me:
Did my time, took my chances
Went the distance now I’m back on my feet
Those two lines sum up getting started with blogging quite nicely. The first line talks about investing your time, and taking a chance. In reality that is all you need to get started blogging: the time to blog & the strength and courage to follow your passion. Do not put too much emphasis on your ability to blog as that will come in time.
The second line tells us that while the blog may not be good at the beginning, if we go the distance and keep working at it, we will be successful. The saying “practice makes perfect” applies to blogging as well. Sometimes we compare our potential blog to well established blogs. Typically these blogs are popular, and were created quite some time ago. You cannot compare your brand new blog, to a blog that has been well established and strongly developed over time. These blogs “went the distance” and you cannot compare your potential blog with their current situation. Try finding their first few posts and seeing how their blog has changed and evolved over time.
Went the distance now I’m not gonna stop.
To be successful in your blog, there are a few ingredients that you need. The most important ingredients are perseverance and dedication. If we listen to the Eye of the Tiger lyrics that state: “Went the distance now I’m not gonna stop” we can be inspired and strengthened to learn as we go, to improve our blog as we gain more experience.
Had the guts, got the glory.
Blogging is not something you can be good at right off the start, you need to go get beat up first and go through that “Rocky meat face” stage before you can win. It’s a scary thought, but if you continue to only think about your blog and not take action, then you are just delaying your potential success!
The franchise of Rocky movies would not have been successful if Rocky decided to not rise to the challenge, or if he won the fight without any problems along the way ( On a side note, the films were largely successful due to finding a repeatable system that “worked”). It would have been terrible if Rocky decided to give up after a few rounds of getting punched in the face.
If you had started your blog five years ago, imagine where it would be today. I challenge you to rise up and create the blog you have been imagining. If you rise to the challenge, there will be obstacles and you may get beat up. In the end, if you dedicate yourself, you will become the “Eye of the Tiger”
