Some people may perceive success as winning awards, having thousands or followers on facebook or gaining a celebrity status but, for me, true success can only be measured by your own expectations. It is important to have you own personal goals in life,
to set obtainable standards and work hard to reach them.
My journey with blogging actually began through my writing of a book. As a stay at home Mum who has always previously worked I felt that I needed a new venture to keep my mind active and to still have a part of my life that was just ‘me’. The idea behind my book came about once my son started teething at a very early age. He would be in so much pain, very little touched it and he seemed to suffer from every symptom under the sun. I sought advice from, not only family and friends, but also at the Doctors and Dentist but I found very little help other than the recommendation of Calpol. I had heard of a few of the other products but, being a first time Mum, there were many that were new to me and I had no idea what to try next, how they all worked and which would actually work for him. I spent a lot of time having to research these to find the best solution for my son’s symptoms. As I built my knowledge I began making notes and getting as much infor
mation down as I could. From there it slowly developed into a book to help other parent’s through what can be a very difficult time; and so ‘Your Teething Baby, from one parent to another’ was born. The book was self-published on Amazon and from here I realised that I needed to start self-promoting. I had never dreamed that one day I would write a book but here I am now with this achievement under my belt and if this book can help another parent like myself who finds themselves at their wits end, not sleeping, not being able to console their baby then I have succeeded in my aim.
My passion for writing had been ignited and blogging seemed like a natural progression.
For me blogging has allowed me to write about all of my interests, cover topics that are important to other parents and to be able to reach out to others via social media, who I may never have had the chance to ‘meet’ in a normal situation. My numbers may not be huge but I measure my success in a different way. I am overwhelmed when even just one person messages me to say that a post has moved them and that they felt compelled to write to me to talk about their own experience. There aren’t many heavy blog posts but I feel that all areas of life need to be spoken about and for me being open and honest is the best way to reach out. Tackling topics that I can write about from a personal experience is so important as is just being myself.
I do also love to make people laugh and writing a quirky poem every now and then is a fun way to lighten the load of parenting problems and to highlight the fact we are all going through the same stresses and strains each day.
I think that if you have the passion and drive to write about your life to enable others to see that they are not in it alone, well, that is success right there.
If you’d like to follow Emma then please head over to her blog Emma Reed
Of you can follow her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest
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21 Comments
Thanks so much for having me guest post xx
Really like your post 🙂
Love this! I need to send you mine! It’s in my draft folder!!! #ablogginggoodtime
Love this idea for a series. A great way to celebrate the difference in bloggers and that success can mean so much to different people.
I love the philosophy of Emma, that success is measured by your own expactations. I couldn’t agree more. We are so different from one another and success cannot mean the same for everyone! Blogging has enabled me to release my passion, my interest, my knowledge and my need to share my thoughts with others, and apply it to her final words : “… passion and drive to write about your life to enable others to see that they are not in it alone, well, that is success right there.” Perfect! #abloggingoodtime
Awww thank you so much xx
Publishing a book is such a massive achievement – well done! I agree that it’s great to think about success in terms of helping others see that they’re not alone – that’s so important and such a big part of blogging. #ablogginggoodtime
Thank you xx
Nice to meet you Emma. I agree whole-heartedly with your first sentence – “true success can only be measured by your own expectations.” Well done on publishing your book. That’s a brilliant achievement. #ablogginggoodtime
Your final comment is so true. Well done on your book – it must be really hard work self-publishing. I hope it’s a success, although as you say, just writing it makes you successful. Another really interesting post in this series. Thank you for sharing. Alison x #ablogginggoodtime
Thank you so much. The hardest part is definitely getting the word out there. It is just little old me plugging away every day to make parents aware that there is a book to help them. Thank you for your comment xx
Wow congratulations on writing a book too ,. thats an amazing achievement. And yes no point comparing yourself to other people, and their success. Keep doing your thing! #ablogginggoodtime
Congrats on the book- that’s so small achievement!
#ablogginggoodtime
Congratulations on publishing your book. I know how much time it takes on top of looking after a family. Its a bloody miracle any of us stay in relationships with a partner as well as the kids!
xJo
I love this! Its so easy to get wrapped up in numbers and views, etc. I too get so excited one just one person reads my post and connects with it. It is really why I do this! Thanks for sharing. #blogginggoodtime
Huge congratulations on publishing a book – and I love your approach to blogging! Another great one in the series Katie! #ablogginggoodtime
Well done on writing a book Emma! You are so right, we should measure ourselves on what we believe is success, not how many facebook followers we have. In fact our blog has reached almost 20k visitors since we began this year and we have 180 fb followers haha. So clearly its a bit out of wack anyway. Like you I feel so delighted if I can reach out to others via our blog, that to me is one of the most important things.
#ablogginggoodtime
These are so true, I’m a big fan of this whole series, so thank you! #ablogginggoodtime
I follow Emma on Facebook, it’s such an achievement to publish a book x #ablogginggoodtime
Wow congrats on the book. What an achievement. Love this series too. #ablogginggoodtime
Well done youabooonus a huge achievement you should be so proud. I agree it’s not all a numbers game but receiving a comment that you made someone laugh or cry or touched them makes it all feel totoally worth it. #ablogginggoodtime