I’m A Blogging Success Because… Week #24

Success comes in all shapes and sizes doesn’t it? It can be an award you’ve waited your whole life to get. It could be recognition for something or from someone that matters. Or it could be something as small as your child saying I love you. We don’t celebrate success, in whatever form enough in my opinion and over the past few weeks and months with the madness that is blogging awards and particularity in the past week with my fight to get blogging seen as a real job, I have come to realise that everyone is a success in their own right. So, we find ourselves here and with me opening up the doors to Mummy in a Tutu for the first time to a guest post series. This series is here for any and all bloggers to talk about success; their success or the success of someone else that they want to recognise. Welcome to I’m a blogging success because… Let’s hand over to Hayley from Devon Mama!

Success. It’s such a hard word to get my head around when I’m thinking of myself. Self-confidence is not something I’m rich in, even less so since starting a family and in order to class yourself as successful you need a certain amount of it. But when I think long and hard about it, I AM a success. I am a mother, I am a company Director, I am a wife, I am a blogger, I am a million and one different things (one of them being exhausted!) but mostly I am me.

I’m a blogging success not because I have great stats (I don’t) or because I’m wonderful on social media (I’m not). I’m a blogging success because I’m true to me. I write about what matters to me. What interests me as a mum or what keeps me up at night. I write about the little seemingly insignificant things that my son does that would otherwise be forgotten. I write about the funny bits of parenting. Sometimes, I write about the sad bits, the hard bits, the bits that I have nowhere else to vent them to.

Blogging for me is an outlet, away from the side of me that my friends and family know. It’s a place for me to be open and admit that life can be and is hard. And along the way I’ve not only found a hobby that I’m passionate about, I’ve also found a new group of friends to share it with. Me, the girl who can count her friends on one hand (with room to spare) has suddenly got like-minded people. Or, as the blogging community seem to be so keen on… I’ve found my tribe.

From blogging, I’ve gained friendship and confidence. I help to run a support group on Facebook and a weekly Twitter chat for new parenting bloggers and am fully aware that six months ago, I had barely tweeted. I’ve been able to speak to brands, ask parenting questions and just shoot the breeze with other parents all around the world. How incredible is that? Meanwhile I’ve juggled returning to work part time (otherwise known as cramming a full time role into part time hours), raising our nine month old son and keeping up with our day to day lives.

To me, success isn’t about stats. It’s about having something that brings you joy and allows you to share your passion. It’s about keeping all the balls in the air without letting something drop. It’s about carving out that time to be you in amongst a hectic life and it’s about pushing yourself past what you thought you could achieve and achieving anyway.  I’m a blogging success because I’ve found my passion, made room for it in my life and been true to me.

Devon Mama is run by me; Hayley – a 30 year old mama, wife and recovering sleep addict. Living with my husband, baby and the world’s bounciest dog in rural Devon, I can usually be found attempting to cook, Googling everything and embracing the strange new world that is parenting. Add in a house with ‘a lot of potential’ and a return to my ‘real’ job as a Company Director and it’s organized chaos at the best of times.

You can follow our adventures here: www.devonmama.com

http://twitter.com/devon_mama http://instagram.com/devonmamaonline

http://pinterest.com/devonmamaonline http://facebook.com/devonmamaonline

If you would like to take part in this series then please email me on [email protected] with your piece and all your social media links and subject it Blogging Success. I hope you join me again next week to help celebrate more blogging success. We’ll be joined by Helena from The Queen of Collage.

Dont for get to check out Week 10, Week 11 & Week 12!