Someone attempts a wrong try at something or newbies fail at building their first blog. We witness it someway. What do we attempt them? We either stop writing on the old blog, design a new one, or go in a new vertical apart from blogging. The most valuable thing in such situations is to remember the starting of your journey and the assets you’ve accumulated.
Consider this your second chance if you’ve failed to go in the right direction.
Don’t Throw Everything Away
Plain and simple, right? I’m also not telling you to be a “pack rat”. I’m telling you to not make the same mistakes that I was about to make by throwing everything, that I’ve learned, away.
Think about all the resources, what you’ve learned, and the connections and conversations you’ve had to get you where you are right now. Even if you are going a different route on this second or third or fourth chance those resources, items you’ve learned, and connections and conversations you’ve made will help you start in the right direction. Remember this!
The Knowledge You’ve Learned
Gaining and expanding your knowledge is key. We learn through our mistakes, successes, and what others do. Learning comes in many forms and can even come in the form of inspiration or random thoughts we get on a daily basis. Jason Galaif built his experiences into a business model. You’ve been traveling through life in a specific way for a reason!
Conversations with People
Whether you are on Twitter, Facebook, Skype, at a conference or meetup the conversations you have (striving to gain something from the other person) hold the best value for you and your blog. Not only do you learn about things, like how they market their blog or write awesome content, but you build a relationship that you can choose to enhance and strengthen or let it diminish.
I vote for enhancing and strengthening the relationships you do build! They can really help you out even if the second chance you do take is not concerning when you connected with that person.
I could go on and on talking about the importance of remembering those who you’ve connected with because that is how I’ve succeeded to have an amazing second chance.
Resources or Guides You’ve Obtained
Think about all the resources out there where you can learn from others and always look back at them. As a web writer, you should practice BuzzSumo, SEMScoop’s keyword difficulty tool, Google Trends, Headline Analyzer, and Title Generator app.
The reality of it all is that when you download or purchase them, you might read them right away, or when you do you will act as if they were emptied from your trash or recycle bin. Yeah, I had to … Mac vs. PC or if you have a physical resource, it might be collecting dust.
Most of us bloggers starting something new and taking a second chance at being successful will not even think about these resources being useful during the development process of your next venture. But, I bet you’ll find them to be helpful to a degree of you not making some of the mistakes you probably made during your first venture(s).
Find and rediscover some of the resources you’ve obtained and actually learn your lesson from them to get going in the right direction instead of doing a U-turn.
Own Mental Notes from Observation and Practice
Let’s be real! Many of us bloggers have thoughts that are from our very own observations and practices in blogging. I’ve begun to realize how important these thoughts or mental notes are to my practice. Why are these so crucial?
Your very own mental notes combine what you will most likely find in the resources you have or haven’t obtained by bloggers and the personal strengths and values you do hold.
So, what happens? We forget about these mental notes because they sporadically happen. My suggestion: keep a piece of paper, your iPhone, or a text editor notepad document nearby. I’ve learned so much about myself and what I need to do and what I need to avoid doing for my next venture.
Developing Your Personal Story
All of this is great to remember and reflect on. What else can happen? You can develop your personal story! Talk about your mistakes, be open, tell the world why you went from one venture to the next with all the mental note details.
The right way to make an impact through social media and technology is to create conversations where participation is encouraged. I have a nagging feeling that this is shunned primarily because people are afraid of criticisms and flaws being pointed out in a world that is open to all. The first step is obviously to get rid of this fear. Where is the point in being afraid of learning from previous failures?
Don’t throw everything away; you’ll find most of it can help you make the right direction on your second chance. Also, know that you don’t need to keep everything either.