This is a guest post by Timo Kiander.
Many people live their lives without understanding, that there is a giant potential inside them. In fact, if they would realize this, they would achieve so much more in their lives.
This is where the personal development comes into play. Once you get involved with different self-improvement topics, your mind starts to change and you’ll start seeing everything differently (the people, the world, the events).
What I love about personal development is that it can be applied to many areas in one’s life. When you improve yourself first, you can have better results in whatever you do.
1. Build Confidence
Having a strong self-confidence is essential for any successful blogger. If you don’t own this trait, you are building invisible obstacles of your path to success.
To build your confidence, you need to take action and go outside your comfort zone – constantly. I know, this may not be very easy to accept for some people, but this is the only way to do it.
However, it is relieving to know, that you don’t have to make a huge leaps at once, when you are testing the boundaries of your comfort zone.
For example, if you want to start guest posting, but are afraid to give it a shot, start by submitting your posts to smaller blogs first. As your blog posts get accepted, move on to the bigger blogs. Finally, you have enough confidence to submit your guest post to big blogs too.
Once you have stretched your comfort zone a bit, you will feel more confident to take even bigger steps outside the zone. Finally, you realize that you have a rock-solid confidence and you are not limiting yourself from success.
2. Build Persistence and Consistency
If there are two characteristic that every blogger needs, they are persistence and consistency. Although I could have separated them, I feel that in many ways they go hand in hand.
When you start building your blog, you need to have persistence so that you are not quitting after the first setback. You also need to be consistent on your blogging efforts by creating high quality content – on a consistent basis.
Persistence and consistency build on top of motivation. You need to have a reason to move forward, even if at time you don’t feel like it.
If your goal is to be a successful blogger and an authority on what you do, it is going to take you more than just a sprint – it is going to be a marathon.
Whenever I have felt lost, I have remembered the lessons in various self-improvement books about truly believing in my end goal. Since the goal still resonates with me, I have been able to get back on track and move forward.
3. Get Rid of the Fear of Failing
Do you know what separates unsuccessful bloggers from successful ones? They are not afraid of failing. They have courage to be who they are and they take full responsibility of their actions.
Also, they are not afraid of negative feedback. Essentially, that’s what any blogger can expect at some point – in a form or another.
A very common lesson in personal development is that there really aren’t any failures. Rather, it is a feedback mechanism that helps us to improve ourselves further. Also, in many cases “failing” is success in disguise. It belongs to your journey from unknown blogger to a well-known blogger.
Many people are afraid of failing or receiving negative feedback. Instead, they should evaluate the events and see the positive potential in them.
No matter how well you plan something in advance, be prepared for setbacks and incidents that take your off-track. At the same time, be willing to learn from them and find out a way to turn that negative feedback into your advantage!
4. Control the Time
When I started blogging, I never realized how much work there is involved. I’m producing two posts per week for my blog and even that requires quite a bit of effort from my side.
Time management skills are essential for any blogger. Especially, if you are blogging part-time, it becomes even more important to learn the skills well.
What I have learned is that you should dedicate and prioritize time for those activities that matter the most. When the blogging is concerned, the most important one is naturally content creation.
You have to focus as well. For example, focusing on just the most important traffic sources related to your blog is a much better way to operate than trying to work on 20 different traffic-generating methods at once.
Focus also means cutting all the extra distractions to minimum when you work. You should develop a focused mindset so that when you create content, that’s all you do and everything else can wait.
5. Build Motivation
What keeps you blogging if you don’t see any comments on your blog posts or if people are not singing to your e-mail list?
It’s the motivation and faith: You have a compelling goal you are after and you are motivated enough!
Motivation is a very common theme in personal development. No matter if you set end goals or define visions – if you don’t have energy to “travel the path” from start to finish, you are going to quit.
Obviously, motivation is also faith. Even if you don’t get the results right away but you are still willing to work towards them consistently, you cross the finish line at some point.
6. Find Your Purpose
Finally, knowing your true purpose is one of the most fundamental aspects of your life. There are countless of books, training courses and coaches out there to help you to define and clarify your purpose.
If you are willing to take time, do some soul searching and testing different possibilities, your vision and purpose starts to become clearer and clearer.
In most cases, finding your purpose is going to take time. However, if you are willing to find it, your life can finally make sense to you.
When you take this concept to blogging, I feel that blogging should reflect your purpose in some ways. When you have a purpose and passion, blogging is a great way of documenting that.
Not only is all this important for yourself, but it is important for others too.
At some point, others start to notice your passion and they are willing to join you on your journey. You are not just a blogger anymore, you are the blogger on your market.
People rely on you as an expert by asking questions and advice. Also, you feel confident and grateful, because you are able to help people.
About Timo Kiander
Kikolani covers blog marketing and blogging tips for personal, professional, and business bloggers to succeed in search and social media marketing. Kristi Hines is a 
Hi Timo,
Spot on advice here.
Personal development is A1 for a blogger, or any online entrepreneur for that matter. Develop your mental tools and all else falls into place nicely. You attract the ideas, people and circumstances to become a successful blogger. I see this again and again in my life and the lives of others.
I suggest at least 1 hour of personal development daily to my cash gifting team members. Meditation, affirmations, visualization, reading classics like Think and Grow Rich. Few realize that working on your mind consistently helps you attract the ideas and tools to become successful. The physical stuff follows the change in your thinking, and vibration.
I attract my best ideas after meditating, or affirming. Pulling back from my work leads to wonderful things. When I move away from personal development – and this is rare – I suffer. I become attached to outcomes, I force things instead of coming from a place of power, and I engage in ineffective, wheel-spinning acts.
Thank goodness this rarely happens though. I have been taught my lesson in this area enough. Work on developing myself, and my blog and gifting club improve by leaps and bounds.
Work on the inner world and the outer world falls into place with much greater ease. This is the way it works. I also study many uber-successful folks and most of these individuals make personal development A1. No excuses. Work on the inner world, get clear, and sometimes what seems like miraculous results occur almost instantaneously.
Thanks for sharing your insight Timo.
Ryan
Ryan Biddulph recently posted Use This Helpful Affirmation For Law Of Attraction Allowing
Ryan,
Thank you
I couldn’t imagine what kind of a person I would be without personal development (and not to mention what type of a blogger
You talked about meditation … I need to get back again to practicing that …
Cheers,
Timo
Timo Kiander recently posted Is this the best way to Beat Stress and Boost Success?
Hi Timo,
I’m in complete agreement with you and with Ryan. Personal development helps us to become better at all tasks that we take on because it makes us better as a person.
I can attest to it benefitting us as bloggers because my blog is primarily about personal development but the topic of blogging has been so popular on my blog that it’s now as much of my niche as personal development is. My readers have expressed a lot of appreciation for both and the link between the two!
Thanks for sharing your tips! They are right on target!
Stacy
Stacy recently posted Habit Building Day #22: Meditate
Thank you Stacy!
Yes, there are many connecting points between blogging and personal development. In fact, when I started blogging, my topic was mainly about personal development for online entrepreneurs (bloggers included
.
Cheers,
Timo
Timo Kiander recently posted Is this the best way to Beat Stress and Boost Success?
Hey Timo,
Agree with control your time and find your purpose.
Cool tip Ryan!
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Sanjay,
Thanks for the comment! I would say that you should spend time enough to find your purpose. After that your time management gets easier
Cheers,
Timo
Timo Kiander recently posted Is this the best way to Beat Stress and Boost Success?
Great post Timo, these are also true for any kind of business, not just blogging.
Jamie Northrup @ Web Consultant recently posted Nevermind SEO, How Much Traffic Do Blog Comments Bring Me?
Jamie,
I agree. Personal development techniques can be applied to any businesses. That’s why investing to yourself is so beneficial.
Cheers,
Timo
Timo Kiander recently posted Is this the best way to Beat Stress and Boost Success?
Great post, Timo.
Building confidence and getting over my fear were the first two things I had to tackle when I started blogging. I feared that nobody would care what I had to say, or worse, they would hate it and I would be put on some big, ugly Internet blacklist.
That’s when you have to take a step back and take a breath. The big, ugly Internet blacklist is reserved for trolls — there isn’t a punishment set up for people that genuinely try. The worst that could happen when pitching a guest post? You’re told no. The worst that could happen when publishing a blog? Someone leaves an angry comment, or no comments at all. Both scenarios are inevitable. You just need to make yourself used to the fact that it can (and will) happen.
Keep that motivation going and that attitude positive.
Mandy Kilinskis @Quality Logo Products recently posted Why It Pays to Take Risks in Startup Marketing: Interview with Leo Widrich of Buffer
Thank you Mandy!
I had same thoughts before I started blogging.
I thought that there are going to be nasty comments and people question what I write about.
All this was turned the other way around! Instead, I have found many great people through blogging and I’m glad that I started in the first place
Cheers,
Timo
Timo Kiander recently posted Weekly Productivity Tip #24: Use Your Own Head When Taking Action!
Timo, happy to meet you here! I am Amber-Lee and I started just about a year ago, learning with HubSpot to build and maintain my own website and starting and continuing Alaska Chick’s Blog.
Almost a year!! On January 31st, 2011 I posted my first blog post (gosh it was bad, and boy, was I scared!). Just recently, I have found “Stay the Path” (my very own mantra for the direction I want for my life.) really hard. Emotionally exhausting. Failure is not an option. (at all)
Thanks for this post. It isn’t anything really new, but right at the right time, for me. I guess I needed it because it really encouraged me today. So, Thank you.
Amber-Lee
Amber-Lee Dibble recently posted A Story Without Love Is Not Worth Telling, Alaska Chick
Amber-Lee,
Great to hear that I could make a difference!
You know, we started blogging pretty much at the same time … I started on December 31st, 2010
Cheers,
Timo
Timo Kiander recently posted Weekly Productivity Tip #24: Use Your Own Head When Taking Action!
I run in to a lot of folks who have great ideas, but they aren’t ready to implement them. I say if you’re always scared or waiting until you’re “ready”… Then you’ll never succeed. Believe in yourself and shoot for the stars.
Chris @ Homes For Sale Austin recently posted Where To Find Owner Financed Homes Austin
Chris,
This is so true! No matter how many great ideas you have, they are useless if you are afraid to put them to action.
Cheers,
Timo
Timo Kiander recently posted Weekly Productivity Tip #24: Use Your Own Head When Taking Action!
Timo,
I love personal development… I read a ton of bloggers content everyday. The reason I do so is not because I am enamored by who they are and what they write. I read them because the tips and tricks and ideas I learn from them help to give me confidence in what I’m doing…
Great topic!
Thank you,
Ryan H.
Ryan | Strategies in Content Creation recently posted Why Time Warner Cable Only Cares if You Complain: A Customer Service FAIL Story
Ryan,
I love to explore new topics on personal development too! I got into self improvement in 2007 and my life has changed radically.
It is my mindset and view of life that is so different than what it was before. That makes me to look from different angle and realize, that I can now do stuff I was earlier scared of doing.
Cheers,
Timo
Timo Kiander recently posted Weekly Productivity Tip #24: Use Your Own Head When Taking Action!
Strangely enough the fear of failure never occurred to me as far as blogging was concerned. This is probably because when I started my first blog it was purely for SEO reasons. Going over those first posts is a pretty horrifying experience
Still, as time went by I developed a passion for it and so I did it purely because I loved it and so success or failure never entered my mind. I knew I was loving it and all I had to do was get the word out so that others could see what I was doing. I knew my posts wouldn’t appeal to everyone but that didn’t matter as I also knew it’s impossible to please everyone, something I’ve learned overtime that was true both in my personal and my business life.
Maybe that is my purpose for blogging, to enjoy myself and as long as I can continue to do that people will continue to patronise my blogs
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Sire,
I agree – you can’t please everyone.
No matter how big or small the blog is, there is always going to be opposing opinions. That is part of the blogging and you have to be ready for it before you even start.
Cheers,
Timo
Timo Kiander recently posted Weekly Productivity Tip #24: Use Your Own Head When Taking Action!
Hi Timo,
How true for us all!
I love the photo you’ve chosen for this post “improvement in progress”!
The point you make about controlling the time we spend on blogging and social media is really relevant. We have to manage it so well. When it comes to time management, I think of each day having a rhythm that is waiting for us to find it. There are actions we need to take as well as pauses that we need to give ourselves. When we find that rhythm, we can achieve a lot more than usual and enjoy the day. There is less strain and more harmony.
Reading your post has been part of the rhythm of my day today and I’ve enjoyed it. Thanks!
Gail
Gail,
In fact, Kristi chose the photo – kudos to her
Time management is very important. and I can tell that from my own experiences (having a day job, family, hobbies and blogging).
I try to have a schedule I follow and I work in time blocks. That way I get lot of stuff done – in an focused manner.
Cheers,
Timo
Confidence and Consistency are some of the key factors that determines success for a blogger. Love the detailed articles on the subject.
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Eddie,
Thank you!
Yes, those things are important.
Confidence can be built by taking action. Also, when doing things consistently, you can create valuable habits that move you closer to your goals.
Cheers,
Timo
Timo Kiander recently posted Weekly Productivity Tip #24: Use Your Own Head When Taking Action!
We should build not only our purpose, but also our goals, long-term and short-term ones… Many thanks for sharing this marvelous post
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Amanda,
Great to hear that you liked my post!
What you said is true. But also, once your know your purpose, it is easier to set those goals.
Cheers,
Timo
Timo Kiander recently posted What my dentist taught me about repetitive and irritating tasks without even knowing!
Sometimes it can be difficult to always be positive but it’s very important if you want to write well and engage people. Even if you have an important message people don’t respond or engage well with negativity, so a positive, forward thinking style is a real bonus.
Matt Kinsella recently posted Never Give Up
Matt,
I know, it is very difficult indeed. Although I’m a positive and optimistic person by nature, there are times when it is difficult to be a person like that.
Luckily, once I have slept my night well, in most of the cases I’m able to understand the lessons and positive sides of things too
Cheers,
Timo
Timo Kiander recently posted What my dentist taught me about repetitive and irritating tasks without even knowing!
The things that help you grow as a person, also help you blog better. Conquering fear of failure, using time wisely, gaining confidence, etc.–these are skills that suit you in any area of your life. That should not be surprising, as blogging is sharing information and establishing a relationship with readers.
David Sneen recently posted Save $1000s with This Tip
David,
Yes, you are correct. No only are those great skills in blogging but also in other areas of your life too.
Cheers,
Timo
Timo Kiander recently posted What my dentist taught me about repetitive and irritating tasks without even knowing!
I’ve been using a few techniques of personal development to reach my always active goals for a while. With that I already gained some confidents that helped me to get started with a personal blog. I believe that if I can stay consistently on track, not only my personal development will improve but also my blogging.
Anja,
Sure it will! Gaining more experiences will help you both in blogging and in your personal improvement too!
Cheers,
Timo
Timo Kiander recently posted What my dentist taught me about repetitive and irritating tasks without even knowing!
This is true. But you have to do it for yourself first and foremost. That’s why it’s called Personal development. You have to really want to grow and develop whatever needs to be developed in yourself and everything will just flow naturally. Life is just a matter of perspective and the way you look at yourself would reflect the way you look at the world. And so ultimately this would inspire you to go out and DO (or write about) your life’s passions.
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Felicia,
Yes, that is true.
It all about finding a different angle to look at things.
Cheers,
Timo
Timo Kiander recently posted What my dentist taught me about repetitive and irritating tasks without even knowing!
One of the most essential tips i find over here is Find Your Purpose. A lot of bloggers blog without knowing the real purpose.
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Ricardus,
I agree. It is crucial to spend some time and figure out what it is.
Once you do, it can change your life (and you blogging too
Cheers,
Timo
Timo Kiander recently posted What my dentist taught me about repetitive and irritating tasks without even knowing!
Nice tips here. I would like to point the first and third one as the most important ways for being a better blogger. In the past couple of years, I have no confidence and showing some fear that I could fail in blogging, but I realize that I may continue to fail if I don’t keep trying. Right now, I’m very confident and never afraid to fail to be a better blogger.
Dan Lew
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Dan,
Thank you!
I have realized that the more action I take, more confident and less fearless I become!
Sometimes there is an invisible wall when it comes to taking action. Yet, once I get past that I’m happy, because I feel more confident
Cheers,
Timo
Timo Kiander recently posted What my dentist taught me about repetitive and irritating tasks without even knowing!
The topic of personal development and self help for bloggers sound much like the skill set needed to be successful in business and specifically in sales. Do you think that many bloggers think that by only focusing on great content, as compared to actively trying to go out and build a tribe of readers that they are doing themselves a disservice? Secondly, do you feel that there are great blogs out their that never get noticed because of this behavior?
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Matt,
Focusing on the content only may have worked years and years ago but not anymore. I feel that nowadays solid content and active community go tightly hand in hand. I don’t think that building a successful blog is possible without a strong community.
So yes, if there are blogs which are strong on content but without any community or audience, they are more or less ignored.
Cheers,
Timo
Thanks For writing down this awesome blog post! It would give advantages to the blogger in many ways the first main advantage that he will get is that he will become a better human and secondly is a better blogger!
David,
Awesome, great to hear that you liked my article!
That is true: you become both a better blogger AND a better person, when you learn some personal development techniques.
Cheers,
Timo
Timo Kiander recently posted Sleep and Productivity Go Hand in Hand
Thanks for one’s marvelous posting! I definitely enjoyed reading it, you can be a great author. I will be sure to bookmark your blog and definitely will come back in the foreseeable future. I want to encourage continue your great posts, have a nice weekend!
David!
That is great to hear – thank you for your awesome comments
Cheers,
Timo
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