It's Our Anniversary π
My Substack Journey + 3 Big Lessons Learned After 2 Years Of Sending Newsletters
Itβs been 2 years since I first hit the publish button on Substack.Β
I loved the way reading from other writers I havenβt met made me feel. My friends called me The Smile Therapist. I loved the name and wanted to make other people feel good, too. The passion birthed this newsletter.
Blogging has been a dream I killed anytime the thought emerged. I used to think I wasn't qualified enough and no one would read what I wrote.
When I started writing on Substack, I wanted to document my growth process with the hope that it would inspire people to believe in themselves.
Happy to see the ambition is getting accomplished.
The first post was titled 2022. I wrote it on this day in 2022 as a sort of challenge to me, as well as my readers on how we could consciously decide what we wanted to achieve, rather than sit in the backseat and allow circumstances do whatever it wanted with us. I wrote something related on my Medium page last week about the anxiety associated with the new year.
I was moved to see the level of support I got from friends and classmates when I shared the link to the post. This brings me to the first lesson.
Lesson 1: Growth does not have to happen in isolation.
Lesson 2: Perfectionism is another way procrastination takes the wheel to take us places we donβt want to go.
Clarity is key in doing what we need to do. Even though it comes in low voltage at times, we have to accept and power up our spark. You don't always have to wait for a perfect time to begin. Just start already.
Reading my first post now makes me cringe, but I realised I wouldn't have grown this much if I hadn't taken that first step.Β
Β Dr Oluwadamilare Akingbade authors the Nurse Researcherβs Diary, and he has the saying βStart from where you are, but don't remain where you are.β I canβt overemphasise how beneficial it has been for me in getting things done.
Lesson 3: Understand the right validation to pursue.
We all seek validation directly or indirectly. It explains why a lecturer who lectures out of passion would not feed a family with the same passion. To perform exceptionally, he or she would have to be compensated for the work done.
For actions like creating and posting content on social media, it's hard to focus on being consistent without getting anything in return. Not necessarily financial, but a βgood jobβ and βthank youβ from different angles can be a sort of motivation on its own.
Here is what I thinkπ
It is great to study top creators in your field, but you must be creative and not copy. Ask those who have fought what it looks like on the battlefield. It makes the journey less strenuous and assists with gaining more clarity as the journey advances.
Since I started posting, I never considered the likes and comments as a metric for the value my subscribers gain. One way I get to be sure is to view the statistics regularly to know the number of subscribers that open the emails. It made me conclude that some people would not engage with your posts, but they are watching you.
On the other hand, it is fulfilling when I get words of appreciation from people who have found the newsletters helpful. And that was the goal.
We aren't stopping.Β
Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. βHelen KellerΒ
If you read it this far, thank you so much.
Thanks for believing in the purpose of the newsletter, for subscribing, and for taking out time to ensure it gets to others.
Wishing you all the bliss your soul desires.
With love,
Happy anniversaryyyyyyπ₯³π₯³π₯³
So so proud of how far you've come. Here's to not stopping and giving the bestttt newsletters. π€
Happy Anniversary πππππ, cheers to more feats Roqeebat ππ.