It’s almost been exactly one year since I created my blog. One year of some major accomplishments, awesome milestones, and really frustrating moments. If someone would have given me a timeline that depicted how my first year of blogging would go, I would have laughed. And then probably cried.

My journey has been nothing close to boring. In the time since I started blogging, I’ve done a lot of things. Got married. Understood the real meaning behind a good marriage and how tough it can be to accomplish that. Understood the real meaning behind being an entrepreneur. Gone from labeling myself as unemployed to self-employed. Went out of the county for the first time. Multiple deaths. Multiple self-discoveries. Multiple new career paths that were “the perfect fit” for me.

And so, so much more.

I never thought I would figure out much through blogging. I never thought it would the perfect window into my own soul. But it has been. And I couldn’t be more thankful that I stuck it out to understand that.

If I could offer one piece of advice to ANY blogger – big or small – it would be this:

Be true to yourself in every action you do.

The times that I struggled with. The times that I wanted to walk away from blogging. The times that I wondered what on Earth I was doing. It was all for the same reason.

I wasn’t holding true to myself.

I was trying to play the part that I thought I should play. I was trying to be someone I wasn’t. I was trying too hard when all I needed to do was just be me. Sometimes that meant saying the hard thing. Sometimes it meant ditching an opportunity that could have lead to something popular. Sometimes it meant changing my mind, back and forth, 10+ times. Sometimes it meant that I wondered if I missed out on something that was going to be amazing.

But every time that I stayed true to myself, I always knew that it would work out somehow. It may not be what I was originally envisioning, but it would be what was right for me even if I wasn’t ready to realize that yet.

Don’t post what you’re not interested in just to gain an audience. Don’t tweet about things that you don’t care about that may lead to you getting more followers. Don’t do what all the “cool kids” are doing in hopes that you’ll be one of them.

It’s not going to work.

What is going to work is you posting about things that matter to you. Tweeting about things that interest you. Doing what makes you, or you and your family, as happy as could be. Your success is defined only by you so make sure it’s truly your success that you’re after – not someone else’s.

Ashley blogs over at After Nine to Five.

Image by Lindsay Usich

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