Every once in a while, no matter how enthusiastic we are in growing the content of our blog, there will come a time that we lose grip on our hold to get going. With my experience in blogging for more than a decade, there are times still that I ran out of ideas what to blog about, let alone thinking who to blog it for. That is an absolute craziness.

Why I Took The Challenge And Why?

Early this year, I joined a group, the Cebu Weekly Blogging Challenge, where you write a blog post and publish it on time (before midnight strikes on a Sunday, to be exact). The challenge started last February 1 until December 9. Not anticipating too much that it being very daunting, I almost gave up the challenge and would declare the white flag being raised for surrender.

Since blogging, however, is one of the things I am passionate about, and something that I need to promise myself to keep on doing to the best that I can, I was able to finish the 45-week blogging challenge and completed every task until the single drop of the deadline.

Starting something and finishing everything is very rewarding. It’s as simple as feeling accomplished like taking the first step to be able to walk when you were a baby, being able to frame that 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle you’ve been dying to form from day one, or achieving that one thing you’ve been eyeing for a very long time and getting it from many attempts.

With the Weekly Blogging Challenge, it started with 45 bloggers who registered to this craziness. For 9 months and 9 days, only 15 were able to complete it. Only two bloggers, sad to say, were able to comply without missing a week and I am proud to claim that I am one of the two bloggers who continued and survived the blogging conundrum. Rea Alducente, the blogger behind the photo blog, Blissful Snapshots, joined me along the way to doing the very thing to do at the first place: finish everything.

The 5 Big Lessons We Can Learn About The Weekly Blogging Challenge

Before we move further to ending my own victorious drama, let’s find out what I and the other challengers have learned from this event:

1) It’s a shocking commitment. It surely is. As bloggers, we always think that we have our idea jars full of things to share with our readers. As what I’ve mentioned before, we sometimes ran out of ideas or we ran out of reasons to be enthusiastic and motivated to do it. Blogging is fun, yes, but is it not easy as others are expecting it to be. Other bloggers might come to a point asking themselves, “Why am I blogging? Is this really for me?”

If you have the commitment to do it, regardless of how shocked you were with it coming, keep blogging.

ALSO READ: To Blog Or Not To Blog: Is It Really The Question?

2) Always Plan Ahead. Planning is a basic technique on how to write and always update your blog. I will not discuss this further because you can read more about it from my previous blog post. (READ: A Basic Technique On How To Write And Always Update A Blog)

3) Blogging Is Life. Life Is Challenging. Then, Blogging is Challenging. That may sound and look like a mathematical and logical equation, I have to agree. As Christoeffer John Estrada said, “I learned that life is challenging.” During our conversation in June, I swallowed a breath when he told me “Napul-an nako (I’m already fed up).”

A redemption was made to his previous statement that made me realize the challenges in blogging. “I don’t want to force myself to write,” he said. Because of that, it gave me more motivation to continue to update my blog even with the hindrance of challenges no matter what they are and when they will come.

ALSO READ: Creative Writing And Blogging: A Conversation With Four-Eyed Laagan

4) Have The Discipline And Faith. If you missed out doing Number 2, you will lose grip on your determination to accomplish something for your blog. Blogging, as a passion with purpose, is another form of discipline. You will become responsible for what you write online and you will always think of who will be reading them. If you’re too concerned about the widespread of fake news on the Internet and you feel like you’re feeling that you’re getting the blame, then, be very careful what you publish on your blog. “Think before you click,” as the famous reply of Pia Wurtzbach before she became Miss Universe, is something to ponder for bloggers.

On the other hand, if you have accepted any blogging challenge and you don’t have faith in yourself to finish it until the end, remember this:

I can because I think I can.

5) Make The Challenge A Fun Challenge. At the end of it all, either you were able to experience the ups or the downs of the blogging challenge, just think of it as a game to win. But always remember from the book title of one of my favorite motivational author, John C. Maxwell, “Something you win, sometimes you learn.”

I had fun. I know I did. After 45 cycles of weekly blogging, I made it and I am proud of it. During the Culmination Night with all the bloggers who joined the Weekly Blogging Challenge, we had fun. Here’s a video as proof:

Before I end this post, I have a question: Are you ready for the next Weekly Blogging Challenge? I already said “Yes” and I am hoping you will do the same.

—

If you like this post, please do share it on social media like Facebook and Twitter. Don’t forget to tag me back.

Also, don’t forget to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for more updates and random stuff about me and this blog.

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel for more exciting but random adventures.