What I Learned in Four Years of Blogging
This is Pakistan. We are a developing nation and we will be transitioning a lot, and i think it is better to keep our feet on the ground while we aim for the stars. While blogging may seem like a glamorous job, with all the event invites and the red carpets and the freebies, know that it is a very very hard job. It needs your energy and time and your dedication. You just cannot give up on it. You can lose yourself in the fun of it all. Know that you have a life besides instagram, and that life should come first.
There will be tough times, when you will be given so much hell, you will question everything you are doing with your life. You will be judged and stomped on. There will be cliques. You will be left out. But at the same time there will be supporters. And if you keep your head strong and learn along the way and don't give up, you can make it.
The thing is to not get to comfortable with any level of success that you achieve. You have to keep evolving, keep growing and keep giving yourself the opportunity to try out new things so you can learn where your potential lies. Because at the end of the day, you need to bring something new to the game which is bombarded by opinions, great outfits, and listicles. One just needs to analyze what one is good at, use that, and keep honing the skills to make it even better.
You should know what you are talking about. It is very easy for people to see if it is a proper essay or just an immature rant. Your words are as transparent as they can get. But at the same time, you can make them as deep as you want. Read. Learn. Knowledge of what you are writing about is very essential.
Other than that, like I said, we are a developing nation. You should know that blogging will not be your everything. It will pay, but enough to get you a red carpet outfit. But is that outfit gonna put food on your table? No. So know that you should have something to fall back on. Because at the end of the day, an empty stomach will hurt more than an ill fit shoe. You can take the shoe off anytime you want, but can you really break bread like that?
Another thing you need to focus on is confidence. You should have enough faith in yourself and your words that they can stand the extremely fickle tide of the internet. People will notice a confident person. When you walk into a room, be sure of yourself. Everyone loves a person who can carry on a conversation with a surity. Being a wallflower can only take you into the room, but there's halls, expo centers and so many more rooms to go to, what will you do then?
You will come across a lot of interesting people. Make sure you have your definition of a true friend straightened out, because it is very easy to lose yourself to the friendliness, and forget what true friendship is. It's not being friendly at the very least. And another thing I think is to avoid bitchiness. Be kind to everyone. Be sweet with everyone. Listen. Learn. Observe. You can learn a lot from mingling with people. You have to learn to socialize, and learn to find friends, because you'll need them. You'll fit in. Just be yourself. Don't be fake.
You need to give yourself time to refresh and breathe. You are taking up something nobody asked you to take. It is sort of like an extra burden. And it will bring you down sometimes. The key is to know how to take things slowly and sort out when to do what. Just don't take on more than you can mentally handle, because it is necessary to be mentally healthy enough to churn out better content. Take vacations. Take one day in a week to spend time with family, sleep, eat, read a good book, meditate. Breathe. Life has so much more to offer. Take it.
These words, i realize, are not only relevant to fashion blogging but also your life generally. And any profession really. Just know yourself, who you are and where you stand and have your priorities set out, and hopefully all will work out.
Good luck!
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*Header image is Pull and Bear FW Editorial
There will be tough times, when you will be given so much hell, you will question everything you are doing with your life. You will be judged and stomped on. There will be cliques. You will be left out. But at the same time there will be supporters. And if you keep your head strong and learn along the way and don't give up, you can make it.
The thing is to not get to comfortable with any level of success that you achieve. You have to keep evolving, keep growing and keep giving yourself the opportunity to try out new things so you can learn where your potential lies. Because at the end of the day, you need to bring something new to the game which is bombarded by opinions, great outfits, and listicles. One just needs to analyze what one is good at, use that, and keep honing the skills to make it even better.
You should know what you are talking about. It is very easy for people to see if it is a proper essay or just an immature rant. Your words are as transparent as they can get. But at the same time, you can make them as deep as you want. Read. Learn. Knowledge of what you are writing about is very essential.
Other than that, like I said, we are a developing nation. You should know that blogging will not be your everything. It will pay, but enough to get you a red carpet outfit. But is that outfit gonna put food on your table? No. So know that you should have something to fall back on. Because at the end of the day, an empty stomach will hurt more than an ill fit shoe. You can take the shoe off anytime you want, but can you really break bread like that?
Another thing you need to focus on is confidence. You should have enough faith in yourself and your words that they can stand the extremely fickle tide of the internet. People will notice a confident person. When you walk into a room, be sure of yourself. Everyone loves a person who can carry on a conversation with a surity. Being a wallflower can only take you into the room, but there's halls, expo centers and so many more rooms to go to, what will you do then?
You will come across a lot of interesting people. Make sure you have your definition of a true friend straightened out, because it is very easy to lose yourself to the friendliness, and forget what true friendship is. It's not being friendly at the very least. And another thing I think is to avoid bitchiness. Be kind to everyone. Be sweet with everyone. Listen. Learn. Observe. You can learn a lot from mingling with people. You have to learn to socialize, and learn to find friends, because you'll need them. You'll fit in. Just be yourself. Don't be fake.
You need to give yourself time to refresh and breathe. You are taking up something nobody asked you to take. It is sort of like an extra burden. And it will bring you down sometimes. The key is to know how to take things slowly and sort out when to do what. Just don't take on more than you can mentally handle, because it is necessary to be mentally healthy enough to churn out better content. Take vacations. Take one day in a week to spend time with family, sleep, eat, read a good book, meditate. Breathe. Life has so much more to offer. Take it.
These words, i realize, are not only relevant to fashion blogging but also your life generally. And any profession really. Just know yourself, who you are and where you stand and have your priorities set out, and hopefully all will work out.
Good luck!
[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/175281067" params="color=ff5500&auto_play=true&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]
*Header image is Pull and Bear FW Editorial