What blogging has taught me

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Doing creative work every single day, over and over and over again, is tough work. Sometimes it feels great, like when dozens of ideas start knocking at your mind’s closed door, waiting to be sent out on a secret mission. Whilst on other days, you just want to quit, bang your big head against a wall or do both while you cry, watch tonnes of chick flicks, and eat tubs and tubs of any type of ice cream.

 

Blogging has taught me many lessons. First of all, I don’t really like to eat that much ice cream or watch continuous episodes of chick flicks all that much. Second thing to note, is that habits are most definitely the key to success in life. Most of us complain about not having sufficient amount time. The truth is, we do have enough time to do whatever we want, but we’re just not willing to make the sacrifices to do get it done.

 

Like I said, the discipline of blogging constantly has taught me many lessons. Here are five habits that blogging has taught me about being creative:

1. Do not underestimate the importance of a routine

 

Creative people can struggle to get work done up. In order to put in the time necessary for my own blog, I’ve had to wake up earlier than I am used to. This has done so much more for me than just simply improving on my blogging. The early hours in the morning seem to be of the most productive for most people.

 

I also love how Tim Sanders describes the constant need to feed your own mind a good “breakfast.” in the morning.  During these early hours I try to write, read, and try to set up the course for my day.

 

2. There’s so much more inside of you that’s capable than you think

 

Sometimes people will ask, how the hell do I keep coming up with solid based material to write or work on. To be plain honest, the more you strive to write, the more creative you will definitely become. Constantly writing on something which you are passionate about or concerns you, and somehow you’ll be taking your writing to a new level as you do it.

 

You’ll start to see things and opinions from a new perspective as you do it. So, believe me when I say, that there is more inside of you that’s capable than you think. There are many years of creativity in you that will only get deeper through the passage of time.

 

3. See and seize every moment as it is an opportunity to learn something new

 

I used to just only live — or rather sort of let life go along while I had a good time. But when you blog constantly, it forces you to look for inspiration all the time and everywhere. Every minor conversation, every movie you watch, even every song, every book, and every damn meal you eat.

 

The list goes on and on. Learn everywhere and do not forget to keep track of all your different inspirations and ideas. Pen them down on papers or draw them out.

 

4. Always be open to positive re-enforcements or aka Criticisms

 

I used to dislike publishing my blog because I was afraid of the negative criticism people think about my blog.  I also feared that people would judge me, think I may too young to voice out an opinion, shallow,naive, or even too simple.

 

You must never ever allow criticism to defeat you. Otherwise, your ideas will only live in your own mind for yourself.

 

5. Try not to waste time

 

If you blog constantly, you realise you will have to be able to sacrifice good things for greater things. I don’t watch TV much because there’s usually a blog post that is pending or needs to be drafted. An idea that needs to be developed.

 

Blogging trades mindless boring entertainment for creativity and also vision. I’m also able to make a small difference in people’s lives through my writing and that’s what keeps me going.

 

What lessons has blogging taught you?

 

The world of Pinterest

In the last class before the long weekend break, we were broken up into different groups once again and were given topics to work on. What we got for our Niki page this time, was something far more interesting and creative than the one I had prior to this. We were going to be doing up a Niki page on

NPinterest

 

What could be more interesting right? I’ve not been an active user of Pinterest but it’s no doubt one of the sites that I would go on to, together with Tumblr for creative inspirations and a platform I go to, to seek thoughts and whimsical aspirations as well. So what is Pinterest actually? According to wikipedia,

” Pinterest is a pinboard-style photo-sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections such as events, interests, and hobbies. Users can browse other pinboards for images, “re-pin” images to their own pinboards, or “like” photos. ”

pinterest-2

 

They are inspirational boards which allows us to pin up pictures and images into different themed boards found on the site. We are able to share it with other people or set up private inspirational pinboard as a pictorial diary or for any purpose we want it to. We’re also able to create our own themes and add in inspiration for others to see.

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Therefore, instead of doing up a inspirational board on hand like the image above, everything is done online, without us having to move our butts. Also, there are millions of inspiration to be found online Pinterest shared by the rest of the world. Of course, if you love having to craft up your own inspiration board like the above is just as inspiring because most of us can’t be stuffed to do that.

 

Pinterest is not just a platform for inspiration but also a platform for businesses. Many stores has turned Pinterest into their biggest traffic drivers. Because Pinterest didn’t have a link back to where one could buy a store’s product. Most of the stores started linking all of their look books back to their website and integrated “Pin it” buttons on all their product pages.

 

Most stores also created their own relevant boards to use as inspiration for their brand and for photo shoot ideas. They use data analysis to help in purchasing decisions based on viewer’s styles, colors, cuts etc and are constantly seeing people pin and re-pin images back to their boards. The stores tend to see their images pop up on people’s inspiration boards, wish lists, style and clothing boards which drives prospective customers back onto their webpage to look for more.

 

I feel that, anything on the internet can be used to our advantage in so many ways, it gives inspiration and drives knowledge and creativity. It also helps businesses and creates a space for one to just dwell and seek comfort in. Pinterest is one of the many sites like that and a site which I hope will continue to stay for a long time to come.