The Blogger Imposter Lesson

I’ve been blogging at Get Fit Fiona for just about three and a half years now. I love it. It’s fun to have a creative outlet. My writing has improved a lot since I started, as has my photography and my ability to make graphics for posts. I’ve learned so much about everything from WordPress to HTML and CSS. It’s also kind of cool to look back at older posts and have a sort of journal of my life at the time. It’s amazing how much things change.

All in all I’m pretty proud of my little corner of the internet. I put a lot of work and effort into it to make it the best it can be. There’s quite a bit of behind the scenes stuff that a lot of readers aren’t aware of. When something goes wrong with the blog it’s always stressful, but in the end I always figure out a way to fix it or get some advice from someone who knows more than me.

Despite how much I enjoy blogging and am proud of my blog, I get sort of embarrassed about it when I talk to people about it face to face. If I’m talking to someone who’s a web designer I’m sure they’ll think my blog is ugly. If I’m talking to someone who’s into yoga and I mention that I write about it on my blog, I’m sure they’ll think I’m not a very good yogi. If I talk to someone else who likes to bake I’m sure they’ll think that the recipes I write about on the blog weren’t done with the right techniques or the best equipment.

All in all I’m worried that people will judge me and think that I’m not good enough to be writing about the things that I write about. It’s weird that I don’t have that same reaction online. I’m more than willing to talk about my blog to people on the internet, but for some reason when I get face to face with someone I get awkward and I try to change the topic literally as fast as I can.

I think part of it is that I feel like an imposter. I’m not the best at making my blog look pretty, at yoga, or baking. I don’t have the “authority” that I need to write about the things that I write about. Sometimes I need to remind myself that I don’t need to be perfect at everything. As long as I’m passionate about the topics I write about, that’s all that matters.

It’s ironic that I love reading about other people’s journeys. I find it interesting to learn how they decided to start making healthy lifestyle changes, or took the plunge and tried a new sport, or started cooking healthier. I like to know that other people’s live aren’t perfect and things don’t always turn out as planned, but they persevere and continue. For some reason I feel like I need to be perfect.

A few weeks ago I went to a WordPress meetup. It’s a pretty great group of people that range from full time web designers to people like me who still have a lot to learn. It’s great meeting new people and networking. I’ve always been open to saying that I’m a blogger, but I never offer the name of my blog. I give people a generic description of my blog, but never any details.

Well I finally decided to be brave and get out of my comfort zone. I was talking to someone during the break. She was asking me about my blog, why I started blogging, and seemed genuinely interested in it. I thought I’d take a chance and I gave her the name of my blog. I even gave her one a business card that I had made for the blog. I’ve had these business cards for months, yet it was the very first one I’d given someone. The first!

And you know what? She didn’t laugh in my face. She didn’t tell me my business card looked stupid. She said she was going to check out my blog cause it sounded interesting. She even went as far as to give me a compliment on the business card!

It’s amazing how different I had pictured it in my head compared to how it actually happened. I stressed myself out so much over something I never should have been worried about in the first place.

Now that I really think about, I don’t think anyone expects a blogger to be perfect, or know everything there is to know about yoga or some obscure recipe ingredient. If I only get in three workouts in a week, the world isn’t going to end. There’s no blogger police out there that are going to track me down.

It took my quite awhile, but I think I’ve learned my lesson. If I put in the effort and I’m passionate about what I’m blogging about, people will be interested in reading my blog. It doesn’t mean I have to be perfect. I don’t have to be an authority on everything I write about, and my blog layout doesn’t have to be the best.

Do you have anything in your life that you feel like you’re an “imposter” with?