Did your heart ever tell you to do something?
I mean, of course, hearts don’t speak, they only pump blood. But I am talking about that faint, barely detectable inner voice that sometimes guides us.
Well, it happened to me. My heart told me something that was somewhat confusing in the beginning. But I paid attention and tried to figure out what the message was. And it transformed the course of my life forever.
This happened in February 2021. The world had slowed down because of the COVID lockdown. The schools, universities, offices, stores, and factories were all shut down. People were trying to kill time at their houses. And so was I.
My college classes were suspended. I had nothing much to do- so I just read novels, attended online courses, and tried to figure out what I would do in the future. The lack of any purpose made my life dull and hollow.
But then, one fine day, I got an intuition about starting my blog.
First, I ignored it. Because you get a lot of intuitions, and all of them aren’t worth following. But then the inner voice kept nagging me.
To be honest, the intuition wasn’t exactly about starting a blog. But to do something through which I can share my thoughts, opinions, experiences, and learning with the world. I wanted to help people live a fulfilling life while I was learning to do the same. And I realized I could do it easily through blogging.
You see, I was an avid reader at that time, so I already had some interest in writing. And I had so many things to talk about, like my philosophical thoughts, productivity hacks, and lessons I had learned about happy living. I had to share them with the world. Because my friends were already bored of listening to me.
Since there was nothing to lose, so I gave it a try. I purchased a domain and hosting and sat down to design my first WordPress website. But I didn’t know how to do that. So, I learned about WordPress design from YouTube.
And then, I applied what I had learned and played with different options and settings on WordPress. My basic Adobe Illustrator skills helped me design the logo and images. Next, I wrote the content for the About and Home pages.
I worked almost 10–12 hours daily, and this didn’t tire me. In fact, I felt excited and energetic those days. Man, I finally found some purpose!
So, after exactly 13 days of hard work, I developed the final version of the blog.
It was now time to write my first blog post. But I was somewhat nervous because this was my first time sharing my work with the world. I feared that people would make fun of me and my ideas.
But I couldn’t back away now. So, I wrote a review of the book I had just finished reading. Then, I wrote the second blog post and the third one.
By this time, the clouds of fear had cleared away, and I felt somewhat confident. So, I shared my blog on my WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook. Many of my friends read those three posts and complimented my writing. It felt amazing.
However, I wanted to reach people beyond my friend circle and deliver quality content. So, I learned SEO. I improved my writing. I mastered the skills of crafting a good headline, introduction, body, and conclusion.
I learned that the purpose of blogging is to provide value to the reader, to give them the answer to their burning question. So, I always kept the reader in mind and tried to write useful blogs. This way, a new journey began.
I was so happy to share my thoughts and experiences. I was creating something. I was spreading positivity and awareness. It fulfilled me from within. Every time I posted something on the blog, I felt an unusual satisfaction.
And then I realized that I could pursue writing as a career. Because I loved it. But I was also scared of failure and uncertainty.
The good thing is, deep down I knew I could somehow make it work. And this gave me the confidence to make a career change from engineering to writing. So, my freelancing journey began.
It has been 2.5 years since I started my blog. Now, I am a full-time writer who has worked for several clients across the world.
As of now, I write website copy and blogs for businesses, I write books and social media posts for busy CEOs and founders, and then I write for myself- blog, Medium, and LinkedIn.
So, this has been an incredible journey. And it all started from that unclear voice that came from the depths of my heart. Turns out you sometimes need to ignore all your doubts and just follow your intuition.