The Number One Reason You Aren’t Truly a Blogger

Many people claim to be bloggers, but they aren’t. Not really. After all, bloggers blog. They write and publish posts, but these people aren’t writing or publishing posts consistently. If, like them, you claim to be a blogger but don’t produce blog posts once per week (or more), you are not a blogger…yet.

The number one reason you aren’t a blogger yet is because you aren’t writing and publishing your work on your website’s blog consistently.

But that fact can be changed. That condition can be remedied.

A Simple—Not Easy—Solution

So, how do you become a blogger? Blog.

Sounds simple, right? Yes, but not easy.

If it were easy, more self-proclaimed bloggers would consistently write and publish posts over the long term. Instead, they procrastinate, avoid, start and stop, question themselves and their ideas, feel like imposters, and never complete what they start.

That’s why I thought it was time to address “how to be a blogger.”

Develop a Writing Habit

I bet you’ve tried to develop a blogging habit…and failed…or you wouldn’t be reading this post. Yet, bloggers have the habit of blogging. So, to be a blogger, you must develop this habit.

Experts say it takes a long time to develop a habit. In many cases, that’s true.

It could take a month; some claim a habit is formed in 30 to 40 days. It could take you most of a year; others claim it takes 200 days or more.

Everyone agrees you have to start doing the thing—in this case, blogging. And then you have to repeat that action over and over again. Eventually, the action becomes rote. You do it without thinking about if you should, will, won’t, want to, or can.

If you have a blogging habit, you don’t ask yourself, “Should I write and publish a blog post today?” As Nike likes to say, you “just do it.”

Two Habit Formation Factors

The time it takes to develop a blogging habit depends on many factors. However, two facts play a foundational role in whether or not you develop a habit.

The first is your motivation. Why do you want to blog or be a blogger? Why is blogging important to you? What do you hope to accomplish by being a blogger?

If you aren’t blogging consistently now, it is likely unimportant to you. If it were important, you’d be publishing posts on a regular schedule. So, ask yourself if blogging is important to you, or if it’s just a nice idea or something someone told you to do. Is the motivation internal or external?

Second, developing a blogging habit often hinges on your commitment level. You might say you are committed to being a blogger, but if that were true, you’d write and publish posts consistently. You’d already have a blogging habit. So, are you really committed? Answer that question.

To understand what you are committed to, examine your current habits. The activities to which you are committed become habits. If you are committed to blogging, writing and publishing posts is already something you do habitually. But maybe you are committed to something else, like procrastination, social media scrolling, or making excuses about why today is not a good day to write a blog post.

Get really, really honest with yourself.

Then, put your motivation and commitment to use and start forming a blogging habit.

How to Create a Blogging Habit

You probably already realize that to develop a writing habit, you have to write posts and then publish them on your website consistently on some sort of schedule. Daily, every other day, four times per week…whatever schedule suits you best.

Set a blogging schedule, and stick to it. That’s it.

No excuses.

After you blog consistently for a while, you will discover you no longer ask yourself daily, “Should I write a post today?” or “When will I publish my next post?” You will no longer say, “I think I’ll take today off and write  a post tomorrow instead,” or “I don’t feel like publishing a post this week,” or “I have too much to do today; I can’t stick to my blogging schedule.”

“To blog or not to blog?” will no longer be a question you ask repeatedly.

Instead, you will blog…write and publish posts…as true bloggers do.

The Fastest Path to a Blogging Habit

There is another…faster…way to a blogging habit. It involves a reversed process.

The aforementioned process involves blogging consistently, enabling you to develop a blogging habit and become a blogger. Most experts and coaches advise this route.

Instead, become a blogger. Be a blogger. Choose “blogger” as your identity—who you are. Then, you will naturally have a blogging habit because bloggers write and publish blog posts consistently.

If “blogger” is your identity, then you are someone who blogs. Again, there is no need to question if or when you will blog today, tomorrow, or the next day because that is what you do. You have the habit of blogging because you are a writer.

With this process, you don’t need to wait for a habit to form or work hard or long to create one. That habit of blogging flows naturally out of your identity.

After all, bloggers blog. If you are a blogger, it logically follows that you write and publish posts consistently and have a blogging habit.

Not only that, but because you are a blogger, you feel motivated to write posts and share them. You are committed to blogging.

You blog. Period.

Bloggers blog.

That reason you aren’t a blogger…because you don’t consistently write and publish posts? Poof! It’s gone!

As long as you identify as a blogger, you will blog. When you tell people you are a blogger, that description will be true because you have a habit of blogging. You write posts and publish them consistently without fail.

Are you a blogger? (Do you blog habitually?) If not, why? Tell me why in a comment below. And, please share this post with a blogger who might benefit from reading it.