Stop Waiting for Permission to Start Your Blog: Here’s How to Get Unstuck

One of the challenges of self-expression, art, or creating is giving oneself the permission to start, go ahead, be, do, or pursue.

Whether it’s to start a travel blog, write a book, pitch a travel magazine, post every day on Instagram…

Too often, we wait for people to “approve” of our decisions, as if that will legitimize our thoughts and desired actions.

Have you ever found yourself seeking out someone’s advice or thoughts about what you want to do?

If you should?

I’m guilty of it, that I know.

With travel blogging, I felt extremely hesitant to start. While I had bought my first travel blog domain in November 2015, I didn’t feel “legitimate” enough to call myself a blogger.

Who am I to say that? I don’t have any traffic or earnings yet, I would think.

I even got made fun of for loving the word “wanderlust.” (And it was, at the time, heavily used on my blog and travelgram.)

And now, looking back, I’m so freaking glad I gave myself the green light to go ahead and do what I knew I wanted to do. I allowed myself to be messy and imperfect online. To be “cringe.”

Because I wouldn’t be the financially-independent, debt-free, six-figure business owner, world-traveling digital nomad that I am now if it weren’t for the debt-stricken, broke, wanna-be-blogger just getting started (and wishing even then that she had started sooner!).

If you’re feeling stuck waiting for someone (or something) before taking action on what you already know you want to do, then read on.

I’m going to share a little bit more about this crucial mindset shift that can help you unstuck yourself and finally give yourself the permission you’ve been after.

How to Unstuck Yourself & Give Yourself Permission (to Blog)

A lot of content creators come to me for blogging advice because they feel stuck.

And if that’s your case, you’re in the right place. This is part of the reason why I started my own travel blog course and began offering personalized blog coaching.

Feeling stuck is a symptom of a deeper mindset block.

And what I help people with blogging potential do is to find those blockages and then work at removing them.

When this happens, we see a really powerful mindset shift take place: one of self-trust (and permission).

When you finally see your vision clearly (thanks to removing those blockages), you begin to trust in your process, which will lead you to your desired goal.

This is why, suddenly, it feels like, “Ah, I can begin now.”

But in reality, nothing prevented you from starting sooner.

This is why I always say blogging is 90% mindset and 10% strategy.

Anyone can build and monetize a travel blog, but mindset halts most bloggers on their journey before they can even see the fruits of their labor.

🔑 The key to unstucking yourself is removing your mental blocks.

Examples of Mental Blocks Preventing You From Blogging

The ways we “stuck ourselves” varies from individual to individual.

I rarely see two clients have the same exact mental blockages, but every single member will have their own roadblocks at multiple points in their blogging journeys.

A few of the most common mental blockages I see are:

Waiting for permission.
To start, usually, but sometimes some do start—partially. For example, with a temporary override by enrolling in a course or getting a coach like me to help; but still waiting for permission if the core issue wasn’t resolved.

Not trusting one’s own direction.
This looks like kinda knowing already what you want to do, but having a lot of resistance and struggling with self-doubt about it).

Having too many options and not enough focus.
Not having clarity makes it easy to deprioritize your primary goal by doing other things that make you feel productive and yet you never advance forward with what you really want to do.

Not trialing anything because it’s not 100% guaranteed certainty.
Most people don’t even set out to try because it feels too uncertain. Too lofty, too scary. We often want guarantees that our projects are going to work when we set out to do them. But it doesn’t work that way.

Trying, then giving up, because the “trial” wasn’t successful enough (didn’t meet expectations).
In some cases, I see people start out strong (with conviction and trust in the process) and then see them slowly become hopeless because the growth or “reward” wasn’t matching the initial output of energy. So, it makes it feel like a failed attempt. This is tough to get out of. It requires more trust when you have almost none left to give.

…And there are more!

Tips & Ways to Resolve These Blogging Blockages

I won’t bore you with a full meditation or a list of things to do to get unstuck.

But I will offer a couple of remedies that have personally helped me and my blog clients get unblocked and move forward.

• Take time journaling about this feeling, just to see where it leads
• Read motivational books about writing, art, and business (see my Resources for my recs)
• Map out your travel blog’s spider web (what are you writing about? what are you prioritizing?)
• Make a list of the next ten blog posts you’d ideally want to write first (and why?)
• Write a full page of affirmations that speak or resonate deeply with you

These may seem easy, but implementation can be tricky. However, I encourage you to challenge yourself and, again, trust yourself.

If you need additional help, consider grabbing my Blogging Clarity Workbook.

It’s a giant, soulful, guiding handbook to help you uncover your blockages and work through them so you can start (or realign) your travel blog on strong foundations.