Start A New Life

This is a story of various existing pieces in my life, all falling into place to create a path towards a new life.  #StartANewLife 

Almost two years ago, I was advised to start a blog to  document all the technical things I learn. I took the advice and started This blog, “See The Source”. Initially, there were very few readers and the feedback I got from them was bad. That’s when I thought, “This probably isn’t for me”. After all, all that I was writing was something that was already existing, nothing new.  At the same time, I was experimenting with a lot of open source tools, trying to build software to make my work simpler and more fun.  As I learnt more things, I would apply them using computer code and creating something that was useful.  Both the blog and building small software/ tools wasn’t doing anything significant in my life at that point of time. It was just something that I did, because I enjoyed doing it.

It was after a few months of irregular blogging that I started writing articles on what I had built or did on my own for people to view and hopefully benefit from. And it worked. Though there weren’t a significant amount of readers, the ones who visited started liking the articles and found it useful. That was the time I started realizing that something unique does catch people’s eyes, but still, I was hesitant to post just anything I did mainly because I was afraid of the  criticism and the judgement I would attract on the work I had done. Thus, I used to review each and every article I wrote very carefully multiple times to make sure it is something that people might like and only then post it. Though this was working out fine, there wasn’t any improvement and I spent a lot of time reviewing existing work rather than to focus on building more new things. At the back of my mind I was still concerned about rejection.

Eventually, I was in a situation where I started working on many things ,but stopped blogging frequently  as it took a lot of my time in reviewing it and anticipating people’s reaction to it.  I did feel like posting all of it but held back. So, here I was sitting over a pile of great work that people would love but not sharing it for I thought I would be rebuffed on an international platform.  That is when I decided not to succumb to those anticipated fears any more and started posting all that I had. I stopped caring about what people would  tell  about it and just went all in on using this blog I had. I hadn’t thought that it would be recognized. And soon after, the readership of my blog increased each day, people from all over the world started reading it. Though there were negative feedback, there was more positive feedback and that encouraged me to push for more.

At the same time I was looking for a platform to use my skills and many people recommended freelancing. Though I searched a lot, I didn’t find the right platform for me. Just as I was about to stop looking for more, I found Fiverr.com . A platform to sell what ever one is good at. My field was technical writing , so I thought of setting up a gig for writing technology and technical articles. But then again, my old instincts kicked in and I stared feeling that this would only reduce my profile and would give me a bad name due to the lack of experience in this work. But That is when I took the BIG STEP and without thinking further, published my gig.

Within the first week I got my first gig and wrote an amazing article on a field I hadn’t worked upon earlier. That gave me  the conviction to put all I got into creating good articles and I did. Soon, my profile started looking better with all the positive reviews and I also had my blog to show people the work that I had done and the fields I had worked in. They loved it and many people come back for more. So this is how I  started a new life as a “Technical Content Writer” , one which allows me to combine two things I love, Writing and Technology.

Taking a step back, I can now see all the pieces:  My Blog, The Articles, The experience I gained from my work , The platform I discovered to use my skills and the fear that I conquered ,  falling into place creating a new life for me, one which I am enjoying the most and hoping to grow more with each day. The message I have for people starting out now is ,  though it may look small or insignificant, do not stop, and do not heed into public opinion on things that you love doing. They are just pieces and will somehow fall into the right place at the right time, unlocking the right kind of doors and allowing you to #StartANewLife.

It was a great pleasure writing this article, got an opportunity to share my story and I thank Housing.com for this.

Here is an an energetic cool video on starting a new life with Housing.com. Enjoy!