Who Moved My Creative Block?

We’ve all done this content consistency dance over 1,097,865,444 times.

Okay, maybe my numbers are exaggerated, but I honestly have lost count of how many times I have fallen into inconsistency in my 6 years of content writing, especially for myself.

Make no mistake, I have been fully serving my content marketing clients with relevant pieces for their brands while all these had been happening. In fact I wrote a book on earning from content marketing itself.

But when it came down to content for the sake of content itself, especially for my platforms, I was failing.

From stints of not writing full pieces for months, to getting into analysis paralysis which prevented. me from sharing it with others, I’ve experienced it all.

Through it all, it wasn’t lost on me that I needed to create content to really be a content person – and especially to build my credibility – however, I still found myself giving excuses.

I found my way out of that maze eventually so this right here is for anyone who feels the same and is still a bit stuck – here’s how I dealt with mine.

Recognized my reasons

I needed to first find out why I kept getting stuck. They say you can’t solve problems by simply hacking at the leaves, instead dig at the roots.

Well, I did that. And I realized a couple of things.

I was battling a fear of not being accepted – through my content. The way I saw it, holding off on creating helped me stay in that safe zone where it was impossible to fail.

What I didn’t know was, staying in a safe zone also had its own downward spiral. Soon enough, I saw this fear for what it was and in numerous conversations with myself, peeled it off. Being in the safe zone does nothing for my skill, or the brands I’m trying to help.

Got accountable

This one. It’s pretty much a principle of life that, left to yourself, you tend to let things slip past you, however if you have people that hold you to higher standards, you tend to do better, and surpass your expectations.

This is true. I had to get under the watchful eyes of friends (one, a tech bro who writes on Medium – Temidayo, and my virtual assistant).

It’s amazing what a few accountability sessions will achieve.

Kept my learning consistent

Garbage in….

Keeping to my learning and upskilling schedule is a game changer as well. You really should not be trying to pour from an empty cup. Ko le work (It can’t work).

I found that learning new things equipped me to have more to say. So now, I’m either logged on to a course video or reading the latest article by Neil Patel, ensuring my brain isn’t idle and has something to chew on almost every time.

Game plan front and center

If we had stronger WHYs, we would achieve a whole lot more.

I’m a content marketing professional and it amazed me that it took me this long to sniff out that my strategy had gone bad – and that’s one thing inconsistency does to you, it robs you of the opportunity to iterate and improve.

So I found myself reviewing my content strategy and making changes where I needed to.

On this ‘born again’ journey, I’m aware there are no perfect do-overs, but these few hacks have helped me step out of my mind and get things done so far, and I hope they help you too.

Here’s to a journey of a thousand miles!