I remember the first time I started writing with the intention of publishing: I was terrified. What if people didn't like my content? What if I made a lot of grammatical mistakes? What if my English wasn't good enough?
Such thoughts are paralyzing. They can stop you from trying anything. They will scare you into inaction. Worse, they will ruin every single opportunity that you might get.
I remember having those thoughts when I created an account on Steemit, years ago. I discovered the platform through someone on YouTube, and I was interested, but I wasn't sure that my content would be good enough to receive any attention. I made an account, I hesitated for a while, and then I asked myself: what's the worst that could happen? People could ignore me. I could waste some time. Maybe I'll end up giving up.
All that was better than the idea of not even trying and missing on an opportunity. So, I wrote a short first article, and I posted it. Not much happened after that. Ironically, nothing happening was motivating enough. Sure, no one cared, but at least nothing bad resulted from my attempt. So, I wrote another article. Then another. And another.
Eventually, my attempts led to something good. I started getting a bit of attention, even some rewards. Since then, I kept posting on that website until the separation happened and Hive was created, where I continued with my work. Now, here I am.
The exact same thing happened when I started writing articles on Medium. I had dozens of doubts. Maybe no one will like me, or what I write. Maybe they'll laugh at my mistakes. Maybe I'll regret even trying. But I gave the platform a shot, and I have no regrets about that.
Now, history repeats itself. I'm anxious about posting in a community. It doesn't matter that I wrote and published over 1400 posts over the years on Medium and Hive. The same thoughts come into my mind, trying to stop me from trying anything new.
Luckily, I learned that all these fears go away as soon as you confront them. You'll be anxious and scared until the moment you press "Post" or "Publish". Once you press that button and you realize that everything is still okay, you calm down. The next post gets easier to publish after that. The next one, even easier. And it keeps going like that until posting anything at all becomes just another thing that you do.
So, while the fears are completely justified (after all, you do share your thoughts with a lot of strangers online), they shouldn't stop you from taking advantage of opportunities. Sure, it might be new, and therefore scary, but many things are at first. You only need a little courage in the beginning, and a bit of willingness, and before you know it what was once scary will become routine.
