The Blog Is Back

Between 2019-2021, I wrote a blog every single day for two years.

730 posts. Never missed a day.

It was life changing in so many ways:

• I developed the discipline to show up for my goals, every single day, no matter what. Even when I was sick, tired, busy and resistant.

• I learned how to trade perfect (and even good) for done. Some of the posts I created are physically painful for me to re-read. But I was willing to be bad at writing to get good at showing up. I discovered that a large part of getting what you want in life is allowing yourself to be dissatisfied with the process.

• It inspired me to create a graphic (below) about showing up daily that got seen by 6 million people, liked by 120,000 on Twitter, and shared by 35,000, including by Ariana Huffington, and Steven Bartlett from Diary of a CEO/Dragons Den. I still get messages every week from therapists and schools telling me how they have it printed and hung up in their offices and classrooms.

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A post shared by Sarah Arnold-Hall | High Performance Coach (@saraharnoldhall)

My decision to show up daily came from words by the writer Sean Wes (who is now on a hiatus from the internet).

It’s that last sentence that got me.

I realised I’d been looking for the microwaveable version of success. The ready-meal option. The quick fix.

But there is no shortcut. There’s only doing the work.

And just like Sean said, showing up daily did make me money.
It did build me an audience.
It did solve most of my (business) problems.

The blog itself wasn’t what created success (I’m pretty sure for the first whole year I had about five readers), but the act of learning to show up daily meant that I actually started doing the necessary work to build a sustainable business. I finally learned to stick with things long enough to see them work.

(The truth is, ALL the marketing gurus are right. Every technique, every strategy they say is the secret to success, it all works. But only if YOU work. You can’t try it and stop after a bit because you’re not seeing results. You have to pick a strategy and go all in, and NOT STOP UNTIL IT WORKS.)

So, I blogged for my two year commitment, and then finished so I could focus on creating my podcast, How to Take Action.

Now – two years and 110 episodes in – I’ve been starting to feel that something is missing from my online presence.

I haven’t been feeling on fire with my influence like I used to.

For years I’ve had a theory that to be truly influential, you need to be both inspirational and aspirational.

Inspirational
Noun
Causing people to want to do or create something

Aspirational
Noun
Role modelling the process of doing and creating something

Inspiration alone is useful.
Aspiration alone is cool.

But together, they can light a fire of ambition so hot you can’t put it out.

Think, Kim Kardashian becoming a human rights lawyer. She added inspiration to her aspirational lifestyle. Or climate activist, Greta Thunberg’s double crossing of the Atlantic Ocean to attend a conference. She added aspiration to her inspiring message.

Don’t just share how to do something. Role model doing it.
Don’t just role model doing something. Share how to do it.

If you think of the most influential person in your life, it’s likely that they had those qualities:

1. They taught you how to think differently (inspiration).

2. They role modelled the way (aspiration).

And that’s why I’m bringing back my blog.

I’m creating what I wish existed for me to consume: the juicy, behind-the-scenes of someone’s goals, mixed with the nitty-gritty how-to instructions.

While I won’t be posting daily (my “showing up daily” focus is now directed towards the back-end marketing of my business), I will be updating frequently with my goals, processes, and insights.

I hope it inspires and aspires you to do something impossibly ambitious.

Day 730. I Did It!

Today is my 25th birthday, and this is it. Day 730. Two years of daily blogging in a row, nonstop. I made it!

No matter what I do in my life from here on out, that achievement can never be undone. That brings a delicious sense of satisfaction!

I’m grateful for every single one of you who have been with me on this journey. For my readers, whom although I don’t know, I felt a tremendous sense of accountability to complete. For my clients, who frequently inspired ideas for blog posts. For my boyfriend, Daniel, who patiently waits for me to finish a blog post before I can go to bed. For my past self, for setting myself this goal. And for Sean Wes, for inspiring me to do it in the first place.

Here are some of the things I learned, after two years:

1. Blogging isn’t a habit you can build. It definitely didn’t become automatic after 21 days. The habit I built was discipline.

2. It’s okay to do B– work. When you embark on a project like daily blogging, perfectionism really gets kicked to the curb. (If you want to let go of perfectionism I highly recommend publishing something daily!). Although I developed my writing voice throughout the process (someone described it as “punchy”!), some days I just settled for a really average, really boring post. And I’m okay with that.

3. Accountability is everything. I had many days where I considered stopping. But I had publicly announced it so many times that it just felt like there was no option but to go on.

4. Another key reason I stuck to it when I didn’t feel like it was just how big the goal was. I felt like, if I’d already done 43 days, or 202 days, or 564 days, how could I stop now? That’s the power of setting impossible goals.

5. Learning to show up daily is one of the best things I’ve ever done. Now I trust myself to hit any goal I set myself – because I know that I’m willing to show up, even on weekends, and Christmas, and birthdays.

And so now, I’m done. I considered continuing with daily blogging, but I decided not to.

Endings are wonderful.

They provide space for new beginnings.

And I’ve got some new impossible goals to attend to. (I promise I’ll still post on occasion, I’m not deserting this blog forever!).

Until then, thank you for coming along on this wild ride.

THE END.

Reflecting on My Favourite Posts

On the second-to-last day of blogging in a row, I thought it would be fun to have a look back on my favourite blog posts of the last two years (because let’s face it, when you post every day, not every post is going to be a banger, but that also means there are occassionally some gems).

Here are 13 of my favourites:

You Actually Sell Croissants
About how to market your business

How to Overcome Self-Doubt
About building trust with yourself

The Last Minute
About keeping going until the very end

How to Hustle
About taking action from abundance vs lack

Outwork Chance
About guaranteeing success

The Points System
About how to sell something

Consistency is only ONE of the keys
About consistency on social media

Good Girls Don’t Make Money
About the unexplained importance of money

Ambitious Women Change The World
About why I’m so ambitious

What If We Showed Up Like Every Day Was The Last Day?
About giving it your all

You’ve Got Everything You Need to Hit Your Goal
About starting now

Showing Up No Matter What
About committing to your goals

Action Works Like Money
About compounding interest

Future Thinking

When you think from the future, you’re not asking yourself the question “What do I want?” but instead, “What does future me want?”.

Sometimes, it’s the same thing.

But often, it’s something totally different.

Current me wants to take today off. Future me wants to feel accomplished.

So I’m working.

But it doesn’t feel hard and I don’t resent it.

Future me? I love that gal! I’d joyfully do anything for her.

Podcast

Today I’ve been outlining my podcast (my next project after I finish two years of blogging).

I’m not sure whether I’ll launch it soon, or if it’s the kind of thing that will need to simmer for a while.

Either way, it’s coming.

I'll announce it here when it's out (because I plan to still post on my blog occasionally – just not daily).

What would you like to hear in a podcast from me? Leave me a comment or email me at hello@saraharnoldhall.com with your suggestions.

Overwhelm Antidote

The question that has been on my mind every single day:
What would be the easiest, most simple way to create this?

My Favourite Thoughts Right Now

I am my own magic pill.

I know exactly what to do.

It’s working.

How to Create A New Belief

Our brains need specific evidence to create a belief.

Your job is to find specific evidence for why the beliefs you want to believe are already true.

With enough evidence consistently fed to your brain, it will accept anything you tell it.

No matter what you want to believe, spend your time finding evidence.

A July Goal in Progress

One of my July Goals to redo my office has officially begun. Here are a few snapshots. Looking forward to sharing the before and after photos soon!

How to Take Action

After doing hundreds and hundreds of coaching sessions, I discovered that there are four main areas that stop people from taking action:

1. Not having a clear goal

2. Not having a simple plan

3. Not scheduling their actions

4. Having unhelpful thoughts

So I made a flowchart. Enjoy!