How Blogging Made Me a Chronic Illness Warrior

It all started with achy knees.

You see, I first started blogging when I was on the cusp of being diagnosed with my chronic illness, rheumatoid arthritis.

I had been a stay-at-home mom for the past 15 years and my youngest was starting a mother’s day out program. The idea of making some extra money for our family was very appealing and I just couldn’t go back to teaching with my health challenges.

After coming across some articles on Pinterest about blogging, I realized that this might be the perfect fit for me. The more I researched, the more I realized that you actually can make money blogging — which I didn’t even know was possible.

Blogging seemed to check off all the boxes for what I needed.

It would:

1. Be a source of income for our family.

2. Allow me to have a flexible schedule.

3. Let me continue to be a stay-at-home mom.

4. Be a creative outlet for something I am passionate about.

5. And keep me from focusing on my woes (achy knees).

6. Provide value and help other people.

I took this amazing blogging course, and I learned the most important things about building a successful blog:

1. Find your passion and use your knowledge and life experiences to help others.

2. Use your unique voice to authentically connect with your audience.

3. Provide real value to your readers so that they can’t help but want to come back for more.

4. Monetize your blog without “selling your soul.”

But, you know what? I learned so much more from the course, as well as through my experience blogging.

I experienced a tremendous amount of personal growth.

By learning how to tell my story in a captivating way, I discovered my own unique voice and how my perspective on life could encourage others. There were real people who actually want to hear what I have to say and can benefit from my sometimes “questionable” sense of humor, my willingness to “let it all hang out,” and the way I live out my faith – even though sometimes I just want to tell God “gimme a break, dude.”

Once I started telling my story, my perspective on living with a chronic illness changed.

I encourage my readers that we can actually thrive with a chronic illness. And that we are warriors at heart.  I mean, how many people do you know (that don’t live with a chronic illness), can actually go through a daily routine all the while in chronic pain, fatigue, or discomfort?

How many people can get up and actually go to work when they are sick with the flu or a virus?

We don’t have that choice.

Sometimes when I decide to pick up my 3-year-old and swing her around, she says, “Mommy, your back is not hurting?”  And I just think to myself, “Well yeah, but in this moment, I just want the joy of holding you in my arms.”

The more I write, the more I believe the story I am telling. The more I believe, the more I live that story. And you know what? I am living the story of a warrior.

Some days I am a warrior that cries, but most days, I roar.

The most important lesson I learned from my blogging course, is that the most successful bloggers are the ones who are the most authentic and the most persistent.

People can’t help but be attracted to authenticity. Hard work and persistence pays off in anything you do in life.

As a chronic illness warrior, we check off each of those boxes.

Why not start a blog, become a virtual assistant, or do some freelance writing?

I hope you know by now that you have a story, and there is an audience that needs to hear it!