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I have been thinking a lot. About this blog, about my Barefoot Books business that I love, about my philanthropic mission, a couple of new business ventures and my own creative time. Along with trying to somewhat homeschool my son and keep up with his hot mess toddler sister, things can get quite crazy, especially when sometimes the day to day chores get out of hand. Obviously, I haven't set myself up for success here. Something is going to have to leave or wait.
I tend to be a very all or nothing person...if I know I have a blog, I am going to ideally want to be ALL.OVER.IT. with posts everyday and links on every social media channel. I am going to want to be sad when my readership is at the level it is. I am going to want to be a photographer because my photos suck compared to xyz blog and I am going to want to learn how to......
And those thoughts are what got me to wake up and realize that the madness has to stop.
I don't have to post every day, or even every week to be the blogger I set out to be. I set out to connect with people and to share what I love. I did not start this blog to get a huge following (of course it would be nice to have someone read this) or to review products (I got sucked into this, and then realized that the time I was using to take the surveys for the "free" product was costing me precious creative time, plus there are other bloggers who review stuff way better than I have patience to do myself. I will just read their reviews!). For my mental sanity, I had to stop. If I am super excited about something, I am going to blast it out over social media anyway.
I don't have to get my new business ventures up and running in the next 6 months. I just don't. So I mentally have to move these things aside and let myself THINK. And can you guess what was consuming my free thinking time? Facebook on my phone. I deleted it 2 weeks ago (if I remember correctly) and it has been the single most thing that has relaxed me, made me more focused and more sane. Getting updates and constantly seeing updates to stories that are not urgent was making me feel like a rat on a wheel.
I love being with my family, books, thrifting, food and sewing. I hope my blog and social media will reflect that, so I can connect with you, my readers.
If you read this entire post, thank you.
I read the entire post! :) And, as I told Nancy yesterday (she's a San Antonio mom blogger going through the same thing, read it here if you like: http://www.fromhaustohome.com/real-talk/) I think most bloggers hit this spot at one point or another. Some shut down their blogs and walk away (which is great if that is what they need to do) and others give themselves a break and let their blog be what it needs to be for them (this is what I've done and what, I believe, Nancy is doing).
ReplyDeleteI think it's great that you're thinking about this and cutting yourself some slack. When you're true to you, your blog will be a reflection of that and it's what will draw more readers to your authentic, honest, creative take on the world.
Thank you, thank you Colleen, I totally agree and think that the blog can be part of my much craved creative time if I do it true to me. =)
DeleteLove this! Can't wait to chat with you in person. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks!! Yes, cant wait till our meeting tomorrow!
DeleteI hear you. :)
ReplyDeleteI read the entire post as well! There seem to be so many on the same vein and finding that Facebook is not only addicting but a huge time waster. I deleted my FB and not worried one bit about losing the social media aspect of it because I'm not doing what I'm doing for FB or Followers or Shares but for me. I post and share the things that I would like to see or find without feeling the pressure because xyz blog is doing this or that. I limit the blogs I read (sometimes but not always) daily. I even created my own social network for those of us who were looking for something more meaningful - we go in, read what we want, share what we want, post if we want and live life off the internet.
ReplyDeleteDo what you want to do because you want to do it - not because of some proposed must-do guideline that is out there - throw the "social networking" rule book out the window. ;)
Love this post!