Changes
I don’t really know where to begin with this post so I’ll just spit it out: I’ve lost my way with blogging.
While I do enjoy blogging, I don’t feel like the posting schedule I’ve been doing for the past few months is quite working for me anymore. It’s not that I can’t keep to a schedule, I can, but committing to a schedule means sometimes putting out posts that I’m not fully invested in and I don’t really like how that feels. I’ve never written about a topic that I don’t care about, but I have written about some things that I don’t feel were fully necessary, just to stick to this schedule that I forced on myself. It’s really not necessary.
This blog is purely a hobby and something I want to enjoy doing! The reality is, as a mom, most days by the time I have free time (nap time and Julia’s bedtime) the last thing I want to do is feel the pressure that I *need* to write a post. This is not how I always feel, I do enjoy writing, and I enjoy talking about an array of topics. (I have literally given myself headaches writing about things that I’m passionate about – and I’m ok with it because I’m doing something I love.) That feeling can truly fill my cup.
It’s when I don’t have any ideas I’m *passionate* about, but feel like I need to post, that I don’t really enjoy spending all my free time on it. And isn’t the point of a hobby to enjoy what you’re doing?
Therefore I think I’m going to scale back a bit and only focus on writing posts I’m truly passionate about. Truthfully, those aren’t always the posts that get the most attention so it can be discouraging to work really hard on something for it to go seemingly unnoticed, but I didn’t make this blog for views.
I made this blog as an outlet for myself and a resource for others. I think I have really fulfilled that goal here, arguably before I felt the need to post *more*. My most popular post to date, The True Meaning of Family was both an outlet for me and a word of encouragement to others. My post about my experience with the pregnancy complication PUPPs and how I treated it is also one of my most popular posts – I’m happy those posts are out there, helping others. I’m really proud of that, especially because my blog had virtually no views when those posts were posted, but those topics were very important to me and I had faith that they would be found by whoever needed them. And they were.
But – I have to remind myself sometimes that it doesn’t need to be about views. I am an awkward person when it comes to “self-promotion”. I’m not natural at it at all. So when I do promote posts I’m proud of and they get no views it tends to upset me – and I hate admitting that but it’s true. I work really hard on some posts that don’t seem to reach many people and it makes me rethink how worth it is to spend, literally for some posts, up to 4 hours writing, editing, perfecting, posting, promoting…to silence.
This is why I decided I needed to take some time away to reaccess my goals. I needed to remind myself again, why I started this. Views are great but ultimately they aren’t everything. Writing is an outlet for me. I want to reach and help people, that truly is important to me. But I need to find my way back to my original mindset – write what I’m passionate about, and have faith that the posts will find their way to who needs them.
I’m really proud of some of my posts. I know I don’t want to stop posting here. Some of the things I’ve written about have reached people who needed to read it.
Taking Control of Your Mindset
How To Be Grateful For What You Have (in a world that says you need more)
(and others – this is mostly for me. I have work to be proud of, I don’t want to give up on this!)
With that being said, I think I’m going to trash the idea of a posting “schedule”. I do have some post ideas in a master list, many of which I still plan to write. But I also want to focus mostly on writing those posts I’m fully passionate about, many of which simply can’t be “planned”.
I’d rather dedicate my energy to the posts I truly care about and am inspired to write so that, even if they don’t get read right now, at least my blog will be comprised mostly of things I am proud of, while still being a resource for others.
If you’ve been reading my blog for any amount of time, I thank you for that! It means a lot to me to feel heard. I hope you stick around 🙂
I can’t predict when each post will come, but I can tell you that it will only be about what I care deeply about.
Sending love & light,
3 thoughts on “Changes”
I feel this. I blog, and vlog, because it’s a hobby and I enjoy it. I especially love watching the videos back with Reuben, or reading an old blog post when life has changed to see how I have changed. But it’s hard not to be disheartened by the sheer lack of interest. No matter how much you feel that you’re doing it for you, it’s hard to feel like stuff you put work into gets no notice. Especially when you have people who normally support you, but not with a specific avenue, such as writing blog posts. You write whenever you feel like it… The schedule will only put emphasis on the negatives of blogging xxx
It definitely can be disheartening. But I’m trying to find my way back to doing it simply for the enjoyment of it. By the way,
I do enjoy watching your vlogs and reading your posts! 🙂
It’s tricky. ? Hope you fall back in love with it again ?
P.s. thank you ???