Happy New Year!! At the beginning of the year, bloggers all over the Internet put out surveys for their readers about what they would like to see in the coming year. I've done this before. And while it can be a helpful tool in focusing one's post topics and finding out what people respond to the most, it can also be a source of stress and self-doubt. I'm not doing a survey this year, but instead I want to talk with all of you about my goals for the coming year, what effect that will have on the blog, and how I'd like to change things up to promote a more positive mindset.
I used to have about three new posts a week published on the blog. It was a fine goal and something I'd still like to get back to, but it can get pretty exhausting. Blogging is way more time-consuming than it looks from the other side and can burn one out rather fast if one isn't careful. Life seems to have an ebb and flow of busy and hectic, slow and non-eventful. For me, life has been rather busy. So when we went on vacation to Hawaii last January, I purposely slowed down my posting schedule to accommodate my time away, my need for rest and regrouping, and my need for catching up on things when I got back. Life just got busier after that. I haven't even had time to edit most of my vacation photos from that trip.
So I kept a one to two posts a week schedule on the blog. I put a lot of pressure on myself to try to be the best and do the most. I have since I was a kid. Knowing I could do better or post more made me feel like such a failure for not doing better and posting more. And that became the initial vicious cycle that was eating away at me this past year.
I know I talked a lot in the past months about how my anxiety was getting worse and affecting my day-to-day life. Blogging was definitely something that was affected by it, but it was also a source of the anxiety as well. I desperately want to be able to have a "normal" daily schedule, but it just isn't "me" yet. And I'm not "normal". I imagine we all have some kind of issues we are dealing with every day, but not having a thyroid, having an autoimmune disease, and having mental health issues have greatly reduced my feelings of normality and my ability to perform as such. I can't get up super early to start my day. A lot of days it takes all I have just to get out of bed. Because of these things, when I've seen other bloggers getting started on social media at 7am, running around town doing photoshoots, taking meetings, working their regular jobs, and still posting at least four times a week - well, I can't do all that. Just thinking about it makes me exhausted. I can't keep up with all of that. I've done a lot of comparing myself to others this year. And the thing is, I'm not even on their journey. I am not living their life. I don't have their same goals, so I shouldn't be doing what they are doing. But it is so easy to get trapped in the dark hole that is comparison. So my first goals of 2018 are to stop being so hard on myself and to stop comparing myself to others.
I've been trying to find a proper balance of blogging and every day life. I have other hobbies, other chores, other things that I need or want to do. And finding a balance is still proving rather difficult. For now, I am going to keep the same one to two posts a week schedule and take a few weeks off a year for things like a vacation, rest, catching up, working on projects, etc. The more I work on outside of blogging, the more interesting things I will hopefully have to share with all of you. I love sharing my personal style, travels, and more with y'all. I love getting your feedback. I love connecting with you. And I don't want this blogging thing to feel like a chore.
I'd also like to be courageous enough to share more personal thoughts, feelings, and essays on the blog this year. I've been dealing with a lot of emotions and I want to be able to talk those things through and share more. I don't necessarily know how that will look or how it will come about. I don't want it to be super heavy and weigh y'all down, but I like to think I can inject some humor into things somehow. I also want to give myself permission to post short, simple, or uncomplicated posts from time to time. So much of my focus has been on giving you the most information and most value I can in every post, but it can come at a cost. As I mentioned, I put a lot of pressure on myself and that can end up triggering my anxiety and crappy feelings. I am a work in progress. I still want to give you the most information and most value I can. When I go looking for a review of some item I am looking to buy, I can never find all the information I want or need about it on any other blog. It's why I go out of my way to write about each item and give you as much detail as I can. I just want to also allow myself to post things that aren't that in-depth or complicated and still feel good about it. Again, I don't know what that will be or what it will look like. It will be a learning experience.
I'd also like to finally move my blog over to WordPress this year. It is something I have been wanting to do for years and just haven't made it a priority. I think WordPress will offer more in the way of the look and feel and organization I want. I've been told it is a mostly painless process. haha
As for me personally, my goals for the year are to balance life with blogging, stay on my own path, read more books, find a better daily schedule, balance healthy lifestyle choices with fun, travel more, and get to some of the house projects we've had on the back burner. I'm sure there are more goals on this list, but let's just start there.
As always, I appreciate each and every one of you for visiting the blog, leaving comments, chatting on social media, and continuing to be supportive, awesome individuals. I hope to get to know even more of you this year!
Do you have any 2018 goals you'd like to share?
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