SOCIAL MEDIA

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

[Cheers to November]

First of all, I'm sorry for the absence lately.
We had been planning on going out to San Diego on a trip to visit friends & family for the past couple of weeks, but Joshua didn't officially get approved for the time off until Wednesday evening. 
So Thursday morning we woke up at the break of dawn, sipped coffee, listened to OneRepublic jams and bolted out to San Diego for some fun in the sun.
We had a blast (more on that later). 

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But can I just be real here and say that... before I left on our trip, I was completely, 100% fried.
Braindead. Burnt out. Burnt to a crisp.
I mentioned my writer's block recently and man, I was not kidding.
I totally overcommitted myself in the month of October in this little blogging world.
I wrote way too many guest posts. 
And I promised way too much and felt like I had to keep up with it to keep people happy.


Which brings me to this.
Why do we blog in the first place
When all of the giveaways and the monetary aspects are put aside, why do we do this?

In the month of October, I think I kind of fell out of love with blogging.
What really drove the nail in the coffin was the side of blogging that helps keep our little blogs plugging along... a side that not a lot of people see. Hundreds of emails. Twitter. Facebook. Stumble Upon. BlogLovin'. This can be a full-time job, people.

There are SO.MANY.THINGS.TO.FOLLOW. and far too often I feel like I can't keep up.

And I don't want to feel like I have to keep doing it to maintain an audience.
After all, why do we blog?
I think we can conclude that we originally started blogging for ourselves.

Since I've started blogging, my confidence has grown in crazy ways.
I've done things I didn't know I could do.
I've been asked to participate in projects that I never would have thought I would have been accepted to participate in.
 I've been stretched. And encouraged.

But through it all, I got a little lost in it. Most of it was my fault.
Over time, blogging wasn't all rainbows & butterflies :) When I started hearing, "Follow me and I'll follow you." or "If you do __ for me, I'll do ___ for you" I began to get a bad taste in my mouth. I didn't know that blogging could be so cut-throat. And then I started to get gun-shy. It made me despise it for awhile. It made me sad. Really sad.

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Nope.
I can't do it anymore. Over it.
I've been guilty of it.
Not anymore
When it all comes down to it-- why do I do this? Why do I spend so much time writing all of these posts, checking emails and designing new advertising buttons?

I'm getting back to blogging for me.
And I hope you'll continue blogging for you.

Today, I want to encourage you to remember why you started blogging in the first place
Use it as an outlet, a place for you to gather your thoughts.
Use it as a place to connect with God through writing.
If others read it, great.
It's not about the numbers.
It's not about getting free clothes, accessories, or recognition.
Don't blog because you need to gain a following or attract a certain kind of audience.
We should only be writing for an audience of One, anyway.

So cheers to November-- starting out fresh & with a new perspective.
Happy blogging, friends.