Shifting Priorities

I took an unannounced break from blogging and social media last Friday. It was pretty spontaneous and spur-of-the-moment, especially for someone like me, who likes to announce these things. (I’m important like that.) But Friday morning, I decided it was time. I deleted Facebook and Twitter off my phone and just stepped away. Not fully. I still read and commented on blogs. I still had a book review to post. But I took the pressure off.

Pressure to keep up with my Twitter timeline, pressure to spend all my free time reading blogs, pressure to adhere to a strict five-day-a-week blogging schedule. Pressure to be present in everything but where I am at this moment.

I’ve struggled with finding my blogging and social media identity. Where do I fit in to this all? What kind of blogger do I want to be? How is Twitter impacting my daily life? Lately, I’ve fallen on the habit of writing five posts a week, Monday through Friday, scheduled to post at 7:00AM every day. I have a set schedule for what types of posts I want to write each day.

This schedule worked in the past and things were fine. I would take a day off here and there, but generally, kept up the schedule.

And honestly? It’s just not working for me anymore.

Time is an issue. I work a full-time job now and usually work out at the gym afterwards, not making it home until 7:30 or 8:00 most nights. This leaves little time to even take a shower and eat dinner, much less sit down and write a coherent blog post. And honestly, after sitting in front of a computer for 8 hours and having to have my mind completely on, the last thing I want to do sit in front of my laptop and turn my creative brain on.

I worried a lot about how my blog might suffer once I started a full-time job. And I know it sounds silly, but I did. I have known many bloggers who have fallen off the face of the earth because their job consumes their entire world. I didn’t want that from me. I wanted a job, of course, but I also wanted to maintain a semblence of me and blogging is a major part of me.

I want to value quality over quantity and I’m not doing that when I’m sticking to a schedule. Instead, I’m too busy trying to keep up with the schedule to ever put out quality posts. So many good post ideas come and go because they don’t fit in to the schedule, or I just can’t find the time to sit down and write them.

So I took a break. I had to get away from the schedule for at least a week. To figure out where I wanted to take my blog in this next year. What’s my goal? While I love getting comments from new readers and the friendships I’ve built from this blog, my number one goal isn’t to gain readers or sponsorships. It’s not to make money. It’s not to become a famous blogger.

My goal is to write. To share my passions. To be honest and truthful in my everyday struggles with my faith, my health, and my everyday life. To plan for the future. To get back to writing posts that resonate with my soul, no matter if it causes controversy or people to belittle the way I think. To write from the heart, not just from the head.

Maybe I think about it too much, but there it is.

(I also don’t want to take away from those bloggers who do make money from their blog, do use a schedule, do post daily. That works for them. It doesn’t work for me. But I don’t begrudge those who do.)

Don’t forget to enter my giveaway to win a fancy-schmancy training ball! Giveaway ends on Monday, October 3rd.