Remember Why You Started.

This post has been sitting in the drafts for a couple of weeks waiting to be finished. Right now it’s sunday morning and I’m trying to make sure all these thoughts make sense. I can’t remember the last time I wrote a rambly post with no structure, tips or lists and it’s making me a little anxious, to be honest.

I’m not sure this will make any sense but I felt like writing and share some things that have been on my mind recently. Hope you can take something out of it!

When personal development gets too much.

One thing that has been bothering me is personal development. It’s something I love reading about but has been making me feel like I have so much to work on. I’m aware that self-improvement is, by far, not about making you feel like you’re not enough. Instead, it’s about uncovering the layers that will allow us to be our true self and explore our full potential.

But I can’t help but wonder if I’m thriving to be someone I’m not.

I’ve been reading all these books and blog articles on how you should do this and that in order to be more positive, mindful and happy. Although it is still one of my favorite topics to read about, it was all getting a little too much for me so I had to put my self-improvement books aside and pick up an easy-to-read young adult novel.

You know why? Because it takes up a lot of work from my part. It’s not like reading a novel. I’m actually supposed to do something with what I’ve learned. And that inner work is far from being easy.

When the desire to grow my blog affects my creativity.

I’ve also been feeling a little unmotivated to blog. I’m not even sure if unmotivated is the right word because I do want to blog. I just been putting too much pressure on myself and on creating good, helpful content.

One of the reasons why I’ve been trying to grow my blog is because I’m not happy in my current job and blogging has become an escape. In the future, I see it as an opportunity to create a business around it and actually do something I’m passionate about. So I’ve been reading all these articles on how to grow your blog, how to find a niche, how you should write helpful articles and a bunch of other “should” articles.

The problem is, all this weight has been taking the fun out of it. I’ve been lacking motivation and dealing with the impostor syndrome.

As Elizabeth Gilbert said it,

“Whenever anyone tells me that they want to write a book in order to help other people I always think ‘Oh, please don’t. Please don’t try to help me.’ I mean it’s very kind of you to help people, but please don’t make it your sole creative motive because we will feel the weight of your heavy intention, and it will put a strain upon our souls.”

Sometimes I want to write about a certain topic but get discouraged because I feel like I have nothing to add or that I’m just not prepared enough to write about it. When I am this or do that, I’m ready to talk about it. I love mindfulness, positivity and blogging and I would love to talk about it, but I’m still working on all of these, so who am I to give advice?

When I changed my perspective.

But I recently came across two videos that helped me change my perspective.

The first one was by Gary Veynerchuk. I was listening to his video in the car and quickly wrote down on my phone one of his sentences since it resonated with me so much (just to be clear, I was not the one driving, don’t worry!).

As Gary Veynerchuk said it,

Talk to the world about the process of going through this than the advice you think you should be giving them. Gary Vaynerchuk Click To Tweet

Then, I came across this video by Sandra where she talked about dealing with social anxiety and it completely relates to this topic. I realized that while I enjoyed listening to her tips, what I loved the most about her video was the fact that she was sharing her experience. She doesn’t have it all figured out and she did’t overcome social anxiety yet. But she is sharing her story. Someone out there – like me – is watching and relating to every single word, knowing that there are other people feeling the same way.

Personally, sometimes that’s simply what I need. To know that I’m not the only one and there are people going through the same struggles or even successes.

_

I briefly talked about this on my October goals post and a lot of you seemed to resonate with it. My goal now is to go back to my roots and revive my passion for blogging. I want to blog even if I don’t have tips to share. I want to talk about very important topics but still write about stuff that I’m loving or simply how my day went.

I’m not going to say numbers don’t matter because it’s nice to see your blog grow and how many people like it enough to come back or leave a comment. But I want to try not to make such a big deal out of it. I guess I just need to remember why I started my blog in the first place.

 

Would love to hear your thoughts on this topic 🙂 x