Why I Took a Break from Blogging

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve added a new post.

Don’t worry. I wasn’t kidnapped, hospitalized, paralyzed, or in any other way incapable of physically typing.

I just needed a little mental break from blogging.

And, today, I want to talk a little about why I really needed that hiatus…and why I won’t be coming back to my regular posting schedule quite yet.

Focusing on Life Outside the Blog

When I relaunched NDY early this year, I had a pretty good idea of where I wanted to take this blog…but not a very good idea of how I was going to get it there. That’s something I’ve been figuring out along the way as I learn more and more about the crazy world of blogging.

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned along the way is that it’s so very easy to get lost in this business.

I’ve mentioned working on balancing my work/social/blogging life a little better in a couple of my most recent monthly updates. In my last monthly update, I even mentioned taking a slight step back as I was focusing on other matters (namely, moving halfway across the state and starting a new job).

Obviously, I ended up taking a BIG step back. And I want to talk about why I made that choice and the effect I think it’s had on me and my outlook for NDY.

The (Blogger) Struggle is Real

You may notice that I never posted a monthly update for April…and that I’m not calling this a monthly update either.

That’s because I don’t really have any blogging updates to talk about.

Shortly after publishing my monthly update for March, I was struggling to create content for the site. Don’t get me wrong, I had a ton of ideas for things I wanted to do and write about…and I still plan to work on those in the coming months.

But, while my house was a maze of boxes and bubble wrap, actually working on those projects was out of the question. And I found myself getting ridiculously stressed about not having content to post.

I was trying to force myself to write about ideas that I wasn’t excited about just for the sake of having something, anything, to post.

And that’s not the direction I want to take this blog in.

You see, as a new blogger, it’s really easy to compare myself and my progress to all the other bloggers I follow.

But they’re journey is not my journey.

Maybe it takes me longer to generate the same traffic they do.

Maybe it takes a while for me to find collaborations and partnerships the way other bloggers have.

But that doesn’t mean I’m doing anything wrong.

And I needed to take a short hiatus to make peace with that.

My New Normal

My day-to-day life has gone through a big change in the past month. I’m living in a new (ish) city and I made a big change career-wise. I’m working to get used to my new normal…and trying to force myself to write a mediocre post on top of all that just isn’t my style.

So, I made myself take a time out from blogging.

Because, here’s the thing, when I was trying to force myself to come up with content, I wasn’t enjoying it.

The whole reason I even started this journey was to pursue something that I truly loved and would bring me happiness.

I realized that if I was feeling pressure to create content just for the sake of creating content, then I was taking all the joy out of it. And how dumb is it for me to steal my own joy?

That was when I realized that I needed a hiatus. I gave myself permission to put NDY on pause, focus on what was happening in my life, and come back when I had the ability to generate content that I could feel good about.

I’m Back…Sort Of

Now, as I’m getting used to the changes we’ve made, I’m ready to get back to work. And I’ve got some projects that I’m so excited to work on.

That being said, I want to share what I learned from my temporary time out:

Taking a step back is not failing.

Because sometimes, we have to step back to move forward.

It wasn’t easy to take time off. Purposely not creating content or engaging in any promotional activity was nerve-wracking. I felt like I was going to lose any progress I had made this year. And I knew that any time I spent not working on building my blog was just more time it would take for me to get to the point I wanted to be at.

Which is exactly why I did it.

I needed to give myself time to realize that I wasn’t going to be successful overnight. That creating the blog that I want to create is going to take time, a lot of it. It’s okay if my progress is slow, because it’s still progress.

I won’t say I magically transformed my thought process in the past few weeks (because this isn’t a sitcom where the lead character learns a huge life lesson in 30 minutes). But, next time I find myself stressing out because a post didn’t get hundreds of views, I can remember why I forced myself to take time off.

And, hopefully, not let myself get lost again.