You know, I love having a space to document all my important thoughts and ideas, and share special memories. This place is as public as those special memories will ever get and I enjoy sharing it with all of you. But, let's be real. I'm not going to become famous from blogging. I know a few really prominent bloggers and they're really good at what they do. I dabble with a variety of posts and have some really great contributions to the internets. I share family vacations and D.I.Y. projects and sometimes even a what we wore post or two. My best contributions are Bitches Food Club and I'm proud of Natural Living posts as well. But all of those combined and I'll still never be a famous blogger. Here's why...
1. I love sleep too much. I mean I LOOOOVE it. Ask my Husband how I treat him with or without a good night's rest. When it comes down to it, I could stay up until 2 am or 3 or even 4am blogging and editing while my kids are sleeping and I could write some really great shit. But to be honest I'd rather be sleeping. So, some nights I stay up until 11 and at the latest 12 but a girl's got to get her beauty rest, and I don't want to miss a minute of mine.
2. I don't sacrifice kid time for screen time. I have to be a mom first and foremost. I have to engage with my kids and play games and read books, even when I have a hundred great photos to sort or 37 awesome ideas I want to share. So sometimes I write them down, or make a list of what to post next, but for the most part I play with my kids and blogging comes last.
3. I plan too much. I try to do more than I can in the time that I have. This is more a real life problem then a blog problem, but I'm so busy doing more things in the real world that I can barely keep up with, this blog is sacrificed. Sometimes, I don't blog for a week or two, then I sit down and write 3 or 4 posts in one night. That kind of inconsistency is something awful for blogs. Even though I'm doing some really cool things in my life, I fall behind here, and accidentally leave out cool events or projects because I was so busy actually doing them, I didn't have time to document or blog about them. And yet here I am, already planning another big trip, home renovation projects, homeschooling/non-schooling play dates and attempting to launch another small business project: my photography. So if you don't hear from me, at least you know why.
4. I'm socially awkward. I follow a lot of people on twitter and facebook, and I read their blogs, some of them are local and a few national. Whenever I see local events I make an effort to go, but if I ever see someone I know from their blog, social media or local business I freeze. I know the normal thing to do is, approach said person, introduce myself which would look something like this; "Hi, I just wanted to introduce myself, my name is Jennifer and I'm a local blogger and mom of two, I love your ___________ and just wanted to say hi" but instead it goes something like this, "hi, I... ugh local, blog, like you, yours, my name is Jennifer, I, hi, just wanted to say hi, bye." so there's that. I kill any conversation with small talk because I already know lots about people I'm just meeting and not in a creepy way, but a way the internet is creepy and floods me with anyone or anything I google. If I already know lots about you, I'll start rambling on about myself and then over share {Oh yeah, I had a home birth, want to see me naked?}, give a strong opinion, or complain, and then realize I'm complaining or being opinionated and in an effort to not be negative or rude, stop talking altogether. I'm also so scared of one upping someone in their story, I shut down and say nothing so I don't compete with them. Please tell me I'm not the only one who sucks at meeting people I already know online. Please. which leads me to my next point...
5. Please tell me I'm doing a good job, because if you don't, I'll think I suck. I NEED positive reinforcement. I literally think people hate me if they don't "like" everything I post or share. I take things way too personally and am to opinionated to realize I often hurt other peoples' feelings this exact same way. If I don't have people "officially" following this blog I feel like I must be doing something wrong. If I don't have enough comments, or any on my posts I feel like they must have sucked. I know that's really shitty and whiney but that's how I'm designed. I do best in classroom settings or group classes but only when the teacher tells me I'm doing good. I have to be better than everyone else, and I need someone to tell me I'm doing good, otherwise I feel like a failure. I know this about myself and I see the stats for this blog and I know people are reading it, but I still feel like I'll never be popular for what I blog about and I'm okay with that. This is my space for my stories and my thoughts and my pictures and if people like it, that makes me happy, and if they don't? Well... I guess that's why I'll never be a famous blogger AND that's okay with me.
and p.s. thanks for making it all the way through my ramblings! Do you blog? Do you ever feel like your so busy marketing yourself you don't actually get a chance to be yourself? Tell me about it, I'd love to follow along with other bloggers, add to those comments!
1. I love sleep too much. I mean I LOOOOVE it. Ask my Husband how I treat him with or without a good night's rest. When it comes down to it, I could stay up until 2 am or 3 or even 4am blogging and editing while my kids are sleeping and I could write some really great shit. But to be honest I'd rather be sleeping. So, some nights I stay up until 11 and at the latest 12 but a girl's got to get her beauty rest, and I don't want to miss a minute of mine.
2. I don't sacrifice kid time for screen time. I have to be a mom first and foremost. I have to engage with my kids and play games and read books, even when I have a hundred great photos to sort or 37 awesome ideas I want to share. So sometimes I write them down, or make a list of what to post next, but for the most part I play with my kids and blogging comes last.
3. I plan too much. I try to do more than I can in the time that I have. This is more a real life problem then a blog problem, but I'm so busy doing more things in the real world that I can barely keep up with, this blog is sacrificed. Sometimes, I don't blog for a week or two, then I sit down and write 3 or 4 posts in one night. That kind of inconsistency is something awful for blogs. Even though I'm doing some really cool things in my life, I fall behind here, and accidentally leave out cool events or projects because I was so busy actually doing them, I didn't have time to document or blog about them. And yet here I am, already planning another big trip, home renovation projects, homeschooling/non-schooling play dates and attempting to launch another small business project: my photography. So if you don't hear from me, at least you know why.
4. I'm socially awkward. I follow a lot of people on twitter and facebook, and I read their blogs, some of them are local and a few national. Whenever I see local events I make an effort to go, but if I ever see someone I know from their blog, social media or local business I freeze. I know the normal thing to do is, approach said person, introduce myself which would look something like this; "Hi, I just wanted to introduce myself, my name is Jennifer and I'm a local blogger and mom of two, I love your ___________ and just wanted to say hi" but instead it goes something like this, "hi, I... ugh local, blog, like you, yours, my name is Jennifer, I, hi, just wanted to say hi, bye." so there's that. I kill any conversation with small talk because I already know lots about people I'm just meeting and not in a creepy way, but a way the internet is creepy and floods me with anyone or anything I google. If I already know lots about you, I'll start rambling on about myself and then over share {Oh yeah, I had a home birth, want to see me naked?}, give a strong opinion, or complain, and then realize I'm complaining or being opinionated and in an effort to not be negative or rude, stop talking altogether. I'm also so scared of one upping someone in their story, I shut down and say nothing so I don't compete with them. Please tell me I'm not the only one who sucks at meeting people I already know online. Please. which leads me to my next point...
5. Please tell me I'm doing a good job, because if you don't, I'll think I suck. I NEED positive reinforcement. I literally think people hate me if they don't "like" everything I post or share. I take things way too personally and am to opinionated to realize I often hurt other peoples' feelings this exact same way. If I don't have people "officially" following this blog I feel like I must be doing something wrong. If I don't have enough comments, or any on my posts I feel like they must have sucked. I know that's really shitty and whiney but that's how I'm designed. I do best in classroom settings or group classes but only when the teacher tells me I'm doing good. I have to be better than everyone else, and I need someone to tell me I'm doing good, otherwise I feel like a failure. I know this about myself and I see the stats for this blog and I know people are reading it, but I still feel like I'll never be popular for what I blog about and I'm okay with that. This is my space for my stories and my thoughts and my pictures and if people like it, that makes me happy, and if they don't? Well... I guess that's why I'll never be a famous blogger AND that's okay with me.
and p.s. thanks for making it all the way through my ramblings! Do you blog? Do you ever feel like your so busy marketing yourself you don't actually get a chance to be yourself? Tell me about it, I'd love to follow along with other bloggers, add to those comments!
I love this. I see so many posts about how to be a better blogger, or how to bring traffic or get followers, but never some good old fashioned real talk about how much time it takes to put it all together on a blog and how much better it usually is to just enjoy things in real life. I also just checked out your photography website, BTW, and it's beautiful. I wish you had been around to photograph my special occasions. I'm very impressed with your work. and no, I'm not just saying this because of #5.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lydia. you're the best! I'm so happy you check in over here, That's why I love blogging because I can share things with really cool people and I can see what they have too! Keep sharing I love checking on your space too.
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