Finding My Why

Finding My Why

I mostly stepped back from the blogging world in July. I barely blogged in June. There were periods of time over the last two months where I asked myself whether I really wanted to keep blogging at all. 

Now that I have a job where I spend a lot of my time being creative, this blog no longer serves as my creative lifeline. I don’t need it in the same way I did before. As I contemplated stepping away from this little place on the internet altogether, I wanted to make sure I was doing it for the right reasons. I wanted it to be because I felt fulfilled without it, and because it was no longer serving a purpose in my life. I didn’t want to let it go under the guise of those things, when the real reason was that I was being lazy or not carving out the time in my now-busier life. It was easy to make excuses as to why I wasn’t writing here, but I wanted to make sure that those weren’t just excuses, and that they reflected my honest feelings on this space. 

So why do I blog? If it’s as simple as wanting to record what’s happening in my life, I could take it offline and record my thoughts in a journal. There’s definitely a time and a place for that kind of writing, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that writing here gives me something different. Publishing something online stretches me in a way that writing something that’s only for me just doesn’t. Even if only three people read what I write, knowing that what I write is out there for the world to see pushes me to be better. And pushing that publish button on a post, knowing that I’ve put time and thought and care in to what I’ve created, gives me a sense of accomplishment and pride that’s hard to match. I love the process of putting it out there, and I love being able to look back at how I captured that particular time in my life. 

There are a lot of other ways that blogging has enriched my life – it has allowed me to connect with many amazing people, presented me with some interesting opportunities, and given me an avenue to practice skills that have directly translated into success in my professional life. But it’s the creative platform that it provides me with that keeps me coming back. I love the writing that I do at work, but the freedom that this place gives me as I document my personal life is different. 

So what does that mean for this little blog of mine? It means that I’m going to keep writing here, because I want to. It’s really as simple as that. And any time I tell myself that I don’t have time to write, I’m going to remind myself of this. It may be more sporadic than it was three months ago, but that’s ok. I have no one to answer to here but myself, but sometimes the promises that we make to ourselves are the ones most worth keeping.  

6 Comments

    1. I love this post – I think many of us can relate to what you’ve been feeling. Writing here because you want to – that’s the best reason 🙂 I’m glad you are sticking around 🙂

    1. I can completely relate. I have thought about quitting my blog a few times. It can be tough at times and frustrating as hell at other times. But overall, I do it because it’s something I want to do.

      1. Agreed! Sometimes it’s hard to see the value in it but ultimately it’s worthwhile, I think.

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