Can I be honest with you? Good. I’m in a bit of a blog funk. Don’t get me wrong — I still enjoy blogging. But some days … it’s a lot of work. I was hoping my two weeks away over Christmas would be enough of a break. It was and wasn’t.
I have lots of good ideas floating around my brain, scribbled on random bits of paper and so on, but my motivation … my motivation to write those posts is low. Very, very low. Dangerously low. Like so low that I could slip into a blogging coma at any moment.
Okay, that’s probably an exaggeration. MaxE would rightly accuse me of Mama Drama.
It’s important to note that MaxE always feels he is right.
And he is wrong. 🙂
My Name is Tanya. I Have Blogger Burnout.
This isn’t Tanya just being moody. There are a couple valid reasons why I do feel burnt out.
- I have been blogging since September 2010. Yeah, that’s a long time. My blog has always been tiny, even though I wrote (IMHO) quality posts. I just never did much promotion, which is something I regret and have been slowly changing. Still I am exhausted. Which seems fair, I do have over 500 posts.
- I’m bummed. Last year I had one big goal that I did not achieve. While I oddly feel more committed to achieving my goal and positioned to do so, I also feel embarrassed that once again I didn’t achieve my goal and did so publicly. I don’t regret sharing my goal with you, but I would have preferred to share good news. I’ve been reflecting on what I did right and wrong and have learned so much, which helps tremendously. And honestly, I’ve simply been procrastinating writing about this and how much attention I ought to give this.
Then I had an epic fail in the kitchen Tuesday night and it was the last straw. Blogging is supposed to fun and it had become a chore. I need a break to restore my sanity.
So I gave myself one.
Instead of trying new recipes, I went back to a tried and true recipe. One that I had not made in years because I am always trying something new. It was comfort on a plate.
Many bloggers deal with burnout at some point for various reasons. My solution was to give myself a timeout for the rest of the week. It felt good, but I needed more. So after much thought, I am taking a few weeks off. Too much time away and it would be easy to not come back, which I don’t want to happen. But three weeks felt just right (yeah, I’m Goldilocks). Enough to feel indulgent and make me miss blogging too.
It feels so good to give myself permission to do this. I need a little respite to recharge my batteries and remind myself why I blog in the first place. Thank you for understanding.
See you on February 16! Paw swear as MaxE would meow. 🙂
Tanya