My whole life has been an exercise in adjusting my expectations. I touched on that a bit yesterday. Very little in my life has gone according to plan. Sometimes that was a good thing. Other times I don’t think I’ll ever understand.
Today is my 500th blog post. More than four years ago I began blogging, just to get my thoughts out. That’s still really the primary reason why I write. However, it’s easy to get caught up in the competitive bent of blogging. How many views did I get today? Am I drawing enough traffic? Can I be making money through ads or affiliates? All these questions often distract me from the reasons I began blogging.
But this 31 day challenge has been a return to the love of writing. It has been difficult to write almost every day. Except for one, I’ve put all my series on hold to devote this month to the discipline of Five Minute Free Writes. I’m just past the halfway point of this challenge and much of the initial excitement and adrenaline have worn off. But I’m still determined to complete it.
This process if forcing me to reevaluate why I want to keep blogging. I’d be lying if I said the affiliate payments don’t matter. They do. They help fill the ever widening gaps of our budget and justify all the time I spend pouring myself into this when I could be doing other things to make our family’s life better. But I need to make sure that I have things to say that I really care about.
Because I really do care. I write posts about fitness that I wish had been available to me. I put together how-to posts about cloth diapers because I remember what it was like to be a newbie. I really want to get back to the marriage series my husband and I were writing, because I believe strongly in the importance of successful marriages. So yes, I do have something worth saying and Lord willing, I’ll still be here writing it for a long time to come.
Maybe my posts won’t go viral. Maybe I won’t be able to replace my husband’s income and payoff our mortgage. But I won’t let that stop me.
Day 2
View: My Life as a Landscape
Great thoughts this morning! I thinking changing your expectations is definitely something that happens over time. We adjust, we go through seasons. Congratulations on 500 posts!
Thanks, Heather. I’m enjoying your series on preparing for baby #3. Lots of helpful tips in there.
Thank you for sharing, Bethany, and congrats on 500 posts. Wow! I’m fairly new to this and I have no understanding of affiliate links, etc… but I do understand how easy it is to get swept into stats and traffic and so on. You ARE writing to make a difference, and I can see that your words matter. Press on 🙂
Blessings,
Renee
Thanks, Renee. It’s still hard to believe that I’ve been blogging for more than four years. There were times I thought I’d give it up and definitely long absences during difficult times (like pregnancy, miscarriage and my son’s newborn months) but I always ended up coming back to it when I had another good idea and thought “Someone else might really benefit from this. I guess I should write a post or two.” I appreciate the kind words and support.
Keep on keeping on, you’re doing a great job. Congrats on 500 posts…oh the time that took!
Ali, I still can’t quite believe it’s been more than four years and now 500 posts! I keep telling myself I can stop whenever I want to, but it hasn’t happened yet. Thanks so much for your encouragement.
I had the same clarity this morning… it’s not about who is reading or sharing or commenting… it’s about the writing, and what it is doing for me. Congrats on your milestone!
Congratulations on your 500th post! I, too get caught up in the stats game (which is pretty silly since I don’t have affiliate links or advertisements, so I don’t know why I care–other than the competition, maybe?). But I should write for an audience of One. That’s all.
Congratulations on passing the 500 blog benchmark. You are faithful in your pursuits. God bless your next 500 entries.