Why Your Blogging Efforts Are Not Paying Off
The Blogging world — what a mystery, am I right? One day we seem to be riding an endless wave of opportunities and the next one we feel like we’ve hit a sand bar face first. This, believe or not, is a common sentiment among all bloggers, myself included.
It’s no surprise that as our achievements ebb and flow, so does our passion and emotions about this career… and it’s a given that at some point we will all fall into a state of complete disinterest or anxiety about what the future has in store for us.
The thing is, we get used to the feeling of sending things off to the virtual world and having an immediate reaction from people — we send off a picture on Instagram and like counts start rising, giving us a feeling of accomplishment.
Because of how automatic everything is nowadays, we forget how personal something like blogging is. Very unlike social media channels, blogging requires three things of you in order to get that feeling of satisfaction:
1. That you have an unwavering mission
2. That you know who you are in this story
3. That you have a strategy to get you to where you want to be
In my e-book, 30 Days To Minimal Blogging, I explain how essential mindfulness is in creating the blog of our dreams. That sense of awareness is what makes the difference in our lives day in and day out. It’s was solidifies that feeling of achievement even on days when nothing seems to be happening for us in this blogging career. Why? Because we know why we are doing this, who we want to be and how we will achieve it. There’s no undue fear… and that is a beautiful thing.
I’ve personally learned a lot in my years of blogging. I’ve learned about quality. I’ve learned that follower counts say nothing, that value is hidden in things that touch every chord in our lives and hearts — and above all, I’ve learned the value of focusing my efforts and mapping my steps, so that I can not only give of my best, but I can also do so without fear, anxiety and uncertainty.
“Although life and business are unpredictable, we need to set up a strategy (or safety net) to fall back on so we can continue to put one foot in front of the other without exhausting all of our resources and creating an antagonistic relationship with our work.
Real entrepreneurs do not simply turn over every stone until they run out of options. They follow a blueprint and are systematic about what they do, so they can see what gives them result when. That’s clever not only in the business sense, but also in the sense of providing value to your clients. My technique of poking at things and investing an excruciating amount of time, money and energy only paid off insofar as qualifying me to write a dissertation on “How to Try Anything and Everything — and Still Hit A Brick Wall”. Now I can sit here and tell you… that’s not going to work for you.
I blame my lack of an immediate and appropriate response to the workaholic-glorified days we live in. Everything tells us to do more — which makes us feel lazy or guilty, because we think that productivity should always translate into money, lack … …of sleep or both. Thankfully, that is untrue — and we can still look at our future with the expectation of being successful and having something that more than resembles a life.”
Excerpted from 30 Days To Minimal Blogging — Chapter “Strategy” Page 252
If you feel like things have not been working out for you the way you wanted, it’s important to understand that you haven’t completely and utterly wasted your time… you’ve actually gained more than you can imagine — and it can all pay off sooner rather than later. Right now, you can choose to throw in the towel… or you can do something unexpected and take a new approach to the blog you love so much.
This is not about visualizing, it’s not about expecting returns by doing nothing — it’s about knowing what you’re doing in a state of full awareness and feeling every day that you are doing what you love, because you will be doing exactly that.
Who of you feel like your efforts have not been paying off? Say “Me” in the comment section if you identify.
Feel free to learn more about my book, 30 Days To Minimal Blogging and purchase it today. Your download will start automatically after checkout and you can jump into it as soon as you receive it.
Photography: Kristina Krogh with thanks.