If you could order it off a menu you would. “I’ll take the life changer please. You know, the holiday where I get to indulge in the best food on the planet, quiet my deeper self and discover true, passionate love. That one.”
Reality check please!
The majority of us order whatever canned vacation the tour companies dish out. Once a year, we take a direct flight to some cheap southern locale where we eat greasy buffet food and drink enough watered-down booze to dull our deeper selves.
Or we sign up for a whirlwind tour that leaves us exhausted but self-satisfied that we saw it all, did it all and tried it all, even if we did have to drag our asses through sixteen cathedrals, forty-two museums and a dozen cheesy tourist destinations in seven days. It’s no wonder your passion gets left on the tarmac back home.
Blogging can be similar. Despite a suitcase full of inspiration when you start out, a blogger’s journey into the big bountiful blogosphere can feel like a cut-rate all-inclusive — a giant buffet that all starts to taste the same or a whirlwind tour of the endless avenues you can venture down towards becoming the best, the happiest, the richest, the most SEO-savvy, the most honest, the most strategic, the most prolific blogger on the bus.
It can leave you feeling dizzy, exhausted and ready to pack up and head back to your home page.
But there is hope for the travel weary blogger. There really is somewhere out there other than destination blahosphere. In fact, there is a journey that once embarked upon can be that life changer – that adventure that enriches your senses, awakens your soul and engages you in a love affair with life. Here’s your ticket!
Clear Your Path
Clear away the flood of subscriptions, feeds, follows, obligations and guilt clogging your path. Let go trying to be perfect, trying to keep up, trying to comment, connect, moderate and post all the time. You cannot do it all, see it all and engage with everyone. The blogosphere is just too big. Let go the whirlwind tours. Your family will thank you. Feed your soul, not your inbox. Feed it with what brings you to tears, gives you shivers, empowers you and resonates most deeply with you. That is enough.
Create Your Own Itinerary
Only you know where it is you want your blog to go and what you want it to become. Be open to adventure and other people’s ideas, but choose your own way to get there. If it’s a path that feels right, take it. If it’s a mistake, try another, tweak it, or change course. In blogging, you are your own tour guide and you call the shots, decide how fast or slow to move forward and in what direction. No one else has that power. That’s what’s so great about writing your very own blog. You decide everything. That is freedom.
Pack Lightly
Journey with a light heart. Don’t take yourself or your blog so seriously. You don’t have to be the best. Walk with easy steps, with some friends to accompany you on your journey, without being overwhelmed by anything. Let it be light. That is success.
Take Your Time
There is a time for everything and only you can feel when it’s right to take certain steps, whether it’s monetizing or renaming, starting a second blog or creating a course – do it fast or do it slow, but do it at your pace, in your own time. That is productivity.
Enjoy the Ride
Sit back once in a while and read through your archives and comments. Let go posting at a frenzied pace and bask in what you’ve already created. Learn from what you’ve done, look ahead at what you could do next, but take moments to just look, learn and love your blog. That is gratitude.
Now go. Eat, pray, blog and let the sun shine upon your journey!
