Oh Wize One

I’ve been quiet on my blog lately. Sometimes you have to take a break before you breakdown and I did just that. It started unintentionally I just wanted to celebrate my birthday without documenting it. I wanted to be “in the moment”. My birthday festivities had come and gone and I just could not get myself back into work mode. Blogging at times can become exhausting even when you love it. You develop a thick skin blogging but when you put a lot of work into something and you don’t get your desired results it can become emotionally draining.

When I get tired, frustrated, and just downright irritated by my blog I call it blogpression. All of the creative energy that is required to create content, share it, and try to achieve even a marginal level of success can get you down. It’s like giving birth to a baby every week. After you’ve loved and nurtured your baby people didn’t even read your baby. All the emotions that you feel after every post feel a like postpartum depression. I get restless and my thought rapidly going over how I could have made the post better and how I could attract more people. With all of the high-quality content that is available online, I wondered if I will  I ever measure up.

All the pressure, excitement, and sadness swing like a pendulum and after a while I get sad because I haven’t stayed true to my posting schedule, which I had just gotten the hang of! My hard work, time, money, and energy is going down the drain every week. I needed to get back on the horse but I was thigh deep in my pity party and it kept sucking me in like quicksand. I sat down and gathered my concerns.

• I wondered how can I get back to work when I’m creatively exhausted?
• How can I make my blog better?
• How can I empower women? For real!
• If I address issues that deal with being a Black woman in America does that isolate readers who aren’t Black?
• Do I care if I lose those readers?

I decided to get a hold of my emotions. My personal business motto is, don’t complain get better. I heeded my own advice. It was time to dust myself off because wallowing in self-doubt is unproductive and besides I was getting on my own nerves.

I began to analyze my perspective to ensure that I am producing a product that I am happy with. Why did I even start this blog? How can I overcome all the things I wish I knew before I started blogging? Blogging hasn’t done anything to me personally I just need to shake off this blogpression and refocus my energy on making sure that my message is clear to the people I am targeting.

I can’t do and be everything and neither can my blog. I created this space because I wanted to create the dialog with real women who live real lives.  Honestly, I did create this space for black women who don’t get to see themselves enough. Women who shop at Target, read Iyanla Vanzant, and occasionally listen to Trap music. (It can’t just be me) A place where you can just BE! Where you can like Sex and the City and Living Single, with no side eye.  If I can’t just BE on my own platform where can I?

Overcoming the ‘pression! I’m reading a few new books to get motivated to move past think blog-funkery and into new territory! I am about half way through my summer reading and I highly recommend these books for motivation!

Platform by Michael Hyatt is amazing! This book delivers on so many levels I would recommend this book for anyone who has to market themselves or a product. Self-management is a big part of blogging so this book is helping me think about how to make the most of my space on the internet. It’s also helping me focus and reorganize my thoughts about how I post so I feel less pressure from blog world as a whole. It’s also a resource guide because Michael shares all of the tools, books, and other sage advice that has aided his own success. Stop what you’re doing and read it.

Nothing wrong with a little online etiquette. Aliza Licht gives you the 411 on how to get your foot into the door from where ever you are in life. This book is a little fashion focused I mean her Twitter handle is @DKNYPRGIRL so it should be self-explanatory. Getting brands interested in your blog is awesome but how do you communicate with the people in public relations? This book gives great examples of how and when to communicate with professionals online so that you don’t make a fool of yourself when it really counts.

The reality is that you could have a great message and communicate it badly. We all need a refresher course in the way people are wired. What attracts people to some things and not others. This book breaks down the science of marketing in a way that helps you to see where you need to make adjustments. Nothing beats science, right?

I think all bloggers get blogpression, it’s a real thing. You just have to take a step back and remember why you even got started so you don’t lose sight of your overall goal. Bloggers have to stop being so hard on themselves if they don’t go viral every post we make.  It’s too much pressure to be a sensation every time because inevitably Instagram will change the algorithm, Google will change page rankings, and Facebook will never be helpful unless you pay them and sometimes not even then! It’s just the natural rhythm of life you win some you loose some but you keep playing the game.

To all of my fellow bloggers are you suffering too? Blogging is awesome but making everything look good can take a toll on you after a while. How do you deal with your own blogpression?

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