I feel like a need to let out a huge sigh before writing this post. Deep breath in… and now I’m letting it out. Ahhhhh. There, that feels better. For the past couple of months, I’ve had thoughts on blogging clanging around in my head, and I’m finally going to let them all out. Warning, this is going to be a more of a free-flowing post than I usually write. I’m going to just get out my thoughts, maybe do a tiny bit of tidying up (but probably not much), and hit “post.”

To be honest, I’ve been feeling a bit disenchanted with blogging for a bit, and I’m sure it shows. I just haven’t been as motivated to think about blogging, focus on blogging, and put time into blogging like I used to LOVE doing. I haven’t been reading blogs like I used to, and I certainly haven’t been writing like I used to. I get into this cycle of not having posts ready at the beginning of the week, and then thinking that I should just give up on the rest of the week, which is silly, but the truth.

Overall, here’s what’s been bugging me about blogging:

• The “rules” and the fact that even though everyone says to just do your own thing, breaking the “rules” usually leads to criticism
• The cliques – it’s like middle/high school all over again, and it drives me nuts. If you’re part of the blogging in-crowd, it seems like you can pretty much write whatever you want, and people will fall down at your blog’s feet with praise. If you’re not part the right group, you can write the best post in the history of blogging, and no one seems to care (I’m not implying that I write the best posts ever, more that I’ve seen other people who aren’t “big” bloggers write amazing posts that don’t get much attention, and think to myself that if so-and-so “big” blogger wrote it instead, people wouldn’t be able to stop talking about/sharing it)
• The constant feeling of competition, and the fact that I always feel like I have to be thinking of the next great blog idea to keep people interested in what I’m writing about
• The worry that if I ever do want to take a breaking from blogging, no one will be around to read it if/when I start writing again
• The idea that blogging is dying, or maybe just changing (?), and I’m not sure what’s going to come next

So, there’s nothing really groundbreaking about those thoughts, but that’s what’s kind of been bumming me out about blogging lately.

For now, at least, I’m going to start posting on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule, in an effort to take some of the pressure off and get back to a place where I just really love blogging again. I want to get back to where I’m posting because I love it, and where I’m no longer comparing myself and my blog to other bloggers and blogs.

And if you’re reading this, thank you for choosing to spend a few minutes of your day here – I really appreciate it.

Has blogging ever bummed you out? How do you get out of a blogging slump?