Staying Motivated – 2021

Starting a new endeavour isn’t always easy, sure. But I would think that keeping it going is often the much more difficult part. Certainly that can be the case with Blogging — and if that matches your experience, then welcome! This is the ‘Staying Motivated’ week of Blaugust where bloggers new and old alike admit to the struggles of staying motivated. Particularly if, like me, they’re chasing after the achievement of 31+ posts during the month of August.

Here’s mine! I wouldn’t say my spirits are flagging, but certainly the day by day motivation is harder to come by.

Fortunately, something else you might find this week is advice on keeping it going.

Which will be excellent — I’ll be on the look out for it too.

Cya!

Well- Alright. I suppose can do a little of the ‘helpful’ side of things too.

I thought a bit about what I might want to say this time. For Blaugust 2019, I wrote this piece around finding your motivation to blog in the first place. Identifying your ‘why’ and making sure it’s one that will see you through the tough times.

I still think that’s pretty good advice, even if I do say so myself. But what more is there? I started thinking down a branching path of, ‘If this type of blogger, then that type of advice’ but quickly realised my conclusions were all coming to a similar place.

Whatever you do- have it be in service to you; not the other way around

When I say this, I’m thinking about experiments you might try. Any regular features or series you might start running. Heck, any post you might be in the process of writing, any subject matter you might cover or any schedule you might’ve set yourself.

Don’t let yourself feel bound to it.

Give yourself permission to let anything go that is no longer bringing you enjoyment.

It’s better by far to drop an experiment, series, line of content or whatever, than it is to drop blogging entirely because the weight of such things become too much. If it stops being fun- stop doing it and find something else! Give yourself explicit permission to change whatever you need to before you even begin.

That includes, I might add, posting every day for Blaugust.

You will, of course, know yourself better than anyone else — and whether the pressure is something you can push through and feel good about at the end of if it or whether if you carry on you’re never going to want to blog another day in your life.

If you suspect it might be the latter — step out! Take a break. Make the conscious decision not to post today. Or to post something easy, or silly, or silly and easy. Just something to release that pressure valve.

This was posted during Blaugust 2021, the annual blogging event hosted by Belghast. Blaugust is an event aiming to welcome new blogger blood into the fold and revitalise those who’ve been at it a little longer.

The Blaugust Discord is still available to join in, year-round!