Break free from blogging: Goodbye to stress & followers

As a new year has just begun, everything seems like a brand new start and things are refreshing, positive and bright. You previsouly saw my goals, commitments and resolutions for 2012 which reflect my personal life. Onto a blogging side, I would also like to give this blog a fresh prespective in order to get my blog off the right foot.

I almost stopped blogging in December - I really did. Some of you may notice that my blog posts were quite sporadic during that period. I had a down time with blogging, took a step back and thought through many things. It was silly - I felt this blog was not good enough. "What is enough?" "When is enough?" Those were the questions I repeatedly asked myself out load during my blog lilfe crisis. While many blogger friends said "blogging should be fun". I found that many people who said that couldn't even have fun with their blogs but they simply didn't want to admit or say it out loud. They too "struggle" at times. It is easy to get caught in the rhytm of blogging and an idea of growing/improving blog that will attract more readers/traffic had cultivated in my mind.

That was EXACTLY what really stressed me out in this whole blogging thing in the past few months.

I wanted to have more followers. I wanted to receive more comments/feedback. I wanted to keep a number of my total pageviews above certain numbers. I wanted to connect with more people. The more I tried, the less desireable results I saw. I got fed up, my excitements/joys slowly died down because things did not go the way I hoped it to be.

I simply wanted and expected too much. High expectation was what stressed me out when things didn't go the way I wanted it to go.

I love blogging, I really do. I started this blog as a way to rebalance my life as a new mom 1 1/2 year ago. Funnily, now I have to find a balance in blogging instead. Having too much of something is never good, it never will be.

I stepped back and redefined this blog. My goals and mindset on blogging are always changing and at times I felt I had no direction at all. So now I am making a few major changes and start a new set of prespectives in blogging, I.....

*Removed  "followers" gadget from my page. It had been a distraction for the longest time so I eventually got rid of it. A number of followers mean so much to many bloggers including me. There were days I elated when I had more followers and of course days I felt down when people stopped following. It simply left me with these questions - "why?" and "was my blog not good enough"? Now that "followers" gadget is gone. I no longer care who follow me/stop following me altogether. I'll only use a total pageview as an encouraging indicator.

*Let go of all the expectations and a sense of obligation to blog. I shall blog whenever I feel like blogging. No more feeling of "I feel bad when people click to visit but don't see anything new" or "great, my total pageviews drop significantly because I didn't do a new post" or "five people stopped following me when I hadn't blogged for a few days. You may not see my posts as frequently as the way it has been. A sense of anticipation is sometimes better than knowing exactly what is next or when is next.

*No longer go out to discover new blogs and comment. If they find me, they do. If they don't, they don't. I am not going to go above and beyond to put myself out there. I'll be right here in my small and quiet corner of blogsphere, do what I love to do and share with those who want to hear and connect.

*Stop reading "how to improve your blog", "how to make a better post", "how to attract more audiences" altogether. Those efforts can easily turn blogging into "chore/work/stress", it really can. I have a fulltime job in real life, I am not quite ready to take on a second job at the moment. Whenever the time feels right and I feel ready, it may be different but for now it is strictly a  hobby and should feel like "hobby" with no obligations."hobby" with no obligations.

*Stop following many blogs which I followed in the past. I followed those blogs because they followed me but I never ONCE read their blogs. Now I only keep a handful of blogs which I have frequent interaction with the blog owners who in turn want to interact with me /or have become special blogging friends. There are many blogs which I visit often but never follow them. I feel that many readers of this blog may not even have blogs so they can't follow or simply do not feel like they "have to" follow. We have a freedom to choose. There is no obligation, and should never be. It is not about the quantity, it is about the quality.

Now for the things I will continue to do with this blog. I have always been TRUE to myself from the very begining. I do not copy or try to be someone else. Every post on this blog reflects who I am and what my mind wants to speak out. I am not a fashion blogger, not a mommy blogger, not a beauty guru. I am a jack of all trades, I blog about random subjects I am passionate about or feel like sharing..rambling..venting..complaning..raving and believing in. I never blog to please anyone. I do not feel like my posts have to always be informative or offer any values to readers. I do not try to teach anyone in particular. Sometimes it offers no knowledge, no additional value but it gives me joy and that's what matters. It is about my journey in discovering/experimenting things I love or dislike with life, fashion, trend, hobbies, handbags, designer labels, travel, life in the States vs Thailand career, finance, photography, motherhood and ecetra..ecetra. Most of all, I want to connect with people who share or have the same or similar interests with me. I think I have accomplished this goal because I have found some really amazing blogger friends who make this journey more more "enjoyable".

This post reflects everything I had been wanted to share and I couldn't be happier that these changes are in effect. Cheers to a freedom to blog.