Oct 16th, 2008
Oct 16th, 2008
Why is it so easy to forget to blog? Wait! Why is it so easy to make excuses about why you didn’t blog? Wait again! Why is it so easy to take a bloggers vacation? Or is it?
Taking a bloggers vacation is what I like to call any period over a week when a blogger doesn’t make a post. I recently took the longest bloggers vacation of my blogging life. It has clocked in at about two weeks, but seems like it has been far longer. At f
irst, I was giving the traditional excuses (I am so busy. I don’t have time. We have visitors in town.) but then I was oddly intrigued at how long I could let myself go before I wrote something and hit that publish button.
During the first week I did OK. I didn’t get a terrible urge to write and felt oddly empowered not having to think about it. However, in the start of week two I found myself feeling a bit sad that I hadn’t shared some random thought, marketing find or other. It went beyond feeling sad. I almost started to feel anxiety over what I would write if I were writing. I understand that it sounds strange, but when something becomes part of your life/routine it is odd when it is not there. Think about exercise. When you exercise regularly and take a break for a few days, your body starts to not feel quite right. Your system gets upset at the change.
I am not suggesting that everything in life is based around routine, but there is definitely a huge piece of life that is. I am a huge proponent of taking risks and trying new things, yet think about all the normal occurrences that would still happen on a day when you did push yourself in a new way. I never imagined that blogging would fit into this bucket, but for me it really did.
This little experience taught me a few things:
- Stop blogging just to blog - taking a few days off isn’t that big of a deal
- Cheating by using twitter is like eating cake on a diet
- Stopping to listen to what others are saying makes your insights even better
- Don’t stop blogging long enough to give yourself an ulcer
