Blogger Breakdown--The Follow Up

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Hey you! I recently posted about Having a Blogger Breakdown, and I'm here to report that all is well! I truly appreciate the concern, as well as those of you who took the time to read and leave such thorough comments (over 70!). I thank you for taking the time out of your day to write your responses, share your experiences, and interpretations of what I wrote. I shared this because I feel there are plenty of posts on being burnout, but not really that feeling of being overwhelmed from blogging, and I wanted to share that moment of complete honesty and vulnerability. I wanted validation for my feelings. One of my goals this year is to be more personal with you, and so I've been sharing more of myself on here--not an easy thing to do! After reading the comments, I figured a follow-up post was needed to some of the common responses, so here we go:

You're just burnout--stop blogging, take a break, just quit, etc.

To me, being burnout means you dread blogging, think of it as a chore, don't want to do it, it's not fun, and you're out of ideas. It happens to many, but I feel I was just overwhelmed, not burnout. I absolutely love planning and creating posts--everything that goes into that is still fun to me. I've got at least 3 years worth (!!!) of ideas and over 30 years (!!!) of experience being a beauty fanatic that I can't wait to share with you, so I'm not out of things to write about. 

If there ever comes a time when I dread blogging, I'll stop. I do take breaks here and there though! But with anything creative, you have the fun creative side, and then you have the promotional side. And the promotional side just isn't as fun sometimes, but it's part of the job (more on that later). Sometimes I feel like I put more into the promotional side than I get out if it.

I also had a bunch of circumstances that happened at once, including losing most of my data for past, present, and future (up to 3 months future) posts. If that isn't a test as to whether you want to blog or not, I don't know what is. And I never once threw up my hands wanting to quit. I was also dealing with a period of negativity. You can call me ugly, but to accuse me of not being authentic with my reviews or ideas is an attack on my integrity and that hurts! This brings me to my next comment:

Stop taking it so personally

Most brands know their demographics, but most don't know their actual consumers by name and personality. And that's one of the best things about blogging: the community. I feel like I "know" you and many of you I feel are my friends. But when I get unfollowed, lose a long-time reader, get mean comments, etc, I do take it personally. I want to make the situation better, and even better myself as I continue to grow and change. The longer I blog, the thicker skin I get, and it gets easier. That's all I want to say on that.

It's just a hobby--don't take it so seriously

This one was like a dagger into my heart! Yikes! I take blogging SO seriously. There is nothing wrong with blogging once a week or whenever the mood strikes--there are no rules. There's nothing wrong with blogging being a hobby. It certainly started out that way for me. I never sat down with a plan to start a blog just to make money--I personally don't see that as a good idea, but anyway. I had this idea to make a beauty blog, not just for beauty fanatics like myself, but for everyone. I wanted to show that everyone can incorporate a beauty routine into their lives regardless of budget, time, and skill level to help them look and feel just as beautiful as they are on the inside. That's my mission statement and that's why I blog.

I am fortunate to earn an income from blogging (from lots of hard work), so it's no longer just a hobby for me. It's a job (state and federal taxes included)--but the word "job" has such a negative connotation, right? Not for me. I get paid to do what I love. I love blogging and having this creative platform. I love helping people and am constantly still coming up with ideas. It is something I have always done and will continue to do, blog or no blog. But I've got big dreams that I take very seriously. Good things are going to happen. 

And I'm forever thankful to you for reading, commenting, emailing, entering a giveaway, watching my videos, purchasing a product I reviewed, trying a DIY, tip, or tutorial I shared, liking and responding to my social media, sharing my blog with others (especially this!), but most of all being the awesome support system that you all are. I've changed so much since I started blogging on here (nearly 4 years ago) and it's all for the better, and some of that definitely comes from you, so thank you. I will make this blog bigger and better, and I can't wait for you to come along on this journey! Let's have some fun! :)