Reclaiming My Passion for Blogging

I’ve known for a while that not only was I not blogging so much but I’d actually mislaid or lost my earlier passion for blogging.

I think that first started to dawn on me recently, when I did some reorganising of my web site, and realised that most of my recent blog posts were show notes for podcasts – essentially summaries of the conversations I was having with guests, or the occasional solo podcast I’d posted.

Other posts, where I shared my thoughts or observations on a topic, like this one for instance, were becoming fewer and farther between.

Even though I was not posting much, I was nevertheless still reacting to events or “aha!” moments by thinking, and sometimes saying, “I must do a blog post on that”.

But I wasn’t following through.

I don’t like it when I don’t keep promises to others, or to myself, so there was some irritation with myself on that score bubbling away: but not enough irritation to stir me to action.

Then there is the fact that I encourage others to blog, but have been so remiss myself – not walking (or blogging) my talk. 

So what has led me to hit the keyboard and post today? 

I guess it’s a combination of things.

That irritation with myself, judgement of myself for my actions not being fully aligned with my words.

And actually missing the enjoyment I used to gain out of writing and posting to my blog, especially in times past when I posted on my old Thinking Home Business blog, where from a quick check now I was posting at one stage on a daily basis and sometimes two or three times a day!

I also knew that blogging was a key element in my marketing strategy, so I needed to face up to how I was going to handle that.

One thing I knew in all of this: I wanted to find a way to enjoy the process again and not feel it was just an obligation, a necessary evil, if you will.

Breakthrough Time

I’ve started daily journaling recently, as in writing, on paper, with a (ballpoint) pen. Not mulling over in advance what I’m going to write about, just doing pretty much stream of consciousness.

Today that process quickly became an exercise about this blogging drought, or block, or whatever it is that I’ve been experiencing. After starting today’s journal entry with a note that I was beginning the week with a sense of “so much to do, so little time”, I wrote:

One thing I must intend to do this week is crack the resistance I’ve had to blogging. I know I can!

I went on:

I see the problem I’ve had for a while now being “knowing what to write about”, which I’m sure didn’t bother me so much back in the days when I was blogging on Thinking Home Business.

Because it’s not that I don’t have access to a lot of information, or that I don’t have thoughts or opinions I would like to share – even if that’s just a way of getting my own thoughts clearer.

I think a key problem has been that somewhere along the line I got caught up in blogging “rules”.

Rules about images, rules about search engine optimisation (SEO), rules about keywords, rules about post titles, rules about how many words – minimum and maximum – a blog post should have, rules about staying on topic, rules about the reading age of my writing (as in, write for people with a reading age of no more than Grade 8 {i.e. chronological age about 12-14!}).

Blogging has become hard work, not fun anymore.

I need to/must let go of all that and just start writing again – maybe, to begin with, on just this topic. 

What I know is that if it’s a choice between worrying about the “rules” (and not blogging), or throwing caution to the winds and getting back into writing regularly and frequently, but doing that in a way I find enjoyable, then the “throw caution to the winds” option looks much more attractive than the alternative.

And when it comes to topics I choose to blog about, no doubt there will be people – experts! – who would say I should stick to one theme rather than risk losing readers. Even it there are good arguments for that, I don’t intend to be constrained by such “rules” and I’m happy to live with the consequences.

I think I’m going to have fun again with blogging. And who knows, the blog might even work better for my business just by virtue of being more spontaneous, less preoccupied with formulas. More me, in fact.

Your thoughts on all of this? If you disagree, you won’t offend me.

And if you are a blogger (even a lapsed one) do you enjoy blogging or is it “just business”, i.e. a chore (not that there’s anything wrong with that, if you’re ok with it, but wouldn’t it be good if it could be fun too? :))

Des Walsh

Business coach and digital entrepreneur. With coach training from Coachville.com and its Graduate School of Coaching, and a founding member of the International Association of Coaching, Des has been coaching business owners and entrepreneurs for the past 20 years. Over the same period he has also been actively engaged in promoting the business opportunities of the digital economy. He is a certified Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) coach, and a certified specialist in social media strategy and affiliate marketing.