While I have blogged off and on over the years, a little over a year ago, I decided to write a blog weekly. In deciding this I wanted to write the blog within the week. For me, I decided blogging in what I was calling “real time,” was a way to keep my own growth and ideas current and fresh. I felt it was a good way for me to see what was going on in my life and in my counseling practice. I added this “real time” posting to my professional social media as well, but I only added this a few months ago. (If you are interested in checking my social media accounts, I have Facebook and Instagram, though you’ll see the same posts on both accounts.)
This weekly blogging was an idea that I picked for myself. It was not meant to be this strict assignment. I didn’t announce it or set up a consequence. It wasn’t something I wanted to become a painful chore.
When it was a gentle goal for myself, it worked quite well. And for over a year, I posted weekly…and I wrote it within the week….with only one exception (when I was in Hawaii for a week) when I wrote a post more than a week ahead of time.
In a time that coincided beautifully with that time of year when New Year’s resolutions are being implemented, I began putting too much pressure on myself about my blog. So last week, I skipped blogging. It was a purposeful experiment for myself. I noticed the pressure and for a couple days, I was still planning to write a blog post. However, I decided to skip to show myself there is really no need for all the pressure. No one will die. The world will not end. It is entirely possible that no one will notice. And no one did. Or if they did, they didn’t say anything to me. Again, I put the pressure on myself.
Check in with yourself. Did you set any resolutions that you are struggling to follow through with? If so, guess what….it is A-OKAY! Maybe the pressure doesn’t really need to be there. Maybe we don’t need to be hard on ourselves. Maybe this perfectionistic thinking is not helpful. My experiment of skipping blogging for the week went fine. And….I am back again this week because I want to do this….not because I HAVE to do this. I see it as good for my self-care and growth. Be gentle with yourself as well.
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