Hey there 🙂 Have eight days REALLY flown by already? Oops. I admit that I kind of let my mind wander away from the blog a bit the past week, focusing on some much-needed family time and finishing up a few sessions. It was nice too, the break from blogging. I feel way guilty typing that. I adore my business and blogging Is a big part of that but what I could do without is scrambling to throw a blog post together in the wee hours of the morning after a late-night feeding, fumbling with my slow computer to get images formatted properly for a post, then for Facebook, then again for Instagram because I felt like I HAD to. I always want to provide readers with something of value through my blog (usually aesthetic, but still!), or at least content that I genuinely am interested in and want to share with you guys. That’s how the Thread got started in the first place, and I was so pumped about it when I introduced it to the blog. It was fun. It still is, mostly, but the difference now is time. Or rather, priorities. And I feel like the Thread has suffered the most from it. Possibly the most frustrating part is that the Thread started to comprise of stuff that I stuck in there just to fill the ‘page’; things that weren’t truly authentic to me, things that I didn’t really care about. Bullet 1, 2, 3….what do I write about?! Can I just have three Thread bullets this week?? Agh!! I put way too much pressure on myself and it’s a crappy feeling.
When I started out, I had all the time in the world to write and research and share whatever I wanted with you on Thursdays. I could even prepare multiple posts in one sitting — gasp! One baby later and it was a little trickier but nap time afforded me enough time to still find joy in writing. Add another baby in less than 18 months and my head won’t stop spinning 🙂 I feel grateful to stay afloat most days and keep babies happy and healthy, much less have the quiet extra time and space needed to write an inspiring, entertaining, or even remotely worthwhile Thread post. It usually left me feeling like I failed in some way or another too. Failed my blog, failed my readers, failed my business in some way.
Then I started to realize — through a combination of bible study lessons, wise bloggers/Instagrammers/mamas, and motivational Pinterest quotes (gotta love those, am I right?) — that I MUST GIVE MYSELF GRACE. And that IT’S OKAY TO SAY NO, to say goodbye to things or people that aren’t currently adding value. So I have decided that in the name of grace, I gotta let it go. Not the entire blog — I still very much intend on sharing all of my recent sessions here as well as promos and things of that nature — but the Thursday Thread will be on indefinite hold and my blog will get fresh new content as often as I can realistically do it 🙂 That’s the key: as often as I can realistically do it with two babies at home. Moments of free time are precious and few and I think I have a few other ways I would like to spend that time (shower maybe?)…and possibly a few babies (and husband) who might really appreciate that.
It feels so melodramatic to write all of this about my blog – ha! As if it was that important. Maybe it isn’t…but it kind of is. To me, at least. I measured a lot of my success on how well I balanced all of the social elements of running a business — up-to-ate blogging, Facebook likes, Instagram followers, etc. I did a good job there for a while too by those standards, so you may see how this feels a little like failure to some degree. I don’t do well with taking things off of my plate and admitting that I can’t do it all. I have tried to adopt a new perspective on what success is though, and how to measure it with more realistic expectations and an emphasis on the bigger picture. Baby steps y’all 🙂
I love the quote by David Duchemin: “Guard your time fiercely. Be generous with it, but the intentional about it.” There is so much truth in that statement it just kind of slaps ya in the face. I’ve let it be my motivation the past few months as I have planned and prepared the business to go through the changes that I think will be extremely beneficial to my clients and my family, and also the kind of business that I want to run. I am sharing the full details on Monday, finally ready to switch into a new season for CDP.
Thanks for letting me brain dump all of that, and more importantly, thank you for understanding and supporting me through my Thread melodrama 🙂 xoxo
