September 10, 2014

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A fellow blogger friend of mine asked me how to stay motivated to keep blogging the other day. So I thought, why not blog about it?

Blogging saved me because I needed an outlet. It’s fun to think about starting a blog, because it gives you your very own personal space in the web world. But as we all know, the upkeep can be tough. And that’s not the only problem.

Your well of ideas for posts run dry.

Every single post takes so much work.

You have to think, you have to schedule, you have to come up with stuff constantly. Sometimes you feel like you have nothing more to say.

Then there are the awesome blogs, who are doing amazing with so many followers and so much traffic, and you feel like you can’t even keep up with them and what’s the point of even trying?

But the worst of all of those, is no one really visits this wonderful precious thing you’ve created. It becomes this daily, tiring task of thinking of good topics to write about, and figuring out ways to drive traffic. And still no one visits. And you’re putting all this time and effort into it! Where is the motivation to continue, when no one is taking interest in all that you’ve accomplished? In all of the important stuff you have to say?

I’ll tell you where the motivation is, and you’re going to love it, because it’s so easy.

It’s within you.

If there’s one thing Stephen Covey taught me from his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, it’s that you can’t depend on other people for your happiness. You can’t depend on men to make you happy. You can’t depend on your job to make you happy. It’s not their responsibility. It rests solely on you, and can be found within you.

Here’s how this ties into finding the motivation to keep blogging.

If the only part about blogging that makes you happy, is thinking about how successful it might be one day, it’s hard to be happy with what it is before that success. It has to be about what blogging does for you when it’s not popular. Without the audience. Without all of the comments. If blogging is one of those things that fills you up, makes you happy, and gives you lift, even if no one is visiting, you’ll find the motivation to continue. Just like we find the time to brush our teeth every morning, and shower every day. And true, the post ideas may not come like wildfire, but the point is you keep going because you enjoy the hell out of it.

If there’s something about your blog that you love, something that motivates you, be it bringing wisdom to other people or sharing some cool shit that you learned, that’s what’s going to motivate you to keep doing it.

Now that’s not to say, just because you aren’t head over heels in love with your blog you won’t go far. But when you’re looking for motivation to continue, you have to revisit why you started the blog in the first place. What cool stuff did you have to share? We all have a story to tell. Often that’s why we start the damn blog in the first place.

If you were excited to begin, and excited to share your knowledge with the world, then that’s what is going to fuel you to keep at it. Maybe blogging isn’t your heart and soul and maybe it doesn’t fill you up, but you like doing it. That’s why you started it. Tap into that fire that first got you started. Tap into it because at some point it brought you something powerfully poetic, new, and fulfilling.

And I have to say, once you start focusing on things you love, the following builds. Because love is contagious and people are attracted to it. Self-love especially. I don’t know the physics behind it, but something in our brain chemistry wires us to adore people and things that have the right kind of love at heart. That’s why love rules the world. And that’s why love is all there is.

So that being said, do it for the people, the whole blog thing. But do it for yourself too. Do it for yourself mostly. Someone out there cares about the same stuff you do, I guarantee it. And those people are going to flock to what you’re talking about like wild geese.

And as Forrest Gump would say, that’s all I have to say about that.

Well, I could probably say more. But I’m watching the Dodger game. And they’re winning. Go Dodger blue!

Talk to you soon!

 

Keep Reading

I Survived My First Blog Panel: Here’s The Aftermath

Coping With Lost Subscriber Syndrome (LSS)

Blogging Got Me Through 2012: Here’s What Else Did

Monique Muro

Monique is an exceedingly happy human from LA. She runs the blog A Novel Quest, and writes. A lot.

Latest posts by Monique Muro (see all)

  • Kait Marie

    Thanks for posting this! You are fantastic!

    • http://anovelquest.com Monique Muro

      Thanks Kait! Thank you so much for being the motivation behind the post :) I love musing about blogging!

  • http://thegoodluckknot.weebly.com Melissa Field

    That was so good! It’s so true, that you can feel so disappointed in the beginning. It took me a year to get decent page views, and I’m still not sure who comes by or why. Although I am happy at this point to reach people, my next goal is to get people to engage somehow. It’s always strange to see more and more people come by and get no comments. It makes me wonder what they think and if they’re happy with what I’m doing. It’s a process though, and as you said, if you do it because it makes you happy the rest will fall into place.

  • jiggyflyjoe

    I think that most writers get into this frame of mind where they feel like they need to force themselves to come up with new material every single day. I think you can tell when writing is forced though and quite frankly just exhausting. I think new bloggers should just keep in mind that they don’t need to post a million times a day. I write pretty sporadically because I like to just live my life and then write when the inspiration strikes. It’s okay to go with the flow. :)

    • http://anovelquest.com Monique Muro

      Definitely you can tell when writing is forced. I think it’s better when the inspiration strikes, I do the same. That’s when you go for it, and that’s when the best stuff comes out. Thanks for stopping by!

  • Nona Snyder

    Thanks for your thoughts — they continue to help me on my journey. My writing is therapeutic as I find myself in the new world of care giving…..it is for me, however, I welcome anyone who wants to join me in this new world….

    • http://anovelquest.com Monique Muro

      Absolutely and thank you Nona for stopping by! :)

  • Life, Love, + Coffee Stains

    Love Covey and the connections you have drawn! It really is all about the journey, not the end game :)

  • http://www.cryptlife.com/ Arjun

    Good motivation! I recently found myself not getting any ideas about the post topics. My girlfriend suggested me this book but didn’t care to read it. Now, I value reading it and make myself motivated. Thanks for the share!

    • http://anovelquest.com Monique Muro

      Thanks Arjun! Glad you got some motivation from the post! :)

  • http://babblingbandit.me/ babblingbandit.me

    This is a great post! At the beginning of this year I was so anxious about keeping up my stats and getting more readers and then I realised my blog wasn’t fun any more and it became just another source of anxiety. Then I did a total redesign and moved to WP from Blogger and turned it back into a project for me without a care in the world as to if anyone else was reading. I think I get less comments now but the numbers are slowly rising and I’m writing what I want to write. Each post is a little project of me that I put out into the world and I love it and that love is what is keeping me motivated. V.

    • http://anovelquest.com Monique Muro

      I completely agree! It’s so hard to keep up with all the stats and you get so wrapped up in it all, that it becomes absolutely a chore. Great to hear you made the transition to WordPress, and that you’re writing about what you love now! Thanks so much for stopping by!

  • Carla

    This just blessed me in so many ways. Anytime I get tired or feel overwhelmed. I have to remember why I started in the first place. It was a fire on the inside of me to share and write about things that I truly loved. Thanks for sharing!

    • http://anovelquest.com Monique Muro

      Absolutely! I feel the same, glad it brought you some inspiration! :)

  • Elizabeth Lund

    This is so true. I started blogging as an outlet for me and in the hopes it could help someone else. I guess if I don’t get all the numbers that I wanted, that is o.k. as long as I am fulfilling those two things. Thanks for a great post and happy SITS!!

  • Raquel

    HI Monique! Happy SITS Day! Ah love that you quoted Steven Covey! His 7 Habits are great guidelines to live by. Go Dodgers too! :) Following you on Twitter!

  • Mrs C

    Well, you just encouraged me! A huge “Thank You!”

    • http://anovelquest.com Monique Muro

      I’m so glad! Thank you a thousand times for stopping by, it’s a pleasure to see new people round these parts! :)

  • http://renukostyle.com/ Karen Olson

    I need to save this post for the times when I feel tired and worn out. Also, I am trying hard not to quantify everything I do. I know there is value in doing something creative just for the sake of doing it. I just need this kind of reminder every so often.

    • http://anovelquest.com Monique Muro

      Hey Karen! Thanks so much for stopping by! I’m with you on the quantifying, sometimes if I start a blog project and it doesn’t pick up steam, I automatically ditch it. I need to focus more on doing things for the sake of the creativity involved! :) Happy to have you here!

  • Katherine

    I agree. My blog isn’t big, and the comments are infrequent. But I blogged for a couple years before my very first comment, and it never discouraged me. My personal favorite posts are not the ones the usually get the most comments. It’s the writing and emptying out my thoughts that keeps me going. Although, right now, my biggest hurdle is time. Some days, when I’m choosing between more sleep or a shower, blogging just doesn’t happen.

    • http://anovelquest.com Monique Muro

      Hey Katherine! Thanks for stopping by, I agree. Some of my favorite posts are ones that don’t have really any comments. Blogging can be so wonderfully cathartic, and I always try to remember that when I write, versus always trying to think of stuff that will draw the most comments. I’m with you on the sleep vs. shower battle, I choose sleep every time, haha :)

  • http://www.southernrootskitchen.com/ Kimberlee S

    This is a really great post. When I figured out blogging was a passion of mine I revamped my original blog into something that I truly enjoy.

  • thenotsogirlygirl

    I’m right there with you. Blogging takes me so much time, and sometimes I just feel like I don’t have anything interesting to say, anything nice to share. but i love reading other blogs and all the comments. and i get most of my inspirartion and motivation from there! great post!

    loved you blog! i’m following you! :) please hop on my blog and if you like it, follow me too!!
    xoxo!

    the-not-so-girlygirl.blogspot.com