Friday, June 16, 2017

What I've Learned About Blogging (& Life in General)

Rather than my usual Friday Fours today, I really feel the need to post a sort of rant or explanation instead. This post is going to get personal... and it's pretty all over the place! I've been struggling with these ideas in my head for a while and I thought what better way to figure things out than to write a blog post (because I'm guessing other girls are feeling this way too, but not necessarily all about blogging!). 



Ever since I came home from school, I assumed I would snap back into the blogging game. Sure I was super busy at school and didn't have tons of free time to blog, but once I moved home for summer I would instantly be inspired and get right back in the swing of things. Right? Well, not so much. 

I feel like the first year of college really changed me. Not in a bad way at all - rather, I learned to see things a different way. For example, in high school, everything in my life was based off a routine, and I very rarely strayed from that. I woke up at the same time, went to school, had tennis practice or worked out, came home to eat dinner, sat down to do my homework, blogged and went to bed at a relatively early time. I was never short on sleep, I ate nutritiously, I got everything done that I needed to and I spent my free time relaxing and hanging out with friends. I was so strict about my schedule and never broke it, so it never really failed. I was always on my game and felt very in control. 

In college, though, it's a whole different game. An every day routine is nearly impossible to form because you have different classes every day, meetings and group projects at random times, and there's always distractions around that are very tempting. There's always 1001 things to juggle and as someone who always had everything perfectly scheduled and organized, I had a hard time fitting in one of my favorite things: blogging. And even though living with my best friend was absolutely the greatest thing I ever experienced, we were bad influences on each other when it came to healthy eating, working out, getting enough sleep, etc! That aside though, Caroline taught me to be spontaneous, (and not be so OCD about the cleanliness of our room!). I learned so much this year and I couldn't be more grateful. Buuut, what exactly does that mean for my blog? 

Well, after just a few weeks of interning in the social media and marketing industry, I know for a fact that this is the right place for me. I get so excited thinking strategically about things, I love writing and finding a certain voice, social media is always such a fun challenge and the overall environment is exactly what I've always dreamed of in terms of a work world. It even gets me really excited to go home and run my own brand some days. 

But, I still can't help but feel uninspired. I think this new business mindset is messing with the real reason I started blogging. I remember sitting down to write my first post about personalizing my school uniform. It was such a rush and I was so passionate about sharing my ideas with others. This was way before I ever started social media platforms or working with brands - I was blogging because I genuinely loved to do it: the writing, editing pictures, styling things, etc. And lately, to be honest, even though it benefits me in my job, I'm taking the numbers (page views, followers, likes, etc.) thing too much to heart. Naturally, when you don't put out as much content, you won't get as many likes, views... you get the picture. So when I didn't blog as much this past year, everything kind of dipped. And as someone who's motivated by success, this really got to me and made me not want to cut out time to blog even more. I got in this funk and still feel like I haven't really recovered from it. 

So, that's when I figured out I needed to make a change and start looking at things differently. Rather than focusing on numbers and trying to keep up with posting X amount of Insta stories a day, I'm going to start over in a sense and treat it like a hobby again. Instead of running citrus & style like a business, I want to make it fun for me again. I'm going to really focus on posting things I love and forget about trying to keep up with everything everyone else is doing. Blogging is such a go-go-go world and while some aspects are fun for me, I need to start from square one and rediscover why I loved it so much in the first place! 

Ok this was literally a novel and I could honestly rant on for a few more paragraphs about things... but I hope things make a little more sense now! I always want to be 100% real with you guys and I felt like I was long overdue for an update on what's been going on behind the scenes here. 


As always, thank you so much for all of your support - knowing that people are finding inspiration and joy from this little corner of the Internet makes me so happy and I can't thank you enough for that!

Here's to a new and improved citrus & style!
xoxo

7 comments :

  1. This made me happy. I love you, citrus!!!

    Fran

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  2. I love this so much, and I felt the same exact way about college + blogging! Honestly it stops being enjoyable when you feel like it is just as important to get done as your homework. Hope you find more happiness and inspiration here soon!

    xoxo,
    Ally

    xoxoallisonnicole.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. Totally agree with your ideas! I recently picked up blogging again after ( a much too long) break. I was not that excited about blogging anymore and felt that my followers were not engaging as much. But I am starting again and can't wait to see where it takes me!

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  4. I'm totally feeling what you're saying. Blogging in college is HARD when there's 1000 things to do. I'm looking forward to seeing more great posts. Thanks for sharing.

    http://alongwithaloha.wordpress.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yes, yes, yes to this-a million times yes! I've been blogging for almost four years now and I've had my share of success and my share of dips as well and to be honest, the times when I had the most fun with it were the times when I was doing it for myself-not necessarily the posts that had the most shares or likes or whatever. Do what you enjoy and the people that really care about you and not just some random cookie cutter content will be the ones that stick around, I promise that it will be worth it :)

    xoxo, SS

    www.SouthernAndStyle.com

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  6. I've loved this amazing spot on the internet for years. You've inspired me so much with my blog. I'm excited to see what citrus & style goes through with this new journey.

    http://goldclutter.com

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