If you’ve been following me closely, you’ll have noticed that things haven’t been going as normal.
I’ve been blogging pretty inconsistently.
I’m not nearly as active on social media platforms as I’ve been in the past.
You aren’t finding my smiling face on other people’s blogs or on marketing forums.
The places where you could expect to see me practically any time you visited, I’m now not showing up at all.
Why?
The truth is, life can be pretty interesting. Events happen that you don’t expect. Things happen that you have no control over whatsoever. And suddenly, that forces you to refocus your priorities.
For better or for worse, this has been what’s happening to me in recent months.
Due to an interesting series of events, I have sort of ‘taken in’ an 8-year-old girl. As any parent would know, children take up a lot of time. In my case, this was time I would previously had spent growing my business.
Fortunately I am in the process of reorganizing my schedule to try and minimize the impact of this new loss of time, but I have to admit it is quite difficult. I now truly realize how much of an advantage I had when starting my business all those years ago, as I had no real responsibilities. My time was completely my own, free to do with it as I please. I didn’t have a ‘job’ to work, mouths to feed, or places I need to be.
It’s different now, and I’ve got to be honest with you – I don’t know if I could have ever built my business up to the point it’s at now if I would have had all of those responsibilities. I pride myself on working hard, but like all of us, I am only human.
So What Does This Have To Do With You?
I felt as if I needed to explain myself, but really I don’t.
At one point or another, life will throw a curveball at you and you’ll probably end up having to put your business in the back-seat for a little while.
There’s nothing wrong with that.
Consistency is important. Publishing the same day every week, week-in and week-out will help you grow and retain an audience.
That’s all fine and dandy, but if you spend all your time thinking about the things you should do, if you feel like you need to follow some set of pre-defined rules to succeed, than you’re going about blogging all wrong.
The purpose of building a business is to become your own boss and free yourself. By feeling like you have to follow the rules every time you do something, you’re doing the opposite of what you originally set out to do.
You do not owe your audience a new blog post every X amount of days. It’s true that doing certain things will help your audience connect with you and lead to more money, but you do not need to feel guilty for taking some time off and dealing with life’s surprises.
Conclusion
Do what you need to do. Your blog will be here when you get back.
And your truly loyal audience members will be here too, ready to consume whatever you put out when you return.
I’d love to hear about a time you took a break from blogging for a while, and how you managed to recover and get things going again when you returned. How did it work out for you?
Hi James
It’s good to take time out
That said we do miss your smiley face!
Take your time – you’re only young and you’ve got plenty of time to get back into the blogging game, or not!
I never really took a break from blogging but then again I never considered myself to be a blogger anyway. I’m a marketer and the blog forms but one part of a tapestry of strategies.
Take care James
Kim
Kim Willis(Quote)
Hey Kim!
It is nice to take a bit of time out but to be honest it never feels right – in this space there’s always more work to be done and that’s one of the reasons I love it. I have always been a workaholic which grants me the freedom to work as much as I’d love to, while also giving the freedom to tone things down a bit when life hits us with surprises, as has happened recently.
By the way I sent an email to you fairly recently – have you received it? My email client has been giving me problems and while I’ve thought I’ve cleared out most of the issues, I can never be sure. In any case, I need to get more familiar with Skype, far more convenient at times…
Anyway, good to talk to you again!
James McAllister(Quote)
Hi James,
There comes a time in our life when we need to re-appraise what we are doing, for you, make use of the time away from blogging to think through your strategies and it could be a defining time for your business.
My regards to the 8 years old girl.
Cheers
Dan
Dan Ewah(Quote)
Hey Dan!
Yeah, you are definitely right. I mean, I have no plans of going anywhere or changing much around, but I used to be the type of person who wanted to work 16+ hours a day. I knew for a long time that such a heavy workload was not sustainable, and that it would one day come to an end. I just had no idea it’d be like this!
I’m starting to get back into things now, but this transitional period has been quite rough. I know in the end these defining moments are what makes us all better entrepreneurs.
Thank you so much for stopping by!
James McAllister(Quote)
Hi James
Having just had my two grand-daughters to stay for a week and being laid flat out by the experience (and the “nursery bugs” they brought with them) I can completely understand.
But that’s one of the virtues of being freelance – when we need to stop, we CAN stop. We’re our own boss.
I’ve had two of these curve balls over the last 3 years, most recently when my dear Mum died earlier this year, and a couple of years before that when my partner was very ill and subsequently died.
Yes, the blog was still waiting for me when I got back. I seem to remember one or two therapeutic / venting posts, but it’s MY blog and I’ll say what I like. My kind visitors seemed to understand.
She looks a real sweet-heart; enjoy her company and we’ll catch you when we can.
Joy
Joy Healey(Quote)
Hi Joy!
Wow! That must have been tough, but I’m sure you had a lot of fun nonetheless.
Always terribly sorry to hear about your losses. I couldn’t possibly imagine going through either of those two experiences, and both them so close together must be very hard. My condolences.
Self-employment is one of the only lines of work where we truly have the freedom to step back for a bit and process what life throws at us. It never comes without its drawbacks, but we are able to weigh the pros and cons and do what we feel is best. We have to take breaks, and sometimes we’ll lose revenue over it, but that’s OK. I think you and I can both agree that there are more important things in life than money, and we can always work harder to bring our business back up to where it was and continue moving forward.
I’ve missed seeing you here Joy, it’s good to talk to you again.
James McAllister(Quote)