Recently, I have seen a number of prominent bloggers take an extended break or even quit blogging altogether. Some of their comments are: “I just put so much pressure on myself to visit, read and comment on hundreds of blogs per day. I cannot do that anymore,” and “I am simply worn out and burnt out. I am not finding any joy in the process any longer. It has become a chore for me to even think about preparing a post. I am just tired.” I won't mention any names because I do not want to make this about them personally. However, I think that we all know someone who has taken this road.A common theme seems to be a self imposed pressure to do too much; to reply to every comment, to visit every commenter’s blog, to have to give out every award we are presented as soon as it's presented, to complete every meme that we are tagged with, to feel like we are letting our readers down if we go a day without posting, to feel we have to visit every site that is on our blogroll every week, to feel guilty if we truly have nothing to say, and it goes on. The worst is the feeling that we are disappointing our friends.
Too much self-imposed pressure can do terrible things to us; it can rob us of our passion and steal way the fun. What makes blogging worthwhile is the passion and the fun.
One of the issues that we face, I believe, is that as a group we all have OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) tendencies and blogging exacerbates these. We put far too much pressure on ourselves to perform (guys, does that sound familiar?) And what happens to performance when pressure enters the equation?
Sometimes it's OK to just say that "I have nothing to say today." We will understand. What I don't like to see is the "all or nothing" response to impending "Blogger burn-out." The "all" is the prelude to the "nothing." "All" meaning that we succumb to the pressure and try to do it "all" and that leads to the “burn-out” and possible "break down." "Nothing" meaning we quit; we give up. The end result is the same.
We try to please everybody, and in so doing we lose the sense of who we are. If the blogesphere is not the place to be ourselves, then we have no place.
Personally, I love getting awards. It must be my deprived childhood (LOL.) What I did not like was the pressure to have to turn around and give them out immediately upon acceptance. So I adopted a policy of graciously accepting them into an archived file with acknowledgment and of course a link back. At the end of the month I bring all of the awards for that month to a new post acknowledging that months "blessings." When I am ready, or it feels appropriate, I will give them out. This has alleviated a ton of pressure off of me. As my friends know, when I give out an award it comes from the heart, and not from the pressure.
When it comes to memes, I evaluate them on a case by case basis. If there is value in it, or if it is fun I will play along.
Fortunately, I have yet to run out of things to say or something to post.
I try, key word "try," to visit all my blog-mates once a month. The bogs that I like I visit more frequently. Just because I haven’t visited in a while does not mean that I do not like the author or the blog. Let's face it there are a lot of good blogs out there and it is physically impossible to visit them all.
These are some of my coping devices.
We each need to find our own healthy balance.
Oh yes, and one more thing, inadvertently we put pressure on our friends to respond to our posts, to respond to our comments and comply with our tags. We need to ease up on the expectation. I know that I am as guilty of this as anyone.
I have probably made more blunders and errors than most. It was the kind guidance of my friends that has kept me blogging. For me blogging is unlike anything that I have ever experienced. The passion and fun grow day by day.
There is no easy answer or a right or wrong answer. This is just something that we all have to be aware of.
I would like to get some feedback on this. I believe that we all, at some point in our blogging lives, are hit with potential "burn out." How do you handle it? What pressures do you feel in regards to blogging? How do you cope?
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