Last updated on April 4th, 2021 at 02:23 pm
I hit a point where I didn’t want to write a damn word.
Those who know my #BloggerLife would think me crazy—I’d built a world always filled with adventure, and opportunity was in abundant supply with each passing day. It’s a brand that’s developed over years—one shaping a handsome lifestyle and letting me enjoy freedoms atypical of a Dad with a family to feed and bills to pay.
But in a way, therein lies the problem—I don’t want the same things I wanted back when I started this journey. Once upon a time, it was enough to hit events and write about ’em after, but it took an anime monologue to help me realise why words just weren’t cutting it anymore:
“…you seem to dream of an escape from ordinary life, but life in Tokyo will turn into another ordinary life in about six months or so. And so, if you want something extraordinary, you’ll have to go somewhere else or seek something more underground. But once you’re on the other side… it’ll only take a few days for it to become mundane again.
If you really want to escape an ordinary life, you must constantly evolve.”
— Izaya Orihara, Durarara!!, Episode 12 (2010)
I didn’t mean to hit a wall with my content and vanish for a month, but time flew by and before I knew it, I’d pages of work written up… but no desire to share it. I felt like a fraud with little left to say—like I was just recycling old ideas and slapping new paint on ’em to somehow convince the world I had amazing insights to share. It’s no secret—I’d blog daily if I could, but who’d be satisfied with a recipe here and some arts and crafts there? If I post, I want it to be meaningful—thoughts that could change someone’s day—but the words are in seemingly short supply as life hammers me with new challenges every which way I look.
However—I am the type to finish what I’ve started, and this blog’s a long way from its end, and while I might not burn with the same passion for writing as I once did, don’t for a second think I’ll stop creating something for y’all to check out. In an age where there’re so many ways to tell a tale, I think it’s time to stop fixating on one solely for comfort and start seeing what it is exactly that I’m capable of if I just keep pushing myself.
Because Writing Ain’t Everything—One Blogger’s Bustle to Bag Skills Worth Building!
When my inkwell runs dry, I usually stew and agonise over how I could’ve screwed up enough to make it happen, and how to avoid ever letting it happen again. Sure—I’ve written long and hard enough to take pride in my skills as a writer… but what good does that do me when I’m all out of juice to write? I can rework my pieces several times over to figure out precisely where words should go. I can learn every skill under the sun, pulling rabbits from hats to make it all shine. But what I really needed was to overcome this hurdle and rise to whatever tomorrow’s challenge might be.
Blogging’s not dead yet, but it’s well on its way—we can’t keep doing this like we did those years back. Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat changed the game, letting us express ourselves in ways we never dreamed of when blogging hit the scene—in a world where less than 10% speak English natively, why wouldn’t we evolve past writing when it only takes us part of the way we need to go?
And that’s why this is my long goodbye to blogging—or at least blogging the way I have ’til now. It won’t be tomorrow or even a month from now, but it’s high time I start thinking of life beyond blogging and making the most of the resources around me.
The World Beyond Blogging—The One Where We All REALLY Find What We’re Looking For.
This setback isn’t the end—even the best of us have them: look at how long Steve Jobs and Apple floundered apart before they reunited, firmly entrenching themselves in the history books. Look at J.K. Rowling and Oprah Winfrey who faced some serious lows before building lives worth billions. Just because things aren’t great today doesn’t mean they’ll stay that way, and though life can make that hard to remember when it keeps serving more on your plate, you’re not getting anywhere if you forget it!
I’m hoping this is the last time I’ll need to write these words, but I’m back. It took far longer than I’d like to get my act together, but I’m finally on the right side of this rut, and all these envelopes won’t push themselves!
I hope you’re having a killer 2016 so far—let’s end it with a bang!!!
Until the next,
