Just a warning: this is a ‘tell it as it is’ post. It’s not meant to be whingy or a plea for sympathy, so please hear me out. It’s time for me to own up. For a few months now, I’ve been struggling to keep this blog going. Most weeks I find I’m struggling to think of topics to write about that inspire me. It’s really been doing my head in, but I’ve been managing to scrape by. Only just! I have found my thoughts wandering towards putting the blog into hiatus for a while. Part of me wants to do that, but part of me would devastated if I did it, as the blog has been part of my life for over 10 years. Thinking about this, when I published my post last week, I was reminded of how I approach similar problems, when I have fitness goals that are becoming tedious. On finding myself becoming bored by goals that I’ve set, the first thing I do is think about why I set them and why I wanted to achieve them.
I probably should give some thought to why I started this blog in the hope that I might get some clarity on why I keep publishing posts, week after week. Ten years ago, when Next Phase in Fitness came into being, I was much younger, and still competing in fitness events. At that time, I would go to Sydney often, to take part in different events, either official, such as City To Surf and Seven Bridges, or privately run boot camps. It really was a fun time in my life, but I had nobody to share it with. I was living away from my family, in a city where I knew very few and I was undergoing a huge life change. Fitness became my life. Next Phase in Fitness was intended to be a place to record these events along with the training for the events, and any thoughts that I wanted to get out of my head. I wasn’t so full of myself that ever thought anyone would read my blog. That wasn’t my intention at all. I suppose, in the old days, I would have done this in a diary.
My life in fitness at the time, was very busy, and I had lots to write about. As the years passed, and I aged and started to slow down, just a little, I changed the blog title to Next Phase in Fitness and Life, as I wanted to change direction slightly, and write about life after 60. I was particularly, interested in how it was possible to stay fit over 60. At that time, I had stopped doing official events, and was just doing my own thing to stay fit. Adding ‘Life’ to the title, also made it possible for me to post bits and pieces about my life, that had no relation at all to fitness.
So what went wrong? Well, I’m not really sure. Until recently, I have been happily posting, through my many injuries and challenges. My life in fitness, these days is quite repetitive, and would be seen as boring to most people, so I no longer wish to post about it. I’m still exercising, but my routine doesn’t vary much from week to week, and I haven’t got the talent to make the same repetitive thing sound interesting, week after week. We’ve now been living under the restrictions of a pandemic for about 18 months, which means we rarely venture away from home, other than to go to work. This is making it difficult to write about ‘life’, and I now feel as though I have lost my voice.
For now, I’m not going to make a decision about closing down the blog, but will keep posting until the end of the year. I will decide then, depending on how I’m feeling. For now, I really should remind myself what I have loved about blogging over the years
- I have enjoyed keeping a record of my life
- Putting my thoughts on paper has often helped me see more clearly
- Blogging about my goals has helped to keep me on track
- I have loved the connections that I’ve made with other bloggers
- Each week I look forward to reading the blogs of those bloggers, and am often in awe of their talent
This post is the most unplanned post that I’ve ever written. It is truly just my thoughts about blogging, as they occur to me, as I write. I wanted to get my thoughts out of my head and onto the page, hopefully to find some clarity. Unfortunately, I haven’t found that clarity, but now that we are back in lockdown, I have plenty of time to think. In Victoria we are now in lockdown number six. We are becoming expert at it.
This post is linked to Denyse’s Life This Week
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Hi Jen – it’s a tricky one isn’t it? I’ve found that my blogging mojo has gone up and down a lot over the last 12 months. Turning off my comments has been a real eye opener. People who I thought would keep in touch on my FB page or by email, just faded away. Very few make the effort and I’ve found it’s made me less inclined to comment on other blogs. Still, I love to write and I always have a few posts prepared in advance – once that stops, then I’ll probably stop. Good luck with your decision making – only you know what’s best for yourself when it comes to your blog.
It is a bit tricky Leanne. When you love something so much, it’s hard to walk away. Not that I’ve made any decision as yet, and I won’t be rushing into anything. I can totally understand your decision to turn off comments. I’m afraid that I’m one who hasn’t been commenting, but only because I rarely open FB. I’ve been reading your posts and most times, would love to comment. Thanks for dropping by. I value your input
Jen maybe when you reassess think about writing less often as week to week life can be very repetitive for all of us.
Great you keep track of what you do and set yourself goals and monitor progress.
You are so very hood at doing this and l guess enjoy being organised and in a sense accountable.
I am in awe of you. Robyn xxx
Thanks for your lovely comments Robyn. Blogging less may be the answer as you say. It’s an option I’m considering but not rushing into anything. Thanks for popping in.
I think our “voice” and content changes as we change – and it makes perfect sense that it does. As your life in fitness changes and as you’re transitioning to working less, what you’re inspired to write about will also evolve. Don’t rush into any decisions just yet…
I’m definitely not going to rush into anything Jo. Hoping all gets sorted out with time. Thanks for your support
It’s good to get those thoughts out of your head and that’s one of the joys of blogging of course.
I’d like to write more non-bookish posts but need some motivation. I’ve occasionally tried to follow prompts or a challenge and just write SOMETHING each day. But it’s not good if it becomes a chore.
I know I want to write shorter book reviews as they’re just taking too long and in reality places like Instagram (bookstagram) and TikTok are just as popular with publishers in terms of who they give review books to.
I hope you’re able to find this is a space you can keep sharing your thoughts for a while – perhaps this will morph into something different?
Thanks Deb. Just now I’m happy to sit with my thoughts and see what happens. I usually find that the universe provides an answer. It’s my opinion that the bookstagramners have made it difficult for book bloggers. This is one of the reasons I gave up my book review blog
Hi Jen, I admire you for writing your thoughts down so honestly. I have no advice for you other than to maybe take a break and see how you feel after a few weeks, if you miss it or not. I always enjoy stopping by ton see what you’ve been up to and I can only imagine how hard all the lockdowns have been for you. I hear you on the lack of travel and doing repetitive things for exercise, I’m much the same.
My sister (in Melbourne) shared an article with me the otehr day about the space between being OK and being depressed, based around the pandemic – it’s called ‘languishing’, when you are in that middle area due to repeated lockdown and uncertainty. I feel many of us can relate to it! I linked to the article in my Sunday Stills post yesterday, in case you’d like yo read it.
In the meantime, take care and ride the ebike 🙂
Thanks Deb. I’m sure your advice to take a break is good advice. I’m considering it. I didn’t see the article you mentioned so will pop over to your blog and read it. It sounds very sensible. I was very happy today to hear that we come out of lockdown at midnight. So yes I can now get back on the bike. We e only been able to go 5k from home for exercise. Thanks again Deb for your continuing support
I totally understand you here, and the feeling of the same old same old is the reason why I’ve been struggling so much with blogging this year, with the pandemic and restrictions I simply don’t find it interesting to write about life in general. I’ll mostly write about music now because I’m spending a lot more time on music now so that’s what’s in my head, and I always have a long list of topics for the blog.
I hope you find ways to keep inspired to write. A break from it can do you good, it doesn’t even need to be long. As someone else said, you don’t have to write every week either.
Hi Susanne, it sounds like I’m not the only blogger who’s struggling. I think eighteen months of the pandemic is exhausting us. Thanks for your advice which I will take note of.
Jen, Park your thoughts and see what happens. Write when you want to. Some blogging challenges may give you ideas. #lifethisweek
Thanks for your advice Natalie. I will do as you see and just see what happens without rushing any decision.
I’ve thought about stopping my blog a number of times, but each time decided to stick with it as the positives outweigh the negatives. I completely understand about struggling to find something new to talk about! Over here, we are heading into another really big spike in new cases…and a return to social isolation, just when we thought things were returning to normal. My life feels constricted and that does make blog post writing a challenge. At other times like these (nothing inspiring me to write), I simply took time away. And in each case, the inspiration returned. May your inspiration also return!
Thanks for telling me about your experiences Pat. I agree with you that being in the midst of a pandemic doesn’t help to think clearly at all. I’m not going to rush any decision, just see what evolves.
I think being a blogger is like being a recording artist – your essence stays the same but you’re sound and style changes over time. I think it’s natural for us to grow and change, it would be weird if we all stayed the same. I started blogging about 10 years ago writing about cancer, food and running and now I write mostly about food, dogs and travel! I think sometimes it’s good to take a break or have a bit of a breather to regroup but it’s also important to remember that you don’t have to write every week, you’ll feel much more pleased and much more productive if you write when you want to not when you have to. Here for you and happy to cheer you on!
Thanks for your comments Sammie. I find it really interesting how your blog focus has changed over time. I’ll just sit with my thoughts for a while and see what happens. You’ve given me something to think about
I think we all go through the same sorts of thoughts, no matter the subject of what we’re writing about, and the effect of long term lockdowns and their psychological impacts shouldn’t be underestimated as playing a part. And I entirely understand what you mean by writing things down is a way of clarifying thoughts. Hope you find some clarity on this soon, or perhaps rediscover your motivation.
Thanks Christine. I’ll just potter along for a while and see what happens.
What a great opening up, Jen. I am pleased you could do so in your own safe space, this blog.
Congratulations on 10 years. I also have been doing this blogging thing for over 10.
Thinking about how old I was back then and what my views are now for blogging is a timeline of changes.
As Jon Kabat Zinn says “we may not like the waves of change but we can learn to surf”…words to that effect anyway.
I made a significant change to the WHY of blogging for me back in 2015 when we left Sydney. I had to have a purpose…and reason to find some meaning each day…in a very hard time…and I chose to write on my blog for the 365 days of that year.
Anyway, back to you…I find you are a very thoughtful and considerate blogger. You share your stories and you are a very kind commenter and contributor.
You will, as you need to, make changes to your blogging to match what you want from life and as others have said, a break is not always a bad idea. It can tell us whether we miss what we used to do, or that it didn’t really change much for us.
The thought I had for your blog, should you want to continue is to call it Next Phase In Life. That’s very open ended and gives you topics like your gardening, your bike riding, your thoughts on change etc.
So, from me, I wish you well. I am reducing my blogging to Mondays for Life This Week in 2022 and maybe the Sunday Stills.
Thanks for linking up for Life This Week. Next week’s optional prompt is Shopping and it will be interesting for me to decide what to write! So much has changed in #lockdown this time round. Hope to see you link up too. Cheers, Denyse.
Thanks for your kind words and advice Denyse. Amazingly I had exactly the same thought as you re a name change to Next Phase In Life. I’ve been brain storming it for a couple of days and thinking it could be the answer. I didn’t know you when you blogged every day for 365 days. That must have been a big effort but I could imagine it may help to find your why of blogging.