An Honest Post About How I Feel About Blogging Lately

Honestly… I’m fighting a losing battle with myself.

At the beginning of 2020, I was so game, set and match for everything I had planned for the year. I even went as far as writing a whole schedule of blog posts which I had planned to write throughout the year.

From food guides to local guides and even blog posts that would tie into special events and national days. I was rearing to go after 2019 being such a good year for me blog wise.

I have established myself as a Northamptonshire blogger after almost 5 years of writing about independent eateries and local navigations, I’ve had experience in writing for food publications and reviewing food venues and 2020 was going to be the year where I saw growth.

Growth in not just my blog, but in bringing Nicole Navigates as a brand and adding more projects to my relm.

However, when Covid-19 came about. My motivation quickly deteriorated as much as my mood did.

Whilst I felt like everyone else was swimming through content and had all the time in the world to write blog posts, post on social media, I really didn’t want to.

My original plan for 2020 has basically gone out of the window.

There’s also been a lot going on behind the scenes such as imposter syndrome.

There are lots of big publications who are doing wonders with their content, but I have to remember: they have a whole team behind them.

I’m just one person.

So it’s very easy for me to look at them go: shit, they’re doing all the things I want to do and share, but I just don’t have the capacity to put my energy into it.

But I have quickly turned that energy into supporting them, rather than feeling down because others are doing better than me.

Plus, I have to constantly remind myself that social media is just an image of everything good and positive, when really, everyone has their own issues to face behind the scenes.

Right now, blogging to me is a “when I feel like it” gig.

It feels mentally draining to put my focus on something and then feel defeated when I see someone else do something similar or I’m not 100% on my A game.

I’ve recently had someone copy word for word a piece of content I shared on this blog, only for it to be praised and liked by other people – since then, I’ve had to unfollow them because it’s been seriously affecting my mental health and made me think whether I should even bother with this blog anymore.

I just feel like this year, I’ve had to go through so many obsticles and I’m frankly just tired; no wonder I haven’t had much energy.

I’m not writing as much as I thought I would be during lockdown. I have full intentions every weekend, when I’m not working my day job, to sit down and write, but as soon as I start, I end up feeling distracted.

My weekends have felt like such a blessing and as mentioned, I have full intentions of writing and updating my blog in my spare time, but when I don’t, I kick myself and say that I’ve lost an opportunity; when really, I only have myself to blame when I don’t create content.

This is the first blog post in a while I’ve actually sat down and written in full; probably because I need to get this off my chest before I actually commit in giving you the content you deserve.

So what does this mean?

I *don’t* want this to be the end of Nicole Navigates. I’ve worked too hard for it to go down and I’m sad that other people’s actions have made me rethink everything.

I have been putting more effort into my Instagram latley, which feels like a much better use of my time. It’s allowed me to improve my photo editing, my captions, how I engage with others and I recently hit 8k on the platform which felt like a massive milestone.

I also think it’s worth mentioning that I have SO MANY draft blog posts at the moment, which I know I’ll feel really good about once I actually get my butt in gear and publish them.

But as mentioned, it’s just been difficult to focus my attention on it when the world has gone completley crazy.

Plus, I think this whole Covid-19 thing is going to be around for a while. Originally, I was that naive person who thought it would only last a couple of months.

But I think it’s going to affect and ultimately change our community on a local, nationwide and worldwide level.

So I guess, I should start thinking about finding a way to adapt to this new normal and keep my content running as it’s not just my blog that’s been slacking, but my newsletter hasn’t done anything in 2 months and I’ve unfortunatly left my community group silent too.

Give me time guys, I’ll be back.

But I just thought I would take the time to come on here and say: hey, I’ve not been blogging as much, my original content plan went out the window thanks to Covid-19 which made me feel sad, but I won’t be down for long.

If you’re missing regular blog updates, you should head over to my Instagram as that’s where I’ve been sharing a lot more about how I’m feeling and what I’ve been up to.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk!

How are you feeling about blogging latley? Are you finding it easy to adapt or really bloody difficult like I have?

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