Words to Blog By

I enjoy reading "Denise in Bloom's" blog posts. She guest blogged on another blog page (Taradara) in September and I'd book marked the page until I had a chance to read the post because it had me interested... I finally got around to reading her post and found some lovely wisdom in her words.

Denise wrote about "10 Things I Wish I Had Known When I Started Blogging". Here's what I got out of the post:

Number 2: Write a blog Mission Statement. A little while ago, I blogged about not being focused and I guess, not really having a blog identity (the big question: "Why am I blogging?"). I like Denise's Mission Statement idea... once I get a chance, I'll sit down and write one and add it to my blog, both for people to read a little bit about me, but also for me to really decide what my blog's all about and get focused.

Number 5: Use Twitter & Facebook... but not to compare. Denise wrote "We start seeing what everyone else is doing and its hard to keep up. Soon we can feel defeated when we watch people with larger blogs and more followers than us doing things we don’t seem to be keeping up with." It was nice to hear someone else feels the same way as me... it's okay not to have as many followers as others (I know that the number of my followers does not reflect the number of readers... but even if it did, I have to ask myself... "does it matter?"). It comes back to my comments on Number 2... why do I blog?

Number 6: Plan and then plan for change. I can certainly relate to that! The blog is an ever changing entity... hence why I changed the name of my blog and started a fresh back in June. I didn't just change the name and look of my blog though... I started a fresh with a whole new one - the one you are reading now - "Forever Springtime". A few months on and I'm still really happy with the name! I just need to get focused (refer to notes on Number 2, again... I really need to write a Mission Statement!).

Number 10: Balancing blogging time with family time. So many things to take out of the wise words of Denise: "I have had to work to keep it all balanced, but I remind myself every day that my family is more important than getting up another blog post. You do NOT have to blog every day to be successful. Step back and enjoy the ones around you first, live life to the fullest, and you will be more inspired in your blogging!" Some thoughts on this (there's a few!):

1. I should always prioritise my family over blogging... my family are my life and if I miss something because I'm too busy blogging, I can't get that time back, but I can always postpone blogging until later... the internet isn't going anyway!
2. When I do prioritise my family and life above blogging, I shouldn't feel guilty about not having blogged for days, or weeks, or even months. This was a HUGE revelation for me, and even a huge relief! Whenever I haven't blogged for a while, I always felt bad and guilty because I felt that I was letting my readers down by not having written something for them to read in a while. No more guilt!
3. By living life and ensuring I prioritise my family, I'll more likely stumble across something inspiring for my blog that I can share with my readers!

With that said, it's time to finish this post and go live life, without "BNG" (Blog Neglect Guilt)... *giggle* I just made that up!

My gorgeously wonderful family to prioritise over blogging and to not feel BNG while spending my time with them!