We need to redefine what success means.
It’s not a competition.
There’s not a limited amount of success that we are all splitting.
There’s room for all of us, and all of our voices on the internet.
And most importantly…
You don’t have to define success the same way everyone else does.
Stop feeling like you are failing because you aren’t working just 30 minutes a day or making six figures a minute.
Stop feeling like you’re a failure because other bloggers have more followers than you or are earning more money.
Success for you might mean writing one post a month that you REALLY care about, as you feel each word of it deep in your soul.
Success for you might mean, growing a small, intimate audience that is passionate about the same things you are.
Success for you might mean earning just enough money to pay for your child’s preschool and stopping there so you have more time to spend with your family.
Success for you means whatever you want it to mean.
Not everyone needs to hit six figures.
Not every one will have a spouse that quits their job to stay home.
Not every one will go viral.
Friends, know your lane. Know what you want to do and the realistic way you will define success for yourself.
There might come a time when you stop striving. When you realize you’ve done it. You’ve hit the income mark or the pageview mark that you wanted to hit and you are just going to ride it out from here.
You might one day turn around and realize you don’t have to keep pushing for more-more-more and you can instead pour into what you have and spend more time being active in your community and in the offline world.
I think one of the most important (and least known) secrets of long term successful blogging is knowing when to pull back.
Knowing when you’ve achieved enough to intentionally plateau so that you can do more of the parts you love and less of the late nights with little sleep.
I spent years striving for more. A bigger blog…more pageviews…the next viral.
I spent so much time building my blog, my brand and my income to reach specific goal that I had set in place for myself and my family.
A year ago I hit my biggest, long-term goal and brought my husband home from work.
Instead of celebrating I just keep striving. Working ever harder to reach the ever- elusive “more”.
It took me a good eight months to realize that I was doing it wrong.
That I didn’t have to keep striving so hard.
That I can be content where I am.
I’m making more than enough money to cover our monthly needs, and save for our future.
My husband is home and our family is thriving.
I don’t NEED more.
It’s hard to find balance. In most jobs, you can’t pull a few all-nighters and double your income.
If we were working 9-5’s there simply wouldn’t be the same opportunities to grow and advance our careers in the same way that there is in blogging.
But that doesn’t mean we have to take ever opportunity placed before us. In fact, it would be irresponsible to.
We’ll get worn out. We’ll start hating what we do. And worst of all, we’ll miss out on LIFE.
We could all work 24/7 on our blogs and still have more to do.
There comes a point when you have to stop, re-evaluate and decide where you want your balance to be found.
This is something that might look drastically different for each blogger, but I think it’s an important decision that we all need to face personally and professionally.
In the last six months I have pulled back from my blogs a lot.
I’ve stopped striving for the “big important things” that I don’t actually care about. I’ve stopped trying to keep up with every one else and decided to do the things I care about, even when they aren’t the same as what the other popular gurus are encouraging us to strive for.
There are super-smart blogging strategies that I’ve intentionally stopped doing because I don’t enjoy it and I’ve found ways to make my business work without them.
I’ve set my boundaries so that I can enjoy my job, and my life and find ways to be actively involved in my community outside of the blogging world.
I’ve freed up time for myself to do things I love and care about, and that’s what success means for me.
Kimi says
Love this! I couldn’t agree more…so much pressure to do more, to have more. Although I haven’t yet reached my goals, I can already see how blogging can take over your entire life. I’m striving to be okay with where I’m at and be more present in real life, even if that means I don’t become as successful as the big bloggers are. Paula you’re my newest hero! <3
Amanda says
I couldn’t agree more Paula. Though my goal is not to bring my husband home I’ve realized that slowing down was just as important as a big goal like that would be. Thanks for saying what most are thinking ❤️❤️❤️ Or should be ;)