Do you need to filter it?

I wrote a post once that I thought was pretty motivational and inspirational. I was talking about something new I was trying and how excited I was. While the post did make some criticism on certain situations I had experienced, it was in no way disrespectful or controversial.

This post copped so much flack.

I had one person pull me aide and talk about how it might be perceived in a negative way. I had another person unfollow me on social media as a result of it (and use it against me months later).

Since then, I have been SUPER intentional about what I say and how I say it. Often I would scrap entire post ideas because they are 'too opinion based' and 'what might people say about me?'. Recently, I wrote a post about a personal experience and included a rather scathing commentary on individuals and how they had made me feel. While these people were intentionally unnamed, my language was appropriate and the commentary was valid given the situation, I later worried about whether I should go back and change what I had written.

I still felt that what I had said was totally reasonable, and yet, I was so concerned about how it might effect people's perception of me. I find that I do this often.

When I first started my blog, I wanted it to be a place where I could write about things that inspired me, talk about things I was struggling with and be able to express myself creatively. We live in a society where everyone has an opinion and they are able to share it with such ease. Why shouldn't I be able to do the same?

I have scrapped so many post ideas because they were too much about me and surely as a 'legitimate' blogger you need to write about stuff that is going to help other people. But the truth is, I'm not a legitimate blogger and barely anyone reads my blog. In fact, if I check out my blog analytics over the past month, I might find that each post is getting read by three different people. So why should I care what others think of me? Why should I feel the need to create content that would appeal to and be relevant to others, when potentially I'm going to be the only one reading it?

In 2019, I lost passion for blogging.

I no longer wanted to write stuff that 'would be useful to others' if it wasn't interesting or relevant to myself in that moment in time. I felt like I couldn't express myself, I could only 'benefit' the readers.

What readers?

So here's what's going to be different about Evolve Living Blog in 2020...

This is a blog about the real-life, thoughts, passions and experiences of a high school teacher, now 'in her thirties' living by the coast in Australia. I love creating, reading, cleaning, organising and fitness and my blog is going to be all about ME.

I hope you enjoy it, but even if you don't, I DO.

Carly xx

#blogging #startingablog #bloggertips #writingablogin2020 #apassionforblogging #inspireandcreate #teacherblog #coastallivinginaustralia