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I’ve taken about a two-week break at the start of 2022 here and it has been both good and bad for me.

“Taking a break” is something that is difficult for me. Something I think all content creators deal with.

Because we don’t have an “off switch” and if we don’t want to, we don’t ever have to “clock out”.

I can just work and work, and even when I’m not working, I’m thinking about working.

Worrying if I’ve done enough, made enough progress, comparing each of my days to someone random person online’s most productive day.

I could go on and on.

So right now, I want to do more of a personal piece about my experience as a blogger, how I’m feeling right now, and what I want to do moving forward.

I hope that if you are stuck in a rut, or feeling the same way about your content that this will help you in some way. Or at least not feel so alone!

How I’ve been feeling about my content

For a while, I have been feeling very lost about my content.

I was stuck between the content that was doing well, and the content that I wanted to create.

This is mostly relevant to my youtube channel, but my blog has its own separate issues.

The content that does really well on my YouTube is Pinterest content. And to be honest, I don’t want to talk about that topic anymore.

Pinterest really isn’t doing that well for me. I don’t know what it is, but it isn’t. I also find the pin creation process to be pretty boring.

It’s repetitive, and I don’t know many people seeing good results right now either.

So while I can get past the “boring” aspect of creating pins, the fact that it feels like a waste of time on top of that is not something I can get past.

This feeling towards Pinterest is most likely because I took on other people’s accounts as a freelancing job. It’s my biggest source of income at the moment.

In December 2021, I lost all 3 clients I had because of one reason or another.

And while that really sucked, I was honestly very happy not to have to think about Pinterest for an entire month.

It had nothing to do with my clients, they were all lovely people and I thoroughly enjoyed working with them. I just didn’t like the job anymore.

I think this led to quicker burnout from me. So not having any client work in December was another blessing and a curse.

I got a break, but at the cost of my already small income.

My blog content is a different story.

While I enjoy creating content on the blog, the one thing I struggle with is SEO.

I don’t know why, maybe it’s the niche I choose that is too competitive or some other reason, but SEO is difficult for me to understand.

I can’t seem to rank a post on Google to save my life.

This is the opposite on YouTube, where my content is going great and ranking with no problem!

So, I’ve taken an even longer break from my blog content than I did from my YouTube content.

I knew I needed to focus on one thing for a while, and I choose the platform that was doing the best for me.

It turned out to be a great decision, as now my YouTube is doing great!

Of course, doing great in a topic I’m not happy talking about anymore but… You win some you lose some I guess.

Which however meant that my blog suffered this year.

I only put up a measly 28 blog posts and got 1,000 views less than I did the year before! (Which, to be fair, still ended up being like 25,000+ views so can I really complain?)

All in all, I have just been feeling lost and down about my content and I was not at all excited about the new year. The time of year I usually thrive at!

What to do if you’re feeling down

It feels weird giving advice on this topic even when I am still going through it myself.

But at the same time, if you relate to this feeling as well, who’s better to take advice from than someone who is right there with you?!

This is advice I am going to be following myself, so hopefully, it will help you as well.

Take a break

If you’re not feeling inspired, take a break.

Trust me, I know it is hard to take a break. You’ll worry about everything

• Will my followers still be there when I get back?
• How long of a break should I take?
• Will this break help me at all?
• Will this set back my progress?
• What happens if my views tank and I can’t get them back?
• What if I decide not to come back?

I know these fears very well because I had them all myself. But at the end of the day, you will end up taking a break one way or another.

You will either get so overwhelmed you won’t be making very much progress anyway, or you’ll get so upset about the stats in your business that you’ll just end up giving up.

Ins some extreme cases, if you stress enough your body will make you sick and you’ll be forced to rest anyway.

I have definitely been in this situation before, and it cost me a lot- in health, time, and money.

So instead of waiting for some unknown time to take a break when you’ll be forced to, you should just give yourself one on your terms.

It will be much more relaxing that way.

And I promise, even if you lose followers, even if your stats go down, you will be able to get them back.

Your true followers will stay with you and your readers will return.

You can come back stronger than ever before! And later you can thank yourself for it.

Because after all, a week or two of a break is better than giving up on your dreams because you got discouraged and gave up.

Create content for you, not just others

This is scary advice to give because it is very not “by the book.”

You always hear that you should write for your audience. Create a persona and write for that one specific person.

Which, sure, it’s great advice and all. But me following this advice and creating content on what was popular is what led me to be unhappy.

And I don’t want to sacrifice my happiness for anyone else’s anymore. You shouldn’t either.

So, I say forget about writing what others want!

Write about what you want first, and the readers who like that content will eventually find you.

Sure, you may have less views in the beginning and may even lose some followers. But at the end of the day, who cares?

Your content should make you happy first.

Otherwise, why are you creating it?

I always say that if I wanted to be unhappy, I would find another 9-5 job with a more consistent and reliable income and be unhappy there.

At least my bills would always be paid.

I created my business to do what I want and be happy, not struggle to make an income, and still be unhappy while I do it.

Sure, you should still create content that is popular and yes you should still write for your audience. But don’t take it to the extreme.

If it makes you unhappy, stop doing it. We spend so much of our lives working, we should be allowed to enjoy it while we do!

My goals

I also want to talk about my goals for a bit.

I did not hit many of my goals. Personal and professional.

Covid is still running as a menace in our lives so financially the year has been hard for me.

But even besides that, my goals for the year did not go as planned.

In fact, it went so badly that I didn’t even have the motivation to set goals for next year yet!

My thought process was I never hit or stuck to any goals in the first place, so why set them?

I am sure many of you can probably relate to this thought process!

However, now that I am partially back from my break, I am trying to change that mindset.

I want to set goals. But I don’t want them to be as number-based this year.

I don’t want to pressure myself to hit a number of followers on social media. This is one this I have never really focused on.

I honestly don’t care how many followers I have.

But on top of that, I want to spend a few months away from stats.

I won’t care how my pins are doing, or how many blog views I have.

I want to get back into creating for the sake of creating. And I know that if I focus solely on the views and the numbers, I am likely to be disappointed.

Where I am going from here

I am still in the process of picking myself back up.

I know a few changes that I want to make in terms of content creation (again, mostly for YouTube. I’m pretty happy with the blog)

And I am quite terrified of the response. But, this is why I don’t want to focus on the numbers for a bit. So I can bring back my love for content creation.

Youtube

For YouTube I am making the decision to stop talking only about Pinterest, it just isn’t where my passion lies at the moment.

That doesn’t mean I won’t ever talk about it again, I still may post videos when I have something new to say.

But for the moment I am too frustrated with the platform to think of any new strategies to try out.

I want to focus more on productivity content, blogging, and organization.

I know the direction I want to take my channel in eventually and I plan to ease it into that direction.

I won’t say much about it now, but one day I will be talking about what I really want on the channel! And I hope you guys will love it because it is my true passion.

Blog

As for the blog, I am pretty happy with the content on it.

I want my YouTube to more closely match the content on here. Where I feel like I can just talk about whatever.

The problem with the blog is it doesn’t do as well as YouTube

And it’s totally my fault, I don’t promote as much as I should, or post often and I need to get back into doing that.

I also really want to try and get more of my content ranked and learn about SEO.

I want to create content I love while upping my income at the end of the day that’s all I really want.

I’m not really sure how helpful this post was, as it’s mostly just about me, for me.

But if you did enjoy it, let me know in the comments! If you are feeling similar I hope you are able to get out of your funk and find content that truly inspires you to create.

I am still working my way back there but I will be there in due time.

Oh, and Happy New Year!