In 2021 I Need To…. Put Less Pressure On Myself
Today’s post is quite a personal one. I don’t know about you, but I put an immense amount of pressure on myself in terms of reading, reviewing and blogging in general. The past few years have been pretty hard for me and I found myself not loving blogging and reading like I used to. The reason? The comparison of myself to other bloggers and putting so much pressure on myself to be just as good or active as them.
Crippling Self-Pressure
I’ve been writing this blog for almost 10 years now. K-Books will be 10 years old in February and honestly this blog is without a doubt, the best thing I ever did. It has brought me so much love, happiness and friendships. The past few years though, I kind of lost my love of it. I felt like blogging was such a chore. It was something I had to do… reading…. I didn’t want to do it anymore. I felt deflated and like I was just wasting my time and effort because who would want to read my blog anyway? This was such an awful way of thinking about it but that’s exactly what I thought.
Since I started this blog things have changed so very much. Blogs seem to have become the back burner for other platforms, such as bookstagram and booktok. I dabble in bookstagram but my first love is the blog you are reading right now. I felt really deflated to see new bookstagram accounts getting millions and millions of followers and I felt like I was failing as a reader and a blogger. This escalated to me not wanting to read… which made me worse because I was all like how can I blog if I’m not reading? It was a vicious cycle.
Coming out of the other side
2020 was one hell of a year! It was horrific… but in another way for me, it was brilliant. I came off a lot of my blog social media, particularly Twitter. I redesigned my entire blog and saw it as a whole new start. I stopped looking at other blog accounts with a comparative eye and instead celebrated how amazing those accounts were doing. I took inspiration from them on how I could improve my blog and my bookstagram. I still have a long way to go but I remembered why I started K-Books almost a decade ago. Was it for the followers? No! Did I care if not a single person read a word on this blog? No! I did it so I had my own little corner of the internet to be my typical fangirl self and spread my excitement and love of books! And that is what I am going to continue to remember throughout the next year.
2021 Bookish Goals / Things To Remember
- Don’t compare your blog/bookstagram to anyone else – you have your own look/style!
- If you get in a book slump… so what? It’s okay to not read for a while!
- Enjoy what you’re writing about – anything else doesn’t matter!
- Spread your love and excitement of all things bookish!
I know I’ll struggle to remember these things sometimes but now I have them written on the blog, I can’t forget them… they’re here forever now!
What are your 2021 bookish goals?
K-Books
I’m Kayleigh, a teacher and blogger who is obsessed with all things bookish. I love reading YA books of all genres and I am happiest when sharing my love and passion for books.