Happy Friday, everyone. Are you ready for the weekend? Any special plans?
This morning, I read a post by one of my favorites – Jess Lively, about reality vs. things projected and displayed on social media. The difference between images of real life, and other images that have been styled, conceptualized, edited and thoughtfully posted to evoke emotions and, perhaps above all else, shares on social.
There is definitely a difference between the real and the really edited on social media. The blogging community thrives on social, and sometimes I feel that we get lost in a sea of what is real and what is just really pretty to look at.
Jess made a great point in her post that, based off of our personalities or current situations, all of the seemingly perfect photos and lifestyles we encounter online can leave us feeling inadequate. Like we don’t measure up to the professionals – that our words, thoughts and spaces (that we place our hearts and souls into) are not good enough.
We compare ourselves, categorize each other and create unwarranted and unnecessary competition – the “big”/professional bloggers vs. the small bloggers.
I found that my blog is the most successful when I focus on what I’m doing, and want to do, and ignore other things that other bloggers are doing. Celebrating the things that make my space unique, and building a space that I’m proud of and that subscribes to who I am are far more important to me than envying the blogger who lands the big book deal or gets millions of monthly views.
At the same time, while I would love those things for myself (the book deals, the high page views, the sponsor opportunities), I can be happy for other bloggers when they get them. Truly happy. Staying true to your journey allows you to avoid being envious of others.
Blogging is not a competition, at least not to me. There aren’t winners or losers, just a lot of really amazing and creative people sharing things that have made some of my bad days that much more bearable.
A while back, I wrote a post on why I blog, and many of you shared why you blog in the comments. Almost all of us agreed that we loved the connections and friendships we made through blogging. Imagine how much more awesome those connections could be if we removed the blog envy, the categories, and the competition.
I hope you keeps these words in mind this weekend, while you’re out living life, and probably planning posts of your own for the week.
Have a fabulous, and competition-free, weekend, friends!
This was such a great post and I can totally related. Sometimes envy is just human, no? I mean, I hate to be jealous, it makes me hot and sweaty (really, it does!) Sometimes my envy comes from looking at my personal friends’ success and knowing that they are slackers got what they do have while i’m here. That’s the reality of it though. But God has plans for me and my blog and my next big success. and although it’s not coming at the time I want it too, patience is truly a virtue and I treasure it. I know that got a little off topic, but that’s just me being passionate again, lol xo – Jessika
What a wonderful post, Amber! It can be so easy to get caught up with what everyone else is doing and stop looking at our own successes because we’re always on to the next thing on the list.