Do you ever feel stuck in your history blogging?
Until about two seconds ago I’d spent a few hours drinking tea staring at a blank screen and a notepad (history-themed of course) with pages of “things to do” on it. I’d had no distractions (for once) but yet done pretty much nothing.
The message. We all get stuck. We all feel some paralysis with our history blogging sometimes.
Here are some of the reasons why.
- It’s just not a good time personally for you to be history blogging and you’re trying to force it
- You’re waiting for ‘inspiration’ which is severely overrated
- Perfectionist tendencies are creeping in making you get in your own way
- You don’t have a clear path for your blog. You don’t know where you’re going so prioritising is super tricky
- You’re delaying taking action because you think something is missing. Just one more piece of research. Just one more webinar. Just one more book to read. THEN I’ll get going
- You’ve got a case of what I call ‘blogging comparisonitus’. A crippling feeling that makes you compare yourself with other people. You then convince yourself your ideas have been done before and better so what’s the point.
- You’re taking in too much advice and your brain is frazzled.
- You’re trying to do “all the things” in a jack of all trades master of none approach and again getting frazzled and demotivated.
In this case, my reason was number three with a little bit of number seven. Perfectionism is a constant headache for me. I have a picture of what I want to achieve but I build too much complexity into it to be ‘just right’ and not disappoint. The reality is stripping back a few layers would be just as good too. And, even worse, I take on far too much advice learning about these layers of complexity which I never needed in the first place. Nightmare!
You may have a different reason for feeling stuck with your blogging, but the outcome will be the same. Being stuck will mean inaction and it will hold you back. Here are a few examples:
You can’t post a fun reel about that rainbow bookshelf you spent hours on if you don’t record it
You can’t publish that blog post about Orford Castle if you don’t write it.
You can’t upload your podcast episode about a 7th Century brooch if you don’t script or edit it.
So, the response to any of these, or whatever is making you stuck, is to approach it with this mantra.
JUST DO IT.
It’s sometimes a leap of faith, and it doesn’t mean you’ll never plan anything ever again but adopting a ‘just do it’ mentality means momentum and action for your history blogging.
Now, here are the benefits.
- You will learn more
Nobody approaches anything knowing everything. I bet if you look at your history blog right now it would be 30% research before you started and 70% learning and improving as you went along. If you’d waited until you knew 100%, be honest a) would it have been as much fun and satisfying and b) would you perhaps have got overwhelmed and not even started at all.
- It gets you out of motion mode
Motion mode is valuable in small doses but it’s also a place to hide. Motion mode is writing a plan, crafting a beautiful editorial calendar, researching the ultimate Insta filters. These things are valuable but if you ‘just do it’ you’re ticking things off that plan or editorial calendar and posting exciting content (filter or no filter) onto Insta for people to find and connect with.
- It could lead you places you never even thought about
Taking action goes hand in hand with engagement and building relationships. And, it could be little things. Asking to join a Facebook group. Reaching out to be a guest poster. Attending a conference or workshop. All of these bring you into contact with like-minded souls and opportunities. You will find ZERO opportunities if you allow yourself to stay stuck.
- You’ll look human
It’s only natural for you to want to put out the best well-researched and presented history content. But, showing you’re not 100% on it all the time is not a bad thing especially if it slows you down.
It’s likely you’ve found a litany of grammatical errors in this very post. And, although I wouldn’t want it that way, I want my posts to be chatty and show my personality, so I’ll sacrifice unnecessary delay checking whether I got my semi-colons in the right place.
I did a tips video the other day. It was from a very windy castle and I’d forgotten a hairband : ( My hair was all over the place but I thought “what the hell” and did it anyway even though the little voice in my head was saying it wasn’t “right”.
What if it’s more than just a bit stuck?
If you’re feeling really stuck and have been like this for some time then the reason could be a bit deeper.
I would encourage you to ask yourself these questions:
- Is my blogging niche the right one? Does it still light me up or do I need to pivot to something else?
- Is my head being turned by something else? Would creating a podcast or Youtube videos be a better fit?
- Have I lost my way and my goals?
- Have I started consuming more than I create? Do I need to look at my distractions and the balance between history blogging and engaging in the community i.e everyone else’s stuff?
If you’d like to learn a little more about how to increase your productivity, check out my FREE mini-video training ‘Stop Wasting Time & Get More Done on Your History Blog” and if you want to go even deeper try my course Time-Smart History Blogging where you get six modules jam-packed with actionable tips to grow your history blog.
