"Just Do You" | An Open Letter To Myself

Hey You, not feeling too fab? You know you struggle with jealousy at times. It's not difficult - think about other hobbies or jobs - you're often only really comparing yourself with the people in the same room, yet with blogging, you have the entire blogosphere at your fingertips. Sometimes, that's great! When you can't sleep at 2am, there's always a friendly blogger on hand with the perfect GIF to make you laugh. But when you're in the wrong state of mind, your Twitter feed can seem like a constant stream of everyone else's successes. It can be hard to let that go and just do you.




You love to motivate yourself , whether it's a daily to-do list or a monthly stats goal, but something you've always struggled with is being compared to other people. Remember back in PE, where you hated team sports - you loved the exercise, but not the competition. When you left school, you realised it was the more individual activities you enjoyed, and you found that personal fitness was more your kind of thing. "Competition is healthy", everyone says, but it's okay not to strive from that.

You know you struggle with Instagram, and not because the algorithm is a right old bitch (let's not even go there when it comes to Shadow Bans...). It's such a visual thing, and seeing endless beautiful feeds can make you feel a bit shite about your own. Again, seeing bloggers uploading snaps of their new collaborations etc. on the wrong day makes you feel guilty for leaving that post you've been trying to write, until tomorrow, or deciding you want a day in peace without your phone, so you don't put up an Instagram. Sometimes it can feel like you're staying at the same position, whilst everyone else is improving. It's only Instagram. It's only pictures on a page. You can grow another day.

You can be the most motivated person in the world, and think that you're absolutely smashing it, and then you open up Twitter and see that everyone else is smashing it too. It can feel like a race, a race in which you're being constantly overtaken (you're not, FYI!). Sometimes you can't help but feel shit when you see another blogger announcing a great opportunity. You should be happy for them right? It's okay to feel like that, you can congratulate them another day, and they'll do the same when your time comes.

You sometimes feel like you're not the right kind of person for the blogosphere (you SO are, there's room for everyone!). It's not in your nature to be centre of attention, and any form of boasting makes you cringe and the eye-rolls come aplenty. You're a fairly modest person. You brush off any compliments (don't, you deserve them, and you know it boosts your confidence!) and you don't show off (and if you do, it's purely unintentional!). You find the constant "look at me" part of blogging overwhelming, because it overshadows those who choose not to shout off the rooftops about their successes. Your not as invisible as you think, people are just as excited about you  as they are about as Miss Gobby who can twist a whole room around her little finger and talk for England, just full of success stories about her perfect life and her perfect blog...

When you're feeling like this, stop. It's not good for you. Put your phone down, turn off the computer and focus on you. Read a book, take a bath or do something for yourself. You can't create content at the top of your game if you (and your mind) aren't funky fresh either. Sometimes you really need to take a bit of time away from social media to re-align your thoughts, and that's okay. Don't feel guilty about not being active on social media for a day (or a week), there's always tomorrow. It's so important to just do you, and not let other people get you down. Post what you want, when you want, your time will come. Everyone's time will come.

Love, You x

What's your biggest struggle when it comes to blogging?