After 18 months of writing about branding and marketing, I hit the point of burn-out. So I’m making some changes that I hope will keep me interested and engaged in the blogosphere.
I was inspired by a couple posts:
Jack/Zen: The Zen aesthetic has always been known for its simplicity – Zen gardens, poetry, and the like. It’s communicating the essence, no more or less.
The question about creating simplicity in our life spaces, life styles, relationships, and work is the question: What is the essence of my life?
And therefore, what, if I took it away, would also take away a part of this essence? And what, if I kept it or added it to my life, would be unnecessary for this essence?
And from Evelyn Rodriguez:
…blogs are like places for me. Places for people. What is the place like? What types of people would hang out there? (Nope, not demographics, perhaps ethnographics work here.) For instance, I picture this blog as a salon, or an artist’s colony…
As I ponder my withdrawal from blogging, I arrive at two conclusions:
- Blogging hasn’t been simple. Keeping up with all the information and ideas, getting inspiration to write the ‘mandatory’ 3x per week posts, rejecting people who asked to be included on my blogroll and feeling badly about it…. It became overwhelming.
- If my blog is my salon, it should represent me… and it hasn’t. Although I’ve tossed in my token “non-business” posts, my blog has felt decidedly one-dimensional. I don’t know if I’d hang out in my own salon!
So I’m going to break some rules.
First, I’m not going to have a blogroll. I’ll maintain a list of blog; he’s quite unapologetically himself. And it certainly hasn’t hurt him.
Last thought: I really like Jack/Zen’s quote, What is the essence of my life? I make it a point to reinvent myself every couple years… when I feel that small nudge in my soul that hints, “hey, sluggard… it’s time to move. Explore. Grow. Reinvent. There’s an uncharted vastness yet to be tasted.” I’m in one of those transitional phases now where I’m asking myself, “Who am I? What is the essence of my life? And where do I go from here?” Evelyn’s blog inspires me because she doesn’t hesitate to document her soul growth. I’ve always kept it to myself, and yet it’s such a gift to witness another’s willful blossoming. So perhaps I’ll begin charting my own new direction on these very public pages. And hopefully, I’ll renew my engagement with this community called the blogosphere.
Jennifer Rice is the founder of Mantra Brand Communication. She has extensive experience in brand/marketing strategy, market/customer research, integrated marketing communications and channel support.
Jennifer also writes theWhat’s Your Brand Mantra? blog which offers musings on branding, marketing and the ecology of business.
