I write this as I sit in an airplane, on the journey back to Los Angeles from Uruguay that would take us across 5 countries in 36 hours. Read: a lonnnng and tiring day. Even though I should try to settle in for a much needed nap, all I can think about is: how am I going to meet my blogging goals this week?
Believe it or not, when I first adopted my new full-time travel lifestyle, I was a tad nervous that I may be bored without a job to go to anymore. Like I’d be lost without a purpose. Which is why ever since I quit my real job to travel, I’ve thrown all my energy into blogging. There’s no denying that blogging is hard work, and I enjoy it, really! But in the process, I’ve kinda turned into a crazy superblogger lady.
For example, I NEVER used to take pictures of food. And now? I take like, a dozen pictures of almost every meal I eat, in hopes of getting that one perfect shot that maybe I’ll use in a blog post someday. If you think that’s bad, it doesn’t just stop with food.
“Stop it with the pictures,” D would say. “Can’t you just enjoy it with me?”
“Yeah but you like it when we can relive our memories from my blog.”
“Well, you’re ruining the experience. Just be present.”
Those words stuck with me like sweat on a muggy day. Be. Present.
I’m completely guilty of spending a meal with my nose in Twitter, because that’s the only time I have to make a social media presence that day. Or of looking at a sunset through my iPhone camera screen, because taking the perfect picture for Instagram is more important than actually seeing it with my own eyes.
Ok, maybe I exaggerate a little. Honestly, I do try to enjoy everything I see, but a lot of time (too much time) is spent thinking about how to make this blog better.
At what point do you go from enjoying travel for travel’s sake, to traveling for the sake of running a blog?
After 3 months of full time travel, even if I’ve learned nothing else, I learned that I want to be a traveler first, and blogger second.
Because travel isn’t about how many cities you tick off from your list. How many countries you add to your total count. Or how many sites you race through in a day. And then the blog post you write about it. I think too often, we get so caught up on the big picture that we lose sight of the little moments that make travel sacred.
Rather, meaningful travel is about the small moments. It’s about how that dish tasted and who you shared it with and what you talked about. It’s about drinking in that perfect sunset and getting lost in the very best of nature’s paintwork. It’s about taking in all the new sights and sounds and smells with our senses, and not through the screen of a camera.
It’s about being fully present.
But when mixed with blogging, it’s a hard concept to practice. Even today as I’m sitting either on a plane or at a gate for 25 hours, I see it as 25 whole hours to work on blog drafts. I never get that amount of time! Think of all the posts I can write in that much time! I can actually get a head start on the next few weeks!
But then I remember that traveling is about enjoying the moment more than anything. So I wrote this post instead. And from now on, while you can still expect plenty of tips and guides, my posts will focus more on the little moments that make an experience.
Because I want to remember my travels through the moments that matter, rather than through landmarks and sites.
And now if you excuse me, I’m shutting down the electronics and turning on the seat-back TV to watch Tangled for the 20th time. Because it’s the most magical movie ever made.
How do you find the balance between travel and blogging? Or even more impressive: travel, full-time work, and blogging?
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Anna, I definitely think this is a struggle every blogger goes through, continuously. I am all about the experience, and now that experience includes capturing it for my blog, but hopefully we’re getting a good experience at the same time. You’re right, though, it’s rears its ugly head when we’re spending so much time on the pictures.
And it’s also not good when I visit something, and half of my mind is thinking about what to write about it, instead of fully absorbing everything around me. I definitely want to focus on experiencing things more, but I doubt I really can just let go and not think about the blog!
This is a really good post for making you think. Before my current blog, I wrote about the things I got to see during the course of my work, and also a bit about the work itself. Then one day, after my blog broke because of a corrupted database and I didn’t write anything for over a month or even think about a new blog, I realised over the months before its break I had begun experiencing things in order to write about them, rather than writing about the things I got up to in the normal course of things. And then I realised I had resented it without knowing it because I felt obliged to write said stuff, and it felt such a relief NOT to be blogging any more. Now I only write one or two posts a week on my new blog, a mix of local travel and nature, and I am enjoying writing what I want to write, not writing what I THINK I should write.
I think its always good to keep in mind WHY you are blogging – because you love writing about what YOU enjoy, and you want to share that enjoyment with others :-)
I’m with ya all the way with Tangled. Enjoy!
I’m so sorry to hear that your previous blog broke, because I know how much work and love goes into blogging. But I’m happy that you’re enjoying writing for your new blog now! I know what you mean about doing things so that you can write about them, versus the other way. It’s a hard line to define, but my conclusion is that I’m just not going to write about anything that I don’t feel passionate for! Otherwise, you can tell in the writing that there’s no passion behind it.
Yep, We have to continuously run a check on how our travels are affected by our blogs. The experiences are what counts. We can blog about experiences but we can’t get the experience if we are too busy blogging. :) Catch 22.
Haha, so true! It can be a tricky situation. But experiences definitely take priority over blogging. :)
Yes, it can be really hard to balance travel, work, and blogging. Ethan and I both have full time jobs, and I also do additional contract work on the side so it is definitely a balancing act. I think my graduate school training definitely helped me as I learned to prioritize (and well work a lot, haha). But we generally unplug during some of the traveling and just blog about it afterward so that the blogging doesn’t get in the way of our travels. We’ll be climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro next month so there will be at least 1 week of no phone, no social media, and no blogging!
I’m so super impressed by people who work full-time and run a tight blog… I don’t know how you do it! You’re like superhuman :). And best of luck on climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro… how exciting! And I can imagine that it’ll be a nice break also to get away from social media and internet!
Travelling full-time and blogging is not easy. I try to keep the balance, but after a day of exploring a city, I’m way too tired to blog about it. That’s my solution: when travelling I check out my mail box and manage my social media channels. When I am back at home, I start blogging. It works well with me. Try it as well :). I also started scheduling my posts when I know I’ll go travelling soon.
I use basically the same method too: social media while out, and blogging when home. But I still need to be more careful about just enjoying a meal or moment without all these pictures or checking social media. :) That’s what really kills an experience that could have just been pure and lovely.
Very good reflections, I came to the same conclusions a few months ago. When I first started blogging, I threw everything I had into it. When I got up in the morning, I checked social media, wrote a post, went exploring outside, came home and worked till I went to bed. It was exhausting and after 3 months I already felt burnt out. Now I have a much healthier lifestyle and allow for plenty of free time. I still have to remind myself to do “weekends” aka just take a day or two off once in a while and do absolutely nothing work related, but overall I’m down to a more relaxed schedule with posting only once or twice a week. Happy travels :)
Sounds like my routine :). It’s definitely important to take days to just do absolutely nothing and recharge. I like the idea of having “weekends” too like if this is a normal job. Thanks so much for reading and commenting, Tiffany!
I’m absolutely with you on this post. I made a similar transition several months ago and I’m much happier with how my blog meshes into my life. Not only do I have a great focus on writing (rather than just regurgitating information), I’m not obsessed with chronicling every moment. Best of luck, I’m excited to see how your blog evolves.
Thank you Polly! I’m aiming to get to the point where I’m happy with what I’m writing, (which unfortunately is probably stuff that’s not good for google seo, but whatever!), so I know what you mean about just regurgitating information. :)
I struggle with this all the time, but because I’m not traveling as much now, it seems to be okay. The struggle for me now is between blog work (which I love) and work work (which pays the bills). I don’t know what will happen when I get back on the road. When I was living in Hungary, I only wrote when I was in the mood. Otherwise, I was out enjoying my life. I still took photos, but it wasn’t too obsessive. Now when I’m playing tourist at home, I try to limit my photo taking to a couple moments. Once the camera is back in my bag, it stays there.
I’m so impressed that you work full time and still put out content 2-3x a week. It’s like 2 full time jobs :). That’s a good point to just take some pictures in the beginning, and then put away the camera.
Great post Anna. I think most travel bloggers, and even just travelers in general, struggle with this exact problem – I know we have! It’s sometimes hard to put the camera down and just “be” in the place that you traveled 1000’s of kilometers to see, but it’s definitely an important thing to do. Thanks for sharing and safe travels!
Exactly, that definitely a struggle! Before the blog, I actually took very few pictures whenever I went somewhere, so when I tried to write about past travels, I had nothing to go off, lol. So now I like having pictures to look at later (and share on the blog), so we just have to find a balance.