Pressure in the Bloggersphere

Today I'm writing about something that is perhaps more important than a review or a haul. Well it is to me at least anyway. 

In the Bloggersphere there is continual pressure to perform. With so many new blogs emerging on what feels like a daily basis it's easy to get lost in it all and feel like your own opinion is becoming less and less valid. You start to compare yourself to 'that' new blogger who's only been doing it for 2 months but have somehow managed to gain 1000's of followers, but you're sitting there with 200 odd feeling like you've wasted 2 years of your life. 

You start to feel isolated, like no one could possibly like your blog because your photos aren't as good, your content isn't as engaging and your not as likeable as 'that' blogger. Numbers suddenly become important to you and you feel the pressure to get better stats so people notice you more. 

The truth is everyone feels like this at some point and recently I've been feeling more and more pressured to up my blogging game and write things that I think will get views rather than actually enjoying what I'm writing. It's natural that we compare ourselves to other people and simply telling people to "stop comparing yourself" is pretty pointless as it's not a conscious habit, you just automatically do it. 

So how do I propose to solve this issue? 

Start believing in yourself. Even if you have only 1 follower, that is still 1 person who is actively wanting to read your blog - your content. THEY are interested in what YOU have to say. After all isn't that what blogging is about? Being more personal than the glossy magazine? Having the ability to interact with people that read your words, and give meaningful advice that readers can trust. 

How about leaving the statistics and numbers to the glossy magazine that just want to feed you advertisements and let our blogs be that personal interactive experience that we all really want? 

Sadly of course numbers will still always be important if you want to get any kind of attention from brands and any of those fun opportunities that blogging can offer but perhaps we should all take a step back and realise why we started before getting carried away with the pressure of it all.  

After all blogging is meant to be fun right?