Blogging: The Ultimate Motivator

If there's one thing lately that I've come to realize really motivates me, it's blogging.

Let me explain: I used to love Facebook. That soul-sucking vortex of peer pressure to conform was really something. I couldn't stay away. Now, I still have my Facebook account, but I only use it if people want to get in contact with me and can't think to send an email or make a phone call. Other than that, I never use it. I haven't updated it in months.

But after awhile, after countless hours of my life were ripped away from me as I flipped through page after Facebook page, I realized that it was actually doing more harm than good. Like a dementor sucking the life out of a Muggle with a Kiss of Death in Harry Potter, Facebook can really dig into you (I think it's all a psychological experiment, and somewhere in Massachusetts Mark Zuckerberg must be rolling on the floor laughing hysterically at all of us). Between growing up and trying to find out who we are and comparing ourselves to everyone around us and attempting to look and act just like Katherine Heigl, girls (and boys, too--I believe they suffer just as much as girls) aren't really doing themselves any favors by being a member of the atrocity known as Facebook.

Maybe I was just too young and impressionable when I was a freshman in college, sitting at my desk doing some Facebook stalking alongside my freshman roommate who too was Facebook stalking, while not more than "Check out Sarah's new status, oh my God" passed between us. Maybe I let it get to me too much. But looking at all my "friends'" (and I say "friends" because not everyone I was "friends" with on Facebook were actual real-life friends) seemingly fabulous lives and updates and pictures and videos just made me feel even worse about myself than I already did as a seventeen-year-old girl. It presented this facade of how wondrous their lives were and made me feel like mine wasn't nearly as good.

Therefore, by the time junior year rolled around, I had had enough and ended my long-term Facebook love affair.

I can happily say that I've been Facebook-free since . . . well, I can't even remember the last time I logged in.

Which brings me back to my original point (I know, you must be wondering where I'm going with this spontaneous, cumbersome rant). Blogging, unlike Facebook, has opened up a whole new world to me. Here, I don't need to "friend" or "add" anyone to let them read it. Strangers in New York and Seattle and New Zealand are reading Ruth Writes, much to my surprise and excitement. I don't need to "unfriend" or "delete" anyone I'm not particularly fond of, I don't need to disable the increasingly creepy chat option, and I'm not receiving any inviatations to plant a flower in my Lil Green Patch or catch a Hug Snowball. This is my space (no pun intended--we won't even talk about MySpace) to be me, and not feel like I need to hold back from spilling about my life and endeavours and goals and feelings (clearly--how long is this post now?) I happily post pictures and videos of my own and if no one is even looking at them (which is really how blogging feels sometimes, like I'm talking to nobody in an empty room), it doesn't matter because I'm doing this for myself.

And it feels good.

That said, if you want to feel motivated to be held accountable for your life and to really do all you can to enjoy every little minute, I would encourage you to get a blog. I know all blogs are different, and mine isn't like everyone else's, but I really like to have some account of how I've been spending this year after graduation. And I also like to feel obligated to myself to take pictures of everything going on--it's nice to actually have photos so I can remember these days!

I know this was long-winded, and WHOA I didn't mean for it to come out like this, but I guess it's just some food for thought, to be totally cliche.

I'm wondering--what are your motivators? What gets you up in the morning and spurs you to be your best self? (And if it also happens to be blogging, share your sites!)



(Photo via Emma.C)