I think the hardest thing for a blogger is the moment that the initial newness and excitement wears off. You are faced with what is perhaps one of the hardest realizations: and that is, “I have to keep this going”.

As I have completed my first 100 blog posts on the Ignite blog, it is apparent that I’ve had ups and downs in blogging. There were some weeks where I would be on a roll and write a blog post daily, and yet other weeks when I breathed a sigh of relief that Jim or another Igniter posted something.

Surely, having a large of amount of client work has been one culprit to these inconsistencies, but quite often these were due to the difficulties of blogging itself. Many times I had come to a place where I thought, “I can’t think of anything to write about”, and felt the pain of scraping to find something else to write.

Last week, I finally read a blog post that put this feeling into writing, and if you are a blogger I highly suggest reading it. It was an article entitled, “Leaning into the Blogging Dip”, written by Darren Rowse over at ProBlogger, and was partly a review of Seth Godins book “The Dip”, combined with his own experiences as a blogger and his commitments to overcoming his struggles. In short, this article put a finger on exactly what I have felt as a blogger – while giving perhaps the best advice I’ve heard in how to deal with it.

His advice? You’ve got to lean into it. Don’t try to convince yourself you need a “blogging vacation”, or that you need to wait until you are “inspired”. Instead, he has shared the following promises he is going to use to push through his blogging dips>

• I need to write when I don’t think I’ve got anything new to say
• I’ve got to write when I’ve got too much to say.
• I’ve got to write when I learn something new so I can share it with my readers.
• I’ve got to write when I find something “old” that’s valuable and convince my readers that it’s worth examining.
• I’ve got to write when I feel confident and relaxed.
• I’ve got to write when every word that comes out seems like crap.
• And I’ve got to write during all of the times in between.

After reading these, I’ve decided to commit to this same philosophy, and will probably pick up a copy of Seth’s book to get even more inspired.

So here’s to 100 more posts, and pushing through the dips along the way!