FollowI’M BAAAAACK!
i’m coming home…tell the world, i’m coming home!
i’m making my way back from Cambodia today. i had such good intentions to make time for writing while gone. you know, because i was far away from daily distractions i figured i would be prolific with my writing. i made plenty of notes and have many many stories to share BUT found it difficult to sit at my computer and write.
it was a strange to feel this way. at home, i’m desperate to find time to write but while away all i wanted to do was relax and enjoy. this also brought on feelings of guilt. one thing about running a blog is the need to constantly engage your audience. you need to give them new interesting content all the time or you will fall off the radar. it was a total push and pull in my mind. kind of like when you stop exercising and know you need to get ‘back in the saddle’ but can find almost any excuse not to.
know what was truly silly? i was doing different work for the first half on my adventure. i was physically building something in the world instead of virtually doing that. i was busy living in reality not through my writing. i think i forgot how to do this a bit. i feel it’s an easy trap to fall into as a travel blogger. the pace to keep up or surpass others in audience readership can keep one from looking around themselves for any length of time.
while i struggled with the guilt, in the end, i decided it was better to be really living in the moment than giving those moments up to my computer. it was the first time in months that i read something other than travel blogs. it was the first time in months where i lost track of time. it was the first time in months that sleep was more important than burning the midnight oil due to physical exhaustion, jet lag and general living it up instead of logging hours in front of a glowing screen. AND anyway, part of the point of my journey was to be off the radar for a while.
i hope that upon return to reality i can work on striking a balance between building my travel blog persona & audience and living the life lola should be living.
does this happen to you? do you get off-balance in order to achieve success? do you ever feel guilty about just living?
Hello darling, welcome back! I don’t think you should feel guilty at all 🙂 life is for enjoying every little moment. And you totally kept us up to date by sharing photos and the odd tweet. All I cared was that you were safe and having fun, which I got from your communications. There is a time to be on and offline 🙂 And I can’t wait to see you at TBEX next week – real life is even better than online life 😉
@mrsoaroundworld recently posted…Wine Tasting in England
you are ABSOLUTELY right Mrs. O. and i am going to try to disconnect a bit more often to enjoy the small things in travel life.
love you – lola
So been looking forward to your updates, can’t wait for more
love you Melaniec 🙂 xx
Love and missing u Lola !!! xoxxoxoxoxo
Melanie lola is going to come to Australia sooooon! can’t take it – i heart you all so! maybe we should have a Skype laugh soon! 🙂
Welcome back, indeed – but also so refreshing to hear your take on time away from the digital world. I suffer from my own self-inflicted digital shackles, but once I really free myself to step away (and let go of the guilt of not “keeping up”), I find myself living in the spaces and among the people that I had been dreaming of visiting long before I built an online home. Good message to be reminded of today. Cheers, Bethany
Bethany ~ twoOregonians recently posted…twoOregonians Tour the Cape: An Introduction to South Africa
you are SO right Bethany! it’s been awhile since i’ve been in a scenario where i could/had to take a break. it was interesting and good for me. i was away this weekend as well and with no internet connection. so, another enforced break! haha 🙂
Welcome back! Definitely saw all the great things you were up to through your pics. I’ve learned to put the writing aside, and not try to keep up with everything when traveling. Just take and post a few pics, a few notes as not to forget and maximize the time with wherever I’m at. The midnight oil will burn some upon return though haha. 🙂 Enjoy Spain and TBEX.
Aaron recently posted…Capture the Seasons in Photos.
Aaron you are wise man! midnight oil needs to burn for all the posts i now have to write before Eurotour with Leah!! 🙂
I hope the trip was everything u dreamt it would be x
it was AND MORE, Malinda. i loved just about every minute. especially my time with you and Melanic 😉
I like your post….and LOVE all of those smiles in your pictures. Aaron is right — you made the right choice!
thank you! i think i made the right choice too and it made my trip having all those smiling moments. those Australians were the BOMB!
First off…welcome back! I trust it was a great adventure…
Second off, I can totally relate to the difficulty in finding a balance. I have worked really hard on this over the last few months, because I was on the verge of being sucked into the computer, never to return. Just yesterday I got a little work done, but instead of killing the afternoon doing more, I went and played golf. A small thing, but it was so nice getting outside and away from the computer. I think so long as you make the conscious decision to not let the blog take over, it wont. If you lose focus on that, then before you know it you won’t have seen the sun for days except in photos…
D.J. – The World of Deej recently posted…The Curious Case of Yountville, California
TRUTH! it is a big struggle for us all and definitely one we all have to figure out. i love traveling & i love writing about it. BUT it takes a lot of time to build your blog and sometimes it really can overpower the point of what we are doing in the first place 🙂
YES! We missed you!
i always miss you when we aren’t together Esther!
Welcome back! I feel my life is off balance with the amount of work I’m putting in for my blog and my 9-5, too. I haven’t been in the gym since May and am generally exhausted…I really need to kick my ass back into shape and refocus.
Can’t wait to read more about your Cambodia adventures, though – and interested to see if your intended new path will bring more fun to the shop (on top of the existing fun, that is!)
Tom @ Waegook Tom recently posted…Gaziantep, I’m Sorry But I Despise You
oh, Tom, i really LOVE YOU. we are so alike. but i truly think balance is the key. it’s what i’m striving toward. cannot have it all the time but it’s the intended place to be 🙂
Welcome back! 😀 You know we missed you, but it’s good to be off the radar for a while and, like you said, just LIVE.
I believe that having a balance in life is very, very important, prevents burnout and lets you more fully enjoy everything you do individually. That’s why I sometimes e.g. silence my phone and put it away, or go jump in bed with a book, the computer nowhere in sight.
Great thoughts in this post, Lola!
Pola (@jettingaround) recently posted…Photo(s) of the Week: Baker Beach in San Francisco
POLA you are such a rockstar! i cannot wait to see you again. your thoughts/advice are so on the money. you can keep on, keeping on until the end of time SO it’s up to us to say ‘when’. gearing up to draw the line more & more 🙂
“i was physically building something in the world instead of virtually doing that.”
What a great analogy. I’m so proud of you for stepping outside of your comfort zone and doing such a worthwhile thing. I hope to do something similar one day. You’ve certainly inspired me.
Leah Travels recently posted…I’m Big in China
i CANNOT wait to do it again. can’t come soon enough. it was such a fantastic experience and Habitat for Humanity is an incredible organization. there is nothing not to love there!
I think you “living in the moment,” will be worth the wait for some great stories. We love your pictures do far. Looks like an outstanding trip.
such an OUTSTANDING trip. it’s something i’ll never forget.
That’s a great learning – not to forget to live REAL life and not get lost on any job – travel blogger or otherwise. Glad you had the opportunity to step back!
Raul (ilivetotravel in Twitter) recently posted…Photo of the Week – Poetry in Motion in Romania
thanks, Raul. you are always a great sound board for me 🙂
While traveling, I like to get on the computer and pump out a post or two from time to time, but if I don’t, I don’t sweat it and just take a lot of pictures and catch up later. I have enjoyed living vicariously through you on Instagram.
Usually once a year I go camping where there is no internet. I love getting away from the distractions and just living life for a few days or a week.
Traveling Ted recently posted…Join Leinenkugel’s for a brewery tour in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin
it was HARD but refreshing. a good lesson to learn for sure. i’m looking forward to even more downtime in the future.
Love this post! So glad you took time to really be in the moment and didn’t worry about what you were missing in the virtual world. You’ll have memories to treasure for a lifetime, and I can’t wait to read about them! So proud of you and what you’re doing in this world!
Leslie, your words mean more than you know! thank you so much for sharing them. Cambodia was extremely important in my life story and i cannot wait to do more of the same 🙂
Wow- what an entry! I had a feeling this trip might do this to you. Nothing is truer and more important than living in the moment. I am so proud of you!!!! I cannot wait to read, read, read and read all about your experiences in Cambodia… I know it will be hard to capture all you took in and learned because you may not even know everything you absorbed as of yet, but I look forward to experiencing you peeling back the layers of the onion through your blog! XOXOXOXOXO, Lola!
Joey
dearest Joey,
you are a ROCKSTAR & are so right about the layers. i loved Cambodia & cannot wait to have more experiences like it in the future. it’s so great to see other places & people in our wonderful world.
XOXO to you – lola