The Three-Month Burn-Out Death-Trap

 

I’m in the middle of writing a post about what happens to my brain during a road trip, but it’s not funny yet. Right now it’s a list of unrelated words and a six-paragraph-long diatribe about mayonnaise that is neither funny nor accurate.

So I’m going to work on it a little more. You’re welcome.

Anyway, today’s post is brought to you by something called honesty.

Honesty is the reason that I mostly write fiction, because when I try to write something biographical, I either make things up or embellish the truth. I have to work really hard to make sure all the stories I tell on here are true. So far, they are (I think).

So as I was driving down the road after work and thinking, “What in the name of mayonnaise am I going to blog about?”, I decided that I should just spill it.

By now you’re like, “OMG, then spill it, already.” And this is where I should have started this post. You see what I mean about six paragraphs of rambling before anything gets going?

Here’s what it is. I tend to have about a three-month attention span when it comes to my hobbies. What I mean by that is that I do something I love obsessively for three months, and then I suddenly hate it and never want to do it again. Well, for a couple of years, and then the cycle repeats itself.

Here’s a list of defenseless hobbies that I have mercilessly loved within an inch of their lives:

• Yoga
• Cooking (I still like this sometimes)
• Writing
• Reading
• Star-gazing
• Learning Russian
• Eating yogurt
• Running (but who am I kidding – I really hated this all along)
• Playing video games
• Being nice

And guess what, folks? This blog has been up for almost exactly three months. That’s right. March, April, May.

So here I am. I’m on the cusp of doing what I typically do with each and every one of my hobbies, even the ones I really love, like writing and cooking, and I’m about to get burned out. I can feel it creeping in. It’s not that I have nothing to write about—far from it. I have a file with about a year’s worth of blog post ideas. It’s just that it’s starting to feel like work, and not like fun.

Just like when I was cooking a gourmet meal every night of the week.

Just like when I was reading twenty books a month.

Just like when I was going to yoga six days a week, and writing a novel in three months, and playing video games until four in the morning every night.

Because here’s what blogging sounds like in my head. It sounds like, “OMG, I have to write two posts a week, one on Tuesday and one on Friday because then they’ll be nicely spaced out, and they’re each going to be hilarious and have a funny picture to go along with them, and I’m also going to alternate types of posts so that they’re not all stories about my dreams, and then I’m going to comment on all my favorite blogs [which is about a hundred – no joke] and never get behind on my blog-reading, and I’m going to find five new blogs every night and comment on them, and then when I do post, I’m going to promote it on Facebook and on Twitter and Pinterest and Tumblr and Delicious and StumbleUpon and Digg and Reddit and then I’m going to look for other opportunities to submit my writing to different sites online, and then I’m going to tweak my theme again, and then I’m going to check my stats for the billionth time today. And then I’ll start all over tomorrow.”

One might think I didn’t have, like, a job, or a husband, or any of those other hobbies I listed.

But this time, with my blog, I’m going to try something new.

Moderation.

Now, I don’t want to be too optimistic, here, because I’m not really sure how to do “moderation.” But it might start by not checking my stats constantly (except that’s pretty fun). Or by cutting down on the blogs I’m reading (except I love them all), or by toning down the other-blog-commenting (because, let’s be honest, it’s a little creepy if I’m the first one to comment on a blog every single time, right?).

I’m not going to stop blogging—at least I don’t think so. Just maybe dial back some of the peripheral stuff. See how that feels.

Even typing that seems a little foreign  to me. It’s not in my nature to do less than I can. Naturally, I want to do my best and be the best at everything I ever do, forever.

So, help me out. What are some ways that you maintain some balance in your life? Blogging or otherwise? Is moderation even a real thing?