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While not being able to drive fast, I found some space among slow drivers

As I said in February, driving up the 5 North reminded me of different situations in other parts of life. One of the things I noticed was that finding elements to reduce boredom due to blogging helps. I also noticed that whenever I drove up a steep hill on the freeway, my car would slow down because of the amount of power required to drive up at fast speeds. I had to slow down and drive in the slower lanes on the right hand side in order to let the faster traffic pass by. Even though I had slowed down, I was still headed in the same direction as the faster cars. There was no reason for me to compete and race with those cars. Competing with myself was better.

Your blog is like your car in a similar situation. Whatever goals you may have in mind, you can move towards them regardless of your speed. If you feel your plans or efforts are not working, you can continue aiming for your goals at a slower pace to make sure you keep doing something useful while you figure out the reasons behind the issues you face. If you feel that slowing down will hurt a deadline you may have, you should try to start early on future efforts, including any efforts and plans for observing and solving the issues you already may be facing.

When facing issues, first thing you should do is to slow down and observe

One way to find out why you may feel that you are facing issues is by slowing down and observing the things you consider important for your blog. If you think the number of comments or RSS feed subscribers is important, then not getting enough comments or subscribers may feel like a problem. Observing the things that affect commenting and RSS feed subscriptions can allow you to find out where the problems may be, even if the problems exist in other aspects of your blog. Stopping because of experiencing problems or disappointments is not a good idea. Slow down instead of stopping first, and then decide what to do after observing your goals and the problems.

Finding other blogs which are facing similar issues can be helpful. You can even ask other bloggers politely about the reasons why their blogs face those issues, while also telling them that the reason you ask is because you are facing similar issues. You can even look at sites getting a lot of comments and RSS subscribers to figure out why those sites are more successful at achieving the goals you are having problems with. If content is the sole reason why a site is getting more comments or subscribers, then you should see if content is the only main reason you are not getting enough comments or subscribers on your site.

Avoid competing with others when you face issues

If you face challenges in achieving your goals, you can try setting up new plans to achieve the same goals. You should slow down your blogging efforts instead of giving them up in order to figure out why you are facing problems. Try not to compare your blogs with others. Do not compete with others; compete only with your own expectations. You should not base your efforts on what others do, but on what you can and want to do. Otherwise, you are basing all your efforts on something that others control. You want to avoid that.

As for my car driving up on steep hills, it just kept on going and going, like an energized rabbit. I did notice a few trucks pass by me a few times. In those situations, I tried to get ahead of them. If you are bored going up a hill and do not have an automobile companion, you can setup short term goals for a few seconds to reduce boredom, like going faster than speeding trucks for a few moments.

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I found an automobile companion to kill boredom while driving

While driving up the 5 North, I noticed a silver Acura that had been driving in front of me for about 40 miles slowing down and turning on the right signal when I was behind it, telling me to go in front. After I was in the front, the Acura driver sped up when overtaking a truck and started showing the right signal light again. I realized he or she wanted to play a game where each car had to overtake a truck and then allow the other one to do the same and get in front.

After about a 120 miles of playing this game, the Acura followed me to an exit where I had to fill gas. The Acura sped up and went into the first gas station nearby. I decided to go to the farthest gas station because of this. After finishing filling up gas, I noticed the Acura driving into a nearby Carls Jr. drive-thru. I decided to rest there for a while, thinking the Acura would probably be on its way to wherever it was going. I woke up about half an hour later and noticed the Acura parked next to the Carls Jr. by the road. As soon as I got out of the gas station to get on the freeway again, the Acura started driving and followed.

That got me thinking: maintaining blogs is similar to this scenario. No, I do not mean blogging results in being stalked by strangers with Acura’s. What I mean is this: when you are blogging [driving] and it seems that you are all alone [night] with your blog [car], you can interact with other blogs [cars] that are also focusing on similar topics [driving in a certain direction]. Having such a company of another blog [Acura driver] can not only make your online experience [driving] more fun, it can also motivate you to focus on your blogging [driving] more.

If you feel bored as a blogger, find someone or something to spice up your blogging

If you feel the goals for your site are taking too long to achieve or are too boring, find other blogs who have similar goals, or try to find other blogs which are also going through the phase of trying to get on the right track to achieve certain goals. It may be hard to get noticed by big websites and blogs, so you will have better chances of trying to interact with other people who are running blogs and sites that are about the same size as your blog. That way, you can learn from their mistakes while at the same time learn new tricks.

If your daily blogging task seems too redundant and boring, try doing something new with what you are already doing, or try accomplishing your daily tasks with a different set of tools or in a different manner. This will also allow you to add more flavor to what you are already doing and create an increased interest in your blogging activities. Trying to do something with another blogger involved helps a lot. Once two people are working towards a common goal of bringing something to certain blogs, it will become easier to come across more ideas and theories that can help you avoid the boredom you face while engaged in routine blogging activities.

Be selective when adding other people as elements to spice up your blogging

In the case of the Acura, usually one would think they were being stalked. I kept driving and continued playing the game until I noticed the Acura driver flashing their lights. The driver was basically bidding farewell while taking another freeway to head east, while I continued heading west. I do not know whether the driver was a guy or a girl, a young or an old person, and I also do not know whether the driver was alone or with a group of people. The Acura driver also did not know who was inside my car. I made sure of this by not filling gas or eating together.

Apply the same selectiveness to your blog also. Do not rush out and find any blogger out there and start making them your online buddy. Be selective. First see how both of you can benefit, and then see what you can offer. After that, see what you can get in return and whether that return is something that would help you get rid of any boredom. Once you do that successfully, you will realize how boring blogging tasks can actually be fun.

Try new things to make old things feel fresh

The whole driving experience added a lot of fun to driving. You can try the same thing on your blog by adding interesting elements like new people or ideas into your normal routine that you may otherwise find boring. That should help you keep away the boredom from your blog and blogging.

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