Finding inspiration and motivation was difficult last year, this wasn’t helped by the challenge of taking my usual day job of working in a Library home and changing from working with physical books and only spending a couple of hours a day sat my computer, to working predominately in spreadsheets and spending hours at a time staring at a laptop. As I could feel my body and brain beginning to suffer I decided that taking time out from blogging and using social media was ultimately my only option.

Why You Shouldn’t Apologise for Taking Time Out

It was during this time that someone popped up in my DMs on Instagram and asked why I hadn’t posted for ages, I then made the mistake of replying and explaining that I was taking time out and giving myself a break, they then decided to take the time to tell me that they would no longer be following me on Instagram or reading my blog if I couldn’t “be bothered to post content” and that I wasn’t “providing my followers with what they deserve.”

I won’t lie, I came away from that conversation feeling a little crappy. However, that feeling disappeared fairly quickly once I reminded myself that I was actually doing it for my own good and that until I’d taken that break and given myself the opportunity to regain that motivation and start being inspired again I wasn’t going to have any content to share.

It might sound a little strange to say as someone building a blog and social media following, but I really wish I’d ignored their comment and not responded, instead I allowed this person to control my time and energy and make me question my own intentions. Having said that, the positive thing is that it did remind that I was taking time out for my own mental and physical health and that I definitely shouldn’t be apologising for that.

I’m now focusing on the content I do want to create in the New Year and thinking about some new projects that I can get excited about and reignite my motivation and inspiration.

Remember, you time, your energy and your headspace are your own, you don’t owe these things to anyone else, and you definitely shouldn’t apologise for taking time out when you need to focus elsewhere.

Have you been taking time out recently?

Let me know in the comments.