You can read hundreds of books and articles, attend conferences, pay for workshops, or hire a consultant to teach you how to blog. I’ve tried a number of those things over the years and, even though I’d make a good run of it for six months or so, I always hit a wall – my blog starts to become more of a chore than something I am passionate about and love to do. It wasn’t until I started to make some changes in my personal life that I realized what I wanted out of my business and this blog.

As I approach my 30th birthday, I have found myself thinking more about my place in the world. I try to be more open-minded, more forgiving, more curious, and more creative while trying to be less hurtful, less stressed, and less “perfect.” Perfect is a funny concept, because my version of my perfect self is different for different people. If I’m trying to make my boss happy by being the Perfect Employee, I might have to work late and cancel my plans with a friend and I’m no longer the Perfect Friend.

My blog also fueled this insane need to be perfect. The Perfect Blogger in me needed to be the prettiest blog on the block, so I was always comparing myself to others and getting discouraged when I couldn’t pick up on coding quickly enough. The Perfect Blogger in me needed to add more followers, so I started posting more about topics that would increase site visits and less about what I found interesting. My style and my voice are unique to me, and I was hiding that to try and “make it” within the blogging community. By letting go of the Perfect, I’m able to be a Blogger. And a Business Owner. And just Me.

I want to treat this space, my little corner of the internet, as an active memory of my journey. I want to build a business, a home, a family, and a happy life full of pretty things while documenting all of it here for others be inspired by.

And here we are. Fresh. Start. My new mantra and something I’ll be exploring over the next few months as I write, curate, and create.

                         Fresh: new, clean, different (content and perspective)
                         Start:  a beginning, acting on an idea or task  (doing)