5 Ways To Read Blogs and Come Away Feeling Confident

I was talking to a close friend the other day and she mentioned how she read this article about why a woman stopped reading "mom" blogs. One reason I agreed with was that she thought reading all those blogs took time away from her family and left her constantly thinking about someone else's family. Yes, too much of something can become a bad thing! However, one of her main reasons for ceasing to read blogs was because she felt she came away feeling less confident about herself and her role as a mother,wife, decorator, etc. I believe blogs are a great way for women to get inspiration and ideas on just about anything as well as have that social connection and support we don't always get when we're home with the kids all day and/or out working.

The point I'm trying to get at ladies and something that we all need reminding of from time to time is that we all have our strengths and weakness and there will always be someone out there who is skinnier, craftier, more productive or richer than us, but that doesn't mean that we should feel any less about ourselves! So for my sake and who ever else's out there here are 5 ways to still interact with other women and mothers, especially in the blog word and still come away feeling confident about ourselves and our situations!

1. Embrace other's successes and strengths and learn from them. It's so easy to look at someone else's situation in life (especially those "picture" perfect blogs) and not get a little jealous or wish something like that could happen to us. What I've learned when I see something like that one a blog and feel myself starting to have "wishful" thinking, I just say "That's great for them!" and then see how I can learn from that person's success or strength to improve myself and situation if it's that important to me.

2. It's not all as it seems. Awhile back I did a post about struggling with always see blogs where everything looks perfect and not being able to relate to that. (You can read that post HERE if you missed it). When reading blogs we need to remember that there is a whole other side to that "picture perfect" post with things most people choose to leave out.  Ex. The fact that they just got dressed into something cute for a fashion post even though they've been wearing sweats all day, all the bumps that came up during a projects, or what they're house really looks like on a daily basics rather than in that picture they took of their newly decorated room after spending the last hour cleaning it. Confession...I have totally done this last one. Remember THIS post of Mia's bed reveal and that clean room? Well, this is what her room normally looks like and even worst most days when she decides to take all the clothes out of her drawers. But who wants to see pictures of that mess!

                        

3. Remember the damaging effects of comparing ourselves to others can affect the ones we love. When I start comparing myself to others I get whiny and grumpy and end up complaining a lot more. My bad mood always seems to reflect on my family and let's me honest...I'm sure Eric doesn't appreciate coming home from work to that, in fact I know he doesn't. Instead why don't we greet them with "Guess what I learned today or what inspired me from this blog today!?...Let's try it!

4. Be you and stop trying to be something you're not. For example...I always seem to be attracted to blogs where these women are super high energy and manage to get SO much done in a day and barely seem to sit down and take a breather. So I decide that I need to try and be more productive and I start packing my day with ton's of different things I need and want to do. In the end I get burnt out and grumpy because truth is it's just not me! I'm not a really high energy person and I love sitting down and doing absolutely nothing sometimes! It rejuvenates me and I end up getting more done that way believe it or not. I've definitely gotten some great ideas to help me be more productive or do things more efficiently, but I still try to remember the main things that work for me.

5. Know your strengths and be forgiving of your weaknesses. I'll be honest just writing this post it was hard to sit here and think of my strengths and not all my weaknesses. Anything I would come up with for a strength of mine I would then start thinking about all the times I wasn't so good in that strength or how someone was better at that strength than me. However, if we already know our strengths as we read blogs we can then use what we read to gain inspiration on how to improve our strengths. On the flip side, knowing the areas we would like work on we can also us blogs to help us improve our weaknesses to and also even find support from another blogger who maybe wrote about a similar weakness.

If these steps haven't inspired you at all then let the following quote do so! I couldn't have put it better myself!

I would love to hear any other advice or tips you've used to feel confident and stop comparing yourself to others! Happy blog reading! 

Linked Up To:

http://www.mercyinkblog.com/2013/04/art-for-your-space-heart-home.html

http://ceoofmeinc.com/motivating-monday-motivation-link-up-for-the-week-of-4-8-13/

http://www.create-with-joy.com/2013/04/inspire-me-monday-week-67.html