3 year blogiversary || the one thing I will change

Yesterday Ajeet and I were going down memory lane looking at all my old Instagram photos and came across this one right here:

Who remembers this photo? This was taken and posted on July 5, 2015 and it was also my very first blog post! Truth be told, it didn’t even hit us until we saw that photo last night that it’s already our 3-year anniversary and that’s when I realized that we were doing something so wrong. How could I not remember such an important milestone in our career? I’ve been so busy planning, producing content, and focusing about future posts that I’m not even living in the present anymore. Yesterday was July 4th– our first one here in LA and instead of living in the moment and being in the present, we stayed in and worked. Slowly I’m just letting my 20s pass me by and I honestly don’t even feel like I’m living them. I don’t remember feeling this way my first two years of blogging though. After moving to LA, I just developed this ‘grind in your 20s, build in your 30s, and chill in your 40s’ mindset and although I’ve noticed an amazing amount of success over the last few months with that mindset, I really think I’m overdoing it. I’m all for working hard in your 20s so your later years are better but I caught myself pushing that too far yesterday when I didn’t even realize that it was my blogiversary. Next With Nita was created in 2015 from absolutely nothing– 0 followers and 0 experience. And now? Here I am in LA taking Next With Nita to the next level with my favorite person and yet… I forgot the birth of it all.

As I sit here and write this today, I’ve already made changes. Ajeet and I had SO much on our to-do list to accomplish before traveling next week but instead, we took most of the day off to celebrate what we’ve accomplished for ourselves. That’s honestly part of the reason this blog post is going live at 10:45PM on July 5, 2018– simply because we carved out time today to celebrate instead of doing the million things on my to-do list. Will I kick myself tomorrow when I see that never ending to-do list again? Hah, likely but sooo worth it!! Ajeet and I just spent all day with each other just celebrating every little thing that has taken us from the bottom to where we are today and it was amazing. Things have been so go go go since Ajeet joined Next With Nita full-time and that’s partly because we do have some pressure to really prove to ourselves that we can do this– we can make our big dreams come true. Don’t get me wrong, I’m SO proud of what we’ve accomplished over just the last few months alone because things are picking up like crazy. However, I’m overly ambitious and have much bigger goals / dreams and let me tell you, I’m determined to make those BIGGER goals and dreams come true. The only difference I’ll make going into the next year  is I won’t allow myself to get so drained to the point where I forget special days like this. I’ll grind in my 20s but find time to live in my 20s too. Life is way too short to not live in the present and I know, all of this is probably easier said than done but I’m going to at least try to be better at living in the moment.

My motto for this year will still be grind in my 20s so I can build in my 30s BUT it’s also to look to the future but don’t focus on it. <3

Phew! Feels so good to get all that off my chest, y’all. I was going to do the typical happy here’s 10 things that I learned post but meh, I felt like I needed to write this more and even if this post helps one person out there to get right back on track in the present, then I’ve done my job. I hope this post truly inspires you guys to work your butts off to achieve your aspirations but never let that determination blind you from the present. I know for me I’m going to have to work on finding that balance but hey, I started year 3 right by celebrating and that’s one step towards the right direction! 🙂  Thank you ALL for your love, support and kind words throughout the last 3 years. None of this would be possible without your constant kindness. I don’t know what I did to deserve friends like you but I know I never want to lose you guys. Love you SO much and of course, we’ll chat soon!

Xo