This is the final post of my October daily blog challenge.
Writing a blog post each day for a month was harder than I expected, but easier than I imagined. I missed one day but I gave myself a deserved pass after energy well and fully spent selling jelly. On at least fifteen other days, I clicked “New Post” feeling doubtful. I can’t do this today. But I did, mostly because it was easier than I imagined.
The Daily Blog Calendar Challenge
I expected this to be the most challenging of my challenges so far, but it easily lags behind healthy daily movement. The goal was to make writing for myself like muscle memory, a good daily habit, a practiced craft. Although I write boat loads of words every day, I was not taking time to write for myself.
In general, the calendar challenges have made me more mindful of how I spend my time, what I make time for. The challenge to make time for and be mindful about writing drove home some specific, unexpected lessons. These are not new thoughts, but the process helped me embrace and trust them.
- Small things can be profound. Woven into the minutia of our days are subtly rich threads of wisdom and emotion. When we reflect on our rainbow dances, frustrations, or walks through the field, we wrap ourselves in them.
- It’s a crooked path. Nearly every post I wrote was retitled once if not a half-dozen times. The observations I led with unfailingly took me somewhere else. Seizures might end up being a post about embracing strength in the face of vulnerability, working through the frustration of a botched appointment might become about the culture of blame.
- Trust myself. If not myself, at least trust my words or thought patterns. This is in part authenticity: being myself. It’s also mindfulness, which is seminal to the calendar challenge I took on. A chunk of it, maybe the most important for writing, is letting go and allowing, letting words lead me, trusting them, even through the crooked jaunts along the way.
Tomorrow I’ll start a new calendar challenge. I haven’t decided on it yet, but I may make it a little less up hill. Especially since tomorrow is also the kick-off of NaNoWritMo. But I’m ready! I have this writing habit!
©Copyright Pennie Nichols. All Rights Reserved, 2017.
Congrats to you on your habit! Seems once you force yourself, it does get easier. I love your “Trust myself” wisdom.
I posted every single day for the first four or so years of my blog. Then life got the best of me and I lost my momentum. I’m up to 3-4 times a week now but it’s more difficult than when I was doing it daily. Habit is everything!
(Visiting from the midlife group! Glad to meet you!)
Every day for FOUR years!!! Oh my! I’m impressed. Some of this is indeed developing habits, but it’s also developing expectations for yourself. I expect to write from now on.
I love your references to thought patterns or patterns of thought. I have observed that the way we think is a very important,if not THE most important thing. It is the key that unlocks the chains whichbhold us back from being all that we want to be. So many friends will say that they can’t do this or that and now, they will usually give a physical reason as their limitation. I propose it is that thought pattern that holds them back. Knowing that the way we think can be an inherited trait both through genetics and environment, I try to notice how often I am holding myself back with,”I can’t,” and when possible, change that thought! Great blog. Enjoyed it!
Thanks, Merri Beth.