Where I Am

We live our lives out and our minutes turn into hours, days and weeks and then one day we look back on them and see from a distance what has been occupying our time. Sometimes we’re pleased with what we find and other times we realize that our priorities need a little shuffle. At one point or another, most bloggers end up writing the “priorities post.” At least most of the bloggers that I read have written it. Well, here’s mine.

If you’ve maintained a blog for more than a month and kept it up then chances are excellent that you really love doing it. Blogging isn’t instantly rewarding and there isn’t much to gain from it at first unless you’re one of those overnight successes. That said, there’s something addicting about it, something that draws me to write, to work on it, to generate new ideas and explore new ways to engage my readers. There’s something that connects me to the people that are kind enough to read my words and share their thoughts. There’s something that makes me want to do well and make this thing a success.

Whatever it is that draws me toward blogging can also very easily draw me away from other things. I think it’s similar to my relationship with chocolate. I love it but I can’t have it exclusively. There must be – balance. My life, like most people, is pretty full and the summer only makes things busier. You might have noticed, although I suspect not, that my posting has been slightly lighter for about a month now. I decreased from 6 posts per week down to 5. I no longer post on the weekend at all and occasionally I’ve missed a week day too.

Not too long ago that really frustrated me. If I don’t write then there’s nothing new on my site.  There’s another cool thing about blogging though – it keeps you accountable. I can’t write about priorities and emphasizing what’s important in life without first examining my own. Sometimes our priorities can be dead-on right in our head but wrong in how they’re played out. This website is important to me but it isn’t even close to most important. So I’ve made a choice – I’m not going to put myself under that kind of pressure anymore. I’m going to do the best I can and leave it at that – for now.

I’m working on a priority shuffle and schedule shuffle. For me they go hand in hand right now. I need to figure out the balance of taking care of the things I’m responsible for (cleaning the bathroom, grocery shopping) while keeping my focus on the things I love (God, my family). Blogging isn’t part of either of those categories but falls in the category “This makes me feel great about myself and I really enjoy it.” Hmmmm … balance.

Here’s what I used to do – work on my blog during the girls’ nap time. This isn’t working for me anymore. Their naps are changing and I don’t get as big of a time slot as I used to and it’s tough for me to make up time when it gets cut short.

Here’s what I need to do now - figure out which days will work best to work on my blog in the evenings and fit all my work into those slots. This might not sound like that big of a deal but it really is. Routine is important to me because it’s what makes things run smoothly around here. I don’t like to mess with it if I don’t have to.

Here’s what I need from you – patience. You’ve already shown it if you’re still reading this post. I’d also appreciate some feedback. Leave a comment or send me an email and let me know what you like about my site. My time will be best spent writing things you actually want to read

Don’t worry, I’m not even close to being out of ideas, not at all. I presently have 13 drafts waiting to be nurtured and a bunch of others buzzing around my brain. I just haven’t had the time to pour into them that I’d like and I hate to poorly develop an idea that I really like. I like what my site is turning into and the type of people that it has drawn. It’s exactly what I had hoped for.

Most sincere thanks to each of you for reading my thoughts, ideas and completely-off-topic ramblings. I hope you’ll stick around because once I get my routine back in order I plan to crank out some awesome content

Why I do what I do ~ David introduced me to the world of blogs a while ago. He mentioned something about writing one and I brushed him off. Sounds like a lot of work for no reason. I was so very wrong (if there are indeed degrees of “wrong”). For me, blogging has gotten more and more rewarding the longer I’ve been at it, which has been almost 8 months.

~Trivia Question: Can anyone name the Monday-night comedy where a lead character argues that “wrong” is an absolute and not subject to gradation, such as  ”more wrong.” He’s then refuted, “It would be a little wrong to say a tomato is a vegetable, it would be very wrong to say it’s a suspension bridge.” This totally cracks me up. You get a big, fat gold star in my book if you can name the show. (My husband may not answer)

photo credit: visual.dichotomy

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Tagged as: Family Life, Managing Time, Personal Growth