As we rush headlong into another week, full of its own challenges and thoughts, its always a good idea to take a step back and evaluate the week past. A mental deep breath if you will. If more people did this, I think the world would be a better place. Have a look at your accomplishments, the things you did well, the things you didn’t do so well and even the things you outright didn’t do. And give yourself some time to think of why. In order to keep my motivation about a blog a day (which I have already failed to keep up mind you) and add some accountability, I think a semi-public reflection of my week is the best way forward.
This week, I shot out the gate, motivated to do something I have been wanting to challenge myself with for ages. And the best start was a topic that my heart holds dear – Windows Insiders and the community being co-created. Mentally I understood the idea of this blog a day challenge, but wasn’t quite prepared for the time needed to invest in such an endeavor. I understood I’d be trading game time for writing time, but in my mind, its a no-brainer.
It got to Wednesday before I missed my first post for the day, although this wasn’t entirely a fault of my own. There was a social engagement after work which lead to 16 hours away from home and me collapsing into bed with promises of making it up the next day. Not all bad came out of it though, as it did give me something to write about.
Thursday was our home group after work, but I had already done my writing based off the previous day’s experiences. And Friday gave me just a long enough break between work and gym to get another one posted. Saturday was a day spent out in the garden and being productive in real life followed by a some beer and dinner at the local with some good friends, resulting in another missed post.
So what can I take away from this? Blogging my thoughts is not quick. It takes time and thought to get the worlds to flow in a way that doesn’t cause English majors mild panic attacks. It takes discipline to find such time and to sit down every day putting my thoughts down. More discipline than I thought, I must admit. It takes sacrifice. I basically stopped playing games, or watching (too much) YouTube. This is the best thing to come out of it. I found out that trying to go into the day with a thought I want to expand on doesn’t work. You get busy during the day and lose the thread that would lead to that thought. The best way to ensure you have ideas and topics is to write them down when you have them. And final lesson – you have to say no, to block off time to give yourself to think. Also, don’t let dinner burn because you forgot about. But that life lesson is a for free. You can thank me later.
This week, I hope to be more pro-active in my blogging. Try and get some time during the day when I find my mind wondering to such things as what you would call a yellow colored, chocolate flavored milkshake if it wasn’t made from milk nor shaken. Hmm… What can you, dear reader, take way from all this? Getting to the end goal takes sacrifice, patience, actually putting in the work, and doing it.
And hopefully this is a stepping stone towards my career as a great writer. One to challenge even the great Bard himself – Cacofonix!
Categories: Blog
