Struggling With Balance
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Inception
I'm sorry if this heading was misleading, but I'm not referring to the 2010 movie about going into people's subconscious to suggest ideas that they will later feel were their own (although it was a very thought-provoking movie!).
I'm talking about the beginning of something; specifically the time when I decided to start up this Blog.
I had high hopes and dreams for the content that I would be posting on my blog. I wanted to talk about DIY Car Maintenance, Craft Beers, Travel, Photography and Family. In my early few posts, I did touch on most of these topics, but I didn't stick with it as much as I had originally planned.
Dedication
So why did I not post enough? There is a gigantic list of excuses that I could ramble off like "I was busy with my job", "I wasn't spending enough time with my family", "I needed to invest time in my marriage", "I felt like I was missing out on my son growing up", and so many more.
Are these statements true? Of course!
Are these situations something that I could control better? Honestly, Yes.
If these were things within my control, then why didn't I manage these issues better? Most likely because I was not dedicated enough to setting a routine and sticking to it. There was always some distraction that came up and I allowed myself to occupy my time with the distraction rather than work towards my goal.
I'm not saying that I don't need any personal time to myself; Everyone should schedule some "me time" in their calendar (or diary). A healthy mental state is just as important, if not more important, as having a healthy physical state.
I just had poor time management. There is a finite list of things that I NEED to do on a daily basis, plus all of the additional "nice to have" things on my list that can be done with more flexible deadlines. There is no singular path to successful time management. We all have our own individual list of must-do items every day. As such, our "free time" is always a variable amount.
Self-Help books seem to have all of these "golden rules" and "best practices", but at the end of the day, they're all focusing on the same types of techniques. In reading Stephen R. Covey's "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People", I don't feel like I've learned anything new (Disclaimer: I haven't finished the book yet). Now, the key word in the book title is "Habit". As I have already admitted, I'm far from having mastered all of the suggestions in the book as I haven't effectively turned my actions into Habits.
According to research, it takes approximately 66 days to create a habit (with a broad range of somewhere between 20 and 254? days). Breaking a habit is said to take approximately the same amount of time. However, the only way to create or break a habit is to continue to focus on changing your actions and staying dedicated.
Action
So now that I know all of these things, it seems like the only thing I can do is continue to try making new habits. I can say from experience that 30 days is not long enough for me to create a new habit, so maybe I'll "challenge" myself to keep up a realistic "60-day challenge" in order to build a new and healthy habit.
Once I find the time to start such a challenge, and come up with the internal mental agreement that I will take it on, I'll let you all know :)
Implement babysteps and your posting habit will become more natural over time. ✅
Yeah.. the problem is mostly commitment and time... and a high level of expectation for myself. I don't want to post something for the sake of posting it. And I don't want to post something that is more brief or less-researched than I would like to post. That would build a reputation for myself that my content is posted with haste rather than thoughtfulness. As they say, you only get one chance to make a first impression.. and I don't want my first impression to be a negative one.
With that said, the baby steps I could likely implement is an expectation of one post per week, and spend 15-30+ minutes per day building that post. That would satisfy my requirement for quality content. However, it wouldn't satisfy my requirement for consistently delivered content. So I could set aside 15-30 minutes per day, and build multiple posts at one time of various topics. Then, once I have enough completed content to share, I could begin posting my oldest content one day at a time...
There are many ways that might work, but I need to figure out the best way that will effectively work for me.. which I'm still working on (with baby steps) :)
I know what you mean. You want to post but not undermine quality of the content. What I would say is post once you reach an acceptable standard (for yourself and the community). You can always edit and improve the post so you don't get stuck in the phase of pre-posting. 😏 What topics interest you the most for posting?
These were my original post concepts: DIY Car Maintenance, Craft Beers, Travel, Photography and Family ... but there are other things that I randomly enjoy writing about ... I think the struggle really comes from finding inspiration to write about something!