What Blogging Taught Me About Myself

As we start a New Year the smell of possibility and new challenges are in the air.  It’s amazing to think that three years ago, I wrote my first blog post.  A post that was to be the beginning of a new chapter in my life and one that would be the catalyst for a life-changing experience.

I have learned so much over the past three years, not just about how to blog, but about myself and who I want to be, and it all began with a list of New Year Resolutions.

What is a resolution? 

The English Oxford Dictionary describes it as, 'a firm decision and the quality of being determined.'

It was on New Year's Eve 2012 when I set myself a challenge; sick of setting resolutions and breaking them before the mince pies ran out, I decided to set a better example and so I wrote a list of twelve resolutions - one for each month of the year.

This list included the usual suspects - lose weight, get fit, iron less and laugh more but I also wanted to challenge myself.  I included things like, 'do something new', 'give up alcohol', 'give up Facebook (that one was tough!) and many more.

Having never blogged before I thought it would be a fun way to keep me motivated.  It also forced me to be accountable for my actions – a bit like having a diet buddy.  But I knew that I wanted to keep it real and blog the lows as well as the highs throughout the year.  

Create A Monthly Care Plan To Achieve Success

Over the past two weeks, we’ve looked at using a Daily Practice and Weekly Intentions to achieve our goals and stay motivated.

If you’ve been following my series of posts about staying on track with your resolutions, goals or challenges, then you will be well on your way to success.  Your daily practices will be as routine as brushing your teeth, and the list of weekly intentions will be driving your goal forward.  This week I am going to share tips on creating a Monthly Care Plan. 

When I started my blog in 2013 – and subsequently wrote my book, How I Changed MyLife in a Year – I had to create a monthly plan to inspire me to succeed, month-after-month.

As with any goal, you will only achieve success if you are 100% committed.  Alongside the commitment comes planning.

Let me ask you a question – what have you achieved in your life that made you felt great?  Big or small, it doesn’t matter, just remember the feeling that washed over you and settled in your stomach; it’s called pride.

Sink or Swim? How to Handle the New Year.

At this time of year I feel like Kate Winslet's character from the movie, Titanic.  It's that moment when Rose and Jack are clinging to the railing of the doomed ship, with seconds to reflect, before being sucked into the icy depths.

The New Year feels similar.  I'm clinging on to the old year, full of its adventures, loves and losses and wondering if I'll survive what's to come.

Just like Rose, I hold my breath and kick like crazy for the surface.  What I find each year never fails to amaze me.  I learn new lessons, meet new mentors and discover a little bit more about myself with each passing moment.

To be able to cling on so hard to the back of my ship I need to add a little structure into my life.  Writing my book, How I Changed My Life in a Year taught me the importance of planning.  Nothing changes unless you make it happen, and to do this you need to sort through your thoughts and catalogue them in the best way for you.

Every new year I ask myself two questions:

Do Something That Scares You

No matter how old I get Halloween still holds that special magic for me.  I loved bobbing for apples when I was a child and carving the pumpkins.  My children still enjoy getting dressed up (although it's more teenage zombie than fairy or cute ghost nowadays).  Going out trick-or-treating with friends and dressing the house up with giant spiders and plastic bats holds a giddy fascination.  I have been known to wear purple velour and a pointed hat on occasion!

With Halloween fresh in our minds, I thought it was the perfect time to think about the scary stuff - not headless horsemen or flesh eating gremlins - the day-to-day stuff that stops us from achieving our goals.

Many years ago I set myself a challenge to take part in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).  A writing competition to pen 50,000 words in 30 days.  I didn't do it.  Why?  Because I was scared.  Scared of failing, scared of taking part, scared of writing drivel, scared of what people may think. 

How many times have you allowed your fears to stop you from doing something?

Last year I finally took part in NaNoWriMo, of course this was part of my Resolution Challenge, a year full of resolutions that I had to achieve whilst blogging my progress.  It was a fantastic experience and not only did I thoroughly enjoy the event, but I finished with time to spare and the first draft of my debut young adult fantasy novel, Guardians of the Dead.

What had I been so scared of?  After the event I understood how valuable the experience was and realised what I had been missing out on because of my fears.  Before we can achieve we must first face our demons.  My demon looked like me; brown hair, brown eyes, five foot ten with a slight muffin top and laughter lines (I refuse to acknowledge them as wrinkles!)

So how can we do it?  How can we do something that scares us?  During my year of challenges, I faced several demons, all of them were self-made.  Knowing that I was writing my progress here on my blog gave me the strength to get on and do it.  I found the confidence to just write and over time I stopped over-analysing myself and my work and began to enjoy it.  Once this happened I started to receive feedback from people all over the globe.  I'd faced a fear - failure - and came out on the other side unscathed. 

From Tiny Acorns...

It's been an exciting time for me recently as my new book, 'How I Changed My Life in a Year' is now out as an e-book and paperback.

 

 

What a Difference a Year Can Make

When I started this blog I had a clear objective, to record the highs and lows of the fifty-two challenges I set myself on New Year's Eve in 2012.


Lose weight, get fit, be happy, do something new...the list was as varied as it was long.

It was a personal journey of self discovery but I felt it important enough to share with anyone who may be interested.  365 days later and the blog had received over 15,000 visits, two blogger award nominations and was attracting followers from across the globe.

The year came to an end but my journey continued, in fact it picked up speed!

Seventeen months later I am now able to take the next big step towards achieving my goals and ticking off another very big item on my to-do list. 

From 'blog' to 'book', the story of how my year of challenges changed my life is out now as e-book and paperback.

How to get Crafty with your Mandalas

As Spring arrived I was feeling very creative and decided to spend an afternoon absorbed in the wonderfully creative art of Zentangle. 

I did have an ulterior motive and this involved my meditation classes.  I love using a variety of tools to show my class how easy it is to fit meditation in every day life, and mandalas are one of my favourite tools.  Creating my own mandalas using Zentangle designs is a perfect way to meditate.

I wrote an entire blog post about Zentangle during my year of challenges, you can take a look at the post here.  It shows you how to go about creating your own tangles and introduces you to my lovely friend and Zentangle tutor, Alison from Old Hall Crafts.

First of all let's take a quick look at what a Mandala is:-

Why You Should Love Your To-Do List

Ticking off the goals on your resolution list can leave you feeling elated, but what happens when you have that one goal that gets left behind, forgotten or constantly added to the 'do it next year' list.

'Do my ironing' has made every one of my resolution lists since 1998 and guess what?  I never did get it all done!  This year however, I decided enough was enough and that particular goal was going to be scratched from the list.  I then wrote a blog post about Thinking Outside The Box and suddenly I had my answer - I handed over responsibility to an ironing service.  I cannot begin to tell you how good it felt to relinquish that goal.

Feel That Fear - Then Step Forward

How many opportunities have you passed up because you were too fearful to try?  I've done this more times than I care to remember and in a way, writing my blog became my unique way of feeling that fear and then taking the next step.

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I committed to journaling my story as I took on fifty-two challenges last year and knowing I had an audience who would laugh and cry along with me, made facing those fears less overwhelming.

One of my favourite self-help authors, Peter Jones, put fear in to perspective for me very neatly in his book 'How to do Everything and Be Happy.'  He said that if we have those funny, tummy turning feelings then it means something in our life is about to change - it's your choice if you want to step forward and accept that change.  This was all I needed to hear to understand that I was reasonably normal and it was okay to 'feel the fear.'  After reading his book, I began to take more of those forward steps.

Confessions of a Dryathlete

As I write this post I am nine days away from completing my first challenge of 2014.  On January 1st I began my alcohol free month as part of Cancer Research UK's Dryathalon.

In April last year I successfully completed another alcohol free month, however I found that particular month to be one of my toughest challenges.  I realised then that I was in a bad 'wine o'clock' habit, opening a bottle of Chardonnay at 6pm on a Friday without a passing thought.  It took all my strength to commit to that challenge and last the month - so how would I cope this time as a Dryathlete?

To Catch a Dream...The Crafty Way

Doing something crafty shouldn't really be called a 'challenge'.  It is in fact a past time I thoroughly enjoy and isn't that half the battle when it comes to setting yourself a goal - that it's something you ultimately want to achieve?

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Ever since I was a small child I have been fascinated by the Native American Culture, reading everything I can on the history and legends of the different tribes and surrounding myself with emblems and tokens to represent my findings.  When I was ten and still at junior school I wrote my first 'proper' report for my English class on the Native Americans but my friends and classmates wrote about football, horse riding and the like.

One particular tradition I love is the Dream Catcher and so I chose this spiritual tool as one of my crafty resolutions.

The Four Zone Approach to Resolutions

When I started my Resolution Challenge blog, it was a way to keep focused on my goals for the year ahead.  I succeeded in completing every challenge I set myself and finished the year with a sense of fascination mixed with a touch of excitement.

If I could change my life in 365 days, just imagine what I could do if I kept going...oh, the possibilities.

I then had to decide what I could do in the new year to keep the momentum going and give my readers something worthwhile to read.

This was when I decided to mix it up and break my resolutions in to zones (that's the reflexologist in me talking).

Zone One - Well-Being Resolutions.

This section includes all the resolutions/goals that can help make life a little easier and less stressful, take my Vision Board post for example -

A New Vision for a New Year

New starts, new beginnings, new year's - they offer each of us some exciting opportunities.  But what if you're still unsure what direction you would like your new year or new start to take?

Panic not!  There is a simple way to discover what lies hidden in your subconscious and that's vision boarding.

I touched on vision boards many months ago, as a way to help a writer find inspiration for their short stories or characters.  The post was well received and even featured in The Writers' Idea Store, written by Paula Williams for the Writers' Forum Magazine.

For our New Year vision however, we can develop a board to help us set and achieve our personal goals.

So what do you need to get started? 

52 Reasons to Write a New Year Resolution List

My diary says it, my weekly posts confirm it and my calendar clearly states that this is in fact week 52 - and what an incredible feeling it is to reach this landmark.

52 weeks ago I sat at my parent's house, toasting the end of one year and the start of another and wondering to myself how I had let another year roll by without accomplishing anything.

It was that feeling of disappointment that spurred me on to do something about it.  Don't get me wrong, I have overhauled my life several times over and could write a stack of books on each life changing event, however this time it was different.  I wasn't getting married or having children, I hadn't lost anyone close to me and I certainly wasn't rebuilding my life following a ten year stretch of abuse at the hands of a husband - nope, I'd done that and worn the t-shirt already.