Day 365 of 365 - TA DA!

Well, here I am, on the last day of my 365 day blog challenge.  It's a bitter sweet feeling, rather like the last day of school for somebody who loved going to school.  However, there were no final exams and no report cards involved.  It was a project of my own choosing and my own design.  It required commitment, discipline and resolve, and I'm pleased that I found the inner and outer resources to complete it.

I now have great empathy for anyone who writes to meet a deadline on a regular basis.  I can't begin to imagine, for example, what it must be like to be a newspaper or website writer who has to submit a column every single day on something of substance.

Writing is a solitary and sometimes lonely endeavor.  For the most part, it has just been me, my books, notebooks, pens and computer, sitting and puzzling over what to come up with each day.

Some of what was on the Wisdom card I pulled this morning seems relevant.  In part it said:  'You live with many thoughts, emotions, and habits at the surface of your being, but at the same time you have another eye, another mind capable of watching all these things.'  In this past year, I have felt that I've more keenly observed all this in myself, wondering what might be worthwhile sharing with others.

Perhaps you have gotten a better sense of who I am, in more ways than you may have thought about me before if you already knew me in some way.  I have come to understand myself differently in some ways as part of this writing process too.  In my search to find meaningful material, some of my own beliefs and expectations have been challenged, such as in the area of what it means to get older, for example.  I've also discovered a bit more about my boundary for vulnerability, related to what I'm willing to share about myself online.

Partly because of the care I took to remain non-offensive, I did not receive any direct negative feedback from readers.  If a reader thought I was writing nonsense, lies or that I have a screw loose, they kept it to themselves.  I appreciated that.  I could get some sense of what was popular or unpopular since there is a tracker on my Blogger page which shows me how many times each blog post has been viewed.

My readership was relatively small.  In order to keep the project going, I needed to shift my expectation for feedback and number of readers, deciding that I was mainly writing for myself.  Some kind readers gave me comments, which were much appreciated.

So, what's next?  Well, I may still pop in to the blog from time to time if there is something I feel inspired to share related to the topic of health and vitality.  But, for now, I'll be taking a break for awhile.  There will be no more planning my days around scheduling time for research and writing.  I'll be taking a break from watching or listening to online summits, unless there is something which I just don't want to miss.  Also, I need to do a huge clean up of my email inbox, so that I stop receiving frequent promotional messages from the presenters in those online events.

For any of you who are late to the party, have missed some posts, or are just curious, this blog will remain on this site indefinitely, unless I decide to delete it.  I doubt that I will, because it's part of my history now!  You can always find the entire list of posts at mjoanross.blogspot.com  If you have previously subscribed to this blog, which is free, and can be done via a subscribe button on the blog site, you will still receive any new posts as an email as soon as they go up.

Thank you so much for reading!  And, as my grandson would say, "I did it!  All done!"  :)

Comments

  1. lifeisenergyOctober 6, 2019 at 6:35 PM

    Congrats Joan, lovely blog, have really enjoyed reading it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. jodyOctober 7, 2019 at 6:51 AM

    where has the time gone eh? Congratulations Joan on such a worthy commitment. now there is room for another self created project.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JoanOctober 7, 2019 at 9:28 AM

      Thank you Jody. I believe the next project is catching up on all the home making projects put on the back burner. :)

      Delete

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