28-Day Personal Challenge
The Struggle
The struggle or rather, struggles (plural) I’m facing today are self-doubt, lack of focus, and fear.
The things I told myself I would not let intrude during this writing challenge. This challenge is solely to get the ideas out, no fears, no concern for a narrowed-down niche/focus, and no fear.
So why are these darn struggles here? Why can’t I get beyond them?
Or maybe, I should acknowledge them. Other people must have the same struggles. Other bloggers and writers and artists struggle with self-doubt and push through.
Side Note: I just discovered a new website that I’m going to have to check out further: Positivity Blog. I found this gem of an article: 13 Powerful Ways to Overcome Self-Doubt.
Come Along for the Ride
Rather than pretend that the struggle didn’t happen, I’m bringing you along for the ride. We all struggle with something. No matter how well we plan to keep the biggest issue at bay, the struggle will rear its ugly head. It happens. So I’m taking you on the battle to fight the struggle. You get to see we all go through this. This post is the cold, hard, terrifying (for me) proof.
I have been creating a list of topics/stories/ ideas that I want to try during this challenge.
This morning I looked at my list and all the ones that I hadn’t done yet succumbed to the evil picker. Below is a small list of the thoughts I let pass as I looked through the list:
- OMG, that’s so stupid.
- Who’s going to care about that?
- This doesn’t even have a point.
- Is that worthy of a whole post?
- Hack!
The attack was brutal. Made even more so, by “eh” day. I’ve been incorporating healthier fare into my diet and exercising. Yay! Yeah, no. I stepped on the scale today and…..I gained half a pound. To me, that screams of failure.
How to Get Out of the Murky Mire
By the time I started this post I had let that negative blow build up and starting gnawing away at my confidence.
I tried to overcome the struggle, “fake it ’til you make it,” right? Then I decided no, I’m going with it. I’m bringing the struggle live to you right now. You see, I’ve read other people’s posts on the struggle. However, they’re usually mentioning it in passing, something they’ve endured. Not something we’ve seen.
Some of these people are successful writers. Some are like me, average (we’ve been published, but we aren’t household names). Still, some are just beginning.
This is for all those beginning, all those like me, you get to see this right now. It’s not perfect, nor is it the most informative piece, but it’s a glimpse that the struggle happens and you can work through it.
My Plan of Attack
Well, I need to remind myself that this is my own challenge. I can make the rules up as I go.
Then I need to squash that evil voice and keep going. Heck, I can even say thank you to the evil voice, it gave me this blog post.
The final step is to read what I wrote in my planner before I began this challenge. Remind myself why I’m doing this. The reason is that I’ve stayed fearful for too long. One of my three main goals for this year is to find that happy spot with my blog. Create content that others will enjoy.
Create content that I enjoy writing. Which can be rough, since I love to learn and share what I’ve learned. And I don’t have a nice tidy fence around a few subjects that I enjoy learning. I have a wide net. Anything that snags my attention, I like to learn. Harnessing one subject is terrifying and difficult for me.
Which leads me to today. My January plan was to set up an email client and to update all the plug-ins and find a current theme that would work well for me right now. January was a success. February’s plan is to create content fearlessly. Twenty-eight days of anything I want. It’s day eleven and by golly, I have created eleven days of content that I don’t think ties in tidy with the previous content. Which means I’m still on task.
If you’re struggling with a challenge, go back and remind yourself why you’re doing this and don’t quit! You’ll get through the muck and the mire and so will I. We got this!
Previous 28-Day Personal Challenge Posts
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