I Made it Through NaBloPoMo (More or Less)

So, much to my surprise, I made it through NaBloPoMo. I did sign up at the very last minute, however, so I might try to keep going for a few more days (having missed the first few days). Then again, I might just go off and clean my house. (Maybe I'll blog about it! Yay!) Then I think there'll probably be a new goal.


I have to admit that I might just about be ready for a break. Last night was my closest call for the month. I think I posted to the blog at about 11.58pm, before realising that I'd spelled a word wrong in the title! Obliging myself to post daily, however, has helped me to improve in some of the areas that present as obstacles preventing me from writing more. Here are a few of them:


Busy-ness - Given that I am so busy just doing what needs to be done on any given day and given that I never, ever fit everything that needs to be done into any given day, it's difficult to justify spending time on anything that doesn't directly benefit my family.


Obviously, this is complete rubbish. I do my family no favours if I fail to care for my mind and spirit, any more than if I were to fail to care for my body. Not to mention the messages I send to my family about my value or the model of womanhood and motherhood I present to my children.


Distractions - There are always a lot of them. My family have been very supportive of my blogging for the last month. I have felt comfortable sharing many of the posts I've written with Ni and she has taken to asking me each night if the day's post is suitable for her to read. Doot has also been following happily along. Having said that, sometimes their desires stand in the way of my ability to blog. I have learned this month that this is not a reflection of their opinion of me, or the time I spend writing, it just tells me that right at that moment, they're not thinking about what I'm doing at all. I have taken to gently saying something like, "Can you get that yourself, please? I just need to focus on this blog post, because it's important to me." Sometimes I need to repeat it. That's okay too.

A not so rare sighting of the 

Common Green-Snouted Distraction.

Procrastination - The best cure for procrastination is just sitting the hell down and getting it done. A daily deadline helps make this happen. If, like me, you're someone who waits until the last minute to complete a task, daily blogging is a great remedy. Every minute is the last minute, more or less.


Preciousness - Sometimes I don't want to supercede a piece of writing that I'm particularly proud of. I finally installed one of those nifty widgets down below that throw up old posts. It helps me feel a little better about having my best posts spiral off into oblivion. I ignore the fact that it also rescues my worst posts from oblivion.


Loneliness - Sometimes blogging can feel like singing out into the inhospitable dark, not knowing if anyone is there to hear. Sometimes it can feel like the exact opposite of that. 


Perfectionism - I find it very healthy to constantly challenge my tendency to sink into the mire of perfectionism. If you post daily, you can't afford to lament that you don't have a great photo to illustrate a post (or a camera to take one with). You can't afford to get too OCD about proof-reading. It's a personal blog. No one worth bothering with cares if there's the odd error (hopefully it's not in the title, however).


Self-consciousness - As a rule, I worry too much about other people's opinions. This month more than ever, I just wrote what I wanted to, because I really didn't have time to wonder if anyone would actually want to read it or not. Michael said it best in a recent post, "What I have to say is important. It is. I don't expect it to be important to everyone, but it is something that matters to me now." That simple statement resonated with me. I really love it when people read what I write. It motivates me to write more, but in the end, I need to write to please myself, because trying to please others is a fool's game.


In the future, I'd like to work more on planning and working ahead. When I began the challenge, I thought the only way I could make it through was if I could manage to write enough early on, so that I would have a post or two in reserve if inspiration failed me. That's not how things transpired, however. In fact, there wasn't a single day during the month where I actually had a post completed ahead of time. Often I didn't know what I was going to write when I sat down in the evening. Sometimes that was quite evident. 


It'd also be great to put aside some time earlier in the day to do some writing before I get too tired and fuzzy-headed. 


With that, I'll leave you as fuzzy-headedness undeniably descends.


Thank you for reading. I am very grateful.