Happy Blog New Year!

I started this blog a year ago. In some ways the beginning felt similar to signing up for a gym membership on New Year’s Day. In my mind, I could without difficulty find time to write posts every five or six days and certainly one of those posts would gain enough attention to go viral. But, just like the person without a regular running routine, who signs up in January to run a marathon in June, I failed to meet my original goals. I ran into the writer’s equivalent of overuse injuries, unaccounted for weather, and poor planning.

Despite that, I have not failed completely. I have learned. I have grown. I put my words in a public place where I could not shelter them from criticism. I have reasonable excuses for not meeting my own deadlines including infant induced sleep deprivation. However, excuses do not help me move forward. They only give me permission to stay where I am. To move forward, I must acknowledge my successes and my failures and learn from both.

Blog posts typically fall with a certain word count and occur at a specified frequency. At this point, due to a variety of factors, I cannot meet those expectations, but I can pursue them by starting with smaller, more manageable goals like aiming for the equivalent of the 5K blog rather than the marathon blog. My posts may not reach a word count, but the words I do write count. Each attempt marks a step, a completed workout, and progress forward.

As I continue my wandering through life in this second year in the blog world, I want to thank each of you for reading my words. I will continue to pursue my writing dream, and I wish all the best to each of you as you pursue dreams of your own. All steps, even the missteps, count as they all have have lessons to teach us and help propel us forward as we navigate the roads to our dreams.