Isn't it ironic, don't you think?
It's funny how sitting down to write about having nothing to write about turns into writing about something. Who would have though? It figures...
Ready... Set...
Oct 14
I really wish I had something new to write about. I really wish I could feel compelled to write on demand, and not just whenever inspiration hits. It often hits at the most inconvenient times.
I was really impressed with the complexity and aesthetic look and feel of it, but mostly I was impressed that I did it all in one day.
Go!
I finished my blog, that’s been satisfying. After years of learning and learning, tutorial after tutorial, spending thousands on developers in hopes of getting the ball rolling for me, nothing really moved the needle, no progress... until recently.
About a month ago I built an entire website encompassing Sarah’s music, art, modeling, and something else I can’t remember right now, maybe I split up her original song and cover? I was really impressed with the complexity and aesthetic look and feel of it, but mostly I was impressed that I did it all in one day. Yes, I built this website about Sarah a month after I moved out and we weren't talking anymore.
So over the weeks since then I’ve been chipping away at my own blog. Picking a theme here, then picking the pages I wanted there, then it all just came in a wave last week. I started making more and more progress. Editing copy here, adding pictures there, changing little things all over the place. This week I decided to take the changes off of the subdomain and transfer it to the main domain URL. And in the last 72 hours I’ve added and edited two blog posts. I’ve connected all of the pages, figured out the tags I want to start with, created archives for topics, and figured out how I want the home page to look. I filled in everything, there is no copy or pictures that need to be changed or filled in. All the links work and point to the right places, and there is a functioning signup/sign in/forgot password system that does not rely on the WordPress default version. I even have conditionals set up for downloads based on membership. And I figured out how to get downloads links for the books I want to share. Sure, the downloads don’t work EXACTLY how I wanted [Update Oct 17: Now they do], but they work. I’m really really proud of what I’ve done. I can’t describe how accomplished I feel, how much this makes me feel like everything that’s happened over the last couple months was supposed to happen and things are going to get better and better.
If it doesn’t involved my hands or feet, I can’t rely on it to get my mind off of the things beckoning to me to weigh me down.
And All New Things Must Come To An End
I’m also making so much progress with my trainer. I get comments every week about my progress. Usually from the same person, but recently my trainer has said that people are commenting to him how much growth they’ve seen. Needless to say it’s a pretty close knit fitness club, but still, that feels really good. I’ll probably have to go from an X-Large to a Large shirt soon, which won’t be amazing financially, but it will be in every other way. I’ve looked into plastic surgery for the loose skin as well, and that is going to be very possible for me, if I can figure out how to swing it financially.
I haven’t made as much progress as I wanted to in the area of learning work skills. I haven’t touched LinkedIn Learning in weeks. And I haven’t done anything with the Data Analytics course in over a week. But it’s also been hard for me to watch anything. I’ve started so many movies that I don’t want to finish. After those 3 TV shows I watched, I haven’t found anything else that suits my fancy at all. I want to be DOING something, not just consuming passively. If it doesn’t involved my hands or feet, I can’t rely on it to get my mind off of the things beckoning to me to weigh me down. Fortunately I have the website stuff to work on, and there are new things I think to do almost every day with that. I have the writing really coming back full swing. And while I’m not reading as much as I was, I’m reading more of exactly what I want and need to read. None of that making myself read something because it may be useful in the future or because it may be useful for someone else. And I’ve read so much over the years already that I can digest into my writing. Things are good. Hard. But good. And I feel like I’m making progress every week. Not so much when I look day to day, but that would be unrealistic to expect. I don’t expect the weekly progress to last forever, but it’s what I need to see right now to keep moving forward with my head held high.