taking time out to regain balance

Shari Smothers — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 04:02:39 +0000

While I Was Away

It wasn’t my plan to spend so much time away from my blogging space. I gave in to the dark pressures of my day job, and let it spill into my mornings and nights and weekends. I completely the balance I had maintained. It was easy to do because I really like my job a lot. And my blog has suffered tremendously, which means that I suffered too. I missed it.

This is not my only site that has flagged in my absence. Telling Stories took a powder too. And it’s been a challenge to face the setback. And yet here I am to rebound, to breathe life back into my lifelines, with more than a small measure of hope that I can regain my balance between work and non-work. I really like blogging. It has become part of what keeps me balanced, so it’s definitely worth the effort.

Since I climbed out of the pit of over-work, I took a few days off to breathe life back into me and the things that keep me going. I’ve learned a great deal in my months-long absence.

What I Read

I have read Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett’s PROBLOGGER: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income. I was delighted to have finished it while I was still on my break. Now, to calm down and plot my course!
I started reading The 4-Hour Workweek, an interesting book by Timothy Ferriss. It didn’t take me long to figure out that I’m not there yet.

I read my constant companion blogs by Darren, Joanna, Catherine and Brian and many others that reaffirmed for me that “DO IT” is a good plan. It’s a positive thing to change and grow. For me to be balanced again, I do need to CHANGE things a bit, so I made the first efforts to DO IT. More on that later. As I surfed through other blogs too, I found that I’m not the only person for whom change is in the air.

Joanna Young of Confident Writing, has some great, exciting and inspiring changes; her new company/site, and working out her current site changes including the bookstore.
Catherine of Sharp Words is working a little differently with her book reviews and it’s coming along better than she’d hoped.
Amy Palko, now of Less Ordinary, moved to a self-hosted site. She inspired me too because she’s well-known and made this big change. And, quite successfully too, because the her new site seems to be off to a very good start with the familiar stunning quality images.

What I’ve Done

I started catching up on my blog reading, as you may have noted above.
I caught up on my sleep.
I caught up with my family and friends.
I’ve come up with some ideas of how my blogging may lead to bucks.
I’ve brainstormed some posts ideas for my blogs.
I’ve planned to change my blogging setup.

Three Things I’ve Learned

In an effort to stay on top of my game I have come to the realization that I will have to get a bit ahead of myself, with respect to my writing.
Change is everywhere. It feels like a good thing because it is, and a necessary part of regaining and maintaining balance
It’s okay to doubt—a little. It’s okay to stop—briefly. It’s not okay to give up—period.

What’s to Come

My addresses will be changing here. I bought the names a while back and I recently set up the first one that I will be using for this blog. The other will come soon. I don’t know how it will work, or if the content switch will happen. No rush there, I just want to start posting to the new site as soon as I’ve finished the setups. In the meantime, I’ll continue to share my adventures here.

This was a fantastic “stay-cation” that I took! I added a few extra days around the July 4th holiday. And, it was as much fun and revitalizing as I’d hoped, just relaxing and reading and thinking and being. I know the guidelines, and yet I managed to lose track of my rule to keep some time for me. I’ll renew my vigilance.