The Leap I Took One Year Ago Today
Today I am grateful for the continuing inspiration and ideas that come to me for this blog, and the many sources--human, divine, and other--that they come from.
I am also grateful that my sister, simply by chance using "habitual gratitude" in an email, gave me the impetus needed to take the leap into the blogosphere with my very first post on March 27, 2012.Thanks Danita! You can read that post here.
It was a leap of faith I took because I wasn't entirely confident in my technical abilities. I'm still not. My blog isn't too flashy and doesn't have many bells and whistles. But I have learned to add pictures and to be able to change the names of links, like I just did above. It was a leap of faith because I wasn't sure it would be sustainable, that I would have enough ideas and energy to keep it going.
It was my goal to blog as often as possible. You can't call it habitual if it isn't. And I already knew the value of practicing regular gratitude because I started journaling about it eighteen years ago and I know it works. I wanted to impart that to anybody who happened to read this. Any gratitude practice is good, but I find that the momentum that leads to a better perception of self and surrounding world builds more strongly if it's daily practice. So today's post is post #330. I ended up taking short blog breaks when we were out of town, and also a couple of days when we had a power outage. Sure, I could have done the blog on a mobile device, but I found I appreciated the brief breaks. I still practiced gratitude those days, as I do every day, just not via the blog.
I was able to be persistent because it became an energizer and a positive focus for my writing energies. I have not run out of ideas to write about. I keep a notebook in my purse and jot down ideas that come to me. I have many unused ideas waiting their turn. There were days where I didn't know for sure what I would write about until I sat down and started typing. There were other times that I planned out several posts around the same idea. Now, I will often begin composing my next post the evening before. I finalize it in the morning and hit publish. I appreciate that I don't get anxious or worried about my next post. I know it will be there. I know the inspiration will come. Certainly, some days the post is low-grade inspiration, but on other days, my fingers fly on the keyboard trying to keep up with my thoughts. And regular readers will see points repeated, but that is because they are worth repeating.
"Habitual Gratitude" has given me gifts I never saw coming and realized only after weeks and months of blogging. It has deepened my own level of gratitude. I feel more peace and calm. I feel more faith and hope. My forays to the dark side are shorter.
It has also given me a regular channel to which I can pour my writing energy. Before I started this blog, I always wanted to write regularly, but I was not always able to make that happen. On too many days, I would end up frustrated because I hadn't been able to honor my desire to write. My day had gotten swallowed up by other commitments. Now, I almost daily give time to this blog and the writer in me is more at peace because of the regular opportunity to compose and share.
Thank you to all who read my words. Thank you to all who inspire me.
I am also grateful that my sister, simply by chance using "habitual gratitude" in an email, gave me the impetus needed to take the leap into the blogosphere with my very first post on March 27, 2012.Thanks Danita! You can read that post here.
It was a leap of faith I took because I wasn't entirely confident in my technical abilities. I'm still not. My blog isn't too flashy and doesn't have many bells and whistles. But I have learned to add pictures and to be able to change the names of links, like I just did above. It was a leap of faith because I wasn't sure it would be sustainable, that I would have enough ideas and energy to keep it going.
It was my goal to blog as often as possible. You can't call it habitual if it isn't. And I already knew the value of practicing regular gratitude because I started journaling about it eighteen years ago and I know it works. I wanted to impart that to anybody who happened to read this. Any gratitude practice is good, but I find that the momentum that leads to a better perception of self and surrounding world builds more strongly if it's daily practice. So today's post is post #330. I ended up taking short blog breaks when we were out of town, and also a couple of days when we had a power outage. Sure, I could have done the blog on a mobile device, but I found I appreciated the brief breaks. I still practiced gratitude those days, as I do every day, just not via the blog.
I was able to be persistent because it became an energizer and a positive focus for my writing energies. I have not run out of ideas to write about. I keep a notebook in my purse and jot down ideas that come to me. I have many unused ideas waiting their turn. There were days where I didn't know for sure what I would write about until I sat down and started typing. There were other times that I planned out several posts around the same idea. Now, I will often begin composing my next post the evening before. I finalize it in the morning and hit publish. I appreciate that I don't get anxious or worried about my next post. I know it will be there. I know the inspiration will come. Certainly, some days the post is low-grade inspiration, but on other days, my fingers fly on the keyboard trying to keep up with my thoughts. And regular readers will see points repeated, but that is because they are worth repeating.
"Habitual Gratitude" has given me gifts I never saw coming and realized only after weeks and months of blogging. It has deepened my own level of gratitude. I feel more peace and calm. I feel more faith and hope. My forays to the dark side are shorter.
It has also given me a regular channel to which I can pour my writing energy. Before I started this blog, I always wanted to write regularly, but I was not always able to make that happen. On too many days, I would end up frustrated because I hadn't been able to honor my desire to write. My day had gotten swallowed up by other commitments. Now, I almost daily give time to this blog and the writer in me is more at peace because of the regular opportunity to compose and share.
Thank you to all who read my words. Thank you to all who inspire me.
Congratulations on your 1st anniversary! Talk about not always being tech savvy - I think I posted this in google, but maybe not, so if I doubled up you will know why. It has been a joy reading your blog this past year - keep up the awesome writing!
ReplyDeleteThanks for being a reader and for commenting today Zita! It means a lot to me. This year of habitual gratitude has only deepened my firm belief that gratitude is a life-changer. Onward!
ReplyDeleteHi Lisa,
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your first anniversary of blogging! It is quite the learning experience isn't it?
Keep on writing. I like reading what you write.
I must admit though, I don't know how you manage to write nearly every day!
Thanks Nancy! Blogging has indeed been a real learning experience for me. I am gaining confidence in my writing and further belief in the value of gratitude. By calling my blog "Habitual Gratitude" I committed to regular posting. I haven't run out of ideas yet :-) I have appreciated getting to know you in the blogosphere. Thanks!
ReplyDelete