What 5 years of blogging taught me - Project Me post 1054

Wow, 5 years!

Blogging is not for sissies and keeping a blog alive has truly been an interesting challenge for me. I have to confess, that this has been the hardest year, with the combination of needing to focus on a growing business and not feeling like I had much left to blog about. Although Project Me is a forever journey, I had a year of feeling like I was stuck on a treadmill of the same stops and starts and that I would only lose you guys if I started or stopped one more time.

It took feeling as thought I was ready to throw in the towel to realise that people don't set out to achieve something and it all falls into place overnight. It also took the responses from my readers, friends & support system to come to the conclusion that people aren't falling for the stories of quick fix and easy as pie solutions. We all know that's not how the Universe intended it to be.

On the other hand, I have also done one of the big things that form the Foundation of Project Me ... I have told myself some truth. It's easy to say that life is tough and some things are meant to be or that we don't all have to achieve everything we set out to do. It's easy, but it's not right.

In the 5 years of blogging my #ProjectMe journey, I have set out to achieve many things and some I can proudly say I have to show for all the hard work and conscious living. Yet, there are the things that I keep tripping over and I haven't managed to get sorted out and it would be so easy for me to say, "well, if I haven't gotten fitter, healthier or more organised in my life, then it's obviously not in my nature."

That's true, I'm not a natural lover of exercise and I don't have an inner voice that speaks kindly to me when it comes to food, but if I'm still blogging about it after 5 years, then it's not about what comes easy, but about what takes effort and discipline.

On the other hand, half a decade of trying to get something right has also given me great insight into what happens at the beginning of every year. I wake up and feel frustrated and upset with myself for not having achieved what I set out to, for yet another year. I force strict resolutions onto myself and I dive in with an extreme shift in behaviour.

This time I did it different.

Again, it's easy to decide to wait for the new year or week or month to start something. I don't know about you, but I take in as much as I can and over indulge in food, sleep and not being focused or healthy, because that's all going to change in a few weeks or days.

This time, I didn't wait. I decided on what I was planning to do at the beginning of the year, and I eased in slowly. I've been healthier, upped my water intake and bought a real pair of walking shoes ... that I've used.

I took a few day to chill between Christmas and New Year, but I'm walking tomorrow ... not as I usually would have, with exaggerated determination and force, but as a continuation of something I'm already working on.

Then there's the book. I've been talking for far too long and I really did have to focus my attention on the businesses, but I realised that I haven't given myself enough credit for how versatile my ability to juggle time and task is. Again, I haven't waited until the dreaded 1st day of the year or for Monday, I spent the past few weeks solidifying what I wanted to write about and plotting a way of fitting writing into my day.

Time wasting ... wow, I'm brilliant at that!
Going to sleep far too late ... chatting to random strangers in the hope that they will make me feel better about myself ... waking up tired and needing to lie in more for my emotional self than my whole self ... I could go on, but we all have these patterns and all we want to do is figure out how to change them.

Baby steps!!!
I've exhausted myself and let myself down far too often because of these massive leaps that I take to try and achieve what I've set out to. Then I reflected back on my 5 years of blogging and how I managed to get it right and I realised that I took baby steps. I had a vision and I took it one day at a time. If I was tired, I did something simple and if I was filled with energy and excitement, I blogged over a thousand words. When the time came to change my formula from daily blogging to when I had the time, I did it again. Admittedly, it took a little more effort, but that's a great reminder to me that I had the self worth and drive to keep going.

As I write the book, I'm going to be sharing some extracts and insight into living your own Project Me and I'm going to be tapping into the 5 years of lessons I've learned along the way.

But for now ... an earlier night, a walk in the morning and chilled out tomorrow because 2015 is going to be one hell of a joy ride!!